1. Sleeping in this morning felt soooo good, although it meant that no practicing got done in the morning. We only had a couple of science experiments and history timeline to work on for school today, so the boys had most of the day off. They did get half their practicing done later in the afternoon. We'll have to make up the rest sometime this weekend.
2. Joseph has been on a Harry Potter kick recently. He's re-reading the books (and has got Brigham re-reading them now, too), and watched the last movie twice today (well, almost twice-- I made him go to bed before the last viewing was finished). Last night I insisted that he throw the book he was reading (book 2) downstairs so he would not be tempted to read late into the night. He threw a book down on the couch, but I neglected to ascertain which one it was. This morning I saw it was book 1 which he's already read. Which means he was probably definitely up later than he should have been reading book 2. Stinker.
3. I love March in Austin. It is so beautiful. We've had a decent amount of rain recently and everything is as verdantly lush as it can be. I sat on the couch on our back patio and read and catnapped for 2 hours this afternoon. Brigham came lay against my shoulder reading Harry Potter and I think it was about as pleasant an afternoon as I've ever spent. Warm spring air, squirrels scampering in the bright green trees along our back fence, good book, soft couch, adorable boy cuddled up next to me. What more could I want?
4. Here's a prediction for a future gadget that I wish were here now. I wish we had virtual reality glasses that could record in 3D. In the future we won't be watching home movies on a TV or projector screen, we'll be putting on a pair of VR glasses and re-experiencing those snippets of life we've recorded. How I'd like to capture some of these beautiful moments and be able to go back and relive them in a more vivid way than pictures or journal entries could ever memorialize.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
03/29/12
1. I was sooo tired on Thursday (which is why this daily update is a couple of days late). I've been living on 4-5 hours of sleep for too many days in a row. My curse is that I get my second wind around 10:00 at night and I don't get tired. I could easily stay up all night. Of course the next day around 1:00 PM I get so drowsy I start babbling nonsense while reading to my kids. :-) But I was so tired on Thursday I actually went to bed at the same time as the boys! And slept for 9 hours straight, which I haven't done in I don't know how long.
2. Tiredness notwithstanding, it was a typical Thursday. Practicing, schoolwork, art group in the afternoon, cello lessons in the evening. Ben left for Miami in the afternoon on business and won't be back until Tuesday morning, so I'm on my own for now. He texted me when he landed in Orlando saying, "I'm in Orlando. I've seen a lot of gold chains, so I know I'm in Florida." Ha ha! So true. But he only got one dirty look driving in on 595, so that's not bad. :-)
3. After dinner (Burger King picked up on the way home from cello-- too tired to even think about cooking), our friends the Meine's brought their dog May-May over to meet Sandy. We're going to dog-sit May-May for a week when they go home to Utah for a visit. Sandy was overjoyed to have a doggy playmate at her home. May-May was a bit... overwhelmed, shall we say, by Sandy's exuberance. It was pretty funny to watch. But I think they'll get along just fine after Sandy settles down a bit. It's nice to have a dog that I know will get along with other dogs. Mister was not always a big fan of other canine competitors.
2. Tiredness notwithstanding, it was a typical Thursday. Practicing, schoolwork, art group in the afternoon, cello lessons in the evening. Ben left for Miami in the afternoon on business and won't be back until Tuesday morning, so I'm on my own for now. He texted me when he landed in Orlando saying, "I'm in Orlando. I've seen a lot of gold chains, so I know I'm in Florida." Ha ha! So true. But he only got one dirty look driving in on 595, so that's not bad. :-)
3. After dinner (Burger King picked up on the way home from cello-- too tired to even think about cooking), our friends the Meine's brought their dog May-May over to meet Sandy. We're going to dog-sit May-May for a week when they go home to Utah for a visit. Sandy was overjoyed to have a doggy playmate at her home. May-May was a bit... overwhelmed, shall we say, by Sandy's exuberance. It was pretty funny to watch. But I think they'll get along just fine after Sandy settles down a bit. It's nice to have a dog that I know will get along with other dogs. Mister was not always a big fan of other canine competitors.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
03/28/12
1. It rained today! I sure do love the rain. At least, I sure do love the rain when Texas is still in a terrible drought and any rain we get is sorely needed.
2. When the boys were cleaning off the basketball court yesterday, in preparation for our pack meeting, they moved the pool steps (which were for some inexplicable reason on the basketball court) up onto the deck. These are big plastic steps that we put in the pool up against the side to get in and out. The boys pushed it over to the edge of the deck, got on the top step, grabbed the disk swing attached to a tree right on the side of the deck, and launched themselves off. They can really fly on that swing! It looks really fun. I wish I could try it. :-)
3. There is a black hole somewhere in our house. We've now lost two school books. And we are once AGAIN out of pencils, after buying 24 new ones only a month or two ago. How is that possible?? Where are the pencils going?? Where are those books? I hate losing things.
4. Ben and I went to Lowes tonight to talk with a kitchen designer about possibly putting in new kitchen cabinets. I don't think we're going to do it, since it will be nearly $8000 to put them in. I am flabbergasted by the price. The cabinets we were looking at were not the absolute cheapest at Lowes, but they were the next grade up from the cheapest. And the manufacturer is having some promotion where you get free this and that, and Lowes is having a 10% off sale, all of which cuts off a couple of thousand dollars. Our kitchen is small! How can cabinets be that expensive? Who can afford a really nice kitchen upgrade in a larger kitchen? After coming home tonight I went into the kitchen and decided that maybe our cabinets are not so bad. I spent an hour or so scrubbing them down, and touching up some of the worst scuff marks on the bottom cabinets with stain. They look better. Not great, but better. I guess I can think of other things I'd rather use that $8000 for.
2. When the boys were cleaning off the basketball court yesterday, in preparation for our pack meeting, they moved the pool steps (which were for some inexplicable reason on the basketball court) up onto the deck. These are big plastic steps that we put in the pool up against the side to get in and out. The boys pushed it over to the edge of the deck, got on the top step, grabbed the disk swing attached to a tree right on the side of the deck, and launched themselves off. They can really fly on that swing! It looks really fun. I wish I could try it. :-)
3. There is a black hole somewhere in our house. We've now lost two school books. And we are once AGAIN out of pencils, after buying 24 new ones only a month or two ago. How is that possible?? Where are the pencils going?? Where are those books? I hate losing things.
4. Ben and I went to Lowes tonight to talk with a kitchen designer about possibly putting in new kitchen cabinets. I don't think we're going to do it, since it will be nearly $8000 to put them in. I am flabbergasted by the price. The cabinets we were looking at were not the absolute cheapest at Lowes, but they were the next grade up from the cheapest. And the manufacturer is having some promotion where you get free this and that, and Lowes is having a 10% off sale, all of which cuts off a couple of thousand dollars. Our kitchen is small! How can cabinets be that expensive? Who can afford a really nice kitchen upgrade in a larger kitchen? After coming home tonight I went into the kitchen and decided that maybe our cabinets are not so bad. I spent an hour or so scrubbing them down, and touching up some of the worst scuff marks on the bottom cabinets with stain. They look better. Not great, but better. I guess I can think of other things I'd rather use that $8000 for.
03/27/12
1. Today was a pretty challenging day. A certain boy did not feel the need to fulfill any of his responsibilities. I think I handled it well-- I never got mad at him. I just don't know what to do when he gets like that. He's completely irrational about it-- I don't ask that much, and what I do ask is very reasonable, and the expectations are the same as they have been for months and years. So why on *this* particular day did he feel like it was OK for him to resist everything he knows he's supposed to do? Finally, *finally* he got some traction on the day, and was able to pull off all his schoolwork and practicing before our pack meeting.
2. We had the March pack meeting for Cub Scouts at our house. The theme was compassion. I had my friend Desiree who is blind, bring her guide dog and talk to the kids about her experiences. She did a good job and the boys were very interested. Afterward the boys took turns riding my wheelchair around an little obstacle course on the basketball court outside. That was a pretty big hit with the boys!
3. I forgot to write about a very disturbing experience yesterday. As Mosey and I were driving on I-35 going home from speech down at UT, the driver in front of me started to drift slightly into the left lane (we were in the second-to-left lane). There was a big SUV right there, and for a second I thought maybe it was in the guy's blindspot, and as soon as he saw it he'd get back into his own lane. But he kept drifting over, and then without warning he veered into the left lane, just missing the SUV (I'm talking like a fraction of a second-- just inches really), and crashed right into the concrete divider. There was traffic, but we were still going at least 45 mph. When I saw the car start to drift, I put the brake on because I didn't want to be too close in case there was a fender bender, so I had a pretty good view of the whole thing. I was watching the guy and right before he veered over it looked like his head slumped to the side like he had fallen asleep or something. Then car slammed into the divider at perhaps a 45 degree angle. It lifted up onto two wheels, but came back down without flipping over. As I drove past (too close to attempt to pull over) I saw the man in his car with his head laying out the side of his open window, obviously unconscious. Or dead. As we drove past, I saw in my rear view mirror two other cars that were pulling over, so I knew that there would soon be help. I wonder what happened to him? It was really horrifying. It's incredible to see how fast something like that can happen. Did he die? How bizarre to see someone go from calmly driving his car on the freeway, to being possibly dead in just an instant. It really brings home how incredibly dangerous driving can be. What happens to you when you hit a concrete wall at 45 mph, with no airbag or anything? I don't want to know. I've been praying for the guy and his family, though.
2. We had the March pack meeting for Cub Scouts at our house. The theme was compassion. I had my friend Desiree who is blind, bring her guide dog and talk to the kids about her experiences. She did a good job and the boys were very interested. Afterward the boys took turns riding my wheelchair around an little obstacle course on the basketball court outside. That was a pretty big hit with the boys!
