I stay at home.

I am a stay at home mama.

It is where my heart is.

Is this job hard? Yes, very.

Are there days that I want to poke my eyes out with a blunt stick? Yes, that would be every day.

Do I want to be anywhere else?

NO WAY, JOSE!

Do you ever have conversations with yourself? I do. And recently I have been talking to myself about why I stay home.

Reason number one,

And reason number two,

But seriously folks, I’ve been thinking about this a lot. I have high expectations for these girls. Not just that I hope they get into a good college, I am talking about eternal expectations. I believe that if I do my very best that God will let me be with these girls and their dad forever. That is what I want. So if that is what I want I know I can’t get distracted or snagged by what the world has to offer. For example “a career”. Since when did a career become better than shaping humanity?

Maybe if I had a career my co-workers wouldn’t spit up on me, or whine at me. But I doubt they would ever look at me like this.

And I know I couldn’t plant these on fellow co-workers all the live long day.

(Those cheeks were made for kissing, my friends. Soft as silk. Softer even.)

My baby has teeth (five and counting) and she has started to crawl. Even though these days feel endless, before I know it my baby will have all her teeth and be wearing a prom dress. And I want her to be ready for all this crazy world is going to throw at her.

When the world is swirling around her I want her to know that her mom is at home, waiting for her, praying for her, loving her, ready to help her with whatever she needs.

Trust is built over a lot of skinned knees and tears shed and midnight chats.

See those band aids? I put them on those knees. I kissed them better.

ME.

What a blessing to be a mother. I feel like this is the time that I prove to God that this is what I want more than anything else. If I have to earn the right to do this eternally, I better do it with my whole heart now.

I hope I will be kissing knees better through out the eternities.

A good portion of my family is spending their summer in Chicago.

My dad is keeping an eye on the BYU interns in the windy city. So my mom, sisters Bette and Tess, and brother Parker have all tagged along for some fun and adventures. My other sister, Summer lives in Chicago with her husband Allan and their three kids.

Tess sent us the photos of their first week (only five more to go, my peeps, so enjoy it).

After looking through hundreds of photos (and, yes, feeling sad that I wasn’t there with them) I noticed a pattern  emerging.

See if you can spot it too.

Apparently Chicago has had a pretty big effect on my family already.

It is turning them into the Boden catalog.  (By the way the 50% off sale started TODAY!)

This makes me laugh because I have often thought to myself, “If I could live in a catalog I would totally choose to live in Boden land.”

It would appear that my family is!

I got to get me out there on the next plane!

Just look what I am missing

Don’t feel too sad for me. You can take my mom out of Provo but she will take her phone with her and this means that I still have access to her. Ten bucks says that when they snapped this photo she was talking to yours truly.

A convo a day keeps the sadness away, says I.

[WARNING: to all reserved English gentlemen who may read this post. I, Eliza Dawson, have posted it – which means it may contain rather personal and loving words and may prove to be a little on the enthusiastic side. Fear not, I have had the English gentleman who resides here edit out anything he deemed to be “too much of a good thing”. I have been known to over do it without knowing I have over done it. ]

My father in-law, Stephen, happens to be one of the kindest and best men I know. Today is his birthday, and if you are a faithful reader of this blog you will have noticed that I like to celebrate the people that I cherish. Stephen is one such person.

Stephen is a man of many talents. Everything he does, he does well. If he decides to do it, it is going to get done and it is going to be AWESOME. When I first met him he was getting ready to “retire” (I have to put retire in quotation marks because Stephen and Gitte’s definition of retiring is not what most people think of when you hear the word). His idea of retirement was a plan to set up what is known as a venture philanthropy trust. He wanted to use the skills he’d developed as a venture capitalist in the charity sector. He wanted to help charities that were in a period of transition, that were doing well but needed funding and advice about how to expand their sphere of influence. He was one of the very first to tackle such an endeavor in the UK, a pioneer, if you will.  I remember him saying that he wasn’t sure what the outcome would be. How did it all turn out? Well, almost seven years out, after countless awards, numerous newspaper articles and lots and lots of success the thing practically runs itself. Check it out. You’ll be inspired.

http://www.impetus.org.uk

Now he is on to a new project. Doing a similar thing in Africa.

