Last Saturday by Utah Lake.
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
* My husband and I saw the movie the Saratov Approach last week and wow, it was intense but very good and inspiring. It tells the true story of two missionaries kidnapped in Russia in 1998. Be sure and see it if you get a chance. Afterwards, I had to look up how accurate it was to the real life events and loved reading this interview with the original missionaries. They said that the movie was 95% accurate. The movie handled the story of the missionaries well but also the story of their families back home. The moral dilemma of a ransom was handled really well -- one set of parents had the money to pay but realized they couldn't do it without making every other missionary a target.
Interestingly, I just read a book about the shipping industry at sea that spent a good deal of time on piracy and ransom. In those cases, it's standard practice to pay out, eventually, and that just encourages more pirates and piracy.
* I'm late to the game, I know, but we just saw Man of Steel last week and I was
disappointed. The storyline had a lot of potential, but I felt it was overshadowed by the special effects department who overdid tons of scenes. The one where Superman learns to fly? Super cheesy. Then the mayhem and destruction through New York that went on, and on, and on was a major turn-off. I've read several reviews where there was a lot of criticism of Superman for breaking Zod's neck. That didn't bother me a bit. The collateral damage of the earlier fight was a whole lot more troubling for me.
* And on that note, my kids love the "How it should have ended" series. Here's the one for Man of Steel:
& Lord of the Rings:
* I just watched the Mitt Romney documentary on Netflix. It's good, but also sad. He would have made a great president, and perhaps could have headed us away from the cliff he refers to at the end of the movie. You know, the one we're headed towards as we continue to expand entitlements, raise the tax burden, and borrow to pay for it all? As George Will said at BYU last fall, "What we are practicing today is a kind of decadent democracy," he said. "We used to run deficits to borrow for the future. We borrowed to win wars for the future, build roads, highways and airports for future generations. Today we borrow from the future, to finance our own current consumption. This is a fundamental immorality, if you will, burdening the unconsenting and unpresent future generations with the costs of our appetites. The problem is that we are 'wealing' a network of dependency, making Americans more and more dependent, in more and more ways, on government we really are not paying for." (source).
* And if you have time, the entire speech George Will gave can be viewed below. It's much more informative than the HISHE series. ;)
* We've spent most of our marriage without access to what our kids call "channel TV." We like it that way because it cuts down on the advertising our kids are exposed to, cuts out a lot of smut and garbage (even commercials for good programming often include this), and gives us more family time together. It also makes us more selective with what we watch and buy for our DVD collection. We love watching old episodes of The Cosby Show and wish there was clean, quality comedy today.
Being without TV doesn't mean we don't have media, though. We've had Netflix for a year and have enjoyed watching Merlin (the whole family) and My Little Pony (the little girls).
Every two years, as a family tradition, we've found a way to get TV for the month of the Olympics. We love watching the athletes compete and hearing their individual stories. Sometimes, we've had to creatively use rabbit ears, other times we've just paid for a month of cable.
This time, in an attempt to keep their customers happy when Google Fiber comes to town, Comcast contacted us a month ago, offering a free upgrade to our service. Faster internet and a "basic" tv package for the same price we were paying before. So we now have channel TV again and we're eagerly awaiting the opening of the Sochi games. In the meantime, we've been recording a few old favorites and discovering some new ones. But it sure seems like the pickings are slim for educational, interesting, engaging, and CLEAN programming. Anyone have some suggestions? We like Restaurant Impossible, and Mythbusters. We've also recorded some realtor programs like Hawaii Life and Island Hunters (a girl can dream, right?), some waste-of-time shows like Finding Bigfoot (my boys love it, I just roll my eyes) and Too Cute. And of course, shows for the little girls like Angelina Ballerina and Sofia the First.
So far, it's been nice to have some new shows to watch, but I haven't felt drawn to anything in particular. I'm getting tired of the same tired cliches on The Biggest LoserAfter so many years of being very discerning about our watching, I'm pretty sensitive to gore, violence, and innuendo (which is why I only lasted one episode of Downton Abbey). With that in mind, what's on your watch list? What do you recommend for a mom who wants something engaging to watch while she folds laundry? For the whole family?
And what good movies have you watched recently?
Interestingly, I just read a book about the shipping industry at sea that spent a good deal of time on piracy and ransom. In those cases, it's standard practice to pay out, eventually, and that just encourages more pirates and piracy.
