Small Miracles: Helpful Kids and Productive School Projects

Today I am grateful for helpful kids and productive school projects. My kids were remarkably helpful today. I'm not saying there wasn't any fighting, making messes, or yelling. But the helpfulness outweighed all of that. First of all the healthy ones, Lily, Emma, Mary, and Kate all got up and got themselves ready for church way before their ride got here. (John is out of town and I had to stay home with the sick ones.) Yay for them! And Lily was the first one ready. What a good 4 year old.

Second, when everyone was home from church, we had a choose your own lunch (a family tradition that the kids love where one person goes around and "takes orders" and each person gets to order one, easy-to-make, item for everyone for lunch). They all were helpful and cooperative. Lily took orders and Kate and Mary filled them, with a little help from me.

Third, Kate offered to make dinner because she has to do it twice for school--finally a school project I can get behind!! She wanted to make hot dogs and macaroni and cheese, crowd favorites both. I agreed and really only helped her with verbal cues when she was doing it. She did a great job. And her teacher told her that part of completing the assignment was cleaning up and doing the dishes, so she loaded the dishwasher and cleaned the kitchen too. I loved it! She also told me that she has to do a cleaning project for school and I suggested that she load the dishwasher once a day while her dad's gone (usually he does it). She agreed enthusiastically and I was overjoyed because I was going to make her do it anyway but now she's happy about it.

Fourth, again for her school project, Kate had to make up a game and teach it to her siblings. She decided to do "Cleaning UNO". The rules were pretty much the same as UNO, but when anyone got a SKIP or a WILD card, they had to clean up 10 things for each card. The little girls loved it and now their room is mostly clean. Kate could have chosen anything, but she chose to choose something that would help make our house better. What a good kid!

Lastly, the kids helped clean other rooms while Kate was doing dinner, they let me take a nap this afternoon, and they were good for Kate while I went visiting teaching. They were all so helpful. And they all read scriptures with me and Mary even read me part of our mother-daughter book-club book while I was feeding the baby. It was a great day and I'm really grateful for my kids and that they like me and each other. They were so good that I even gave the baby a bath, which is monumental (usually John does it because I hate giving babies baths). Great day, great kids. Lots of blessings!

Goals Round-up From 2011

At the beginning of the year, I like to think about the goals I had last year and what I accomplished. I don't think you have to accomplish a goal for it to be positive. I think progressing toward the goal is the point anyway. And then I like to re-evaluate and set some new goals. So here goes:

Last year, my first goal was to read 105 books. It's a lofty goal and I haven't reached it yet in three years of trying, but it keeps me reading and that's what is important. This year I read about 68 books and I enjoyed everyone. This year I think I'll shoot for 100 and I want to make at least 10 of those books that I already own. I love reading and think of it as continual job training, because if I ever work outside the home again, it will probably be in some job having to do with books and reading.

My second goal last year was to index 20,000 names and I didn't even come close. Somewhere near the beginning of summer I fell off the indexing bandwagon and have never been able to climb back on. I still think it is a valuable thing though so I am going to try harder. I think they are releasing the next census records in March, so I'm excited to get involved again. They changed the way they record what you do to a point system. They don't really say how many names anymore (which is also part of my demotivation, sad and silly but true), so I have no idea how many I did last year. But I guess my new goal for this year will be to earn 100 points. In their system that equals about 100 records. I think that is a reasonable goal and very doable if I start doing a little at a time.

My third goal was to finish 50 projects and, in each one, use something I already had. Now I'm not sure how many things I finished, because my record-keeping has gone down the tubes, but I actually feel like I did a lot and I used a lot of things I already own too. Someday I'll post on my blog pictures of some of the cool things I made because I took some, but not today. Now John would like nothing better than if I would use up all the fabric and supplies that covers one whole corner of our back room. (I'm pretty sure it would be the best birthday present I could ever give him--not this year, my dear.) But I have a lot of stuff and I'm pretty sure I couldn't use it all if I tried. I also have realized that I work better with deadlines and a little pressure. So, this year my goal in the project area is to make something for each of my family's birthdays. That way I can be creative and make things I think they might like, use up some of my stuff, and have deadlines to make myself finish. I'm very excited about this goal and have already almost completed 3 things for the first 3 birthdays on my list.

My fourth goal was to complete the DMBA health challenge and earn my $200 cash back incentive. I did it and I am glad I did. My cholesterol check turned up some real concerns that I was able to address. But I also get the $200, which is the best bonus. This year I think I'm going to buy myself a Kindle Fire to use on my summer vacation this summer. I'm very excited. My goal for next year is the same. This year BYU is giving out a gift card to the Bookstore for their side of the reward (in the past they've given out little presents each time you complete a challenge--I've gotten lots of good stuff). That's exciting too. Yay for incentives to keep yourself healthy. For me the obvious incentive is just not enough.

