Normal Life

It doesn't seem like a lot of interesting things have been happening of late. We've fallen into a routine at home and work without there being many changes. This is good and bad as it means that nothing has gone wrong in our lives and yet things seem somewhat mundane. I have to agree with M.C. from "A Laugh or Death Situation" that there is absolutely nothing wrong with being normal. As someone who has experienced some of the things that she has, I can relate to her situation - and I don't have problems with having a "normal" life.

We really do enjoy our quite life. This isn't to say that we don't have fun, but it is quite in that our evenings are taken up with homework, reading books, talking, and chores. On the really exciting days we'll all end up in the kitchen while dinner is cooking dancing to the music on the radio. I started teaching Kanga the Cha-Cha the other day. I need to work on my leading technique. She and Tigger (who has started jumping off of everything, like his namesake) will usually play well together after dinner until it's time for pajamas. If they get them on quickly enough we'll read some books before prayers and bed. Kanga is getting better at reading, as is clear as we read the Book of Mormon after dinner every night.

Thinking of the Book of Mormon, and other sacred texts, I have plenty of memories as a kid when I was happy when my parents forgot or didn't have time to read after dinner. This was because I always thought there were other things that were more fun to do. My parents started the tradition of reading after dinner when I was about Kanga's age and have kept it up for the last twenty-five years. We've alternated through the Book of Mormon, the New Testament, and the Doctrine and Covenants, but always returned to the Book of Mormon. We're doing the same thing in our family. We are almost 200 pages through and it's only been over a year and a half. We do what we can with small children, but like I said, Kanga's reading has been improving and she is able to get through a lot of the words a lot better. She's due for some more testing and one of the things they do to practice is read nonsense words. I think words like "Limhi," "Amulek," and "Abinidi" make pretty good practice. Not to mention all the "heretofores", "therefores," and "delivereds" she's had to deal with. I remember my parents joking that the teachers would be surprised when their kids could read rather uncommon words with ease, but struggle with many basic ones. I think about it often when Kanga is reading.

We're continuing preparations for the arrival of Baby Roo in September. I'm calling him Roo because he bounces around like mad in his mother and he'll be sharing a room with his older brother. That and I'm positive that Kanga will be great at giving him instructions and helping to take care of him. Last night we had some delicious potato casserole with chorizo. The last time we made it I enjoyed putting the leftovers in tortillas for my lunch for a week afterwards. This time though we froze the massive amounts of leftovers so that we could have a read made meal should we need it after Roo shows up. We're also looking for a bunk bed for the two boys. We've seen some great ideas of taking the slats out of the bottom bunk and putting a crib in there. That will maximize the space in their room. I hate to say it, but there will probably come a point in the next ten years or so when we will have to move just to find a bigger home. We love this house (and yard) but fitting three kids in there is going to be an interesting challenge.

This has turned out longer than I initially thought it would. Life is good and that is really all there is to it.