02/29/12

1.  Happy Leap Day!  That means it is Kyle Bilowitz's birthday.  :-)  In elementary school, a boy named Kyle Bilowitz in my 2nd grade class turned eight years old on leap day back in 1984.  I remember getting a kick out of the fact that he was really only turning 2.  It's so funny, the things that stick in one's brain.  On the next Leap Day, I will be 39.  Yikes!  Brigham and Joseph will be 14, and Mosey will be 12.  Triple Yikes!!  Four years from now isn't really ever going to come, is it?  I'm going to stay in this blissful phase of my children's childhood forever, right?  I wish I could be one of those parents who looks forward to their children's growing up.  It's a good thing for the children-- to grow up I mean (I think?), so I should be happy about it, as their mother, right?  But I'm not.  I'm very upset about it.  I think 10 and 8 are the perfect ages for my boys and they should stay that age forever more.  And I should stay 35 forever more.

2.  Mosey had a fabulous day today.  I'm not sure what has happened over the past couple of days, but I like it!  He told me today after Tae Kwon Do (which he said was "awesome!"), "Being sleep deprived doesn't really make you grumpy, it just makes it harder to keep the grumpiness from coming out."  That made me think a little bit.  Why is it that our natural instinct, when we are tired or stressed, is to be grumpy and unpleasant?  Isn't that entirely counterproductive?  Aren't we more likely to get our way when we are pleasant and happy?  Aren't our blood pressure and stress hormones lower when we are cheerful?  So doesn't it stand to reason that, evolutionarily speaking, humans who respond to stress and fatigue by becoming *more* friendly and happy, would have a reproductive advantage over those who don't?  So why, after 100,000 years (or so) of homo sapien existence, have we not all acquired this happy-go-lucky trait?  Ha!  Maybe our very fallen natures are themselves indication of a divine source.  :-)

3.  I think 95% of my caloric consumption over the past 2 days has been in the form of rice crispy treats.  I just finished packaging all the leftovers from Brigham's castle cake and putting them in the freezer where hopefully they will be less of a temptation to my sweet tooth.  I thought I had better self control.

This is the sunset from this evening.  My sunset photography skills are lacking-- somehow my pictures never fully capture the intensity of what my eyes perceive.  I was making dinner in the kitchen and saw a flash of bright orange reflected in the windows of the house behind ours, so I grabbed my camera and went out the front door.  It was just fading-- in fact, in the frame after this one, taken only a few seconds later, the color saturation had decreased by about half.

This is the leaning tower of laundry that my boys dragged into the living room for me to fold last weekend.  And yes, as I predicted, the other four loads that didn't get done that day are still sitting, untouched, in the laundry room, waiting to be joined by another few loads by the weekend.

02/28/12

1.  Mosey had a great day today!  He happily did his practicing and his chores.  While we were doing cello, he said, "I'm NOT going to let this song beat me!"  And he didn't.  On the way home from the Blue and Gold Banquet tonight, Brigham was feeling bad about some things.  Mosey said to him, "You just can't let life beat you!"  What good advice.  :-)

2.  The Blue and Gold Banquet was tonight.  This was sort of dropped into our laps (my co-den-leader's and mine) at the last minute, since neither of us realized we were supposed to do it, and didn't know how to do it!  It worked out well, though.  I let the boys have the day off of school lessons.  I did practicing with them, and then went to the Scout store to buy a uniform shirt for myself, then to Target to pick up prescriptions, then to Walmart for supplies for the banquet, then to the post office (FINALLY!-- Naomi, your package is on its way), then to the dollar store only to realize they don't fill balloons in the store, then home to pick up the boys (with a 5 minute delay while we frantically searched for-- and found-- Ben's keys to the church), then to the church to set up tables and chairs, then home to help the boys finish their cakes, then back to the church for the banquet, cleaning up, then home!  Whew!  Busy day.

3.  At the post office, a woman that I vaguely know from the Learning Without Limits homeschool association we are in came and knocked on the van window as I was getting ready to get out.  She asked if she could take my package in and mail it for me!  Isn't that the nicest thing ever??  So she did!  And then the post office worker had to come out and talk to me to grill me on what was in the package, since it "could be a bomb."  My homeschool friend told me they really gave her a hard time and told her never to bring packages into the post office for someone else ever again.  Sheesh!  No good deed goes unpunished, I guess.

4.  The cub scouts are supposed to make and decorate cakes with their dads for the Blue and Gold Banquet.  This year Ben really did help them with a lot of it.  Brigham made a castle out of rice crispy treat "blocks."  Joseph made a giant pancake with chocolate chips and blueberries and frosting topped with skittles.  Yum.  :-)  And Mosey made a fish cake.  (Just a cake cut out in the shape of a fish.)  They were all very creative. 

5.  The banquet was very simple.  Blue table cloths, blue and gold balloons, hamburgers, fruit, veggies, and chips, pinewood derby cars for centerpieces.  We didn't do any sort of program or skits or anything, besides the presentation of awards.  Instead, I put together paper bags full of various craft supplies-- pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, small plastic cups, skewers, tape, glue, and scissors, and instructed all the kids to create something over the course of the evening.  I think the kids all had lots of fun, and there were all kinds of cool things made from hot air balloons to parachutes to helicopters, to trees!  A very simple, fun activity.

6.  Mosey did have one sad point tonight after the Blue and Gold Banquet (where he got his Bobcat award).  He brought a grocery bag carrying several small clay creations he has been making over the past few days out of Sculpey clay.  He made an alien, a cat, a porcupine, and a junk critter (a little creature using odds and ends like screws and staples to make a face and body).  They're really cute and he's been very proud of how they turned out.  Sadly they disappeared sometime during the banquet, and by the time we realized it, the trash had already been taken out to the big dumpster.  Mosey was so sad and shed some tears, but then really rallied and decided he would just have to make some more, and they would be better than the original!

7.  Joseph and Brigham left the Banquet feeling a bit down as well.  They were the only boys that didn't get an award.  I'm really confused about how Webelos is supposed to work.  According to the handbook, the requirements are all supposed to be done as a den, with very little being done at home with the parents.  But somehow the other Webelo, just a month older than the boys, earned his badge tonight plus a bunch of other awards.  So we are missing something.  I have tried to delegate Brigham and Joseph's scouting to Ben, but I don't think he understands how it is supposed to work either.  Anyway, both boys were very disappointed, and so was I.  Not because they didn't get awards, but because Scouting is something Joseph has been enthusiastic about, and I hate to have anything happen to dampen that enthusiasm.  I think I'm going to have to delegate Brigham's and Joseph's scouting back to myself.  :-(

02/27/12

1.  Finally!  A Monday that I didn't totally hate.  Brigham and Mosey both got one of their practicing sessions done before breakfast.  This makes a huge difference in my day.  I feel way less rushed.  I get really grumpy when I feel rushed.

2.  Mosey had a good day today.  He was reluctant to go to TKD, but he did go, and once there he had a great time because his friend Natasha came.  She used to be in his class, but has recently been going to the evening classes, so it was fun for Mosey to be in class with her again.  Mosey was also excited about going to speech!  I bought "Fox In Sox" at Walmart the other day, since it is my favorite Dr. Seuss book, and we didn't have it!  The boys have had lots of fun reading it to each other, and Mosey thought it would be fun to take to speech, and make his therapists read it!  And it was fun.  He ran in happily, and his therapist told me afterwards that he was excited and engaged the entire session.  Yay Mosey!

3.  Of course, Mosey's day was not without a glitch or two.  We planned on going down to UT for the Symphony Band concert (last week was the Wind Symphony-- I'm not sure what the difference is) for FHE.  So after we came home from speech and flute, we had to quickly eat dinner (I made crock-pot chicken soup and amazed myself at my thinking-ahead-ed-ness), dejunk the car (it was really, really awful), and get going.  Mosey was not happy about having to go somewhere again so soon after coming home.  He just wanted to stay home and play.  But I insisted on his coming and there was much whining and crying and protestations.  At one point he said, "I hate doing fun things because then the time goes by too fast.  Two hours feels like two minutes, and then it's like you didn't do anything fun at all!"  Sigh...
Anyway, he told me quite vehemently that he was NOT going to like it, that he hated all new things, and it was going to be dumb and boring.  I made him go anyway.  But first, we went and picked up Natasha (same friend from TKD and our art class).  Wow, Mosey's demeanor and attitude turned 180 degrees!  Suddenly he was happy and excited and when we got down to campus, he and Natasha were running around like crazy.  The kids all sat down closer to the stage, so I didn't see them until intermission.  Then Mosey came bounding up the stairs and said, "This is AWESOME!"  I just smiled and said how glad I was that he was having a good time.  And it was a great concert and I'm very glad we all went!
And I've figured out the magic bullet to turning Mosey's frown upside-down-- invite Natasha over!

