She caught the bug

Emeline and I had a lovely weekend a few weeks ago of moving the furniture, cleaning the furniture, lightly sanding the furniture and finally painting the furniture. We chose a brilliant blue color for this piece that my mother was giving away and a beautiful blue color that I borrowed from a friend for this little dresser that we found at a thrift store awhile ago. Emeline loved painting. I told her she had to wait at least 30 minutes for the first coat to dry before she could put on the second coat. She went and set the timer for exactly 30 minutes and when it went off she ran into the room to get started on the second coat. It turned out beautiful. I think I have myself a paint partner for life.

Marshmallow Mother

I am trying to be a marshmallow mother and teach my kids to wait, not only wait, but wait patiently.

In the late 1960's Walter Mischel devises the "marshmallow test" when he was at Stanford. In this experiment a teacher leads four and five year olds into a room where there is a marshmallow on a table. The teacher tells the child that he's going to leave the room for a while and he tells the child that if he can wait to eat the marshmallow then when the teacher comes back he can have two marshmallows, but if he eats the marshmallow then he only gets one. They tested 653 and only one in three managed to resist eating the marshmallow for the whole fifteen minute wait. When the video of these kids was studied he noticed that the kids who ate before the teacher came back only focused on the marshmallow, but those who waited distracted themselves by singing songs, playing with their toes or ears in an interesting way. Mischel says "having the willpower to wait isn't about being stoic. It's about learning techniques that make waiting less frustrating. There are many ways of doing that, of which the most direct and the simplest is to self-distract."

There are so many things that as a mother I want to educate my children with and among those it is the ability to wait. I find it best that if the parents have to wait for things, it is much easier for my children to wait for things also. We just have to occupy our minds with other things of a more important nature.

Usually I just get looked at like this when I tell him to wait. We still have a ways to go before I can call myself a marshmallow mom.


I have loved reading Bringing Up Bebe: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting. It has given me reason to keep on trying.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Pity Parties are held on a daily basis in my home, we invite no one and only those who live in this home can celebrate our pitiful lives in the right style. It's been a long year and we are still not out of the woods yet. Going back to school after a job loss was our only option unless we decided to move. Mr. Jewels has gone to school before, but going to school when one is newly married living in a basement apartment with only one small child and working part-time with their whole lives ahead of them is easy compared to 3 children, a house payment, serving in the Bishopric and life passing them by.
BUT, we have wonderful friends and family who give us wonderful words of encourage and small secret acts of kindness, letting us know that we can carry on. My favorites: There's always a rainbow after the rain, this too shall pass, keep calm and carry on, life is full of sheep so just knit with it. I am in love with all kinds of words of encouragement. Life isn't easy for any one all of the time and every one faces different and difficult challenges. I do know Heavenly Father loves me and knows that this is hard for me to bear. I have learned many things this past year but one lesson I will never forget is that I will never ignore the promptings to do something, for example, I had the desire to get a food storage going and to pay off car loans and save for a really rainy day, and as a family we did those things and I am so grateful we did. I know we would be in a terrible position financially now if I had not listened to the promptings. So if I can remind myself to listen and obey I know my family will be okay, I will be a good and supportive wife and good and patient mother. Just listen to the promptings. And when these dog days are over I am stocking up on some really really really good toilet paper!

Help in the Kitchen

It's been quite some time since making bread that I forgot about the type of help I receive in the kitchen when I do so.

A little break time snack. Note to self: it doesn't taste good when covered in flour.

...and the cleanup. Thanks Sam! The trail of flour that went from the kitchen to the bathroom to the front room was not pictured.