Bedtime stories

Chad is a good dad.  He reads to the kids from a chair in the hallway every night that he is home.  He has 3 bedrooms of kids to reach, so he makes sure his voice carries.  He's gone through quite a varied selection of books!

Do you like our perpetual cement flooring?  I had hoped for new carpet by Christmas...before the 2nd pipe leak and more ruined flooring on the other side of the house.  That came right after the oven died.  We'll get new carpet after we re-plumb the house and restore cold water to the kitchen!

Revenge!

When the kids have to put the dishes away and they don't want to, they get back at me by throwing the forks in with the spoons.  Game on!  You don't want to play with fire my little sparklers.  I am the master at payback!  ;)  LOL  It's all fun and games around here...until someone has to do the dishes.

Clean Garage

Chad spent the day pulling out tools, bicycles, yard machines, and general junk to sweep out and clean up the garage.  Winter is the best time for this because the humidity is WAY down and the air is cool.  A breeze is actually refreshing in the winter and if you work up a sweat, it doesn't stay with you until your next shower.

The garage looks great and I can get out of the van without vainly attempting to suck in my gut.  Thank you, Chad.  I appreciate your hard work!

It looked like we were having a garage sale for a little while as our belongings were strewn about the driveway.  I'm surprised no one stopped to shop!

Pasta for Pennies

The school raises funds for leukemia research every year.  The kids bring home little boxes that reminds me of the UNICEF boxes I brought home when I was in school.

Last year, the school raised $3,000.  This year their goal is $4,000.

One year, Joseph taped his box to the front door for Chad to see when he came home from work.  When Joseph discovered some coins in his box, it became tradition to tape the boxes to the door.

And now there are three boxes taped to the door.  So if you happen to come by sometime soon, we wouldn't mind if you had a few extra coins in your pockets!

Why is it called Pasta for Pennies?  Because Olive Garden gives a free lunch to the class that brings in the most money!

It's a single sock epidemic

I cannot understand how there can be SO MANY socks without mates right after laundry is washed!  It's getting ridiculous and very irritating.

They wear them mismatched anyway, but I still want an explanation.  How can I trust their futures are bright if they can't control their socks?

Music on a Mouse Brain

We just completed science fair season.  Rebekah chose to watch fabric fade.  Leah ran mice through a maze.

Before the mice ran, they got treated to music, classical or heavy metal.  I really didn't like the heavy metal days and "i heart radio" probably thought I was schizophrenic with the flip flopping.

I was trying to help Leah as much as I felt was fair, but it was taking a lot of restraint!  It took several revisions as we learned what worked well and what didn't.  But just before we ran out of time, we settled into a good (enough) procedure.

Part of our struggle was to get enough feeder mice from the pet store to live long enough to start running the maze.  If the mice were to die during the project, her experiment would be void.

And while there were many things she could have done better, it was still rewarding to see Leah earn 3rd place in her category!

In case you were wondering, overall the mice completed the maze slower after listening to the heavy metal music.

Tough Love

I just deleted 4 videos from Daniel's phone.  Why?  Because he had recorded, in the dark of night, himself passing gas.

Not the silent and deadly kind, because that wouldn't be very useful video.  No. It was the loud and obnoxious kind.  Obnoxious is the pivotal word.

It had already been reported that he was going into the girls' rooms with his disgusting sound to annoy them.

When he used it in the drive-thru of KFC, I took possession of the phone.  Where do 15-year-old boys really come from?  And when does the dignity kick in?

What's the last bit of strange parenting you had to do?

Fifty States...Nifty!

Joseph has to learn the 50 states in school.  Ugh.  Joseph doesn't like to work.  He gets mad easily and without warning so it can be tricky to get much done.

We've learned 13 states so far...and they aren't the original colonies.   I guess that means we are a quarter of the way through!  I prefer the western states because they are big and fast to learn.

I also prefer the western states because the bugs are smaller.

If Sarah had $100...

Friday (the 22nd) was the 100th day of school for us.  The first grade really celebrates with t-shirts and snacks and games, etc.

One of their activities was to write what they would do if they had 100 dollars.  Here is Sarah's paper. The translation is below.  ;)

"A mansion with an 'S'."
"A beautiful dress."
"A beautiful crown."

I'm seeing a theme here.  Unfortunately, HRH was born to a common family.  I remember when Leah discovered her life wasn't royal.  It was very similar!   Lol.

