A Tiny Bit of Type Casting

After his theatrical debut in The Wizard of Oz last year, Matthew has been actively looking forward to his next appearance. The middle school theater teacher announced this year’s school musical before school ever started, so for months Matthew has been anticipating and preparing for auditions. Auditions were this week. Matthew auditioned on Tuesday, was invited to dance callbacks on Wednesday, was invited back for traditional callbacks this afternoon, and when the cast list came out tonight, he was thrilled to be cast as the Sultan in Aladdin Jr.! He’s one of only three seventh graders cast in a leading role. I’m sure his diminutive stature and dark looks played into the casting choice, nevertheless, I’m so proud of him and knowing the theater teacher, she must have seen some skills in him as well. She’s not one to cast based on looks alone. I’m excited to see how it all comes together later this spring.

She Has Inherited the Sarcasm Gene

This evening Mr. Rushmore came up in the course of our conversation. I could give you the whole train of thought that led us there, but I’ll spare you the torture of needing to think like one of us and just share the punchline. Kevin mentioned that Mt. Rushmore was closed for renovations and Malia declared, voice dripping with sarcasm, “What are they gonna do? Blow it up and add another president?”

(all the rest of us laugh our heads off)

A Child of Technology

One of the things Malia got in her Christmas stocking was a big 'ole Hershey's kiss. And by big, I mean the thing is bigger than the palm of her hand. I can tell she is a child who 1) has no concept of what life is like without all the amazing technology we currently have access to and 2) has a mother who has been blogging literally her entire life, because her first reaction to any Kodak moment (not that she knows what that means either) is a request to put in on the blog. So here it is. This evening she shared with us the following, very ladylike, pose before taking the first bite.

An Answered Prayer

Our school district has a new middle school opening in the fall. While it is nowhere close to us, the trickle-down effect means that when boundary changes were determined last year, it was determined that starting in the fall we will be in the boundaries for a different middle school. This is a decision that has been universally unpopular in our neighborhood. Instead of going to the middle school that is one mile from our house and hence within walking distance, the kids will now go to a school three miles away. At least the district has conceded the fact that there is no safe walking route from here to there and provided a bus, but still, we are not alone in loathing this decision.

What that means for our family is that next school year, Matthew would be required to change middle schools. He is thriving at our current school and Kevin, Matthew and I all agreed that staying would be the best thing for him. But the hurdle has been the special permit process. In these situations, there are a lot of kids who want to stay and so the district holds a lottery to determine who is issued a special permit and who is out of luck and must attend their assigned school. When we got the results of the lottery earlier this month, Matthew was #67 on the waiting list. That meant that all available slots were filled and a whole bunch of kids would have to decide to go elsewhere before Matthew came to the top of the list. Needless to say, it was pretty discouraging.

At that point, we started thinking about who might be able to help us get that elusive special permit. Matthew had the jazz band teacher mention that he would have to see what he could do the help Matthew stay and I reached out to the regular band teacher who is amazing (and one of the reasons we want him to stay) to see if she had any pull. And throughout, we began gathering info to get him registered at the different school since registration is happening right now and while we were still hoping for that elusive permit, we were all realistic enough to know that it might not happen.

Throughout this entire process, I’ve been praying that the Lord would provide a way for Matthew to stay where he is. In addition to all the academic and musical reasons he is thriving, all his friends from elementary school will stay at our current middle school. Of the kids he has been in school with since second grade, those in our ward are the only ones who will be required to change schools. Since Matthew doesn’t have any close friends in the ward, that would be a bitter pill to swallow. And it’s an emotionally difficult situation in which to find yourself. I know. When I went to junior high, the only kids from my elementary school who went to the same school as I did were those in my ward. Luckily for me, I consider those girls some of my best friends ever, but even with that, it was a very difficult transition. It was so hard that I have tried to do everything I can to prevent my kids from having the same experience. So there have been many sincere, heartfelt prayers, months’ worth of prayers. And I know that there have been other family members praying as well.

This afternoon I received an email stating that Matthew’s lottery status had changed. Afraid to hope, I thought that maybe he had moved up the list a bit. What I read when I opened the email led to an audible cheer and then immediate tears. It was a notification that Matthew had been offered a seat at his school. The elusive special permit had been granted! I immediately sent the news to Matthew, who was on a field trip to the elementary school to teach the 6th graders how cool band is, and within 3o seconds, he was out in the hall calling me. It was a good day, such a good day!

I know that my prayers were heard. I also know that if the Lord had wanted Matthew to go to the other school, he would have done so and we all would have eventually reconciled ourselves to the fact. But I’m so enormously grateful for this boon, this blessing, this answer to a prayer that came from the bottom of my mama heart.

Conquering the Coconut Cake

Of all the many things I’ve learned to cook without milk and eggs, cake has probably been the most difficult. Eggs provide the stability to cakes so baking without them provided a variety of complications. In fact, early on in my food allergy baking experience, I had several people tell me that baking large egg-free cakes wasn’t possible as they didn’t have the stable structure needed to keep the center from falling. Me, being the person I am, refused to accept that and after a good amount of trial and error, have spent many years successfully baking full-sized, multi-layer cakes that are not only lovely to look at, but wonderful to eat as well.

