this week

Some interesting things about this week:

1.  We have a swing in our backyard-- a disk swing on a long rope hung from one of the big live oak trees in our back yard.  We have a step ladder set up next to it, and the boys climb up to the top of the ladder, get on the swing, and then launch themselves off the ladder to swing into the air.  It is really fun!  And Ben had it set up so that it seemed to be very safe.  But on Thursday evening, about 5 minutes before we were supposed to be leaving for music lessons, I heard loud cries from the backyard.  "HELP, HELP!!  I'M NOT KIDDING, HELP ME!"  These are the moments that make a mother's blood run cold.  I wheeled myself as fast as I could to the back door and I saw Mosey making his way toward the house, holding his arm, and tears streaming down his face.  Somehow the knot on the rope untied, and when Mosey jumped off the top of the ladder, he essentially fell straight down and crashed on his left arm and side on the hard gravel below.  He got a pretty bad abrasion on his left elbow that is going to be a pain in the neck because it is right on the joint.  I tried to ask him about what happened, but I think the wind was knocked out of him, and he could hardly catch his breath, finally saying, "Can you ask me about it later?"  We washed it off, and I put a bandage on it, and then I raced Brigham to music lessons with instructions to tell Mosey's teacher that he couldn't come.  Poor Mosey!  But really, it was lucky because he wasn't seriously hurt, and just a few minutes before he fell, all of our art group friends were over, and if it had been one of them that had fallen from the swing, I would have felt so much worse.  I'm not sure Mosey saw it that way at the moment!

2.  Mosey's camera that he got for his birthday has a fun little function-- it can play videos frame by frame forward or backward.  So the last couple of days, the boys have been building great big towers in the playroom, and ten destroying them in fantastic ways while Mosey videotapes.  The resulting movies, forward or backward, are pretty cool.  And I especially love the way the boys have been playing with each other while working on these.  This afternoon, none of the boys were 100% done with school or practicing, but they were having such fun playing together in the playroom, that I could not bear to tear the away from it and so I let them blow off the rest of the day of school (only an hour or so) and I lay down for a nap.  This is the life!

3.  I introduced the boys to "Chin-man," and it has been a huge hit!  Chin-man comes to visit when you draw an eyes and nose upside down on your chin, and then lay down so that other people can see you upside down.  When you start talking, and your brain sees the drawn-on face on the chin, with this huge mouth beneath, it is so, so, SO funny.  I remember a friend of mine doing that in college, and I laughed harder than I think I have ever laughed in my whole life.  So we've spent more than a few minutes drawing faces on each other's chins and taking turns dying of laughter.  :-)  Mosey took some pictures, so I'll have to have him upload them tomorrow.

seminary

Phew!  Another week done with seminary.  I got fractionally more sleep this week than I have the other weeks I have taught, so maybe I'm getting better?  The trouble is that I seem only to be inspired with good ideas after midnight...  I can do all the reading, and all the preparation I can do early in the day, but it isn't until it is late at night that I seem to finally crystallize upon what exactly I am going to teach.
This week was OK.  My lessons never go as well as I envision, but I guess that's life.

I can say that I get really frustrated with the King James Version of the bible that we use in our church.  I really love many things about it, but the language is just so inaccessible to modern ears!  My students are smart kids, and they can figure out what is being said, but, and this is definitely true for me as well, so much mental energy is being spent on deciphering the wording, that there is little mental energy left for really absorbing what is being said, or for eliciting much of an emotional response.  It's too bad!  I spend too much time translating what is being said in a particular passage, that there isn't enough time left for really discussing doctrinal issues which really is the point of the scriptures anyway, isn't it?  But how can you understand the doctrinal issues and how the Bible helps us to understand the Gospel, if these kids don't actually read from and really understand the text?

I have a well-worn copy of the NIV study bible, and I really, really love it.  I use it in our personal family scripture study and for the purposes of making the bible accessible, understandable, and interesting to my kids, it is about 1,000% better than the KJV.  The KJV is dry, difficult language.  Some books are much better than others, but too much of it is (in my opinion) frankly boring to read.  Or just plain opaque.  It is not easy to really feel the spirit and connect emotionally to the characters in the bible when you are struggling to stay awake reading it, or else are so bogged down in the language that you are merely reading words and not absorbing any of the content.