My fifth goal was to post on my blog at least once a week. Now we all know that I didn't make that one but it's ok. I averaged closer to once a month. But I want to try again this year with a little tweak. Our Bishop today talked a little in Sacrament about recognizing the miracles, blessings, and good things in our lives. I know that I could do better at that, so I want to write on my blog once a week, but focus on the miracles and things I am grateful for in my life. I have been doing something similar this year in my journal and I really like it so I think it will make a great incentive to write in my blog.

My sixth goal last year was to write in my journal at least 5 days a week. I actually did pretty well at this one. I would say I wrote closer to 3-4 days a week, but I feel good about that. I really don't write much, but I do quote one scripture that has inspired me each day, and then 5 things that I'm grateful for. I really like it and will continue this goal for this next year too. I think this year I want to make more of an effort to write in my journal on the days when it is not easy and when the kids are out of school. I usually write in my journal right after I take the kids to school in the morning, so if they don't go, I don't write--silly but true. I can work on that.

My seventh goal last year was to finish both the Old Testament manual and the Book of Mormon and do some individual scripture study every day. To be honest I never made it out of Genesis, but I did some really in-depth study and I feel really good about that and am ready to move on to the Book of Mormon for this year. I also was able to finish the Book of Mormon, which was awesome. This year I'm going to focus on the Book of Mormon, since it is this year's course of study for Sunday School. I got the seminary study manual for that too and am really enjoying it. I want to do in-depth study with the manual, and keep up with the Sunday School goal and our family's goal (which is to follow the chart that was in the January Friend). This will mean that I will probably be studying in two different place in the book every day, but I'm good with that. I kind of like it that way, actually. I still want to keep it to between 15-30 minutes a day. And like the journal writing, I want to work on doing it on the days when my kids are out of school (I read scriptures and write in my journal at the same time).

My final goal last year was to be nice to my kids. I definitely had mixed results (really mixed if you talked to my kids). But we did do some fun things as a family. First and foremost, we added Noel to our family. And if you've seen Noel, you'd know how really great that is. She is a cutey!! We also had Seven Peaks passes and enjoyed going once a week as a family all summer long. I think we made some good memories there. We've also done lots of family reading, both scriptures and regular books. In my opinion, those are probably the best times. This year for my goal I was touched by something I read in the George Albert Smith lesson last week. One of his ideals in his personal creed reads, "I would live with the masses and help to solve their problems that their earth life may be happy." I think that is a pretty good goal for a mother. I definitely live with the masses (of kids in my house) and I can try harder to help them solve their problems so they can be happy. That's my goal for the year. Here's to solving problems, whatever they may be.

I think that is a good mix of goals for the year and I'm eager to get started. I'm grateful to have the opportunity to make 2012 a great year in my life and in the lives of those around me.

The Pie-Master Strikes Again

John is seriously the best pie-maker that I know. I have started calling him the pie-master in my head (only when he's making pies though). He pulled off another incredible Thanksgiving. Today he made chocolate pudding pie with whipped cream and chocolate chips (so good it was all gone by the time I got out the camera,

banana cream pie (2nd most popular),

apple pie,

triple berry pie,

and an apple crisp.

My mom added the traditional pumpkin pie to cover the traditional bases. It was a delicious Thanksgiving and that's not even mentioning all the stuff he made for the actual dinner. I love that boy. And if anyone wants any pie, we have plenty of leftovers, but not for long.

Jour 6, 7, 8: Vendredi, Samedi, and Dimanche en France

Thursday I saw the biggest hole in the ground I've ever seen, and my first castle. On our way back from Egletons, we went to the Padirac Gouffre (The Chasm Of Padirac). It was seriously amazing. There is a hole that goes 100 m into the ground and at the bottom there is a huge cave. It is so big that you can take a gondola down the underground river. Incroyable!! (One of my favorite French words.) It was a lot of stairs but well worth the climb. And I was really glad that I had Stephanie and Ron to translate for us because the guides tried to give an English version of the tour but it was very abreviated. There was also a couple from New Zealand on our tour, so we weren't the only English-speakers, but this tour really proved to me that my French, while functional, is not all that good. So, if you're ever in South central France, you definitely should go out of your way to see this. It reminded me of Timpanogos Caves, but a hundred times bigger and more unbelievable. We had a gondolier who thought he was really funny too. He kept rocking the boat trying to scare us and using the oar to dump water on our heads. It was scary but also a little funny, but I really didn't want to fall in the water.

