They're all fixed!

Disclaimer: This entry is kind of long but for journaling purposes I have decided to tell the whole story. Skip whatever parts you don't want to read -- or skip the whole thing if you want!

For those of you wondering, Kanyon has had his teeth fixed! We took him back to the dentist in May with the same ending. He cooperated quite well until they started "pinching his cheek". The dentist said he gave him all the anesthetic that he could have and he still wasn't absolutely sure that Kanyon was totally numb. He said that the nerve that he was trying to block can be in a different place with kids but that he usually doesn't have this problem. He also, very politely, said that even if he was sure that Kanyon was numb, he wasn't sure that Kanyon would really let him work on his teeth. He said that he was willing to let us try again and bring him back another time. Len and I talked about it and we decided that it would be very difficult to talk Kanyon back into the dentist's office again to "fix his teeth" and that we would like to just take care of every thing at once and try to "forget" about the dentist for the next four months. So we called the insurance company and then we set up an appointment to take Kanyon to day surgery at the hospital for general anesthesia.

On June 12 I woke up at 5:00 am and showered and got things gathered together for the day. Len woke Kanyon up at 5:45 and gave him a blessing. We put him in the car with his blanket and still in his pjs and I took him to the hospital for our 6:00 am appointment. We hadn't told him that it was going to be that day -- we didn't want him to worry about it. It was a little sad when Kanyon asked his dad, "Are we going to Lagoon?" I explained everything to him in the car on the way to the hospital and he was okay with it. He wanted to get his teeth fixed and he liked the idea of going to sleep and then waking up and having it all done. He was a happy and good kid while we did all the checking in. He loved getting weighed and measured for height. He loved the bed with wheels and the fact that they gave him the remote for the television while we were in the pre-op room. He also loved the "hospital clothes" that they gave him to wear. After we were ready we watched television for a little bit and then they took us to the "holding" room. Here they gave us a book to read (Walter the Farting Dog) which Kanyon liked and we looked at the light above us which had a cover over it so it looked like a fish aquarium. We were there about a half an hour and then the anesthesiologist and the nurse were ready to take him. I had explained what they would do and Kanyon was good about going with them. I told him I loved him and that I would see him when he woke up and he said "Bye" and they wheeled him away. I told Len later that it was a good thing that he wasn't having a "real" surgery or I would have been a nervous wreck. I think he thought I was a nervous wreck anyway! It is REALLY hard sending your child away with strangers who are going to put him to sleep!

Kanyon had about 1 1/2 hours worth of dental work so about 2 hours later they called the waiting room and said I could meet him in the day surgery room. I went to the room and about 2 minutes later they brought Kanyon in. The recovery nurse was a guy from our ward so that was nice. Kanyon was awake but visibly upset and "whimpering" until he saw me and then he started crying. The nurse said he had been great and that he must think that it's okay to cry now that he sees me. The first thing he said to me was, "They gave me an owie!", as he lifted up his hand where his IV was. I hadn't told him that they would be doing that because I didn't want to worry him. They didn't start the IV until he had been put to sleep with gas but he was not happy about it! It seemed to bother him more than his mouth. We stayed there for about 30-45 minutes. Kanyon was able to drink some apple juice and suck on some ice and tolerated everything very well so they took out his IV. Every time he looked at the band aid though, he would start to cry again. It was pretty sad! They let him ride out of the hospital in a wagon and they sent us on our way. He did end up with two silver caps on the back two bottom teeth. They worked on a total of six teeth. In the end, this was definitely the better way to go.

He had a rough day the rest of the day. We picked up a couple of movies and made a bed for him on the couch and he hung out there most the day. After the hospital, I took him to the store to pick out some juice and to chose a movie. He did well walking around but as soon as we got into the house he said, "I need to throw up" and he lost all of the fluid that he'd had at the hospital. He sipped on some more juice while he watched a movie and then fell asleep. He breathed with his mouth open though, so when he woke up, his throat was hurting quite a lot. I finally got him to settle down with some motrin and a Popsicle. By the evening though, he was back to his normal playful self. He ate a full dinner and played outside with Kaydra. He is now very proud of his "different" teeth and will show anyone who asks and even some who don't! Hopefully we can take better care of the rest of his teeth though so we won't have to go through anything like that again!