3. I forgot to write about a very disturbing experience yesterday. As Mosey and I were driving on I-35 going home from speech down at UT, the driver in front of me started to drift slightly into the left lane (we were in the second-to-left lane). There was a big SUV right there, and for a second I thought maybe it was in the guy's blindspot, and as soon as he saw it he'd get back into his own lane. But he kept drifting over, and then without warning he veered into the left lane, just missing the SUV (I'm talking like a fraction of a second-- just inches really), and crashed right into the concrete divider. There was traffic, but we were still going at least 45 mph. When I saw the car start to drift, I put the brake on because I didn't want to be too close in case there was a fender bender, so I had a pretty good view of the whole thing. I was watching the guy and right before he veered over it looked like his head slumped to the side like he had fallen asleep or something. Then car slammed into the divider at perhaps a 45 degree angle. It lifted up onto two wheels, but came back down without flipping over. As I drove past (too close to attempt to pull over) I saw the man in his car with his head laying out the side of his open window, obviously unconscious. Or dead. As we drove past, I saw in my rear view mirror two other cars that were pulling over, so I knew that there would soon be help. I wonder what happened to him? It was really horrifying. It's incredible to see how fast something like that can happen. Did he die? How bizarre to see someone go from calmly driving his car on the freeway, to being possibly dead in just an instant. It really brings home how incredibly dangerous driving can be. What happens to you when you hit a concrete wall at 45 mph, with no airbag or anything? I don't want to know. I've been praying for the guy and his family, though.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
03/26/12
1. Oh, a funny story from yesterday! So we are kind of looking around at houses, hoping to find something one story that will fit our needs. I'm doubtful we'll find anything, since our requirements are so stringent, but it's fun looking. Anyway, yesterday evening we went to see a house (don't think it will work for us), and afterward we were driving around and asking the boys what they thought. Joseph and Mosey were pretty enthusiastic. Brigham said, "I really like the yard, but I think it's too expensive." And Mosey immediately said, "Aww, Brigham always thinks like a grown up!" :-)
2. Today was an OK Monday. Pretty good as far as our recent Mondays have been going. Here's another fun Mosey story from today. We always listen to the local classical music station here whenever we're in the car (and not listening to an audio book). This past week has been KMFA's spring pledge drive. Mosey takes our responsibility to our public radio station seriously, and he has been reminding me everyday to make my donation. Today on our way home from TKD, the person on the radio was saying that they needed to raise $800 more in the next 20 minutes so they could qualify for matching funds that someone had pledged. And, anyone who donated in the next hour would also be entered into a drawing for an ipod. Mosey's ears perked up at that and he told me to go straight home and go onto the KMFA website and give them money. He had been wanting me to do something else for him (now I can't remember), but he said, "Don't worry about that, mom, just hurry and get onto the web site!" So that's just what I did. I got on the website and made my donation, and in the box where they ask for comments I wrote, "KMFA is the only radio station my three boys and I listen to in the car. It is the best classical music station I've ever listened to. My eight year old has been reminding me (over and over) to make my donation, and so that is what I am doing! Thanks for the great music." I submitted the donation, and then to Mosey's utter joy, a few minutes later they read my note on the air! And then they said, "You should pat your mom on the back right now for supporting KMFA." And he did just that.
3. Joseph and Brigham got new spacers put in their upper teeth last week. Poor Brigham has really suffered. It hurts him to eat, it even hurts him to talk. He's been asking for smoothies, and talking ventriloquist-style, moving his mouth as little as possible. Poor boy. Joseph is not a fan of his, either, since it makes it hard for him to swallow. I feel bad inflicting this on my boys, when I never had to do any orthodontic work... I hope they feel better tomorrow.
2. Today was an OK Monday. Pretty good as far as our recent Mondays have been going. Here's another fun Mosey story from today. We always listen to the local classical music station here whenever we're in the car (and not listening to an audio book). This past week has been KMFA's spring pledge drive. Mosey takes our responsibility to our public radio station seriously, and he has been reminding me everyday to make my donation. Today on our way home from TKD, the person on the radio was saying that they needed to raise $800 more in the next 20 minutes so they could qualify for matching funds that someone had pledged. And, anyone who donated in the next hour would also be entered into a drawing for an ipod. Mosey's ears perked up at that and he told me to go straight home and go onto the KMFA website and give them money. He had been wanting me to do something else for him (now I can't remember), but he said, "Don't worry about that, mom, just hurry and get onto the web site!" So that's just what I did. I got on the website and made my donation, and in the box where they ask for comments I wrote, "KMFA is the only radio station my three boys and I listen to in the car. It is the best classical music station I've ever listened to. My eight year old has been reminding me (over and over) to make my donation, and so that is what I am doing! Thanks for the great music." I submitted the donation, and then to Mosey's utter joy, a few minutes later they read my note on the air! And then they said, "You should pat your mom on the back right now for supporting KMFA." And he did just that.
3. Joseph and Brigham got new spacers put in their upper teeth last week. Poor Brigham has really suffered. It hurts him to eat, it even hurts him to talk. He's been asking for smoothies, and talking ventriloquist-style, moving his mouth as little as possible. Poor boy. Joseph is not a fan of his, either, since it makes it hard for him to swallow. I feel bad inflicting this on my boys, when I never had to do any orthodontic work... I hope they feel better tomorrow.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
03/25/12
1. It was a good church day today. Nothing out of the ordinary.
2. After church I took a nap and the boys watched Harry Potter. Ben had to stay after church for a couple of hours for ward council. Fun, fun. :-)
3. This evening we went to look at a house for sale a couple of miles away. It's not officially for sale yet, and the guy may not even end up selling it. It's got 4 bedrooms downstairs, and is on a really neat 0.6 acre lot, a few doors up from the boulder park. Unfortunately it also has a step-down living room, and not quite the living space and layout I'm looking for. The boys loved it (especially the yard), and Ben liked it a lot, too. It's hard to know what to do. I'm not sure we'll find everything we want-- the square footage, the layout, the yard, the location, and the price. :-)
The home owner was really nice, though. He has an old Vietnam era jeep-- a huge vehicle with 48 inch wheels. The boys of course thought it was really cool. He asked me if the boys would like a ride in it. Umm, YES! What a nice man.
2. After church I took a nap and the boys watched Harry Potter. Ben had to stay after church for a couple of hours for ward council. Fun, fun. :-)
3. This evening we went to look at a house for sale a couple of miles away. It's not officially for sale yet, and the guy may not even end up selling it. It's got 4 bedrooms downstairs, and is on a really neat 0.6 acre lot, a few doors up from the boulder park. Unfortunately it also has a step-down living room, and not quite the living space and layout I'm looking for. The boys loved it (especially the yard), and Ben liked it a lot, too. It's hard to know what to do. I'm not sure we'll find everything we want-- the square footage, the layout, the yard, the location, and the price. :-)
The home owner was really nice, though. He has an old Vietnam era jeep-- a huge vehicle with 48 inch wheels. The boys of course thought it was really cool. He asked me if the boys would like a ride in it. Umm, YES! What a nice man.
03/24/12
1. My boys LOVE dough boys. We went through two packages of biscuits, which means about 5 for each boy. :-)
2. That camping site ended up being really great. The boys slept great, even out under the stars in the cool evening air (down into the 50's). I drove back up there when they woke up and we stayed until noon. The boys collected shells (lots and lots-- mainly by Brigham), hiked around for a while, and then spent a long time throwing rocks into the lake and watching Sandy go after them. She's such a funny dog. The boys would stand on the shore and throw the rocks out into the water. Sandy would run and jump into the water and swim frantically to get the rock (which she always missed), and then come back anxious to try again. Eventually Ben went down there and taught her to play a great game of fetch with a stick. After a couple of hours she ended up cutting her paw on a sharp rock, or something, and sort of limped around the rest of the day. Poor thing! I think she's feeling better now.
3. Camping overnight requires a surprising amount of gear. Most of it was necessary in order to start a fire and cook over the fire, which I suppose we could skip, but that's a lot of the fun of camping. We ended up taking two coolers for 2 meals of food! We didn't need both coolers, but I wanted one to put ice in for the refrigerator biscuits and orange juice and hot dogs (which we didn't end up eating), and the other for everything else that I didn't want to get wet from melting ice. We brought wood and charcoal and a charcoal starter, dough boy sticks, and hot dog/marshmallow roasting sticks. We brought ingredients for tin foil dinners, as well as condiments and a cutting board and knife and tin foil to assemble (I guess I could have done that at home beforehand). We needed graham crackers and chocolate and marshmallows. Plus garbage bags and paper towels and plates and utensils. And of course camping lanterns and flashlights, plus 4 sleeping bags, a tent (which the also didn't use), and 5 folding camp chairs. Oh yeah, the dog's food and water bowl, extra food, and two big jugs of water. It's a lot for just a few hours! But the boys had SUCH fun and it was worth it.
4. Camping, even over night, also generates a LOT of laundry. Everyone's clothes were saturated with campfire smoke. All the sleeping bags and blankets and pillows also got pretty dirty from sleeping on the ground instead of the tent.
5. Besides unloading and laundry, we also hosted a "friendship dinner" at our house last night. Only 2 out of the original 6 ended up being able to come, but it was still fun.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
03/23/12
1. Brigham and Joseph had orthodontist appointments this morning to get upper spacers put in. Mosey hung out with me in the waiting room and perused a car magazine while we were waiting. He carefully looked at every page in the magazine. Finally he said, dead serious, "Mom, when I'm sixteen, I'm going to get the 2014 Corvette, unless there's something cooler by then." I'm thinking the car magazine didn't put a price tag on the cars it was featuring. :-) If Mosey can afford a 2014 Corvette when he's sixteen (or something even *cooler*), I'll totally support him. And ask him to take me on a joy ride.
2. Right at this minute, Ben and the boys are probably sound asleep (at least, I hope so) in their sleeping bags at Sandy Creek Park. The boys finally earned their 20 points and got to go camping! We all went down there together. Joseph found the best campground in the park-- a nice flat area overlooking the lake. It was a bit of a hike getting down to the campground, however. Ben had to carry me down. We had tinfoil dinners which turned out perfectly, and then sat around the campfire roasting marshmallows (hooray for the burn ban being lifted a few weeks ago!). When the boys were ready to go to sleep (under the stars tonight, it is so beautiful), Ben carried me back up to the car and I drove home to a quiet house and 2 1/2 uninterrupted hours of laundry folding. :-) I'll drive back tomorrow morning for breakfast and whatever else the boys want to do. I love spring!
3. While we were sitting around the campfire roasting marshmallows, we discovered something very funny about Brigham. It's probably something that you had to be there to get the humor, but I want to remember it so I'll write it down anyway. Who knew there was a particular skill required to be able to blow out a marshmallow that has caught fire?! Apparently there is, because Brigham could not do it! His marshmallows would catch fire (not too many times, but enough), and he'd try to blow it out. He'd be blowing and blowing, several times while the marshmallow is blackening and carbonizing in front of his eyes. I'm not sure how he *couldn't* blow it out! All of us had a fine time enjoying watching his efforts. :-) Finally I demonstrated the proper technique, and after practicing a few times, he finally got it. Mostly. I joked that from now on Brigham has to practice blowing out marshmallows for 5 minutes every day.
2. Right at this minute, Ben and the boys are probably sound asleep (at least, I hope so) in their sleeping bags at Sandy Creek Park. The boys finally earned their 20 points and got to go camping! We all went down there together. Joseph found the best campground in the park-- a nice flat area overlooking the lake. It was a bit of a hike getting down to the campground, however. Ben had to carry me down. We had tinfoil dinners which turned out perfectly, and then sat around the campfire roasting marshmallows (hooray for the burn ban being lifted a few weeks ago!). When the boys were ready to go to sleep (under the stars tonight, it is so beautiful), Ben carried me back up to the car and I drove home to a quiet house and 2 1/2 uninterrupted hours of laundry folding. :-) I'll drive back tomorrow morning for breakfast and whatever else the boys want to do. I love spring!
3. While we were sitting around the campfire roasting marshmallows, we discovered something very funny about Brigham. It's probably something that you had to be there to get the humor, but I want to remember it so I'll write it down anyway. Who knew there was a particular skill required to be able to blow out a marshmallow that has caught fire?! Apparently there is, because Brigham could not do it! His marshmallows would catch fire (not too many times, but enough), and he'd try to blow it out. He'd be blowing and blowing, several times while the marshmallow is blackening and carbonizing in front of his eyes. I'm not sure how he *couldn't* blow it out! All of us had a fine time enjoying watching his efforts. :-) Finally I demonstrated the proper technique, and after practicing a few times, he finally got it. Mostly. I joked that from now on Brigham has to practice blowing out marshmallows for 5 minutes every day.