02/26/12

1.  Being called to say the opening prayer at church is a great way to be on time to church.  Of course, non of the rest of my family made it on time (thanks to a particularly grumpy little boy), and they missed what was surely one of the most well-spoken, insightful, spirit-inducing opening prayers that ever there has been.  Or maybe it wasn't.  They'll never know.  :-) 

2.  I boycotted making meals today.  The boys were completely on their own.  I did make a pan of roasted vegetables for dinner tonight, but I think I was the only person who ate them.  I wish I had a cook.

3.  Brigham was jumping down off the deck, and landed on a small piece of wood with a rusty staple sticking up out of it!  I cringe even thinking about it.  Thank goodness Ben was here to go out and inspect the damage when Mosey came running in yelling, "Brigham has a nail stuck in his foot!!"  I'm pretty cool under pressure, but those kinds of wounds really disturb me.  It ended up being not as bad as it sounded, and we stuck some antibiotic ointment on it and covered it with a band-aid.  I guess we'll see in a day or so if he ends up with tetanus.  :-)

4.  For the Blue and Gold Banquet on Tuesday night, the boys are all supposed to make a cake with their dad for dessert.  Tomorrow night we are going to a concert at UT, so tonight Ben helped the boys with their fabulous creations.  Mosey is going to make a fish cake.  He mixed up the cake mix all by himself, poured it into the pan all by himself, and only got help in carrying it to and from the oven.  He'll cut it out and decorate it sometime between now and Tuesday night.  Brigham and Joseph are making a castle cake.  They're making it out of rice-crispy treats-- yay, I'll be able to have some of it!  We only had enough marshmallows for one batch, though, and we needed more to cut "bricks" to build the castle, so they made a couple more batches with a peanut butter/corn syrup/brown sugar/white sugar mix in place of the melted marshmallows.  They made a huge mess, but it will be a cool cake!

5.  I folded 5 loads of laundry tonight.  That's the good news.  The bad news (besides the fact that I was once more breaking the 4th commandment) is that I have 4 more loads to fold.  That's what happens when I try to pretend that laundry doesn't exist for a week.  :-)

02/25/12

1.  It was my dad's birthday on the 25th!  I'm a horrible daughter and didn't even call him, but I did email him a little note:
Hi Daddy,
I feel so bad that I didn't call you yesterday!  It was a crazy day and I was literally running from one place to the next from 9:00 AM until 10:30 PM.  I did think about you though, and I want to wish you a heartfelt Happy Birthday, as belated as it may be.
I'm so lucky that you are my father.  I'm so lucky that you are my boys' grandfather!  There's no gift I could ever give you that could possibly begin to repay the gift you gave me of a blessed childhood and a heritage of intellect and faith.
I like to brag about my dad who now at 63 is more active and in better shape than most men 20 years younger than himself!  :-)  I wish we lived closer so that my boys could go to your soccer games and you could take them on bike-rides.  Thank you for being an ideal example of the kind of man I hope each one of my boys will grow up to be.

Love,
Gabrielle

2.  Brigham went with me to Walmart after horseback riding lessons to help pick out a baby-shower present for my friend.  It was fun to shop with him.  He helped me pick out 6 classic Dr. Seuss books and a basket to put them in, which I thought was a great idea for a gift, even though it ended up that my friend already had them all.  Oh well, you win some, you lose some.  :-)  Thank goodness for gift receipts.

3.  Eating refreshments at baby showers is no fun when you don't eat meat or wheat or dairy.  Thank goodness for the obligatory fruit and vegetable platter.  Although, somehow celery sticks and grapes don't quite measure up to cheesecake, croissants, sugar cookies, and all the other delicious food that was there.  At least I didn't have to worry about eating too much!  :-)

4.  Ben's big ward activity was Saturday night.  It went well!  We had a 3 course potluck meal (salad, main dish, dessert), and played get-to-know you games.  I know Ben was feeling nervous when it was 5:00 (it supposedly started at 5:00), and the only people there were the people in his presidency who had to be there to set up.  But the Mormon-standard-time rule held up and by 5:30 almost everyone was there.  :-)

5.  I went to the grocery store after the ward activity.  I'm a total pro at loading those puny motorized grocery store carts.  I think I outdid myself on this shopping trip.  It was like the clowns coming out of the tiny little car!  The cashier was amazed, and the groceries I bought ended up filling one of those giant-sized grocery carts, once everything was bagged up.

02/26/12 family letter

Hi everyone,
Can I really write a 5-minute letter?  Probably not, but I have to try.
The past two weeks have been good, but busy.  I'm trying to update my blog more often, so if you want details, you can always go there.
Yesterday was an especially busy day.
1.  Brigham had horseback riding lessons at 10:00, which means we had to be there by 9:30, which means we had to leave by 9:15 AM.
2.  On the way back we stopped at Walmart for a baby shower gift and chicken for a main dish we needed to bring to a ward activity that night.
3.  I went to the baby shower for a woman in our ward who is giving birth to her first child at age 49!  (She has 3 other children they adopted.)  She is a good friend and has done so much to help me, so I was excited to go, although normally I don't really love baby showers.  I've bowed out of 3 others over the past several weeks.  I don't suffer the kind of extreme emotional distress that I did before I had my boys, when I wasn't sure if I'd ever have children, and I have absolutely zero negative feelings for anyone having babies.  But I do get to feeling a little bit sad-- enough that I'd rather not spend 2 hours playing games and trying to act really happy.  Give me a few years and I'll probably get over it.  :-)
4.  I went to a ward activity that Ben was in charge of.  It was a fun pot-luck game night where everyone switched tables between courses, playing different get-to-know-you type games, so that by the end of the night, everyone had the chance to spend time with several people they didn't know well.  It was a smashing success.  I'm so glad-- it was the first big ward-wide activity that we've had in a while, and the first one at the church since I really can't remember when, and I know Ben was feeling the pressure.  I have to take some credit since the idea was all mine.  :-)
5.  I dropped the boys off and went to the grocery store, a Saturday-night ritual for me.  I got back at 10:30 PM, then spent a couple of hours putting groceries away and picking up the house.
6.  It was a long day!

Other things of note:
This weekend I might have hit a new low in my personal history of laundry.  Somehow I ended up with NINE loads of clean laundry to fold today.  NINE.  I only got to 5 of them, and now that this week has begun, I probably won't have a moment to think about it until next weekend.  Laundry is my least favorite household chore. 

Last weekend Julie Beck came to Austin to speak for our stake women's conference.  It ended up being broadcast to all the stakes in the central-Texas area, but we were the lucky ones who got to see her in person.  She spoke on Friday night and again on Saturday.  She was great, and it was really fun to get to see her more personal side.  She's a very funny person-- self-deprecating with a dry sense of humor.  I like her even more than I did before (and I liked her a lot before).

The boys had another orthodontist appointment to get spacers put in.  We have to pay a $2,000 deposit at our next appointment.  Our orthodontist bills are just beginning.

The boys and I had a Homeschool Pow-wow on Thursday where we talked about how things are going and how we want the next 14 weeks of school to go.  Things have been feeling a little stale, and I could sense it was time to shake things up.  We'll be doing a 4-day-a-week schedule from now on, and add a few weeks at the end of the school year to make up for it.  To kick it off, we went to our first park day (with one of the area homeschooling associations) in about 2 years.  It was fun-- Brigham climbed trees, Joseph waded in the creek, I got to talk to other moms, and Mosey was grumpy.  After crying every night for the past week that he never gets to do anything fun, and every day is like every other day, I couldn't feel very sorry for him.  He's going through a tough spell right now and Ben and I are a bit flummoxed as to how to deal with him best.  Are his behavior issues because he's not getting enough positive attention?  Because we're too lenient with him and he is spoiled?  Because he's just going through a "phase" that has nothing to do with our parenting at all?  I have no idea.  It's a cliche, but there are surely times when I wish motherhood did come with a manual.  :-)

Well, my 5 minute letter turned into a 22 minute letter, so I better stop now.  The boys want to get up at 6:15 to get one session of practicing done before breakfast.  Which means I need to get up at 5:45, which means it's already too late for me to get 7 hours of sleep tonight.