She likes it!

Today I was trying a new recipe for dinner and Miranda was feeling neglected. She was fussing so I put her in her car seat on the counter to watch me while I cooked. That only lasted a few minutes so I handed her a piece of licorice. For the record, it was very tough and even I had trouble chewing it, so I wasn't worried that she would break off a piece and choke. She loved it! I know that it is probably not the best thing to give a growing baby, but the 30 minutes it gave me to finish dinner was totally worth it. Of course, she got a bath after these pics were taken so it actually added to my work -- but still worth it! Besides, she was SO happy and who am I to deny her that?!

Plant a Garden .... Check!

Planting a garden this year has been on my to do list. We finally got it all done last week. The garden looks better this year than it has since they year we built the beds. We borrowed our neighbors rotatiller and the beds were SO easy to plant! It was actually fun! We planted peas, corn, pumpkin, watermellon (we like to dream big!), cucumbers, radish, carrots, lettuce, and tomatoes. We also have raspberries and strawberries flowering and our apricot tree has apricots on it for the first time while we have lived here! We are pretty sure that we are going to get some peaches again as well as long as it doesn't freeze at night in the next week or so. I love fresh peaches so I hope that they grow! We also have a pie cherry tree, three plum trees, and an apple tree that should produce as well. I love this yard when it is taken care of -- it is just so much work. I am really going to try to stay on top of it this year. So here are some before pictures with the seeds newly planted. Not too exciting I know, but it will be a good comparison picture for later in the year.The tomato plants are in the background with fresh grass clippings on them. Again I wish the weather would warm up so that the seeds would brave the air. I think they are going to stay underground for quite awhile this year. I am sure that I will soon be complaining that it is too hot -- but at least that would be normal!

Another exciting thing is that we found some robins building a nest right off our deck in a tree in our back yard. I thought that the nest was looking pretty good and then the next day we went out and they had gone to town with the nest building it REALLY tall. Almost like they are trying to show off for their robin friends! I had to take a picture. We will keep you updated on the activity of the nest as it goes. Well, that's about all for now. The weather is actually almost warm today so I am going to work on the flowerbeds in the front yard. I only have two more to edge and weed and then we can plant some flowers. I have told myself that all the beds must be edged before I buy flowers or I would give up and not finish. It's a lot of edging but someone has to do it!

T-ball season

Today was Kaydra's second t-ball game. They played one and then the second one got rained out so today was the second one instead. We woke up to a sunny morning with a cold breeze and unfortunately an 8:30 am game. I am sure the afternoon games will be very pleasant but we were wrapped in blankets while we watched. The girls didn't seem to mind. They are sponsored by Jake's store Scoot n'Powersports. It is fun to see how much they have improved since playing for the first time last year. They are starting to understand how the game works. This league is really low key. Everyone gets to bat every inning no matter how many outs. They seem to have a great time. I sure wish the weather would warm up. A couple of days ago the weatherman on the news said, "Look for pleasant temperatures tomorrow, we will be warming up to the mid to high 50's." ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Who's idea of pleasant is that for June? I think a day in the mid 70's would be great! Oh well, maybe next week!

Lagoon!

Yesterday was the annual family reunion for all my mom's side of the familiy at Lagoon so we took the kids there again for some fun. I think that it was colder than it was in April when we were there. This summer has sure not been very warm yet. It was overcast most of the day. The evening was near perfect though with no wind and the sun shining through the clouds for a few moments at a time. This was when we decided to challenge the water rides for the day. We went on the log ride, followed by Rattlesnake Rapids. The water was much higher than when we were there in April and we all got drenched. We came prepared with extra clothes for everyone though so we thought we would take the opportunity of already being wet and let the kids run through the fountain near the entrance of the park. It was great fun watching the kids run and try to anticipate where the water would come up next. Unlike the ice cold water on the rapids ride, the fountain water was luke warm and so the kids enjoyed it for about three minutes. It was not really warm enough outside for soaking wet clothes however, and there were a few tears shed before we were warm again in pants and sweatshirts to finish out the day. All in all it was a great day. It was good to see family there and we missed all that couldn't be there. It was a rather small group this year compared to past years, but we still had a great time. Kaydra and Kalli are now tall enough to ride on a few of the big rides so they enjoyed that. Their favorite ride was Wild Mouse and they went on that twice. We had to talk Terek on to a lot of rides - he was especially unhappy about getting wet on Rattlesnake Rapids - but he liked the little kids Tiki Boat which is like a small version of the Tidal Wave. I even got a cute pic of him holding his hands high in the air. We had fun but are still recovering today as we didn't get into bed at home until about 2:00am. Miranda tolerated the day very well and was held by many relatives. All in all, it was a well spent day!

