Tub Time

Saturday night means BATH TIME. Can you believe we can still fit 4 kids in a tub? It's not easy and Leah doesn't usually get to climb in the tub, but she got lucky tonight. Do you know these faces well enough to know who's who?

(That dark grout on the wall is NOT moldy. Must just be wet.)

Every penny counts!

We have plans to make it to Disneyland this year. (Have I already mentioned that?) We have set up a system for the kids to earn their own spending money. And thanks to my much loved and often used Silhouette, they now have their own bank to save in.



I etched "Disneyland" onto each jar. (They are jam jars with handles.) Chad put a slot in each lid and I painted them all black (no fights). We put each child's name on with vinyl and glued the lids on. We have a little over 5 months to save. We'll break the jars open when it's time to go and count up our totals.

Rebekah has not really earned this money; it's purely for show. Once the picture was taken, I emptied her jar and glued her lid on. Leah and Joseph are the first to earn any money. They each got a dollar tonight. :)

Fevers

A little over a week ago, I had 4 kids with a fever in one day. Yes, it was "fun". No, I don't want to do it again. After two weeks of sick kids, I was worn out!

Here is what things looked like around here.

Joseph woke up from his nap with a fever and pretty much stayed in one place until bedtime.


Directly across the room from Joseph was Leah. Notice the thermometer right by her head. We used that thing SO MANY TIMES in two weeks, I'm sure we'll be getting a low battery warning soon. (I don't know how much I trust that thing. It often said there was no fever, when clearly there was! I don't think it was all operator error.)


Two steps from Leah was a chair full of Nathan. By now, he knew I was taking pictures, so he'd hidden. It doesn't seem like a very comfortable place to sleep, but he was sick enough that he didn't care.


Lastly, sweet Sarah occupied the little couch. She knew I was taking pictures, too. :) She doesn't look too bad in this picture.


But it had caught up to her by the time I took this one. Her right eye was quite swollen and both eyes were red. Poor thing.


I think this is my favorite one. Two sick sisters, finding comfort in each other.

You don't see any pictures of Daniel and Rebekah. I keep crossing my fingers for them. They've had coughing, but no fevers. Dare I hope that the time for the infection is gone?

Holiday Buntings

I have had a crafty bug lately. (This is likely due to the germy bug that spent two weeks over-staying its welcome in our family. And just when we thought things were on the "up and up", Daniel starts coughing.)

I've already kind of shown you my St. Patrick's Day craft. Here is a better picture. It was really easy to make and was done in one day. (Joseph was trying to get in the picture.)

And here is one that replaced it today. This one was pretty easy, too, though more involved. It took a few days, because of several interruptions.

Now I have to decide what else to make!

Ahh...almost back.

I spent the day installing and setting up a new computer.

Now that I can sit up to the computer, as opposed to hunched over my laptop, I can get back to some things that have had to wait.

I have to make a new background for this blog...hopefully, one that is easier to read off of. (My apologies for the last few months.)

And I have to get used to the new keyboard. It seems smaller and my fingers are stumbling around a bit. When I feel richer, I'll buy a new one (the old one doesn't have a USB connection - like seems to be the newest thing).

Too many kids?

This evening Joseph said to me:

"We have a lot of kids in our family."

"Yes, we do."

"We should send someone away."

"OK. Where would you like to go?"

"No! Daniel and Nathan!!"

I have a feeling he's voting off the competition.

St. Patrick's Day

When you become a parent, it seems like some holidays take on a life of their own. Take St. Patrick's Day, for instance. When I was younger, it was only a half holiday. That means I only thought of it in terms of making sure I wore at least some green to avoid a painful pinch at school. Past that, I didn't give March 17th much thought.

Fast forward to St. Patrick's Day now. I spent the days leading up to the day making decorations. DECORATIONS? Yes...and they are darned cute. One is a fun little green and white bunting that you can see hanging on the wall in the first photo below.

Another is less durable, but more interactive and must be credited to my old roommate, Laura, who shared the idea with me on Facebook. I made a big pot of gold from paper, placed it under a paper rainbow and cut out a bunch of coins that had "Golden Rule" printed on them.

The deal was that the kids could add a coin to the top of the pot when they were caught doing something kind for another. The excitement of the project has diminished a bit, but we did end up with over a dozen coins on it. Maybe I wasn't very good at noticing their kindnesses.

The night before St. Patrick's Day, the Leprechauns paid us a little visit. They have been coming and causing a bit of mischief the past few years. I might have forgotten about this if Rebekah hadn't anticipated it out loud. So this year the little imps switched the dining room and living room furniture.


Our dining room is too small for us. (One of the reasons why we want to move.) Even when the table and chairs were out and the room was empty for a moment, it still felt small. It didn't get any better when the couches were put in!

That morning, the kids were surprised by the difference. They started to eat at the table, but I know them well enough to know that I didn't want them eating over the carpet. Nor did I want them eating near the couches (though they no longer seem worth much protecting), so we moved the couches back into the living room and they ate at the coffee table.

