Mother's Day

I hate Mother's Day. I think it's because I'm such a selfish person. Every year I get upset because my kids and husband aren't sensitive enough to MY needs, they don't pamper ME enough, they fail to get ME the gift I asked for. In addition, I allow it to be a reminder of all the things I fall short of as a mother. I don't know why I fall into the "guilt" trap, but I do.

This year was going to be different. James was going to be out of town on Mother's Day. I was going to pretend that it didn't exist for me. Instead, I was going to focus on celebrating the fact that I have an AMAZING mother. I made plans with my dad to bring my mom to my home for a special Mother's Day dinner, and arranged for my siblings that live nearby to come for dessert.

However, Saturday came and I found myself getting increasingly more irritated with my family. Regardless of my plans to pretend that Mother's Day didn't exist for me, I just couldn't seem to help feeling that no one cared as much as I wanted them to. I fell into my selfish trap and told myself all day long that Mother's Day was the WORST day of the year.

I stopped by my mom's house and vented a bit. She told me that she had always worn black on Mother's Day because she was in mourning. I have a funny mom.

I vented to a friend and we made plans to take a vacation next year over Mother's Day weekend. We decided that for Mother's Day the best gift would be to get away from our families.

I watched the Mother's Day episode of "The Middle" and thought, "SEE!!! Mother's Day IS a horrible, horrible holiday. No one appreciates us for everything we really do."

I went to bed on Saturday night frustrated and angry. Tired because I had done the cleaning and shopping and cooking in preparation for "my" Mother's Day.

Sunday morning came, and I felt better. I had gotten all my frustration and anger out in the open the day before, and I was ready to deal with whatever Mother's Day turned out to be (or not be). I went to church and started listening to the lists of "what every good mother should do..." Surprisingly as the list went on and on, I found myself thinking, "Hey! I'm doing a lot of these things. I'm certainly not doing them all, nor am I doing them perfectly. But I'm doing my best and I'm not going to feel guilty about it." (Now that's a much different reaction than I felt a few years ago!) After church I went home and took a short nap before getting dinner ready. We enjoyed a nice meal with my parents. It was also fun to have the additional family members come over for dessert.

While my sister was visiting, she mentioned that someone at church had told her that mother's day was her favorite holiday. My sister said, "Are you serious? Why?" This mother answered, "Because I LOVE being a mom and I love that I can reflect on how blessed I am to have kids." That was my first wake-up call. I need to make my mother's day more about how much I love being a mom and less about how I want a break from being a mom.

Later in the evening I received a text from a friend that said, "I hope you enjoyed your mother's day. Hopefully you had a nice dinner with your mom. I've been missing my mom today." Her mom passed away a few years ago. That was my second wake-up call. As I mentioned, I have an AMAZING mom. She is someone I truly look up to. She is an example of someone that really tries to live a good life. She is selfless, spiritual, hard working, Christ-like and really cares about her family. I can't imagine not having her in my life. However, in spite of my decision to make mother's day about my mom, I had failed to give up my selfish expectations. I needed to make mother's day more about rejoicing in the fact that I have a wonderful mother in my life that I honor and respect.

And in actuality, it WAS a nice mother's day. I can't wait until next year.

Election Results

Every spring, George Washington Academy has elections for Student Body President, Vice President & Secretary. The 8th graders fill the position for the president, 7th graders vice president and 6th graders secretary. Since Isabel will be in 8th grade next year, she decided to run for Student Body President.

As part of her campaign, Isabel skipped lunch and went around to each of the classrooms to meet the student body. She introduced herself, told everyone she was running for president, and asked all the kids what they felt the issues at GWA were. After she gathered all the information, she created (all on her own) a skit to perform at the election assembly. She got a friend to participate in the skit and even asked one of her teachers and me to join in the fun. The skit was all about the school issues and after each issue was addressed, Isabel would turn to the student body and state: "If I were president I would..." The students cheered for her and her solutions to all the problems they had shared with her.

Although I realized that most of her statements were most likely "empty promises", I was proud of her for making such an effort to familiarize herself with the desires of the student body. I was also proud of her for running the entire campaign on her own. She truly showed that she has the ability to work hard, love and care for students of all ages and listen to their concerns. She also showed that she would be a great representative for the student body.

After the election assembly, Isabel had mixed feelings. She was running against two of her dear friends and she realized that regardless of the results, the outcome would be bitter-sweet. She wanted to win, but she didn't want her friends to lose. She was afraid that if she won they would be upset with her. Anticipating the results became quite emotional for this sensitive girl.

James and I escorted her to school the following morning so we could hear the results and be there to support her.

So... any guesses as to the results of this election? Let's just say that next year will be a busy year for Isabel, and James and I are very proud of our little politician.

CONGRATULATIONS ISABEL!