I have whined to Ben about this ad nauseum over the past few weeks as I've tried to help these kids connect with the KJV, and really feel the power in the stories.  If only I could use my NIV bible!!  My students would get SO much more out of it, and I bet their enthusiasm for reading the scriptures (and the spiritual benefits therefrom) would increase tremendously.

If I had the ear of one of the general authorities, this would be my #1 issue I'd love to discuss with him, no doubt.  But, I'll keep try, try, and trying again.

phone pictures

I don't take many pictures with my phone, because I think the camera function kind of sucks, but here are a few that I uploaded recently.  No edits on these, just a look into our daily lives, and some of the pictures my kids feel are worth taking (most of them are taken by the boys).

Mosey bunny-ears me while I'm checking his math. 

 Industrious Mosey working on science.

 I don't know what was going on here!

Cute kitty in the closet. 

 Two cute kitties.

 Joseph will probably make me take these down.  This was a couple of days before his last haircut-- it was desperately needed as you can see.  I somehow managed to convince him to let me put it into a pigtail.  He kept it in for about as long as it took me to take these pictures!

 Cat lady.  These two cats are the snuggliest, most affectionate cats ever.  They like to hang out like this all the time.  A couple minutes after this was taken, Luna (on my lap), climbed up to put her front paws around my neck, and I had two cats hugging me for the rest of Joseph's piano practicing.

 If you look carefully, that is Brigham way up in the crook of the tree about 30 feet in the air!
He climbs up barefoot, pulling himself up by small branches until he gets to the larger limbs.

02/18/2013

Mosey was up at 5:50 AM doing schoolwork and practicing.  However, by 11:30, he was GRUMPY.  Seriously grumpy.  Didn't want to get ready for tae kwon do, and I ended up banning him from computer games and airsoft for the rest of the week as he continued to ignore me, and then finally wouldn't go into TKD at all.  We were late, because he wouldn't get ready, and when we got there, he walked up to the door, then ran back to the car and said, "I can't go in!  They'll kill me because I'm late!"  So, we went home, and the consequence for not going to TKD (no airsoft and computer games for the rest of the week) kicked in.  He was very, very sad.  And yet, I gave him a lot of chances, and he knew what the consequences would be...
The one thing my kids do that probably drives me the most crazy, is ignoring me when I talk to them.  This is worst when I don't know where they are, because then I have to go searching, which isn't so easy especially when they are outside.  I'd rather them come and tell me why they are not going to do what I asked them, than have them ignore me...  So I get kind of crazy kind of fast when they are ignoring me.
But, now I'm feeling like my consequences are pretty draconian.  He's been asking what he can do to earn airsoft rights back by this weekend.  Should I let him earn it back?  I probably will, I guess, but it's not going to be easy.
Anyway, he fell asleep on my bed again this afternoon by 3:00.  He didn't have a fever, so maybe he's just tired from getting up too early, or maybe he is still fighting some residual whatever from last week.  I don't know.  Is it fair for me to hold him to consequences he earned when he may have been sick?

OK, off to bed now, seminary bright and early (well, early anyway).

02/17/2013

1.  Mosey was sick on Friday.  That kid is the king of 12-hour illnesses.  This one was more like 8 hours.  He woke up just fine, bright and early, got some schoolwork done, ate breakfast, but around 10:00 AM he sprawled out on my bed and fell dead asleep.  He never ever does this unless he is sick.  Sure enough he had a fever and slept about 4 hours before waking up, taking some tylenol, and spending the rest of the afternoon on the couch watching Mythbuster episodes.  But by evening, he was totally fine, and has been ever since.  Weird!

2.  I totally failed Valentine's day this year.  I didn't do a SINGLE FUN THING for my boys the entire day. I didn't even buy any Valentine's candy.  I stink.  Ben came home a little early and we went to eat at How Do You Roll while the boys stayed home and ate leftovers and watched 24.

3.  Here are some of the mnemonics I've come up with for scripture mastery verses.  They are pretty awesome, but it has taken me hours and hours and hours.

02/13/2013

1.  I'm working on a big project for seminary-- coming up with mnemonics and pictures for all the scripture mastery verses.  I think they'll be pretty great when I'm done, but it is taking me a long time.  I was up till 3 AM working on them Monday night/Tuesday morning, and have been paying for it since.