I did see some interesting wishes on the worksheets of other kids, including lipstick, cats, and more money.  My favorite was the little boy who was going to get a gift for each of his parents and nothing else.  :)

My talent on display

I had the talent for FHE tonight and realized it this morning as we were getting ready for school.  So before we left, I chose a project and spent the morning working on it.  I plan on making a small quilt for a teacher at school and she loves owls, so this is "two birds" with one stone.

But the point of this post isn't to brag, rather to laugh.  I was nearing completion of the block and sewed on the beak of one of two owls.  Here it is.

And then I noticed that I didn't see the 2nd block I was working on.  Oh, here it is!  I sewed it behind the first one...right at the beak!  Duh.  I didn't want to spend so much time unpicking on this project!  But what a talent!  LOL.

Wardrobe Issues

I have wardrobe issues.  The biggest issue is that most of them come from the thrift store...or the blood bank.

Yep.  I have FOUR shirts from donating blood.  And whoever is designing these things, doesn't deserve any awards.  Even so, I keep wearing them.  They don't look any better on me than they do in this picture, but some days I don't plan on leaving the house.  (That rarely works out though.)

Two of the shirts are from friendly competitions between the police and fire departments.  So their shirts say "guns n' hoses."  I can't say how many times that has caused people to look at me in surprise.

No.  I do not listen to Guns n' Roses!  Definitely not my style.  I wish these shirts weren't so easy to throw on.  I really need to update my wardrobe.  This calls for another trip to the thrift store!!

Ice Skating party

Leah was invited to an ice skating birthday party this past weekend.  Because her friend has a little sister in Sarah's class, Sarah was also invited. I'm sure she was meant to keep the little sister occupied and she filled that role marvelously.

Neither Leah nor Sarah have ever been ice skating.  They have been on roller blades all through the house, but I warned them that the skate blades were much thinner than wheels.  I don't think they even noticed.  

As soon as Sarah had her skates on, she was up without any hesitation and running soon after.  Yeah.  Running is discouraged in public places and I did my best to slow her down.  

Here is a picture soon after their skates were on.  This is not the birthday girl standing next to Leah, but one of the party guests and one of Leah's closest friends: Kiera.  And that creature down at Leah's elbow is supposed to be Sarah.

I think she's trying a little too hard to smile for the camera! 

Here is Sarah with her friend, Emma.  They are both crazy and full of energy and the youngest members of their families.

I did not know that they had modified walkers for beginner skaters, but it makes sense!  Sarah was fearless on the ice with her walker.  But her feet were flying in all sorts of directions as she sped around the rink.  I'm not sure which part of her body got the bigger workout: her legs to get her moving or her arms to keep her from falling down.

It was a late party (skating started at 8) and so I left about 8:30 with Sarah and Leah was dropped off a little after 10.  Church comes early at 9:30 and it's even earlier when you've gone to bed late!

Rousing the dogs with song

We have a nighttime routine that includes singing a hymn or Primary song before family prayer.  Before we get to that, we read from the Book of Mormon.  While we read, the dogs are sitting nearby and are usually half asleep.

When we start to sing, the dogs are suddenly wide awake and can hardly stand still!  They don't seem to understand that the point of the song is to create a feeling of reverence.  It's hard to kneel and stay upright when a dog is jumping on you!

Cold weather in Florida

We have had some cold weather lately. The coldest day was the day of Sarah's field trip to Kennedy Space Center.  I was freezing because I thought it would warm up so I was only wearing a sweater.  I was wishing for a hat and gloves!  Sarah should have been dressed warmer, too.  But we've been colder than that in our lives.  It's just been about three years since then.

Here is frost on the roof!  Brrr!  ;)

They have a pretty nice program at the Kennedy Space Center for the area schools.  And it's free!   They say that when the rocket to Mars goes up in 2-3 years, that the folks at Disney World will feel it.  We are an hour closer to the launch pad than that!  We'll have to take our pictures off the wall before that!

Sarah was trying out the astronaut gloves.

She and he friends were trying on an old capsule for size.  I'd say the size isn't quite right.

Yeah.  She could barely see over the edge of the hole!  Haha.

There was a simulator ride there that she was too small to go on.  I think she was the only one in her class that couldn't go.  She was pretty sad, but kept her tears in check because she was in front of her friends.  :(

Journaling

I mentioned yesterday that I write in a journal every night.  That hasn't always been the case.  I attempted several times in my childhood/youth to keep a journal.  Every start was well-intentioned, but it wasn't long until I fell behind and gave up.

