Valentines Day and Chinese New Year

I love, love, love holidays. I love to do crafts and activities with with my kids and have fun creating memories. This year when I found out that Valentines Day was going to fall on Chinese New Year, I was excited. Two fun themes thrown together in one! Though I never have the time to do all the ideas that come into my head, we at least managed to get some of them done. My daughter and I (who loves holidays and crafts as much as I do) made pink paper lanterns to set the mood. My husband and I as of late have enjoyed cooking new food together. It's been a wonderful way to spend time with each other and to eat something other than the same old, same old we always eat. We were ambitious and decided to try and cook four chinese dishes: Crab Rangoon, Ginger Beef, Sweet and Sour Chicken, and Lettuce Wraps. They actually didn't turn out too bad, the lettuce wraps being my favorite. Then for everyones Valentines from me I made mini chinese boxes with candy and a fortune cookie in it. What a fun day which made for some sweet memories!!

To really live...

“I don’t want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing Sister Schenk’s lawn. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor’s children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone’s garden. I want to be there with children’s sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived.”

-Marjorie Pay Hinckley-

This is a quote that I found a while ago that I really love. Sister Hinckley was such a wonderful, sweet lady. What wonderful words of wisdom.

Mother of Twins

Besides being a mother of 7, a mother of a special needs child, I'm also the mother of twins. My twins are numbers 6 and 7, they are our last children and are currently 9 months old. It has been a real fun and interesting experience having twins. Just when you think you are getting a grasp on being a mom and you've experienced pregnancy and babies and toddlers five times over, wham, you get pregnant with twins and you are back at square 1. Pregnancy is different. The risks are different. Nursing is different. Everything is different. You never go shopping the same way again, you never sleep the same way again, you have to approach so many things differently. It has been a lot of work, yet very rewarding as well. There is something incredible about watching two little souls, who shared the womb together, come out and discover life together as well. You always hear about the special bond twins have, and after watching them, there is no wonder how there could NOT be a special bond. They are always within a few feet of each other, if not on top of each other. There is always a playmate. You should see their face light up in the morning when they see each other, the way the hold holds when the sleep, it's magical. Twins are a whole new different experience. Yet, with all their sameness, it's interesting to see all the differences as well. Though they share the same birthday, look the same etc. there are definitely two different spirits and personalities. You see how they respond differently to the same thing, how they hit milestones at different times. They are their own different and unique person. I'm learning a whole new aspect of motherhood with my twins for which I am grateful. Like they say: twice the work, half the sleep, but double the love!

The mother of...Josh

So my mind has been pondering the past week what it means to be a mother of a child with special needs. I was on the internet trying to find ideas for my 4 year old’s Transformer birthday party when I stumbled across a poem a mother had posted called “For Chosen Mothers”. It is a poem about mothers who have kids with disabilities.
Apparantly the mother who had some fabulous Transformer party ideas, also has a son with autism and posted this poem on her site. For some reason it dawned on me that I’m a mother of a child with special needs. I guess I just never really think of myself that way. I’ve always reserved that title for moms with children with severe physical needs, perhaps in wheel chairs, or for moms with children with more ‘invisible’ special needs like autism. I’ve always just considered myself, well, Josh’s mom. Though Josh is behind developmentally, has diagnosed medical conditions, and receives visits from 4 different EIV therapists a month. I’ve guess I don’t really think of him as special needs, just special. He functions so well, that it doesn’t require me to do a whole lot of extra things to care for him as compared to my other children. Besides, Josh just radiates such love, goodness, and happiness, that that’s how I see him, as a sweet special ray of sunshine. It was amazing how reading that poem and then another short article she had a link to, written by another mother with a special needs child, entitled “Welcome to Holland”, how I was reminded that Josh does have special needs. It seems to come a go in a cycle. You remember, then you forget, and then unexpectedly you are reminded again that your child is different and with that brings a wide range of emotions that only a parent of a special needs child can understand. I realize that we will go through this cycle over and over again as Josh grows up. It’s made me very humble and thoughtful, at least this past week, and has made me grateful for who and all Josh is. He’s an amazing spirit to be sure, one who’s so called special ‘needs’ are inconsequential compared to special gifts he brings our family. So whatever it means to be a mother of a child with special needs, I’m thankful God has allowed me to at least be the mother of Josh. I know my life is richer and more fuller because of it. So thank you Josh. I love you!

the Purpose of my Meanderings...

So, I've decided to start a blog pretty much for pure journaling purposes. I need a place to record thoughts and ideas and it's so much easier to do it on a computer than to try and do it the old fashioned way. Typing is so much faster than writing by hand, (though I will still occasionally try and write in our actual hard copy journals). When you are a mom of 7, like I am, there is not a lot of time for things beyond day to day survival. So though I don't have a lot of time to actually DO things, I have time to think about things. Some days my head is swimming and swirling with different feelings, ideas, dreams, and thoughts. Here will now be the place for me to get them out and share them, even if it is only to share them with myself. Sometimes things make more sense, thoughts become more concrete, feelings become more defined, and dreams become more real when they are forced to be put into words. So hopefully with all of my mind's meanderings, I will gain insights to this Journey called life along the way.