Mosey is obsessed. Obsessed with duct tape! You would not believe how much of the stuff he has gone through recently. He is making all kinds of things-- wallets (duct-tape covered zip-lock bags), boats (raft of skewer sticks covered with duct tape), a rosin case for his violin rosin, not to mention the innumerable things he's used duct tape to construct-- a makeshift dog leash, collars for his stuffed animals, the list goes on.
The stuff is miraculous! Give him a roll of duct tape and he will keep himself busy for hours and hours. Mosey is my connoisseur of tape. He goes through it like candy. Packing tape, scotch tape, blue painter's tape, and, of course, duct tape.
Another (unrelated to duct tape) funny thing recently: Mosey brought in the mail a few days ago, and I sorted it, giving him the junk mail to throw away. Somehow we ended up on a mailing list for an American Girl catalog. I kept it and said, as a joke, "Oh, hey, boys! I've found the catalog I'm going to order all your Christmas presents from!" And then I pulled it out to show them, and watched the horrified expressions on their faces. :-) The really funny thing, though, is that later on in the day, I caught Mosey sitting on the couch completely immersed in the American Girl catalog. We've now had the thing for a few days, and it's getting positively dog-eared! (Seriously, all the stuff they have for those dolls is really amazing!) Still, I don't think they'd be too thrilled with an American Girl doll for Christmas.
On Monday night we had a family home evening activity at Walmart, trying to get parts to fix the boys' bikes. We discovered you can buy an entirely new bike for the cost of a new tire and a couple of new innertubes. So Brigham bought himself a new bike! This is BIG NEWS because Brigham hardly ever buys ANYTHING. He's been saving his money since he was old enough to collect pennies for little chores, and he now has over $270.00 (!!!). Ben has given him the nick-name of "Money Bags," and Mosey especially really loves to call Brigham, "Old money bags Brigham." :-) But old money bags Brigham spent $43 of his money on a new bike Monday night. I was proud of him! It's good to save, but I think it's also important for him to have the experience of buying something himself, and then being responsible for taking care of it. He was very diligent, and as soon as he realized the sprinklers were going to get it where he had parked it in the backyard, he ran out and moved it under the back porch.
Joseph's been my errand-buddy the past couple of days. Whenever I have errands to run, I ask the boys if they want to come. Brigham and Mosey always have way better things to do at home (Webkinz World, Civilization, kapla blocks, duct-tape creations), but Joseph likes to come with me. It's awesome getting to have one-on-one conversations with him.
Halloween is coming! The boys are counting down the days in earnest now. I'm still putting the last touches on Joseph's and Mosey's costumes, and hoping I'll have time to maybe make one for myself this year. We'll see. My "Boo" shirt from the Target Halloween line may have to suffice. :-)
That's it, I think. Bedtime!
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Austin Gem and Mineral show
Today was a good Saturday.
Brigham and Joseph had their Halloween recital at their teacher's house. This is a students-only recital, and all the kids came dressed up and brought food for a potluck lunch. I made mini cupcakes decorated with spiders and spider webs and bats and skull and crossbones and eyeballs and "BOO!" They turned out cute, although I probably spent too long on them last night. I'll make more next week and take a picture.
Joseph is an alien this year. He's recycling a grim reaper robe from a couple of weeks ago and added some silver accents and some nifty alien face paint. Brigham is a zombie. Yesterday we spent a couple of hours going from Goodwill to Goodwill to find the elements of his costume. We went to 3 different Goodwills and a Salvation army in order to find one pair of dark pants and a suit-jacket type thing. I couldn't believe the poor selection of boys clothes! The pants he finally found were size 7. Good thing we shredded the bottoms anyway, because they were too short. We never could find a white button-down shirt, so we used a blue button down shirt the boys used as painting smocks. We also couldn't find a boy's suit jacket or blazer. Brigham found a women's size 2 suit jacket which fit reasonably well once we cut the sleeves a bit. I guess little boys just use their clothes up, not leaving much worthwhile giving to Goodwill. I only made it through the first Goodwill and the Salvation Army right next door before my legs gave out. I sent the 3 boys into their other stores by themselves to browse around and buy what they needed. I have independent boys!
Anyway, these are my favorite kinds of Halloween costume-- not store-bought, but also not requiring hours and hours of my time and labor. The boys used their imaginations and came up with their own costumes. I love it! I'll take pictures next week. Mosey's going to be a pirate, which also could be a pretty easy costume, but I told him I'd sew him a fancy ruffled pirate shirt, so it's turning out to be a little more work.
Mosey had a soccer game this morning which Ben took him to. They tied, 0-0! This is a good thing for this little team. :-) Every week their loss margin has shrunk, and today they tied, so maybe, just maybe, they'll win next week? I hope so. Mosey doesn't care as much as Brigham and Joseph did, but he does care a little. The YMCA didn't do a super good job in dividing the teams equally by age. This is a 6-8 year league, and Mosey's team has mostly 6 year olds with a few 7 year olds. No 8 year olds at all. There is a huge gap between the soccer abilities of most 6 year olds versus most 8 year olds, so this little team doesn't have much of a chance against teams with even a few more older kids. A couple of weeks ago when I went to his game, the other team was HUGE compared to Mosey's. One of the girls was the tallest, biggest 8 year old I have ever seen. She was nearly my height!
But Mosey is still enjoying soccer, and that's what I care about. And he came home thrilled because Ben took him to Red Barn (local nursery) and bought him a pumpkin. I admit I am not a good soccer mom. I don't like watching my boys' games! I just get too nervous for them. They're probably not even nervous, but I am! I hate to see them lose, not because I care if they're superstars, but just because I hate to see them disappointed and hurt. And yet, I know these experiences are one of the most valuable thing about playing team sports! Intellectually, I don't want to deprive them of these experiences, but in practice it is awfully hard for me. I'd much rather Ben take them, and then afterwards I can either be consoling or celebrating. I know Mosey likes it when I come, but the soccer field is about a million miles away from the parking lot, and I can't walk there by myself. The path is not the slightest bit wheelchair accessible. So I don't feel too guilty about not going to all his games. And today I had to take Brigham and Joseph to their recital, anyway.
On the way home from the recital I asked Joseph to go into the pet supply store to get crickets for Spots. Joseph was horrified because he was still in his costume and face makeup. But I didn't want to go all the way home and then all the way back, since the store was right on our way home. So I made him go in anyway. I hope I'm not traumatizing him for life. I know Joseph is acutely self-conscious, and he hates feeling like people are looking at him and thinking he's weird, or laughing at him. I told him no one on earth would think he was weird or laugh at him. It's the week before Halloween, and he's obviously coming from a party. Anyway, he did go in and get the crickets. I hope I'm not exacerbating the problem.
When we got home, I told the boys we were going to go to the Austin Gem and Mineral Society's gem and mineral show at the Palmer Events Center downtown. Oh, my, how the moaning and groaning did commence! You would have thought I just told them we were all going to get fillings at the dentist!!! They wanted to stay home. Brigham wanted to draw. Joseph wanted to read. All of them tried to tell me that Saturdays are supposed to be their free days. I have no idea where they got this notion, but I need to root it out of them, and quick! Saturdays we don't have school lessons. But that's it. Saturdays are NOT free! I told them we could stay home and do chores all afternoon if they wanted, and Mosey actually just about took me up on the offer until I told him about the gem hunt they had at the show. Finally they all very reluctantly got into the van and we headed downtown. Well, the gem and mineral show ended up being fantastic! We stayed all the way until closing time, and the boys loved it. We saw all the gems and minerals you could hope to see. The boys got pieces of petrified wood and a fossil as free gifts. There was a "gem hunt" where the kids had 2 minutes to dig through big tubs of gravel to find the hidden polished rocks-- then they got to keep what they found. Mosey was especially thrilled with this, and did it twice ($0.50 each time). There was a place where you could buy geodes and crack them open. We didn't buy any (expensive!), but watched them being cracked open. I gave each boy $4 to buy something. Mosey got a moonstone, and Joseph and Brigham got these cool glass diamonds-- about 3 inches in diameter. Brigham's is green, Joseph's is blue. We just finished our section on minerals, and are starting on rocks in science, so the timing of this event was perfect. The boys knew a decent amount about minerals, and they were all able to find real specimens of the specific gems that they did their reports on. Everywhere there were experts on the things we were looking at-- rare gems, geodes, fossils, petrified wood, etc. We got to watch minerals being cut and polished. Anyway, this was a really awesome way to spend Saturday afternoon. It would have been easier to stay home, but I told the boys that if they just stayed home and built with blocks or drew pictures, they would never remember any of it a year from now, but if we went to the gem show, they would probably remember it their whole lives. And all three of them enthusiastically told me that I was right and that they were glad they came. I didn't even have to say "I told you so!"
The only thing that could have made it better was if Ben had been able to come. He's been swamped at work and worked from about noon until 7:45 tonight. Poor guy!
I didn't take any pictures there because when I got there and took out my camera, I realized my memory card was still in my computer at home... Oh, well.
