First Day of School

If you've been reading my blog lately, you know my opinion of sending my kiddos back to school. But, I'm not confident enough that I could offer my children everything they get at school. I couldn't offer them the drugs, the girl drama, etc. Of course I don't want them offered that, I'm kidding. What I don't think I could offer them is the social stuff they get there, being forced to get a long with kids who aren't exactly friendly, and most of all, learning to choose the right. Maybe I could. If I felt like I was supposed to home school, I would in a heart beat. But right now is not the time, so I send my kids to school. I feel like I am feeding them to the wolves, but I pray while they are gone and I know I am doing what I am supposed to. 

It's okay to go off on tangents right? This is my blog and I can say and do whatever I want, right? I need a little empowerment right now because I have absolutely no control of anything and at least I can have control over something by having a blog.

We have been practicing getting up at 6:30am for about 2 weeks. It has been tough and I haven't been able to do it. Once school started, I decided we really needed to step up the pace and do what we are supposed to be doing, like morning family prayer, family scripture study (which I am least tired in the morning so more likely to happen), and morning structure. So we did this. As I was serving up the kids their requested scrambled eggs, toast, bacon, and orange juice to give them the energy they need to last them until lunch, Camie sat down on the bench in the dining room and started crying. I had done her hair, she was all ready to go. I asked her what the problem was, and she told me she was sick and too sick to go to school. Seriously? This is the first day of school and no child wants to miss that day. I figured if she had a temperature, she could definitely stay home, but of course that would not happen. I sure am eating a lot of my words lately. Sure enough, her temp registered 100.1, enough to stay home. She was so sad that she was going to miss the first day. I went ahead and took pictures of all the kiddos, took them to school, and kept Camie home.

Danielle was excited but bugged that she had to have to get up so early. Danielle feels what is in the moment.  After school I asked her how her day was, and she told me it was horrible because the wind was blowing in her face. I asked if the wind had been blowing during recess, and she said that it had not, just while they were walking to the car for me to pick them up. She is so in the moment. She had a great day other then the windy 2 minutes to the car.

Taneal really had a great first day. Her best friend is in her class, her teachers are great, and Josh, one of our good family friends is in the class with her.

Camie stayed home and got sicker and sicker. Her temperature finally peeked at 102 and she cried herself to sleep, which my kiddos NEVER do when they are sick. I took her to the doctor the next day and she tested positive for strep throat. She was one sick little girl until the antibiotics kicked in and she is back to her normal self. She got to miss THREE days of school before she even got to go!

Nathan turns 2!

My baby turned 2! He is not such a baby anymore, although he claims to be. He is one of those rough and tough, stubborn and dependant all at the same time kind of boys.

I made him a Lightening McQueen birthday cake, because I bought the pan when Spencer turned 2. A few days before his birthday, I turned on the movie several time so that he would know who Lightening McQueen was and actually recognize his birthday cake. And it worked. He was pretty excited.

He was so cute with his cake. We lit the 2 candles and then told him to blow them out. So he started to blow - through his nose! He only knows how to blow his nose. After a minute or so of trying to show him to blow through his mouth, he was easily able to blow out the candles. SO CUTE! Then he wanted to taste the cake. I know this isn't' his first birthday, but we let him take a bite right out of the uncut cake. He went right for the black frosting and thought it was so cool that we were actually letting him eat out of the big cake.

Then we had him open his presents. He loves to hook things up to the hook on the back of Mater, a shake-and-go car that Spencer got for his 2nd birthday. So when I saw a bigger tow truck at Costco, I figured it would be a hit. Nathan was pretty excited. I also got him a Buzz from Toy Story 3 and Nathan knew who it was! We did go see the movie at the beginning of the summer, but I didn't think Nathan would remember who it was. Buzz was a hit, too.

And now my wild little boy is 2 and as lovable as ever. He makes me smile, leaves me with bruises, and is so entertaining to watch and play with. He has gone back the his original toys, the Mater with the hook that he uses to attach everything to. And Spencer has had so much fun with Nathan's new presents. It all works out. Happy Birthday, Nathan!