Valentine's Day is almost here. That means that parents get a note home from school saying "Please send 26 Valentine's to school with your child for our Valentine's Day party." I try to be creative and help my kids (this year I only have 1 child required to take Valentine's to school) get something ready to take.

Tonight Micah and I sat down to make Valentine's for his classmates. He was specifically told that it would take too long to distribute Valentine's if they were each labeled for individual children. However, when it was time to make Valentine's he just couldn't resist making a special Valentine for his "girlfriend" (the cute girl in the class that he really likes, but she doesn't necessarily like him back).


He also wrote Valentine Letters to his 2 teachers. He wrote them all by himself (only asked me how to spell a couple of the words) and this is what he came up with.

Dear Miss Catlett, Will you be my Valentine? I like the way you do math with us. Say Hi to Mr Wilson for me OK? Love, Micah Truax

Dear Mr Wilson, Can you do math with us because I like your wig hat. Can you bring it tomorrow? Love Micah Truax

Blood, Blood Everywhere...

Last weekend I sat down to organize my grocery list. Micah was bored and needing something to do. I got one of my brilliant ideas and had him come and sit beside me. I had a number of recipes that needed to be cut out, so I let him take care of them for me. After he was finished I told him he could continue cutting paper into shapes.

Everything was going well. He was having a great time, and I was able to focus on getting my task accomplished. Suddenly Micah started screaming. I looked, realized he'd cut himself, grabbed him and ran to the sink. Fortunately James was home and able to take charge. It took a LOT of pressure and a LOT of time to get the bleeding to stop. Micah was not happy at all that we were making his finger hurt even worse. Even after we got the bleeding to slow down, it still took a lot of time to get it to stop. We sat down and read "Harry Potter" to get his mind off his new injury. That seemed to do the trick, and we were carried away into the land of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Finally, once the bleeding stopped we were able to "glue" the cut together with "New Skin" and put a band-aid over his finger. It was a pretty deep cut and we're glad everything worked out all right. I think Micah will be a little more careful with scissors in the future. And I may re-think my brilliant ideas...

School Begins

Although I know this is a bit overdue, I decided to post the pictures we took on the first day of school. We have no pictures of Tori and Emma, just Micah and Isabel (Tori and Emma started school 3 days later, so by then we weren't thinking "1st day of school" thoughts anymore). But regardless, I thought it was worth posting since they both look so cute in their uniforms.

Isabel and Micah prepare to head to school.

Micah's 1st day of Kindergarten.

Isabel's 1st day of 7th Grade.

Future Lyricist?

Many of you know that the Truax Trio has composed and recorded a few amazing songs. Micah has decided that he doesn't like being left out of the song writing arena, so he has composed a song of his own. You can check out the lyrics yourself (no recording as of yet) and let him know what you think about his future career. (In order to see the picture more clearly, you may need to click on it. However, I've typed the lyrics below... and without spelling errors... so you can easily check it out.)

On a high hill

Little men sat and sat
And waited calmly.
But one day a lion came
And ate them.
But Jesus came
And saved them.
And then wonderful
Things happened.

-Micah James Truax
August 29, 2009

Sacrament Meeting Scare

Yesterday Tori was the youth speaker in our ward. She had worked on her talk all by herself and James and I were looking forward to hearing her speak. For those of you that have never heard Tori speak, she is a great speaker. She is engaging and dynamic.

After the sacrament, the bishopric member announced that Tori would be speaking next. She stood up to speak and began sharing her thoughts on "Integrity". After about the first paragraph I started thinking, "What is going on? She is stumbling over her words. That's not like Tori." Then I realized that it was probably something with her vision. Perhaps her contacts were bugging her, the font was too small, the lighting was bad...

She continued on and I watched her and wished that I could help her not stumble so much. It was so unlike her. Then she started saying the same 2-3 words over and over again. She just couldn't seem to get the words out. I wondered if she was feeling emotional. When suddenly she fainted and fell to the floor.

Instantly James and I jumped up and ran to the stand to check on her. By the time we got to the stand she was just starting to come to. A Doctor from the ward came up and checked her pulse and made sure she was all right. He asked me if she had been fasting. I said, "No". After she rested a bit on the floor, we were able to help her back to her seat where James sat next to her for the rest of the meeting. I went and sat back down with the our other kids and found out that I had been mistaken (off course this should be no surprise since I had been busy with my own Sunday meetings and responsibilities). Tori hadn't eaten that morning. It suddenly started making sense. The day before she had been sick and had stayed in bed all day, hardly eating anything. Sunday she hadn't been feeling 100% yet, but felt that she was okay to go to church. However, again, she hadn't eaten much if any food that morning (our church is at 1 o'clock). No wonder she had such a reaction.

We decided that this would be the most memorable talk Tori ever gives.

(I wish I had a picture or video of her fainting, but no such luck. You'll just have to imagine it.)