2.  School's going OK for the boys.  Mosey's been good about getting up early and blowing through his lessons!  Yay for him!  (Except for Monday when I woke him up 1/2 an hour late and he was MAD.  I went into his room an hour later, and he was laying on his bed, not having done anything, extremely indignant that I had messed up his entire schedule by waking him up late.  It was a tough morning, but at least we got to talk about cutting your losses, and not making a bad situation worse, and taking responsibility for your own actions and a lot of other things that nine year olds really like to hear lectures about from their moms...) Brigham and Joseph are working on a research report and it is causing much struggle and strife.  Who knew that writing notecards could cause such existential angst in preteen boys?  They've both struggled in different ways.  Joseph hates being constrained in these sorts of assignments, having to write on a certain topic, having to organize things and write notes and outlines an rough drafts in particular ways.  I try to give him a lot of flexibility, but there are some things that really just need to be done a certain way.  They're writing a compare/contrast essay on three different aspects of two different cultures we've studied so far this year (China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Russia, and India).  So there is a fair bit of choice!!  They can choose any three topics, and any two countries.  But Joseph doesn't want to do that.  He wants to compare and contrast animals or military machinery, or really anything but the topic assigned.  And he hates writing note cards.  I know it's a pain, and this is a short essay, and he could easily write his notes on a sheet of paper and it would be easy enough to organize, but I keep telling him that's not what this assignment is even about!  It's not really about comparing and contrasting two cultures, but it's mostly about learning these writing/organizational skills that will be necessary for much longer, more involved papers later on...  And Brigham just wants to get it done fast.  Which is great, but it means he doesn't pay close attention to instructions, and so when he writes his notecards, they are not done right and I make him do them over again and honestly, I may as well be pulling out his toenails one at a time.  Oh well, we will get through this, right?

3.  On the other hand, my boys are pretty delightful, too.  They learned how to make hexaflexagons last week (do a google search-- they are fun!), and have been making them and coming up with games using them.  They all three work together coming up with rules for the games, making the hexaflexagons, and decorating them, and it's wonderful.  Why can't they get along like that all the time?  :-)

4.  Here is a flag that Brigham designed.  It is the flag the boys are going to use for the "forest" next to our house.  He's getting good at Photoshop!  I should look into graphic design classes for kids.

Why are cats SO CUTE??

(It's hard to tell here, but Sandy is licking the cats.  They really like each other.) 

02/10/2013 Family letter

Hi Family,
Another week of seminary done!
I'm feeling slightly more confident, but still haven't managed to get anywhere near enough sleep during seminary weeks.  
We had a good week.  The weather has been beautiful-- 70's every day, and a little bit of rain over the past couple of days.  Can I say again for the 400th time, I love winter in Austin?  Mosey turned over a new leaf after having a very rough day on Monday in which he did not finish his schoolwork until well after 8:00 at night.  He made himself a schedule, got up at 5:50 every day, and finished his schoolwork by lunchtime most of the rest of the week!  He wants me to wake him up at 5:50 for this week as well, which is going to be a little more painful since it is my off-week for seminary.
Let's see, what else of note this week?


1.  Mosey shocked his piano teacher this week when he came inside in the middle of Joseph's lesson holding a big fat lizard by the tail and asking her if she had a tupperware he could put it in.  I was off picking Brigham up from violin lessons and missed the whole thing.  Marti Dudgeon has 30 years of teaching experience, but no children of her own, and so this was a first for her.  :-)  She is so sweet, though, and managed to keep her cool and fetch him a tupperware to use as a temporary critter-catcher.

2.  Along reptile-lines, Joseph also caught a big garter snake in the backyard on Monday or Tuesday, and kept it in a tall kitchen garbage can for a couple of days.  This snake was not happy about being caught, and tried to strike at anyone who got too close, so we didn't keep it for long.