Happy Birthday to Daddy and CiCi and Benjamin and Polly!  I'm horrible at acknowledging birthdays, but I hope you all know how much I love you, and believe me when I say that I thought about you.

Love,
Gabrielle

02/24/12

1.  Starting from January 3, and lasting through March, it is BIRTHDAY SEASON in the extended Frandsen Family.  I think there are 16 birthdays in that time period (Ben, Mosey, Eva, Jane, Abe & Lucy, Miles, CiCi, Benjamin, Polly, Daddy, Rachel & Jacob, Elena, Mara & Lincoln!).  Needless to say, it is a bit hard to keep track of.  :-)  I totally missed Polly's 3rd birthday a few days ago.  I'm a horrible aunt-- her middle name is after me, for heaven's sake!  Does it count that I actually bought her a present a week ago, but haven't made it to the post office?  I'm thinking not since I didn't actually acknowledge her on her birthday.  And then today Naomi called me and I chatted with her for 20 minutes before hanging up and realizing that today is CiCi's first birthday!  (I have a present for her, too, but still how crummy of me not even to mention CiCi's birthday to my sister.)
SO, with that on my mind, I finally finished editing the pictures I took of Naomi and her family when they were here just after Christmas.  Here are a few of them in honor of my sweet and wonderful nieces.

As you can see, I have lots of adorable pictures of CiCi, and only 2 adorable pictures of Polly.  This is because CiCi couldn't walk at the time of those pictures, and Polly could.  In fact, Polly could run, and fast.  And she didn't particularly like getting her picture taken (especially after being awakened early from her nap, which we had to do the day we took family pictures at the park).  Therefore, the only adorable picture I have of Polly by herself, is when she was fast asleep, confined to her carseat.  There are limitations to child photography when the photographer is trying to shoot from a wheelchair.  :-)
Nonetheless, I love these two little girls and their mom.  I wish I could transplant them about a thousand miles closer to us.

2.  Our first Friday of our new schedule was a bit of a bust.  Joseph and Brigham had orthodontist appointments in the morning, which took a while and threw everything off.  Then Mosey got really involved doing a clay project and was very unhappy when it was time to go to the park for the homeschool park day I'm going to try to attend more often.  He was grumpy the whole way there, the whole time there, and the whole way back.  Sometimes I feel like I can't win!  He cries that every day is the same, but when we do something wild and crazy like go to the park during our normal school hours, he doesn't want to go!  :-)  It was a fun park, though.  Brigham immediately shimmied up the first suitable climbing tree he encountered, and perched on one of the branches to read his book.  Joseph found the creek and spent a very happy hour and a half exploring and finding fossils and scaling the limestone cliffs on the other side of the creek to find old golf balls that had been lost from the adjacent golf course.  We'll have to go back another time when Mosey is less grumpy.

3.  The Elders Quorum Moving Company has another move this weekend.  Ben, being the Elders Quorum president, is also the de facto Elders Quorum Moving Company Manager and therefore has to be at every one of the Elders Quorum Moving Company moves.  So he was out on a "job" tonight, and will be out on a "job" for several hours tomorrow.  I have a lot of passionate feelings about the appropriateness of the Elders Quorum Moving Company and the unrequited demands it puts on the precious time of not only the Elders (especially the EQP), but also the families of those Elders and EQP's.  But I'm too tired to revisit that emotional quagmire right now, so I'll leave it at that.  At least Ben was able to take Mosey along tonight.

02/23/12

1.  It's my brother Benjamin's birthday!  I'll always remember the exact time he was born:  2:22 on 2/23.  I came home from school that day to find out that I had a new baby brother!  I knew he was going to be a boy.  And yes, I know there is always a 50/50 chance of being right, but for some reason with this sibling of mine, I was 100% certain all along that he was a boy.  So I was not a bit surprised, and I felt very special and a little superior that I had known.  :-)  I was 10 years old and in 5th grade when he was born, just the same age my twins are now.  That is funny for me to think about.  Anyway, he's a great big 25-year-old now getting his PhD in physics at Columbia University in NYC.  I love to brag about my siblings and bask in their reflected glory.  :-)  He was such a fun brother to have around.  He was always very serious and diligent about everything, which was just so cute in such a little boy!  He was only 7 years old when I left home, so he'll always be one of the "little kids" to me.  As he grew up, he turned into the most disciplined kid I've ever known.  He seriously had anxiety when he didn't get all of his practicing done, or if he didn't go to bed on time!  I only wished (and still wish) that I had half of his self-discipline.  He is the oldest of the last 3 boys in our family, and so in that way he played something of the first child role, even though he was #7 in line.  He is an incredibly hard worker and always has been, and as a result has excelled in pretty much everything he's ever set his mind on.  He played soccer all the way up into high school, ran cross country (and was really good!), he practiced piano and cello every single day and became very good on both instruments, got 5's on I don't know how many AP exams-- at least eight that I can think of off the top of my head, he got perfect scores on his ACT and SAT, won the highest scholarship to BYU, served a mission in Germany, came back and graduated with honors, married his sweetheart, and is now this amazing guy that I am so proud to call my brother.


 Benjamin was such a funny little guy-- it took         
him a while to grow into the little-old-man look      
he had when he was born.                                                 My mom is so beautiful.  I am now the same
Obviously he grew up to be very handsome.  :-)             age she was when she had Benjamin.

2.  I let the boys all sleep in this morning.  We didn't have breakfast until 8:30.  I astounded all the boys by announcing we were not having lessons today.  Instead we were going to have a pow-wow about how we wanted the rest of this school year to go.  Everybody pitched in their two cents about what they like, what they don't like, what they wish we could do differently, what they wish we could do more of.  I think that we came up with a pretty good plan for the last 14 weeks of school.  They decided they wanted to do a 4-day a week schedule, and then extend 3 more weeks to be sure to hit our 180 school days.  On Fridays we will do fun things like go on field trips, and take the time to do some academic things we don't get to during the week-- greek and latin roots (my boys love this stuff!), creative writing, Youtube videos on relevant topics, art projects, etc.  They also all decided they want to get up earlier (6:30) and get one session of practicing done before breakfast so that our school day is not so rushed.  I'm also going to try to have Brigham and Joseph do all of their practicing on their own, and only help them when they ask.  I keep telling myself that having a sane mom and a more peaceful feeling in the house is more important than maximizing the effectiveness of their practicing by being their practicing coaches.  We'll see how it goes, but I feel good about things!

3.  The boys spent the rest of the day today playing outside, reading books, and enjoying the springtime weather outside.  I did make them practice, though, so they didn't get entirely off scot-free!!  One of their more entertaining activities the past few days has been pounding quarters  into pieces of wood with a hammer.  They like to see if they can pound hard enough to engrave George Washington's head into the wood.  Why is this fun?  I don't know, but I sure love to see their creative minds at work.  Joseph also got involved in doing research on the B-2 stealth bomber.  He printed out pictures, studied diagrams, read articles online, and now knows a lot of interesting facts about this plane.  He wants to go to the Rose Parade sometime to see the B-2 fly-by!  Brigham dug out our "The New Way Things Work" book and spent a couple of hours studying how radios work.  It's not enough for him to know basically how electromagnetic waves work, and frequency and amplitude and that sort of thing, he needs to know exactly *how* to make a radio-- how to generate radio waves, how to modulate the signal to get different channels, the real nitty-gritty nuts and bolts of it.  He is very determined and will not give up until he has figured it all out!  Mosey got out our Sculpey clay and idea book and recruited me to help him make a little cat which he named Midnight.  Sculpey is a kind of modeling clay that can be baked to hardness.  Such a totally Mosey thing to love to do!  All-in-all it was a great no-lesson day, and one that was sorely needed by all of us.

02/22/12

A few pictures from today at the park.

Mosey wearing one of his rare pleasant expressions today.

Brigham looking about the way I felt most of today.

He managed a half-smile that didn't quite reach his eyes...

