Fast Sunday

Sunday Spencer asked Taneal, "Is today fast Sunday?"

Taneal told him that it was not.

Spencer, "Oh. So today we can go slow?"

Taneal then explained to Spencer what fast Sunday was. (How did I miss this? My children are all fully educated in the gospel. They know everything.)

And Spencer's comment with a look of shock on his face, "YOU CHOOSE TO BE HUNGRY? WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO DO THAT?"

Maybe one day he will understand.

Close Call

I was driving down one of the main, busiest streets around here, driving past one of the big subdivisions, and all of a sudden I hear a loud bang and then the sound of glass falling. I look in my rear-view mirror and see a big hole in the back window of my car, right next to where Nathan is sitting. I hurried and pulled over, which can be scary in and of itself, and frantically got out and made sure nothing had hurt Nathan. Glass was all around him but he was not hurt. He evn thought it was soo cool not to have a wondow anymore. 

Then my brain started to digest what happened.

A guy using a weed whacker along the mail road flipped a rock that hit the window and shattered it. Fluke. Thankfully Nathan wasn't hurt. Yes, glass was all over the car, some pieces even in his car seat. It could have been bad, but wasn't.

(This is a picture where we taped the glass so I could drive home and not have glass falling everywhere.)

However, the car was basically undriveable. Every bump or turn I made made more glass fall into the car. I drove the car home and parked it until I could have a glass company come out and replace the window.

Taneal's 12th B-day Party

Taneal turned 12. And so we threw her a birthday party. I saw the idea on Pinterest and couldn't resist. A "spa" party. Complete with sleeping mask invitations, homemade bath salts and lip gloss, and fun games. Not to mention yummy food. Oh, and relaxing music playing in the background. I had Taneal limit the friends she invited, I didn't think I could do manicures and pedicures on too many girls. I even had a super wonderful friend come over and help with the party. It was a lot of fun and Taneal LOVED it.

 Here is the food table. Below is not shown the pizza. Got to have pizza at a 12 year-old birthday party.

 Here they are playing the game Blind Man Make-up. One person is blind folded while putting make-up on the lucky girl. The results were great, the girsl couldn't stop laughing, and everyone was such a good sport.

After that game we did face masks and Satin Hands. Super fun, especially when you add cucumbers to the eyes.

I made cupcakes for Taneal so she could use her new cupcake holder. I added eatible pearls to the cupcakes and Taneal was in love!

And then the final game was cucumber stacking. I cut up several cucumbers and the object of the game was to see who could stack the most cucumbers on a girl. I don't think we ended up really counting because they were giggling and having so much fun being silly.

To take home, the girls got homemade bath salts and homemade lip gloss. Super fun, super relaxing, and happy birthday to my young lady!

Books Read in 2011

I love, love, love to read. Each year I set a goal to read 12 books becuase sometimes life gets too busy and I don't take the time to read. And once I dive into a book I remember why I make that same goal for myself every year. It makes me take time for myself and do something I love. And I don't mean that in a selfish sort of way. It also makes me feel like I have a brain again. Like I can do more than cook and clean and change poopy diapers. So here is to this last year and all the books I read (maybe a few more than 12, but who's counting?):

Matched by Allie Condie


Bonds that Make Us Free by C. Terry Warner

The New Testament, King James Version

The Hourglass Door by Lisa Mangum

The Doctrine and Covenants

Savvy by Ingrid Law

A Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers

Unbroken: A World War II Story by Laura Hillenbrand

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

An Echo in the Darkness by Francine Rivers

As Sure As the Dawn by Francine Rivers

Among the Hidden by Margaret Haddix

The Dad in Me

I think I am turning into my dad. No, I don't have the harry chest yet and I am not yet balding. But I am loosing my eye brows like him.

I did something this morning and after, I realized I had learned that little trick from my dad. I took several pitchers of water and dumped them all over my tile floor. Then I got a cleaning rag and spread the water around, then took that same cleaning rag and sopped up all the water. The result was a perfectly clean floor, nothing crusted on it and even the grout was clean.