Friday, March 23, 2012
03/22/12
1. It was a good day! Schoolwork and practicing got done pretty efficiently. No major meltdowns or standoffs. The boys had fun with our art group. For P.E. today we went outside and the boys did sprints along the stretch of road in front of our house. Joseph really does not like competition with his brothers, especially Brigham. I can see why, I think I would have been exactly the same way. So I had them run in opposite directions. From what I could see, they are exactly the same speed, so I don't think he needed to worry about being beaten, but this way they couldn't see when the other boy reached his destination, and by the time they got there, stopped, turned around, the other boy had already reached his ending point, so it worked out well. I love to watch them run-- first of all so I can live vicariously through them for a little while, but mostly because they are so cute! I know they wouldn't like me saying this, but they are. Their sprinting form is not terribly refined, and so their arms kind of go all over the place and they're just cute. I need to video them next time we do sprints, just for posterity's sake. :-) After sprints, I attempted to teach them proper form for pushups and situps. Kind of hard when I can't demonstrate. But I think they all got it. Brigham is a wiry, muscly little guy and can knock out the pushups and situps pretty well. Joseph's not far behind, and Mosey mostly just got frustrated. :-)
2. The boys, spearheaded by Joseph, are making a giant mess in the backyard. When it rains, the water runs down the patio roof, and hits the grass just bordering the concrete patio. There is no raingutter--as a result, the grass doesn't grow well there. Add to that the fact that Sandy also likes to dig around there, and it's not in great shape. Today when the art kids were over, the small hole that had been there turned into a GIANT hole. They dug down until they hit limestone. In the process they found "Indian stuff"-- a bundle of string, some old knitted material ("Indian cheesecloth"), and who knows what else. The digging was so enthusiastic that they broke the blade off of our big shovel. Oops. So Joseph and the boys did the obvious thing-- they wrote a "curse" on a piece of paper, "cursing" its future finder, and buried it under the broken shovel blade down in the bottom of the pit. Of course there is mud and dirt clods all over the back patio, which get tracked inside every time anyone comes inside. I told Joseph to enjoy the hole all he could this afternoon, because tomorrow it's getting filled in and cleaned up!
3. Brigham was very entertaining this afternoon. He's been hard at work on a drawing the last couple of days. And when Brigham gets focused in on something, the soundtrack to his life can't help but come out. I wonder what it would be like to have a musical soundtrack running through my mind all the time? I can usually tell what he's thinking about based on the music issuing forth at any particular time. Apparently something very exciting and dramatic and a little dangerous must have been going on in his drawing. :-)
4. Mosey has been playing around with the voice recognition software on the computer. He's got it working pretty well! It's fun to hear him talking with such a commanding voice, telling the computer what to do. "Open this!" "Delete that!" That kind of thing is right up his alley-- he's such a gadgety little guy.
2. The boys, spearheaded by Joseph, are making a giant mess in the backyard. When it rains, the water runs down the patio roof, and hits the grass just bordering the concrete patio. There is no raingutter--as a result, the grass doesn't grow well there. Add to that the fact that Sandy also likes to dig around there, and it's not in great shape. Today when the art kids were over, the small hole that had been there turned into a GIANT hole. They dug down until they hit limestone. In the process they found "Indian stuff"-- a bundle of string, some old knitted material ("Indian cheesecloth"), and who knows what else. The digging was so enthusiastic that they broke the blade off of our big shovel. Oops. So Joseph and the boys did the obvious thing-- they wrote a "curse" on a piece of paper, "cursing" its future finder, and buried it under the broken shovel blade down in the bottom of the pit. Of course there is mud and dirt clods all over the back patio, which get tracked inside every time anyone comes inside. I told Joseph to enjoy the hole all he could this afternoon, because tomorrow it's getting filled in and cleaned up!
3. Brigham was very entertaining this afternoon. He's been hard at work on a drawing the last couple of days. And when Brigham gets focused in on something, the soundtrack to his life can't help but come out. I wonder what it would be like to have a musical soundtrack running through my mind all the time? I can usually tell what he's thinking about based on the music issuing forth at any particular time. Apparently something very exciting and dramatic and a little dangerous must have been going on in his drawing. :-)
4. Mosey has been playing around with the voice recognition software on the computer. He's got it working pretty well! It's fun to hear him talking with such a commanding voice, telling the computer what to do. "Open this!" "Delete that!" That kind of thing is right up his alley-- he's such a gadgety little guy.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
03/21/2012
1. A better day than yesterday. I don't think I yelled. Two practicing sessions got done before breakfast, and there was minimal resistance to chores or practicing. Yay!
2. Lessons went pretty well. We got most of our stuff done. The afternoon was for piano lessons and Brigham's violin lesson. He left his music in the car again. :-) Brigham is SUCH the absent minded professor! :-) After violin I took the boys to the library to check some books out for their research paper on Texas. They found a great DK book on Texas, only to come home and realize it was all in spanish. :-)
3. I'm falling asleep at the computer now, so I have to go to bed.
2. Lessons went pretty well. We got most of our stuff done. The afternoon was for piano lessons and Brigham's violin lesson. He left his music in the car again. :-) Brigham is SUCH the absent minded professor! :-) After violin I took the boys to the library to check some books out for their research paper on Texas. They found a great DK book on Texas, only to come home and realize it was all in spanish. :-)
3. I'm falling asleep at the computer now, so I have to go to bed.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
1,111!
This is my 1,111th post! That's fun.
It is also 03/20/12, spring equinox. Yay for springtime!
OK, my three things for the day.
1. It wasn't a stellar day for me. I crashed and burned in my no-yelling resolution. I've been trying to think of different ways I could have handled the situation. I've been thinking the last several days about the difference in achieving compliance by having undesirable consequences if they choose not to comply, versus inspiring compliance by helping the child want to obey. Obviously the latter is far more preferable. Is there a way to inspire a child to *want* to do irksome chores? I just ordered a book called "A Life Like Mine." It tells the stories of how children live throughout the world. I'm hoping it will help my children realize how lucky they are, and maybe give some perspective onto the relative undesirability of unloading a dishwasher. :-)
2. We had scouts this afternoon and went on a tour of a local fire station. These kinds of tours are always lots of fun, for kids and adults! The child that was having some trouble with completing his chore this morning had lost the privilege of going. But I let him make a deal with me, and I let him go in return for a solemn promise to do some additional things. Was this a bad move? Did it undermine my credibility in regards to consequences? I don't know. But this particular child is not hugely motivated by negative consequences. It seemed to me that enabling him to have a happy, fun, positive experience connected with his promise to do certain things, might be more likely to elicit future compliance than just another punishment that makes things seem all the more unfair. The lesson for me is to not be hasty in my pronouncement of consequences. Anyway, here are some pictures from the fire station.
3. We had a great rainstorm last night! I love the sound of rain on the roof at night. The rain persisted until this morning. Have you ever wondered what squirrels or birds do in the rain? Look what I saw on our back fence during the rainstorm! Look at the cute little tail-umbrella!
It is also 03/20/12, spring equinox. Yay for springtime!
OK, my three things for the day.
1. It wasn't a stellar day for me. I crashed and burned in my no-yelling resolution. I've been trying to think of different ways I could have handled the situation. I've been thinking the last several days about the difference in achieving compliance by having undesirable consequences if they choose not to comply, versus inspiring compliance by helping the child want to obey. Obviously the latter is far more preferable. Is there a way to inspire a child to *want* to do irksome chores? I just ordered a book called "A Life Like Mine." It tells the stories of how children live throughout the world. I'm hoping it will help my children realize how lucky they are, and maybe give some perspective onto the relative undesirability of unloading a dishwasher. :-)
2. We had scouts this afternoon and went on a tour of a local fire station. These kinds of tours are always lots of fun, for kids and adults! The child that was having some trouble with completing his chore this morning had lost the privilege of going. But I let him make a deal with me, and I let him go in return for a solemn promise to do some additional things. Was this a bad move? Did it undermine my credibility in regards to consequences? I don't know. But this particular child is not hugely motivated by negative consequences. It seemed to me that enabling him to have a happy, fun, positive experience connected with his promise to do certain things, might be more likely to elicit future compliance than just another punishment that makes things seem all the more unfair. The lesson for me is to not be hasty in my pronouncement of consequences. Anyway, here are some pictures from the fire station.
3. We had a great rainstorm last night! I love the sound of rain on the roof at night. The rain persisted until this morning. Have you ever wondered what squirrels or birds do in the rain? Look what I saw on our back fence during the rainstorm! Look at the cute little tail-umbrella!
Also found on my computer:
"The lady was pleasantly cleaning her house. She carried a big broom. She began to sweep, when she accidentally hit the ceiling. The roof caved in and something fell out. It was a rotting corpse, looking like it had been dead for several years. It grabbed the lady, and cracked her skull open, and slurped curled gray matter into its mouth."
Pleasant, no? :-)
03/19/12
1. As far as Mondays go, this one was not too bad. I managed to sweet talk Mosey out of his McGrumbles funk this morning and he had a great day all day long (until it came time for his homework assignment for speech-- a journal entry about stuttering-- perhaps not the best assignment for an eight year old boy, but he still needs to do it!).
2. The rest of the day was pretty normal. Lessons (Mosey was trying to do his spelling WHILE swinging on our tree swing out back. That doesn't work.), practicing, TKD, flute, speech, traffic on the way home. :-)
3. Sandy is a funny dog. She's pretty sure she's just one of the pack around here. Tonight after dinner the boys were sort of fake-wrestling with Ben, and Sandy came running up to join the fun. It was really funny-- the boys started barking and growling and jumping up on Ben, and in ran Sandy at full speed, immediately jumping up on Ben, growling, barking, and fake-biting him. I took some video of it that I need to upload sometime.
2. The rest of the day was pretty normal. Lessons (Mosey was trying to do his spelling WHILE swinging on our tree swing out back. That doesn't work.), practicing, TKD, flute, speech, traffic on the way home. :-)
3. Sandy is a funny dog. She's pretty sure she's just one of the pack around here. Tonight after dinner the boys were sort of fake-wrestling with Ben, and Sandy came running up to join the fun. It was really funny-- the boys started barking and growling and jumping up on Ben, and in ran Sandy at full speed, immediately jumping up on Ben, growling, barking, and fake-biting him. I took some video of it that I need to upload sometime.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
weekly letter for March 18
Hi Everyone,
I didn't write a letter last week-- it got way too late. But it's not quite 10:30 here, so I can squeeze in a quick letter before bed.