What did I do today?

I found this poem on a message board and thought that it was worth sharing. Sometimes we need reminded about the important things!

What Did I Do Today?

------------------------

Today I left some dishes dirty,

The bed got made around 3:30.

The diapers soaked a little longer,

The odor grew a little stronger.

The crumbs I spilled the day before

Are staring at me from the floor.

The fingerprints there on the wall

Will likely be there still next fall.

The dirty streaks on those windowpanes

Will still be there next time it rains.

Shame on you, you sit and say,

Just what did you do today?

-----------------------------------------------

I held my baby till she slept,

I held my baby while she wept.

I played a game of hide and seek,

I squeezed a toy so it would squeak.

I pulled a wagon, sang a song,

Taught a child right from wrong.

What did I do this whole day through?

Not much that shows, I guess that's true.

Unless you think that what I've done,

Might be important to someone

With deep blue eyes and soft blonde hair,

If that is true...I've done my share.

All about me

This idea came from my cousin Lisa's blog. You answer questions here and then come up with a set of pictures that describe you. This is me...
I especially love the cute baby picture in the middle of the girl with strawberries on her hat. I got that picture because my favorite dessert is strawberry shortcake. And, can you tell that I would love to go on an island vacation um....NOW! :) It seemed that lots of my choices had that theme to them! It was fun! Try it out.

Three month photos

As I posted yesterday, Miranda is three months old. I took a few pictures today and thought I would post them because the ones I posted yesterday were not very good of her face. She is growing so fast and starting to add some pudginess on to her legs (finally!) I love baby legs! Leonard is convinced that she still looks like my brother Paul and I get at least one comment a week at church that she looks like my dad. I think she is beautiful. Her eyes are still fooling us. One day they look green, another brown, and another day, blue. Who knows -- Leonard says hazel -- we'll see.

Catch up and Random Pics

It has been awhile since I made a post so I thought I better get going. I am not sure many people read these but it keeps me up to date on what's going on! Anyway, I have been busy with going back to work and with my new calling in Primary. It is still going well and I am enjoying it. The kids are great. Kaydra had her final singing performance with TAVACI a couple of weeks ago. She really enjoys singing but I think that we will not be doing it next year. The practices each week are on the other side of town and its just one extra thing we have to plan for and do. Plus, Kaydra wants to take dance or gymnastics ... so we will be moving on. These are a couple of pics of her performance. They sang a cute song about grandpas who snore so they are all wearing sleeping hats. Kaydra is on the second row, third girl from the left in the red hat. She did really well and she has a great voice. She now uses her singing voice to quiet or entertain Miranda which is really helpful and Miranda really likes it.


The kids also sang for mother's day at an assisted living facility for our Primary activity. We passed out roses to the women there and they sang a few mother's day songs. Kanyon is in the middle on the front row in the blue shirt with orange sleeves and Kaydra is two over from his left. (She is wearing purple with her new short hair!) The ladies seemed to enjoy it and it was short and sweet! One quarterly activity down, two to go -- for this year anyway!


Leonard took the kids to Coeur d'Alene for a week to go turkey hunting and work on the farm. I stayed home with Miranda because I had to work but he took Kaydra and Kanyon. We took Kaydra out of school for five days but Leonard said it was all worth it for how much she helped to entertain and watch Kanyon while they were there. He said the kids were GREAT. I told him to take lots of pictures while he was there and today I downloaded the camera to the computer and ended up with about 6 pictures of the turkey he shot and nothing else! So here is a pic of the turkey since its all I have to show for the week they were gone!! I am grateful that he feels comfortable enough to take the kids with him. They said they caught frogs and fish in the pond, rode the four-wheeler, played all over the farm, and roasted marshmellows in the fire. They also went to the park, fed the animals, picked up pinecones for Grandma and went to the dollar store to spend their money they earned from picking up pinecones --Grandma's house is a party all the time!! :) They had a great time.