When we got home, Brigham and Joseph immediately began trading their stones they got at the gem hunt. I was making dinner, listening to the negotiations in the background. Joseph is a hard bargainer, and knows just how to play Brigham to get what he wants. It was fun to listen to them, but I started to get worried. Finally, negotiations were complete, and the boys were putting away their final selections. Brigham looks at what he's got left, and started crying. He had this pitiful pile of rocks left, and Joseph had a huge sackful. Brigham had voluntarily traded all his rocks away, but he's just not as sophisticated a bargainer as Joseph, and I don't think he quite realized what was happening until it was too late. I went over and got out my kitchen scales to see how much each boy had. Joseph ended up with over 3 times the weight of rocks than Brigham had! I complemented Joseph on his negotiating skills, but told him that he was honing his talent at the expense of his brother, non-malicious though it may have been. So we entered into another round of mom-mediated negotiations, and I think both boys walked away satisfied. After it was over, Brigham told me, "I learned a lesson tonight, and that lesson is to be happy with what I have!" I told him if he learns this lesson, he will be way beyond most human beings on this planet.
That was it! A great Saturday.
Brigham and Joseph had their Halloween recital at their teacher's house. This is a students-only recital, and all the kids came dressed up and brought food for a potluck lunch. I made mini cupcakes decorated with spiders and spider webs and bats and skull and crossbones and eyeballs and "BOO!" They turned out cute, although I probably spent too long on them last night. I'll make more next week and take a picture.
Joseph is an alien this year. He's recycling a grim reaper robe from a couple of weeks ago and added some silver accents and some nifty alien face paint. Brigham is a zombie. Yesterday we spent a couple of hours going from Goodwill to Goodwill to find the elements of his costume. We went to 3 different Goodwills and a Salvation army in order to find one pair of dark pants and a suit-jacket type thing. I couldn't believe the poor selection of boys clothes! The pants he finally found were size 7. Good thing we shredded the bottoms anyway, because they were too short. We never could find a white button-down shirt, so we used a blue button down shirt the boys used as painting smocks. We also couldn't find a boy's suit jacket or blazer. Brigham found a women's size 2 suit jacket which fit reasonably well once we cut the sleeves a bit. I guess little boys just use their clothes up, not leaving much worthwhile giving to Goodwill. I only made it through the first Goodwill and the Salvation Army right next door before my legs gave out. I sent the 3 boys into their other stores by themselves to browse around and buy what they needed. I have independent boys!
Anyway, these are my favorite kinds of Halloween costume-- not store-bought, but also not requiring hours and hours of my time and labor. The boys used their imaginations and came up with their own costumes. I love it! I'll take pictures next week. Mosey's going to be a pirate, which also could be a pretty easy costume, but I told him I'd sew him a fancy ruffled pirate shirt, so it's turning out to be a little more work.
Mosey had a soccer game this morning which Ben took him to. They tied, 0-0! This is a good thing for this little team. :-) Every week their loss margin has shrunk, and today they tied, so maybe, just maybe, they'll win next week? I hope so. Mosey doesn't care as much as Brigham and Joseph did, but he does care a little. The YMCA didn't do a super good job in dividing the teams equally by age. This is a 6-8 year league, and Mosey's team has mostly 6 year olds with a few 7 year olds. No 8 year olds at all. There is a huge gap between the soccer abilities of most 6 year olds versus most 8 year olds, so this little team doesn't have much of a chance against teams with even a few more older kids. A couple of weeks ago when I went to his game, the other team was HUGE compared to Mosey's. One of the girls was the tallest, biggest 8 year old I have ever seen. She was nearly my height!
 |
| Mosey after his game a couple of weeks ago. He didn't want to high-five the other team, and he stalked back to the sidelines very clearly unhappy. |
 |
| Now that is a scowl! Luckily, he bounced back pretty quickly. |
On the way home from the recital I asked Joseph to go into the pet supply store to get crickets for Spots. Joseph was horrified because he was still in his costume and face makeup. But I didn't want to go all the way home and then all the way back, since the store was right on our way home. So I made him go in anyway. I hope I'm not traumatizing him for life. I know Joseph is acutely self-conscious, and he hates feeling like people are looking at him and thinking he's weird, or laughing at him. I told him no one on earth would think he was weird or laugh at him. It's the week before Halloween, and he's obviously coming from a party. Anyway, he did go in and get the crickets. I hope I'm not exacerbating the problem.
When we got home, I told the boys we were going to go to the Austin Gem and Mineral Society's gem and mineral show at the Palmer Events Center downtown. Oh, my, how the moaning and groaning did commence! You would have thought I just told them we were all going to get fillings at the dentist!!! They wanted to stay home. Brigham wanted to draw. Joseph wanted to read. All of them tried to tell me that Saturdays are supposed to be their free days. I have no idea where they got this notion, but I need to root it out of them, and quick! Saturdays we don't have school lessons. But that's it. Saturdays are NOT free! I told them we could stay home and do chores all afternoon if they wanted, and Mosey actually just about took me up on the offer until I told him about the gem hunt they had at the show. Finally they all very reluctantly got into the van and we headed downtown. Well, the gem and mineral show ended up being fantastic! We stayed all the way until closing time, and the boys loved it. We saw all the gems and minerals you could hope to see. The boys got pieces of petrified wood and a fossil as free gifts. There was a "gem hunt" where the kids had 2 minutes to dig through big tubs of gravel to find the hidden polished rocks-- then they got to keep what they found. Mosey was especially thrilled with this, and did it twice ($0.50 each time). There was a place where you could buy geodes and crack them open. We didn't buy any (expensive!), but watched them being cracked open. I gave each boy $4 to buy something. Mosey got a moonstone, and Joseph and Brigham got these cool glass diamonds-- about 3 inches in diameter. Brigham's is green, Joseph's is blue. We just finished our section on minerals, and are starting on rocks in science, so the timing of this event was perfect. The boys knew a decent amount about minerals, and they were all able to find real specimens of the specific gems that they did their reports on. Everywhere there were experts on the things we were looking at-- rare gems, geodes, fossils, petrified wood, etc. We got to watch minerals being cut and polished. Anyway, this was a really awesome way to spend Saturday afternoon. It would have been easier to stay home, but I told the boys that if they just stayed home and built with blocks or drew pictures, they would never remember any of it a year from now, but if we went to the gem show, they would probably remember it their whole lives. And all three of them enthusiastically told me that I was right and that they were glad they came. I didn't even have to say "I told you so!"
The only thing that could have made it better was if Ben had been able to come. He's been swamped at work and worked from about noon until 7:45 tonight. Poor guy!
I didn't take any pictures there because when I got there and took out my camera, I realized my memory card was still in my computer at home... Oh, well.
When we got home, Brigham and Joseph immediately began trading their stones they got at the gem hunt. I was making dinner, listening to the negotiations in the background. Joseph is a hard bargainer, and knows just how to play Brigham to get what he wants. It was fun to listen to them, but I started to get worried. Finally, negotiations were complete, and the boys were putting away their final selections. Brigham looks at what he's got left, and started crying. He had this pitiful pile of rocks left, and Joseph had a huge sackful. Brigham had voluntarily traded all his rocks away, but he's just not as sophisticated a bargainer as Joseph, and I don't think he quite realized what was happening until it was too late. I went over and got out my kitchen scales to see how much each boy had. Joseph ended up with over 3 times the weight of rocks than Brigham had! I complemented Joseph on his negotiating skills, but told him that he was honing his talent at the expense of his brother, non-malicious though it may have been. So we entered into another round of mom-mediated negotiations, and I think both boys walked away satisfied. After it was over, Brigham told me, "I learned a lesson tonight, and that lesson is to be happy with what I have!" I told him if he learns this lesson, he will be way beyond most human beings on this planet.
That was it! A great Saturday.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Quick catch-up
The past few days have been busy, as usual. Here's a very, very fast run-down:
Thursday (last): Our busy day with school lessons, then piano lessons, then violin lessons. We forgot Brigham's recital piece at home, so Joseph and Mosey and I raced home to get it during Brigham's lesson-- getting it to him just in time with 5 minutes to spare. The boys are working on their Halloween recital pieces and sounding awesome. Brigham and Mosey had good violin lessons. I was especially proud of Mosey who did a really good job of focusing and listening to his teacher (his teacher has a dog that is almost irresistible to Mosey, and just a little distracting during lessons). After violin lessons we went to Home Depot for "just one thing." The boys don't love going to Home Depot or Lowes because it inevitably turns into a much longer shopping excursion, and this was no exception. The boys were good and helpful, though, perhaps encouraged by the promise of frozen custard at Shakes on the way home. :-)
Friday: Our slower "off" day. We went to Ben's work for their fall work party. It was Oktoberfest-themed, I think, with great German food, and various event-planning employees walking around in lederhosen. :-) This year families were invited, but the boys were still among the very few children. I guess most other school-aged kids were in school! The boys especially liked the caramel-apple making station with apples, caramel, and various toppings to roll them in. What a fun idea for a party! That night was the Fathers-and-Sons outing, postponed from last Spring when it got rained out. The weather was perfect last weekend, and the boys were so excited. We went to HEB and got camping food (tin foil dinners, hot dogs, s'mores), and then went home and got packed up. I was excited, too, because I got the whole evening to myself for my own projects. I reorganized our hall closet food storage shelves, and then made Mosey a VIP poster like the ones I made for Brigham and Joseph when they were in 1st grade. I've been meaning to do this for him, and managed to get prints made a couple of weeks ago. It is fun making these, but very time consuming. I was up until after 5 AM finishing it, and then getting the house all picked up and ready for a Relief Society activity in the morning.
