So I can't put this off any longer. It's important, right? To write (type) the things that go on inside my head? Because someday someone will care. Someday, I will care.
I told you how last year I realized a very painful truth about myself, right? I realized that I am a very selfish person. Sad, huh? Totally. Because mothers, especially, are supposed to be unselfish. They are supposed to be willing to sacrifice everything for their husbands and children. So this year I have been taking little steps to practice being unselfish. And it's hard! But I'm working on it. The other day at the soccer field, I had come prepared in my nice, warm down coat. Danin had not come prepared. She was cold. So you know what I did? I offered her my coat!! And then she was really warm and I was less warm, but really warm in my heart because I had done something that was unselfish. Also, the other night after having worked on the house with Brian, I suggested we go out to eat. I love going out to eat. And even though I felt like eating Mexican food, I told Brian it would be totally fine for him to order a stuffed-crust pizza instead. He did, and I just had a big bowl of cereal--probably Wheat Chex, which I love--and 2% milk. (I love 2% milk.) But so unselfish, right?? And then tonight, when we were having dessert, I asked Brian if he wanted the piece of cake that had the big chunk of brownie on top before taking it for myself. My levels of unselfishness are getting crazy high. :)
So anyway, I'm working on that.
And I'm working on raising several fiddle leaf fig trees right now. If you like decorating at all or ever look through a decorating magazine, you know that a fiddle leaf fig is practically nonnegotiable. So back in January, I purchased my first baby fig--on Amazon, if you can believe it!--and it came all wrapped up in a little box in the mail. A month later, I bought another one that was about 3' tall at a nursery in Portland. It was doing awesome, except that it was kinda growing tall and narrow, instead of bushy like I wanted it to grow, so I read everything there is to read about fiddle leaf figs on the internet and then successfully pruned it. Pruning these trees forces new branches to grow out of the main trunk beneath the pruning spot. I even took the top that I had cut off and put it in a jar of water in order to start a new plant, and it worked!! So now my original plant has two new branches and lots of new leaves, and I actually have TWO new fiddle leaf plants that are the result of the propagation. So awesome, huh?!! Please be excited with me about this, because it has seriously made me so happy to see all this growth. Like, I get giddy with excitement. (Side note: When I was a little girl and my family was living on Prince Lane, we planted a lawn. Every day I watched the dirt to see if any little blades of grass were poking through yet. And soon enough, little cow pies started to push up all over the yard by new, little tufts of grass. I wanted so badly to knock those little cakes of dirt off in order to reveal the new grass underneath (and sometimes I did), but my dad (or mom, maybe?) had told me that it was important to let the grass break through the dirt on its own because it would be too weak to withstand the sun if it was uncovered too early.) ANYWAY, just like I've cared about making my bed perfectly for 30 years, so have I always had a fascination with watching plants develop and grow. And the leaves on fiddle leaf figs grow so fast that you can practically watch them getting bigger. So it's totally cool. And every time I see a new leaf sprouting, I take a picture and text it to Steph. And she get's excited with me. Thanks, Steph.
My little Fiddle Leaf Fig baby from Amazon.
Amazon baby after about 2 or 3 months
This is the tree I bought at the portland nursery
A couple months after buying it and right after it had fully developed three large new leaves, I cut the top of the plant (to force new branches to grow) as well as several of the lower leaves.
Here is a close-up of the spot where I cut top of the main trunk off. It is so hard to do when you are cutting off the newest, most beautiful leaves!
These are the starts of two new branches which immediately developed a total of five new leaves!
I also pruned the top of a second smaller trunk of my main tree and two new branches formed there as well!
This is the top that I chopped off of the top of my main plant
After about a month or so, it finally started to grow roots! Yay!
After all the roots were about two inches long, I planted it in dirt in a pot. Right now it is sprouting its own first new leaves! I'll post pictures soon!
This is the SECOND round of new leaves on my main plant since my pruning. This means the main stem (or trunk) of this tree has now grown two new branches and a total of eight new leaves just since I pruned it a month or two ago. So fun!
P.S. As it happened, during the time that I was pruning and caring for this tree, we just happened to be studying Jacob 5 in Gospel Doctrine. So that was cool.