Afterwards we drove to a town called Rocamadour that had a medieval castle built into a canyon wall. It was very impressive. It was the first time I've seen a real, live castle. I'm not going to lie. It was a significant milestone in my life. We couldn't go inside but we got to walk along the top of the ramparts. You had to have Euro coins to get in and Stephanie only had a couple, so she sacrificed and let John and I go in by ourselves. It was awesome.

Saturday we slept in but then went to see Montesquieu's castle in the afternoon. The castle was pretty incredible. A lot of the inside has been restored or preserved and it was really interesting. Outside it was surrounded by a beautiful park with lots of grass, a herd of cattle, and lots of huge trees. The castle was also surrounded by a mote with fish in the water. It was pretty cool. When we got home, we watched some football games and Amazing Race episodes.

Sunday, I think I was still pretty tired. I didn't wake up until about noon. I guess I better enjoy it while I can. Later we had lunch with Stephanie's sister Christine and then Ron took us on a walk in his neighborhood. We went and saw the hospital near Carmen's house and the Bordeaux Soccer Stadium. It was a pretty low-key day.

Jour 4 et 5: Mardi et Mercredi en France

Last Tuesday John and I went to work with Ronnie. Ronnie teaches English to 6th and 9th graders and he brought us as show and tell. He had the kids practice their English by asking us questions about ourselves. They were amazed that I had 7 kids. I thought it was kind of funny. John had brought a slide show about his middle school that he teaches at in Oklahoma. They were surprised that his school has a resident police officer. Some small towns in France don't even have police officers (they have a branch of the military called the gendarmery that takes care of those places). Anyway, it was interesting.

In between classes we walked down into the town that his school is in, called Tulle. We found a hot deal on Doc Martins so we were happy. The town was beautiful and interesting. We also ate at his school cafeteria and it was delicious.

Afterwards, we went to the lake in Egletons and walked around it on this nice little path. It was beautiful too. And we got a good workout.

Wednesday we were worn out so we just slept in and hung around the house all day. Believe it or not, I saw The Wedding Singer for the first time and thought it was hilarious. We also started watching an old season of The Amazing Race that I haven't seen. I love that show. It was good to have a day just to rest. France continues to be all I hoped for.

Jour 3: Lundi en France

We've done a lot of fun things in the past few days. I have to say that if you are going to visit France, the best way would be to stay with your brother and his family that has lived there for 20 years. John (my brother) and I have had a lot of fun spending time with family that we haven't seen in a long time. They've been treating us to some great French food (and there's a reason the French are known for their food--everything we've eaten has been awesome). I especially like their milk that doesn't have to be refrigerated before you open it, and the tradition of having a round of yogurt, cheese or chocolate at the end of every meal. I love it and think my kids would too. I've tried something they call white cheese (similar to plain yogurt) that you add sugar to and it is delicious. I'll have to take some pictures of some of their food later.

Monday we visited Sarah's school, which reminds me of either Hogwarts or the Provo Library. Stephanie also gave us a walking tour of Egletons. It was beautiful. Egletons is a little village up in the mountains of South Central France. I was especially impressed by the cathedral, I think the first that I've been in. It had beautiful statues and stained glass windows. Here are a few pictures of Sarah's school and downtown Egletons:

Jour 1 et 2 en France

France has been wonderful so far. The funny thing is that I'm realizing that people are basically the same wherever you go, except here they speak mostly French with some English. My flights were pretty good, if a little long. The Charles de Gaul airport is interesting, very modern art looking. And our customs check consisted of walking through a glass framed doorway and showing an officer our passports. It was great!

Ron, Stephanie and Sarah met us at the Bordeaux airport. Sarah is much bigger than the last time I saw her, about Kate's size, which makes sense since she is about Kate's age. Everyone looks great. They took us to Stephanie's mom's house where we will be staying for the most part. It is a beautiful older house with a couple of rooms in the garage.

France is a little different but mostly the same. The cars are definitely smaller, probably because the roads are tiny and narrow. I'm not sure our car would even fit down some of their roads. But on the drive from the airport to Carmen's, we saw a KFC and Office Depot so I felt right at home.
We went to sacrament this morning with Carmen and a kind man behind us translated for us. It was great and felt like I was in church, because I was, but much smaller. Ron's sister-in-law was one of the speakers and she did a great job. It was also fun to hear the sacrament prayers in French. I could almost understand it. It was kind of a struggle to decide whether to listen to our translator or focus on the French speaker because it was hard to do both. I enjoyed it though.