Saturday: In the morning we had a family history workshop at my house for the Relief Society, learning to use www.familysearch.org. It was fun, and I think I was coherent, despite my 3 hours of sleep. :-) The boys and Ben got back around noon and I sent them all straight to the showers to banish the campfire smell, and then I took a nap myself. We had a quiet afternoon and evening the rest of the day.
Sunday: Typical Sunday. Went to church, came home, made dinner, ate dinner, cleaned up dinner, tidied up for Monday, and went to bed! The boys enjoyed the weather and rode their bikes out in the driveway/basketball court. Mosey is determined to learn to ride a two-wheeler. I feel like a negligent mom that I haven't facilitated his learning to ride a bike until now... He's always been happy with the Big Wheels and his scooter. But his friend Joseph, just a few months older than him was spending the afternoon with us after church, and he is a hot-shot bike rider and I think got a bike-riding fire burning under Mosey.
Monday-Wednesday: Typical weekdays. Lessons are going well. We did a fun science experiment with limestone and vinegar, showing how acid rain works and demonstrating the metamorphosis of rock into sediment. We finally did our scratch-tests with the minerals we bought at the State Capitol a couple of weeks ago. Mosey took a trial Tae-Kwon-Do class on Monday evening and loved it. The only problem is that the class is held at the top of 19 very steep stairs. I wonder if I can get Ben to take him? Joseph came with me and actually got kind of interested as well. He and Brigham quit Tae Kwon Do at about the same age Mosey is now, and I can see how much more coordinated they are after a couple of years. They probably would be much better now, and might get more out of it. I'm not sure if I should encourage them to start up again, though, because I like that Mosey has his own activity. We'll see. For family home evening we had a lesson on tithing, and set up our new bank balance for the boys-- we're moving to a fancy Excel version, an upgrade from my poster-board chart on the wall system we've been using up until now. Today the boys had art (my unit on drawing is done and the boys are doing a sculpture unit at another mom's house), and Mosey threw a fit when we got there, not wanting to go in the house. He hid under the seat in the van telling me he felt like he was going to throw up. I couldn't figure out what was going on! They were making pinch-pots with clay, for heaven's sake! What kid doesn't like to do that?! Finally I got it out of him that he felt like he wasn't as good at art as the other boys and was afraid he couldn't do it. I asked him if he wanted me to go in with him and help and he nodded. As it turned out, I didn't help a bit. He did a great job, and turned out one of the better pots. I hope that helped his confidence. He is the youngest boy there and I think feels a bit intimidated. I don't expect that of him since he's otherwise such a very confident, outgoing, fearless kid. I think the fact that he is so good at so many things kind of works against him in some ways-- he is more afraid of not being good enough, because he really doesn't have any experience with it! :-)
Tonight I spent a scintillating couple of hours folding laundry, and now I'm going to bed because 6:20 comes awfully early, and Thursdays are our marathon days!
Thursday (last): Our busy day with school lessons, then piano lessons, then violin lessons. We forgot Brigham's recital piece at home, so Joseph and Mosey and I raced home to get it during Brigham's lesson-- getting it to him just in time with 5 minutes to spare. The boys are working on their Halloween recital pieces and sounding awesome. Brigham and Mosey had good violin lessons. I was especially proud of Mosey who did a really good job of focusing and listening to his teacher (his teacher has a dog that is almost irresistible to Mosey, and just a little distracting during lessons). After violin lessons we went to Home Depot for "just one thing." The boys don't love going to Home Depot or Lowes because it inevitably turns into a much longer shopping excursion, and this was no exception. The boys were good and helpful, though, perhaps encouraged by the promise of frozen custard at Shakes on the way home. :-)
Friday: Our slower "off" day. We went to Ben's work for their fall work party. It was Oktoberfest-themed, I think, with great German food, and various event-planning employees walking around in lederhosen. :-) This year families were invited, but the boys were still among the very few children. I guess most other school-aged kids were in school! The boys especially liked the caramel-apple making station with apples, caramel, and various toppings to roll them in. What a fun idea for a party! That night was the Fathers-and-Sons outing, postponed from last Spring when it got rained out. The weather was perfect last weekend, and the boys were so excited. We went to HEB and got camping food (tin foil dinners, hot dogs, s'mores), and then went home and got packed up. I was excited, too, because I got the whole evening to myself for my own projects. I reorganized our hall closet food storage shelves, and then made Mosey a VIP poster like the ones I made for Brigham and Joseph when they were in 1st grade. I've been meaning to do this for him, and managed to get prints made a couple of weeks ago. It is fun making these, but very time consuming. I was up until after 5 AM finishing it, and then getting the house all picked up and ready for a Relief Society activity in the morning.
Saturday: In the morning we had a family history workshop at my house for the Relief Society, learning to use www.familysearch.org. It was fun, and I think I was coherent, despite my 3 hours of sleep. :-) The boys and Ben got back around noon and I sent them all straight to the showers to banish the campfire smell, and then I took a nap myself. We had a quiet afternoon and evening the rest of the day.
Sunday: Typical Sunday. Went to church, came home, made dinner, ate dinner, cleaned up dinner, tidied up for Monday, and went to bed! The boys enjoyed the weather and rode their bikes out in the driveway/basketball court. Mosey is determined to learn to ride a two-wheeler. I feel like a negligent mom that I haven't facilitated his learning to ride a bike until now... He's always been happy with the Big Wheels and his scooter. But his friend Joseph, just a few months older than him was spending the afternoon with us after church, and he is a hot-shot bike rider and I think got a bike-riding fire burning under Mosey.
Monday-Wednesday: Typical weekdays. Lessons are going well. We did a fun science experiment with limestone and vinegar, showing how acid rain works and demonstrating the metamorphosis of rock into sediment. We finally did our scratch-tests with the minerals we bought at the State Capitol a couple of weeks ago. Mosey took a trial Tae-Kwon-Do class on Monday evening and loved it. The only problem is that the class is held at the top of 19 very steep stairs. I wonder if I can get Ben to take him? Joseph came with me and actually got kind of interested as well. He and Brigham quit Tae Kwon Do at about the same age Mosey is now, and I can see how much more coordinated they are after a couple of years. They probably would be much better now, and might get more out of it. I'm not sure if I should encourage them to start up again, though, because I like that Mosey has his own activity. We'll see. For family home evening we had a lesson on tithing, and set up our new bank balance for the boys-- we're moving to a fancy Excel version, an upgrade from my poster-board chart on the wall system we've been using up until now. Today the boys had art (my unit on drawing is done and the boys are doing a sculpture unit at another mom's house), and Mosey threw a fit when we got there, not wanting to go in the house. He hid under the seat in the van telling me he felt like he was going to throw up. I couldn't figure out what was going on! They were making pinch-pots with clay, for heaven's sake! What kid doesn't like to do that?! Finally I got it out of him that he felt like he wasn't as good at art as the other boys and was afraid he couldn't do it. I asked him if he wanted me to go in with him and help and he nodded. As it turned out, I didn't help a bit. He did a great job, and turned out one of the better pots. I hope that helped his confidence. He is the youngest boy there and I think feels a bit intimidated. I don't expect that of him since he's otherwise such a very confident, outgoing, fearless kid. I think the fact that he is so good at so many things kind of works against him in some ways-- he is more afraid of not being good enough, because he really doesn't have any experience with it! :-)
Tonight I spent a scintillating couple of hours folding laundry, and now I'm going to bed because 6:20 comes awfully early, and Thursdays are our marathon days!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Damage control
On the way home from art today, Joseph was moaning about how we're going to be doing a singing unit soon. "What's wrong with singing?" I ask.
"Singing is for girls," he replies with an utterly disgusted tone.
"What?! Who ever told you that??"
After some digging, it comes out in the open that when he was in public school, he got teased for his high-pitched voice (or at least, what he interpreted as teasing). He thinks that singing will make him sound like a girl.
Ugh. That is so frustrating! I don't know if the kid really was teasing Joseph, or if the simple fact of Joseph's high (utterly adorable) voice being pointed out was enough to make him really self-conscious about it. Joseph is really sensitive and it doesn't take much to push him over the edge like that. But whatever, it's so sad that this has apparently turned him off of singing.
It has been a mystery to me why he's been such a pill about singing with the primary kids in Sacrament Meeting over the past couple of years. I guess now I know why.
