Wow Wow Wubbzy

So, I totally got knocked flat by a mean bout of stomach flu yesterday.  Nothing like a little sickness to help you appreciate your health.  Right?  Luckily it was only a 24 hour gig and if it was going to happen anyway, I was glad it happened on a Saturday when Scott was in town and home to help take care of the kids and the house.  Because I was pretty much useless for the vast majority of the day.  Even though I was out of commission, Scott knocked it out of the ball park yesterday by cleaning out the garage with some help from the kids {okay Ethan} and even went grocery shopping in the afternoon to boot!  Not too shabby.  The day ended on an even better note as I started to feel a teensy bit better and my sweet visiting teacher brought over some homemade chicken noodle soup and crescent rolls for us to enjoy.  It was greatly appreciated!  You would think my kids had never seen a home-cooked meal before.  Hahahaha.  

Thankfully, I'm feeling much better today than yesterday and I'm up for a bit of blogging.  The remainder of this post will be dedicated to my dear, sweet little Grace who will be turning 8 in just a few days.  So hard to believe!  I have finally finished her baptism quilt and she was super excited to finally sleep under it last night.  When I protested that I wanted to roll it up and bundle it with a ribbon to give it to her on her birthday or baptism day, she quickly reassured me that I could still do that -- she'll just be sleeping with it until then.  Hahaha. 

 A really terrible picture of the finished front.

 Showcasing her name block on the back.

Before I go into more details {and pictures} of her quilt and its meaning, I thought I'd back up a little to tell the tale of our Friday.  You see, Grace has amazing reservoirs of  persistence and resistance.  And you pretty much cannot make her do ANYTHING she doesn't want to do.  Trust me.  I know this from experience.  It is one of the hugest challenges of our parenting lives to figure out what we can do to motivate our children to choose the right and to become responsible, hard-working, independent little creatures.  We try our best to enforce consequences for bad choices and to praise and reward with positive consequences for good choices, but the hardest thing of all is that each and every child is totally unique and different.  What works easily for some does not work at all for others.  Scott and I jokingly congratulate each other for our "Parenting 505" skills when we are able to trick Grace out of one of her moods.  And she has a lot of them.  The most recurrent of which seems to be her fancy to NOT go to school.  

Friday morning was rough.  I had told all of the kids that if they wanted to have a movie night they would have to get all their chores done before school.  Grace especially was on the hook because of more bedtime issues from the night before.  When it became increasingly apparent that she would not be able to finish the kitchen before school started, I told her just to wipe the table and sweep and she could finish the rest after school.  Well, she immediately started throwing a fit that I wasn't going to let her do movie night if she didn't finish everything and no amount of pleading, cajoling, or threatening could make her clean up anything.  At this point Ethan began freaking out because he didn't want to be late for school so I told Grace to just get in the car so we could go.  Even as I told her, I knew deep down inside that she was already past the point of no return.  Not only would she not get in the car, she also wouldn't start cleaning or getting her shoes on or doing anything else that would have possibly propelled her forward.  She stayed rooted in one spot hanging on to me so that I couldn't leave and resisting enough that I couldn't make her move from her position.  Her fit may have been sparked by a fear of not getting movie night but by that point it was no longer about anything.  The storm had started and it would need to rain itself out before the sun could reappear.  

After yelling and pleading a little more, I attempted to just PUT her in the car so we could go.  It was impossible.  With her resisting and freaking out every inch of the way I was able to pull/drag/carry her to the open car door, but no amount of force could get her in and to the backseat and buckled.  So, after a mini-breakdown of ME crying and freaking out I told her to just stay home and I'd be back to get her after dropping Ethan and Sophie off at school.  

 Hurricane Grace.

Well, try to picture this next scene.  As I drove off, Grace started running after the car.  All the way up the hill out of our neighborhood, she trailed behind us screaming with her head down in determination, arms pumping in fury, and tears streaming down her face.  Every few feet I'd stop the car and tell her to get in and she'd stand there frozen in place with a scowl and an "I'm not gonna budge" look firmly rooted on her face.  After the third time we stopped I decided this was ridiculous and I got out of the car to try and put her in.  For any passerby on the street, I'm sure this looked like a sure-fire case of kidnapping.  As I pulled and dragged and carried her over to the car and then lifted and pushed and shoved her into the backseat, she screamed and fought and tried to counteract my every move.  It was a mess.  And quite a scene.  I really hope there were no neighbors watching.  Once she was in the car and we were driving off to school she informed me that she had never packed a lunch.  {Even though she had said yes when I asked her earlier that morning.}  When I told her she'd just have to buy, she alternated between freaking out that I would take it out of her allowance next month and freaking out that she never likes the school lunch anyway.  By the time we got to school we were already late and Ethan and Sophie hurriedly climbed out of the car and ran off and away from the crazy.  Grace, however, was not going anywhere.  She was still crying and couldn't pull herself together.  I tried giving her a few minutes to calm down, but every few seconds she'd come up with a new thing to cry about.  I tried every kind of threat and bribe imaginable but nothing worked. 