I remember as a child my dad, or maybe it was my mom, taking pitchers of water and dumping them on the floor with a little shout of "oops" every time they dumped more water on the floor. That little exclamation made me so mad. It was horrible enough that they had to dump water on the floor that I had to clean up, but to add the "oops" to it was just too much. Why couldn't they just mop the floor with a mop like normal people? A little pine sol? Nope, not us. We had water dumped on the floor that took FOREVER to clean up.

Last night as I was cleaning up, as I was sweeping, I was overwhelmed with all the nastiness on my floor. All the crusties that would take some serious elbow grease scrubbing to remove. And I just didn't have the energy. I am usually a weekly hand scrubber of my floor, but I have let that slide over the last month, using a mop, which really doesn't achieve the same results. Especially when you let children use that mop.

Now I see why my dad used this horrible dumping of water all over the floor. It softens things up and makes the job so much easier. I used to be able to hand mop a floor with not too much effort. But the traffic of 6 messy children in my home is making me resort to things I swore I would never do.

Swim-a-thon

Remember the Summer of Seals that I did last summer? And if I wasn't blogging from my phone I would link it. But I guess there are some drawbacks from laying in bed and blogging. And when you get done reading this post you will understand why it is 7:30 and my kids are already tucked in bed and I am ready to fall fast asleep.

When Summer of Seals started, I couldn't swim. I listened to a lot of people, had Taneal critique me, and I figured out how to do the breaststroke. I was so pleased with myself because I had accomplished so much. However, I still couldn't do freestyle, and that really bothered me.

And then I went and joined a gym. I decided that regardless of my weight, exercise is just healthy. And I want to be healthy. I started running on the treadmill, using the elliptical, and lifting some weights. It was good. Something I could incorporate into my everyday routine. And the company wasn't too shabby, two of my good friends consistently went to the gym and did the elliptical with me.

And then I was looking over the classes offered and discovered they have a lap swimming class. This wasn't swim lessons, this is lap swimming. The qualifications to be able to take this class is the ability to swim 200 yards.

That's me! I can swim 500 yards. I did it at Summer of Seals.

I showed up for the first class and the teacher said to warm-up with 200 yards freestyle.

Not me! I can't do that! But I had to do that. And so I did. I felt like I was drowning! No kidding. But the teacher said something like why don't you try this, and maybe try that. And by the end of the class I was utterly exhausted. But I was swimming freestyle.

She said it would take me a good 3 weeks before I felt like I could really breathe. And she was right. The class is 75 minutes of swimming.

Today was the annual swim-a-thon. What that means is you swim for 60 minutes, no breaks, no stopping. And that is what I did.

The results? I am so ready to go to bed. I swam 2600 yards! That is 52 laps. Or 104 times the length of the pool. I started 200 freestyle and then alternated 25 freestyle 25 breaststroke. The worst part was the first 100. And then I got into a groove and the rest just flew.

I was so pleased. It really is quite an accomplishment. Especially where I came from a year ago. And it was so fun to have two of my good friends right there with me swimming along side me. They started taking the class a week or so after I started. And it has been fun. We were all so impressed with our accomplishment.

I can't wait to beat my time next year!

Taneal gets her ears pierced

I said 8. Evan said never. We compromised on 12.

Taneal turned 12 this year. Two days before her birthday, I called Evan and asked if I could go ahead early and surprise taneal and get her ears pierced. He agreed, so I found a sitter, took taneal to the mall. As we pulled into the parking lot, I told taneal what we were doing.

Taneal has wanted her ears pierced for as long as I can remember. When she was 8 she begged and begged and finally Evan told her if she asked even one more time she would never get her ears pierced. So she quit asking and started wearing those magnetic earrings.

So guess Taneals reaction when we pulled into the mall parking lot and I let her in on what we were doing?

She bawled. She didnt just shed a few little tears. She cried and cried for a good 30 minutes.

What?!?!

