For Now

I just finished watching the latest episode of Persons Unknown. It's an NBC mini series and I'm quite fascinated. Of course, they switched the viewing time on me and I missed it on Monday. That's annoying, but at least it's available online to view later (which is what I did this evening). What would I have done 10 years ago? I would have been more than annoyed and out of luck, too.

Chad is working in the bathroom. He's putting up the cement board tonight. Little by little, we're getting this bathroom in shape! And little by little the kids keep coming out of bed. The boys went to Cub Scout Day Camp today. I would expect that at 10 PM they'd be in a deep sleep!

I've been working on cutting out our traditional matching shorts (kids only) to wear with our 4th of July t-shirts. I got the final two pair cut today. The fireworks are in 3 days. I should be sewing...not blogging.

It was HOT, HOT today. All the kids were red in the face at dinner and we had to bring in a stand fan. When I looked at the temp on the thermometer we keep in the back room, it said it was only 84 degrees outside. Good grief! We're going to have to toughen up around here! Or just play in the water a lot.

That reminds me. Sarah played in the baby pool for the first time last week. I scrapped it. Here it is. She's a cute bundle of rolls!

I went to a friend's house to introduce her to the addicting world of digital scrapbooking. She had the program right at her fingertips all along. Now she's on her way to hours and hours of sitting at the computer, letting the creative juices flow. She said her husband will be mad at me now. She may be right! ;)

Joseph is talking more and more each week. Sometimes it seems he comes up with something new each day. He's been saying "Mommy" and "Daddy" for quite a while now. He's picked up a lot of single syllable words. Recently, he's learned how to yell out the window at the dog. With all the other kids doing it, I'm surprised it's taken him this long. But now he gets up on the chair and puts his face right up to the screen and yells, "Maw wee!" (Molly) It's very cute! And this week Joseph finally started calling the older kids by name. Well, only Rebekah actually. He calls her Bocky. It's funny. I think she feels honored. :) Maybe by the end of summer, he'll have names for everyone. Little Sarah is still "Baby" for now.

We are 1/3 through our summer now. This year, the summer seems to be longer than last year. Maybe that's because the sun didn't come out until after the 4th of July last year. And this year we have a lot more to do outside because we have upped the animal count. We did have the lambs and chickens that you should know about already. We incubated some eggs and got a few chicks and then got more from the mill to make the flock big enough. We also have two turkey chicks. They'll be a nice feast in November if we can keep them alive that long. I have pictures of all that, but I'll save that story for another post.

We recently acquired a goat. She was free and we occasionally put her to work on the weeds.

We also took a deep breath and got a horse. Yep. We own a horse. Or she owns us. She's 5 and hasn't been through much training. I guess we're the least qualified to train a horse, but we're trying. We can get on her, with some effort, but she's not really very interested in doing what we want her to. She chases the lambs around the corral sometimes. She's been a bit spoiled, I think. Meet Dandelion. :)

I have a lot more to catch up on, but that's all for now. I need to get up and get something done before bed. It's 10:15. It feels like midnight.

I haven't showered since Thursday last week.

I thought that title might get your attention. It's the truth, too.

Last Thursday, Chad's brother (we'll call him 'Greg') came to town. He needed a place to stay while he was here and offered to help us do any projects we had going while he was available. He may never offer again!

We bought a cast iron bathtub 2 - 3 months ago and it has been sitting in our garage since then. The task of replacing a tub is really best tackled with more than one guy. So we decided to take Greg up on his offer.

I showered Thursday morning...

...they ripped the tub out that night.



You can see that I jumped right in there to help out. I did help move some stuff out of the way after taking the picture, but my biggest job was to keep Sarah out of the way. That was not an easy task!

The tub spent 2 nights in the front yard before I sold it to someone for $25. What a bargain!

While Greg was busy with meetings on Friday, Chad stayed home from work to prep the area for the replacement tub. I took the kids out for the day. (That's how I helped on Friday.) The two of them (I don't know who to really credit) came up with an idea to build shelves into the wall of the tub surround. Chad did that. You can see them if you look for the red-papered insulation. The blue paper is the original wall. That little hole in the bottom of the wall on the left is the old pump access from the jetted tub. That is going to need to be patched up. Talk about a privacy problem!