* I'm late to the game, I know, but we just saw Man of Steel last week and I was
disappointed. The storyline had a lot of potential, but I felt it was overshadowed by the special effects department who overdid tons of scenes. The one where Superman learns to fly? Super cheesy. Then the mayhem and destruction through New York that went on, and on, and on was a major turn-off. I've read several reviews where there was a lot of criticism of Superman for breaking Zod's neck. That didn't bother me a bit. The collateral damage of the earlier fight was a whole lot more troubling for me.
* And on that note, my kids love the "How it should have ended" series. Here's the one for Man of Steel:
& Lord of the Rings:
* I just watched the Mitt Romney documentary on Netflix. It's good, but also sad. He would have made a great president, and perhaps could have headed us away from the cliff he refers to at the end of the movie. You know, the one we're headed towards as we continue to expand entitlements, raise the tax burden, and borrow to pay for it all? As George Will said at BYU last fall, "What we are practicing today is a kind of decadent democracy," he said. "We used to run deficits to borrow for the future. We borrowed to win wars for the future, build roads, highways and airports for future generations. Today we borrow from the future, to finance our own current consumption. This is a fundamental immorality, if you will, burdening the unconsenting and unpresent future generations with the costs of our appetites. The problem is that we are 'wealing' a network of dependency, making Americans more and more dependent, in more and more ways, on government we really are not paying for." (source).
* And if you have time, the entire speech George Will gave can be viewed below. It's much more informative than the HISHE series. ;)
* We've spent most of our marriage without access to what our kids call "channel TV." We like it that way because it cuts down on the advertising our kids are exposed to, cuts out a lot of smut and garbage (even commercials for good programming often include this), and gives us more family time together. It also makes us more selective with what we watch and buy for our DVD collection. We love watching old episodes of The Cosby Show and wish there was clean, quality comedy today.
Being without TV doesn't mean we don't have media, though. We've had Netflix for a year and have enjoyed watching Merlin (the whole family) and My Little Pony (the little girls).
Every two years, as a family tradition, we've found a way to get TV for the month of the Olympics. We love watching the athletes compete and hearing their individual stories. Sometimes, we've had to creatively use rabbit ears, other times we've just paid for a month of cable.
This time, in an attempt to keep their customers happy when Google Fiber comes to town, Comcast contacted us a month ago, offering a free upgrade to our service. Faster internet and a "basic" tv package for the same price we were paying before. So we now have channel TV again and we're eagerly awaiting the opening of the Sochi games. In the meantime, we've been recording a few old favorites and discovering some new ones. But it sure seems like the pickings are slim for educational, interesting, engaging, and CLEAN programming. Anyone have some suggestions? We like Restaurant Impossible, and Mythbusters. We've also recorded some realtor programs like Hawaii Life and Island Hunters (a girl can dream, right?), some waste-of-time shows like Finding Bigfoot (my boys love it, I just roll my eyes) and Too Cute. And of course, shows for the little girls like Angelina Ballerina and Sofia the First.
So far, it's been nice to have some new shows to watch, but I haven't felt drawn to anything in particular. I'm getting tired of the same tired cliches on The Biggest LoserAfter so many years of being very discerning about our watching, I'm pretty sensitive to gore, violence, and innuendo (which is why I only lasted one episode of Downton Abbey). With that in mind, what's on your watch list? What do you recommend for a mom who wants something engaging to watch while she folds laundry? For the whole family?
And what good movies have you watched recently?
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
In a few weeks, Cami will turn two. My baby is no longer a baby, but a toddler who lives life at full throttle, with a constant sound track of noises and shrieks to go along with her sunny personality. Like all Bartholomew babies, she's not much into words yet, but communicates just fine without them.
She's a delight and everyone adores her. I have to laugh when I hear criticisms of large families that insinuate that somehow, the kids must be starving for attention because they have to share their parents. Just spend a day with us, I think, and notice how large and devoted Cami's fan club is, and that preposterous claim would disappear.
As Cami's birthday approaches, I find myself feeling some sorrow that my baby is not a baby anymore. Sunrise, sunset, and all of that mushy stuff, of course, but this time, there's also some real heartache and sadness because for the first time, I have a baby turning two and I'm not pregnant. Actually, I've never had a child be 18 months old before and not been pregnant -- my biggest space between children is 2 years and 4 months between the twins and Eliza.