In the end, I stormed off and took her home.  I was fuming and freaking out myself and I told her that she would just have to make her lunch and get her chores done while I was at the gym because by the time I got back home I was taking her to school, dang it!  Most definitely not my finest parenting moment.  I got halfway to the gym (which is literally just up the street from our neighborhood) before I broke down crying on the phone to Scott like a broken record saying "I don't know what to do with her!"  After a quick prayer {and some more crying} in the gym parking lot, I realized I needed to turn around and go back to her.  I came home to her curled up on the couch crying with Scott leaving another message on the answering machine for her to pick up the phone because he was worried.  "I don't know how to answer the phone," she tearfully told me as I gave her a hug and answered it for her.  

I hugged Grace and told her how much I loved her and then gave her some time to calm down and decompress while I made her lunch for her {including a little treat of butterscotch chips which she really loves} and let her watch some videos on Youtube.  I called the school and let them know she would be coming in a bit late and after only 10 or 15 minutes she was ready for me to take her.  

So, yeah.  My mothering skills are a work in progress.  Fortunately, the rest of the day went much better than the morning and when they got home from school they all quickly tidied up their chores while I got dinner started.   When Movie Time rolled around they finally settled on something they all agreed on and I finished up the binding on Grace's quilt while we watched "Daddy Daycare" on Netflix. 

 Grace wanted a "Flower" theme for her baptism quilt.

 I didn't have enough of the pink dog fabric for the back, so I pieced together some leftover strips and combined it with her name block to make it big enough.

The idea of a Baptism Quilt came about as a result of inspiration drawn from a few different scriptures and a conference talk that was given a few years ago.   In the Book of Mormon, in the book of Mosiah, there is a group of people who have come to the waters of Mormon to be baptized.  In verses 8-11, Alma outlines the baptismal covenant:

 8 And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light;

9 Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life—

10 Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you?

11 And now when the people had heard these words, they clapped their hands for joy, and exclaimed: This is the desire of our hearts.

And then in the New Testament in the book of St. John chapter 14 verses 16 and 18, the Savior says:

 16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

 18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. 

This idea that part of the baptismal covenant is to comfort those that stand in need of comfort and then that the Holy Ghost {the gift of which is given after baptism} is a Comforter as well, led to the concept of a quilt -- a tangible symbol of a comforting item.   I love the way Sister Matsumori explains this imagery in her address entitled "Helping Others Recognize the Whisperings of the Spirit."  In her talk she tells the following story:

A Sunbeam teacher wrapped each of her class members one by one in a blanket to teach them how the Spirit feels like the comfort and security of that covering. A visiting mother also heard the lesson.  Many months later the mother thanked the teacher... Several weeks after the lesson, the mother suffered a miscarriage. She was overcome with grief when suddenly she felt a great warmth and peace. It felt like someone had covered her with a warm blanket. She recognized the reassurance of the Spirit and knew that Heavenly Father was aware of her and that He loved her.

 When I first listened to this talk several years ago, this story stuck in my mind.  For Family Home Evening shortly after that Conference, we used this object lesson with our little ones and took each of them one by one and wrapped them in a quilt to help them feel peace and love and comfort.  Last year, for Ethan, we did the same thing in Family Home Evening the week before he was baptized.  It was a really sweet experience. 

I'm branded now.  Hahahaha.

bunnysauce 

 

With Grace's baptism rapidly approaching, I am looking forward to doing the same thing.  Comforting others is something we talk about a lot in our family.  With so many children -- and so many of them SO little -- there are opportunities all around to give comfort.  Grace is especially quick to comfort Alex and Jane when they are hurt or upset or in need.  She is a generous and tender-hearted girl and I am grateful to be her mom.  Hopefully, she is just as grateful to be my child.