This last week was spring break for the public schools around here. As such, the boys were kind of expecting to also get the week off. However, when we looked at how many days of school we need to complete to get our 180 days, we agreed we should at least to some lessons. So we got up on Monday and attempted to do lessons. It wasn't a great day. I'm beginning to seriously hate Mondays. In the afternoon, we had flute and speech. At least, I thought so. On Mondays we go down to UT and drop Mosey off for speech, then go drop Joseph off for flute, then go back and pick up Mosey, then go back and pick up Joseph. Well, we hit lots of traffic on the way downtown. I was very surprised and couldn't figure out the reason, since there was no accident. So we were very late dropping Mosey off. I watched him walk into the building and then skedaddled to get Joseph to flute, since he was already late for that. Well, not 5 minutes later I got a call on my cell phone. Turns out that UT also had spring break, and there was no speech. No one told me! I was very annoyed. Luckily the receptionist was there and was able to call me. But I couldn't come straight back because I had to get Joseph to flute. So poor Mosey had to wait there for 20 minutes before I got back to pick him up. After we got home, it struck me why there was so much traffic-- SXSW is this week! SXSW (South by Southwest) is a big (super, duper big) week long music festival here in Austin. It's huge. There are bands everywhere, and performances all day and all night all week long. Wristbands to get in to these performances are hundreds of dollars a piece. So anyway, that definitely explained the traffic heading into downtown.
On Tuesday I decided to let the boys have the day off. I could tell they needed it. So they spent the day reading and playing and digging canals in the dirt outside and filling them with water (making a big, muddy mess, of course :-)).
Wednesday was Pi day. :-) We had tamale pie for dinner. We went to the library in the afternoon. (One very nice thing about spring break week was that we had the week off of piano, violin, and cello lessons, which gave us a couple of free afternoons.). In the evening a guy came over to try and sell us replacement windows. We need them, as our power bills were absolutely horrendous last year. We could have afforded a very nice vacation to a cooler climate for the amount we paid in electricity running our AC. But ultimately we decided not to go with this guy. They were the cadillac of windows, but our house just isn't a cadillac, if you know what I mean.
Thursday was nothing spectacular. Natasha came over in the afternoon-- the only one of our art group who took me up on our offer of a play day-- I think everyone else was doing spring-breaky things. It's fun talking to new moms. Desiree isn't a new mom exactly, she has an eight year old, but I think the 8 year break qualifies her as a new mom again. New moms have a tendency to be rather obsessed with their babies' sleep schedules. And rightly so since baby's sleep schedule dictates mom's sleep schedule, which in turn dictates her level of sanity. This obsession leads to a strong need to talk about the intricacies of your particular baby's sleep habits. Therefore time spent with Desiree will inevitably include discussions about Nadia's sleeping, or lack thereof. :-) I don't mind one bit-- I think there must be something important and cathartic about being able to witness to someone else the frustrations, anxieties, and occasional small triumphs in the ever-elusive quest to Get Your Baby to Sleep. :-)
On Thursday night Ben and I went to Lowes and spent a couple of hours looking at windows and new kitchen cabinets. I hate my kitchen cabinets. They are very ugly. But, the wood matches the paneling in our living room and breakfast area, and I worry that choosing another type of wood will just look odd. And then when we came home, I realized that a lot of what I like about new cabinets, is the crown molding and pretty details around the top. But our kitchen has a low ceiling because of the air ducts that run under Joseph's room (which is right above the kitchen), so I'm not sure new cabinets will even have that much of an impact. Oh well. We did decide to try to replace all of our ugly stained wood, hollow-core, cheap and flimsy interior doors.
Friday is supposed to be our day off, but since we took Tuesday off, we did lessons anyway. I let them have a pretty easy day, though. In the afternoon I took Joseph and Brigham to the boulder park where they played for a while (or actually, just read-- I guess that's more fun to do at a park than at home?), and then walked themselves home! It's only a mile and a half, and I figured that at 10 years old, with the two of them, they're completely capable of walking home themselves. It takes them through a number of different streets, and along a pretty busy road, so I think they were a tiny bit nervous. Joseph is my worrier, actually. He's very cautious, and gets very nervous especially when Brigham does crazy things (like climb 3 stories up into a tree). He packed a backpack full of flashlights, candles, a lighter, water, and granola bars just in case Brigham got lost in the "caves" at this park. (They are not really caves-- just spaces between and behind a bunch of gigantic boulders in one area.) But Brigham didn't get lost (we just finished reading Tom Sawyer which may have contributed to his concern over caves), and they made it home safely.
Friday evening I went to dinner with some friends at a Thai restaurant, and then to see the movie "The Vow." It was a fun evening doing something Ben would have hated. :-) He hates Thai food, and "The Vow" was pretty much a "chick-flick." I liked it though, especially because it was based on a true story.
Saturday was pretty busy. Joseph didn't feel good so he skipped archery. Ben went to Lowes to get a door and the supplies needed to install it. We were busy getting started with it when I realized with a start that Brigham was going to be very late for horseback riding lessons. So we raced out there, and he was late, but it was worth it because there was a baby horse, less than 2 days old there in the stable. Oh it was so cute! It is totally amazing to me how animals like horses can immediately stand up and walk around right after birth. The little thing was positively scampering around her mother in the stall. It was almost impossible to imagine that gangly, long-legged, bouncy, bounding little creature folded up tight in her mother's belly just two days before. Imagine if humans were like that! On the way back, Brigham and I stopped at Lowes to get a couple of other things Ben needed for the door. Well, Lowes is always busy on a Saturday afternoon, and it was yesterday as well. I got inside the store only to discover that the only motorized cart left was broken. I was very annoyed, and was getting ready to leave and try another store when a man stopped me and asked if he could push me around in the manual wheelchair and help me find what I needed. At first I demurred, saying I'd just go to Walmart. But he very sincerely wanted to help, so I let him! He pushed me in the wheelchair while his girlfriend pushed a cart and we roamed the aisles finding saw horses, white paint, and a new doorknob. He took probably 15-20 minutes out of his day to do this for me. It was so, so nice. He wheeled me out to the parking lot and unloaded my things into the back of the van. I told him that I collect stories of really nice things people do for me, and he just made my list. :-) Whenever people do really nice things, I always wonder, if the tables were turned, if I'd be the one so nice. I doubt it. Maybe I would, now, having been in my position. But for someone who hasn't? It's really remarkable.
After we got home, I drove the boys out to help with a move (this couple did it right-- asked way in advance, had everything all boxed up and organized, asked specific people to help-- i.e. didn't simply call the EQ president and expect him to organize it, and provided pizza for all the helpers. Mosey did NOT want to go at first. I get very upset when he is like that, because I want so much for my boys to learn to work and serve and to do so willingly. I was very tempted to get angry and threaten this or that if he did not get in the car NOW. But I resisted because I realized if I got mad and forced him to go, he would go, but he'd be sulking the whole time, probably wouldn't help, and would get nothing out of it. So I swallowed my annoyance and sweet-talked him into going. It took some doing, because he's stubborn, but it worked, and by the time we got there, he jumped out of the car, and was the first of the boys to jump in and start moving boxes.
When Ben and the boys got back, they worked on the door for a while. It's much harder than it seemed at first. You have to chisel out the places for the hinges and drill holes for the doorknob and latch, and it is very time consuming if you don't have fancy tools. Ben got really frustrated. Midway through, we decided to take a break and go see "John Carter" which was a lot better than I thought it would be. Ben and I ended up being up till way past 1:00 AM finishing the door and getting the house ready for Sunday.
OK, this letter is ridiculously long. Here's Sunday in a nutshell: Church was early after being up so late. After church I had a frustrating scout meeting. There are some issues with some of the scout leadership people in our ward. At home, I made a batch of Irish soda bread, since I did NOTHING for St. Patrick's Day the day before except wear green. We went to go see a house a couple of miles away-- one story, half an acre, pool, beautiful view lot. But unfortunately it had a step-down living room, the garage was on the wrong side of the house, my wheelchair wouldn't fit in the doorway of the master bathroom, and the backyard would be entirely inaccessible to me, being build on a steep slope. Oh well. We'd like to find a one-story house, but my requirements are so particular, I'm not sure we'll ever find something exactly right. I also shudder at the thought of having to go through the process of selling this house... We had the Sturdevants over for dinner (more talk about baby sleep schedules, but not too much :-)). I made shrimp pasta, fruit salad, and the Irish soda bread. The boys got into bed at a decent hour, although I could hear Mosey kicking his feet on his wall for more than an hour and a half after he went to bed. Aaargh! Why won't he sleep? I guess the obsession over your kid's sleep habits doesn't end with infancy. :-).
That's it, have a great week everyone!
Love,
Gabrielle
I didn't write a letter last week-- it got way too late. But it's not quite 10:30 here, so I can squeeze in a quick letter before bed.
This last week was spring break for the public schools around here. As such, the boys were kind of expecting to also get the week off. However, when we looked at how many days of school we need to complete to get our 180 days, we agreed we should at least to some lessons. So we got up on Monday and attempted to do lessons. It wasn't a great day. I'm beginning to seriously hate Mondays. In the afternoon, we had flute and speech. At least, I thought so. On Mondays we go down to UT and drop Mosey off for speech, then go drop Joseph off for flute, then go back and pick up Mosey, then go back and pick up Joseph. Well, we hit lots of traffic on the way downtown. I was very surprised and couldn't figure out the reason, since there was no accident. So we were very late dropping Mosey off. I watched him walk into the building and then skedaddled to get Joseph to flute, since he was already late for that. Well, not 5 minutes later I got a call on my cell phone. Turns out that UT also had spring break, and there was no speech. No one told me! I was very annoyed. Luckily the receptionist was there and was able to call me. But I couldn't come straight back because I had to get Joseph to flute. So poor Mosey had to wait there for 20 minutes before I got back to pick him up. After we got home, it struck me why there was so much traffic-- SXSW is this week! SXSW (South by Southwest) is a big (super, duper big) week long music festival here in Austin. It's huge. There are bands everywhere, and performances all day and all night all week long. Wristbands to get in to these performances are hundreds of dollars a piece. So anyway, that definitely explained the traffic heading into downtown.
On Tuesday I decided to let the boys have the day off. I could tell they needed it. So they spent the day reading and playing and digging canals in the dirt outside and filling them with water (making a big, muddy mess, of course :-)).
Wednesday was Pi day. :-) We had tamale pie for dinner. We went to the library in the afternoon. (One very nice thing about spring break week was that we had the week off of piano, violin, and cello lessons, which gave us a couple of free afternoons.). In the evening a guy came over to try and sell us replacement windows. We need them, as our power bills were absolutely horrendous last year. We could have afforded a very nice vacation to a cooler climate for the amount we paid in electricity running our AC. But ultimately we decided not to go with this guy. They were the cadillac of windows, but our house just isn't a cadillac, if you know what I mean.
Thursday was nothing spectacular. Natasha came over in the afternoon-- the only one of our art group who took me up on our offer of a play day-- I think everyone else was doing spring-breaky things. It's fun talking to new moms. Desiree isn't a new mom exactly, she has an eight year old, but I think the 8 year break qualifies her as a new mom again. New moms have a tendency to be rather obsessed with their babies' sleep schedules. And rightly so since baby's sleep schedule dictates mom's sleep schedule, which in turn dictates her level of sanity. This obsession leads to a strong need to talk about the intricacies of your particular baby's sleep habits. Therefore time spent with Desiree will inevitably include discussions about Nadia's sleeping, or lack thereof. :-) I don't mind one bit-- I think there must be something important and cathartic about being able to witness to someone else the frustrations, anxieties, and occasional small triumphs in the ever-elusive quest to Get Your Baby to Sleep. :-)
On Thursday night Ben and I went to Lowes and spent a couple of hours looking at windows and new kitchen cabinets. I hate my kitchen cabinets. They are very ugly. But, the wood matches the paneling in our living room and breakfast area, and I worry that choosing another type of wood will just look odd. And then when we came home, I realized that a lot of what I like about new cabinets, is the crown molding and pretty details around the top. But our kitchen has a low ceiling because of the air ducts that run under Joseph's room (which is right above the kitchen), so I'm not sure new cabinets will even have that much of an impact. Oh well. We did decide to try to replace all of our ugly stained wood, hollow-core, cheap and flimsy interior doors.