I also made some St. Patrick's Day shirts for the kids to wear to school. I designed them on my Silhouette program and cut the fabric on the cutter. The green fabric is ironed onto the shirts and stitched around the edges. The kids all had some say in what their shirt would look like (except for Sarah). I thought they were a pretty good looking bunch!

And now for the real story behind the picture:

I had woken a little late that morning and lost the few minutes that are usually a buffer for waiting for the bus. I wanted to get a picture of the kids in their shirts. Plus, I had two rooms of furniture that I wanted to put back while I had Daniel home. (He's not the biggest kid on the block, but some help is often better than none.) This is on top of the normal task of getting ready for school.

While people were running here and there, I was trying to make enough room to get a table through. Then Rebekah starts coughing (we've had some tenacious germs around here) and THROWS UP on herself, the wall and the carpet. Of course. Long, ugly story short, I got the shirt rinsed off and threw it into the dryer long enough to just be "moist." We took a quick series of pictures, zipped up coats and sent the kids out to the bus.

Then I moved the furniture back into the places it all belonged. By myself. Darned Leprechauns!

Curious Cats

As I walked out of the kitchen this evening, I was surprised to see two sets of eyes watching me from outside.  When I approached, it caught Cleo's attention and she also found it surprising to see two sets of eyes out there.

This picture doesn't catch Nightmare because he is a very black cat.  But we can see Trouble and Cleo very well!

I bet the outside cats are wondering how they can move inside!  (It's really very unlikely.)

Life

I've been busy living it. Not necessarily living it up, but I think just living is good enough sometimes.

We've been dealing with fevers and coughing and runny noses for the past 10+ days now. Six kids means a lot of little germs are simply traveling back and forth. Leah has been sick most of those days. She missed a bit of school and even went to school with a fever today just to avoid staying home again! I finally decided she did need the Rx for antibiotics and she started that this evening. I hope it works quickly.

Sarah had a bout of pink eye with an ear infection. We had that diagnosed after two days of torture; she wouldn't be happy for anything! Now she just thinks she should be held, but at least she's not twisting in my arms and crying all day. She had a fever all day yesterday even though she has been on her own antibiotic since Sat. Nothing is going to be easy, I see.

Lest you think I need to fumigate (which I probably do), this nastiness is going around. We're just one sorry family in a long line of sorry families.

Our computer committed suicide last week. I guess it had become attached to the germs (viruses) it had and didn't want to go on living without them. Unfortunately, we had bought the machine from a friend and had no product keys to anything. It's all lost and we have a new tower en route this week. Thankfully, the shop was able to save our hard drive. I SO don't want to have to retype the entire ward directory!

The Sunday School lesson coming up is on Matthew 13, which includes several parables. As of late, I've been thinking of the parable of the wheat and tares a lot. I guess most people believe it symbolizes believers verses non-believers. Other people may say it symbolizes church members verses non-church members. I am thinking it goes deeper. I can see its applications within the church members themselves. I keep running into folks who live conditionally in their religion. I'm speaking specifically LDS church members, but I suppose you could see the same situations in all religions.

I am trying not to keep my covenants conditionally. I have seen areas that I need a lot of improvement in. I think I have been pretty honest with myself, though, and have been through a bit of refining. As long as I keep moving forward, right?

This is a pretty vague testimony, I realize. I'm not looking to start a fight...just sharing some of my thoughts lately.

So tomorrow is another day. I hope we're fever-free, but I'm learning not to count on it. We'll be going Visiting Teaching, fevers or not. And Daniel has an ortho appt. I'll fake trying to have a clean house and will probably end up holding Sarah a lot and telling Joseph it's not snack time yet - at least once every two minutes.

St. Patrick's Day is Thursday (that isn't news to anyone, I'm sure) and I've made the kids some shirts to wear. I'll post pictures of those and some other shots we've collected along the way to try to liven up this blog.

Work of Art

It's Nathan's job to do the dishes this week. We're lazy parents...doing the dishes just means rinsing them. We're working on loading the dishwasher, but the complaining has scared us off (just as it is probably meant to do).

Nathan may have enjoyed himself a little bit this evening. This is what the sink looked like after he walked away.
The top cup is full of silverware.

If you look very carefully, this masterpiece has "nine-year-old boy" written all over it!

HAIR

I know some teenagers would die for this kind of natural spike!

Park That Buggy

I just don't understand why some things are so difficult.  This one of my BIGGEST pet peeves.

(I guess that means my life isn't so bad right now.)

Christmas Cards

So, I have a confession.

Several weeks before Christmas (or was it only days?), my dad handed me 6 red envelopes, bound with a rubber band. It was the kids' Christmas gift from him. When we unpacked from our trip, I put the envelopes in a safe place...right next to the stereo. I saw them occasionally before Christmas Day and once that day, before things had settled down enough to get one more thing out.

The next time I saw them was....

yesterday. The first of March. OOPS!

Thanks, Dad! The kids REALLY liked their gifts. And it felt just like Christmas!

I hope you weren't too offended that you didn't receive a single "Thank You" letter. The kids aren't the ones to blame.