Miranda is finally doing really well with the bottle. Courtney and Markell watched her while I worked when the kids were gone and she did great. She is now taking one bottle every day of formula and we rotate around who gets to feed her. This is a picture of Kanyon feeding her for his first time. Doesn't he look so happy to be helping his sister? She doesn't look too sure ... but he loves it!


We took the kids to Leo's Place on Saturday. It is sorta like Chucky Cheese but the food is actually really good. It was raining outside so we thought we would let them play. I was sitting at the table with Courtney and Miranda was fussy so I pulled her out of her carseat and held her in my lap. She promptly fell asleep and Courtney thought it was funny so she took a picture. I am helping her hold her pacifier in her mouth -- not sufficating her as it may look!! :) She is now three months old and starting to be a lot of fun. She is starting to laugh and smiles very easily. She LOVES to go for stroller rides and LOVES it when her brother and sister sing and dance in front of her. She is a good baby and sleeping pretty dang well. She had a rough week last week (three month growth spurt?) but last night slept from 8:30pm to 5:30pm. I did have to give her pacifier to her a couple of times but overall I can't complain. We feel so blessed to have her in our home. Hopefully by now you have all recieved a birth announcement. If you didn't, then I probably don't have your address. Here is a picture of what it looked like. My cousin Lisa did an awesome job on it. We took tons of pictures of Miranda and then Lisa used Photoshop to create the final project. Here are a couple other alternatives that were considered as well. Thank you to Lisa for all your hard work. Enjoy the random pictures of this entry!

Locks of Love

She actually did it!

Yesterday, I took Kaydra to the salon to have her hair cut. She has been begging to get her hair cut for the past couple of months. I have stalled her for a couple of reasons. One, because I was afraid she would change her mind and I wanted to make sure it was what she really wanted. Two, because I like her hair long and although it is difficult to comb in the morning, it looks so pretty in a long braid. Three, we thought it would be fun to donate to Locks of Love so we had to wait until it was long enough.

The day finally came and we went in to cut it off. She looked at some pictures in a book and already had her mind pretty much made up when we got there. The stylist is a friend of the family and she seemed to have a good time and was willing to let me take pictures for posterity.

I think she looks much older now with her hair short. She is happy because she can brush all of it all by herself -- before it was too long to reach. I can't believe how much hair we cut off but we are happy that it will go to a good cause. To Kaydra I say, you are beautiful either way!

Blessing Day!

This past weekend we blessed Miranda. It was a beautiful blessing and I feel so blessed that my husband was able to bless her and use his priesthood. Len's family came from Coeur d'Alene and the Stephan's came from Boise and we had some other family members there that lived in town. We blessed her at my mom's house and we had homemade ice cream afterward, YUM! We feel so blessed to have such an extended family. I hope we remembered to let everyone know that could make it. I am SO sorry if we missed you.

Miranda wore the same blessing dress that Kaydra wore when she was blessed. The dress was made from the train of my wedding dress by my cousin. I think it is so beautiful, but it is VERY heavy. My train was detachable so we turned it into a blessing dress. It looked so pretty on her. We were so excited to have family around this weekend and my kids loved playing with all their cousins. We are so blessed. We love you all. Here are some pictures from this weekend.

Happy kids

Three happy kids - we are so blessed!

Today was Stake Conference. Even though the one meeting was long it was nice to be finished with church early. For those that don't know, I got a new calling. I am now the 2nd counselor in the Primary. I am excited about it. I haven't been in primary since I attended myself so it is fun to be with the kids again. This also puts me over the cub scouting so last week I attended my first pack meeting as well. I think that I will enjoy the new calling.