When Chad and I were newly married I thought I would try again with added support.  We bought two small journals and agreed that we'd write at least one sentence each day.

That was in October 2000, and 22 volumes ago.  I have been very good at keeping up.  When we travel, we bring our journals and write in them before bed.  In the few instances that we forgot them, we wrote on notebook paper and added it to the books when we returned.

Even the days my children were born are recorded.  But heavy drugs make focusing and fine motor skills difficult, so the handwriting is a little rough!  I also slipped in and out of sleep during those moments.  Ha ha.

I have missed a handful of times for various reasons, but on nights I knew I would be getting in late, I tried to write before I left.

And now I have quite a collection of memories and weather records from the last 15 years (and four states).

More importantly, I have a record of important events in our lives.  I am often looking back to see when something specific occurred.  I have checked to see when a baby started coughing so I could give the doctor an accurate account.  I've looked to see when we traveled to special places to make scrapbooking more detailed.

All births, blessings, baptisms, ordination, etc. are recorded.

And while most things are boring, there are a few exciting feelings recorded there.  I have written as if writing to a reader, most likely a great-grandchild of some generation.

Chad's journals are also stacking up.  He completes about one volume to my three or four.  He's a man of little words! :)

Three truths and a lie

I'm a pretty quiet person, which usually means people don't know much about me.

Below are four statements about me that you might not know; one of them is a lie.  See if you can guess which one it is.  I'll post the answer in the comments.

1. I was born on a Sunday.
Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace;
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go;
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for its living;
But the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is Bonny and blithe, and good and gay.

2.  I keep a journal and write in it every night before bed.

3.  I am a creative person and love to plan and design, which means my sewing and craft rooms are full of unfinished projects.

4.  I love country music, but have to listen to it by myself because it drives my kids crazy when I sing along.

Sunday Scripture Chase

We tried something new tonight.  Everyone chose a scripture and in turn read it for the family then gave the reference and we all raced to find it. 

We marked them in our pages as the person explained why they chose that verse.

I was pretty impressed by the kids' insight and testimony.   We'll have to do this again!

This was the scripture I chose tonight.  When I marked a scripture given by someone else, I wrote their name next to it.  :)

Sunday Summary

I don't have much to report today.  It's been a quiet Sunday that started with a 14-state regional broadcast from Salt Lake City.  We had Stake Conference last week that was also broadcast due to a new stake being formed. So the kids are really looking forward to a return of familiar routine next week and not having to sit in the chapel for over 2 hours.

We've started to adjust to our new Sunday schedule, now that we have meetings in the morning (and not at 1 PM).  This includes "quiet time" which the kids are really not fond of, but the parents demand.  They have to be quiet for a determined amount of time, while we take a little nap.  Then we have the whole afternoon and evening to spend together as a family.

Can you hear the angelic choir soundtrack to that?  Yeah. Me neither.

We did take a walk this afternoon.  It was a little chilly because of a couple of big storms that rolled through this weekend.  But hey, it is January, after all!  The walk was preceded by chasing one of our dogs that escaped from Sarah as we gathered outside.  One day that dog is going to be hit by a car and all the kids will need therapy!

We have rediscovered our large collection of board and card games now that we have more time together.  The current game being played is the one where all the games come out of the cupboard and the bowl of left out pieces get returned to the appropriate boxes.

But overall, the biggest activity of Sunday is trying to keep a reverent feeling in the house so that the day feels different and is set apart from the rest of the week.  Certain activities are set aside in favor of others that will strengthen our family and commitment to God.  I feel like we are achieving this VERY SLOWLY.

MANual Labor

When you're 15, muscle work must include a lot of grunting and then excessive bragging.  Working quickly and quietly is for girls and others who you will be showing off to.

However, work is work.  And when this work is done, we're going to have an impressive wood pile.  It wouldn't last us through one Idaho winter. But here in Florida, it will last for years!

Leah got all A's!

For the first time ever, Leah got all A's on her report card.  This is HUGE for her!  She has a mental block against Math that she spent all last year dealing with.

I am so proud of her!

I am proud of all my kids.  They work hard in school and honor their families through who they choose to be.

Evidence of Motherhood

I glanced around my house today and saw evidence of children all around.  I'm not talking about baskets of clean, unfolded laundry or a sink full of dirty dishes or crumbs all over the table and floor. 

My evidences were a bit sweeter.