This goes to show Taneals personality. She said she wasn't 12 yet so she couldn't get the pierced yet. You dont break the rules, even a little. And , I kind of sprung something huge on her without warning. Thats a big no no also. Taneal has never done well with surprises. She likes to plan and prepare.

So we left the mall, tears streaming, no ear piercing.

I had looked forward to this day for years. And then she cried and refused to do it. And I certainly wasn't going to force her. Didn't even want to try to talk her into it. You know, it needs to be her choice.

And then her birthday rolled around 2 days later and Taneal was ready. She announced that morning that when I brought her lunch to school, we could just go ahead and leave and get her ears pierced. She wanted to make her 12th bday memorable.

I warned her that if I picked her up from school and checked her out early that once we left the school there was no changing her mind.

And she did it. No hesitation at all. And doesn't she look gorgeous?

Merry Christmas

This year we redesigned Christmas. And it was so much fun. So much better, so much more practical, and so rewarding.

I have this problem. Christmas can be somewhat overwhelming. It isn't the traditions and activities that we do that overwhelmes me. It is all the gift wrapping. And the buying. And the making sure everything is fair and even. And with six children to wrap my brain around, not to mention staying within a budget, I feel like the spirit of Christmas kind of looses its piazzas. Or its feel. Or its  . . specialness. You get the point.

This year we made a rule for Santa. We please and kindly asked him that he only bring each child one gift from each of the following categories: READ it, WANT it, WEAR it, and NEED it. That meant 4 gifts per child from Santa total. That's it. Easy, simple, but still with much room to be ever so creative. And then Evan and I bought a gift for each child and each of the kids bought for each of their brothers and sisters. And, the older children had to pay for half of their gifts to everyone. That meant they had to spend within their means. And their means were minimal. It was GREAT!  

The kids had so much fun thinking about what they were going to get each other. Then we shopped, created, wrapped, and got so very excited.

Camie ended up getting Molly, an American Girl Doll. She was in heaven. She also got Rick Riordan's Son of Neptune. She got some clothes and a new bicycle helmet. Spencer gave her a horse to go with her doll. Taneal gave her some canvas boards to paint on.

Danielle got the roller blades she wanted along with a new bicycle helmet, some clothes and several pairs of shoes. Danielle tears through shoes like there is no tomorrow. She is rough on those shoes. Taneal got Danielle some body glitter perfume and Camie got her some makeup.

Taneal got a kindle for her "read it" She also got a straightener for her "want it" and some underwear for her "need it". Not really, she didn't get underwear. I just wanted a reaction from her as she read this post.

Spencer got some Star Wars toys. Camie got him a new Wii-mote so he could play his favorite Wii game, Lego Star Wars.

Here is Camie so excited to have Molly.

Nathan here opening the present from Spencer, a stick horse.

This is Nathan's present from TAneal. She sewed the boys super hero capes. She designed their logos and sewed them on. It took a lot of work, but that was the cool part because she really got to get into the spirit of Christmas.

Here is Spencer in his cape.

And here is Nathan. Yes, that is a censured block. He loves to strip down. And this is a mask he got from Santa. I couldn't resist getting a picture of the "real" Nathan. However, I didn't think it appropriate to share it completely with you readers.

I couldn't have been happier with Christmas this year. Love the new way of Santa only bringing the 4 gifts. And I know the kids all ended up getting a lot of gifts because all siblings bought for each others, but it really was so fun to see them come up with gifts that were well thought out. Christmas this year had a whole different feeling. In fact, I forgot to share how we managed it all. First the kids opened their stockings and Santa gifts. Then when all that was done, we took turns handing out our gifts so we could see what everyone got and also see the excitement of each other opening the well thought out gift.

Merry Christmas!

Towels

We go through a lot of towels in this home. If you figure 8 of us bathing daily, that's a whole lot of towels. To reduce the amount of laundry and towels I have to fold, I have tried to get my children to reuse their towels over the course of a week, to hang them to dry so they still smell nice. It is a challenge, one that only taneal has figured out. Day after day I go into Camie and Danielle's room and again, towels are strewn all over, left to sour.