When we got home, I got on Youtube and tried to find a bunch of videos from male American Idol contestants from the past few years. I told him that if you are a successful male singer, you are probably RICH, FAMOUS, POPULAR, and definitely not girly.
I'm not sure he bought it. I guess at least I don't have to worry about having a son obsessed with becoming a rock star? :-)
He also told me that he was teased for wearing his CTR (Choose The Right) ring when he was in school. Another little girl in his class, (one of I think 5 LDS kids in the school, including my 2), also wore a CTR ring, and Joseph got teased by Andy (he still remembers his name 3 years later) about being "married" to her because they wore matching rings. That was the last time he ever wore his CTR ring.
I really wish I had just been brave and started homeschooling them from the very beginning, never even bothering with the whole public school thing. They were only in school for 2 years and I'm still having to do damage control.
"Singing is for girls," he replies with an utterly disgusted tone.
"What?! Who ever told you that??"
After some digging, it comes out in the open that when he was in public school, he got teased for his high-pitched voice (or at least, what he interpreted as teasing). He thinks that singing will make him sound like a girl.
Ugh. That is so frustrating! I don't know if the kid really was teasing Joseph, or if the simple fact of Joseph's high (utterly adorable) voice being pointed out was enough to make him really self-conscious about it. Joseph is really sensitive and it doesn't take much to push him over the edge like that. But whatever, it's so sad that this has apparently turned him off of singing.
It has been a mystery to me why he's been such a pill about singing with the primary kids in Sacrament Meeting over the past couple of years. I guess now I know why.
When we got home, I got on Youtube and tried to find a bunch of videos from male American Idol contestants from the past few years. I told him that if you are a successful male singer, you are probably RICH, FAMOUS, POPULAR, and definitely not girly.
I'm not sure he bought it. I guess at least I don't have to worry about having a son obsessed with becoming a rock star? :-)
He also told me that he was teased for wearing his CTR (Choose The Right) ring when he was in school. Another little girl in his class, (one of I think 5 LDS kids in the school, including my 2), also wore a CTR ring, and Joseph got teased by Andy (he still remembers his name 3 years later) about being "married" to her because they wore matching rings. That was the last time he ever wore his CTR ring.
I really wish I had just been brave and started homeschooling them from the very beginning, never even bothering with the whole public school thing. They were only in school for 2 years and I'm still having to do damage control.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Rewind: flood!
I'm trying, slowly, to go back through my photos from the last couple of months and organize them. I found these pictures from about a month ago. We had been in Target and heard a tremendous downpour-- loud enough that we heard it well inside the store. Joseph and Mosey ran up to the front of the store and looked out the glass doors. It was raining, and hard! When we were done shopping and driving home, we were amazed to see a lot of water in the drainage systems around our neighborhood. These look kind of like big, grassy river beds, and I'd never seen them filled up like that (although I'm sure they have been-- I'd just never been out driving immediately after a huge downpour). We were on our way home and had to be on our way somewhere else shortly after that, although I can't remember where. But the boys really wanted to go play in the water. I almost said, "No, we'll go next time it rains," but then thought better of it. This would be something the boys would remember, and it's good to be spontaneous sometimes! So we went home and unloaded the groceries, and then made our way to one of these waterways. The boys ran down and played in the water and I stood on the bridge overlooking where it crosses over the road. By the time we got there, the water had subsided somewhat. Before, there was whitewater! It's good it had gone down a bit; I'm not sure how safe it would have been otherwise.
In this picture, you can see how high the water had been earlier-- see the line of leaves and debris on the left side of the river? The water was at least up to there, probably another 18 inches deeper at least.
Jack is here!
A few days ago Mosey decided to cash in most of the points he's accumulated so far this school year to buy a new Webkinz. Yes, another one. He had him named before we even clicked "complete order" on Amazon.com. Jack was coming! He was supposed to be here on Tuesday, but took his sweet time and finally got here yesterday, causing quite a disruption during the big boys' grammar lesson.
Mosey is a happy boy! I'm not sure I've ever seen a look of such anticipation on his face when the box came and he started opening it. I grabbed my camera and took a few pictures, although by that time, the look of utter bliss had subsided somewhat. He's still cute!
I wonder if Arctie has got some competition for Mosey's primary affections?
I wonder if Arctie has got some competition for Mosey's primary affections?
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Poor, poor Joseph
Joseph is finally better today, after being really, really sick for 2 days. I thought he was going to have a 24 hour bug, but that virus kept going strong for about 48. Yesterday he spent the day sleeping and throwing up, and that's about it.
I was worried about him getting dehydrated. I gave him water and juice to sip, but he couldn't even keep that down. He woke up in the night so thirsty, and I felt so mean telling him he had to only take small sips. He told me, "Water is the best thing in the world, mom!"
As bad as I felt for him, there is nothing like a sick child for a constant source of cuddles. He asked me once, "Why do you stay near me? Aren't you afraid you'll get sick?" I told him that yeah, I might get sick, but it was worth it to me if I could help him at all through his sickness.
That's a mother's love!
He finally woke up this morning feeling better, although really weak. It's amazing how 48 hours with no food shows on a 58 lb boy. His eyes looked huge in his head and his cheeks were noticeably hollow. He told me, "I feel tiny, mom." And he looked it. He ate a little today-- hot chocolate, some applesauce and toast and half a bowl of chicken noodle soup. I hope he'll eat more tomorrow and get his strength back.
As for the rest of us, we basically took the last couple of days off. Yesterday was Christopher Columbus Day, which the public schools had off. The boys' cub scout pack planned a field trip to a police station and then bowling. Joseph stayed home and slept (and threw up), but Brigham and Mosey went. Mosey told me before hand, "I hate bowling! There is nothing that will ever make me go bowling!" Well, I guess Sister Kelley is pretty persuasive, because he did go bowling, and he came home saying, "Bowling is the most fun thing ever!" He had a good time. :-) I'm hoping to take Joseph on his own private Police Station tour; I know he was disappointed to miss it.
I wanted to do part-lessons with Brigham yesterday, but he totally balked at that. He didn't have a very good day yesterday after getting home from the field trip. My asking him to do his piano practicing and violin practicing and work on his mineral report was pretty much akin to me telling him to work 18 hours a day in a textile factory... He was very angry. As it was, he spent a lot of time complaining, and very little time actually working on his lessons... He never even got around to his music practicing. And then I was working with Mosey on learning to tie shoes, and Brigham came over and wanted to try. He knows the bunny-ear method of tying shoes, but I was teaching Mosey the regular method. Anyway, a (very) long story short, Brigham got frustrated and then got mad and then I got mad and then some voices were raised and some doors were slammed and a very frustrated mom went into her room for a self-imposed time out. It wasn't pretty.
All the boys were put to bed at 8:00 and I think I was asleep by 10:00, which is something of a record for me.
Today was a little better, thank goodness... I finally edited a few recent pictures which I will append to this post.
Finally, a smile out of this boy! He was the picture of misery for two days straight.
See how big his eyes are? He was starting to waste away after only 2 days!
Even his cheeks were starting to hollow out. Here he is perusing the Webkinz online catalog.
Two silly boys.
Here's Mosey working on his writing. You know what? One of his two front teeth is finally loose! He's excited, but I'm so sad... When kids get their permanent teeth, they lose that "little kid" look forever. He's my baby!!
Cute little Mosey feet swinging under his chair as he does his school work.
I was worried about him getting dehydrated. I gave him water and juice to sip, but he couldn't even keep that down. He woke up in the night so thirsty, and I felt so mean telling him he had to only take small sips. He told me, "Water is the best thing in the world, mom!"
As bad as I felt for him, there is nothing like a sick child for a constant source of cuddles. He asked me once, "Why do you stay near me? Aren't you afraid you'll get sick?" I told him that yeah, I might get sick, but it was worth it to me if I could help him at all through his sickness.
That's a mother's love!
He finally woke up this morning feeling better, although really weak. It's amazing how 48 hours with no food shows on a 58 lb boy. His eyes looked huge in his head and his cheeks were noticeably hollow. He told me, "I feel tiny, mom." And he looked it. He ate a little today-- hot chocolate, some applesauce and toast and half a bowl of chicken noodle soup. I hope he'll eat more tomorrow and get his strength back.
As for the rest of us, we basically took the last couple of days off. Yesterday was Christopher Columbus Day, which the public schools had off. The boys' cub scout pack planned a field trip to a police station and then bowling. Joseph stayed home and slept (and threw up), but Brigham and Mosey went. Mosey told me before hand, "I hate bowling! There is nothing that will ever make me go bowling!" Well, I guess Sister Kelley is pretty persuasive, because he did go bowling, and he came home saying, "Bowling is the most fun thing ever!" He had a good time. :-) I'm hoping to take Joseph on his own private Police Station tour; I know he was disappointed to miss it.