And just a little side comment about the Scooby Doo pajamas. Nathan has a hard time with clothes lately. He pretty much refuses to wear them and takes them off within minutes of me getting him dressed. He is always willing to wear these Scooby Doo pajamas, so I figured it better to have him in pajamas then no clothes at all.

Shopping with 5

Every time I go to the store with all five of my children, I realize why I have a pantry that I like to keep stocked. And when I start to run low in things like milk and produce, I try to rationalize how maybe we really don't need those items. We can survive without them, right? Spencer's love of his life is milk. He can drink milk with so much emotion, so much passion. If he treats his wife half as good as he treats his milk, they will be happy. Going without milk in the house is tough.

My children are still not old enough to leave home by themselves. I have contemplated this many times and actually done it a few, but I try not to. And then I drag them all to the store. They all behave themselves. Individually they are great. But walking down the isle with 6 people in a state other then Utah, is quite the scene.

First we are very wide. As we pass people, my children don't realize, regardless of how many times I have told them, that they need to get in single file behind me so we don't take up the whole isle.

Second we must look out-of-place. I get so many dirty looks, comments about how all those children couldn't possibly be mine, and an occasional smile. Mostly just a dropped jaw as people are counting, a comment about the use of birth control. I really think it is funny.

After about 10 minutes the cart is full and we head for the checkout. I can do some serously quick shopping because I choose times when the store is least crowded. And I won't go at night when Evan is home becuase I am too scared. Too many muggings, murders, and kidnappings for my peace of mind. Evan agrees with me, but probably just so he won't have to stay home and take care of the kids.

Shopping with 5 has it's limitations, but it saves on the pocketbook because I don't go nearly as often. I have started making more homemade foods just to avoid frequent trips to the grocery store. And I have started more internet shopping.

As the kids go back to school, the shopping will get easier, but then I will throw a newborn into the mix and make it exciting again. Fun times.

Under Construction

I am having a lot of fun redesigning my blog which has got me doing a lot of thinking. I think I am going to go private. Not because everyone else is doing it. Not because I am starting to feel reclusive as I am about the size of a beached whale and more then ready to deliver and tired of the comments, "you're still here! I thought you would have had that baby by now!" I don't know who is reading my blog. I don't say last names or locations, but I think if you wanted to know hard enough, you could probably figure it out.

I have been exploring digital scrapbooking and blogging for the last three years and I finally discovered a solution to this whole private thing. I will keep my regular blog, will update it with titles only of all my new posts that will be on my private blog. I will also have a link from this blog to the private blog so that not much work needs to be done on your part. You will still see in your news feed any time I have a new post, and if you forget to change my actual blog address, you can click on the link. I will also have a "want to be invited to my private blog" link so it is easy to ask to be invited.

So please bear with me as I make this transition. My blog is a mess, totally looks under construction. It will clean up as soon as I find the time, which is only bits and pieces here and there. My upcoming activity, such as the Primary Program, PTO Treasurer, having my 6th baby, will take precedence. But blogging is my outlet and also my family's history, and I want to share and record all the happenings in my family that will eventually make it into a book. You'll know when I get my private blog set up and it should be easy to ask for permission. I've learned how to create my own buttons, background, etc. Now I just have to figure how to make it look pretty, not so busy. It will come. But for now, I am under construction and enjoying the learning curve.

TV Time

Back in March I decided we no longer needed to have cable because, quite frankly, we were watching tv too much. I am not a tv kind of girl, so this wasn't a problem with me, I didn't do any tv watching except for American Idol, which wasn't really that good this season anyway. The problem was my husband and children. I view tv as a way to completely waste time. So much more can be accomplished without tv and there is so much to be done, so why waste away the time where we could be accomplishing so much more. So I cancelled our cable subscription (which we had only had for 1 year and the introductory price expired). It was an adjustment. I had used the tv to entertain my little ones as I was going through pregnancy. Now I had to step up, or at least get up, and pay attention to them. That's not a bad thing, either. My older kids took about a month to adjust and then movies were sufficient. Evan still has not adjusted and has figured out Hulu and other Internet based tv sites. But his view on tv is not the same as mine. He thinks reading a book and watching tv are about the same thing - both forms of entertainment. Of course he doesn't read like I do and I don't watch tv like he does, so we agree that we have a difference of opinion.