Well, Danielle came to me last night bragging about how she doesn't even use a towel anymore. She said she just doesn't need one because she figured out a better solution. She said that after she is done showering, she does jumping jacks in the shower before she gets out which makes all the water fall off. Pretty genius.

So tonight she showered, came in to give me my goodnight hug, and drenched me with her hair. She obviously had skipped the towel dry method and used her new jumping jacks dry method.

She thinks it works pretty well!

Motivation

Mmmmm.... Breakfast

It's amazing what a little motivation can do to getting a clean house!

Pulling teeth

My kids are such wimps when it comes to pulling teeth. It's like pulling teeth around here to get them to pull their teeth! Danielle has had a super loose tooth for several weeks and refuses to let that thing come out. I am surprised she hasn't eaten it yet because it is so loose.

Tonight Evan managed to convince her to let him tie a string around the tooth. I think she may have to go to bed with that string still there because it is so tight around the trot and just plain stuck. She has been working with the tweezers for 20 minutes trying to untie the knot around the tooth.

Hopefully the tooth fairy can come tonight, but it is unlikely. Probably, she will take a bite of yogurt in the morning and swallow it.

Of course, taneal was the same way. I imagine I probably was too.

Really Cool Idea

I occasionally frequent Pinterest.com and see lots and lots of really cool ideas. Most of which are just that: really cool ideas that if I had maybe an extra few hours each day, I might get around to doing. But even then, I probably wouldn't have time.

But here is one that I did copy. A nail polish holder. You take a spice rack and put nail polish in it. I hunted and hunted all over the place trying to find a spice rack and finally resorted to Amazon. Two days later it was on my door step and a few days after that it was wrapped and under the tree for a Christmas present for Taneal. She LOVED the gift. We hung it in her wall Christmas day and now all her nail polish is organized and in view and out of little hands reach. Win-win all the way. And, it was only $14!

Nursing Mothers

Yes, I am one of them. I was blessed with good producing equipment that functions well. It may not "look" well, but it does its job. I am a nursing mother. I have been able to nurse all my babies till at least a year. That's a lot of months of nursing, at least 72 months of it. And I also know I was blessed because I know way too many mothers that really wanted to nurse, they really just couldn't for one very legitimate reason or another.

Because I have nursed babies for so long, when I ran across this comic, I really laughed. It is so true and also so unfortunate about our society. But it is what it is and this depicts our culture's view on the whole breast feeding thing.

Christmas Morning Breakfast

Saw this very cool idea on Pinterest and decided to impress my very-easy-to-impress children for breakfast Christmas morning. It was a hit.

Spencer Can Read

Spencer read his first book completely by himself tonight. I am a proud mamma. He is 5 and starts kindergarten next year. We have been doing the program Teach Your Child to Read in 100 easy lessons. It works. Even on boys. We are on lesson 91 of 100. And tonight he read the whole book Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss all by himself. Way to go spencer!

Part of a big family

We had German pancakes for breakfast. We were about out of syrup. while at Costco, taneal texted me this message:

"This morning I had to scrape the syrup off of other peoples plates because there was none"

She wanted to remind me to buy more syrup.

Just made me laugh. Who does that? Couldn't believe she would actually scrape syrup off someone else's plate and eat it. Yuck! She must be used to having lots of siblings!

Gingerbread Houses

It is that time of year again. My children LOVE to decorate gingerbread houses, and since it has become one of our traditions over the last few year, it was fun to do it again this year. We invited my sister, Bonnie, and her husband over along with another family that we go to church with.

This year I made two houses for my family. We divided into teams and it was really a whole lot of fun to see Camie, Danielle, and Spencer all work together. They were totally a team, went right at it, not squabbling of any kind at all. They each just took a part and went at it and had fun.

Seeing as how I am having a hard time even getting a post up to my blog, I am not going to go into any fancy elaboration, I am just going to get this out there. Wish I had more time to tell the story, but lets let the pictures do it in this post.