Painting the Stairs

I appologize to all my fans for not posting for some time.
Rachel and the kids spent a week in Utah while I was back in Georgia working. This proved to be a great time to get things done around the house.
One of the things I wanted to do is paint the stairs. A few months ago, we ripped the carpet off the stairs and painted them white. This makes them much easier to clean given the fact that dispite the prohibition from having food on the stairs, food often gets spilled on the stairs.
We painted them with regular latex paint. This was a bad idea. After a few weeks, the paint started wearing, and staining, and looking shabby.
I thought that it would be great to paint the stairs while the family is gone because once you paint them, you need to let them dry before you walk on them.
I went and purchased some great oil-based paint designed for stairs and other high traffic areas. I painted the stairs, and not really thinking, I tried to clean up with soap and water. This was not an effective method. In a few minutes, I had completely white hands, and all the soap and water seemed to do very little about it. Unfortunately, I was not aware of the paint thinner we had in the shed. I stood there for a few minutes, thinking, "Wow, Matt you are really in a pickle." Short of waiting for my hands to dry, and then driving to home depot and getting paint thinner, I had no idea what to do.

After a few minutes, I thought of the olive oil in the cupboard. (Extra virgin). I pored some on my hands and it they cleaned right up. I was amazed. Not only did they clean right up, but they also smelled faintly like a pizza. It was a win win situation.

So to help Rachel feel better when she reads this, the next time I painted, I used the corn oil to clean my hands, not the olive oil.

So why do we get beds for our children?

For the first 5 years of having children we did not have any beds for our children. The kids had a mattress on the floor. For the most part it was a new matress, but there was no bed frame. (just in case you think we are depriving our kids, know that the adults do not have a bed frame either.)
However, about a year ago, a nieghbor asked us if we wanted some bunk-beds for the kids. We said yes, and Calvin was very excited for the top bunk. It worked well for about 6 months, at which time Calvin wanted to move back to the floor. This made the arrangement Calvin on the floor (again), and caleb on the bottom bunk. About a week ago, Caleb wanted to move to the top bunk. Calvin and Caleb argued about it for 20 minutes, eventually the deal was Caleb could sleep there for one night, and then it would be come Calvin's. On the second night, Caleb moved down to Calvin's old spot on the floor. 4 nights into it Calvin wants his spot on the floor back. Caleb will not budge. Now, Calvin and Caleb have two different spots on the floor, and no one in in the bunk bed. However, it is a great place for storing toys.

Shenandoah

Yesterday was perhaps the first time we had a member of the Seventy attend ward conference. The fact that he lives in the ward and did not have any other assignments could be the reason. He spoke for about 10 minutes. He quoted the parable of the Lost Sheep. One concern about this parable is that the 90 and 9 have been left behind. What if THEY wander? What happens if you come back and only find 85 sheep left? All of these question and answered by knowing we are called to find the one. The Lord's job is to take care of the 99, and it is our job to find the one, and when ever we find the one, and minister to him, it will bless us.

President Monson quotes the movie Shenandoah, and say, "'If we don't try, then we don't do; and if we don't do, then why are we here?"

It is a powerful line, and since I have heard him say it about 10 times, I decieded to add the movie to my netflix queue.

I watched the movie and to be honest was perplexed by the the context of the quote. (Spoiler alert). So in the movie the main character, James Steward, tries to avoid the Civil War, but his youngest son gets imprisoned mistakingly as a confederate soilder. He leaves his oldest son to take care of the farm, and takes the rest of his family to go look for his youngest son.

While they are looking for the youngest son, is when that quote is mentioned. He must go look for his son, and they must try.

It is very similiar to Luke and the parables of leaving the 99, to go look for the one.

The sad part of the movie is when they get back to the farm, they find the oldest son and his family have been killed by wandering soldiers. That has really bothered me. Is it worth looking for the one, when the 99 in are obviously at risk? In this case, knowing the math, that by finding his youngest son, he would lose his oldest son, would he do it again? I have often thought it is not worth it.

Now I am not so sure, I wonder if perhaps you always need to find the one, because the only danger in this world is not temporal, there is also spirtual danger, and by leaving the 99 you must always save the one from the spiritual dangers.

The perils of being an only child

So Sadie had a little friend over yesterday. Their is a neigbor girl who lives about 4 houses down from us. (it is actually the house next to the house across the street, from the house next to us, which is actually not directly across the street from us.) There are not that many chidlren in the neighborhood so it it nice that there is one for Sadie to be a friend with. This little girl is about 1 year older than Sadie, and is an only child. Rachel has met the mother, but I have not met the parents. I am not sure exactly how it happens in the house, but I assume that it is very quiet. About three times yesterday, she said, "You are really Loud." I think that happens when you have two other siblings each looking for attention. The other funny thing was having her over for dinner. She was very nice, ate her vegetables, and sat at the table for the whole time sitting down. I said, "Look Sadie, you can sit down for dinner."

