"The Worst Plan EVER!"

I love my people. I do not want that to be in question as I share a little frustration with my friends in cyberspace (is "cyberspace" even used nowadays?).

We all get grouchy sometimes. Some get a little more grouchy, a little more easily than others. Without naming names, one of my people (you probably know who or you will soon) tends to get his feathers ruffled a bit easier than most. Today, thinking I was being a nice, fun mom, I say to the kids, "Here's the plan for afternoon/evening: Play with friends, Tae Kwon Do, bowling with Dad, and then haircuts for the boys".

In all grouchy seriousness, here was the response. "That is the worst plan ever. That plan couldn't get much worse. I HATE that plan".

Did I miss something here? Did you catch the part about playing with friends and bowling with Dad? And last time I checked, you loved Tae Kwon Do. Really, you can't think of a worse plan than that?

Tomorrow and the next day is Webelos Day Camp. Oh, happy day! I think this boy needs BOYS, DIRT, SWIMMING, BUGS, NO SISTERS and stupid ten-year-old boy jokes. God bless the Boy Scouts of America!

Foolish, Foolish Woman

We have had some serious bedtime issues around these parts. Serious, as in, WE DON'T HAVE A BEDTIME. Period. Children just conk out whenever, where ever. Not uncommon for Faith to still be up at 11:00. Shameful. If we do try to enforce actual sleeping in one's own bed, my people find a myriad of excuses to get out of bed. Such excuses include, but are not limited to: I'm thirsty; I'm hot; I need a book to read (I'm a sucker for this one); so-and-so won't get off my bed; can we listen to a book on tape?; I forgot to brush my teeth; I'm scared; I'm not tired; Can I just get a healthy snack?; I need a different blanket; I can't find my pillow; I just need a hug; What are you watching?; What's the plan for tomorrow?; I just need to organize my things; Can you sing to us (flattering!); I need a coughdrop (although they are not sick AT ALL).

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? I've read the books- I know sleep is mega important to children's growth, development, yada, yada, yada.

Last night, at a ridiculously late hour, we were still negotiating sleeping arrangements and conditions. My Mommy-O-Meter reached it's maximum capacity and I said the word I say when I really would like to say another word (which I don't say): "ENOUGH!!!! I have had ENOUGH!"

I needed a new plan,

See, the problem is children sharing rooms. I actually think it is very good for children to share rooms (it's good to feel that way when you have more children than rooms), but it can make bedtime a bit trickier. Mom and Dad have to have a plan or the children will conspire to RUIN your evening. As we have seen.

Here's the new plan: Operation GO TO SLEEP. Faith and Cannon to bed no later than 7:30. Clark, Bethany, and Elinor to bed and lights out at 9:00. What's the magic that makes this plan work when so many others have failed? Enter, THE FLASHLIGHT. Each child gets their very own, labeled (lest there be ownership disputes) $2.00 flashlight. Read to your hearts content until whatever hour you wish, but so help me if I see you cherubic face or hear your angelic voice after 9:00!
Operation GO TO SLEEP was a brilliant success tonight. Now that wasn't so hard, was it? Foolish, foolish woman. I have five children. I should have been on top of this earlier. Foolish, foolish woman. Oh well, this foolish woman has enjoyed three hours of peace and quiet tonight!

Saying Goodbye

Saying goodbye to my 31st year of life. To celebrate my hubby took me bowling and BEAT ME!!! How rude of him. We went with our good friends, the Johansens. Jeff Johansen is a really good bowler, but he condescended to bowl with us commoners. I think it just makes him feel really good to shmear everybody. Just kidding. Sort of.







Saying goodbye to Clark's longer hair. He wanted to grow it out a bit, as that is somewhat the style (I guess?) these days. I think we're doing something wrong and it just looks messy (or like his mother doesn't love him). So tomorrow we must go visit Todd, the barber.









Saying goodbye to Elinor's cast. Tomorrow she will have it cut off and she will lose her "club" which she has been threatening her siblings with. It's been quick and painless, albeit a little itchy at times. She is looking forward to seeing how skinny her arm will be. I'm hoping that since she's been able to swim in a chlorinated pool that it won't be too stinky.