I wanted to do part-lessons with Brigham yesterday, but he totally balked at that. He didn't have a very good day yesterday after getting home from the field trip. My asking him to do his piano practicing and violin practicing and work on his mineral report was pretty much akin to me telling him to work 18 hours a day in a textile factory... He was very angry. As it was, he spent a lot of time complaining, and very little time actually working on his lessons... He never even got around to his music practicing. And then I was working with Mosey on learning to tie shoes, and Brigham came over and wanted to try. He knows the bunny-ear method of tying shoes, but I was teaching Mosey the regular method. Anyway, a (very) long story short, Brigham got frustrated and then got mad and then I got mad and then some voices were raised and some doors were slammed and a very frustrated mom went into her room for a self-imposed time out. It wasn't pretty.
All the boys were put to bed at 8:00 and I think I was asleep by 10:00, which is something of a record for me.
Today was a little better, thank goodness... I finally edited a few recent pictures which I will append to this post.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
10-10-10
There is this cool project, the "One Day on Earth" project happening today. People all around the world are documenting their lives on 10-10-10. I totally planned to participate, and then woke up this morning and promptly forgot.
Not that today was anything totally remarkable.
I woke up at 8:00 (love 11:00 church).
Made it to church by 9:45 for a meeting. Ben made it to church with the boys by a quarter to 11 so he could do prelude music.
Church proceeded nicely. Brigham bore his testimony for the first time in front of the congregation. It was short and sweet: "I want to bear my testimony that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." I guess there's not a whole lot to add to that, is there?
After church, Joseph was not feeling well. He was sick last night with a fever and came and slept next to me in bed. This afternoon he started throwing up. I lay in bed next to him and consoled him through a terrible afternoon of throwing up. Poor, poor kid. I am worried this virus will make the rounds. I'm almost certainly not immune to it myself, so I'm just waiting for it to hit me...
Ben and Brigham made dinner. Brigham made a chocolate cake all by himself! Even the frosting, with direction from me. Joseph came out and attempted to eat some applesauce, but his stomach quickly rebelled.
After dinner we sat on the couch and watched "The Black Stallion" on Netflix. Brigham and Mosey had watched it earlier in the afternoon, but Joseph wanted to see it, too. We read the book a couple of months ago. The movie is really excellent. We didn't finish it because Joseph fell asleep on the couch, but we'll for sure finish it tomorrow. It might be one worth buying.
Now the boys are all asleep, and I'm heading there myself. It's Christopher Columbus Day tomorrow, which means the public school kids are off. The cub scouts are going on a field trip, so we'll do abbreviated lessons so the boys can go. It should be a pretty low-key Monday. I'm praying that no one else comes down with the stomach virus overnight.
Well, there's a sick boy stirring on the couch behind me, and the clock reads 10:10 on 10/10/'10, so I'll sign off.
Happy TEN day!
Not that today was anything totally remarkable.
I woke up at 8:00 (love 11:00 church).
Made it to church by 9:45 for a meeting. Ben made it to church with the boys by a quarter to 11 so he could do prelude music.
Church proceeded nicely. Brigham bore his testimony for the first time in front of the congregation. It was short and sweet: "I want to bear my testimony that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." I guess there's not a whole lot to add to that, is there?
After church, Joseph was not feeling well. He was sick last night with a fever and came and slept next to me in bed. This afternoon he started throwing up. I lay in bed next to him and consoled him through a terrible afternoon of throwing up. Poor, poor kid. I am worried this virus will make the rounds. I'm almost certainly not immune to it myself, so I'm just waiting for it to hit me...
Ben and Brigham made dinner. Brigham made a chocolate cake all by himself! Even the frosting, with direction from me. Joseph came out and attempted to eat some applesauce, but his stomach quickly rebelled.
After dinner we sat on the couch and watched "The Black Stallion" on Netflix. Brigham and Mosey had watched it earlier in the afternoon, but Joseph wanted to see it, too. We read the book a couple of months ago. The movie is really excellent. We didn't finish it because Joseph fell asleep on the couch, but we'll for sure finish it tomorrow. It might be one worth buying.
Now the boys are all asleep, and I'm heading there myself. It's Christopher Columbus Day tomorrow, which means the public school kids are off. The cub scouts are going on a field trip, so we'll do abbreviated lessons so the boys can go. It should be a pretty low-key Monday. I'm praying that no one else comes down with the stomach virus overnight.
Well, there's a sick boy stirring on the couch behind me, and the clock reads 10:10 on 10/10/'10, so I'll sign off.
Happy TEN day!
Friday, October 08, 2010
Weekend!
Thank goodness it's Friday!
We have had a good couple of days. Yesterday (Thursday) is our busy day, with piano right after lessons, and violin right after piano. We don't get home until 7:00 PM. I was so tired when I got home, it was about all I could do to make Ramen noodles for dinner, and then lay in bed and read "Farmer Boy" to Mosey for a few minutes before falling asleep. I have a talent for reading aloud even while I'm mostly asleep. I have no idea what I'm reading, and occasionally I'll catch myself saying something that makes absolutely no sense, but still-- sleep-reading, not bad! I woke up at 10:00 so I could listen in on a conference call while my youngest brother Christian opened his mission-call. Paris, France! He is the 7th Frandsen sibling to be called to Europe, and to the same mission that Rachel was in, to boot. I think he is thrilled. He's been speaking French for years, and even won some big awards in French competitions in high school, and he's really devoted to the gospel, so I know he will be a great missionary.
This morning I got another great call-- this time from my younger sister Naomi who reported from the ultrasound clinic that she is having another girl! I was really rooting for a girl because my sisters are some of the biggest blessings in my life, and Polly needs a sister!
We had lessons this morning and then cut things short to go to the lake park for an hour before horseback riding lessons. Joseph caught a fish! He brought it back home in a bucket to show Ben. He caught it all himself-- tying a piece of fishing line to a stick, attaching a hook and a piece of corn as bait. Then it was off to horseback riding, then back home, eat a quick dinner, and Joseph and Brigham went to basketball. Mosey and I stayed home-- painted a golf ball he found at the lake park, practiced violin, and read more "Farmer Boy" until his brothers got home.
I haven't been using my big camera for a few weeks. I'm not sure why, I'm just not motivated. It probably has to do with the weeks and weeks of photos I have uploaded on my computer and have not organized or edited. I feel obligated to edit my SLR photos and make them pretty, but not so much with my little point and shoot. So, all I have to share today are snapshots. Here are some random recent shots:
As I was organizing and sorting the boys' artwork, I came across these two Easter baskets the twins made last Easter. I thought they were so funny and representative of the two of them. Brigham's (on the right) is decorated with hearts and vines and flowers, his name written so carefully with his special flourishes. Joseph's (on the left), is decorated with red flames and scowling monster faces with sharp teeth and scary eyes. On an Easter basket!! :-)
Here is Joseph earlier tonight with blue gill that he caught. I'm not sure what his expression means. Probably exasperation since this was the 3rd picture I took-- the first one he was blinking and in the second one the fish was out of the flash range.
Here's is Brigham up in the tree at the lake park on Wednesday. He takes off his shoes-- the better to grip the tree and shimmy up. It's hard to tell here, but he's pretty high up-- at least 20 feet. What a monkey!
We have had a good couple of days. Yesterday (Thursday) is our busy day, with piano right after lessons, and violin right after piano. We don't get home until 7:00 PM. I was so tired when I got home, it was about all I could do to make Ramen noodles for dinner, and then lay in bed and read "Farmer Boy" to Mosey for a few minutes before falling asleep. I have a talent for reading aloud even while I'm mostly asleep. I have no idea what I'm reading, and occasionally I'll catch myself saying something that makes absolutely no sense, but still-- sleep-reading, not bad! I woke up at 10:00 so I could listen in on a conference call while my youngest brother Christian opened his mission-call. Paris, France! He is the 7th Frandsen sibling to be called to Europe, and to the same mission that Rachel was in, to boot. I think he is thrilled. He's been speaking French for years, and even won some big awards in French competitions in high school, and he's really devoted to the gospel, so I know he will be a great missionary.
This morning I got another great call-- this time from my younger sister Naomi who reported from the ultrasound clinic that she is having another girl! I was really rooting for a girl because my sisters are some of the biggest blessings in my life, and Polly needs a sister!
We had lessons this morning and then cut things short to go to the lake park for an hour before horseback riding lessons. Joseph caught a fish! He brought it back home in a bucket to show Ben. He caught it all himself-- tying a piece of fishing line to a stick, attaching a hook and a piece of corn as bait. Then it was off to horseback riding, then back home, eat a quick dinner, and Joseph and Brigham went to basketball. Mosey and I stayed home-- painted a golf ball he found at the lake park, practiced violin, and read more "Farmer Boy" until his brothers got home.
I haven't been using my big camera for a few weeks. I'm not sure why, I'm just not motivated. It probably has to do with the weeks and weeks of photos I have uploaded on my computer and have not organized or edited. I feel obligated to edit my SLR photos and make them pretty, but not so much with my little point and shoot. So, all I have to share today are snapshots. Here are some random recent shots:
Here is Mosey practicing the violin. Look at that good form! He's so cute! He can be a bit (or a lot) squirrelly during practicing, but he's enthusiastic and improving quickly. And he really, really loves his teacher's dog, which actually helps quite a bit in motivating him to practice. Hey, whatever works!