Friday is supposed to be our day off, but since we took Tuesday off, we did lessons anyway. I let them have a pretty easy day, though. In the afternoon I took Joseph and Brigham to the boulder park where they played for a while (or actually, just read-- I guess that's more fun to do at a park than at home?), and then walked themselves home! It's only a mile and a half, and I figured that at 10 years old, with the two of them, they're completely capable of walking home themselves. It takes them through a number of different streets, and along a pretty busy road, so I think they were a tiny bit nervous. Joseph is my worrier, actually. He's very cautious, and gets very nervous especially when Brigham does crazy things (like climb 3 stories up into a tree). He packed a backpack full of flashlights, candles, a lighter, water, and granola bars just in case Brigham got lost in the "caves" at this park. (They are not really caves-- just spaces between and behind a bunch of gigantic boulders in one area.) But Brigham didn't get lost (we just finished reading Tom Sawyer which may have contributed to his concern over caves), and they made it home safely.
Friday evening I went to dinner with some friends at a Thai restaurant, and then to see the movie "The Vow." It was a fun evening doing something Ben would have hated. :-) He hates Thai food, and "The Vow" was pretty much a "chick-flick." I liked it though, especially because it was based on a true story.
Saturday was pretty busy. Joseph didn't feel good so he skipped archery. Ben went to Lowes to get a door and the supplies needed to install it. We were busy getting started with it when I realized with a start that Brigham was going to be very late for horseback riding lessons. So we raced out there, and he was late, but it was worth it because there was a baby horse, less than 2 days old there in the stable. Oh it was so cute! It is totally amazing to me how animals like horses can immediately stand up and walk around right after birth. The little thing was positively scampering around her mother in the stall. It was almost impossible to imagine that gangly, long-legged, bouncy, bounding little creature folded up tight in her mother's belly just two days before. Imagine if humans were like that! On the way back, Brigham and I stopped at Lowes to get a couple of other things Ben needed for the door. Well, Lowes is always busy on a Saturday afternoon, and it was yesterday as well. I got inside the store only to discover that the only motorized cart left was broken. I was very annoyed, and was getting ready to leave and try another store when a man stopped me and asked if he could push me around in the manual wheelchair and help me find what I needed. At first I demurred, saying I'd just go to Walmart. But he very sincerely wanted to help, so I let him! He pushed me in the wheelchair while his girlfriend pushed a cart and we roamed the aisles finding saw horses, white paint, and a new doorknob. He took probably 15-20 minutes out of his day to do this for me. It was so, so nice. He wheeled me out to the parking lot and unloaded my things into the back of the van. I told him that I collect stories of really nice things people do for me, and he just made my list. :-) Whenever people do really nice things, I always wonder, if the tables were turned, if I'd be the one so nice. I doubt it. Maybe I would, now, having been in my position. But for someone who hasn't? It's really remarkable.
After we got home, I drove the boys out to help with a move (this couple did it right-- asked way in advance, had everything all boxed up and organized, asked specific people to help-- i.e. didn't simply call the EQ president and expect him to organize it, and provided pizza for all the helpers. Mosey did NOT want to go at first. I get very upset when he is like that, because I want so much for my boys to learn to work and serve and to do so willingly. I was very tempted to get angry and threaten this or that if he did not get in the car NOW. But I resisted because I realized if I got mad and forced him to go, he would go, but he'd be sulking the whole time, probably wouldn't help, and would get nothing out of it. So I swallowed my annoyance and sweet-talked him into going. It took some doing, because he's stubborn, but it worked, and by the time we got there, he jumped out of the car, and was the first of the boys to jump in and start moving boxes.
When Ben and the boys got back, they worked on the door for a while. It's much harder than it seemed at first. You have to chisel out the places for the hinges and drill holes for the doorknob and latch, and it is very time consuming if you don't have fancy tools. Ben got really frustrated. Midway through, we decided to take a break and go see "John Carter" which was a lot better than I thought it would be. Ben and I ended up being up till way past 1:00 AM finishing the door and getting the house ready for Sunday.
OK, this letter is ridiculously long. Here's Sunday in a nutshell: Church was early after being up so late. After church I had a frustrating scout meeting. There are some issues with some of the scout leadership people in our ward. At home, I made a batch of Irish soda bread, since I did NOTHING for St. Patrick's Day the day before except wear green. We went to go see a house a couple of miles away-- one story, half an acre, pool, beautiful view lot. But unfortunately it had a step-down living room, the garage was on the wrong side of the house, my wheelchair wouldn't fit in the doorway of the master bathroom, and the backyard would be entirely inaccessible to me, being build on a steep slope. Oh well. We'd like to find a one-story house, but my requirements are so particular, I'm not sure we'll ever find something exactly right. I also shudder at the thought of having to go through the process of selling this house... We had the Sturdevants over for dinner (more talk about baby sleep schedules, but not too much :-)). I made shrimp pasta, fruit salad, and the Irish soda bread. The boys got into bed at a decent hour, although I could hear Mosey kicking his feet on his wall for more than an hour and a half after he went to bed. Aaargh! Why won't he sleep? I guess the obsession over your kid's sleep habits doesn't end with infancy. :-).
That's it, have a great week everyone!
Love,
Gabrielle
03/18/12
1. Being up too late the night before leads to very grumpy boys.
2. We had some friends over for dinner this afternoon. I made shrimp pasta (sauteed onions, can of italian style diced tomatoes, chicken broth, half a can of cream of mushroom soup, a couple tablespoons of sour cream, a half-cup or so of light alfredo sauce, a few spoonfuls of leftover pizza sauce, parsley, and basil-- basically a mishmash of what I had on hand in the fridge :-)), fruit salad, and irish soda bread, to try to make up for my poor performance on St. Patrick's day yesterday.
3. My boys have an incredibly hard time getting along while working together. It is very distressing. The moment we start a family clean-up-the-house or clean-up-the-backyard, the picking, whining, crying, complaining, accusing, sulking immediately ensues. It makes me feel like a big fat failure, when one of my main goals as a mother is to teach my boys to work hard, to work willingly, and to work together. They need a lot more work on that. :-) I need some better ideas as to how to make that happen.
2. We had some friends over for dinner this afternoon. I made shrimp pasta (sauteed onions, can of italian style diced tomatoes, chicken broth, half a can of cream of mushroom soup, a couple tablespoons of sour cream, a half-cup or so of light alfredo sauce, a few spoonfuls of leftover pizza sauce, parsley, and basil-- basically a mishmash of what I had on hand in the fridge :-)), fruit salad, and irish soda bread, to try to make up for my poor performance on St. Patrick's day yesterday.
3. My boys have an incredibly hard time getting along while working together. It is very distressing. The moment we start a family clean-up-the-house or clean-up-the-backyard, the picking, whining, crying, complaining, accusing, sulking immediately ensues. It makes me feel like a big fat failure, when one of my main goals as a mother is to teach my boys to work hard, to work willingly, and to work together. They need a lot more work on that. :-) I need some better ideas as to how to make that happen.
03/17/12
1. Happy St. Patrick's Day! I love this fun little holiday. I wore green, and made a pretty bracelet and matching earrings with green beads. I sort of dropped the ball with everything else though, and didn't do the green milk for breakfast, or green foods for dinner. It was Saturday. I don't make meals on Saturdays, it's everyone fend for themselves! :-)
2. At horseback riding there was the most adorable little 1 1/2 day old horse that we got to see. I can't believe that she was only a day and a half old! She was jumping and scampering around her stall-- the cutest thing you ever saw. How could she have been squished inside her mama's belly only two days before?
3. On the way home, Brigham and I stopped at Lowes for a few things. When we got inside, we discovered that the only motorized cart available was broken. I was very frustrated. Then an incredibly nice man volunteered to wheel me around in the manual wheelchair and help me find the things we were looking for. At first I said no, I'd just go to Walmart, but he was insistent, saying he had the time and he was happy to help, so I let him! He was so, so, so nice. He wheeled me around the store finding the things we needed, wheeled me to the check out stand, and then wheeled me back to the van and loaded my things into the back. I told him I collect stories of really, really nice things people do for me, and he just got put on my list. :-) In some ways I am really lucky in that I have a chance to see the really good side of humanity-- especially here in Texas.
4. We saw "John Carter" in the evening. About 1,000,000 times better than "The Lorax." :-) I liked it better than I thought I would, honestly.
What Shall We Do With a Drunken Sailor?
Joseph is playing an arrangement of this song on the piano, so we've listened to a bunch of different renditions on Youtube. This is the best. I remember learning this song as a 4th grader, getting ready for our Pilgrim trip. It was an awesome school trip-- we spent weeks preparing for our particular "crew" that we were assigned to (I was a boatswain), and then spent an afternoon, night, and morning on "The Pilgrim," a full-size replica of an 1820-something ship. It was an "immersion" style experience-- all of us were "sailors," treated as such, with jobs to do, 2-hour watches during the night, the whole bit. It was awesome.
Friday, March 16, 2012
03/16/12
1. The weekend is here again-- yay! There's always something so promising about Friday nights.
2. This afternoon after lessons, Brigham and Joseph wanted to go to the boulder park. Mosey wanted to stay home and play Tanki (insert a little eye rolling here). So I drove Brigham and Joseph down there, told them how to get home, and left them! It's exactly 1.5 miles away, and they're definitely old enough to be down there and get back by themselves now. I told them I'd come back at 5:00, but if they wanted to come home sooner, they could head on back home. They had nearly made it home by the time I went to get them. Joseph brought a backpack with a flashlight, candles, a lighter (in case they got lost in a cave-- we just finished reading Tom Sawyer, can you tell? :-)), and they both brought books. Turns out they walked down to the boulders, found comfortable places to sit, and read the whole time. I guess it was more exciting that sitting at home and reading. :-)
I remember feeling very grown up when I could walk or ride my bike places by myself-- down to Ralphs to turn in my entry for one of their monthly coloring contests and claim my Hershey bar as a prize, up past the tree in the middle of the road and the pink castle, over to Karen Eckloff's house at the end of Orchard Lane, up to that weird water tower on the mountain. Those were good days in my childhood.
3. I went out to eat and to a movie with some friends tonight. We went to a Thai restaurant, which is a great place to eat for a gluten free vegetarian. Too bad Ben doesn't like Thai. We saw "The Vow" which was a great chick-flick that Ben also would probably not have voluntarily gone to see. :-) Midway through the movie some teenage punks came in the back of the theater, yelled out a very bad word, and then threw a cup out into the audience. It was very weird. Hoodlums! I have never been impressed with the teenagers I've seen hanging out at that mall on weekend nights.