My kids are all close in age, and while that can be challenging, I have loved it. There are wonderful friendships that develop and great fun to be had. It's created a wonderful family dynamic and it's made it possible for me to have a large family and still feel young enough to enjoy them.
The difficult health problems I experienced after Cami's birth mean that she might be our last. If she is, while I grieve the loss of what might have been (I've felt for years that there was at least one more boy coming), I am grateful that I took full advantage of the time I had to bear children, even though it was shorter than I thought it would be.
Being able to have children is not something I take for granted. I've had friends and family struggle with infertility, and it's not an easy battle.
In our world of conflicting messages about having it all and "girl power," there's a whole lot of talk about choices and mommy tracks and birth control, but there's not much said about the fact that with all of modern medicine, sometimes the only control we have over birth is when NOT to have a child. We take for granted that we will be able to have children when we want them.
But the truth is, the window of fertility is small. I've written about this subject before, but it's been on my mind lately. Last summer, I read the book Motherhood Rescheduled, about the science and practicalities of the new frontier of egg-freezing and one thing that hit home to me was how in the fertility world, anyone over 30 is starting to be considered old and anyone over 40 is ancient. Women's bodies were designed for peak fertility in the 20s. Pregnancy postponed for various reasons -- needing to find a spouse (pretty important one!), wanting to be more established in a career, not feeling ready -- often means fertility problems and sometimes it means being childless, even after interventions and heart-breaking fertility treatments. The book was pretty optimistic about the options and doors that egg-freezing might open up, even while it was pretty clear that many women who froze their eggs in order to keep their options open were still unable to have the family they desired.
Recently, several experiences have helped me realize how fragile our control over this aspect of our lives really is. A good friend of mine is in her mid-30s has been trying for over a year to have another baby, and as the months pass, she has yet to realize her desires. Another friend is now halfway through a pregnancy with twins after struggling with infertility treatments and enduring three devastating miscarriages.
The amazing Michelle writes movingly of her struggle with age-related fertility in her post "should've had another baby."
I'm 36, which means I'm starting along the downward curve of fertility. If we decide to have more children, it's likely to take me much longer to get pregnant and my risk of miscarriage is higher. Of course, I could be an exception. But most likely, I only have a few more years of pregnancy and child-bearing left.
Age-related infertility isn't something you plan for or think about when you're young and 40 seems a long way off. I had a conversation with a friend back when I was first having children who saw no urgency in having children. "What's the difference?" she asked, "Five children now or five children later?" The difference, I think I'd say now, is that the longer you wait, the less likely it will be that you are able to have the number of children you desire. The difference, I'd say, might be "Five children now or three children later." Your circumstances may change and your health or age may preclude you from having the family you desire.
Whether I'm able to have more children or whether that chapter of my life is closed, I have no regrets about the way I've spent my life up to this point. If anything, I am even more grateful for the nine children I've been blessed with and the privilege I've had to be a mother.
(Even posting a photo like this, taken last May, gives my heart a little stab of sadness -- Cami has grown so much since then, and I might never have a baby that little again.)
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this subject, even as I'm still sorting through mine. What has been your experience with fertility? If your family is complete, was the size of your family determined by choice or by circumstances? Have you felt the tug of 'what might have been' or experienced infertility? Did you have a hard time leaving behind the baby stage?
As Cami's birthday approaches, I find myself feeling some sorrow that my baby is not a baby anymore. Sunrise, sunset, and all of that mushy stuff, of course, but this time, there's also some real heartache and sadness because for the first time, I have a baby turning two and I'm not pregnant. Actually, I've never had a child be 18 months old before and not been pregnant -- my biggest space between children is 2 years and 4 months between the twins and Eliza.
My kids are all close in age, and while that can be challenging, I have loved it. There are wonderful friendships that develop and great fun to be had. It's created a wonderful family dynamic and it's made it possible for me to have a large family and still feel young enough to enjoy them.
The difficult health problems I experienced after Cami's birth mean that she might be our last. If she is, while I grieve the loss of what might have been (I've felt for years that there was at least one more boy coming), I am grateful that I took full advantage of the time I had to bear children, even though it was shorter than I thought it would be.
Being able to have children is not something I take for granted. I've had friends and family struggle with infertility, and it's not an easy battle.
In our world of conflicting messages about having it all and "girl power," there's a whole lot of talk about choices and mommy tracks and birth control, but there's not much said about the fact that with all of modern medicine, sometimes the only control we have over birth is when NOT to have a child. We take for granted that we will be able to have children when we want them.