Like a container of tadpoles sitting on my kitchen counter.  They spent two days at school and after 4 days, have outlived all other tadpoles that have been brought inside.  Did you know that they like to eat spinach?  We keep some in the freezer and then defrost it before feeding it to them.  This is evidence of an 8-year-old boy.

I hope we get them back outside before they grow legs and escape!

Also on my kitchen counter are two cages and 4 mice.  They ran a maze for a science fair project.  We had a hard time getting some to live long enough to start the project.  And now I just want them to DIE and quit stinking up my kitchen!  This is evidence of an animal lover scientist. 

Who doesn't have something of the Frozen persuasion in their home?  How many Olafs have been tucked into bed on the couch as we all left for school.  This is evidence of a young girl with a love of Frozen!

The Legos are everywhere.   This is evidence of young builders who go through spurts of interest and leave Lego pieces strewn across every. single. room.

We have a lots of spelling words to study.  Some are harder than others.  This is evidence of a child hoping for 100% on the test coming later that day.

There is a lot of evidence around the house.  I'm pretty thankful for it!

Random

A few things that have come up lately.

The kids' school has a dress code complete with uniforms.  I don't mind either of those though I do think some things are a little strange.  For instance, they must wear a belt if they have belt loops.  Apparently, cutting the belt loops off is an acceptable way to avoid wearing a belt.  Of course, there are all sorts of enforcement inconsistencies depending on who sees you and how much they like you.  Welcome to the world of politics, children!

The kids say one of the lunch ladies at school is mean and for some reason she squeezes the ice cream sandwiches before she hands them to you.  So anyone buying one is getting it in a distorted shape.  I have a feeling this is the same lady that throws the ice cream at them.

We have been completing science fair projects this week.  This is always an emotionally challenging time for me and my perfectionist self.  But more than my desire to fix everything the girls have been doing is my belief that they have to learn and make their own mistakes.  It's much harder to learn some things in high school or even college!  Even so, repeated runs through experiments really should be dated!  And graphs comparing sets of data are better when the colors aren't too close to each other.  (Green, yellow, and light green?  Come on!)

It has finally gotten cold!  I really enjoyed having the windows open yesterday.  And then I had to close them when the sun went down.  Brr!  We actually turned on the heater in the van on the way to school this morning.  And then Joseph complained it was hot (it must have been an automatic complaint).  Sarah asked why it's cold now.  I explained that it's this temperature in Idaho about the time school starts and I watched her think that over.  Then she said, "I want to move to Idaho!"  Even so, we haven't turned on the furnace at home...yet.

I am typing this on my Kindle while Nathan does physical therapy. The owner of the office is from Minnesota (or somewhere equally cold) and he's not running his furnace, either.  But my toes in my flip flops are cold and my fingers are icy from tapping on my little screen!  It's time to go warm up a bit.

Tree Fort

The last big branch of the tree came down on Saturday.  A portion of the fence came down under it, but this post is not about that.

The kids have really been enjoying the cooler weather combined with the instant fortress created by huge tree limbs resting on the ground.  They have even used the broken boards from the fence to nail benches onto the branches. 

It seems Joseph has claimed this wing of the tree fort as his own.  He went out to read there this evening.  He is nearly in heaven!

Unfortunately, he got a late start out there today because I didn't get home to stay until after 5 pm.  So he didn't really get to do much reading.  They aren't allowed out there if I'm not home.  :(  I want to be around if someone decides to have the first official broken bone in the family!

Tomorrow is a new day for tree forts...as long as it doesn't rain.

Jeepers, Creepers! Who belongs to those peepers?

When you enter our home you are in an entry way that immediately transitions into our living room.  And from our living room, there are 5 door ways to other rooms (three of which are french doors).  One of the rooms off of the living room is the master bedroom. The french doors here have clear glass, but have been covered, more or less, by vinyl clings of bamboo stalks of faux stained glass.

The previous owners applied the coverings and though I want to replace them, other things keep taking priority. So there they remain.

Because the vinyl wasn't uniformly cut, some panes of the doors are not fully covered.  These small gaps are good for peeking, but their translucent nature makes peeking hard to do with much stealth.

Here is Joseph giving it a wothy effort this afternoon. He's a funny kid. 

What the kids don't seem to have picked up on is that the vinyl is applied to the outside of the door and would be so easy to peel away.  Maybe it's just that they are such good kids that they would never even think of such an invasion of privacy  (though peeking seems to be ok).

I really should at least put it on the other side.  But if I'm going to go through the effort of that, I'd rather put something of my own choosing up there!

Stake Conference boost!