By Friday (late) night, the 'new' tub was in and holding water. More specifically, it was holding water for my bath. It was a little strange to sit in the tub and look through the wall straight ahead of me to the toilet. And it was difficult to not splash any water out of the tub. I never even thought of that hole behind me. Good thing the kids were in bed by then!


We do have a 2nd bathroom with a shower stall. It's the kids' bathroom and I haven't been able to lower my standards far enough to use it, yet. I only used the toilet 3 times on Thursday because it was covered in drywall chunks and I didn't want to to go upstairs. Petty, I know.

Their bathroom is so disgusting and a total waste of time to clean, that I try to pretend that it doesn't exist. Why can't they keep the toothpaste with a foot of the sink? Even two feet would be a huge improvement. What is so hard about getting the pee IN the toilet? And again, why do people carpet bathrooms? Yuck, and DOUBLE YUCK!

Chad has not been as snobby about it as I have. He has had no baths. I've had 4.

Last night, he got all the plastic up and is ready to nail up the cement board. I would love if he got it done by the weekend, but realistically, next weekend would still be something to be grateful for.

I'll post pictures of that when it happens. :)

One at a time

You know that little safety feature on minivans that doesn't let you open the sliding door once the gas door is open?

I wish I could improve upon that idea and put it to use in my home. With my idea, the toys would only function one at a time. If you didn't put the last one you used back, you would be unable to access the next one.

How do I make this automation work? I'm really getting frustrated with the growing messes and the apathy that everyone has toward them.

On the summer express

I feel like I'm on a runaway roller coaster lately. And that has meant that my blogging has been neglected. I have several things to report and hopefully, I will do that soon.

I need to sit down for a while, anyway, because I have a sore heel that refuses to heal. (haha) It's been hurting for several months now, but it only has gotten worse. Now I can't hide it and I get funny looks from people. Unfortunately, I can't do much of what I'm supposed to do from a chair.

So, just hang on there, all you valiant readers; I'm working on it!

Too strict?

So do you think my parenting method might be too strict if my 8-year-old comes to me just minutes before 8 PM and asks if he can get his pajamas on?

I like that they ask permission for most things (except fighting, how do I get them to ask for permission for that?), but I hope that I'm raising them to do what needs to be done...like get pajamas on.

Or maybe he was just making sure he didn't need to stay dressed any more today.

Grandpa's Visit

My dad came up for his summer visit yesterday. This is one of the rare chances each year to get a picture with him. So of course it gets its own scrapbook page!

It seems like forever since I've used my scrapbooking program for scrapbooking!

Antiques

Daniel's worksheet today is deciphering novelty license plates. One of the plates read, "IM4ANTQS." I had to help him on the last part.

He asked me how to spell "antiques" and I said to just do his best since he was just going to throw the paper away in a couple of minutes anyway. I asked him if he knew what the word meant. Since he didn't, I told him they were old things. As I was about to clarify: old things that are worth something, Leah piped up, "So Grandma and Grandpa are antiques?"

hehe

Fortune?

We took the kids to lunch one day last week. I think it was Memorial Day. We went to a little Chinese Restaurant in a little town.

The lady there speaks with a heavy Chinese accent and always seems to have some parenting advice. A couple of years ago, she got after me for letting Joseph have long nails. As if I intended it! And she's always impressed with how many kids we have and that there are 3 of each. I wonder if she ever remembers that we've been in before?

This time, she said, "Good job, mom and dad." when she saw how well the kids were behaving. Maybe they were so quiet because they were sulking that they were in a Chinese restaurant. The darned place doesn't even have Mac and Cheese!

Then she noticed Joseph wasn't in love with his fried rice. She went to the candy machine and bought a handful of runts for him. She gave him one and put the rest in the middle of the table. She told him he had to eat his food to get the rest. She was trying to be helpful. What she really did was start a mini argument over who else was going to get that candy!

A little bit later, she brings out a plate of french fries for Joseph and puts it down in place of his plate of rice. She says, "I buy." He liked those better...after they cooled off. If I didn't know how Asian mothers could be, I might never go back to the restaurant. But she meant well and I could find a way to be grateful...if I tried.

Eventually, the fortune cookies came out. Everyone got some of the usual fortunes. Some were even more pathetic than tradition demanded. Then I opened mine:

I've always thought maybe I had a little too much of Eeyore syndrome...too pessimistic about things. But when your fortune cookie spits out this gem, it really does seem that a dark cloud must be hanging over your head!

