Breath...that's important

Today I tried out the mantra of a friend...

"I chose this. I chose to have children. I have good children." Repeated as long as necessary.

So, James, Hannah and I had a dentist appointment this afternoon. After work I called Hannah's school to tell them I needed to pick her up at 1:2o. Then I called James's school to tell them I needed to pick him up at 1:30. That secretary lectured me on calling earlier so she wouldn't have to interrupt his class by taking a note to him. I couldn't even get a word in edge-wise to tell her that I was calling as early as possible since I work at 7:15 AM. Then she told me that James was in the seminary building and I'd have to call them.

So I call the seminary building and they say..."James isn't here."

So then I'm thinking, my teenager is going off the deep end. He's ditching seminary. He's probably goofing off and getting into drugs. He ditched school and now he's lying, bleeding in the street somewhere and no one knows who he is. (Moms, you know how it is when our kids aren't where we expect them to be. We think of the worst thing possible.)

Needless to say, James didn't make it to his dentist appointment, and I was dreaming up all kinds of consequences for him.

And I started breathing deep and repeating the above mantra.

Finally, when James came home from school he had a legitimate reason for not being in seminary. Problem was he forgot when it was happening and therefore, couldn't tell me. Tim had us spoiled because he was always where he needed to be. John would come home late or this or that, but ALWAYS had a good reason for doing what he had done. We couldn't punish him for putting someone else first and helping them, etc. So, today with James...he had a good reason, his communication was the problem.

After talking to him about it all I told him that I'm happy that I have good kids, that when we have times like this I can trust that they have a really good, reasonable excuse and aren't just out bumming around.

Definitely, a not so good mom moment, although I did handle it rather well when he finally came home.

Thanks, Lisa, for the mantra.

Here's a link to James' blog. He is posting some of his short stories, and they are really good...(even if I am a bit prejudiced!)

The first (and only one posted so far) had me riveted! James learned a new word...he didn't know what riveted meant...ha ha.

http://zingmonkey.blogspot.com

Birthdays

I'm falling behind on blogging this month. It's birthday month here at our house and I haven't written about it yet.

On April 4 we had John at home for his birthday. It was great having him here and celebrating his 22nd birthday together. After two years of not having him to celebrate with we appreciated the time together much more. The fact that it was also Easter AND one of the greatest General Conferences ever was just frosting on the cake. Our friend Pam made a cheesecake for John's birthday and it was delicious. Thanks to Pam for that wonderful service.

Today was James' birthday. He's 15 now. It's great having adult children. All those years of throwing parties while the kids were young...now I get to reap the rewards...LOL. James planned a party at the park, and I talked Tim, John and Laney into being the chaparones for the party. I just sat here for 3 hours doing whatever I wanted and making dinner. The kids came home to eat tacos (a great easy meal for a whole bunch of teenagers) and then I ditched to attend a stake Relief Society leadership meeting while Tim, John and Laney held down the fort at home.

James wanted a spongebob cake so this is what I came up with late last night. (I started before work, but the cake mix cake fell apart and I had to start over from scratch after work.)

Next is Tim's birthday next week.

Escapades in the kitchen

James decided he wanted to decorate a cake this weekend. I think he did pretty good for his first cake.

Mom, the beaters hit the butter and the powder sugar went all over!

Decorating the cake

The final product.

The camera on my cell phone isn't the greatest, but it was the easiest thing to grab tonight. One thing I did finally learn this week was how to email photos from my phone. lol...takes me a while sometimes. At least I know how to text so I can pester John whenever I feel like it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

It's birthday season at the Jenson house.

Johnathan turned 21 on April 4. I can't believe I have a 21 year old son. Wow! How did that happen?


Tim will be 18 on April 22. I can't believe that one either.

And James will turn 14 on April 15.

It's that time again! Today on the way home from church the boys told me that they may have interviews with the bishop this week. Ordinations are coming...Tim to an Elder and James to teacher. I love these milestones, but the time goes so fast. It was only two years ago that we had an ordination party...John was ordained an Elder by Tom, then John ordained Tim a priest, and then Tim ordained James a deacon. It took about 15 minutes.

We are so blessed.

Witty tongue strikes again...

Our brother-in-law has been out of work for several months and today he commented on facebook that he is getting to be a hippie...he's been wearing flip-flops and working in his back yard garden.

Tom says, "It depends on what you're growing."

Hannah said something about growing wheat.

James says, "Yeah, if you're growing weed you're a hippie. If it's just wheat..."

LOL

Lent

Tom was interested in learning about lent and asked a friend about it. Ever since Lent has been mentioned often at our house.

Here's the comment today.

James said, "I'm not going to do dishes for 40 days. I'm giving it up for Lent."

Nice try, kid!

I'm such a slave driver...lol.