As summer started, I had to come up with a plan. Although we didn't have tv, we do have movies. And I didn't want my kids to waste away their summer sitting in front of the tv. So I came up with a plan:

If their room was cleaned with their bed made, each day they got an automatic 60 minutes tv time. Anything else had to be earned, minute for minute reading for tv. And, reading the scriptures got them 2 minutes for each 1 minute read.

And you know what? It worked! Taneal read the entire Fablehaven series this summer along with several other books. Camie read so many of the Warrior books that she is begging me to buy her more. I have always paid my kids $.01/page to read. When my kids were coming to me almost daily saying I owed them $3 or something like that, I just grinned. And when we totalled up tv time earned, as shown in the picture, and they had earned well over 17 hours, I was again a very happy mom. They were using some of their tv time, but spending much of their time reading.

I may not have had a lot of successes in parenting over the last 9 month because I have felt so lousy, but this tv time thing this summer made me feel so good. I love to see my children engaged in a good book. And when I see my children sitting in front of a tv, usually guilt creeps through me. But this time there was not guilt because their rooms were cleaned, they had read their scriptures, and they had earned the privilege to be sitting there.

And other things changed. The fighting drastically decreased. Their imaginations opened up and they relearned how to play. They started playing with each other again. They spent hours after hours playing with the doll houses, building with legos, playing games, and playing dress-ups. A lot of the normal complaining about helping out around the house went away. They didn't get bored. And we played this summer. Camie told me the other day, "Mom, this has been the best summer ever!"

I think we will have to continue with earning tv time next summer.

HELP

I have totally messed up my blog and don't know how to fix it. How do you get rid of this white/cream screen so you can see the Cutest Blog On The Block behind it?

So Happy Together

I'm not so sure about this going back to school thing. Everyone around me is so excited for school to start, they can't wait for their kids to go back. I just can't figure it out. I have had so much fun with my children being home this summer. I really don't want them to go back. I think I am a little selfish. When my kids are home, we have fun. We get to go play at the pool, go roller skating, work on projects together, and I get to sit back and really enjoy having a house full of children who are happily playing together. They do have their moments of disagreements, and when they do, my house gets cleaner because they penalty for fighting is extra jobs. On days where my body is screaming at me because of pregnancy anemic induced fatigue, I can ask Taneal to keep an eye on the little boys and go take a nap.

I also have help keeping my house functioning. Taneal's summer job has been the tile floor downstairs. She is incharge of keeping it picked up and swept. I tried to have the mopping as part of her job, but decided I would still do that job after her first attempt that took 2 hours to dry. Camie's job has been the downstairs carpeted areas, vacuuming included, and also all the trashes. Danielle's job has been the dishwasher and tidying up all the bathrooms daily. Not cleaning any of the bathrooms, just making sure the clothes were picked up and the toothbrushes were put away, etc. Spencer's job has been the table, setting and clearing. He has had the hardest time. I wish I could have got a picture of him wiping the table. He would climb up on top of the table to wipe it. He probably didn't improve the cleanliness of the table, but he was putting forth effort and doing a great job. Nathan still does not have a job other then putting his own diaper in the trash.

Who wouldn't love help like that? I know the house gets messier because they are all home, but they all help out to clean up. They are great children and are so easily pleased. Camie has really learned to bake and Taneal has done a fantastic job learning to cook. We have done so many little activities and really enjoyed each other.