Need I say more? No, but I will.

Stephen is a wonderful mixture, a contradiction even, of massive drive and ambition coupled with a true love of humanity and a deep desire to help those in need.

He goes about everything he does quietly and humbly. I think one of the things that strikes me the most about Stephen is his humility. He doesn’t flap his lips about his many accomplishments. BUT I FLAP MINE! (Ain’t it grand to have an American daughter-in-law? Ain’t it?)

He is a devoted husband. He and Gitte are quite the team. They truly are a “dynamic duo”. They are each stunning humans in their own right but together – LOOK OUT! they are going to get the job done, people. One year Stephen was given the “Personality of the Year” award from the Private Equity Awards. And then the following year Gitte was named, “Woman of the Year” in Bath. You see what I mean by dynamic, right? I know I have a tendency to get enthusiastic and excited, but seriously, these two are something special. They are good. They are firm in their convictions. And if they believe in something they will work and work and work until they have met their goals. They are also VERY generous with their means, their time and their energy. I personally feel very blessed that they love each other. In this day and age when marriages seem to be unraveling all around us I am so grateful that they are true to each other.  To me that is one of their greatest achievements.

Stephen is also a wonderful father and a terrific grandfather. He is the type of grandfather who gets down on the ground and rolls around with his progeny. I love to watch him with our girls. It makes me so happy to see them basking in his wonderful intelligence, his fun, his humor and his love. And do they lap it up! Millie just adores her “Papa”!

Stephen, like his father before him, is a talented gardener. I wish you could see his garden. It is spectacular. Like everything he does – he does it well and makes it seem as if it is no big deal. But now that we have to take care of a garden (and we are NOT very good at it) I have come to realize what a gift Stephen has.

The man loves walking. He is a serious walker. He has walked his way across the globe. Sometimes he talks Gitte into joining him. Most recently they have walked through Nepal and Ethiopia.  Once he invited Jan and I along. We walked the Inca Trail together. At the end of it all he told me that his parents used to take prospective family members (fiances, girlfriend, boyfriends etc) on long walks to see if they could “handle it”. He said I passed. That was good news since Jan and I had been married for a year and I am pretty sure that I was no longer returnable. I told him that I was glad he hadn’t seen me crying on the top of the mountain when I had been wet for two days straight and wasn’t sure I would ever be dry again.

Every time we are in Bath we know one thing is for certain. There will be a walk. It will be led by Stephen. And it will be gloriously beautiful. 

They like to get ’em started young in the Dawson family!  See the photo below for proof. This was Millie a year and a half ago. Not bad for a 2 1/2 year old, if I do say so myself!

I recognize that so much of the happiness that I enjoy on a daily basis is due to this very good man. The love and teaching that he has given to his own son blesses our little family on a daily basis. I am most grateful to Stephen for this.

And I for one would like to wish him the happiest of birthdays!

On Sunday we celebrated our dad(s). Mostly we celebrated the person we call Dad who lives here, with us, in Madison, NJ. But we also spoke on the phone to some other awesome dads we know and love.

What did we do for that fine chap? The one we call “Dad” who puts up with all the Dawson ladies…

It began early when I watched the girls so Jan could sleep in.

Then, of course, there was breakfast in bed.

Before you look at this picture and say, “What is this, Liza? You call this breakfast in bed?! That is some serious weak sauce!” Jan is a man who know what he likes. And for breakfast, these days, he eats butter toast with Marmite and a glass of OJ.Every single morning.

Our local supermarket stopped selling Marmite a while back. The day before Father’s Day Jan ran out of it. He was really bummed. “What are you going to do, hun?” I asked him, knowing full well that there were two other jars in the cupboard. Two jars that I found at a more fancy supermarket and tucked away for a little father’s day present. “I suppose I can pick some up when I am next in the UK.” I told him I thought that was a good plan.

Mwa, ha, ha! Cue my knowing evil laugh.

This breakfast may not look like much to you (and you certainly couldn’t pay me to eat it) but it was EXACTLY  what Jan wanted. So he was pleased. And even surprised! A very hard thing achieve, I might add.

“Hey dad, isn’t this the greatest? Being a dad that is. Don’t you love trying to eat while we roll around all over you.  Boy, this really is a great tradition. Don’t you think? Hey, Dad can you scoot over there isn’t enough room for us here.”

