Dear TomTom,

Just to let you know, the route that you planned for us today from Grandma O's grave in Avon to the dairy in Ogden, while technically shorter in distance than the traditional path back through Sardine Canyon and such, was not shorter in time.  The road was also tougher on my car than I'd like.  Highway 186 or whatever the number was nothing more than a dirt pathway.  And while the nature and scenery were beautiful--that dirt path was extremely bumpy and uncomfortable for over 25 miles.  I'm sure we gave the four wheelers and campers a good laugh when they saw us drive by.

Next time, TomTom, we shall NOT take the path less traveled.

Sincerely,

The weary Call family

My Son, the Grasshopper

Since I'm awake and it's WAY too early to go to school, I thought I'd update my blog (preserve for posterity) with an event that happened at dinner on Sunday night.  To begin, if you didn't know that my brother Brandon served a LDS mission in Thailand, you either aren't a part of my family or haven't talked to me in person in a long while.  Anyway, while Brandon was serving his mission, he had all the traditional cultural experiences, including eating bugs.  (See pictures at end of post here.) 

Well, while preparing for dinner on Sunday, Brandon and my other brother, Connor, were playing with my son.  A small grasshopper had landed on Brandon's shirt.  He gently took it off and cupped it in his hands.  Someone (I believe it was my dad) teased him about having eaten bugs on his mission, so Brandon pretended to eat the grasshopper.  My son was fascinated.  Brandon then opened his hand to show the almost 2 year old that the grasshopper was undamaged.  And just like that, my boy decided to follow his uncle's example.  Everyone was shocked at how quickly his hand snatched the grasshopper and traveled to his mouth!

Now, before PETA or anyone else gets involved, let me say that no grasshoppers were hurt or digested in the making of this post...or in real life.

Luckily, Connor stopped my son's hand from reaching his mouth by a fraction of an inch.  The grasshopper was released--probably wiser because of its knowledge to avoid 2 year olds and 23 year olds--and everyone laughed til we cried.  For a week now, my son has been called "Grasshopper".  I think I'm okay if the nickname sticks.

Spring Break

Two post in one day?  That's got to count for something.

As I sit here and reflect on what I've done this spring break, I'm rather pleased everything that I've accomplished.  I cleaned out three clothing closets, went shopping for three members of my family, baked cookies, completed two books, played with my children and my mother, and spent time with my husband.  This is on top of the regular grading of papers, cleaning, laundry, food shopping,  Sunbeam lesson preparation that needs to occur within a normal week.  I did a bit of gardening, spent time with friends and extended family, got my toes done all sparkly, and in general, just relaxed.  And even though my to-do list isn't quite done yet, I feel like I had a really productive Spring break.

Is this what being a stay-at-home mom feels like?

Dragon Procrasination

Procrastination.  You've got to love it.  I'm sitting here, on Nate's computer – not technically ON  his computer, but NEAR his computer – and playing with his really cool software.  This software allows me to speak while it writes for me.

Yes, I should be doing something productive – like laundry, or grading tests – but this is more fun.   I'm still getting random letters that show up sporadically as I speak.  Not sure why.  Perhaps, I need to do more of the practice tutorials or the dictation tutorials in order to better enhance my profile on Dragon.

I'm sure that Nate could tell you more about it.  Perhaps he will, when he finishes school on May 10!

ETA:   You know, I forget between postings how much I really do enjoy blogging.  I wonder if I will ever feel like I have enough time to blog with any regularity.

Blogger now has an i-pad App. Shiny!

Since the beginning of the year, I've been trying to remember all of my resolutions in my head. Silly me! I should know better. I mean I can keep the general ideas going, but the specifics? And then there's the monthly goals, and all the details. Yes, I should know better.

So, here's me doing something about it. I thought about writing down ALL my resolutions, but not only would that bore you...I don't think my house could stand that long without supervision. So, dear readers, you get just the month of February's goals. (Wow! Watching the "Lizzie Bennet Diaries" on YouTube has really influenced my internal dialogue.)

-Simplify My Waistline: Continue January's goal of eating out once a week or LESS, eating LESS school lunch, and drinking MORE water. The new part is to do 30 minutes of exercise RIGHT after school TWICE a week. (No, I'm not shouting at you...the capitalization is for my benefit.) Not the perfect routine yet, but we're doing baby-steps.

-Simplify My Memory: Rather than trying to attack the every going pile and digital files of photographs, how about a plan? Can't believe that it's taken me this long to develop one. During the month of February, I will scrapbook 6 months of Kaylie's life (age 12 months to 18 months). I will spend time early Sunday morning doing this, and late evenings when Nate's working on his schoolwork. (That's much more productive than finding new shows to watch on Netflix...or watching LBD for 6 hours. Bad Jen!)

-Simplify My Saturdays: Haven't figured out practical way to do this yet.

-Simplify My Husband's Waistline: He wants me to wait until he graduates from Grad School in May (Yay!), but I'd like to get started now. Simple change for this month. Place healthy snacks in visible places. Can't begrudge someone eating an apple before dinner.

-*New One* Simplify my house: Once a month I will attack a different room of my house and DI and garbage lots. (Last month, Nate helped me with the Craft Room...I have one now!) This month, I'd like to finish cleaning out the former library. We'd like for the kids to have their own room, but that has meant finding a home for all of our books. Yes, I'm actually going to DI a couple dozen books today. Shocking! I'd like to paint on President's Day, which means that I need to find a comforter, bed, dresser, and curtain fabric(?) for the child we decide to put into this new room. Still haven't decided which one.

-ELIMINATE Debt: We are SOOOOO close. All we have left are student loans. My February goal is to be on top of withdrawing our cash so it doesn't accidentally get spent on other stuff. I will need to do this on pay day exactly, otherwise, life will get in the way.

So, there you have it. February's goals for 2013. Now, it's time to implement.

2012 Resolution Reflection

I stayed home today from church with sick kids, and was able to watch the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's broadcast on New Year's resolutions. It reminded me of the goals that I made last January. I think it's time to analyze how I did.

• Simplify my waistline. Completed this, not in June like I wanted, but in September. Good enough.
• Simplify my Saturdays. Didn't do well here. In fact, I think I made them more complicated by adding Kaylie's dance class Saturday mornings. With Nate also taking two classes per term for his master's degree, I haven't spent my time the best during the weekdays or weekend. Definitely have some more work to do here.
• Simplify my husband's waistline. Tough one. Some weeks were great, and others were awful. I did implement a new menu/shopping list guide. When I use it, dinners were great...which means that lunches were available for Nate to take to work.
• Simplify my school work. Check! Totally got is one. I implemented what I call "individual time" in each of my classes. Students must work completely independently for ten minutes--that includes NOT asking the teacher questions. I am able to record and enter that period's grades during the ten minutes. So the only papers I bring home are tests. (This has also been good for my students because they learn how to answer their own questions by checking their notes, book, or just waiting until the end of individual time and coming to me with an "educated" question.)
• Simplify my memory. Here's another goal I did well on. Kaylie's book for her first year is done, and I purchased a new book and some fun software for her next one. I got Carter's book and some software purchased and pages completed through 2 months. As for Nate and I, according to our book, we've almost had our first Christmas together in 2007.

So, you and I both can see that I made progress this year.  Not perfect (but then only one Man ever was), but not bad.  Look for a post later in the week for this year's goals.

Frustration

So, I'm trying to finish up scrapbooking the year 2007 and I only have 1 picture from that Christmas!  Really?  It's kind of sad and pathetic.  I mean, it was our first year married and we didn't document it.  Silly us.

So...did anyone happen to take pictures with us that year (2007)?