And now school is starting. I have to send my 3 big girls back. I was secretly hoping they would get terrible teachers so that I would have to pull them out and home school them. But that didn't work out. They all got great teachers with wonderful kids in the classes with them. And the baby is coming soon, so it will be nice for the girls to be engaged in something while I adjust to have another little one. It is all good. But I still scratch my head and wonder why everyone is so excited to send their kids back to school. Maybe it is because I will still have three kids at home even with my older ones gone so it won't be much of a break? Maybe it is because I am still in a different stage of life and loving it.

Clean Carpets

I love clean floors. The most difficult part about having a baby is I can't sweep, mop, or vacuum my floors for 6 weeks.

I often cheat.

Under normal circumstances, I mop my floors several times a week and sweep at least twice a day. My carpets are vacuumed almost daily. I don't mind so much going to bed with dirty dishes, but the floors need to be clean. If you show up at my house you would find toys that have been played with, often scattered throughout. That doesn't bother me. What gets to me is walking across the tile floor and feeling grit. Wearing a pair of white socks all day and at the end of the day having them not so white on the bottom. I can't stand that. I grew up with a house full of tile and 5 brother and 2 sisters, 10 in all the family. It was near impossible to keep the grit off the floor. We lived on acreage out in the county with cows and pigs and horses and a gravel driveway. Dogs were an always and cats a must. Not inside animals, usually. But with all that working against a clean floor, it was, well, never clean. Okay, maybe for 10 minutes.

And here I am living on a small lot with lots of neighbors and cement streets, grass in the yard, and a lot of rain to wash everything clean, so I can have my clean floors. I do have 5 kids and a husband working against me, but I do my best.

Of course, carpets get dirty no matter how hard you try. I spot clean all the time, and they stay looking somewhat clean, but I know that deep down they really aren't clean. In the beginning of my family when I only had a few children, this was fine. But as my children have multiplied, so has the dirt in my carpet. About a year ago I had had enough and called a professional steam cleaner come out to the house and he parted an hour later with $300. And that didn't clean all the carpeted rooms. A bit frustrating when three months later I felt he needed to come again.

My solution? I went to Costco and bought me my very own carpet cleaner. It's in my house at all times, I can use it whenever I want, and it works really well. My carpets come clean, I hardly have to use any soap, they dry within a few hours, and I can then roll around on the floor and not feel like I need to shower. Happiness!

But then I got pregnant within a few weeks after my purchase of the new cleaner. The vomiting and fatigue hit hard. I laid on the couch for 4 months and didn't do much. At about 20 weeks I mustered up enough energy to pull that blessed machine out of the closet and sure enough, clean carpets. And then yesterday a friend stopped by and I was humiliated by the spots on my carpet. That fatigue just has not left me, even diagnosed anemic, so the tiredness is legitimate. But enough is enough and I could not stand to look at those spots another day. I pulled out the spray bottle and wash rag to start despotting my carpet, put it right back down and walked to the closet where I pulled out my friend, the carpet cleaner. And we spent the next hour scrubbing my living room carpet. And it looks beautiful. I love being able to clean them whenever I want. The baby is coming soon, but with the cleaning I did today, I should be able to wait 6 weeks postpartum before they need cleaned again. The vacuuming, sweeping, and mopping will still be a problem, but I will survive. Last baby I knew the reason I could not mop was because of the motion. So, I got on my hands and knees and mopped, thus bypassing the harmful motion. Right?

Just wanted to share my gratitude for something as simple as a carpet cleaner that brings so much peace into my life. I even caught myself laying on the couch while all the kids were upstairs watching a movie so the house was quiet, and grinning as I looked at my new clean carpet. Silly, I know. But, this is my life. And I love it.

Primary Happenings

When our ward split I was called to be Primary President. Why they called me, I don't know, there are so many other people a lot more qualified and a better people person then me. They insisted I was the one, so I told them I would be willing to do it, just know I would give it my best but that may not be good enough. They were welcome to replace me at any time. No hard feelings.