After breakfast came the presents.

Do you like this wrapping job? You’ve heard of cancer and aids awareness, but here we like to remember the plight of fathers. We’d like to raise awareness for fathers everywhere. (Actually, I was just short on ribbon that went with this manly brown and tweed paper).

After church came lunch.

Las Tres Amigas (myself, Emily and Amanda) joined forces to prepare a culinary feast for the fathers in our lives. We each made a few ingredients for the Cafe Rio salad. Then we had a, rondevu at my house, gave each other what we had made and the result was fantastic!

Absolutely delish!

Followed by chocolate mousse.

Also, pretty darn yummy.

But father’s day is much more than food. (Ya think?!) Well, for some people I guess it is about more than just food.

Millie spoke to her Papa on the other side of The Pond. It was a bit of a quickie convo, as Millie was bath bound, and that means that nothing stands in the way of her and the tub. Except perhaps a little father’s day lov’ns from her Papa.

It was a great day.

We love ya, Dad, Papa and Grandpa!

Thank you for being such good men and such wonderful fathers!

I live two thousand miles away from my mom. But even from this far away I could see that something very, very special was happening in the Edgemont 11th ward. For the last three years my mom presided over what seemed to me the Camelot of Young Women’s programs.

I talk to my mom AT LEAST once a day (some times more depending on if I chance to meet handsome movie stars in the park). So I have been privy to almost every last detail of what has gone down with these fine young ladies and their lovely leaders.

Some of it was radical – for example tossing the manual out and teaching RIGHT FROM THE SCRIPTURES! Can you imagine?! I know, shocking!

Activities that were 100% run by the young women themselves. I went to one such activity and was blown away that the girls had organized every last detail. People, that is a big deal.

Love, love, and more love every where you turned.

Honesty, openness and at all costs, working her hardest to make sure it was NOT boring.

And NEVER going through the motions just for the sake of going through the motions.

I just wanted to jump in and be a part of it.

Once my mom, very kindly,  told  me that she thought of me as her unofficial 3rd counselor. Oh, if only I had been official! I would have loved to have been a part of the last three years. You girls shared some seriously GOOD TIMES!

Mom loves Robert Frost, and so when I heard of her release I couldn’t help but think of this very well known poem by dear old Bob,

Nature’s first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Although it is true that these golden times may not stay forever, we can still let them shimmer on through remembering and celebrating them.

I have no doubt that the angels have been keeping careful notes these past three years. How I wish I could have a glimpse of what they’ve recorded about what you darling humans have been up to.

I have a sense that Heavenly Father is very pleased.

I wanted to create a little place for your golden time to SHINE ON. This post is for all of the young women and leaders of the Edgemont 11th ward YW’s, but especially for the lady who was blessed to be your president.

P.S. If you didn’t spell check your contribution, neither did I, SORRY! (I am not the world’s greatest editor, especially when small children are tugging on my sleeve).

P.P.S A special thanks goes to Michaela for providing the lion’s share of the photos.

P.P.S I just want each of you to know that I think you ROCK!

– if you didn’t get your contribution to me and wish that you had, just email it to me and I will tack it right on. As editor in chief I can accommodate such last minute additions. It is the beauty of a blog!

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That was the estimated arrival time for my on-line purchase.

The first seven days I tried not to notice how much I wanted it to arrive.

But after we hit day 7 I started counting down!

On the evening of day 13 I had already decided if it didn’t come, as promised on day 14, I was going to send an email of inquiry.

I WAS EXCITED. VERY, VERY EXCITED.

On day 14 our mail man came and dropped our mail through the letter box.

Then I heard Millie say,

“What the heck?”

I knew it must have come!

It had! All the way from Down Under!

Check out the awesome stamps! My fave is Queen Elizabeth in her chartreuse dress, matching hat – and please note, the white cloves. That isn’t a guard sitting next to her – it’s good old Prince Phillip, also in white gloves and a massive, crazy, black hat. I guess the palace guards are not the only poor souls who have to sport those bear skin jobs.

I digress.

Actually, may I digress even further?

I was putting a lot of stock in this package. I was hoping that it would solve a decorating problem that has stumped me for some time.