1.  I had such high hopes for today.  We had such a good start.  I made french toast for breakfast.  We started practicing even before 8:00.  We were on track to finish well before 11:00 AM.  And then Brigham and Joseph got into a fight which landed both of them in separate rooms.  So practicing didn't get finished until nearly 12:00.  And then Mosey cried all the way to TKD because he didn't want to go.  The homeschool TKD classes used to have several kids who went, and now there are only 2 other kids who sometimes come.  No other kids were there today, and Mosey had the instructor he doesn't really like (understandably-- she's something of a cold fish), and it's just not that fun for him under those circumstances.  Anyway, his enthusiasm for TKD has cooled considerably since the new year when Joseph quit and some of the other homeschool kids switched to the afternoon classes.  I feel really bad about that but I'm not sure what I should do.  We can't make the afternoon classes.  We went home, and things deteriorated after lunch, finally ending with Mosey crying inconsolably and telling me that life wasn't worth living.  :-(  So I tried to shake things up and cheer Mosey up by going to the park.  After only about 20 minutes, he started whining and complaining that he wanted to go home, so that was a failure, too.  But Brigham and Joseph were in the middle of some schoolwork, and we had to go to piano lessons right after that, so he was stuck at the park for a whole hour.  It was really terrible for him.  Things improved a little bit during piano lessons, although Mosey was still a bit of a "grumble cookie-monster" or whatever the funny name was that his teacher had for my grumpy boy.  The day was salvaged only fractionally for Mosey by the Kraft Macaroni and Cheese I made for dinner.  Some days are like this, I guess.

2.  It was 88 degrees today.  February 22, and it was 88 degrees outside.  That is depressing.  I think I may have to hide in some Montana cabin in the mountains this summer.

3.  On a less heavy note, Joseph and I went down to UT tonight to go to the Butler School of Music wind symphony performance.  It was so great!  I wanted all the boys to go (Ben was out doing Elders Quorum stuff), but Brigham and Mosey demurred at the last minute, so it was just Joseph and me.  Live music is so much more exciting than listening to recordings.  I told Joseph it's even more exciting performing it!  I need to keep the school of music performances on my calendar-- they're free and a lot more family-friendly than going to the Austin Symphony, for example.

02/21/12

1.  Scouts was at our house this afternoon.  We were working on Tools for Building and Fixing.  Among other things, the boys were supposed to build a bird house.  Well, those bird house kits (sold for this express purpose at the Scouting store) are about the most UN-eight-year-old-friendly contraptions I've ever seen.  The kit comes with six pieces of wood, and "nails" that are the same size and only slightly sturdier than straight pins.  They bend if you look at them wrong!  I feel bad because I really wanted the boys to be able to make these themselves, but there was just no way.  I could barely get the "nails" in myself.  I had them watch me for a while, hoping there would be something they could do.  I realized there was no way we could finish them within our meeting time, so I told them they could go outside and play, and I'd at least try and get the sides and roof together.  I hope their parents will be able to do a better job than I did...  Mosey was able to help a little more, as we didn't start his until after Scouts was over and I was able to sit there and hold the nail and guide his little hands holding the hammer.  I guess I have a pet-peeve about activities for little kids that really can only be done by adults (pinewood derby cars, I'm thinking about you!).
Also as part of this activity, we got out a bunch of tools for the boys to identify and learn how to use.  I asked Joseph to help me get them out of the garage.  He thought it would be a good idea to bring Ben's giant axe inside to put on the table along with the screwdrivers and alligator wrenches.  :-)  Yeah, I'm thinking maybe not such a great idea with a bunch of eight-year-olds.  I'd rather not deal with amputated hands and feet at our den meeting.  :-)
So Joseph put the axe back, and instead, while I'm leading our meeting, blissfully unaware, he and Brigham went outside and pulverized a 2x4 with a PICK-AXE!  Again, perhaps not the most scout-appropriate activity.  :-)

2.  Tonight one of the Beehives from our ward (12 year old girl) came over to our house to complete one of her 1-hour service projects she's doing for Personal Progress.  She and her mom came over and swept and mopped the entire downstairs!  I felt like kissing her!  I've got to think of a really good thank-you for this sweet girl.

3.  The boys have got this idea about turning our homeschool into a military academy.  They're pretty serious about it too!  They want uniforms, daily drills, even for me to insist they say "Yes Ma'am!" whenever I ask them to do something.  I could get used to that.  :-)  I wonder what kind of uniforms we could come up with?

02/20/12

1.  I gave the boys the day off school today, since RRISD is off for President's Day.  I still made the do their practicing, though.  I'm not *that* nice.  :-)

2.  I failed to inform Mosey that he still had to go to speech this afternoon.  Actually I thought I had told him.  Brigham and Joseph both knew, so I guess I must have told the boys about it when Mosey wasn't in the room.  So when I told Mosey it was time to get in the car to go to speech, he completely fell apart.  "But it's a day off of school, mom!!!"  Yes, a day off of *school,* not a day off of everything.  Oh, there were tears and weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.  He collapsed in my bathtub (we were in my bathroom finishing up cello (the bathroom is our cello-practicing-location-of-choice) just before we had to go to speech) and refused to get out.  I broke my no-yelling-rule and he finally got in the car and we headed downtown.  He was still quite unhappy when we got down to UT.  As I dropped him off, I tried to remind him to "leave his grumpiness outside the door."  He was welcome to pick it back up on the way out, but he needed to cool it in his session.  He must have been at least partially successful, because he was happy enough when he got out 45 minutes later.  He even got two prizes from the prize box!  I felt pretty rotten, though.  Despite what my kids may thing, I really, really do hate to see them cry.  :-(

3.  That wasn't Mosey's only emotional outburst today.  He also had a moment or two during piano practicing.  He has a tendency (and he's not alone amongst my boys in this tendency) to be very fatalistic, and when he can't play a tricky section right the first time, he dramatically throws his hands up into the air, heaves a giant sigh and says, "I can't do it!  I'll never be able to do it!"  And then strongly resists any encouragement to actually *practice* the tricky section.  So we had a long-ish talk about being a "cheerleader" or a "boo-leader" for yourself.  When he tells himself, "I can't do it!  I'll never be able to do it!  It's too hard!" he's being a boo-leader.  And who wants a boo-leader hanging around?  Boo-leaders would get kicked out of the football stadium!  Instead, he needs to be his own best cheerleader.  "I can do it!  I bet next time it'll be perfect!  Nothing's too hard for me!"  I told him that the words we say to ourselves are way more powerful than anything anyone else can say to us.  Boo-leaders have got no place inside our heads.  We need to kick them out!  Only cheerleaders around here!
I hope it helps.  We'll see.  I may have to track down some cheerleading pom-poms to shake around whenever my boys start being boo-leaders.  They'd love that.  :-)

02/19/12

Three things for Sunday

1.  I totally forgot about Mosey's talk he was assigned in Primary.  I had fully intended for him to work on it over this past week, but it got lost somewhere in between my synapses.  I don't know how it is that it came to me all of a sudden about 10 minutes before we needed to leave for church.  Probably Heavenly Father was watching me thinking, "So... I wonder how much longer I should let her remember this on her own?"  He must have given up on me when he saw me leisurely getting dressed and doing my hair and other getting-ready-for-church-things without the slightest sign of anxiety over my son's yet-unwritten talk.  Hey, I'm glad he didn't wait until I was actually at church!  :-)  As it was, I sent Ben off to church with Brigham and Mosey (Joseph woke up with a sore throat and fever and so he stayed in bed), and I stayed home and madly wrote Mosey's talk.  I made it to church with 15 minutes to spare.

2.  Brigham has taught Sandy the funniest thing.  Sandy loves to play tug of war, especially with stuffed animals.  Brigham especially loves to play keep-away from her, teasing her with a stuffed animal in her face, and then darting away, Sandy close at his heels.  Well, Brigham plays this same game, but instead of a stuffed animal, he grabs her tail and shakes the end in front of her nose, just like he does with the stuffed animal.  Sandy goes crazy trying to grab her own tail away from Brigham.  She literally chases her tail, going around and around, and sometimes even catching it!  At that point, you'd think she'd figure out the "stuffed animal" she has clamped between her jaws is actually her own tail.  But she doesn't, and keeps spinning round and round.  It is very, very funny.  I have to get it on video for sure.