In case you doubt my veracity.

I posted my weight from this morning. You may be noticing a trend. I have. You may have wondered if I might be sticking to that number to avoid admitting it's gone up.

I just want to say that ALL of my numbers have been accurate. And so I feel good reason to be pounding my head against the wall.

Then again, I don't say that the numbers usually go down on Tuesday, climb Wed - Fri and then slip back down to their "parking spot" over the weekend to prepare for the Monday weigh-in.

And I don't say that I know it's my fault (though I know it is). I have nothing serious enough to keep myself on track. Maybe if the doctor told me I was going to die if I didn't lose 10 pounds, or all my current clothes would disintegrate in two months, I would have reason to walk away from the extra calories. As it is, I only report to myself and this blog and what punishment is that anyway?

It doesn't help that I don't picture myself any heavier than 150, which is really hard to understand since I haven't been that weight in over a decade. I'm living a LIE! And I'm stuck in a rut; a big, deep, calorie-laced comfort zone that needs a better shot of reality...or a couple strategically place full length mirrors.

So, next week...here's to the 160's! (At least I said it.)

Tantrums and Tears

I threw a tantrum tonight. It was a controlled tantrum. I ranted, but I didn't rave. I didn't raise my voice (I think), but I complained and threatened a lot. And I made Leah cry. I felt bad about that.

I was in the library feeling completely overwhelmed by the mess of books on the floor and those threatening to fall to floor. I started saying that I should just get rid of all the books. And then I zeroed in on Rebekah and Leah because they were the unfortunate souls in the room with me.

I asked them if I should just get rid of all the books. They both agreed and then Leah started to think about it and got very quiet. Meanwhile, Rebekah was too young to be affected by my tyrannical mind game and asked me questions about which books I thought I'd get rid of. She always agreed that I should go ahead and get rid of them.

I had a HUGE pile of books that I'd swept from the unorganized shelves. And it was only half of the books...half of the kids' books, that is. And I saw unshed tears in Leah's eyes.

I admitted that I wasn't going to get rid of the books. I was just angry that no one seemed to care about the books. But I wasn't going to get rid of them because I thought they were important and we needed good books to be able to read.

That's when Leah's tears came. She was so relieved and I felt (again) like a terrible mother. She'll need psychiatric care for sure after this one. I just keep recording these stellar parenting moves so that when the kids are spending hundreds of dollars on therapy, they'll have something to refer to as "the moment."

I never did find the missing book that originally set me off. The payoff? I can walk safely into the library now. It doesn't seem as if it was worth hurting Leah.

Stray Elbows

Ahh...summer is here. And so are the squabbles. My two most active players on the fighting fields are Daniel and Leah. "In one corner..." It's like the characters in stories that you love to HATE. It seems to be much more enjoyable for them to be in a fight, than to cooperatively play with each other.

For the 2nd time this year, I've resorted to the SERVICE punishment. A ways back, Daniel was having a hard time showing kindness to Rebekah and was given the assignment to serve her for the rest of the day. (If he failed in that assignment, it was extended another day until he had it figured out.) The rest of that day was so much nicer and I think Rebekah felt a new sense of "special" from the treatment (in an innocent way). The next day she asked if Daniel still had to serve her! I think it did a lot to restore her bad feelings from the mistreatment she'd received before.

This afternoon Daniel and Leah get to serve each other. I very calmly talked through what the issues were (which was like "pulling teeth") with both of them and decided they needed a good dose of service. If they can't pull it off, we'll continue it tomorrow. Of course, I made sure to explain that this was not servantude! When I thought I had understanding and unwilling acceptance, I sent them back down to play.

At that moment, Daniel brushes by Leah and gives her an elbow shove. So he gets another 45 seconds of "guidance." Then I explained what a referee is to Nathan (we are not a sports-oriented family) and told him he is the referee. If there are complaints from the two probationers, I will be finding him for an objective report. And now I hope to catch a quick nap. (Crossing my fingers that the phone doesn't ring.)