All the kids are doing well. We took them to Heise Hot Springs on Friday afternoon just for fun. Miranda even got in for about 20 minutes. She loved it the whole time she was in and then gave us no warning when she started screaming! She didn't stop until I had her dried off, dressed, wrapped in a blanket and in her car seat rocking her to sleep! Thank goodness I wasn't by myself and Len could watch and play with the kids while I did all that! They swam for about 1 1/2 hours and had a great time. It was the perfect time to go as it was not crowded at all until we decided to get out. Then people started showing up in car fulls. We even had the whole pool to ourselves for about 20 minutes.

Yesterday Kaydra attended a birthday party for a girl in her class. They had the party at Tautphaus park (near Steve and Sharon's house). It was also the annual Earth Day Celebration so it was VERY crowded. I called Courtney and we walked around and saw all the activities with the other kids while Kaydra went to the party. After a little while, I got a call from the mom in charge of the party saying that Kaydra had fallen and she wanted me. I walked back to the playground where the party was and found her with ice on her lip. She was climbing up the toy and caught her sandal on one of the rungs of the ladder and fell. She landed on her chin and her two front teeth went into her bottom lip. She was bleeding pretty good and they hit hard enough that she is bruised on the OUTSIDE of her mouth from the injury that was INSIDE. Pretty sad. She now has a swollen lip and bruised chin for her efforts. The worst part is that because she was wearing capri pants to the park (yes, we finally had a pretty nice day) I talked her into wearing her sandals. I thought it looked cuter than the socks and tennis shoes she had come upstairs with that morning. Because of this decision, she tripped and got hurt. Way to go, MOM! :( All in the name of fashion. For the record, the outfit did look better with sandals! She is feeling a little better today although she says she can't chew with her mouth closed because she keeps biting her lip.

Matching Sisters (Miranda is smiling at Kanyon, of course!)
The girls wore nearly matching dresses to church today. Kaydra's dress is one she got for Easter and I got Miranda's dress for Easter as well but she hasn't been able to fit in it until today. They are growing so fast!

Miranda is getting SO big! (10 weeks old)

I love this picture of Kaydra on the couch with Miranda because if you look back at previous posts with nearly the same pose, you can really see how much Miranda has changed.

MIRANDA - One month with Kaydra

Miranda - newborn with Kaydra

Today starts my last full week at home before having to go back to work. The following week I only go to work on Wednesday and the kids will stay with Len -- but still! It is always hard to leave them. The big difference this time is that I am not really nervous about work - I know I will be fine. This is usually a major concern. This time, I am nervous for Leonard. 10+ hours with three kids (including a baby who does "okay" with a bottle) by himself ..... I am sure he will do just fine! :)

Miranda - Two months

Miranda is growing and growing. She is starting to get a "chubby" baby look but still has skinny legs! She was two months old on April 17. I took her to the doctor that day for her check up and he said she looks great. She weighed in at 11lbs 9oz and was 24 inches long. She is a tall baby for her age - just like my other kids. I look at her and I am really starting to see just her. She looks like my dad and my brother but I don't think she looks like any of my other kids. She is beautiful and I am still hoping for brown eyes but I think they are leaning toward dark green. We will see. My mom got this outfit for her and I just love it! She somehow manages to "come out" of her diaper every time she wears it though so I don't think it will last long. I am getting good at stain removal! She is really starting to smile very easily and she almost gave me a laugh the other day. She loves to be with people and notices quickly that she is alone in a room. She lets us know with a very good hollar! She is very vocal and she "talks" and coos a lot. The other kids are still enjoying her and every morning Kanyon says, "Oh, Miranda, you look soooo cuuuute!" She just smiles at him. She loves her brother and sister. We are so blessed to have her in our home! She just woke up so I will be done posting for now.

Lagoon - Let's take a vote!

I haven't posted for awhile but I have been taking pictures and now I have a lot of catching up to do. On the 12th of April we took our kids to Lagoon. They have a discount offered in April and we have gone then for the past few years. It was BEAUTIFUL! It was "jacket" weather but was SO nice! I think it was low 60's for the high. We didn't wait in any lines for longer than 10 minutes (and that was for "Wicked" and "The Spider"). For those that went last year at the reunion in June we waited in line for nearly 2 hours to ride "Wicked".


