My Man-Child

Meet my eldest child-- "The Gnome Boy".
He is also a very talented Duplo Castle builder. 
He is very good at entertaining younger children.
He is now an expert on Aztecs, Mayans, and Incans.  (Notice the pile of books on the floor). 

He's into astronomy.
He's into Lewis and Clark.
He draws maps of imaginary countries.
He cooks delicious scrambled eggs.
He has remarkable powers of memorization.
He's learning to play Viva La Vida on the piano.

He has great friends and enjoys their company. 
He loves to be home in the company of his family.
He loves to be by himself.
He reads the funnies in the newspaper every morning--unless he decides to get a head start on his school work-- then he'll skip the funnies and go straight to spelling.
His pet snake, Ledge, is alive and well.  Several people call him if they have reptile questions. 
He kills spiders for his Mama.

 

I hope my Man-Child gets to go on a great adventure someday.  

He's a big kid with a giant soul.
I love you, Clark.

Good Knights, Fair Maidens

I had a really enjoyable day today and it was due in large part to this outstanding group of young people.  We had our kids' book club and we read King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table.  I agree with Clark's assessment of the book, "I didn't really like the book, but I'm glad to have read it.  It was very long with lots of damsels in distress and knights cutting off each others' heads." 
There is always  A LOT of energy when this group gets together, but they are so much fun.  

It looks like the knights are attacking the fair maidens, but in fact they are focused on the Holy Grail (the pink cup) that Bethany is holding.  One of our activities was someone hiding it and then everyone going on a quest to find it. 

I think the favorite activity was pillow jousting.  The contenders had to keep at least one foot on the duct tape at all times.  The first one to step off lost.  It was hysterical!  I had to get in on the action-- I couldn't help myself.  I won my rounds, but I did have quite the weight advantage.

Clark was our grand champion. 
I am so proud.

The ladies had their own tournament.  Much to the disappointment of the boys, I could not allow the knights to joust with the ladies.  Bethany did not win for the ladies. 
I am ashamed.

The snack was beef stew on a trencher.  As I understand it, in medieval times they didn't use plates, but rather ate their food off of a hard piece of bread called a trencher.  Most would then eat their trencher, but the rich would throw them out for the poor to eat.  How generous.

It was FREEZING, but it's hard to stop 10-12 year old boys from heading out for a quick sword fight.

 Our final game was "Perilous Seige Musical Chairs".  In the book the Perilous Seige is the final chair of the Round Table that no one can sit in until Sir Galahad comes.  If they do sit there, they will die. 
There were always enough chairs for everyone, but one was the Perilous Seige and whoever was left with it had to give their best death scene and then move out of the way. 

Elinor is enjoying her younger kids' book club that my neighbor is doing with the younger siblings of these kids.  Now Faith is begging to get to have a little kid's book club.  I guess I have some planning to do-- I'm thinking of a glorified story time. 

I Guess I Needed to Hear That

It is not good form to steal from another blog, but I read this quote moments ago and IT SPOKE TO ME!  So I must share it.

“I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous.
I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration, I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized.
If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.”

                                                        Johann Wolfgang von Goethe-- German writer

So painfully true.  I haven't been doing a very good job of this lately.  I must do better.  I must be calmer, kinder, gentler.  My apologies to my family.

Yikes, this is like the "Mother Anthem".  This should be put to music and sung while standing at every gathering of women.  You know, like if you go out to eat with girlfriends you must stand and sing this song before your meal comes.  At all ladies book club gatherings, scrap-booking parties, before your pedicures-- you must stand and sing the anthem of motherhood.

If this quote speaks to you too, I fully give you permission to steal it and post it on your blog.

"I Bear a Charmed Life"

"There's daggers in mens' smiles".

The kids performed in MacBeth this week.  Clark was King Duncan, Elinor was the doctor and a murderer, and Bethany was Ross and Lady MacDuff.  They had a grand time and my HUGE thanks goes out to Andrea Flynn who is the mastermind behind the Shakespeare class the kids take.  

We made it through the week of rehearsals and performances, but it was rough with all the sickness.  But THE SHOW MUST GO ON!  

We probably passed some nasty germs around, but "What's done is done and cannot be undone".

Even still,  I'm sorry.

False Start

The holidays are over.  It is time to get back to work.  Ready... Set... GO!

No... no wait--

Pause that thought.

Ready... Set... GET SICK.

BLAAAHH!  We've been sickie-poo around here.  Just a nasty fever/cold, but the week has passed in an unpleasant blur.   We've all been afflicted-- here is the order of most-to-least severe:  Cannon, George, Elinor, Faith, Bethany, and Clark.  Abe and I have been sick too, but since we don't get the luxury of crying loudly and lounging on the couch all day, it is hard to accurately judge where we fit in the line-up. 

Ahhh, remembering back to happier/simpler days before the tears and boogers started flowing freely this week.