3.  I forgot to write something I liked about Julie Beck's talk yesterday.  She couldn't find a scripture she was trying to use to illustrate a point about visiting teaching.  She flipped through her scriptures for a while before giving up and asking someone with an iphone to please look it up for her.  She said, "It says something about... do not the publicans the same... or something like that.  I think it might be in Matthew?"  And then she went on.  I just thought that was awesome.  She doesn't have every scripture memorized!  She wasn't embarrassed to ask someone in the audience to look it up for her!  She was clearly speaking off-the-cuff with no prepared notes!  (I can't do that.)  It made me giggle a little, picturing one of the twelve standing up in General Conference, searching in vain for a scripture, and then asking someone on the stand behind him to pull out their iphone or ipad to look it up for him on lds.org.  :-)  Of course, someone did find the scripture for her within a minute or so (Matthew 5:45-47) and it perfectly illustrated the point she was trying to make.  So even though she doesn't have every scripture memorized, she's still leagues ahead of me in being able to, on the spur of the moment, come up with scriptures to back up what she's saying.

02/18/12

1.  Day 2 of the women's conference with Julie Beck.  Ben decided I am just like her (not).  One of a whole bunch of kids who grows up only to have 3 kids, and who is a piano-practicing drill sergeant.  See, totally the same!  She described piano practicing in her home as "combat piano."  I love that.  It feels like combat piano around here, too, sometimes.  But she made her kids practice two hours a day MINIMUM!  And she sat next to her youngest daughter for EIGHT YEARS, until she was 16 before her daughter finally was ready to practice independently.  I'm pretty sure I don't have that kind of stamina.

2.  Went to lunch at County Line with two women in my ward after the conference (Kelly and Jill).  I was dubious that I would find anything to eat there with my weird diet, but not so!  They offer a vegetable kabob plate with a baked potato, 2 kabobs with zucchini, squash, peppers, tomatoes, and mushrooms, and coleslaw.  It was good, but more expensive than the baby back ribs!  How is that?  Jill commented that nothing had to die to make my lunch.  :-)

3.  I laid down the law for Mosey and computer games this morning-- nothing after 10:00 AM.  Of course, being gone to the conference until early afternoon, I wasn't able to inform him that watching his brothers play computer games was also verboten!  Why is that fun??  But, at least he did spend the afternoon making lego fighter planes with Brigham.  I think Ben is a little skeptical that too much computer-game playing yields a very grumpy Mosey.  But you know, it's not just the computer-game playing itself, it's the fact that every minute playing on the computer displaces a minute in which he could be doing something else.  I've been thinking about the 10,000 hour rule-- how it purportedly take 10,000 hours of practice or experience before a person is an expert in something, or can perform at a professional level.  So, let's take a child.  Starting at the age of 5 (before 5 kids are mostly trying to learn the fundamentals of communication, mobility, and basic independence), and ending at age 18, 10,000 hours equals a little over 2 hours a day, 365 days a year.  So, the question is what am I training my children to become professionals in while they're growing up in my home?  I'm pretty sure there are lots of kids that end up as professional-level video-game players, or TV-watchers by the time they graduate from high school, but that's not my ambition for my kids.  Ben said, "They're not going to be professional pianists or violinists, either."  And that is true, unless I follow Julie Beck's example and start requiring a whole lot more daily practicing!  :-)  But that's also not my ambition for my kids.  My goals are for them to achieve expertise in responsibility, hard work, thinking skills, and faith, and for them to reach a competency level in a lot of other things-- piano, violin, tae kwon do, story-writing, and yes, lego-building and block-construction and drawing and any number of other things.  I think that the more interesting things a kid can become competent doing, the happier, more confident, more interesting person he will become.
But you know, what's good for the goose is good for the gander.  Or in my case, what's good for the goslings is good for the goose.  What am I training myself to become an expert in?  It's an interesting question.  After 4 years of homeschooling, if the 10,000 hour rule holds true, I'm now an expert teacher!  If I stick with music practicing with my kids, by the time Mosey leaves home, I'll be an expert practice coach.  But I hope I won't be.  :-)  But there are also a few other things I'm becoming an expert in which are not so good.  Like procrastinating bed time.  So, good night! :-)

02/17/12

1.  Brigham and Joseph went to the orthodontist this afternoon, starting the long process to perfect teeth.  :-)  Ben took them so he could talk intelligently with the doctor.  Ben has quite extensive experience with orthodontists and I defer completely to his judgment in the matter of our boys' teeth.  Brigham and Joseph both got rubber band type things in their upper teeth, in preparation for spacers in a few weeks.  The fun begins. 

2.  Our women's conference is this weekend-- Julie Beck came to be the keynote speaker!  She gave a sort of informal question-and-answer session tonight, teaching completely off-the-cuff and pulling out relevant scriptures and stories like it was nothing.  My favorite quotes from her were: "It's not about staying in the garden," and"It's not about living a guilt-free life."  Amen.

3.  It rained off and on all day today!  And it got cold!  (Well, if mid-60's in February can be termed cold.)  This winter has been like the longest, most pleasant spring I've ever experienced.  Sunny and 70 most days.  We could be in Florida!  The grass is about 100 times greener now than it's been since last spring.  This has still been a very dry winter, today's rain notwithstanding, so a cool front and a few days of grey, drizzly weather are A-OK in my book.

02/16/12

1.  For our art group this afternoon, the boys brought their instruments to demonstrate.  I think it was really fun for them to show off for their friends a little!  Also fun for them to see how far they've come from the scratching and screeching and blowing of the other kids trying out the violin, cello, and flute.  :-) 

2.  Mosey was happier today.  He wasn't excited about having to go to cello right after art, but on the way there he said to me, "I've noticed that sometimes I really don't want to do something, but then when I'm there, I really like it!"  I told him how many things in life are just like that.  He's doing great in cello, I'm really blown away at the difference switching from violin to cello (or maybe just the 1 year age difference?) has made.  He's a natural cellist and thinks it's really funny when I forget the name of the strings, or which finger plays which note. 

3.  I've decided I'm not going to cook on Thursday nights.  Thursdays are too crazy, and getting home at 7:15 is too late to start dinner.  Mosey and I stopped by Taco Cabana and brought home food for dinner.  I think Thursday nights will be Dad's choice nights, or take-out. 

4.  Brigham loves to fight Sandy.  Those two can really go at it, and I'm not sure which one sounds more ferocious!  Brigham gets down and wrestles with her and growls at her, and she eats it up.  All the boys, plus Ben, got in a big dog wrestling match tonight, ending when Sandy got a *little* too excited and nipped Ben on his backside.  :-)  Later, Joseph was sitting on the couch, I came up behind him and put my arms around him, and then Mosey and Brigham thought it was a good idea to join in a great big group hug.  Two seconds later, Sandy JUMPED up on top of everyone, shoving her face down among all of ours, and licking everyone she could get her tongue on.  She didn't want us forgetting for a second that she is a part of our pack, too!

5.  At lunchtime today I had one of those "I sure love homeschooling" moments (much needed after my self-doubts of 24 hours ago) as the boys and I discussed the role of government in regulating wages and other labor/business interests.  We're just now getting into the beginnings of labor unions, and the era of the robber barons in our history unit.  So fun to see the wheels turning in their heads!  Brigham has got some beef with one of our history books, and takes great joy in proving to me why it's totally wrong in some of the conclusions and assertions it makes.

6.  One more thing from yesterday.  While I was gone to Tae Kwon Do with Mosey around noon, some guy came and knocked on the front door (I'm pretty sure he was one of the environmentalist missionaries who periodically come tracting the neighborhood seeking signatures for some proposed bill or another).  Joseph and Brigham did right by not answering the door, although I think the pattering footsteps and the click of the deadbolt being locked might have clued him in to the fact that someone was actually home.  :-)  Later, in the evening, another knock came.  Joseph ran and got it and it was the same guy, this time asking if his mom or dad were here.  I'm not sure what was in his head, but he said, "It doesn't matter whether they're here or not!" and closed the door.  OK, I appreciate his efforts in sparing me from having to deal with yet another salesman/activist at our front door.  But I THINK there might have been a little more courteous way of handling the situation.  :-)  Ben and I made the practice a better response: "Thanks for coming, but we're really not interested right now.  Good luck!"  Ack!  we definitely need a unit on basic etiquette.  :-/  And I think we need a plaque for our front door that says, "Please no solicitors except for Girl Scouts selling cookies."  Now Girl Scout cookies are a cause I can definitely get behind.