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
Past few days
I've rearranged our school schedule a bit. The independent math/piano thing just isn't working out. At least, not when the boys have a recital in 16 days. And none of the boy are very good at finishing a math assignment without spending about 85% of the time staring into space... So for now I'm practicing and doing math with each of them independently while the other reads. This is OK, but it does mean we're not done with piano and math until 11:00-11:30, which puts the rest of our lessons in a bit of a rush if we're going to be done by 3:00.
We haven't been real successful at starting right at 8:00, which is part of the problem. It is usually more like 8:30. I'm not sure what the answer is to that. I don't want to start waking them up at 6:30, but when they stumble downstairs at 7:00, they just don't get their stride for the morning for about an hour or so. I guess we'll keep working at it.
The good news is that the drama and tears over piano and math has lessened dramatically. It's definitely the right thing to do them both first thing.
We've had a good few days. Joseph is doing really awesome in swimming. He only has 2 more lessons until he finishes his month commitment, and I don't think he'll want to continue, but I'm really proud of him for how he's handled things this past week.
Ben and I had a long talk last weekend about what our approach should be with the boys in terms of organized sports. I never played team sports at all-- track, cross country, and gymnastics is all I did, and those are individual sports even if you are on a team. I have no idea if there is a lot of positive benefit for boys in being involved in team sports, beyond the physical exercise aspect of things. The boys just don't seem all that interested. But maybe that's because they haven't had a lot of exposure to various sports. Maybe there would be something they really loved that would add something to their lives, if they had a chance to be exposed to it. I just don't have a lot of motivation to keep the boys really busy in sports. Sports are not important to me at all (again, beyond the physical health aspects). But maybe they are important for boys? I told Ben it has to be his call. He played organized sports all the way through high school. He hated some of it, and liked some of it. I'm hoping he will be willing to take this part of parenting on. I'm tired of worrying and stressing about sports. I'll drive the boys where they need to go, but I need him to be in charge of working with the boys to decide what they want to do.
I found out about a youth running club in Cedar Park for kids 8-18. Cross Country in the fall, Track in the spring. Maybe they will want to do that next year.
I always looked forward to when I'd be able to go running with my boys, and now I can't do it... :-(. I really want to get a hand cycle so I can go biking with them around the neighborhood. Then if they wanted to run, I could bike with them. But those things are so pricey!! $2000 is about the cheapest I've found anywhere-- even used.
Today we went to the lake park with our homeschool group. It was so fun! The weather has turned and we're having amazing, beautiful fall weather-- temps in the 70's and low 80's. So nice! It was really fun to see all those little boys (and one brave girl!) running around and wading in the lake and catching crawdads and baby turtles and climbing trees. This is a great group we have and no one wanted to leave even after 2 hours when we really had to go. Well, it did take Mosey a little while to get into things. He's a little more hesitant in joining in with this group-- probably because he's the youngest. Still, it surprised me a little, since he's so outgoing and is not intimidated at all by older kids. So he hung around me for a few minutes and complained about how bored he was and how there was nothing to do. So sad... :-) Soon enough, though, he saw how much fun everyone else was having and decided sitting with the grownups talking was even more boring.
Monday night we got our Halloween decorations up. We played Halloween music and now we're all decked out. Joseph and Brigham still don't know what they're going to be. The deadline for giving me sewing projects is fast approaching, though, so they better figure it out quick!
That's about it for tonight. Tomorrow is Thursday, our busiest day. I better get to bed!
We haven't been real successful at starting right at 8:00, which is part of the problem. It is usually more like 8:30. I'm not sure what the answer is to that. I don't want to start waking them up at 6:30, but when they stumble downstairs at 7:00, they just don't get their stride for the morning for about an hour or so. I guess we'll keep working at it.
The good news is that the drama and tears over piano and math has lessened dramatically. It's definitely the right thing to do them both first thing.
We've had a good few days. Joseph is doing really awesome in swimming. He only has 2 more lessons until he finishes his month commitment, and I don't think he'll want to continue, but I'm really proud of him for how he's handled things this past week.
Ben and I had a long talk last weekend about what our approach should be with the boys in terms of organized sports. I never played team sports at all-- track, cross country, and gymnastics is all I did, and those are individual sports even if you are on a team. I have no idea if there is a lot of positive benefit for boys in being involved in team sports, beyond the physical exercise aspect of things. The boys just don't seem all that interested. But maybe that's because they haven't had a lot of exposure to various sports. Maybe there would be something they really loved that would add something to their lives, if they had a chance to be exposed to it. I just don't have a lot of motivation to keep the boys really busy in sports. Sports are not important to me at all (again, beyond the physical health aspects). But maybe they are important for boys? I told Ben it has to be his call. He played organized sports all the way through high school. He hated some of it, and liked some of it. I'm hoping he will be willing to take this part of parenting on. I'm tired of worrying and stressing about sports. I'll drive the boys where they need to go, but I need him to be in charge of working with the boys to decide what they want to do.
I found out about a youth running club in Cedar Park for kids 8-18. Cross Country in the fall, Track in the spring. Maybe they will want to do that next year.
I always looked forward to when I'd be able to go running with my boys, and now I can't do it... :-(. I really want to get a hand cycle so I can go biking with them around the neighborhood. Then if they wanted to run, I could bike with them. But those things are so pricey!! $2000 is about the cheapest I've found anywhere-- even used.
Today we went to the lake park with our homeschool group. It was so fun! The weather has turned and we're having amazing, beautiful fall weather-- temps in the 70's and low 80's. So nice! It was really fun to see all those little boys (and one brave girl!) running around and wading in the lake and catching crawdads and baby turtles and climbing trees. This is a great group we have and no one wanted to leave even after 2 hours when we really had to go. Well, it did take Mosey a little while to get into things. He's a little more hesitant in joining in with this group-- probably because he's the youngest. Still, it surprised me a little, since he's so outgoing and is not intimidated at all by older kids. So he hung around me for a few minutes and complained about how bored he was and how there was nothing to do. So sad... :-) Soon enough, though, he saw how much fun everyone else was having and decided sitting with the grownups talking was even more boring.
Monday night we got our Halloween decorations up. We played Halloween music and now we're all decked out. Joseph and Brigham still don't know what they're going to be. The deadline for giving me sewing projects is fast approaching, though, so they better figure it out quick!
That's about it for tonight. Tomorrow is Thursday, our busiest day. I better get to bed!
Sunday, October 03, 2010
conference weekend
One of my two favorite weekends of the year is over...
I love conference weekend!
One reason I love it is because it gives me 8 hours to do mindless projects without feeling guilty that I should be getting more productive things done. I listen much better when I have something to do with my hands. Otherwise, I just fall asleep. :-) This weekend I organized our whole piano and violin music file cabinet, sorted, organized, and filed away a 2-foot stack (no exaggeration) of 2 years worth of my extremely artistically prolific sons' artwork, cut 58 rectangles out of foam-board, and mounted 58 5x7 photos on each one for a photo/art project in our front entry-way. I also made cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and chicken, potatoes, biscuits, and artichokes for dinner. Not bad!
Ben listened to conference on his laptop outside yesterday while re-planting our front walkway flower beds, and planting our fall garden in the backyard. Today he successfully reinstalled Photoshop on my computer (NO THANKS to Adobe or Microsoft who are both on our Very Very Bad List) which took him 3 hours (!!). Thank goodness I'm married to a genius, because if it had been up to me, I would have had to resort to completely reformatting my computer's hard drive. Or just buying a new computer. Ben also installed new blinds upstairs in Joseph's room.
We were rather productive!
My younger sister wrote about the challenges of paying "attention" to conference with a 20-month-old, and it brought back memories from those days for me. There are advantages to having older kids, although I'd take another 20-month-old in a heartbeat. The boys were very good, and listened to a lot of the talks while drawing pictures (got to start replenishing that 2-foot stack, after all) and building with blocks.
We ate artichokes tonight, in our quest to expand our vegetable repertoire around here. Joseph, Ben, and I like them. Brigham and Mosey, not really. They're kind of a lot of effort for not very much actual food product, and we wondered who was patient enough to actually figure out how to eat these things!
The boys are now asleep, most of the fallout from the weekend has been cleaned up, and I am going to start the week off right by going to bed on time!
I love conference weekend!
One reason I love it is because it gives me 8 hours to do mindless projects without feeling guilty that I should be getting more productive things done. I listen much better when I have something to do with my hands. Otherwise, I just fall asleep. :-) This weekend I organized our whole piano and violin music file cabinet, sorted, organized, and filed away a 2-foot stack (no exaggeration) of 2 years worth of my extremely artistically prolific sons' artwork, cut 58 rectangles out of foam-board, and mounted 58 5x7 photos on each one for a photo/art project in our front entry-way. I also made cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and chicken, potatoes, biscuits, and artichokes for dinner. Not bad!