After church Stephanie, Carmen, Sarah, and Christine made Ronnie a big birthday dinner that was delicious. It was an olive, tomato, iceberg and vinaigrette salad, baked crusted turkey breast, and carrots and peas in some kind of sauce, with a baguette with pate on the side. It was all delicious, seriously good food. And afterwards we had a pear pie which was really good too--the first time that I've had pears in a pie, but it was beautiful and super yummy. Before, during and after dinner we reminisced about the good old days. Somehow we got on funny stories about my John Payne. My brother Ron described him to Stephanie's family as a calm crazy. He said that just looking at him you'd never know how hilarious he really is. That was the best description of John that I'd heard in a long time. We laughed and laughed. John my brother said that I was even crazier for marrying the crazy guy and I agreed. But I'm so glad I did, because who else would let me go to France and watch my 7 kids for me? I love that boy. Also, Carmen showed me a picture of some missionary's wife who had said that she knew my John from BYU after seeing a picture of him in Carmen's book. I guess it really is a small world or John's influence is world-wide, one of the two.

Then we sat down and watched the Rangers/Tigers baseball game from the night before (which I mostly slept through) and "Corpse Bride" which I had only seen the first 15 minutes of before. It was a cute show in a creepy corpse kind of way.

Lastly, we piled in the car and drove 2 1/2 hour to Egletons where Ron lives and teaches English in a boarding school to 6th and 9th graders. He has a really cute little apartment and we'll be staying here for a few days. Life is good and I love France so far. Sorry that there are no pictures. I'm horrible about things like that.

Noel Carolyn Payne

Born 2:03AM - 4 July 2011

8 pounds 8 ounces

20 inches

The baby seemed determined to be born on the 4th. She did everything she could to delay, then got down to business after midnight. Things seem to be going fine at this point...

Our Family Haiku

Paynes: John, Tara, Kate

Mary, Emma, Ruth, Lily,

Adam, Hope, Noel

Mother's Day Highlights

I think I probably had one of the best mother's days ever. Since my memory is really bad, I'm really not sure what has happened in all the previous mother's days, but today was a very nice day. Here are some highlights (Sorry, no pictures. I seem to have forgotten about my camera in my life.):

• I did not sleep well last night and, when I did fall asleep, John says I konked him in the head without even noticing. So I definitely wasn't looking forward to getting up and getting everyone ready for church. John had meetings before church so he wasn't around. I slept until the last moment and, just when I'd decided that I had to get up, the girls brought me breakfast in bed. They made me microwave oatmeal, and told me they were sorry that they didn't make me pancakes, but they couldn't find the pancake mix. I told them a little known secret: From a great cook like John, pancakes are always good, but, in general, I prefer oatmeal to pancakes any day. Kate then apologized for putting in too much milk, but, again, that is exactly the way I like it, lots of milk. It couldn't have been a better breakfast. And it really fortified me to get out of bed and get ready for church.


• The girls gave me their presents and cards that they had made at school for me. There were some really great and funny things. Mary gave me a pair of earrings that she made at Activity Days (kudos to her leaders). They are beautiful. Lily made a cute card and a recipe book. Her recipe reads: "Hot Dogs--Get a hot dog. Put it in a pan and then put it in a hot dog bun." My favorite was her friend Tanners': "Pancakes--Mix something up, pour in a pan and flip them." Hilarious!! (Also a great idea from her preschool teacher.) Emma's card was in chinese and I have no idea what it says, but she claims it says, I love you. (I'm only doubtful because there are about 20 characters and some commas thrown in.) Maybe some day I'll get the whole story. And last, I learned from Ruthie that she loves when I take her to school and that I wear pretty clothes. I guess it really is the little things that count.


• Not only did they make me breakfast, but they had gotten themselves and each other all ready to go, hair and everything. They had even gotten Adam ready. They looked great too. I wish every Sunday was mother's day because this was awesome!!!! I simply got up and got myself ready. It was so nice.


• I got chocolate at church.


• The kids were well behaved in sacrament meeting and Ruth got a shout-out from one of the speakers for being so loving and friendly. And that was even better than hearing my own name mentioned, because I didn't feel embarassed at all and could just be proud that Ruth is such a good kid.


• My primary kids were really well-behaved and I got to go do "Mom in a bag" (or behind a sheet) which is always fun to do and always involves some fun chatting with all the other moms in the ward. One of the kids' questions was, "Are you awesome?" Of course, I said yes. And later, when they guessed me and I walked into the room to give my girls some quick hugs, the same little boy said, "Yea, she's totally awesome!" It made me smile.


• I came home from church a little early because I still wasn't feeling that great and John was available to bring me home which was super nice. I got about 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep and felt much better afterwards.


• John got me exactly what I wanted: Season 2 of Scarecrow and Mrs. King (silly, I know, but seriously my favorite show).


• John made me an amazing dinner of all my favorite things: Pork chops and applesauce, potato salad, green salad, green beans, rolls. It was awesome.

So I love my kids and my sweet husband and am glad that today is mother's day. Most of the time I really like being a mom and today I loved it.