Saying goodbye to Faith's more cooperative days. It took a little while, but our little Faith has found a mind of her own. She's making her will known, mainly through crying, on all sorts of subjects. What she will and will not eat, what she will and will not wear, where she will and will not sit, when she will and will not go to bed. You get the idea. Not pretty. I guess I'll have to bust out my parenting books and remind myself what I should be doing. I think I got lazy with Faith because she was SO DELIGHTFUL for long.



Saying goodbye to Suzuki's Book 2 on the violin. Bethany has moved into book 3. We had hopes for a little recital of her book 2 songs, but with it being summer I don't know if we'll get that far. Clark and Elinor don't have piano lessons during July so Bethany feels seriously put out that she still has lessons. Oh the injustice!









Saying goodbye to the one that got away. These are cutthroat trout that Grandpa Cannon and Clark caught on Strawberry Reservoir on Friday. My dad is taking his retirement VERY seriously. Or should I say, he takes his fishing during his retirement very seriously. We couldn't be more grateful to Grandpa for helping fill Clark's need for the great outdoors. Clark told us he almost caught an even bigger one (the one that got away), but it got away!

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

What to do? What to do? Tackle the big, huge, daunting, endless pile of laundry on my bed. . . OR. . . . .













Sit on my couch and read this delicious novel?
You can see what a dilemma this is.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

No, I don't mean the 4th of July-- although I do love that time too. But I'm referring to the day that the school supplies go on sale at Walmart!
I stockpile crayons! I buy them once a year and every year the cashier asks me if I am a teacher and of course I say YES. Do we really need this many crayons, you wonder?
Yes for three reasons:
1. I hate, loathe dull crayons. I love fresh, sharp crayons. So when I color with the kids I need new crayons.
2. If I find crayons left out around the house (and I do find LOTS of crayons left out around the house) I throw them away. I have not the time or mental energy to put crayons away.
3. The kids draw and color ALL THE TIME! An endless supply of crayons is so worth it for the peace they provide.
And crayons are dirt cheap this time of year. Although. . . the price did go up a nickel from last year. Now they are $.25 per pack. Still, totally worth it.
Clark at peace in Lego Land. No, not the one in California. The one we make in our family room. I can't remember if I've written about it before but Lego Land has saved our family. It saves babies from choking on Legos and it saves Clark from destroying anyone who might accidentally break a Lego creation. I can guarantee the safety of any project being built, if it is well within the boundaries of Lego land.
Clark has spent a lot of time in here. He will be joining a First Lego League this fall to team up with some other boys to build a robot to solve a problem and compete against other teams. Ten-year-old boy PARADISE! Thanks to Grandma Fox for supplying us with our Legos over the years. You can never have too many.

Happy 4th of July

We enjoyed a great (busy) 4th of July weekend.















The festivities began Friday evening at our city's parade--aka our city's CANDY-FEST!!
Aren't my men HANDSOME!!!!!














Sometimes it is STINKING HOT for the parade. Fortunately Abe found us a great spot with a bit of shade. To get good seats for the parade we put our chairs out about four days before the parade. Almost the entire front row sidewalk of the parade route is filled up days before the parade. We take our parades seriously in these parts.








For the kids, the purpose of the parade is singular-- GET CANDY. Knock other children out of the way and dive into the middle of the road (even though a big float will run you over), scratch your fingers up on the asphalt to get a tootsie roll. Blessed day if you should be lucky enough to catch a free key chain or the grand-daddy prize of them all--THE T-SHIRT!!! Never mind that the parade participants are throwing so much salt-water taffy into the crowd that you actually get repeatedly pelted in the head. It's all worth it for a chance at a free piece of double bubble. The only injustice of it is that Abe and I can charge "Mom Tax" or "Dad Tax", which means we can tax the children for candy we want but were too lazy to get up from our chair to get ourselves. I know it is totally unfair- and on Independence Day at that, but TOUGH!
Cannon and his cousin, Brigham. I don't know if it comes through on the picture, but there is something very similar about these two little guys. I guess it shouldn't be too shocking-- they are cousins after all. We hope they will be good buddies as they grow up.









The morning of the 4th started with "Diving for Dollars" at the local swimming pool. The city rents out the pool for anyone to come swim for free and there are fun events for several hours. For Diving for Dollars they have certain age groups at a time get in the water and collect coinage spread on the bottom of the pool. Next to the candy from the parade this is a highlight of the 4th of July. Sadly, the kids collected less than in years past--it must be the economy.
Faith spent almost the whole five minutes trying for this one dime.