Last summer, I had a hankering for a good coconut cake. A few years ago, Kneaders had a coconut cake with pineapple filling that was a tropical delight. I decided I was going to recreate that lovely confection so that Matthew, who loves both coconut and pineapple, could enjoy it as well. After poring over a variety of recipes and making a number of necessary adjustments for high altitude as well as no eggs, I made my first attempt. Those poor cakes tasted lovely, but they were flat, only about an inch of height in each layer. It was more like eating a coconut pancake.

Not to be deterred, I made a second attempt and was quite hopefully as the layers baked up nice and tall and beautiful looking…right up until I pulled them out of the even and they began to cool. Then the centers sank in, a lot. We ended up with a lovely swimming pool of pineapple filling in the center of each layer.

My third attempt rose nicely and retained its shape when cool, but the cakes were quite dense, which in and of itself is not a problem. It was just not quite the fluffy, light cake I had in mind. But by then we had eaten a lot of coconut cake, so I called the attempt a partial success and moved on to other things…like baking all the goodies for the gatherings for both Malia’s baptism and Daniel’s missionary (non)farewell. But in my mind, I still had that idea of the ideal coconut cake floating in my mind and I knew I was going to need to revisit the challenge at a later date.

I has been about five months since my experimentations with coconut cake and I’ve reached the point where I was starting to crave coconut again. My birthday was a few days ago and I figured that was the perfect excuse to make a fourth attempt. This time the layers baked up nice and light, didn’t sink, and were fluffy and moist. With the addition of a creamy coconut filling, a light cream cheese frosting, and a coating of toasted coconut (all dairy free, of course), it was an absolute delight to consume. So happy birthday to me. I’ve finally conquered the coconut cake!

And as a random side note, at 46 I’m now officially closer to fifty than forty. It is weird to think about.

(I know this does not look particularly lovely, but that is because the cake is so moist that it has a tendency to stick to the knife as it is cut. A sharper knife and a chilled cake probably would have provided a prettier cut.)

Musical Swap

My wonderful dad got tickets for Malia and I as well as my sister Rachael and her two daughters to see Seussical. Malia was very excited. Our tickets were for December 30 and we were looking forward to a fun girls' night. Unfortunately, Malia got sick the night before. The stomach flu kind of sick. She was incredibly disappointed because she knew she wouldn't be able to see the show. Luckily for us, I also have a wonderful sister who happened to have two tickets to last night's show as well as the three for Dec. 30. She offered to trade us so that Malia would still be able to see the show. Yay! Malia was greatly relieved! And she loved the show. It wasn't one that I think I could sit through multiple times, but it was definitely fun. The costumes and staging were all fantastic. So in spite of a pesky virus, we were still able to have our (slightly smaller) girls' night.

Come Follow Me V. 2.0

This evening we read the Brief Explanation of the Book of Mormon for our family scripture study. As we explained to Malia that the book of Ether was written quite a long time before Lehi sailed across the sea, she described Ether as “really, really old and really, really dead.” I kept my serious mom face on, but on the inside, I was totally laughing. A few minutes later, our discussion made its way to Moroni. When we explained that he was the one who buried the gold plates and that a long, long, long time later he was the same person who came to Joseph Smith as an angel and taught Joseph about the gold plates and eventually gave the plates to him, Malia’s response to that was to comment that someday we’ll meet all these people that we don’t know. That led me to wonder if Ether has a sense of humor…

I don’t know how everyone else in the church feels but Come Follow Me is working for my family. 😊

Simplify

The end of the year generally makes me reflect on the past year and this one is no different. This year has brought a lot of change for my family and I find myself assessing how that change has affected each of us.

First of all, let’s talk about “Come Follow Me.” A year ago, I was hopeful that it would be a good thing for my family. As we finish up our first year, I can say without a doubt that it has been good for us. We’ve had to change our approach half a dozen times throughout the year, but that’s ok. Life is all about learning and growing and discovering what works for us and that is exactly what we have done. And I expect that we will continue to adjust our approach as the needs of our family change over time. My children are growing up and that necessitates changes in how we teach them. The fantastic thing is that they have taught me this year as well. Their own personal insights have added to the success of our study. Are we perfect? Not even close. Did we learn absolutely everything there was to learn? Of course not. But we did learn and as in all areas of life, we will continue to learn line upon line.

Nathan started at a new high school in September and it has most definitely been good for him. There is still all the teenage social drama that he hates, but he loves choir, looks forward to going there, trusts his teacher. He also loves ASL and has developed a good relationship with that teacher as well. In general, it is a much healthier and more positive environment for him, and I cannot express how grateful I am for that. For every person who contributes to his happiness and wellbeing, there will be blessings in heaven based on how often this mother has expressed thanks.