I prayed and prayed over my counselors. I immediately came up with the secretary and one of the counselors. The other counselor was tricky. I looked and looked over who it should be and I couldn't figure it out. Her name was not on any list I had. I told the Bishop this and he sent me a more complete list. And there she was. I didn't know her, never met her before, didn't know what she looked like, nothing. But I knew she was one of my counselors. They all accepted the assignment to work with me. I don't think they realized what they were getting into, but I was grateful for that because I knew they were who the Lord wanted to serve in the Primary.

And they were amazing. The gal who I didn't know before hand turned out to have a masters in child psychology. Her dad was a pediatrician. She was also expecting her first baby. She was willing to do whatever needed to be done. She was wonderful. And my other counselor was just as willing, always asking what else she could do. And my secretary has been great, on the ball, doing her best to keep up with an ever changing Primary. It isn't easy work and she never complains.

My first counselor had her baby in June. The first week of July my other counselors told me she was moving out-of-state. Oh, no! I was just entering my 3rd trimester! Please don't leave me now! And then a few days later I got a call from the counselor that had just had a baby that she was moving away, to the other side of the state. Both my counselors gone within a week of each other, my baby only two and a half months away. And my chorister was gone for the entire summer. When I found out, I cried a little and went to bed. It was more then I could handle.

And then over the next few days I had the same experience as I had when I was first called as the President. I knew immediately who my 1st counselor was supposed to be. I couldn't figure out the 2nd counselor. I prayed and pondered and then prayed some more. And finally it came to me. My 2nd counselor was supposed to be a gal who had just moved in, who I had not met before. Huh? Thank goodness I still had my secretary. I submitted the names to the Bishop, they were approved, called, and they are wonderful! I couldn't ask for better counselors. They are so willing to help in any way, ready to jump right in and work, and are even doing little extra things that make such a big difference. They have lightened my load and I feel so confident, even only a few weeks later, that if I needed to miss church because of the baby, everything would be just fine. And we even have the Primary Sacrament Meeting Presentation next month. They are so on the ball and everything is going great.

It goes to show me that we do have a Father in Heaven who is very aware of our needs. He knew I needed to begin with the counselors I had. And then he knew what was best for them, yet he didn't leave me all on my own to run this wonderful Primary. I was inspired both times and am so grateful for that, knowing that I am doing the will of the Father. He has strengthened me in my inadequacies, let me love the children in ways I didn't know possible, and allowed the spirit in the Primary to teach and testify of the truthfulness of things to the sweet children. When I rely on myself, I don't get such good results. When I rely on the Lord, everything works out perfect.

Summer Bowling

A friend of mine told me about an amazing deal for bowling in the area this summer. When you have five kids, that is good news. We really don't take our crew to places that cost much because 5 times anything is a lot. Not just a lot of money, but also a big crowd. When I heard about this deal, I decided to seize the opportunity and took the 25 minute drive towards downtown to give my kids a chance to bowl.

They all got fitted in those cool bowling shoes, even Nathan. I was surprised they had size 7 for him. We found the extra small balls for the kids. We went with some friends, so in all we had 12 kids. It was quite the group but a lot of fun.

My kids did surprisingly well. I guess they have learned a thing or two from wii bowling? Nathan could barely lift the ball let alone get it rolling, so I helped him a little. And when his turn was over he could not understand why we wouldn't just let him keep going, so he threw himself to the ground screaming. Yes, I have a (almost) two-year-old who acts his age.

Spencer did well. The ball only got stuck twice where we had to call an attendant to go get the ball because he didn't roll it hard enough. Those balls are pretty heavy and to lift it and throw it at the same time is pretty hard.

Danielle did amazing. I had no idea she could swing a ball like that. That girl has talent!

Camie and Taneal had a lot of fun and scored really well too, especially for their first time bowling.