Sadly she was not successful because she just did not want to put her face and head in. Abe ended up throwing a couple of dimes on the steps so she could reach something.













The girls fared better, but no one broke the $2 mark. Maybe next year. Sorry, no pictures of Clark, but he did participate in the 9-11 yr olds.













We went up to the Capitol for a "Tea Party". It was very interesting and I'm still mulling over what I thought of it all. I am glad that we went and it is remarkable that we could safely go and freely, peacefully gather to protest. This country has it's problems, but it's still THE BEST in the world.










Clark wrote his own protest sign.




















When we got home a neighbor put on an impromptu magic show for the neighborhood kids. I was reading a book inside and I was hearing shrieks of laughter and cheering.












And what 4th of July celebration would be complete without a fantastic fireworks show. Our city puts on a huge show we like to go to the park to watch.

Roller Derby

Introducing the DORKIEST mom in the world!!!!!
We got our car back Thursday evening and I was ready to PARTY!! We went to dollar skate night at Classic Skating. We've never taken our kids roller skating before and it was a smashing success. I was so proud of all the kids because they tired really hard and they DID IT!

Elinor said to Abe, "I had no idea Mom could roller skate!" And check out my skates! They are official roller derby skates and I bought them at D.I. my freshman year at BYU. I know everybody was jealous of them.
The three oldest all rented roller blades and made it around several times with no major injuries.

I'm happy to announce that roller skating is just as fun and trashy as it ever was. There is this subculture of roller skating/ break dancers. They skate/dance in the middle of the rink with their little groupies cheering for them.







Roller Skating rinks have come a long way in one respect. When I was a kid you could only roller skate. Then along came roller blades and that was okay too. Now you can skate, blade, and scooter and tricycle, and stroller. We didn't hear a peep from Cannon all evening. He loved the wind in his hair as his UBER dorky mom roller-strolled him around the rink.







Is this not the cutest thing you've ever seen. Faith wore Winnie-the-Pooh skates and she was quite pleased with herself (as she should have been).


















And this kid was seriously focused on learning to skate. We're hoping to go again soon so call us to go if you too want to channel your inner roller derby champion.

It's Been Fun, but. . .

Today is Thursday and I am now on day six with no car. I previously compared the joy of a brief time with no car to the joy of a brief power outage. I also said that the power outage is only fun for a little while--like until the food starts to spoil in the warm refrigerator.
I think the food is starting to spoil. I am ready to have my wheels back. I'm ready to GET OUT and about again. Boy, you sure do save a lot of money when you NEVER leave the house!
My garage is lonely. It misses its' van. I know what you're thinking-- how can a garage be lonely with so much JUNK in it? Pathetic. I apologize for burning the eyes of my OCD, clean- freak friends.

Are you wondering what we've been doing this week since we haven't been going anywhere? Probably not. But I will share anyway because I am indulging myself right now. I have Wimbledon on in the background and Cannon is sleeping and I'm relaxing.

I have been reading A LOT. As I ignore the goings on of the household the three year old says to me, "Mommmmm, you are reading that too much." Hey, I'm just trying to set a good example! I just finished reading Glenn Beck's Common Sense and Thomas Paine's Common sense. Excellent reading. The result of reading both right before the Fourth of July is that I will probably super- embarrass my family when I openly WEEP at the parade and during the fireworks this weekend. I think we will try to go to a tea party on the 4th.

I have a good friend (hello, good friend!) who recently asked advice on children who fight and argue a lot. My mom used the word "bicker". Hmm, maybe this friend didn't actually ask my advice and I just offered it unsolicited. Oh well. I gave my two cents worth. I advised a summer with NO FRIENDS. They have to just play with each other until they can get along. Call it the "parent-trap school of discipline".
If you've been around our family AT ALL you know that we do have disagreements. I don't know any families that don't but because our kids are around each other so much they do get along quite well and love to play together. I have no problem declaring no-friend days to encourage sibling friendships.
Today Bethany was headed to a friend's house and Faith really wanted to go. I thought back to my childhood and occasionally having to take my little brother out to play and I remember being a real stinker about it. So I asked Bethany if she minded it Faith went with her. I was delighted when she happily consented and helped Faith get dressed to go. This makes a mommy happy-- even a mommy that has been home bound for six days!