4. When I got home, I found Ben and the boys watching the very first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, a show I have many fond memories watching during my childhood. I think the boys liked it better than the original Star Trek they watched a couple of nights ago. It's funny to think that the boys watching Star Trek TNG is the same thing as me, at their age, watching "My Three Sons," or "Lassie." That's crazy. It probably seems as dated to them as those shows did to me. I still think Captain Picard looks like a bald version of my dad.
2. This afternoon after lessons, Brigham and Joseph wanted to go to the boulder park. Mosey wanted to stay home and play Tanki (insert a little eye rolling here). So I drove Brigham and Joseph down there, told them how to get home, and left them! It's exactly 1.5 miles away, and they're definitely old enough to be down there and get back by themselves now. I told them I'd come back at 5:00, but if they wanted to come home sooner, they could head on back home. They had nearly made it home by the time I went to get them. Joseph brought a backpack with a flashlight, candles, a lighter (in case they got lost in a cave-- we just finished reading Tom Sawyer, can you tell? :-)), and they both brought books. Turns out they walked down to the boulders, found comfortable places to sit, and read the whole time. I guess it was more exciting that sitting at home and reading. :-)
I remember feeling very grown up when I could walk or ride my bike places by myself-- down to Ralphs to turn in my entry for one of their monthly coloring contests and claim my Hershey bar as a prize, up past the tree in the middle of the road and the pink castle, over to Karen Eckloff's house at the end of Orchard Lane, up to that weird water tower on the mountain. Those were good days in my childhood.
3. I went out to eat and to a movie with some friends tonight. We went to a Thai restaurant, which is a great place to eat for a gluten free vegetarian. Too bad Ben doesn't like Thai. We saw "The Vow" which was a great chick-flick that Ben also would probably not have voluntarily gone to see. :-) Midway through the movie some teenage punks came in the back of the theater, yelled out a very bad word, and then threw a cup out into the audience. It was very weird. Hoodlums! I have never been impressed with the teenagers I've seen hanging out at that mall on weekend nights.
4. When I got home, I found Ben and the boys watching the very first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, a show I have many fond memories watching during my childhood. I think the boys liked it better than the original Star Trek they watched a couple of nights ago. It's funny to think that the boys watching Star Trek TNG is the same thing as me, at their age, watching "My Three Sons," or "Lassie." That's crazy. It probably seems as dated to them as those shows did to me. I still think Captain Picard looks like a bald version of my dad.
03/14/12
1. Everyone overslept today. That's what comes of eating dinner one hour late the night before. So no practicing got done before breakfast. Thing really do go better if we can knock out at least one or two sessions before breakfast. It was an OK day, anyway, though. Everyone did get their practicing without TOO much grumbling. Some math got done. A science experiment was completed (this one was pretty cool-- tape a magnet to the side of a cup, then tie a paper clip to the end of a piece of thread. Stick the paper clip to the magnet, pull the threat tight, and tape the end of it to the table. Then slowly move the cup away until the magnet detaches from the paper clip, but it still close enough for the magnetic force to keep the paper clip suspended in the air. It looks really cool! The experiment was to see what kinds of materials will disrupt the magnetic field when inserted between the magnet and the paper clip.). History was read. We're still a chapter behind in history, no one finished their writing assignment, and no one did spelling, so we'll have some work to do tomorrow morning, even if it is Friday. That's OK.
2. In some ways, I am a really, really slow learner. I was reading a friend's blog the other day. She was talking about her son who just had a birthday. As she was describing some issues she had with that child when he was younger, she mentioned how he responds to positive reinforcement about a million times better than punishment. I've known this is true for many kids for a long time, of course. It probably works best for most kids. And I've tried to do that with my kids-- by praising and giving lots of affirmation when my children behave well. But I've still resorted to punishment, or threats of punishment, when my children are non-compliant. But I got to thinking today when I was in a situation with one of my boys in which I was threatening to "count him" (one, two, three, you're out), and to banish him to his room when friends came over this afternoon if he did not comply. I realized that I was resorting to punishment, or threat thereof at that particular instant. I wondered if there was a positive way I could respond to influence him to change his behavior, instead of resorting to "discipline." So, when he got to a two, and was really deserving to be counted at a three, instead I put my arm around him and told him that I knew he hated math, it was boring, he didn't want to do it, that he thought it was too hard and he couldn't do it. Then I told him how smart he is, that he *is* good at math, whether he thought so or not. I told him I knew he could do it, and I was impressed with how well he has done in math so far. Guess what? It worked! I know, shocking. No one could have guessed that outcome. :-) But he finished his math, his attitude changed, I didn't have to count him any more, and disaster was averted! I know I've stumbled upon this way of responding to this boy before, but I never really thought of it as positive reinforcement, because I was not "rewarding" good behavior, per se. Now that I can more clearly see that I have two choices when we come to a stand off, and that one of them is negative, punishment based, and the other is positive, encouragement based, I'm hoping this will help me find my way out of these parenting snarls a little more easily. Why has it taken me 10 years to think of things in these terms?
3. Ben and I went on an early date night tonight, to our favorite place, Lowes. :-) We're thinking about replacing some of our windows, and wanted to price things out, and then got sucked into admiring beautiful new kitchen cabinets and granite countertops. Fun stuff. We probably are going to embark on some major household projects in the coming months, and it's fun to plan, or to dream at least. The boys stayed home, got themselves dinner, and watched the very first Star Trek pilot episode from 1965. What a kick to watch those actors from almost 50 years ago! The technology was so primitive, that it really seemed like an amateur high school video project for a class. Wow, have things changed. I think my boys were pretty nonplussed by the whole thing. :-)
4. A few minutes ago, I tried to take a cell phone picture of Sandy in her favorite sleeping position. Well, she has doggy ESP and can always tell when I'm trying to take a picture of her, and she woke up. I took a picture of her anyway, even though she moved and wasn't quite as bizarrely contorted as usual. I laughed out loud when I uploaded the picture from my phone onto the computer.
That is no photoshop work! It's Sandy the demon-dog! :-)
2. In some ways, I am a really, really slow learner. I was reading a friend's blog the other day. She was talking about her son who just had a birthday. As she was describing some issues she had with that child when he was younger, she mentioned how he responds to positive reinforcement about a million times better than punishment. I've known this is true for many kids for a long time, of course. It probably works best for most kids. And I've tried to do that with my kids-- by praising and giving lots of affirmation when my children behave well. But I've still resorted to punishment, or threats of punishment, when my children are non-compliant. But I got to thinking today when I was in a situation with one of my boys in which I was threatening to "count him" (one, two, three, you're out), and to banish him to his room when friends came over this afternoon if he did not comply. I realized that I was resorting to punishment, or threat thereof at that particular instant. I wondered if there was a positive way I could respond to influence him to change his behavior, instead of resorting to "discipline." So, when he got to a two, and was really deserving to be counted at a three, instead I put my arm around him and told him that I knew he hated math, it was boring, he didn't want to do it, that he thought it was too hard and he couldn't do it. Then I told him how smart he is, that he *is* good at math, whether he thought so or not. I told him I knew he could do it, and I was impressed with how well he has done in math so far. Guess what? It worked! I know, shocking. No one could have guessed that outcome. :-) But he finished his math, his attitude changed, I didn't have to count him any more, and disaster was averted! I know I've stumbled upon this way of responding to this boy before, but I never really thought of it as positive reinforcement, because I was not "rewarding" good behavior, per se. Now that I can more clearly see that I have two choices when we come to a stand off, and that one of them is negative, punishment based, and the other is positive, encouragement based, I'm hoping this will help me find my way out of these parenting snarls a little more easily. Why has it taken me 10 years to think of things in these terms?
3. Ben and I went on an early date night tonight, to our favorite place, Lowes. :-) We're thinking about replacing some of our windows, and wanted to price things out, and then got sucked into admiring beautiful new kitchen cabinets and granite countertops. Fun stuff. We probably are going to embark on some major household projects in the coming months, and it's fun to plan, or to dream at least. The boys stayed home, got themselves dinner, and watched the very first Star Trek pilot episode from 1965. What a kick to watch those actors from almost 50 years ago! The technology was so primitive, that it really seemed like an amateur high school video project for a class. Wow, have things changed. I think my boys were pretty nonplussed by the whole thing. :-)
4. A few minutes ago, I tried to take a cell phone picture of Sandy in her favorite sleeping position. Well, she has doggy ESP and can always tell when I'm trying to take a picture of her, and she woke up. I took a picture of her anyway, even though she moved and wasn't quite as bizarrely contorted as usual. I laughed out loud when I uploaded the picture from my phone onto the computer.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
et tu Brute?
Oh yeah. Today is a good day to stay away from any "friends" named Brutus.
Beware the Ides of March! :-)
Beware the Ides of March! :-)
hot weather makes me stupid
Another reason to buy a summer cabin in Montana. :-)
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/242881.php
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/242881.php
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
03/14/12
1. Happy Pi Day!! We had tamale pie for dinner, in celebration.
2. We had an OK day of lessons today. Nothing especially great, but nothing especially bad. I think I successfully rescued a couple of potential stubborn stand-offs with two of my children using the hardest, but most effective neutralizer-- humor. I wish I were naturally funnier, I really, really do. A person that spontaneously responds with humor is a person who probably gets along with almost anyone, and probably rarely gets into arguments.
3. We're starting a new unit in science-- the microscope! We haven't gotten ours out in several months. Joseph got it out this afternoon and we all remembered how fun it is to look at things.
4. I took the boys to the library this afternoon. Joseph was looking for a book about the army. He's gone on a bit of an army kick the last several days, reading all about it on wikipedia, trying to figure out what all the ranks mean, how much they make, etc. He's a little fascinated-- he was the boy who was all about making our homeschool into a military school. Not sure how that works with him, since one of the things he says he did not like about TKD was all of the "Yes Sir!" "Yes Ma'am!" that was required.
5. I was tired today, and I'm up too late now, which is stupid. I got to bed at a decent time last night, but woke up at around 3:30 AM and couldn't get back to sleep. Why does my mind race with ridiculous things I have no control over in the middle of the night?? At 4:15 I gave in and turned on my little book light and read my history book for a while until I got tired again. But 5:45 came too soon after that...
2. We had an OK day of lessons today. Nothing especially great, but nothing especially bad. I think I successfully rescued a couple of potential stubborn stand-offs with two of my children using the hardest, but most effective neutralizer-- humor. I wish I were naturally funnier, I really, really do. A person that spontaneously responds with humor is a person who probably gets along with almost anyone, and probably rarely gets into arguments.
3. We're starting a new unit in science-- the microscope! We haven't gotten ours out in several months. Joseph got it out this afternoon and we all remembered how fun it is to look at things.
4. I took the boys to the library this afternoon. Joseph was looking for a book about the army. He's gone on a bit of an army kick the last several days, reading all about it on wikipedia, trying to figure out what all the ranks mean, how much they make, etc. He's a little fascinated-- he was the boy who was all about making our homeschool into a military school. Not sure how that works with him, since one of the things he says he did not like about TKD was all of the "Yes Sir!" "Yes Ma'am!" that was required.
5. I was tired today, and I'm up too late now, which is stupid. I got to bed at a decent time last night, but woke up at around 3:30 AM and couldn't get back to sleep. Why does my mind race with ridiculous things I have no control over in the middle of the night?? At 4:15 I gave in and turned on my little book light and read my history book for a while until I got tired again. But 5:45 came too soon after that...