All in all, I am glad that we have three very active kids. They have fun together, and enjoy laughing.

With costs rising is it even worth it?

So we just finished taking everyone to the dentist, and it makes me wonder is it more trouble that it is worth? I mean there should be some way to eat other than teeth. Teeth are incredibly difficult to deal with. Right after breakfast, and we should be getting the kids off to school, teeth get in the way, and need to be brushed. We avoid candy, (among other reasons), so that our teeth do not rot out. At night, when the kids are crazy, we need to brush our teeth. Today was the final indignity. Over the past decade that rachel and I have been married, we have spent $3.50 a day on dentist bills. Each! Think about that! Now to be accurate, that includes the amount that insurance has paid, but still. $3.50 a day. My teeth have cost me a nickel in the time it took you to read this posting.

The Groundhog was wrong

So, unfortunately I need to put my foot in my mouth. I published in the Hammond hotline, that we were going to have to 6 months of spring. All last night it was raining. This morning around 10:00am, the rain turned to snow, and it started snowing. It snowed for about 9 hours, and now at 7:00pm it finially is slowing down. We had one hour of church, and then all went home. As it turns out this was great for the kids because they ended up having a great time playing in the snow.

So I am in doing blogging catchup.

Last sunday Caleb came home from Primary with a cookie.

He had won the Super Star Singer 2009 award. This kids sang I lived in heaven for sacrament meeting. Caleb loves to sing out, and has a great time singing. He was very proud that he was the first one in the whole primary to win this award.

Update the to the dentist

So I actualy meant to post the dentist article on Wednesday, but I accedently saved, and did not publish.

An update, I went to the dentist this week also. I kind of have a cavity. It just goes to figure, the parents need to learn from the kids. Actually, I have an old cavity, that is getting chipped, so they need to replace it. Does not really reflect my dental hygenie, but technically I still need a cavity filled.

On fingers inside mouths.

Although the blog history does not display it, I have had a long and storied history with the Dentist. This was brought to the forefront yesterday when the three kids had their dentist appointment.
I am happy to report that none of the kids had cavities. I have a personal theory of cavities. The factors that go into cavities are genetics, diet, and oral care. I put Genetics at about 80%, and 20% to the other two. I know many people who never brush their teeth and never get a cavity, and many people who brush their teeth and still get cavities.
Recently, I have a new one to add to the the list. Dental Sealants. This can help where your parents did not. Anyway, our kids dentist is big on sealants, and when ever a permanent molar comes in, will seal it within the first 6 months. The sealant process is actually pretty simple. The dentist, (actual Hygienists) cleans the tooth, applies a resin of some sort, and then bakes it on with the blue gun. Calvin and Caleb have very simliar teeth, and Calvin had a cavity in his baby molars. With Caleb we were smart enough to have his teeth sealed, and he has not had a cavity. I bring this up because I really recommend to all my nieces and nephews that they should get sealants, because they are much less tramtic than a cavity, and at least with our dentist, they don't need a seperate appointment. Anyway, Calvin's experience with the cavity was extremely tramatic, and now his experience in the chair is just really hard for him.
I have a large degree of empathy for him. We talked to him about the sealants, and he was OK for it. Rachel left with Caleb and Sadie, so it was just Dad and Calvin.
Typically it takes about 10 minutes for all the sealants. It took about 30 minutes total. Calvin just was not happy at all. Part of it was memories of the other times, but also his lips were really chapped, and opening his mouth so wide caused his lips to crack and bleed, which hurt much more than what happened to his teeth. My other advice for others reading this blog, check for chapped lips before going to the dentist, and apply vaseline a few hours before, and it will be a better experience.
My last advice, I wish I would of done, but not sure I am ready to do it as a consistant practice. I wish I would of slipped each of the kids a couple of Tylenol before we walked in. Baby Tylenol was a lifesaver during teething, and it would of made all the kids more mellow in the dentist chair. I will always remember once talking to Chris, and in the background Evan was crying because he was teething. I praised baby Tylenol, and speculated how they managed before it. Chris said, "Oh, they just gave them a shot of whiskey." Which is still funny.
Lastly, ever time I go to the Dentist, I think of my 9th grade english teacher. When I was in the 9th grade, I knocked out my four front teeth. My english teacher's wife was a nurse who worked in the dentist office. He said, "I would never tell my wife this, but I am not sure how anyone could stick their hands in other people mouth all day." This has been a long post, so perhaps it will have to wait till another time to speculate the sexism involved in most of the places I go with my children, school, Dentist office, Doctor's office, etc, are typically staffed by a man in the top roll, (Principal, Dentist, Doctor), and lots of women assisting, (Teacher, Hygenist, Nurse). Not always, but most of the time this is the case.

