Catch-All and Therapy

This post is a catch-all for any events or activities that have transpired since Peter was born and school starting that I haven't gotten to on the blog yet. Items will be listed in no particular order because I'm tired and my nerves are more than a little frayed today.  Which leads me to my next reason for blogging late at night when the baby is asleep, as I should be.  Therapy.  It was one of those days today.  I don't care to go into details, as it would further stress my fragile state of mind, but suffice it to say, my oldest and youngest children have both moved me to tears more than once in the last week.  Writing is cathartic for me and I do need to relax before I go to bed.

George is getting to do something that none of his brothers or sisters have done.  He's going to school!  Well, not exactly, but he is doing a little neighborhood preschool/playgroup some moms in the neighborhood organized.  They meet Tuesdays and Thursdays for an hour and a half and do a few little field trips over the year.  So far, he likes it and I've remembered to take him and pick him up every day!  Small miracles!  No, that's not exactly true, he sometimes walks home with a neighbor, so I suppose I can't even take that much credit.  With seven families participating, it's not too much of a commitment to host at our house every few weeks.

Okay, this next one is big news!  Bethany auditioned to move up to the highest level of the  preparatory orchestras with Lyceum Orchestra program.  There are four preparatory orchestras before the top Philharmonic Orchestra-- which you cannot possibly get into unless you are at least ninth grade (she is in eighth).  She has worked very hard the last year and improved so much in technique and sound quality and we really hoped she would make it into Symphonic Strings.  AND SHE DID!  She was worried after her audition because she said it all went well, except the sight-reading portion-- never her strong suit.  Fortunately, we didn't have a long wait because one of the proctors came out immediately and told her she'd made it!  Oh, joy!

We called up our friends, the Butterfields, the night of the BYU/Texas game a little while back and begged seats on their couch to watch.  They kindly hosted us for a game that was so exciting to watch, it actually had Abe rolling on the ground at times.  Those were the time he wasn't being a very attentive father and helping with a somewhat fussy Peter.

Sometimes Cannon talks and sings too much.  He has yet to learn the virtue of silence.  And Faith has a hard time sitting still and is constantly doing handstand and headstands and back bends and cartwheels.  But how can I express my joy when we saw them walking home from church hand in hand.  Oh, my heart!  It is too much.  They are best friends and they make me happy.  And neither of them have moved me to tears anytime in the recent or distant past.

The girls have been working on a project.  I think Elinor is using a pocket knife to whittle her stick.  It could be one of my paring knives.  I hope it's a pocket knife, but I suspect otherwise.

Bethany wrapping a handle on her handmade bow.

Nice form, Faith.  I'm not sure why making bow and arrows required bringing so much greenery into the garage.  We've never really prided ourselves on our neat and tidy garage.  I'm slowly coming to peace with the fact that that likely will not change anytime soon.

 Here are the final result, including homemade quivers full of arrow.  Talk about resourceful-- the quivers are made from cereal boxes covered in cut-off sleeves of old shirts.  The arrows and taped together bamboo BBQ skewers with twine covered tips.  Such artists!
Tragically Elinor's bow broke moments before this picture, but she has since created a new one.

This past Sunday was our Primary program in Sacrament meeting.  After heading up the Primary program for four years as Primary president, I can't tell you what a treat it is to get to just sit and enjoy it.  We invited Dad and Bev to come down and enjoy it with us and I finally got a really good picture of the Peters, minus my brother in Virginia.  Someday I will get all three of them together.

And speaking of my Dad, he took the girls on a boating/fishing expedition yesterday.  They left empty handed, but enjoyed being out on the boat-- even if they did have to leave the house at 5:30 AM.  Although, perhaps it wasn't so bad for them to get up so early.  Bethany and Elinor, in their exuberance for the new school year, have been setting alarms and getting up at 6:00 to start on their school work.
Who are these children?  I swear, I couldn't get myself out of bed for an 8:00 class in college! 

While the ladies were away, it was just mommy and the boys.  You know your family is getting large when half your children are gone and your family is still markedly bigger than an average family.  Exciting times!  Well, I'm just going to say it-- was handsome boy-children I have!

George, when running towards the ball in soccer-- arms stretched out behind him, mouth open yelling a war cry.  Do you suppose he is trying to intimidate the other 3 and 4 year olds?

Soccer can be dangerous and a hit to the mouth took him out of the game for a bit.

He really was happiest sitting in the shade of his dad "taking a rest".  He takes a lot of rests because as he said, "I'm just really hot!"  That being said, when he plays he shows markedly more aggression (in a good way) than any other Fox child to date.  Maybe as the season progresses and temperatures cool he will play more.  It's not that the coach tells him to take breaks.  Rather, although this coach is super nice and encouraging to the boys, he seems to have trouble keeping enough players on the field.  They all want to take rests.  Preschool soccer is funny to watch, but the real entertainment is watching the parents trying to get their kids to get out on the field and pay any attention to the ball.  I recall Cannon doing air-bending at this age and just wanting to talk to the coaches and referees.

Clark won't like me for this, but if not this, then something else.  Here was my biggest laugh of the week.  In a grammar exercise he had to capitalize a movie title.  Translation:  "Fella Ship a da Ring (Cajun Style)"  or Fellowship of the Ring.
It was almost as funny today, when listening to a Disney channel on Pandora, and "Bibbity-Bobbity-Boo" came on. The lady is singing a whole string of non-sensical words, and he said, "That poor old woman can't speak English.  She is trying to speak English, but she can't do it."  Funny guy.

Clark, if you read this post, please don't be mad at me.  Someday your posterity will thank me.

Here's to a calmer day tomorrow.   Did I mention I can't even soothe myself with chocolate?  It upsets Peter's tummy and we try not to do anything that upsets Peter.  You'd think I could handle babies crying better after all this experience, but I think I've gotten worse and have a very low tolerance for a crying Peter.