But the truth is, the window of fertility is small. I've written about this subject before, but it's been on my mind lately. Last summer, I read the book Motherhood Rescheduled, about the science and practicalities of the new frontier of egg-freezing and one thing that hit home to me was how in the fertility world, anyone over 30 is starting to be considered old and anyone over 40 is ancient. Women's bodies were designed for peak fertility in the 20s. Pregnancy postponed for various reasons -- needing to find a spouse (pretty important one!), wanting to be more established in a career, not feeling ready -- often means fertility problems and sometimes it means being childless, even after interventions and heart-breaking fertility treatments. The book was pretty optimistic about the options and doors that egg-freezing might open up, even while it was pretty clear that many women who froze their eggs in order to keep their options open were still unable to have the family they desired.
Recently, several experiences have helped me realize how fragile our control over this aspect of our lives really is. A good friend of mine is in her mid-30s has been trying for over a year to have another baby, and as the months pass, she has yet to realize her desires. Another friend is now halfway through a pregnancy with twins after struggling with infertility treatments and enduring three devastating miscarriages.
The amazing Michelle writes movingly of her struggle with age-related fertility in her post "should've had another baby."
"I’m writing the truth I wish I’d heard five years ago: you don’t have as much time to have children as you think.
In an age where the tabloids show women in their mid and late forties snuggling newborns, infertility treatments abound and ‘forty is the new thirty’ I think we’ve forgotten the reality of the biological clock.
Here are the cold hard facts: a woman’s fertility peaks in her early twenties, declines in a gentle slope through our twenties with a slightly steeper drop in our thirties. But get ready for the nosedive at forty. The rates drop from 30% at age forty, to 10% at 41, 4% at 42 and 1.6% at 43 (even with every technique known to modern medicine). . .
For two and a half years I fought just to stay above water; adding in a pregnancy and a baby seemed insane. But last winter on my 43rd birthday we went back to the round of doctors. I knew I wasn’t quite emotionally stable (will I ever be?), but I also sensed I was running out of time. After three sets of doctors (the first two pretty much laughed me out of their office) the test results came back, “I don’t ever want to say there’s no chance,” the doctor began, “and I’d love for you to prove me wrong. But statistically, we’re looking at 0%.” He went on to explain most women my age having babies are using egg donors. “That’s what you’re seeing in the tabloids.” There are the exceptions, and I certainly thought I’d be among them, but the doctor said he sees hundreds and hundreds of women in their early forties who feel sure they too, will be the exception.
I'm 36, which means I'm starting along the downward curve of fertility. If we decide to have more children, it's likely to take me much longer to get pregnant and my risk of miscarriage is higher. Of course, I could be an exception. But most likely, I only have a few more years of pregnancy and child-bearing left.
Age-related infertility isn't something you plan for or think about when you're young and 40 seems a long way off. I had a conversation with a friend back when I was first having children who saw no urgency in having children. "What's the difference?" she asked, "Five children now or five children later?" The difference, I think I'd say now, is that the longer you wait, the less likely it will be that you are able to have the number of children you desire. The difference, I'd say, might be "Five children now or three children later." Your circumstances may change and your health or age may preclude you from having the family you desire.
Whether I'm able to have more children or whether that chapter of my life is closed, I have no regrets about the way I've spent my life up to this point. If anything, I am even more grateful for the nine children I've been blessed with and the privilege I've had to be a mother.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this subject, even as I'm still sorting through mine. What has been your experience with fertility? If your family is complete, was the size of your family determined by choice or by circumstances? Have you felt the tug of 'what might have been' or experienced infertility? Did you have a hard time leaving behind the baby stage?
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
As many of you likely know, a federal judge recently struck down my state's constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. I have many thoughts on the subject and I hope to post some of them later. In the meantime, I wholeheartedly support this:
Church Instructs Leaders on Same Sex Marriage
Church Instructs Leaders on Same Sex Marriage
On December 20, 2013, a federal district judge in Salt Lake City issued an order legalizing same-sex marriage in Utah, striking down century-old state laws and a state constitutional amendment that defined marriage exclusively as between a man and a woman. The United States Supreme Court has put that ruling on hold pending consideration of the issue by an appellate court. During the interval between the district court ruling and the Supreme Court stay, numerous same-sex marriages were performed in Utah. Legal proceedings and legislative action in some other states and countries have given civil recognition to same-sex marriage relationships.