Along the lines of serving, I have a grumble about "other people's children." We have been going to the school for their free summer lunch program. Today is RAINING. I was bringing Sarah in with me under one arm (picture a football), pushing the stroller with the other and coaxing Joseph closer to the doors and out of the rain. (His older siblings left him behind when they went in! Stinkers! Daniel got an earful for that!) Anyway, there is a girl about Daniel's age or possibly older at the door as I lift the stroller up the two steps. As I approach the door, she walks in and the door closes in my face. WHAT??!!?? Has this child never been taught to hold the door? RUDE, rude, rude. Don't think she didn't see me...she did. Grrr! I shifted my load and grabbed the door. Leah was on the other side struggling to get it open (heavy metal door). At least Leah redeems herself a tiny bit from leaving Joseph outside.

Question of the Day

Compliments of Rebekah, our child with a love of all things Santa Claus.

"Is Santa Claus a night creature?"

Hey! Who turned out the lights??

It got REALLY quiet this morning about 4:24 (I looked at my cell phone). The power went out. No noise in the house. No light, either. I got up to turn off the baby monitor that was intermittently beeping and flashing because it had lost its connection and hobbled to the bathroom (heel pain is mentioned in posting previous to this one).

The house was dark. The bathroom was even darker because there are no windows. But hey, blind people use the bathroom on a regular basis, I think I can handle this moment.

And then I was awake enough to start thinking. (This is bad when it's only 4:30 in the morning.) The power going out is rather inconvenient on several levels. For one, I don't know why it's out or how long it will be until it's back on. We have a well. The pump runs on electricity. No power = no water. Second, Sarah's very loud air purifier is now off. Is she going to wake up? Third, we have been incubating 3 dozen chicken eggs since last Monday. They really should stay warm. Fourth, if the power stays out a long time, the kids are going to raise my worry notch one space every time they open the fridge. And they will be awake before me, so I really couldn't warn them. Fifth, will Chad sleep in too late without an alarm? Sixth, today is the start of the Stake Youth Trek. I figured there were people who needed to be getting up and getting ready to meet at the church (I assume they were getting an early start to head out to the wilderness somewhere). I'm pretty sure all those teenage girls were hoping for one last morning of electricity before roughing it three days. I guess their experience just started a little early. And seventh, what about all those folks who need electricity for health reasons? I hope they have a back-up power supply!

I looked out the window and tried to see how far the power outage spread. It could see lights in the distance. I don't know if those were on generators (lights on top of high towers), so I really don't know how far it went.

Obviously, it came back on...I'm on the computer. It came back at 6:30. I heard the whole house come alive. I don't know how cold the eggs got; I hope not too cold. Chad's alarm ended up going off after all. It has a battery in it and that apparently keeps on top of that kind of thing. Who knew? I'll be seeing a lot of friends at the school for free lunch today, so I'll ask around.

Do you see how easily I am upended? I lost some good sleep over this power outage!

So much time...

...so little desire.

I have an entire house full of "jobs for mom." Most of these jobs have been created by the mom's kids, but expecting them to be very helpful is rather optimistic.

It's not that I mind doing housework. Actually, I used to dream of staying home with the children, keeping the house tidy, baking cookies, hosting picnics in the backyard and having educational moments with the darlings during the normal course of the day. HA! That's why those are called dreams.

As it is, all that I've accomplished from that list is staying home with the kids. I can hardly keep anything tidy (even my personal spaces), I have NO desire to bake cookies, though I wouldn't mind eating 2 or 10, picnics in the backyard don't include me and usually end up with paper plates littering the lawn (despite repeated reminders) and educational moments are hard fought around here.

Part of my trouble lately is a heel pain that won't go away (we're talking months now) and the more I stay on my feet, the worse the next day is. So I am lazy at home, hoping to at least avoid the pain for a few moments. Too bad all the clutter doesn't gravitate towards me while I'm sitting around...I could really get something done then!

Even so, I'm not sitting around, because toilets get flooded, diapers get full, tummies get hungry, chores DO have to be done and errands need to be run. And some how, life got busier when summer started. Whatever happened to the "lazy days of summer?"

Playdough Missionary

Rebekah is playing with some pink playdough at the table this morning. While I was emptying the dishwasher I heard her say, "Sister Pteranodon is only having one baby...or maybe two."

Of course, I thought I'd heard her wrong and repeated to her what I thought she'd said. I heard her right.

I guess Sister Pteranodon is a member of the church! Or maybe Rebekah is proselyting.