It's Stake Conference this weekend and tonight was the adult session. It was hard to leave the kids home for a second night in a row, but sometimes it's just the timing if life.

Elder Kopischke was the visiting General Authority and had quite a few thought provoking points.  He talked about making the sabbath a delight and while I already feel that way about Sunday, there is always room for improvement.  And I would love for my children to find delight in the sabbath. So I have some things to think about and action to take.

I am looking forward to the inspiration from tomorrow's meeting.  :)

This and That

It was a day to accomplish a little here and a little there.   It included a cat nap, preceeded by cutting out 12 large mustaches and followed up with a night at the temple.

It rained most of the day, for which I am grateful.

Leah's got a birthday party tomorrow and we're going with a Studio C theme.  Go check it out on YouTube if you're unfamiliar with them!

Morning Madness

Mornings can get pretty crazy around here.  Thursdays are even crazier as we try to leave 30 minutes or more earlier than normal.  This is because Joseph and Leah were both elected as class representatives a couple of months ago.

This morning Joseph was trying to finish homework that should have been done last night.  So his temper was precariously perched on self-destruct.  I found it funny that he would choose the LARGEST pencil in the house to do the work.  But somehow, it relieved some tension and helped him finish the task.

Sarah was a little reluctant to wake this morning and left herself very little time to wake up/dress/eat/groom before we had to leave.  So she skipped the waking and grooming part.

She had braided pigtails yesterday and thought they should still be good for today.  Considering they barely survived school yesterday, today was not going to happen.  She wasn't happy about the loss of her precious tails and refused to let me do anything more than put in a barrette...including taking a picture of her crazy mop.

As we got to school, she decided she wanted a ponytail after all.  Unfortunately, we didn't have any ponytail holders, so she was out of luck.  She walked into the school trying to tame her waves.  :)

It's seemed so quiet at home after the bedlam of the morning.

Tithing Settlement

What does the bishop's family do for tithing settlement when Dad is so busy with tithing settlement for the whole ward?  We weren't sure.  So we slipped it in last night after Mutual/pack meeting. 

It was a new experience and a little difficult to keep the reverent/respectful atmosphere that should accompany a visit with the bishop. I guess we'll have to figure it all out as we go.

I did think it was cute to see Sarah sitting on her daddy's lap while he sat behind his desk.

It was Leah's first Mutual night and I think she enjoyed herself.  She's going to learn even more about getting along with different personalities!

And here is the post to count for yesterday.  I thought I was up to date,  but I guess it never made it out of my thoughts!

Zoo Day before School Day!

Because the weather was so great yesterday, and it was the last day of the Christmas break, we went to the zoo.  Nathan's leg was bothering him too much to go, and Daniel chose to stay home.  (He was probably hoping to watch Netflix, but I didn't let him.)

It's kind of nice to live in an area that the zoo is open year round.  Most of the year, walking around outside in Florida doesn't really appeal to me.  But yesterday was really nice!

The zoo has an area for feeding birds.  The seed sticks are $1 each (unless you have a coupon for free sticks, like we did).

There are also some lorikeets that drink nectar from a little cup, but I was busy feeding birds instead of photographing them.

The zoo has an interesting and impressive art display on right now (through May, I think) of sculptures made from trash collected along beaches.  These pictures don't do the artwork much justice, but I hope you get the idea.  The colors of each piece come from the actual trash; nothing has been colored to fit the sculpture.

Wow, we went to the beach AND the zoo!  

We walked around and saw several animals.  The zebras were easy to see, but the giraffes were in hiding.  The meerkats were busy and fun to watch.  We skipped the monkeys, but did see the camels and ostriches close up on the train ride (that we also had a coupon for).

Joseph and Sarah had made plans to smash a penny and brought their quarters in anticipation.  Then Rebekah thought she'd like one, too.  Luckily, I had the right change on me.  (And now that I think about it, she owes me money!) Leah decided it wasn't worth 50 cents to smash a penny.

Beautifully smashed pennies.

I caught a glimpse of this flower blooming from a big, tropical plant outside of the zoo.  I don't think blooms are common and it was worth a picture.  Beautiful!

We traditionally stop at the Wendy's outside the zoo for frostys on our our way home to help ease the sweating from being outside in the heat.  We didn't have a drop of sweat among us yesterday, but the kids pretended they were dying so that I would stop.  It doesn't really take that much drama to talk me into a frosty, but I let them go on a bit.  The half hour ride home is pretty nice with a frosty in one hand!