Millie’s bed room poses a serious challenge to a person like myself. A person who really feeds off the symmetry of any given space. The best placement for the beds is here – and it is not symmetrical. I blame the darn window. I just wish it would inch over a bit to the left.

But it wont.

This makes hanging anything above the beds really tricky. Just ask Jan how tricky – he has spent hours holding stuff up in different places while I “hem and haw”.

If I could I would just ignore it, but I feel like the room is a bit naked without anything above the beds.

Then I stumbled on a really neat etsy shop called Mae, Charmed I’m Sure. It sells pretty fabric decals, perfect for kids bedrooms.

Wanna see just how pretty they look above Millie’s bed?

It took me a while to get them all up, because I had little helpers.

One of my helpers just wanted to be held.

The other helper was a little too eager. (Welcome to my world! In essence this is what I deal with all day long, every single day!)

But after several of Millie’s outbursts (both elation and devastation were expressed, sometimes in the same moment) a little yelling from mom and some tears from Clara.

WE GOT THE STICKERS ON THE WALL!

It is hard to capture it. I took several million pictures and none of them have been able to fully capture how it looks. But you get the idea.

I think I need some more branches on the tree. What do you think?

What I would really love is for my sister Summer to come over and paint me a tree, now that would be super cool. But until she can I will love up the old Aussie decals.

I tell you what, if you are renting, this is such a cool way to spruce up your kid’s room. Ask Karen how I feel about this, she very kindly listened to me go on, and on and on and ON about it last night. BTW, I would like to dedicate this post to my pal Karen. Thanks for listening to me sing praises to the decals for a good 20 mintues. You are a true friend.

Here is the address for the Mae website, if you are interested in learning more.

As a teaser, and just so ya know they have lots of wonderful goodies, I wanted to show you a few of them. BTW, they are having a sale right now. I got 30% off my purchase!

We got the tree and the woodland birds, Millie and I both like the deer, so it may come to live at our house eventually.

I also LOVE the paper dolls. These are so cool!

They have the woodland creatures for the little boy in your life.

Or dinosaurs..

They also sell a bunch of other cute things.

Here is a link to their etsy shop:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7005142&order=&section_id=&page=1

I had a moment of quiet this fine rainy morning.

A rare thing for me these days.

In this moment I decided to eat breakfast.

Also something that doesn’t happen on a regular basis.

I poured myself a bowl of frosted mini wheats – I love frosted mini wheats, do you?

Then I remembered that we have a few raspberries…and I wanted to consume them before they go the way of all the earth.

For some reason I was struck by how beautiful these raspberries looked. Like gorgeous jewels. The amazing configuration of tiny balls stacked together perfectly. Their sweet flavor. They are remarkable!

Sometimes I think that when we isolate just one of God’s brilliant creations it is striking – that all that perfection in one tiny creation is for US! For you and me! Right there in front of us. And there are so many of them -these beautiful manifestations of God’s genius and ultimately, his love for us that we DON”T EVEN SEE THEM!

Walk out your door and have a look – they are everywhere, all around us, even in our cereal bowl, made for us.

It makes me teary!

I thought, if God had only given me raspberries that would be more than enough. And yet he has given me so, so, so much more!

As I prayed over my bowl of cereal I asked God to help me do what was most important with my time, and the first thing that came to mind was to read my scriptures.

So I did the reading out of the Sunday School study guide. Check out what the assigned reading lead me to,

Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart;

And it pleaseth God that he hath given all these things unto man; for unto this end were they made to be used…

Then I thought of this wonderful poem that I read recently call the “The Net of Gratitude”,

Giving thanks for abundance

is sweeter that the abundance itself;

Should one who is absorbed with the Generous

One

be distracted by the gift?

Thankfulness is the soul of beneficence;

abundance is but the husk,

for thankfulness brings you to the place where

the Beloved lives.

Abundance yields heedlessness;

thankfulness brings alertness:

hunt for bounty with the net of gratitude.

— RUMI

This little heart of mine is feeling full!

Right to the brim, full!

I truly do.

Going to church. Such a good thing.

Eating a nice meal together. Part of my Sunday policy is that I make one meal. Hence the birth of our family tradition of Sunday Night Nachos. Poor Jan was starving and had to do something.

