From my wise dad...

The following is an email from my dad to me and my siblings. We had been emailing about the different challenges and choices we are making. My SIL has been holding the fort while my brother has been out of town for 2 weeks & she's had moments of wanting to pull her hair out. All of us are trying to make good choices and parent wisely each day. It's hard work! Reading this note from my dad absolutely made my day and I knew it had to be in our family blog book for generations to come to read and know that the sacrifice is all worth it in the end....

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...Looking back on everything I’ve done in the last 67 years, there are some memories I treasure more than the rest.

One of the most heroic things I ever did was stay up all night rocking a sick baby. At the time it was extremely hard, but looking back, I give myself an “A.” That’s the kind of thing I give myself credit for now.

Dad & baby Sherry

Other things were small, tedious and inconvenient, like walking the halls of church with uncontrollable kids, or diapers or cleaning messy rooms. I got tired of it, weary of doing the same thing over and over, frustrated that kids didn’t learn or mind, and I wasn’t home 24 hours a day, so it never surprised me that Chris needed a break when I got home from work. Now, all of that is an Everest that I chose to climb, and though it took a long time, the view now is spectacular.

We spent a lot of years chasing some of the accoutrements of success in an effort to ‘fit in,’ to look and act like the people we admired and wanted to be like. The toys were fun. Much of it was very enjoyable, but I don’t miss any of it. What I remember fondly now are the things we did together as a family, the laughter and sometimes tears. I remember Sherry and Jim reading to my blind Home Teaching widow. I remember you girls going with Chris to clean Sis Bates' house. Easters, Thanksgivings, Christmas’s and birthdays, rowdy Family Home Evening and scripture reading, endless night drives while you all slept, so hard at the time, are all sweet in memory. The smell of my first Mercedes, so intoxicating at the time, seems silly now.

Thanksgiving at the San Gabriel house 1985 (dad's lovin' the help!)

Easter Abt. 1979

Watching you all now that part of my life is finished, making your own homes where children are safe and taught values and civility, how to be themselves while choosing the right, you are my heroes today. All of us have had the frustration Amanda just shared, dealing with willful children, but you all do it so well, and you keep doing it day after day. That’s the stuff of legend.

Love? I haven’t figured out how to tell you how I love you, and how rich I am for being able to. Each of you young mothers have a huge chunk of my heart. When I hug you, I wonder if there is some way to radiate that to you so you’ll know how wonderful you are. You are building the most important thing you can in this life, righteous posterity. You are amazing. Each of you men, real men who stand up and take responsibility for your families, who put aside selfish things to do what has to be done, what pride I feel when I watch you. What giants you are, real men, not some plastic imitation invented by the media. Gushiness aside, that’s how I feel, or that’s as good as I can express it.

Love, Dad

Happy to pass on the love I learned from a wise father.

Photo by Macy Robison Photography

Mommy notes & Literature for all ages

• Wesley is progressing with his speech development. Sheila, his speech therapist, works with him once a week and noted last week that it seems as though Wes has had a "word explosion" in his brain. The struggle is getting those words out. We see progress every day and Wes loves "playing" with Sheila. He about melts her heart with his "gank you"-s & "you welcome." Wes' buddy G. might as well be his other speech therapist. He's a month older than Wes and he is a great talker, so Wesley learns a lot from G. during their weekly play dates. They have lots of fun playing cars, setting up chairs for a train ride, picnics in the family room, and literally running around in circles.
• Wesley is a budding chef. I walked in the kitchen this morning to see that he helped himself to the food the big kids left out after making their school lunches. He made himself a PB & C sandwich: peanut butter & baby carrots. I asked Wesley if it was yummy (he had taken one bite) and he said, "No."
• Wesley love anything we read to him, but has had lots of fun with word and ASL flash cards like THESE.

• Sweet Caroline is loving Kindergarten. She's always, always, always taking nice notes, apples, and trinkets to her teachers. She loves it when they write back. Something that stuck out to me at Caroline's last teacher's conference....Mrs. K said that if there's a child who is having a hard day, she knows that she can ask Caroline to sit by them and Caroline will befriend them as naturally and sincerely as she would any of the other children in the class. She's a friend to everyone.

• Yesterday I sent Caroline to her room to clean it, although it's at a point where I need to help. After about 1/2 hour I went to check on her progress and she was sound asleep in bed. I was a bit jealous.
• Caroline & I just read the book, A Bad Case of Stripes. This book gets a BIG thumbs up from Caroline!

• Grace got a great start on her classes' reading challenge at school. The girl loves to read. The challenge with kids who are advanced readers is finding age appropriate reading material. Her more recent recommendations: Romona the Brave, Hoot, & Scat.

Yesterday's silly conversation while Grace sat on my lap, we were hugging & cheek-to-cheek:

Grace: Mom, I love you more than a pig loves mud.

Wayne: Grace, some advice...don't compare you mom to a pig.

Grace: Mom, I love you more than a hippo in a tutu! (giggles all around while Wayne is shaking his head)

Grace: Fine. I love you more than Daddy. (more LAUGHTER!)

• Thomas...I loved the drive to NY with Thomas last weekend. I loved seeing him have fun once we got there, and exploring the frozen stream, just me and him. But as we drove there and back (4 hours each way), it was so nice to just talk & not be interrupted. It's hard to make 1-1 time happen, but it's always SO nice when we do.
• Thomas took 1st place by a slim margin in his last Pinewood Derby. I'll post pics soon. He had a blast with his pals at Cubs and will go to Regionals soon.
• I was asked to come in after school to help Thomas organize his desk and locker- apparently the kids, including Thomas, have organizational issues. When I got there the teacher said that when Thomas remembered I was coming, he grabbed all of his loose papers and threw them in recycling. NOT the best system, Thomas! :) I helped Thomas fine tune the good progress he had already made & agreed he'd do a desk check each Friday before coming home, so his desk is always nice and neat on Monday morning.
• Thomas is reading The Series of Unfortunate Events. He also recently read and enjoyed, The Great Brain which fostered some priceless discussion, and The Book of Three.
• Thomas was recently recognized by his teachers in a school assembly for his achievement in writing. He has a courageous, straight forward writing style that makes me smile. He shared with me an idea he has for a book he wants to write. I hope he writes it someday because it sounds AWESOME! (I'd say that even if he wasn't my son)

• Christina has 5 more months of Jr High! What?! She's doing really well in school, and doing what it takes to get good marks in Chinese. Wayne and I have been no help with her Chinese homework, so she's really had to self-motivate, and I think that's helped her take initiative and responsibility for her own work, success & missteps in her other classes. She's a great, positive student. Some of her writing has been honestly compelling. It's wonderful to see her hard work reep real talent.

• I think the sky would have to be falling for Christina to miss a Young Women's activity, or church for that matter. She's got amazing leaders and friends, and she is working hard on her own with her personal progress in YW. I will forever be grateful for the faithful trail she's blazing for her sisters.
• Nina recently read, Lovely Bones (too dark for her at the beginning), and A Northern Light, which she liked a bit more. An avid reader, Christina recently started keeping a "reading journal" using the little 4"x6" book, What I Read.

Feeling Blessed,

PHOTOS by MACY ROBISON PHOTOGRAPHY