Moran Family Fun

This past Saturday we had a work day at our house and spent our morning completing some projects that we'd put off too long. I love it when we are all working together and I feel as if a Saturday has been put to good use if I can see that something has been accomplished at the end of the day. Apparently, not everyone feels the same way. Today I was cleaning up in Abigail's room and I found a list she had made in her notebook sitting on her desk. I guess she wasn't as happy about the work day as I was. What's strange is that Jared and I were talking that night about what a good worker Abigail was. All the other girls were complaining and trying to get out of working, but Abigail was such a happy helper. As soon as she was finished with one task she would be asking us what she could do next. Maybe it was so she would have lots of items to add to her list? In case it's hard to read her lovely third grade handwriting, here's what she had to say about our day of work...

For the last year, I've been serving in our ward as Primary Chorister. It's my very favorite calling and one that I like to think I do pretty well. Our Primary is the biggest I've ever been a part of - there are over 100 kids there each week and more on the rolls that we only see from time to time. It's so fun to get up in front of those kids and sing, play, and just have fun. I love teaching them about music, explaining the gospel messages in the Primary songs, and hearing their testimonies as they sing the beautiful music. Unlike some of the other callings I've had (ahem, Relief Society) I feel comfortable in Primary. I know what I'm doing in Primary and I'm good at what I do. Two weeks ago the Bishop asked if he could speak with me after church. The feeling I got in my stomach when he said that was almost the same feeling I get when I see flashing lights in my rear view and think I might be pulled over. Oh man, that was probably a really bad thing to admi...

I found this cute idea for a little Easter treat here at Mel's Kitchen Cafe. I think they are so sweet and such a good idea. Instead of using them as place cards I decided to make little treats for all the sweet Primary kids I get to sing with each week. It was easy enough to print out the files on colored paper but took a bit more time to cut out 120 carrot pieces. Once they were all cut out I sat down and started folding on the dotted lines and assembling the carrots. I used double-sided tape instead of glue because it's so much faster and also because I love double-side tape and use it whenever I can. Abigail, Samantha, Emily and Natalie helped me attach the green carrot tops and fill them with treats. An easy, cute, and fun project for our Saturday.

I read this article last week about how the number and gender of children impacts bliss in families. The bottom line seemed to be that the more children you have the more miserable you will become, especially if those children are all girls. The study authors said, "The more girls you have the more of a handful they become - more so in fact than boys." The reasons that more kids, and more girls in particular, equal less happiness are: hormones lead to more fighting and noisiness, if you have more kids you will need to purchase a larger house and/or car, and navigating through daily routines such as getting ready for school or dinnertime become more hectic the more kids you have. I immediately thought the study's authors are a bunch of child (and girl!) hating losers that don't know what they are talking about. I was full of self-righteous indignation - my girls are lovely, wonderful kids and our family is HAPPY. We are not miserably limping along from one squabble to...

So, you might know that I've been trying to fix this stupid back of mine for quite some time now. In fact, it's been about 18 months since this whole mess started. As things have continued to stay the same or get worse, I've been seeing more doctors trying to get someone to listen to me and fix the stinking problem. Probably the most frustrating thing for me through all of this is that I can't do the things I feel as if I should be doing as a wife and mother. I try to explain this to each new doctor I see, hoping that someone will hear me when I say, "This is effecting every aspect of my life. I cannot do the things I need to do each day to care for my family." So far no one is listening. For example, I love my cute German house with its tile floors everywhere. Unfortunately, I can't keep the tile floors clean. I've told at least four different doctors that after mopping our house my back is a screaming, throbbing mess for at least 24 hours. Other task...

. . .think alike. Or maybe that should be dress alike? Either way, we were all on the same wavelength when we got dressed the other day.

Over Conference weekend we all traveled with Jared to Bavaria where he was refereeing some High School soccer games. He was the ref for two games in Bamberg on Friday night and then four games in Vilseck on Saturday. Our initial plan was to stay on base in Vilseck and while it would have been very convenient, I didn't love the idea of two nights in a hotel room with one queen bed, a pull out couch, and a pull out chair. That would have left two kids sleeping on the floor and no room to move around. In the end I was happy to find a bed and breakfast apartment for the same price as the room on base. We had the top two floors of an old farmhouse, which gave us plenty of room to spread out and make ourselves comfortable in the two bedrooms (the kid's room had glow in the dark wallpaper!), office area, living room, bathroom, and kitchen/dining room. After the two evening games in Bamberg Friday night we were happy when we finally arrived at our bed and breakfast and appreciated the ...

Last summer I tried to teach Samantha how to ride her bike and it didn't go so well. Even with the training wheels on she would freak out if the bike tipped even a little bit to either side. Once I took the training wheels off, things got bad - really. really. bad. Tears and frustration from both of us led to me being happy to put the bike away when the weather got colder. Now that things are nice and sunny I have been dreading getting the stupid bike back out to try again. This afternoon Samantha asked me if she could ride her bike to school. Remembering the awful experience we had last summer, I very hesitantly said yes. We got the bike out, adjusted her helmet (yep, safety first!), and started the ride. I was expecting Samantha to get scared, start crying, and give up about halfway down our street. I mean, based on her past performances, that was a pretty good expectation to have. Instead, she was happy to ride as long as I had one hand on a handlebar and the other on the back o...

Way back in February I got an email from a friend here about a top secret mission that I might like to participate in. A group of moms were planning to take their daughters to see Taylor Swift in concert on March 13th - would I like to come and bring Madison and Emily along? Well, it sounded like tons of fun, not to mention the fact that Maddy and Emily both really, really like Taylor Swift's music. So I got online and found the last three seats in the section where the other moms had bought tickets and then I booked one of the last rooms at the hotel. A few days later the concert tickets arrived in the mail and then all I had to do was wait for March to tell the girls about our big surprise. On the day of the concert we met our friends at church so we could drive together. All the girls knew they were going somewhere, but thought it was a mother-daughter relationship building retreat. It was difficult for me to keep our plans a secret for so long because I knew they would be exci...