It was a fun day, a little harder because of Nathan's continued fits. But, I'd be willing to take them again, next summer. I got home and was contracting about 6-7 minutes apart. I think I did too much. But Taneal made the nicest comment on the way home. She told me this was the best summer ever. She said even though we haven't done anything big, we've done a lot of little things that have made the summer so much fun. I appreciated that because I have really worried that I was wasting their summer away not doing much because I really can't do too much or the contractions start in and I don't want this baby to come early. I waddle around the place and am so tired topped with anemia. But the kids are having fun and I am loving having them at home. I love having a lot of kids, they are so much fun. And I love that Taneal recognized my efforts to help create a great, memorable summer so that when the kids go back to school they will feel like we played, had fun, and built a lot of memories even though we didn't do a big family vacation.

Metronome

Evan said he never had a metronome growing up. I grew up with a metronome. Do we really need one? Absolutely!

Since we got our piano, my kids have been busily plucking away at the notes and playing great beginning masterpieces. Taneal has already started learning Christmas songs which is so fun for me to listen to, until she quit counting and started playing the song at the pace that she wanted, no consistency throughout the song. I started to plug my ears because I could not stand having "O Come All Ye Faithful" playing to a different, unnatural beat.

What is my problem? I kept asking myself over and over. Why is this such a big deal? As long as she is playing, why not just be happy? And then I remembered my mom. I'm going to blame this one on her. She doesn't even play, but she would go crazy when we played a song without counting. I should have picked up on this annoyance of hers back then and used it against her, but I didn't. And now it has become one of mine. Oh, sometimes we are just like our parents regardless of how we resist. And I am resisting, trying to let her play without counting, but I can't get over it. As soon as I find the right metronome, I will require it's use as my children practice so my ears can feel happy and so I can allow some of that ingraining that is deep down inside me, caused by my mother, to have peace.

Lego Land

Another adventure we had this summer was to go to Lego Land. My girls haven't really been into Lego's, we only own the toddler size ones and Camie and Danielle do play with them quite a bit. Spencer is run off my Camie and Danielle if he tries to play because they are already playing with them. For his birthday, Spencer got some of the smaller, grown-up Lego's from a friend, a small pack that he has really enjoyed.

We decided to venture out with some friends to Lego Land and do their free make and take project. We got there a little late so we had to wait in line, but once we got in all 5 kids were able to create a little duck bird. They LOVED it! I'm not sure which one of my children like it the best. Nathan was a little young and had had enough waiting in line. The demonstrator put Nathan's together for him and Nathan was excited to hold it. I tried to help Spencer, but it was a little too complicated! I had no idea Lego's could be that hard! The girls all did really well. I'm thinking we might need to start investing in Lego's. I think it could some pretty good brain food.

A Day at the Lake

Saturday Evan took the girls out to the lake to go water skiing with Troy and Becky. Their boys were out-of-town, so it was just Audrey. That meant a lot of time to themselves to ski, tube, swim, and do whatever they wanted without the older boys pestering them to do more "adventurous" things. I stayed home with my little boys. The girls spent the entire day out on the lake and didn't get home till well after 9pm. When they got home they had story after story of what they did and how much fun it was. Taneal was bragging about catching air on the tube. Danielle was miffed because she and Evan got on the tub together and as soon as they started to go, Evan jumped off leaving Danielle on the tube by herself. She was capable of doing it, just too scared. I thought it was funny that that was her highlight of the day. Camie didn't try the knee boarding but sure got courageous on the tube. She started kneeling on it with no hands. She thought that was pretty cool. And I was happy with Evan because he took pictures. I really wanted to go but thought it best if me, my pregnant belly, and the boys stayed home. I hate missing out on things like seeing my kids have the time of their lives, but life doesn't always allow that. So, I was glad Evan got a few shots. Thanks Troy and Becky for a fun day at the lake.

Can you tell Danielle is a little nervous in this picture? I liked her expression.

Taneal knee boarding. Way to go Taneal! I don't think I knee boarded until after I was an adult. So fun to see what kind of grown-up things she can do.

Audry and Taneal being goofy. They had so much fun.

Camie doing the "no hands" thing. That silly girl. Glad she had fun and got a little brave. She tends to be more cautious like me.

Evan and Danielle. I'm suprised Danielle didn't do more on her own. She is a little daredevil at home.