Ben listened to conference on his laptop outside yesterday while re-planting our front walkway flower beds, and planting our fall garden in the backyard. Today he successfully reinstalled Photoshop on my computer (NO THANKS to Adobe or Microsoft who are both on our Very Very Bad List) which took him 3 hours (!!). Thank goodness I'm married to a genius, because if it had been up to me, I would have had to resort to completely reformatting my computer's hard drive. Or just buying a new computer. Ben also installed new blinds upstairs in Joseph's room.
We were rather productive!
My younger sister wrote about the challenges of paying "attention" to conference with a 20-month-old, and it brought back memories from those days for me. There are advantages to having older kids, although I'd take another 20-month-old in a heartbeat. The boys were very good, and listened to a lot of the talks while drawing pictures (got to start replenishing that 2-foot stack, after all) and building with blocks.
We ate artichokes tonight, in our quest to expand our vegetable repertoire around here. Joseph, Ben, and I like them. Brigham and Mosey, not really. They're kind of a lot of effort for not very much actual food product, and we wondered who was patient enough to actually figure out how to eat these things!
The boys are now asleep, most of the fallout from the weekend has been cleaned up, and I am going to start the week off right by going to bed on time!
Under the couch cushions
1 ruler
1 thank you card
1 stuffed animal Blue
1 used bandaid
1 piece of junk mail
15 pencils (I've been wondering where all my pencils get to)
1 mechanical pencil
3 colored pencils
4 ball point pens
1 red marker
1 straw
1 Kapla block
1 paper clip (the big clamp-like ones)
4 long orange k'nex pieces
1 S-hook
1 twist tie
1 CTR ring
1 wooden chess knight
1 plastic toy soldier
1 plastic toy soldier's head
1 melted plastic bead thingy
1 marble
1 glass pebble
1 rolled up top secret scroll secured with duct tape
9 legos
1 broken piece of Easter chocolate
1 unidentified, yet important looking black plastic object
1 plastic plesiosaurus flipper
1 tag to a Coleman 2 inch spring clamp
1 flashlight bulb
1 1/2 skewer sticks
1 popsicle stick
1 quarter
1 dime
About 2 pounds of dirt and sand and other rubble
Maybe I should clean out under the couch cushions more often...
1 thank you card
1 stuffed animal Blue
1 used bandaid
1 piece of junk mail
15 pencils (I've been wondering where all my pencils get to)
1 mechanical pencil
3 colored pencils
4 ball point pens
1 red marker
1 straw
1 Kapla block
1 paper clip (the big clamp-like ones)
4 long orange k'nex pieces
1 S-hook
1 twist tie
1 CTR ring
1 wooden chess knight
1 plastic toy soldier
1 plastic toy soldier's head
1 melted plastic bead thingy
1 marble
1 glass pebble
1 rolled up top secret scroll secured with duct tape
9 legos
1 broken piece of Easter chocolate
1 unidentified, yet important looking black plastic object
1 plastic plesiosaurus flipper
1 tag to a Coleman 2 inch spring clamp
1 flashlight bulb
1 1/2 skewer sticks
1 popsicle stick
1 quarter
1 dime
About 2 pounds of dirt and sand and other rubble
Maybe I should clean out under the couch cushions more often...
Friday, October 01, 2010
Last few days
Run down from the last few days:
Tuesday: Felt sick from the flu shot, but it resolved in the evening. Lessons in the morning/afternoon. Big boys had Scouts. Mosey and I went to Walmart. He bought one of those dog toys that is like a stuffed animal without the stuffing. He's been on a quest to get a "costume" for Arctie. When we got home, he had me cut down the belly of the toy so he could dress Arctie (his Arctic fox) in a fox's clothing. Funny boy. He gets these ideas in his head and won't rest until they are realized!
Wednesday: Lessons. Art class in the afternoon. It was my last drawing class before we start something new next week. The boys (and girl) all get along really well which makes me very happy. My main goal with this co-op was to give the boys time to socialize with other kids besides themselves. The drawing lessons have had mixed success. There's a really big difference between 6 year olds and 10 year olds when it comes to dexterity, ability to concentrate, and general interest in learning drawing techniques. I think the older kids really did learn some things, and the younger kids had fun, so I'm happy.
After art, Joseph had swimming lessons. He did not (not, not, not!) want to go. I made him go, and when we got there, he would not (not, not, not!) get in the water. I made him get in the water, but when he did he would not (not, not, not!) swim, and there wasn't anything I could do about that. Luckily Ben was literally driving right by the pool when I called him for advice, and he and I traded places. I took Mosey to soccer practice, and he stayed with Joseph. Ben did brilliantly, in my opinion. Joseph was saying the water was too cold for him to swim. The water was the same temperature it's always been, but the air outside has been cooling down a bit, so it felt colder. Still, all the other little kids were doing fine. I hate these situations-- Joseph made a commitment, we talked it over a lot, he agreed to finish out the month, and he did fine at the last lesson. But on this day, he did not want to cooperate. What do I do? Do I give in? I don't feel strongly about swimming lessons. It's totally fine with me if he quits. But he needs to honor commitments he has made (which was to finish one month of twice a week lessons), and when there is no pain or injury or unkindness going on, I don't think it is good to give in. I told him he could get out of the water and come home, but then he'd need to go to bed as soon as we got home (it was around 6:00 PM). But I didn't feel good about the threat, or about letting him go home scot-free, or about insisting, no matter what, that he finish the lesson. I didn't feel good about anything, I just felt like a jerk. I was happy to let Ben figure it out. So, Ben let him get out of the pool, but then he drove him straight to the El Salido pool which was open for every day swimming. Ben gave him his own private swim lesson for 2 hours (!). Ben had an Elders' Quorum meeting that night which he called and backed out of in order to take care of Joseph. I thought that was the perfect solution. Joseph had a swimming lesson (and a much more effective one than he would have had at his normal lessons), time to spend with his dad, and he was able to feel like his desires were being considered and not completely ignored. Ben is a really good dad.
Meanwhile I took Mosey to his first soccer practice. It was fun to watch him run around the field. It's amazing how much he has matured since last year. On the way home we stopped to buy him an ice cream cone at McDonalds (love those 50 cent cones!). When we came home, Joseph still wasn't back, but when he did come back, he was wet and tired, but happy. And I was very happy.
Thursday: Morning/afternoon lessons. Piano lessons at 3:00, then straight to violin lessons at 5:00. Brigham is coming right along on the violin. He has a really good ear for pitch. Mosey is doing well, too, but at only 6 years old, and with only a couple of months of mommy instruction on the piano, he doesn't pick it up quite as quickly as Brigham. He is enjoying it though. Honestly, I think one of his biggest draws toward playing the violin is the English Cocker Spaniel at his teacher's apartment/studio. Dusty is a really fun dog and Mosey loves him and can't wait to go to lessons so he can play with him. After violin, we drove down to Ben's office where he took the boys to go to help the Elders Quorum with a move, and I went to my Stake Auxiliary training. I walked into the church feeling horribly self-conscious in my jeans and T-shirt (I hadn't been home since 2:45 in the afternoon!)... I was happy for President Monson's talk last weekend about not judging on appearances. :-) Came home at 9:15 just after Ben and the boys got home. It was a late night for the boys.
Friday: Music practicing and reading in the morning. We drove to the library and then to HEB to buy fruit and cheese and crackers for lunch, and then down to the Capitol building. We just started a new science section-- Earth Science. We finished reading the section on minerals, and I wanted to go buy some local Texas minerals so we could do some of the mineral classification tests. The Capitol building gift shop was the only place I knew of that had some, so down we went. The boys still love the Capitol building. They had to help push me up the hill getting to the Capitol, and I'm sure we got some looks. :-) We made it to the gift shop, and came away with 6 different Texas minerals and a few other choice items from the gift shop. Mosey wiped out his savings with a copper star-shaped Texas Rangers sherriff's pin. Brigham got a wooden spinning top (the boys discovered the jacks in our marble box this week, and have been driving me crazy with spinning them everywhere and all the time). Joseph got one of those plastic thingies that is filled with some kind of clear fluid-- maybe mineral oil?, with some denser colored fluid (red and blue) that drips from a reservoir at the top, down a series of plastic ramps, and then collects in a reservoir at the bottom. After it all drips down, you turn it over and start it again. We went on a whirl wind tour of the building, going up to the 4th floor so we could all feel brave and look down from the balcony railing to the rotunda floor four stories below, peeking into the Senate room, and then going out the front doors to look across the Capitol grounds and down Congress street all the way down to the river.
Then we had to skedaddle back to the parking garage to race all the way back up to Leander for horseback riding lessons. The boys' previous teacher just left to teach at another stable up in Georgetown which is too far for us, so we have yet another teacher. I really like this teacher, though, and I hope she'll stick around! We pay for an hour lesson, but she kept them for almost an hour and a half which I thought was really generous.