Aseph's fable (the cat and the mouse.)

Today's entry was directly from the spritual thought in one of my church meetings. A typo on the agenda created aesoph's younger lesser known brother, Aseph.

This fable called, "Belling the Cat", is about a group of mice in council. They want to put a bell around the neck of the cat, so they can be free, but can't find anyone to do it. In most translated versions, the moral is, "It is easy to propose impossible remedies." In the version I read for kids, the moral was, "Don't ask others to do things you do not want to do yourself." Which is simliar but different enough to create a new association.

In the spirtual thought, the point of this story was, often it is easy to suggest remedies, and ideas, but it is hard to find people to implement these ideas. We need to be ready to implement the ideas we suggest. The world has far more ideas than those willing to implement ideas.

In the scriptures we often hear about Charity. For the purposes of this post, I want to suggest a new definition of charity. Charity is being performing work for another out of love. Using that definition, we can say the truest expression of our charity is the work we do to serve others. If that is a working definition of charity, we can say this story is looking for the most charitible 'mouse'.

Perhaps we can cast the story one more time, this time with out the moral at the end, or perhaps a whole new story.

The group of mice are in council, and someone suggests that a bell be put around the cat, because the cat represents the obstacles in their life. One said: Whom shall I send? And one answered like unto the Son of Man: Here am I, send me. And another answered and said: Here am I, send me. And the Lord said: I will send the first.

Some Parents are never happy.

the typical bed time routine around here. Around 7:00pm, start encouraging, cajoling, and otherwise forcing the kids to get in their pajamas, brush and floss their teeth, read a story, read the scriptures and pray as a family, and then turn off the lights, rinse and repeat for each child.
On a good night we finish by 8:00pm. Scripture reading is often one parent holding the kids down, and the other parent reading a verse which after prayer no one is quite sure exactly what was read. Would it be too much to ask that the kids show some interest in reading the scriptures?
Tonight was different. Tonight Calvin was excited about reading the scriptures. He needed help on most of the big words, but for the most part was doing a great job. He read a verse, read a column, he read the whole page. Caleb figured out that he could not read while his brother was reading and started to very vocally object. Caleb came running at Calvin ready to dogpile him, because he wanted his turn to read. Caleb then read some verses, and then Calvin was ready to attack him because Calvin now wanted to read again.
I am not sure if I should be happy the kids are excited about the scriptures, or sad because they are fighting.

80's Mormon experience

So I did not expect to post a second time today, but I wanted to share a story from church on Sunday. Someone made the comment that they came to church because their father made them.

This reminded me of growing up, and watching a VHS recording of a play performed by some group that as kids we would watch regularly on sunday. We had a very complex a strict rules about what we could and could not watch on TV on Sunday. This was one of the ones that we could, so I think we watched it often. (unfortunately, this gem is not even listed on the Internet movie Database, but is listed here)

Anyway, the plot has this missionary who is serving, and one of his companion complains he is only on his mission because his father sent him. (This was pre-raising the bar days.) He quotes the scripture 3 nephi 27

I quote this scripture not because I remember the scripture but because I remember the play from the 80's.

In another post, I may discuss how a college roomate had the theory that the 80's were the pinacle of Music, and Media, both in and out of the Church. (U2 was a big part of his arguement.)

Gravity is your friend.

So since all my younger cooler siblings have blogs, I felt I needed to have a blog also. I am going to start simple and work my way up to more complex stories.This morning like all mornings, we woke up at 7:00am, trying to get the kids to school before the get a "Tardy Party" at 8:15. Caleb the only one who does not go to school wakes up right away, and is dressed and downstairs first. Calvin and Sadie have glue that seems to permantly connect them to the bed in the morning. Every day I marvel that they get up, get a lunch(es), and snacks packed and to school in time. Especially when I see the bus driving by without my kids, and they are still both upstairs asleep.Sadie came downstairs and said, "Dad, you woke me up, and then left my room, so I just feel back asleep." Obviously being in second grade the whole school thing is new enough that she forgot she is supposed to get dressed.The one shinning ray of light in the whole situation is that the school is downhill from our house. We can leave on our bikes a few minutes after 8, and coast into school just about 8:10am. Gravity is your friend. (except on the way home.)