Matthew has successfully made the transition to middle school and he is thriving there. He is finding where he fits into the world and discovering what makes him happy. He is gaining confidence in himself and is learning how to keep track of all the different things he is balancing in his life. I’ve been praying that his special permit request will be approved, and he will be allowed to stay at the same school next year. He is doing so well that it would break my heart, and probably his, to have to change schools.

Malia is the one of us who has probably seen the least amount of change in her day to day routine. She is still at the same school, sees the same kids, has the same friends. I have, however, seen a lot of change in her as she begins to transition from little girl to big girl. In the past several months, she has really started taking her scripture reading to heart. During our family study, she asks questions and offers her opinions about what things mean. She has started reading on her own occasionally. She isn’t solid yet, but she’s still young and even for adults, finding a daily scripture study routine can be a challenge. I can see her faith growing and I’m so very proud. She is growing up in a world where she will need that faith to sustain her.

Daniel is the one who has seen the most change. I have watched him grow from a teen in high school to an independent young man who is willingly serving the Lord for two years. He has been in the mission field for twelve weeks now, and every time I read one of his emails, I am astounded by how much his testimony has grown. As a parent I’ve spent his whole life teaching him to be a self-sufficient, independent adult and I think he’s proved that he has, in fact, become just that. He still needs our support and counsel (and hopefully will always feel that he can turn to us), but he’s stepped out into the world in a big way and I could not be more pleased with his accomplishments.

Kevin has very recently accepted a new job that leads him away from the traditionally accepted career path of progression from technical computer guy to lower management to upper management. While it is somewhat of an unorthodox job switch in that way, it is (hopefully) going to give him an opportunity to do the kind of work that he really enjoys, and which will bring some greater job satisfaction his way. In some ways this was a hard decision for him to make and yet, I have high hopes that it will be good.

As for me, earlier this year I was contemplating the possibility of becoming a sister scriptorian. I wouldn’t exactly classify myself as such yet, but I can honestly say that I have learned a lot, my testimony has grown and most of the time, I am a follower of Christ rather than just a member of the church. My calling in the relief society presidency has stretched me. I have had to step outside my comfort zone, and I think it has been good for me. With more time commitments added to my schedule, I’ve had to learn to prioritize, put first things first, if you will. And while the number of projects I’ve been able to check off my to-do list has been shortened considerably this year, I believe I’ve been able to put my focus on the most important ones.

My calling has had an unexpected side effect as well. December is always busy and this year it was even more so for me because I was trying to get all my ministering interviews done before the end of the quarter. As a result, I had to let some things go. We didn’t get out every single Christmas decoration we own. We didn’t put every single ornament on the tree. And we didn’t put together forty or fifty little something or others for neighbor gifts. We live in a great neighborhood and I love my neighbors. There are so many families that have taught me and my children so many things. They have touched our lives in unquantifiable ways. But due to time constraints, neighbor gifts were one of the first things to drop by the wayside. And guess what? I actually loved it. Kev and I have talked about it and except for a few of the most near and dear whom I hold close to my heart, this is something we want to continue. Perhaps next year we’ll take what we would have spent on neighbor gifts and donate it to the Light the World vending machines instead. Christmas was also simpler. Meals were simplified with preparations made over several days in advance so when Christmas actually rolled around, all I had to do was turn on the oven. It was unbelievably easy. And again, I loved it. The simplifications to our traditional Christmas routine allowed me to slow down and enjoy the time with my family. It allowed me to put the focus on what was important. And it helped me focus on what really matters.

I’m not one of those people that picks a word to focus on each year, but it is something that I’ve done on occasion. I think next year will be one of those years and I think my word will be “simplify.” If I can simplify my life, let go of some of the unrealistically high expectations I hold for myself, stop overscheduling or adding unnecessary things that contribute to an overwhelming feeling of general business, I think I will be happier. It will allow me to focus on what really matters. I think it will help me become a better wife, a better mother, a better disciple of Christ. And these are the things that bring me joy. So simplifying will lead to a happier life. The scriptures say, “by small and simple things are great things brought to pass,” (Alma 37:6) and I believe this can be true in my own life. By simplifying, by letting the little things (like quality family time, consistent scripture study, taking time to be still and listen to the Spirit, etc.) become the big things, I believe great things can happen in my life and in the lives of my family. I’m not talking earth shattering things here, but the small changes that will lead us to happiness and bring us just a little bit closer to exaltation.

So that’s my focus for next year. Simplify. That doesn’t mean that I won’t still do a bunch of stuff, because doing crazy things like making Santa pancakes and Christmas tree waffles to share with my family makes me happy, but hopefully it means that I will be able to focus a bit more on what matters and more easily say no to the things that don’t. I’m probably going to need reminders. I’m probably going to overcomplicate things on occasion because I have a tendency to do that. But hopefully, I’ll be able to remember how easy it was to let go of the things that don’t really matter so I can focus on the things that do.

And hopefully, simplifying will bring joy to me and my family.