The one meal I made this Sunday, you might be wondering? Breakfast for lunch. (As a full disclosure blog I have to admit that it made us all a wee bit gassy, but it sure tasted good and looked pretty).

Coming home and enjoying being a family. Such a good thing.

Jan had a priesthood meeting, so I put the girls to bed. Came down stairs and had a long talk with my mom. She was released from her calling as Young Women’s President. She was still feeling tender about it. It was so neat to hear about her final weekend as president. And now she has passed the baton. The church is so awesome!

When Jan got home we talked and talked.

When God commanded us to keep this day holy, He knew what He was doing!

I, for one, would like to thank Him for it.

It has been said that the best things come to those who wait.

After waiting almost six months…

without further ado…

I give you the new sofa and chairs!

I wanted to wait until the room was just perfect before I posted these pictures, but lets face it, it will never be perfect. If I have learned anything about decorating a house it is this – IT IS NEVER PERFECT AND NEVER ALL DONE. In a strange way that is the beauty of it.

So, when are you coming over? We can watch a movie, or just chat together, or if you are as excited as we are you can do what we did tonight and just look at the furniture for hours.

Seriously, that is what we did!

P.S. Anyone want the book shelf in the right corner? We are looking for a new home for it. It is a really nice, sturdy book shelf.

Parker Hudson Kelly was born to be awesome.

This photo of him sitting on a pink suit case with a water gun in his hands is CLASSIC Parker. The kid just reeks of awesomeness.

It is a pleasure to have this opportunity to celebrate him on his birthday and tell you a bit about my GIGANTIC little brother, Parker.

Born to our family on June 11th 16 years ago, the last of nine kids, he arrived on the large side. Tipping the scales at 9lbs 15oz he was already cooler than any of the rest of us. As you can see I was pretty excited when he joined our family.

I still remember sitting in Miss Lettera’s math class watching the clock. My mom was in labor and there I was doing stink’n stupid geometry. (Having had two children I would prefer to be in labor over doing geometry).  This was in the days before cell phones…we just had to wait, and wait, and wait until word came that our little brother had touched the ground and was officially one of our merry little band. When we knew he was with us, safe and sound, we did a  jig of happiness.

He was an awesome little kid. Fun, kind, and deep. He has always been a deep thinker and he also feels things in a very deep way. Recently he and my mom were talking together and discussing each member of our family, he summed up each one of us brilliantly in one sentence. I still think about that and am gobsmacked by it.

He also has a heart of gold.  When he was little my mom explained the plan of salvation to him – you know, the classic drawing. We later found this picture she’d drawn for him taped up on his closet wall, and in his little boy, scratchy handwriting he had written the phrase, “GOD’S RULES”. Parker cares about keeping those rules, and oh! how I love him for it.

The golden heart of that little boy still beats strong and true in his grown-up man body.

And I know I am his very proud, and rather bias older sister but all I gotta say is, “Hey, Zack Efron – you ain’t got nothing on my brotha!”

He is a handsome feller. Attention all you single ladies out there -just for your info,  he is as nice as he is handsome.

I hope he wont mind me mentioning that he still puts his head on his mom’s shoulder, he also puts his arm around his sisters when we are walking along together, he gives great hugs (not wimpy ones – like some of this other brothers who have had to endure some criticism on this subject) he loved to snuggle as a little guy – and he is still keeping it real in the snuggle department today.

Parker is funny. He really gets me laughing. He is also very, very creative. I wish I could show you some of his short films. They are awesome.

Parker has the same heroes for a long time. He dressed up as one of them on a Halloween many moons ago. Can you spot him in the crowd?

I’ll give you a clue.

He is still dressing up like this particular hero today. Here he is pictured this past Christmas.

All silliness aside, Parker has been through some pretty big challenges in the last few years. He has faced them courageously.  It has been a lonely, hard road – but he has kept his faith and kept going until he came out on the other side.

I love you, Parker.

Thank you for being such a great brother.

Thank you for being such a swell uncle to my little girls.

Thank you for being a great son to mom and dad.

Thank you for being  a good friend to all who are blessed to know you.

YOU ROCK!

(I started this post with one of my very favorite photos of Parker and I end it with another of my favorites. CLASSIC Parker! Long may he reign!)