Finally, we were home by 6:00 PM. Just in time for Brigham and Joseph to eat something, and get changed for basketball. Brigham was not at all happy to learn that he had to get ready for basketball. He really needs free time. But he's a trooper and grudgingly got ready to go. Ben took them up to the sports center and I stayed home with Mosey. We spent 35 minutes working on his story, "Arctie the Warrior" (I'm his scribe), and then looked up Halloween costumes online. He's going to be a pirate which makes me happy. It's a lot less sewing-intensive than his wolf costume last year. We forgot about the water I had put on to boil for the Ramen noodles he wanted for dinner until close to an hour later when Mosey said, "What about my noodles, mom?" Whoops! All the water had completely boiled away, and the pot was so hot it sputtered and steamed for a couple of minutes after putting it under cold water. Joseph and Brigham came home (they like basketball! Yay! It's an indoor sport, and if they get into it, I'll actually be able to go to their games!), we read a little more "Little House in the Big Woods," played with helium balloons, watched about 30 seconds of the BYU football game before concluding that we *didn't* want to watch the rest of it (and reconfirmed our fair-weather fan status for BYU sports), and went to bed! (Or at least, everyone else did and I stayed up to type this entry and do another load of laundry).
I'm excited for conference tomorrow!
Tuesday: Felt sick from the flu shot, but it resolved in the evening. Lessons in the morning/afternoon. Big boys had Scouts. Mosey and I went to Walmart. He bought one of those dog toys that is like a stuffed animal without the stuffing. He's been on a quest to get a "costume" for Arctie. When we got home, he had me cut down the belly of the toy so he could dress Arctie (his Arctic fox) in a fox's clothing. Funny boy. He gets these ideas in his head and won't rest until they are realized!
Wednesday: Lessons. Art class in the afternoon. It was my last drawing class before we start something new next week. The boys (and girl) all get along really well which makes me very happy. My main goal with this co-op was to give the boys time to socialize with other kids besides themselves. The drawing lessons have had mixed success. There's a really big difference between 6 year olds and 10 year olds when it comes to dexterity, ability to concentrate, and general interest in learning drawing techniques. I think the older kids really did learn some things, and the younger kids had fun, so I'm happy.
After art, Joseph had swimming lessons. He did not (not, not, not!) want to go. I made him go, and when we got there, he would not (not, not, not!) get in the water. I made him get in the water, but when he did he would not (not, not, not!) swim, and there wasn't anything I could do about that. Luckily Ben was literally driving right by the pool when I called him for advice, and he and I traded places. I took Mosey to soccer practice, and he stayed with Joseph. Ben did brilliantly, in my opinion. Joseph was saying the water was too cold for him to swim. The water was the same temperature it's always been, but the air outside has been cooling down a bit, so it felt colder. Still, all the other little kids were doing fine. I hate these situations-- Joseph made a commitment, we talked it over a lot, he agreed to finish out the month, and he did fine at the last lesson. But on this day, he did not want to cooperate. What do I do? Do I give in? I don't feel strongly about swimming lessons. It's totally fine with me if he quits. But he needs to honor commitments he has made (which was to finish one month of twice a week lessons), and when there is no pain or injury or unkindness going on, I don't think it is good to give in. I told him he could get out of the water and come home, but then he'd need to go to bed as soon as we got home (it was around 6:00 PM). But I didn't feel good about the threat, or about letting him go home scot-free, or about insisting, no matter what, that he finish the lesson. I didn't feel good about anything, I just felt like a jerk. I was happy to let Ben figure it out. So, Ben let him get out of the pool, but then he drove him straight to the El Salido pool which was open for every day swimming. Ben gave him his own private swim lesson for 2 hours (!). Ben had an Elders' Quorum meeting that night which he called and backed out of in order to take care of Joseph. I thought that was the perfect solution. Joseph had a swimming lesson (and a much more effective one than he would have had at his normal lessons), time to spend with his dad, and he was able to feel like his desires were being considered and not completely ignored. Ben is a really good dad.
Meanwhile I took Mosey to his first soccer practice. It was fun to watch him run around the field. It's amazing how much he has matured since last year. On the way home we stopped to buy him an ice cream cone at McDonalds (love those 50 cent cones!). When we came home, Joseph still wasn't back, but when he did come back, he was wet and tired, but happy. And I was very happy.
Thursday: Morning/afternoon lessons. Piano lessons at 3:00, then straight to violin lessons at 5:00. Brigham is coming right along on the violin. He has a really good ear for pitch. Mosey is doing well, too, but at only 6 years old, and with only a couple of months of mommy instruction on the piano, he doesn't pick it up quite as quickly as Brigham. He is enjoying it though. Honestly, I think one of his biggest draws toward playing the violin is the English Cocker Spaniel at his teacher's apartment/studio. Dusty is a really fun dog and Mosey loves him and can't wait to go to lessons so he can play with him. After violin, we drove down to Ben's office where he took the boys to go to help the Elders Quorum with a move, and I went to my Stake Auxiliary training. I walked into the church feeling horribly self-conscious in my jeans and T-shirt (I hadn't been home since 2:45 in the afternoon!)... I was happy for President Monson's talk last weekend about not judging on appearances. :-) Came home at 9:15 just after Ben and the boys got home. It was a late night for the boys.
Friday: Music practicing and reading in the morning. We drove to the library and then to HEB to buy fruit and cheese and crackers for lunch, and then down to the Capitol building. We just started a new science section-- Earth Science. We finished reading the section on minerals, and I wanted to go buy some local Texas minerals so we could do some of the mineral classification tests. The Capitol building gift shop was the only place I knew of that had some, so down we went. The boys still love the Capitol building. They had to help push me up the hill getting to the Capitol, and I'm sure we got some looks. :-) We made it to the gift shop, and came away with 6 different Texas minerals and a few other choice items from the gift shop. Mosey wiped out his savings with a copper star-shaped Texas Rangers sherriff's pin. Brigham got a wooden spinning top (the boys discovered the jacks in our marble box this week, and have been driving me crazy with spinning them everywhere and all the time). Joseph got one of those plastic thingies that is filled with some kind of clear fluid-- maybe mineral oil?, with some denser colored fluid (red and blue) that drips from a reservoir at the top, down a series of plastic ramps, and then collects in a reservoir at the bottom. After it all drips down, you turn it over and start it again. We went on a whirl wind tour of the building, going up to the 4th floor so we could all feel brave and look down from the balcony railing to the rotunda floor four stories below, peeking into the Senate room, and then going out the front doors to look across the Capitol grounds and down Congress street all the way down to the river.
Then we had to skedaddle back to the parking garage to race all the way back up to Leander for horseback riding lessons. The boys' previous teacher just left to teach at another stable up in Georgetown which is too far for us, so we have yet another teacher. I really like this teacher, though, and I hope she'll stick around! We pay for an hour lesson, but she kept them for almost an hour and a half which I thought was really generous.
Finally, we were home by 6:00 PM. Just in time for Brigham and Joseph to eat something, and get changed for basketball. Brigham was not at all happy to learn that he had to get ready for basketball. He really needs free time. But he's a trooper and grudgingly got ready to go. Ben took them up to the sports center and I stayed home with Mosey. We spent 35 minutes working on his story, "Arctie the Warrior" (I'm his scribe), and then looked up Halloween costumes online. He's going to be a pirate which makes me happy. It's a lot less sewing-intensive than his wolf costume last year. We forgot about the water I had put on to boil for the Ramen noodles he wanted for dinner until close to an hour later when Mosey said, "What about my noodles, mom?" Whoops! All the water had completely boiled away, and the pot was so hot it sputtered and steamed for a couple of minutes after putting it under cold water. Joseph and Brigham came home (they like basketball! Yay! It's an indoor sport, and if they get into it, I'll actually be able to go to their games!), we read a little more "Little House in the Big Woods," played with helium balloons, watched about 30 seconds of the BYU football game before concluding that we *didn't* want to watch the rest of it (and reconfirmed our fair-weather fan status for BYU sports), and went to bed! (Or at least, everyone else did and I stayed up to type this entry and do another load of laundry).
I'm excited for conference tomorrow!
More helium hilarity
Another HEB run this afternoon meant some more helium balloons to kill little boys' brain cells. Here's Joseph reading the Gettysburg Address (he actually has the whole thing memorized, but concentrating while inhaling helium is a little difficult):
And here's Brigham reading "The Goops," the first poem he memorized two years ago.
Finally, Mosey, who still hasn't mastered the helium inhaling technique. His voice is so high and cute anyway, I'm not sure we'd hear much of a difference. He was going to recite the caterpillar poem he memorized, but when the moment came, the words fled.
And here's Brigham reading "The Goops," the first poem he memorized two years ago.
Finally, Mosey, who still hasn't mastered the helium inhaling technique. His voice is so high and cute anyway, I'm not sure we'd hear much of a difference. He was going to recite the caterpillar poem he memorized, but when the moment came, the words fled.
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