Keeping Warm

It was in the negatives when the boys got on the bus this morning. BRRR!!! I'm trying to keep warm by cleaning (because I feel less guilty than sitting by the propane stove). I've mopped so far.

Leah is playing with the Book of Mormon figures and testing my knowledge of their names. I'm not doing too badly. Just confusing Laman with Lemuel and Capt. Moroni with Helaman. Of course, the names are on the bottom so sometimes I don't even try to guess.

We've been dealing with a cranky baby lately and I figured it was something I was eating. Milk is always a stinker so I first guessed it was that. I went all day without ANY dairy. If you know me and my love of milk, you know that was a concentrated effort. I made do with the whole wheat bread I'd just made. That night (Saturday), I decided to get online to see how long I would have to abstain before seeing any results. TWO WEEKS??!! I also found a list of foods that can cause cranky babies. Most of it was stuff I'd been eating the past two weeks...then I saw WHEAT. That's one thing I've really increased my consumption of (too bad my colon didn't know it) over the past two weeks.

So I resumed my milk addiction and have eliminated the whole wheat bread. (It's so good though!) I can pass on the homemade bread for a lot longer than the milk. Joseph actually was a lot better last night. He's still cranky, but not so bad. And now Chad won't have to take it so personally. For a while there, I was the only human that could comfort him for any length of time, and sometimes even I wasn't good enough.

Our healthy streak seems to be weakening. We're still healthy, but now have colds. (I think of children with serious diseases or crippled bodies and don't think colds are much to complain about.) The girls are the grossest, but they are getting good practice at blowing their noses! Daniel is getting goopy, too. So far, Joseph is dry. :) Chad has been congested for a little while.

Now Leah is getting into Chad's closet. Why can't they play with the mess that's already out? I get so frustrated (and discouraged) to see the messes GROW instead of shrink. The kids just watch me clean and wait until I go past then close in behind me and undo the work I did. Don't think I'm not trying to teach them to help. I know there are people out there that think children shouldn't have their childhood interrupted by grueling housework and similar chores. I am not one of them! I just haven't figured out how to get four children to help me out without totally losing my mind or temper. The DI bag helps a lot. My philosophy: If it's too hard for you to clean up, then we'd better get rid of it. We don't want your life to be too difficult! (Read that last sentence with heavy sarcasm.)

Now I'd better get up and get back to work. Leah's going to die from malnutrition and I'm going to die from an overdose of whining. I've got laundry to fold anyway, plus a million other things to do before the house begins to look like someone productive lives here.

Here are some scrapbook pages I did yesterday. It was part of a challenge in our scrapbooking group.

Writer's Block

I haven't posted much lately because I haven't felt that I had anything worth telling about. But maybe I'm wrong.

I could tell you about my fun laundry experiences.
The kids' bladders are still developing, thereby giving me many excuses to use my automatic washer and dryer. In some countries and less-fortunate homes in this country, people must wash their clothes by hand and leave them to air dry, regardless of the weather. I am so tickled to have a machine to do it for me. There is a drawback to such oppulance, though. I don't handle each piece of laundry so I don't discover the no-no's in the clothes until later. The kids are constantly surprising me with crayons. Sometimes I find them as I transfer the clothes to the dryer (good). Sometimes Daniel wears brand new shirts stained noticeably with greasy yellow crayon markings to school (bad). I'm grateful that his socks and underwear are less visible! If I was a parent of only one child, I might get worked up and labor extra hard to get the crayon out as much as possible. Luckily, I have 4 beautiful children and don't have to worry about such activities! Did you know it's possible for a hershey's kiss to come out of the washer, still in its "kiss" shape? I'm not too sure about the smarties. I'm hoping it was only a wrapper when it went into the wash, because that's all I found when I took it out.

I could tell you about Stake Conference.
We had our first broadcast for Stk. Conf. today. It covered around 70 stakes in the SE Idaho area. We sat on the hard chairs in the gym. Pres. Faust, Elder Oaks and Pres. Parkin were speakers. There was one more guy that I can't recall a name for. The lady who led the intermediate hymn was on fire! She must have been sipping a forbidden caffinated beverage before standing to lead us all in song. She succeeded in waking us all up, as we had to really concentrate to sing the words in time. We were relatively reverent. Rebekah had had her fill by the time we ended and I was glad Stk. Conf. only comes around twice a year. I look forward to the days when the kids will sit quietly and let me actually get something from the meeting besides a numb rear!

I could tell you about my sister visiting from SLC.
Amber and her 3 kids came for a visit this weekend. They arrived Friday night around 7 PM and stayed until this morning (Sunday). We had a lot of cousin play time and I think the kids all had fun (mostly). Amber and I snuck away to a whole wheat bread making class and left poor Chad to feed 7 kids lunch. (I fed them all breakfast, so I know exactly what he was up against!) So we got a free lunch of two kinds of bread, cinnamon rolls, pancakes and pizza - all made with the whole wheat bread dough. It's been a while since I ate that much whole wheat. I'll let you imagine the rest of the story. I'm glad Amber could visit. I appreciated a quieter house when she left. *wink*

I could tell you about losing my voice.
I got so frustrated with the boys on Friday that I yelled the deepest roar I could muster. It took about 10 seconds for me to lose my voice. It's Sunday and I still can't hit the highest notes in my normal range. I guess I really showed those kids who's boss!

I could tell you about the rest of my adventures.
If only they'd left a big enough impression on my mind that I could remember them. Truly, it's a sad, repetative life I'm creating for myself. I should do something just so that I could entertain you with it.