This is Wicked - my new favorite roller coaster ride







It was so fun and we got to go on every ride we wanted and the kids had a great time running from ride to ride. We weren't brave enough to let ourselves get wet on the water rides so we put ponchos on even though there wasn't a cloud in the sky! We were dry afterward though -- Who's laughing now?!

We had a great time and I am recommending that we change the reunion to April instead. We would actually have time to see each other and we could go on rides together and switch off kids easily. I know that poses a problem for those that don't live close but we never see each other at Lagoon anyway. So I am taking a vote -- Who wants to switch Lagoon to April? I will keep a tally and we will talk about it at Lagoon in June THIS year! I know that some people in Idaho Falls are in agreement but we will vote to see what people think! Let your voice be heard or we may decide without you!

Clockwise from Courtney in the bright blue poncho: Courtney,
Terek, Mom, Kalli, Kaydra, Kanyon, Dad, Paul -- I was taking the pic

I won't go back!

Today I took Kanyon to the dentist. The pediatric dentist in our area has a great office. He has a train theme going on complete with a train car built inside the office that kids can play on (a pretend, built out of wood, train car). It has a slide and everything. He also has a train that drives around the office on a track above your head. I took Kanyon there about two weeks ago for a cleaning. He loved it. He was so proud of his new shiny teeth. Today we went back because he has several cavities. Len's mom is a dental assistant and she would be so disappointed. They told me today that they were working on FOUR teeth and that he would still have to come back. :( Kaydra has had one cavity in her life so I am not sure where we went wrong with Kanyon. Anyway, Kanyon did not like the dentist this time. They were able to fix a couple of teeth and then were unable to finish because - as the dentist so nicely put it - of cooperation! The dentist said he would like to try one more time and see if Kanyon will cooperate. I am not sure what we will do if he won't cooperate. I tried to talk to Kanyon about it and he said he didn't like the "hurt" things (shots). They did give him gas first and he said that was okay because it was strawberry. I tried to talk to him about how important it is that we fix his cavities and all he would say through tears was, "I am NOT going back to THAT DENTIST!" I guess, for now, we'll wait and see. His next appointment isn't until May 28 so maybe he will forget by then -- but probably not :(

Listen to us!

So this weekend was General Conference. I love that we can stay home in our p.j.'s and listen to the Prophet speak. It was great to listen to our new Prophet, President Monson. He has the best stories! One of the first speakers on Saturday was Elder Russel M. Nelson. In his talk he was speaking about families and said something like, "Do not control your children, listen to them." I remember thinking that was good advice and I would have to try harder. My kids were coloring on the floor in front of the television and talking to each other. I didn't think they were listening. About two speakers later, I was telling Kanyon (for about the 15th time) to please be quiet so I could hear the speaker - I probably wasn't that polite about it though. He got this disgusted look on his face and said, muttering under his breath, "They said you're supposed to listen to us." Wow. who knew something would backfire at me so quickly! I also learned that he hears way more than he lets on. That's my Kanyon!

I am invisible

I got this story from a message board. It was something that I needed to be reminded of. I don't usually feel invisible but the point of the story really hit home so I thought I would share it with you.

It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response,the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I'm thinking, 'Can't you see I'm on the phone?'Obviously not; no one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. I'm invisible.

The invisible Mom. Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more: Can you fix this?Can you tie this? Can you open this? Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I'm a clock to ask, 'What time is it?' I'm a satellite guide to answer.'What number is the Disney Channel?' I'm a car to order, 'Right around5:30, please.'

I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum laude - but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She's going, she's going, she's gone!

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England . Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in.. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself as I looked down at my out-of-style dress; it was the only thing I could find that was clean. My unwashed hair was pulled up in a hair clip and I was afraid I could actually smell peanut butter in it. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, 'I brought you this.' It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe. I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription:

'To Charlotte , with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.'

In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, afterwhich I could pattern my work:

• No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of their names.
• These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished.
• They made great sacrifices and expected no credit.
• The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.

A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man,'Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof? No one will ever see it.' And the workman replied, 'Because God sees.'I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place.

It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, 'I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, nocupcake you've baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become.'

At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride. I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on. The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell the friend he's bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, 'My Mom gets up at 4in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table.' That would mean I'd built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want himto want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, to add, 'You're gonna love it there.'

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we're doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women.