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
03/13/2012
1. I gave the boys the day off today. I wasn't particularly productive during most of the day-- I guess I took the day off, too. I did some laundry, did some practicing with the boys, finally finished reading "Caddie Woodlawn" to them (we were supposed to have finished that book more than a week ago) and even took a nap in the afternoon! I can't remember the last time that's happened on a week day. :-)
2. The boys had a grand time today, I think. They dug canals in the dirt and filled them up with water, and then made a big mud hole. They put on their swimming suits and played in the hose. (It was in the low 80's today, so pretty warm, but still a little cold for hose-playing yet. Soon it will be time to clean out the pool!) They played with Sandy, managed to get her all muddy, caught a lizard, tried to catch spiders, and hardly argued the whole day!
3. I did manage to spoil Brigham's perfect day, though, at least for a while. :-( He has been asking me to go to the library the past few days. Not incessantly, but he has been asking. He wanted to go today, and I told him we would after practicing got done. But when it was done, the boys were playing so happily in the backyard, I didn't have the heart to go and break it up, make them come in and take baths and go to the library. By the time they came in at 5:20 or so, it was too late to go. Brigham got very sad. "My day off is ruined! I could have been reading the whole day and that would have been better than playing! I've been asking you every day to go to the library and you said we would go!" You get the picture. He was crying and I felt pretty bad. Then he said, "We have nothing to read here!" and I lost a little of my sympathy, because we have lots and lots and lots to read here. :-) But I do know the thrill of going to the library and looking through the shelves to find the one perfect book to check out. Oh well. We really, really will go tomorrow afternoon.
2. The boys had a grand time today, I think. They dug canals in the dirt and filled them up with water, and then made a big mud hole. They put on their swimming suits and played in the hose. (It was in the low 80's today, so pretty warm, but still a little cold for hose-playing yet. Soon it will be time to clean out the pool!) They played with Sandy, managed to get her all muddy, caught a lizard, tried to catch spiders, and hardly argued the whole day!
3. I did manage to spoil Brigham's perfect day, though, at least for a while. :-( He has been asking me to go to the library the past few days. Not incessantly, but he has been asking. He wanted to go today, and I told him we would after practicing got done. But when it was done, the boys were playing so happily in the backyard, I didn't have the heart to go and break it up, make them come in and take baths and go to the library. By the time they came in at 5:20 or so, it was too late to go. Brigham got very sad. "My day off is ruined! I could have been reading the whole day and that would have been better than playing! I've been asking you every day to go to the library and you said we would go!" You get the picture. He was crying and I felt pretty bad. Then he said, "We have nothing to read here!" and I lost a little of my sympathy, because we have lots and lots and lots to read here. :-) But I do know the thrill of going to the library and looking through the shelves to find the one perfect book to check out. Oh well. We really, really will go tomorrow afternoon.
Monday, March 12, 2012
03/12/12
1. And... Monday strikes again. I have two boys that seem to be allergic to Mondays. After a pep talk last night about school, it was still a bit of a struggle today. Daylight Savings Time did not help. 6:30 is early for anyone, but really, really early when it feels like 5:30. But, I am learning. When one child was hiding upstairs for more than an hour after he was supposed to be starting his lessons, I didn't yell. I didn't threaten. I lugged myself upstairs, sat next to him, gave him a hug, and somehow managed to talk him into getting started. I really do think I'm getting the hang of this no-yelling thing. (Calling to my kids when they are upstairs, or across the yard does NOT count as yelling! :-))
2. Mosey had TKD today. Natasha was there, which normally makes things a lot more fun for him, but yesterday he cut his foot in our backyard-- right on the ball of his foot in a place where a bandaid will not stay. And then he had the grumpy instructor which didn't help. I've tried to analyze this particular instructor. There is nothing unpleasant about her, she's actually not even grumpy. But I have never, ever, ever seen her crack a smile. She is the most unsmilingest person I have ever known. It's sad! I wonder what her story is. At least during TKD I could vent a little with the two other homeschooling moms there. And it's good for me to realize that my kids are very normal and that we are doing a lot of things right, even though they're not perfect.
3. This afternoon was a bit of a fiasco. On our way down to UT to drop Mosey off at speech, there was terrible traffic. Why? No idea. Maybe an accident, but if so it was too far down the freeway for me to see anything. So we got to speech 15 minutes late, at exactly the time Joseph was supposed to be AT his flute lesson. Mosey ran inside and I skedaddled down the road to get Joseph to flute. 5 minutes later my phone rings. It is the receptionist at the speech place informing me that there are no therapy sessions today because of spring break. Ugh! No one told me! I didn't even know it was UT's spring break. But I was on my way to drop Joseph off (also late), so I couldn't turn around and get him right away. Poor Mosey had to sit there for 20 minutes until I got back down to the building. Oh well.
4. We just finished listening to Tom Sawyer, and are starting Huckleberry Finn. What fun books for kids my boys' ages. And so fun for me as an adult 20 years older than I was when I first read them. So many subtleties I doubt I got back then. Boys sure haven't changed much in 150 years, or however long it's been. :-)
5. This evening Joseph and Brigham went with Ben back to that park area that we went to yesterday. I'm dubbing it the boulder park. Mosey didn't want to go, opting to stay home and read a book while swinging on the disc swing in the backyard. The boys came back so excited! Joseph found a deer antler (he wanted to know if he could sell it somewhere for a lot of money-- any buyers out there?), and Brigham saw a copperhead snake. That makes me a bit nervous. Ben would love to have a house with a yard that borders one of the many open areas around this part of town. And I love the idea of my kids having places to roam around and explore. On the other hand, venomous snakes scare me, and there are plenty of them around here. Our little neighborhood is far enough from the green belts to be at a lower risk of snakes, and it's an old enough neighborhood that we don't have any scorpions or centipedes, either (don't I make moving to Texas sound great?).
2. Mosey had TKD today. Natasha was there, which normally makes things a lot more fun for him, but yesterday he cut his foot in our backyard-- right on the ball of his foot in a place where a bandaid will not stay. And then he had the grumpy instructor which didn't help. I've tried to analyze this particular instructor. There is nothing unpleasant about her, she's actually not even grumpy. But I have never, ever, ever seen her crack a smile. She is the most unsmilingest person I have ever known. It's sad! I wonder what her story is. At least during TKD I could vent a little with the two other homeschooling moms there. And it's good for me to realize that my kids are very normal and that we are doing a lot of things right, even though they're not perfect.
3. This afternoon was a bit of a fiasco. On our way down to UT to drop Mosey off at speech, there was terrible traffic. Why? No idea. Maybe an accident, but if so it was too far down the freeway for me to see anything. So we got to speech 15 minutes late, at exactly the time Joseph was supposed to be AT his flute lesson. Mosey ran inside and I skedaddled down the road to get Joseph to flute. 5 minutes later my phone rings. It is the receptionist at the speech place informing me that there are no therapy sessions today because of spring break. Ugh! No one told me! I didn't even know it was UT's spring break. But I was on my way to drop Joseph off (also late), so I couldn't turn around and get him right away. Poor Mosey had to sit there for 20 minutes until I got back down to the building. Oh well.
4. We just finished listening to Tom Sawyer, and are starting Huckleberry Finn. What fun books for kids my boys' ages. And so fun for me as an adult 20 years older than I was when I first read them. So many subtleties I doubt I got back then. Boys sure haven't changed much in 150 years, or however long it's been. :-)
5. This evening Joseph and Brigham went with Ben back to that park area that we went to yesterday. I'm dubbing it the boulder park. Mosey didn't want to go, opting to stay home and read a book while swinging on the disc swing in the backyard. The boys came back so excited! Joseph found a deer antler (he wanted to know if he could sell it somewhere for a lot of money-- any buyers out there?), and Brigham saw a copperhead snake. That makes me a bit nervous. Ben would love to have a house with a yard that borders one of the many open areas around this part of town. And I love the idea of my kids having places to roam around and explore. On the other hand, venomous snakes scare me, and there are plenty of them around here. Our little neighborhood is far enough from the green belts to be at a lower risk of snakes, and it's an old enough neighborhood that we don't have any scorpions or centipedes, either (don't I make moving to Texas sound great?).
Sunday, March 11, 2012
03/11/12
1. Daylight savings time is really painful with 9:00 church.
2. The day started out thundering and raining and cold. By the time we walked out of church 3 hours later, the skies were blue, the sun was out, and it was like a different world! Sunshine after rain is so glorious.
3. To celebrate the beautiful day, and the later daylight hours, we went on a walk down to this canyon/river run-off type place near where we live. I remember going there with Mosey when we lived in our rental house when we first moved here. I used to go on long walks with him while Brigham and Joseph were in Kindergarten. I remember pushing Mosey in the stroller, walking from our rental house to the end of the culdesac where you can walk down into the canyon, and then carrying him down the steep hill to the small lake down below. I haven't been there since. This time Ben was the one walking carefully carrying *me* down the steep slope. :-) It is a fantastic place, and I can't believe we haven't been there before. Well, I guess I can. There is no possible way for me to get down there without Ben carrying me, so it's been off my radar of "places to go." Anyway, the boys had a great time exploring around the lake, climbing down the giant limestone boulders to the creek down below, racing Sandy up and down the boulders, over, around, and through pools of water, up on the top of the limestone cliffs bordering the west side of the canyon. Brigham found a small cave between and behind some of the boulders and tried to convince Joseph to explore it with him, but Joseph balked at the possibility of spiders. "I hate spiders, especially spiders in my pants!" he exclaimed. LOL-- I hate spiders in my pants, too!! :-)
2. The day started out thundering and raining and cold. By the time we walked out of church 3 hours later, the skies were blue, the sun was out, and it was like a different world! Sunshine after rain is so glorious.
3. To celebrate the beautiful day, and the later daylight hours, we went on a walk down to this canyon/river run-off type place near where we live. I remember going there with Mosey when we lived in our rental house when we first moved here. I used to go on long walks with him while Brigham and Joseph were in Kindergarten. I remember pushing Mosey in the stroller, walking from our rental house to the end of the culdesac where you can walk down into the canyon, and then carrying him down the steep hill to the small lake down below. I haven't been there since. This time Ben was the one walking carefully carrying *me* down the steep slope. :-) It is a fantastic place, and I can't believe we haven't been there before. Well, I guess I can. There is no possible way for me to get down there without Ben carrying me, so it's been off my radar of "places to go." Anyway, the boys had a great time exploring around the lake, climbing down the giant limestone boulders to the creek down below, racing Sandy up and down the boulders, over, around, and through pools of water, up on the top of the limestone cliffs bordering the west side of the canyon. Brigham found a small cave between and behind some of the boulders and tried to convince Joseph to explore it with him, but Joseph balked at the possibility of spiders. "I hate spiders, especially spiders in my pants!" he exclaimed. LOL-- I hate spiders in my pants, too!! :-)
Saturday, March 10, 2012
03/10/12
1. Ben took Joseph and Brigham to both their activities today! I got the day off from driving! Joseph had archery in the morning and came home so excited. "I got to shoot from 20 yards today, and I popped my balloon and got 5 bulls-eyes!" He's one of the younger kids in the intermediate class, and had been shooting at his target from 10 yards away, while the bigger kids shot at 20. So he's moved up with the big kids now! It's so fun to see him excited about something he's really good at.
