Toddler sleep disorder

After enjoying some delightful and creative craft projects listed at Serenity Now from a link party, I needed a little REAL humor! (I so admire the beauty and eagerness of personalities who create and that includes my own artistic MOM who celebrates 72 years on TUESDAY!)

What parent has not plopped a starved, crazed, blubbering toddler at the kitchen table when what the temporary alien-child needed was their crib?  I captured this video of my sleep-challenged daughter and NO! I did not watch her as her head pounded the table. I put the video camera down properly and aided in getting her to bed.


*By the way, the background motivational speaker is a leader from my faith. I suppose he was just not interesting enough for a toddler?

I apologize to M. Russell Ballard for the content of this video!
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**This uploaded video of my sleeping daughter was linked in a Deseret News article by Emily Jensen!

"And I just laughed and laughed at this delightful video of a toddler just not being able to stay awake to listen to a conference talk. So cute!"

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Toddlers and Chimps

Drum Roll please!

The gentle fall breezes lead the way into the crisp evening air muffled with the sounds of.....

 ...bellowing fans and musical brass, woodwinds and percussion instruments...

High school football season thrills the amateur sporting enthusiast and awakens the teenage hormones as Friday night games between rivals commence.  Marching band members perform their perfected half-time show for their eager parents and friends and encourage the crowd to engage in cheer during the competition. Experiencing this "sporting" amplitude is a much look-forward-to event. 

Inhaling my carbs using the BlendTech Kitchen Mill

For an embarrassingly undetermined amount of time, I have stockpiled water-tight tin cans of wheat in my basement. My rationalization was that if the Bishop family was desperate enough to need the "flour," the boys would be the ones grinding the wheat (with ROCKS!)
I resolved to grind the wheat using the convenience of electricity. I relied on the advice of friend's before purchasing this:

BlendTech Kitchen Mill

Reclaiming our families

"The most important of the Lord's work you and I will ever do will be within the walls of your own home."       Religious leader Harold B. Lee       Over the next two years, my husband and I will teach a 10-week Marriage and Family relations course to 6-8 married couples from our church congregation. (That equates to over 8 sessions and over 80 lessons.) The course is designed by our faith leaders and not only includes scriptures, but powerful stories and quotes from successful couples. Personal integration and discussion is a large part of the class.

One wonders if our 25-year-marriage qualifies us to instruct participants on this topic

.....or.....

A Barbie Fairy "Secret" all Moms should know about

It was only a year ago that I had 2 hormonal teenage boys and 1 pre-pubescent male in the home. Typically, the three were much too busy texting or microwaving leftovers to notice what their sister was doing.
                                               .........until
she left her porn-star Barbies lying on the carpet!


(Ironically, the toy most desired by a 5-year-old girl is MOM's worst enemy)               


These smiling, bright, beautiful, perfectly shaped (mis) representations of an ideal female are quite intoxicating to a distractible teen emerging into adulthood. Although not equipped with a weapon, Barbie's are designed with their own "secret" weapon.
                              ..........How is a teen-aged boy NOT to notice?

"Lawrys" seasons my life

Dovetailing is a term I learned in FOODS 101 with Mrs. Nicols. As a 7th grader, I interpreted it to mean doing many things at once. The dictionary definition of dovetailing includes the following:

only things of a different nature can adhere ; cohere is for things of the same kind that stick together and form a whole

During one frantic dinner-prep time, I was "multitasking."  While cooking mushrooms and reviewing a spelling test and getting crayons for a toddler to color and texting a teenager to remember to pick up his brother, I reached for the Lawrys I have used multiple times and quickly sprinkled the fragrant combination of familiar flavors onto the concoction. Immediately, a waft of sweet cinnamon filled the kitchen air and permeated the frying pan brimming with mushrooms! Not really a coherent combination.

Extreme Planking

plank·ing/ˈplaNGkiNG/Noun

          1. Planks collectively, esp. when used for flooring or as part of a boat.


2. The act or process of laying planks.


The art of planking is to lay horizontally across any object or the ground with their arms by their sides, aiming to occur in daring situations or a brotherly display of core-strength..

It all Began HERE:

with our cool Aunt Christina!

So we set out to have our own fun on the set of Extreme Home Make-over

---MidWest style---

Summer--put your feet up and stay awhile

There are a few moments in life where I am grateful to be aging and summer is one of them! 

It all has to do with experience and perspective (and a bigger house!) 

...AND...