02/15/12

Only one thing on my mind tonight.  Mosey didn't want to go to bed, and when I finally made it clear I was really serious, he went into his room, locked the door, and then started crying like his heart was breaking.  My kids crying is one thing that never fails to undo me.  So I went upstairs, unlocked his door with a butter knife, and lay next to him until he fell asleep.  He told me, amidst hiccuping tears that "every day is exactly the same," and that he "never has time to do anything fun."
On one hand, this makes me feel like a big fat failure.  Am I completely failing in imparting any sense of joy or fun in my boy's learning experience?  Am I so boring, and such a relentless task-master that my 2nd grader has to cry himself to sleep?  Yes, he is touching on my worst insecurities.
On the other hand, let me look back on Mosey's day today.  Here was the schoolwork that he actually completed today:  Read 3 chapters of "Old Yeller."  Listened to me read a chapter of "Caddie Woodlawn" (while playing on the back lawn with Sandy), and a chapter in our Landmark History book.  Watched a 5 minute video for the science experiment we couldn't do because our science book is missing.  Practiced the piano for 30 minutes, and the cello for 30 minutes.  I think he may have done some math in there-- 15 minutes maybe?  (What he didn't complete:  the other 15 minutes of math, answering science questions-- another 10 minutes, spelling- 15 minutes, and listening to our other history book on his MP3 player-- 20 minutes or so.  So maybe another hour of work.)  And here is what else he did:  Played with Sandy, ran around in the backyard, jumped on the trampoline, went to Tae Kwon Do, read a couple of books for pleasure, got all caught up on Calvin and Hobbes while waiting his turn for piano lessons, and had free time from 5:30- 7:30 when we ate dinner, during which he played nerf guns with Joseph, found a new game on my phone, played Tanki Online, and I don't know what else because I was making dinner.
It is true that our weekdays are pretty much the same.  But isn't that true of even public school kids?  Our afternoons are different, only similar in that we have an activity to go to most afternoons.
So what is this?  Mosey becoming sophisticated enough to pick up on his mother's deep-seated anxieties about her parenting?  True angst from a little boy who has too much placed upon him?
How do I respond?  Hug him and comfort him and tell him I love him, and then keep doing what we're doing?  Try to figure out ways to mix things up a little-- cello practicing in the garage!  Math while sitting on top of the van!  Spelling word scavenger hunt!
I don't know.  I told him that I was listening, that I would think about what he was saying, and meanwhile he should come up with a few ideas over the next few days for things we can do or change that would make him happier. 
Sigh... Being a mom is hard.

 

02/14/12

1.  Today was a much better day.  Much better.  :-)  All lessons were done by 3:45!  I took Joseph to Walmart to buy a nerf gun (the same kind Mosey bought on Saturday-- now they can have wars together), then went to the library and the grocery store, and then home again.  I sure enjoy having conversations in the car with my boys.  Joseph told me about his favorite books so far this year (The Unwanteds, Mocassin Trail, and Happenstance Found).  I made a good dinner-- parmesan tilapia, cous-cous, and asparagus.

2.  Ben made me a fruit bouquet!  He's so creative.  And it made a really good fruit salad dinner for me.

3.  It wasn't a very thrilling Valentine's Day.  I did make the boys heart-shaped pancakes this morning, though!  And after dinner we made white-chocolate strawberries.  All the boys were in bed by 9:00, and I'm praying they were asleep shortly after.  Now I'm going to sleep, too!

02/13/13

1.  I hate Mondays.

2.  My kids hate Mondays.

3.  I am very glad this Monday is over.

And that is all that is worth saying about this day!  :-)

Weekly letter for February 12

Hi Family,
Another week has ended (or started, whichever way you like to look at it).  The last few Mondays have been kind of rotten, so I'm really hoping to buck the trend tomorrow.  We'll see.
I am feeling singularly uninspired for my weekly letter tonight.  This last week was pretty average.  School, practicing, lessons, chores, laundry, errands.  Etc., etc., etc.  (Mosey was talking one time and at the end of a sentence said, "Eckt, eckt."  It took me a minute to figure out he was trying to say "et cetera, et cetera," he just hadn't made the connection between the abbreviated "etc." and the full "et cetera."  Funny.)
Monday was a hard day.  I found myself in tears, begging the boys to just sit down and do their math!!  They were pretty shocked by that and were cooperative with math for most of the rest of the week.  :-)  We had our normal lineup of school lessons, TKD, flute, and speech.  Mosey had a much better time at speech and has decided he wants to keep going.  Joseph's decided to stay with his teacher for the time being, so we are maintaining the status quo.
We had our first cub scout meeting at our house on Tuesday.  We did a bunch of requirements on the flag-- learning the history of the flag, how to fold it, how to lead different kinds of flag ceremonies, and how to properly treat and retire flags.  Only 3 kids came because a lot of people were out of town for a long weekend (some sort of teacher in-service days or something like that-- I'd like to schedule a few of those for myself!).  I hope I will be good at this calling.  It's a bit hard for me to keep up physically with a bunch of 8 and 9 year old boys.  :-)
On Wednesday night Mosey tested for (and passed!) his Tae Kwon Do green belt.  And then I totally forgot about the belt ceremony on Friday night.  :-(
Thursday was regular lessons in the morning and art in the afternoon.  I got to hang out with the 3 and 4 month old babies of two of the moms in our art group.  I wish one of them were mine.  :-)  Mosey had cello in the evening.  He's doing really well in cello, and I like his teacher a lot. 
Friday was an OK day.  A pretty good day except for the 30 minutes that Mosey decided to run away from home.  I did find him, he hadn't gone far and didn't intend to.  But situations like those are when I really curse my physical disabilities.  And really question my parenting skills.  I got my hair cut in the afternoon and thought about how much the boys need haircuts.  It didn't happen this weekend, though.
Saturday was busy.  I took Joseph to archery early in the morning (he is awesome!  I'm going to start calling him Robin of Locksley).  After we got home, I took Mosey to Walmart from to try to find a Nerf gun he's been fantasizing about ever since Tuesday night when we did a quick Walmart run while Joseph and Brigham were at scouts.  The gun wasn't there and Mosey went home disappointed.  As soon as we got home, I took Brigham to horseback riding from.  This involved some drama-- Brigham doesn't like to ask for help, and his teacher had left in him the lurch with his horse after his lesson, leaving Brigham to figure out how to put the horse blanket back on the horse, how to put the halter on this particular horse who is really tall, and really didn't want the halter put on, and how to find the elusive "pasture 3."  I know how Brigham feels-- I hate asking questions that betray some lack of ability or knowledge on my part.  But after the blanket fell off the horse, the halter fell off the horse, and the horse ran away (without a halter or lead rope), I hope Brigham learned that sometimes it's better to ask for help or clarification to begin with, rather than risking things getting out of hand later.  Meanwhile, I was no help whatsoever since I had gone out to the van to wait for him while he put the horse away (which normally takes only a few minutes).  I felt so bad for him when I finally found him crying after more than 45 minutes of frustration trying to put this horse away.  I attempted to make things better for him with a stop at Sonic for a banana pineapple shake.  Anyway, once home (not till 3:00 PM!), I took Mosey to Walmart AGAIN (a different Walmart) to try again to find the nerf gun.  Success this time and he's been driving us crazy with those little foam bullets flying every which way ever since.  Then I cam home, did laundry and then took the boys to see War Horse (good movie!).  It was long, though, and we weren't home until 10:00 PM at which point everyone had to get ready for bed.  After I shooed the last reluctant boy up the stairs to bed, I went to the grocery store, barely finishing in time to make my purchases before the Sabbath started at 12:00 AM.  I got home after midnight and spent the next 2 hours putting groceries away and straightening up the house for Sunday.  I need another weekend day.
Today was a good Sunday.  I'm back in Gospel Doctrine and Relief Society now that I'm not a primary teacher.  And someone came to sit next to me in Relief Society, so I was happy.  After church I took a nap and then got dinner ready for a couple of people from our ward who came to dinner.  The laundry I did yesterday afternoon is still sitting (clean and dry) in laundry baskets in the laundry room where they may stay until next weekend, but I'm going to try to ignore them and go to bed.