No Fiddle Leaves here. Just a room that I love. :)
Awwww boy... Now I've rattled on about fiddle leaf figs and not really written much of anything about the stuff that is going on inside my head. Another day, I'll write about how sad I am that so many of my friendships have changed; and about how I'm watching Camp become a teenager and i'm proud and terrified at the same time; and about how Jane admitted to me that she doesn't feel comfortable telling me things because I expect her to be perfect (She's right. :( I'm so grateful she told me and I'm working on it.); and about how Danin just trusted me with a special secret and it made me so happy; and about how Skip will be in kindergarten in the fall and I will lose my baby; and about how I wish so bad he had one really good friend; and about how Sarah made me laugh so hard on the phone the other day that it made me so lonely for laughter; and about how Brian and I have been getting along SO much better lately.... And the house! I'll write about the house, too.
Right now, though, it's late--and I need to wash my face and put on my Rapidlash. So another time...
I stayed home from church today to be with Skip, who is sick for the 10th day in a row. (Actually, he felt much better on Friday and yesterday, so I thought the sickness was behind us. However, last night, he woke up with vomiting and stomach pain and then did not fully wake up until 1PM. Last Thursday, I took him to the doctor-----Hang on. Right now I can hear Jane explaining to Skip about why we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day--about how people with brown skin did not enjoy the same freedoms as people with light skin, and about how Dr. King worked to change that. :) -----Anyway, the doctor advised me to give Skip a couple more days to start feeling better, and if he didn't, to take a sample of his stool. I will be calling him (the doctor) tomorrow to see if I should go ahead and do that. At this point, I'm getting worried. Stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea for 10 days off and on? Not normal. At least not for us....)
But yeah, since I had some quiet time in the house, I got to write on my blog. What a treat.
So 2015 is over. What a relief. It did end well, though. Our Christmas was wonderful and a couple days afterward, the kids and I headed to Utah to play with our cousins in the snow. That was wonderful, too. Brian and I have been getting along considerably better as well. Last night, we enjoyed a night together in Eugene and it was so wonderful. The food was good, and so was the conversation.
Brian mentioned to me that he's noticed that Camp really talks to me a lot. I said, "You mean he talks a lot? Or he talks to me a lot?" Brian said he thinks Camp really talks TO ME a lot! That makes me feel so happy! Yeah, I guess he does talk to me a lot! I'm so grateful and proud of the boy he has
become. Sigh...
.
The other night, I was on the computer long after the kids were supposed to be in bed and asleep and Janey came up to me and put her arm around me and tried to cuddle. I hugged her back, but told her to go get back in bed. She didn't want to, but I told her to do it anyway. I was bugged at her for being out of bed. The next morning, I regretted it. She is such an easy, wonderful girl. Why didn't I take advantage of that alone time with her? I'll have to make it up to her. Maybe tonight I'll go get her after the other kids are asleep and color with her or do a puzzle. (I remember being a young girl and having a period of time when my mom let Sarah and I stay up late and work on a puzzle with her while we all ate Oreos and milk. Do you remember that, Sarah? ) A week or so ago, I flew out of town to attend Bud's funeral (which was wonderful--the funeral and the trip) and Skip woke up sick that morning, so I didn't feel comfortable sending him to Angie's like I had planned. Instead, I asked Jane if she would mind staying home from school with him. She's 10. And amazing.
This year, we had Thanksgiving at the church with many of our ward friends. It was wonderful.
Skip's first picture of The Nativity
I met a new friend at the Nativity Festival this year. He joined us on Christmas Eve and was wonderful company.
The Robisons: Some of my favorite Christmas Eve guests
Who knew?
And my girl, Shugee. Man, what a fun girl. She is like the little performer in her class--always singing solos in the morning announcements and stuff. And she's back in gymnastics. The girl is strong. And she's been bugging me to take her on her special date--the one where Brian and I tell her about sex. I wonder if she knows what's coming. So far, none of our kids have freaked out like I did when I got the low-down.
And this Boy. My baby. Every day for as long as I can remember, I have told him to stop growing up. And yet in nine days--nine more x's on his Ninja Turtle calendar--my youngest will be 5. I hate that story. He can't wait, though. He has been asking me constantly when his birthday is for months. So I'm gonna try and make as big a deal of it as I can. Being as close to Christmas as it is, it is hard to try and think of birthday gifts for him, but I think we are going to get him some of his own art supplies (he has become an exceptionally good color-er and cutter-outer) and the Hungry Hungry Hippos game, and maybe a bubble gum machine. We'll see, though, because the boy does not eat healthfully. And then on the evening of his birthday, we are going to play human Hungry Hippos. Have you seen the videos on Youtube? He's gonna love it.
I finally got these faux fur pillows I've been wanting for a year. Love them.