2. It was cold and rainy and miserable all day. But I don't mind the change too much, since it's sorely needed around here. Still, by the time evening came, all the boys were complaining about the rain and how they didn't get to go outside all day. I reminded them that if we lived in a winter state, it would be like this all winter long! I love Austin.
The main reason I am not really loving the rain this weekend is that it is impossible to keep my floors clean. I know I'm obsessive about it, but clean floors are my bug-a-boo. I get really stressed outwith dirty floors. And with a dog and cat going in and out a few times a day, not to mention kids, the rain is not great for the state of my floors...
3. Brigham and I drove to Little Caesars to pick up pizza for dinner tonight. Before we left, I reminded the boys that the time changes tonight, and so it was kind of like an hour later than it really was. Mosey moaned and groaned and protested that he didn't want to go to bed and he'd never be able to fall asleep. Well, guess what we found when we came back from getting pizza? A very tired Mosey sound-asleep on the couch. He's either seriously tired or getting sick because I can't remember the last time he's done that.
2. It was cold and rainy and miserable all day. But I don't mind the change too much, since it's sorely needed around here. Still, by the time evening came, all the boys were complaining about the rain and how they didn't get to go outside all day. I reminded them that if we lived in a winter state, it would be like this all winter long! I love Austin.
The main reason I am not really loving the rain this weekend is that it is impossible to keep my floors clean. I know I'm obsessive about it, but clean floors are my bug-a-boo. I get really stressed outwith dirty floors. And with a dog and cat going in and out a few times a day, not to mention kids, the rain is not great for the state of my floors...
3. Brigham and I drove to Little Caesars to pick up pizza for dinner tonight. Before we left, I reminded the boys that the time changes tonight, and so it was kind of like an hour later than it really was. Mosey moaned and groaned and protested that he didn't want to go to bed and he'd never be able to fall asleep. Well, guess what we found when we came back from getting pizza? A very tired Mosey sound-asleep on the couch. He's either seriously tired or getting sick because I can't remember the last time he's done that.
03/09/12
1. RAIN today! I loved it. We were out and about and the bright green leaves contrasting with the dark trunks of the rain-soaked trees was so beautiful. March is my favorite month in Austin.
2. Because of the rain, I decided that we'd go on an indoor field trip today. Through a torrential downpour, we drove to the Blanton Museum of Art, down at UT (and got soaked going from the car into the museum-- the boys were a great help though, and pushed me in my wheelchair, RUNNING much faster than I could have pushed myself) . What a great museum! They have an exhibit of Hudson River school artwork, which I really love. Mosey wasn't a big fan ("This is boooring mom, when can we go home?" I tell all my kids, "If you're bored, it's because you are boring and are not paying enough attention!"), but Brigham and Joseph liked it I think. Mosey liked the rest of the museum better. They have a "Go West" exhibit with artwork from and about the frontier days in America. All the boys stopped in one of the rooms to make drawings of some of the paintings they liked. Joseph liked the modern art wing the best. I really love some modern art, and some of it I cannot stand. One room displayed two huge canvases, both identically white, with a thin black border painted along their edges. I'm sorry, but that is not art. Some of my kids' drawings, full of color and imagination, are far more artistic than some of the "art" on display. Maybe that betrays my lack of artistic sophistication, but I don't think so. I completely agree that "art" does not require huge technical skill (although that's a big plus in my opinion), and that the ideas, emotion, or graphic impact of a piece is what gives it value. Just because "anyone could paint that" doesn't mean that it isn't art-- after all, no one *did* paint that, until that particular artist came along. Anyway, I did really enjoy most of the modern art at the museum, but a few of the pieces left me rolling my eyes.
3. Brigham is a totally wild animal when it comes to Sandy. This evening, he grabbed a red hat out of the costume box, put it on his head, and then started fighting Sandy. Sandy is funny-- she does not like my boys to wear hats and will try to pull them off if she can. So Brigham and Sandy had about an hour-long fight over that red hat. It was seriously scary to listen to them-- I often wasn't sure who was growling-- Brigham or Sandy! But every time I looked over, Sandy was happy as could be, wagging her tail and loving life. I need to video that!
2. Because of the rain, I decided that we'd go on an indoor field trip today. Through a torrential downpour, we drove to the Blanton Museum of Art, down at UT (and got soaked going from the car into the museum-- the boys were a great help though, and pushed me in my wheelchair, RUNNING much faster than I could have pushed myself) . What a great museum! They have an exhibit of Hudson River school artwork, which I really love. Mosey wasn't a big fan ("This is boooring mom, when can we go home?" I tell all my kids, "If you're bored, it's because you are boring and are not paying enough attention!"), but Brigham and Joseph liked it I think. Mosey liked the rest of the museum better. They have a "Go West" exhibit with artwork from and about the frontier days in America. All the boys stopped in one of the rooms to make drawings of some of the paintings they liked. Joseph liked the modern art wing the best. I really love some modern art, and some of it I cannot stand. One room displayed two huge canvases, both identically white, with a thin black border painted along their edges. I'm sorry, but that is not art. Some of my kids' drawings, full of color and imagination, are far more artistic than some of the "art" on display. Maybe that betrays my lack of artistic sophistication, but I don't think so. I completely agree that "art" does not require huge technical skill (although that's a big plus in my opinion), and that the ideas, emotion, or graphic impact of a piece is what gives it value. Just because "anyone could paint that" doesn't mean that it isn't art-- after all, no one *did* paint that, until that particular artist came along. Anyway, I did really enjoy most of the modern art at the museum, but a few of the pieces left me rolling my eyes.
3. Brigham is a totally wild animal when it comes to Sandy. This evening, he grabbed a red hat out of the costume box, put it on his head, and then started fighting Sandy. Sandy is funny-- she does not like my boys to wear hats and will try to pull them off if she can. So Brigham and Sandy had about an hour-long fight over that red hat. It was seriously scary to listen to them-- I often wasn't sure who was growling-- Brigham or Sandy! But every time I looked over, Sandy was happy as could be, wagging her tail and loving life. I need to video that!
Friday, March 09, 2012
03/08/12
1. It rained today. Not a whole lot, but enough to bring the snails out. (And to get my clean floors absolutely filthy with mud and leaves and rain water tracked in and out of the house by Sandy and the boys...) We don't get too many normal round-shelled snails around here. The ones we get are smaller and have more conical, sea-shell shaped shells. The boys went outside after lunch and collected a bunch of them. Then Brigham had the bright idea of bringing two of them into the house, and putting them in my EARS!! AAAAAGGGHHH!!! At least he stuck them shell-side-in, so I didn't get any nasty snail slime on me, but STILL! Sheesh. Boys are weird. :-)
2. I gave the boys today and tomorrow off of music practicing, since next week is spring break and they won't have lessons until the week after that. It was a nice change, but still took us until 3:30 to finish school work. It is totally true that work expands to fit the time allotted. I spent an hour or so tonight trying to work out a schedule so that each boy will know just what he is supposed to be doing at any given time in the morning. It probably won't work, but my life would be so much simpler if I weren't constantly trying to herd the boys back to what they are *supposed* to be doing. I don't love the idea of scheduling them up through the whole day, but the alternative is me going crazy keeping track of which boy has done what, what they're supposed to be doing now, which boy most needs my help at the moment, etc. I'd dearly love for them to be self-sufficient, take responsibility for their own schoolwork, and get things done without me having to hover over them, but we're not quite there yet.
3. In the evening, after our art group, Brigham and Joseph got an itch to make something in the kitchen. Joseph made peppermint hot chocolate and Brigham made muffins. Brigham likes to bake these little muffin mixes that require only water or milk. He got creative tonight and made wild berry, apple cinnamon muffins (combined two mixes), swirled with blueberry syrup. They were very good, and both boys had a great time working together. I really love to see them enjoying each others company. Now if only they were as good at cleaning up as they are of making yummy treats!
4. I drove my friend Desiree and her little 4 month old baby to a Relief Society event tonight. On the way home, I ran out of gas. I've only done that ONE other time in my life, about 13 years ago. How embarrassing! I felt really bad since Desiree's baby was very tired and very ready to go home. Of course Ben was way out in Steiner Ranch doing Elders Quorum visits. Luckily Desiree's husband happened to have a can of gas for their lawn-mower and brought it over to rescue us. Meanwhile, it seemed like about half the Relief Society drove past (the car stopped right at a central intersection everyone had to get through to go home), recognized my car, stopped, and got out to see if I needed help. So now the entire ward knows that I am an idiot and let my car run out of gas. :-) Yes, the "low fuel" light has been on for a couple of days, but it didn't look like the needle was *that* far past the red line! And I was seriously planning to stop and get gas just as soon as I dropped Desiree off. Oh well. There was enough gas in the gas can to get me up to the gas station where Desiree's husband jumped out of this car to pump the gas for me. What a gentleman!
2. I gave the boys today and tomorrow off of music practicing, since next week is spring break and they won't have lessons until the week after that. It was a nice change, but still took us until 3:30 to finish school work. It is totally true that work expands to fit the time allotted. I spent an hour or so tonight trying to work out a schedule so that each boy will know just what he is supposed to be doing at any given time in the morning. It probably won't work, but my life would be so much simpler if I weren't constantly trying to herd the boys back to what they are *supposed* to be doing. I don't love the idea of scheduling them up through the whole day, but the alternative is me going crazy keeping track of which boy has done what, what they're supposed to be doing now, which boy most needs my help at the moment, etc. I'd dearly love for them to be self-sufficient, take responsibility for their own schoolwork, and get things done without me having to hover over them, but we're not quite there yet.
3. In the evening, after our art group, Brigham and Joseph got an itch to make something in the kitchen. Joseph made peppermint hot chocolate and Brigham made muffins. Brigham likes to bake these little muffin mixes that require only water or milk. He got creative tonight and made wild berry, apple cinnamon muffins (combined two mixes), swirled with blueberry syrup. They were very good, and both boys had a great time working together. I really love to see them enjoying each others company. Now if only they were as good at cleaning up as they are of making yummy treats!
4. I drove my friend Desiree and her little 4 month old baby to a Relief Society event tonight. On the way home, I ran out of gas. I've only done that ONE other time in my life, about 13 years ago. How embarrassing! I felt really bad since Desiree's baby was very tired and very ready to go home. Of course Ben was way out in Steiner Ranch doing Elders Quorum visits. Luckily Desiree's husband happened to have a can of gas for their lawn-mower and brought it over to rescue us. Meanwhile, it seemed like about half the Relief Society drove past (the car stopped right at a central intersection everyone had to get through to go home), recognized my car, stopped, and got out to see if I needed help. So now the entire ward knows that I am an idiot and let my car run out of gas. :-) Yes, the "low fuel" light has been on for a couple of days, but it didn't look like the needle was *that* far past the red line! And I was seriously planning to stop and get gas just as soon as I dropped Desiree off. Oh well. There was enough gas in the gas can to get me up to the gas station where Desiree's husband jumped out of this car to pump the gas for me. What a gentleman!
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