That's it, everyone.  No pictures this week.  This next week I am making it a goal to have a least a few pictures worth looking at.  My camera is getting dusty on my desk.

Love,
Gabrielle

02/12/12

1. So as you know I finally bit the bullet and bought a smart phone, the Droid Razr.  I have no idea how to use it.  I can make calls, answer calls, check email, and get online, but that's pretty much it.  I have no idea how to turn on the speakerphone, how to open up more than one web page, how to add or edit contacts, how to set an alarm, or how to create a calendar.  I know how to take pictures and video, but I don't know how to view them on the phone.  The phone makes little chiming sounds when it is notifying me of something, but I can't figure out what it's notifying me of.  It doesn't tell me when I've missed a call or when I have voice mail.  All in all, I'm kind of missing my old little phone.  I've looked up Razr tutorials online, but haven't found anything useful.  The local Verizon store actually offers a Droid class, but it's at exactly the same time as a ward activity Ben is in charge of.  Basically, I don't think I'm smart enough for a smart phone.  :-)

2.  Today was church.  The boys were not getting along in Sacrament meeting.  They occasionally have a clash of wills over who will sit where.  Then there is a lot of passive aggressive "squishing" as one boy or another decides they will have that spot they wanted, if they have to crowd everyone else off the bench in the process.  At least it was between only two of my boys this time.  I'm not sure how it started, since they had already sat down when I came in.  One boy wanted the other's spot, but that child wouldn't give it up, so he was crowding everyone else as he tried to get himself into that coveted (why??) spot.   I ended up whisper-yelling at all of the boys, and at that child in particular to scoot over, stay in your place, and DON'T crowd your brothers!  Oh what a great way to start the church meeting.  There's nothing like taking the Sacrament immediately after yelling at your children.  (Does whisper-yelling count as yelling?)  But, the rest of the day was pretty good.  We had a woman from our ward, and her brother over for dinner.  I made meat loaf and potatoes and green salad and banana cake for dessert.

3.  I am hoping for a better Monday tomorrow than we've had the past few weeks.  Is there any trick for having a good Monday?  Maybe I'll wake up the boys tomorrow morning and tell them it's Tuesday.  :-)

02/11/12

1.  Joseph had fun in archery again today.  Mosey decided not to go this time.  Joseph hit his balloon not once, but twice!  The first shot pierced the balloon, but did not puncture it (I've never seen that before!), but the next arrow through definitely popped it.  He's fun to watch!

2.  Poor Brigham did NOT have fun at horseback riding today.  Well, the riding was fine, but afterwards was not.  It was cold out today-- in the 40's, so after his lesson, instead of waiting while he got his horse de-saddled, de-bridled, and brushed down, I told him I'd wait for him in the car.  This was a bad idea.  His teacher immediately went into another lesson, leaving Brigham to figure out how to get the horse blanket back on him (a horse blanket is this great big blanket thing that buckles in front and underneath the horse's belly), get the halter on him, and then take him out to "pasture 3."  Brigham hasn't yet learned that sometimes you just need to go ask for help.  So he struggled with the blanket, got it on, sort of, put on the halter, sort of, then led Red (the horse) out toward the pastures.  But Brigham didn't know which pasture was #3.  And then the blanket fell off the horse.  And then the halter fell off.  And then Red started running away.  Oh, poor Brigham!  Finally someone saw his predicament, came out to help him round up Red, put the halter back on, buckle the blanket back on, and showed Brigham which pasture was #3.  Meanwhile, I was sitting in the warm car, dozing, waiting for him to finish up.  I woke up when my phone rang and Mosey asked when we would be home.  I looked at my watch and saw it was 2:24.  Brigham's lesson had ended at 1:30!  I got out of the car to try to track him down, pretty much just as he was walking back toward the car.  I could see at once that he was very upset.  He held in the tears until he got in the car, but then he was really distraught.  This is the main complaint I have with his teacher-- she leaves way too much for him to do on his own.  It's not that he doesn't know how to do things (although there are some things he doesn't know-- like how to put a horse blanket on that he's never done before), but mostly that he's too short!  Red is a great big tall horse, and Brigham cannot put the halter on him unless he lowers his head, which he was not inclined to do.  He said he never wanted to go back to horseback riding.  I think he'll change his mind, but from now on I think Ben needs to take him.  If Ben had been there with him, none of that would have happened.  :-(  I hope that this experience at least will help Brigham realize that it's OK, and often times best to find someone and ask for help.

3.  I took the boys to see War Horse tonight.  I've never seen the theater so crowded!  That movie has been out for several weeks now, but the theater was almost totally full.  There were definitely not 4 seats together.  I was in my wheelchair so I told the boys I'd stay in the front (where there are handicapped areas), and they should just find places where they could.  They didn't want to do this, and finally two ladies who were sitting in 2 of the seats in the handicapped section stood up and offered the boys their seats.  Joseph and Brigham sat there and Mosey sat on my lap.  Two hours and 23 minutes is a long time to have a 55 lb 8-year-old on your lap!
It was a good movie, though.
When we got home, it was 10:00 and definitely time for the boys to go to bed.  Mosey was tired.  At least I'm hoping that's the reason why he started crying about not doing anything fun today.  Nothing fun?!  I took him to Walmart twice to find a Nerf gun and sword he's been planning to buy (the first Walmart didn't have it), he did exactly zero chores today, and then went to see a movie!  What is this kid's definition of fun?!  My theory, and I'm pretty sure I'm right about this, is that he played too many computer games.  Computer games suck up your time and waste it.  You start playing, then 4 hours later suddenly disappears.  You can spend the whole day playing computer games, and at the end of the day you can hardly believe 9 hours have passed.  It's like the whole day was swallowed into the oblivion of mindless computer games.  If I'd been home I would have curtailed Mosey's computer game playing, but my morning started early taking Joseph to archery, then home, then quickly to Walmart before coming home again and leaving immediately for horseback riding.  I got home again at 3:00, took Mosey to Walmart again, and came home to do laundry and other chores.  At that point, the computer games were over and the boys watched an episode of X-files, which wasn't much better.  Ben was gone for most of the day too with church duties, so Mosey, the only one without a formal activity to go to, was unsupervised for too much of the day during which I think he pretty much played Tanki Online, and that was it.  I'm on the verge of banning that game entirely.

02/10/12

1.  The weekend is finally here.  Yay.  This seemed like a long week to me.  Today was an OK day.  Mosey was having some "issues" this afternoon and ended up storming out the front door (actually escaping from a 25-minute hall closet sentence-- which he got for throwing a heavy metal object (heavy-duty padlock) inside the house at his brother, then escaping from his first 10 minute sentence and then throwing another heavy metal object (this time a double spigot head from the outside hose spigot that cracked last year-- why do we still have that thing?) again inside the house and at his brother), and running off down the street.  A nice lady saw him run out the door and down the road, and stopped and knocked on our door to see if I needed any help.  I said no, he just needed to cool off and he'd be back, but after 20 minutes, he still hadn't shown up.  And an 8 year old wandering around by himself during school hours doesn't look so good.  So I got in the van and drove around until I found him.  I knew he wouldn't go too far.  He saw me and took off down the road again, but I finally managed to sweet-talk him into getting in the van and going home, and then he was good as gold the rest of the afternoon.  Stinker. 

2.  I got my hair cut this afternoon.  I always like that.  For at least a few hours every 2 months or so, my hair looks good.  :-)

3.  The boys and Ben spent all evening playing Tanki Online.  I'm telling you, the computer-game part of my brain is missing.  I don't understand the appeal.  They were all totally breaking my screen-time rule for the day, but they were all having so much fun together, I didn't have the heart to tell them to stop.  It's this tank game where you shoot tanks, and... well, I think that's it-- you just shoot tanks.  You are a tank and you shoot other tanks.  And this is somehow hugely fun for hours at a time.  Anyway all the boys and Ben were on different computers (yikes, we have FOUR computers in this house??  Yep, with Ben's work computer and my old laptop that has somehow been resurrected from the dead, we have four), and were able to team up in battles against other online gamers.  They had a great time yelling back and forth to each other from across the room and strategizing as to how best manipulate the battle, since all 4 of them were working as a team.  At one point I did hear Joseph say, "I think this is technically cheating, but... who cares!"  Hmmm.  What are the ethics of online tank-shooting games?  Do I care?  Maybe not.  :-)

4.  I utterly forgot about Mosey's Tae Kwon Do belt ceremony tonight.  I suck.  I hope he forgives me. 

02/09/12

1.  I think I managed the no yelling rule today.  Everyone seemed to be in pretty good spirits.  Practicing didn't get finished until 11:20, but I was on the phone for some of that time, so I'm counting it as a point.