...just walk over the toys...(SAVE the vintage toys like Fisher Price and store in a safe, hidden place where they can be recovered for future nieces, nephews, and grandchildren to enjoy)

...eat dinner whenever...(dinner can be cold cereal  every night--no one has been hospitalized yet)

...leave the house a mess until August 18...(when school begins)

...enjoy planning spontaneous activities...(this does not include "sleeping")

...let the kids wear the SAME clothes for an entire week...(teenage boys are excluded from this)

...the swimming pool equals bath time...(no peeing in the "bath water")

...lower expectations for teenagers...(this will keep you out of jail!)

...AND...

(if only I could follow my own advice)!

The 5 Browns--Starstruck tween

One-on-one time with each child is often challenging to achieve, but so worth the effort.

For a weekend event, the 5 Browns, siblings who all play grand pianos simultaneously, performed 2 pieces on 5 Grand Steinways at Schmidt Music. I attended the concert with my third son.

We got to meet the quintet. My special needs son shared with, Ryan, the oldest, that he struggles with tourette's and he still plays the piano and loves it. He also conversed with Desirae, the youngest Julliard graduate, who has lost her sight in one eye and is learning to live with this disibility. Desirae continues to excel at playing and memorizing very challenging music. Both siblings seemed to be very engaging towards my son and that impressed me.

Tourette's and Attention Deficit

March 2010---Age 11

Our third son was diagnosed with tourettes/ADD when he was in first grade. He is unique. He has special needs. He is special to us. 

After years of therapy and acceptance, he has been doing quite remarkable accepting and understanding his TICS and so have I.


Although not the energetic, outspoken, extrovert I observed as a toddler, he has settled into his new "normal" as he emerges into "tweendom'"


Tourette's is an inherited neuropsychiatric disorder with onset in childhood, characterized by the presence of multiple physical (motor) tics and at least one vocal (phonic) tic; these tics characteristically wax and wane. Tourette's is defined as part of a spectrum of tic disorders, which includes transient and chronic tics.

They teach it at Stanford

A recent Stanford lecture was on the mind-body connection - the relationship between stress and disease. The speaker (head of psychiatry at Stanford) said, among other things, that one of the best things that a man could do for his health is to be married to a woman,

whereas for a woman, one of the best things she could do for her health was to nurture her relationships with her girlfriends.

At first everyone laughed, but he was serious.

 Women connect with each other differently and provide support systems that help each other to deal with stress and difficult life experiences. Physically this quality “girlfriend time" helps us to create more serotonin - a neurotransmitter that helps combat depression and can create a general feeling of well being. Women share feelings whereas men often form relationships around activities. They rarely sit down with a buddy and talk about how they feel about certain things or how their personal lives are going. Jobs? Yes. Sports? Yes. Cars? Yes. Fishing, hunting, golf? Yes. But their feelings? Rarely.

Women do it all of the time. We share from our souls with our sisters/mothers, and evidently that is very good for our health. He said that spending time with a friend is just as important to our general health as jogging or working out at a gym.

There's a tendency to think that when we are "exercising" we are doing something good for our bodies, but when we are hanging out with friends, we are wasting our time and should be more productively engaged—not true. In fact, he said that failure to create and maintain quality personal relationships with other humans is as dangerous to our physical health as smoking!

So every time you hang out to schmooze with a gal pal, just pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for doing something good for your health! We are indeed very, very lucky. Sooooo let's toast to our friendship with our girlfriends. Evidently it's very good for our health."

Another crazy dinner

Our college-bound oldest son has 21 days left until he leaves the nest. (submit sighhhhhhhhhhhhhh here). The anticipation of the day has been forthcoming for 18 years and a flood of emotions overtakes a Mom daily. (some very unexpected). I am proud of #1 son. He has achieved success in many areas and his independence is joyful.

Nevertheless........

...he is ready to be on his own and use his powers for good. Many of my friends have told me that kids get really weird when they are about to leave and I am sooooo experiencing this. It is a defense mechanism so that parents don't really lose it at the prospect that their child is REALLY not going to be around.

In order to survive the summer with Brandon without exiling him from the family,  I lowered my expectations of what I wished for him to accomplish this summer. He is going to do what he wants to do. 

...This was MY defense mechanism!...

Jessie prepares a STEW for her brothers.

Our summer really has been

CRAZY

so why not add to the madness!

I am a Quantum of Energy

Transition: an abrupt change in energy state or level (as of an atomic nucleus or a molecule) usually accompanied by loss or gain of a single quantum of energy

My 4 children in school all day

Am I losing or gaining energy? That is the question of the day.