We still tried to chug through the school work, but it was no fun for anybody.  And darn it!  I was all ready for a great start to our new school semester.  Blaahhh.   All my plans--WASTED!  Well, now I'm just complaining--sorry.
However, it has been a while since I've had a good complaining post.  I think I shall indulge tonight. 

(Now would be a good time to stop reading this post).

Complaint #1
There is the NASTIEST inversion outside.  The air is filthy and with all due respect to my friends and family in the northwest who go months at a time without seeing the sun,  this is really reeking havoc on my already fragile mood.  I haven't been able to see the mountains for several days because it is so foggy-soup out there.  And need I mention that I have a family (including a baby) who are sick and need clean air to breathe to get better?

Complaint #2
We ran out of hair conditioner the other day and we picked up a bottle of super cheap conditioner to tide us over till the next big trip to the store.  I'm not really a conditioner snob, but they changed the formula for the super cheap and now it is SUPER HORRIBLE!  You may not think this is a big deal, but I've got a mane of hair myself and 3 girls with tons of hair to comb through, and it's just been very unpleasant.   For whatever it's worth-- I love Dove-- and I now HATE Suave.

Complaint #3
To help motivate my home schooled children to get there jobs/assignments/practicing completed in a timely manner each day, we have a simple little chart where they keep track of the days that they get everything done.  When they have 20 days, they get to go on a date with Mom or Dad.  They alternate between Mom and Dad. 
Clark and I have a date for lunch tomorrow.  Does it hurt my feelings, that although we're not sure what we're doing tomorrow, Clark keeps wanting to talk to Abe about what they are going to do on their next date?  Well, yes it does. 
Come on, man!  I know Abe is way more fun than me, but still.  I think I use to be fun.  Maybe when I wasn't buried alive in diapers, dishes, laundry, school work, cooking.  Okay, I guess if I ever was fun, it has been a long time and Clark really wouldn't ever have a memory of me being fun. 

Complaint #4
My brother's wife Misty gave birth to their first child today-- a beautiful baby girl named Aliyah.  I'm not complaining about this.  This is WONDERFUL news!  BUT I'M NOT THERE to hold her!!!!   I'm so sad.  Even if I was there I couldn't hold her-- because I have a cold.  But still, I want to hold her, and I can't. 

Complaint #5
I've run out of Dove Dark Chocolate in my freezer. 
It's for the best, since I shouldn't eat chocolate while I'm sick. 
I shouldn't eat so much chocolate anyway. 
Stupid New Year's resolutions.

What I Got For Christmas-- TIME

Tomorrow regular life begins again and I feel ready to get back to work.  This last couple of weeks of Christmas and New Year's celebrations have been joyous and relaxing.  Here is my top ten list of what I had TIME for that made the break so rejuvenating for me. 

10.  Time to complete little projects around the house.

9.  Time to organize my schedule for the next semester of home school with the children.

8.  Time for two date nights with Abe.

7.  All the time I want for kissing and snuggling my little people.

6.  Time for taking several daytime naps while Abe held down the fort

5.  Getting to nibble as many holiday treats as I wanted- I spent a lot of time doing this.

4.  Time for sharing testimony with my people around the Christmas tree.

3.  Time for the kiddos to play with each other and with friends quite peacefully for two weeks straight.

2.  Time to spend at delightful gatherings with extended family.

1.  Time to play games and party with good friends into the wee hours of the morning.

And now it is time for me to go to bed.  Good night.

Odd Woman Out

One of these things is not like the others
One of these things just isn't the same

Remember, I told you about my masses of younger girl cousins who have now grown into BEAUTIFUL young women?
Well, I wanted in on the cute, young, cousin photo. 
I shouldn't have.
Truly, these girls are gems.

A Japanese Gift

This is my sister, Brig (short for Brigitta).  This is her husband, Dev (not short for anything, but I call him Devonshire--I can't help myself).  As a Christmas gift to Abe and I, they took us to a fancy-pants Japanese restaurant called Kyoto.  I think Kyoto is Japanese for yummy. 

No, that's not true, but it could be because our dinner was delicioso-- which actually is Spanish for delicious.  But I digress. 

The food was fantastic and the company was marvelous.  Devonshire served his mission to Japan.  I think it was quite authentic, except that I'm sure we ate more than any Japanese person would ever eat in one sitting.  Probably more than they would eat in a week's worth of sittings.

Mmmmm.  Yummy soup.  It has tofu in it.  I quite like tofu.  I think I will learn how to cook with tofu.

Mmmm.  Yummy salad.  I like meals with lots of courses.  It's so much fancier than the one stop casserole featured at our house many nights.  And it takes longer to eat, and I like to eat, so I get to enjoy it that much longer.  Besides, if I'm having several courses it probably means I'm not the one doing the cooking and serving-- and I really like that.

Georgie came with us because he is my appendage, but he was a good little appendage.  
He is not a happy appendage even as I type this, so I'm off....