2.  The boys think it's really funny to try and scare Sandy.  I haven't seen her do this recently, but a few times she's caught sight of one of the boys wearing a hat, or a jacket with a hood, or something different, and she apparently doesn't recognize them and starts barking her head off.  So Brigham tried doing that this afternoon.  He put on a jacket, a ski cap, 3D glasses, and a scarf.  He sneaked around to the back of the house and then burst into the kitchen from the back porch, yelling and carrying a great big rake.  He even scared me!  Poor Sandy scrambled so fast under the kitchen table I thought she'd hurt herself!  It was very funny.  I don't think she was fooled for long, though.  The boys sure do love her.  This morning Mosey came crying to me while I was practicing with Brigham, saying, "Joseph thinks that Sandy likes him the best, and so only he is allowed to pet her!"  Oh, not so!  She loves them all.  But, secretly, I think she loves me best.  Another fun trick the boys like to do is come and kneel in front of me like a dog and I pet their heads and scratch behind their ears and say, "Oh, Mosey's such a good little Mosey!  Oh, what a good Mosey he is!!" (or whichever boy it is). This drives Sandy crazy.  She'll rush over and shove her nose under my arm, pushing Mosey (or whoever it is) over until she's the center of the show.  She'll jump up and put her front paws on my lap, often in the process pushing me in my wheelchair backwards until I either manage to get the brakes on, or I bump into something behind me.  She is jealous!  I'm not to scratch behind anyone else's ears but hers!  :-)

3.  I can't think of anything for #3 tonight.  The boys had art in the afternoon, then I took Mosey to cello, then we came home and I made dinner, then I cleaned up dinner, did the dishes, checked my email, folded a bunch of laundry, here I am writing my blog post and now I have to go to bed.  Tomorrow's Friday!

02/08/12

1.  Didn't make my "no yelling" goal today.  :-(  I still don't know how to properly handle the situation when one of my children simply refuses to do what I'm asking them to do.  It makes me crazy.  The deadly combination for me is frustration and time pressure.  When we are late for something and someone is stalling, delaying, or flat-out refusing to do what they need to do, that's a killer combination for my resolve.  Otherwise, my reaction would generally be for that child to decide between doing what he's supposed to do, or sitting in the closet.  I can stay quite calm when those are the choices.  But when we don't have TIME for closet time-outs, and I really need that child to do what he's supposed to do right THEN, that's when I really, really lose it.  Well, I'll have another chance to try again tomorrow. 

2.  Mosey had his Tae Kwon Do testing tonight.  We talked a lot about not getting grumpy, even if someone says or does something he doesn't like.  This happened last time, and he spent the rest of the testing sulking, which showed up in his facial expressions, tone of voice, and general demeanor.  Not a good thing in a sport that emphasizes discipline and respect to such a high degree.  Well, first thing, right off the bat, he got mad about something.  I don't know what it was, because I hadn't even made it into the studio before it happened.  I just saw his grumpy face and my heart sank.  The kids warmed up, went up to the front to talk with the instructors, and were then told to go to the back of the studio and sit against the wall.  All the other kids yelled, "Yes sir!" and ran to the back.  Mosey walked, slowly, dragging his feet, looking down, lower lip stuck out, the whole shebang, and then sat as far away from the other kids as he could.  I was so upset.  I didn't know whether to smile at him, stick my tongue out at him, or give him a "shape up or else" glare, but it wouldn't have mattered anyway because he didn't look at me.  Thankfully, his group was the very last to test.  The testing before his was for a little girl (probably 4 or 5?) testing for tiger cubs.  She was so cute, and had everyone giggling before she was done, even Mosey.  So, by the time he went up to test, he was back to his old self, and did very well.  Thank goodness for cute little girls!  Still, he needs to learn how to control his emotions in public...

3.  Today is John Williams' birthday!  The boys and I sang happy birthday to him.  I'm sure he felt the love.  :-)  On the way home from piano lessons, the boys had a discussion about where John Williams sits in the hierarchy of great composers.  The consensus was maybe not *quite* up there with Beethoven and Mozart, but at least in the top five.  :-)
And, I know everyone has already seen this video, but just for fun:

02/07/12

1.  Today was a better day.  Practicing done by 11:05 (close enough), and no arguing over lessons until the very end when Mosey revolted against math.  Actually, he couldn't stop making annoying noises, and ended up in the hall closet (our time out place) where he STILL couldn't stop making annoying noises and earned a 45 minute earlier bedtime.  :-/  Still, a better day than yesterday!

2.  We had scouts at our house this afternoon.  Public schools were out yesterday and today, so no one else came except my co-leader's son (they also homeschool), and one other lone boy.  Still, we managed to complete one entire requirement, which was great.  Too bad for the other boys who didn't make it!  :-)  I made brownies for snack, and I must admit I wasn't strong enough to entirely resist the broken off crumbly bits left in the pan.  Baby steps, though. 

3.  A friend sent me this article about French parenting.  So interesting, and yet a little disheartening as I wonder if I've ruined my kids for life.  I feel like a lot of my boys' early childhood I was simply trying to survive.  I know twin toddlers and a baby is not a cakewalk.  Still, I know I could have done many things much better.  Ah!  There's so much to feel guilty about in parenting.  What am I going to feel guilty about in another 8 or 10 years that I could possibly prevent now? 

4.  Good news from my little sister-- her 2nd baby-on-the-way is a boy!  Rosalia will have a little brother.  I do so love baby boys.  :-) 

02/06/12

 Here are some pictures:

I only had my cell phone at archery on Saturday, so these are the only (really crummy) pictures I got of the boys shooting.

From a couple of weeks ago:

 Brigham and Sandy taking a break after doing some yardwork.

The boys were working on digging a big hole for a tree Ben bought.  Well, Sandy LOVES to dig, and as soon as she caught sight of what the boys were doing, she was over there inspecting and making sure it was done right.  She even got in there and dug herself for a while!

Another bad cell phone picture, but funny.  Brigham was getting a piece of sausage out of the package a few days ago.  Boy, Sandy wanted that sausage.  She knew she couldn't have it, but she got her nose about as close as it could get.

 "Squirrel!  Squirrel!"

1.  I hate Mondays.  It seems like Mondays ought to be good days-- with everyone all refreshed and rejuvenated from the weekend.  But it's not true.  Everyone is grumpy and tired.  Today was not a great day.  No one wanted to cooperate or take the initiative with their schoolwork.  I finally ended up in tears around 2:45 when we only had 45 minutes left to finish schoolwork, and at least an hour and a half, probably more, left to do.  Well, the tears got all three boys immediately and very cooperatively doing their math.  Maybe I should cry more.

2.  Mosey had a better day at speech today.  He wasn't excited about going and I told him that he could quit, but he needed to go today.  When I picked him up, he was very excited and had a big smile on his face.  He told me he didn't want to quit (yet).  Although the thought of taking him out of speech was somewhat appealing, as it would make my Monday afternoons a lot less complicated.

3.  I made roasted brussels sprouts for dinner tonight.  All the boys liked them!  Brigham asked if he could finish the rest of them and I said I didn't think Dad had eaten any.  Ben said, I don't like those, he can have them.  So I asked him if he had tried them, which of course he had not.  The boys pressured him into trying them, and lo and behold, he liked them!  Still at age 37, he thinks he can tell if something is going to be good or not just by looking.  :-)

4.  Here's a recipe for a very good smoothie:
1 1/2 cups baby spinach leaves (squished down, so it's really 1 1/2 cups).
1 1/2 cups almond milk (I used the new coconut/almond milk blend)
1 banana
12 frozen strawberries
1/3 cup crushed pineapple
Make sure to blend up the milk and spinach leaves really well before adding in the fruit.
Now, talk about something that looks absolutely horrid, but tastes really good!  Brigham made some choice comments about what he thought it looked like.  :-)