As we face this and other issues of our time, we encourage all to bear in mind our Heavenly Father’s purposes in creating the earth and providing for our mortal birth and experience here as His children. “God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” (Genesis 1:27–28). “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). Marriage between a man and a woman was instituted by God and is central to His plan for His children and for the well-being of society. Strong families, guided by a loving mother and father, serve as the fundamental institution for nurturing children, instilling faith, and transmitting to future generations the moral strengths and values that are important to civilization and crucial to eternal salvation.
Changes in the civil law do not, indeed cannot, change the moral law that God has established. God expects us to uphold and keep His commandments regardless of divergent opinions or trends in society. His law of chastity is clear: sexual relations are proper only between a man and a woman who are legally and lawfully wedded as husband and wife. We urge you to review and teach Church members the doctrine contained in “The Family: A Proclamation to the World.”
Just as those who promote same-sex marriage are entitled to civility, the same is true for those who oppose it. The Church insists on its leaders’ and members’ constitutionally protected right to express and advocate religious convictions on marriage, family, and morality free from retaliation or retribution. The Church is also entitled to maintain its standards of moral conduct and good standing for members.
Consistent with our fundamental beliefs, Church officers will not employ their ecclesiastical authority to perform marriages between two people of the same sex, and the Church does not permit its meetinghouses or other properties to be used for ceremonies, receptions, or other activities associated with same-sex marriages. Nevertheless, all visitors are welcome to our chapels and premises so long as they respect our standards of conduct while there.
While these matters will continue to evolve, we affirm that those who avail themselves of laws or court rulings authorizing same-sex marriage should not be treated disrespectfully. The gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us to love and treat all people with kindness and civility—even when we disagree.
As members of the Church, we are responsible to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to illuminate the great blessings that flow from heeding God’s commandments as well as the inevitable consequences of ignoring them. We invite you to pray that people everywhere will have their hearts softened to the truths of the gospel, and that wisdom will be granted to those who are called upon to decide issues critical to society’s future.
Monday, January 13, 2014
So, I know I'm a little late to the game, but we had a wonderful Christmas! We got back from our Kauai trip on Monday morning the 23rd, but even so, it didn't feel rushed. We had everything ready before we left except for wrapping, and my daughter Lillian offered to finish that part up for us, which was wonderful.
DH took the older kids to see The Hobbit on Christmas Eve afternoon with his parents, then we enjoyed our regular Christmas Eve tradition of dinner out to Chinese. The local family-owned restaurant we go to has come to expect our arrival, and we love the easy clean-up. We don't often go out to eat as an entire family, so it's a nice treat.
After dinner, we came home for our regular activities. First up is the acting out of the nativity. This year, we sang three hymns during it, so Lillian, while unpictured, was an active participant by playing the piano.
After reading the Christmas story from the Bible, we read the account of what was happening in the American continent at that time. This led to a short discussion about staying true to your beliefs no matter what the opposition might be.
We always finish up Christmas Eve by opening one present. Here's Cami with hers.
Showing off some presents:
Sarah was especially happy with the camera she received.
I love how my kids are so grateful for their secret buddy gifts. Each draws a name and buys for one sibling. When the giver of the present is revealed, hugs ensue. Joey, Sarah, and Lillian also spent money buying everyone in the family a present and not just their secret buddy.
DH took the older kids to see The Hobbit on Christmas Eve afternoon with his parents, then we enjoyed our regular Christmas Eve tradition of dinner out to Chinese. The local family-owned restaurant we go to has come to expect our arrival, and we love the easy clean-up. We don't often go out to eat as an entire family, so it's a nice treat.
After dinner, we came home for our regular activities. First up is the acting out of the nativity. This year, we sang three hymns during it, so Lillian, while unpictured, was an active participant by playing the piano.
As you can see, we take authentic costuming very, very seriously. ;)
We always finish up Christmas Eve by opening one present. Here's Cami with hers.
Christmas morning dawned and we loved it. Christmas with lots of kids is magical.
Showing off some presents:
I love how my kids are so grateful for their secret buddy gifts. Each draws a name and buys for one sibling. When the giver of the present is revealed, hugs ensue. Joey, Sarah, and Lillian also spent money buying everyone in the family a present and not just their secret buddy.
Each kid holding one of their favorite presents:
Merry Christmas!
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