3.  On Thursday I had my final Cub Scout-related meeting as the new leaders and the old leaders got together to pass the baton.  I have really mixed feelings about it.  Teaching seminary is definitely ENOUGH for me right now!  But I do love those boys so much, and I had such a good time observing my boy interacting with the others (for better or for worse).  I've questioned the church's involvement in scouts before (ironically my biggest complaint has been the fact that in the Church, people don't volunteer for the scouting positions, but instead are called-- theoretically this shouldn't make a difference in the attitude and effort that people put into the calling-- if they volunteered or were called, but the reality is that it does matter, and I think outside the Church some scouting programs are probably a lot better because there is more enthusiasm and energy on the part of the leaders and the boys), but even if the church wasn't involved in scouts, there would be another little-boys' program they would be doing, like Activity Days for girls, so it may as well be scouting.  I'd hate to have to decide between a church program for boys and Scouting.  Some of the requirements are a little silly, but the boys have fun, and I had fun with them, and I felt like there were lots of opportunities for really teaching these little boys.  I have really enjoyed this calling!  It hasn't been particularly time-intensive, and it's a calling with a lot of freedom to really make it your own.  Mostly, I've just loved the boys.  So here is where my insecurity kicks in big time.  I have loved this calling, and I thought I was doing a pretty good job.  I thought the boys liked me and generally liked coming to scouts.  And yet, it has taken literally months for the ward to find two people to accept the calling of Den Leader.  I was so sad to be made aware of the negativity toward Cub Scouts in our ward.  I know it's perfectly ridiculous to take this sort of thing personally, but I can't help but wonder, did I do something wrong?  Has everything I've done over this past year really been so meaningless that other people see no value in taking the reigns?  I know it's silly to think this way.  It probably has nothing at all to do with me.  But I can't help but tell myself that if I had been a better Den Leader, other people would be able to see the good in it, too.  It has been a little stab in the heart every time Ben told me another person turned down the calling (he never told me who they were, and I wouldn't want to know), or I heard another person say how much they did not want to be called into scouting... :-(  Anyway, the meeting on Thursday was sort of a low point for me as I processed all of this.  I felt like crying.  I guess all I can do at this point is move on, try not to feel too bad, and pray for the new leaders and pray for the boys, so that is what I am doing!

4.  Brigham is getting really good at math.  His problems are getting challenging even to me sometimes!  He worked on one problem on Wednesday that took more than 45 minutes, and resulted in my great big white board easel just covered in calculations.  I had to leave that up for a couple of days just so he could admire his handiwork.  

5.  On Friday my boys invited a bunch of other boys over for an airsoft war.  Mosey got a new gun this week, one he bought with his own money and was quite expensive.  It is fully-automatic and higher-powered than the other guns we have.  He was so excited to use it in the airsoft war.  It ended somewhat disastrously, though, when he lost his temper and kept shooting Joseph and another boy at point-blank range when they were trying to surrender.  Mosey's gun has been confiscated, he spent most of the rest of the evening in his room, and had to endure a *lot* of lecturing by his mom.  I think he is embarrassed by it now.  I hope he is.  Joseph is worried no one will want to come and play again.  I don't think that will be an issue, but it was a bad situation and I was very embarrassed.  Mosey is only just 9 years old.  It's easy to forget he isn't the same age as his brothers.  I probably shouldn't have let him get that gun in the first place.  
After I sent him to his room, I heard him crying and carrying on, "Why did I get that gun??  Why, why?  That gun is cursed!  I've only gotten in trouble since I got the gun!  Why did I get it?"  So I went in and talked to him about personal responsibility and self control and all that good stuff.
The trouble is that Brigham and Joseph, being older, are better at airsoft than he is.  He gets frustrated and loses his temper, and gets in trouble.  He wanted a better gun in part so he could be more competitive against Brigham and Joseph.  So when he still found himself at a disadvantage, even with his better gun, it was more than he could stand and he lost it.  
When he gets upset, though, a lot of other stuff tends to come to light.  As he was crying and carrying on, he said, "Why do Brigham and Joseph get to be twins?  It's not fair!  Why don't I get to be a twin?!"  That made me feel sad.  I hadn't realized he feels left out, especially since Brigham and Joseph hardly ever band against him-- Mosey and Joseph sometimes seem to have more in common that Brigham and Joseph.  But those feelings are there, nonetheless.  Poor boy.

6.  Oh yeah, one more thing!  The CEO at Ben's company retired this week!  Ben did NOT see that coming and called me in shock on Tuesday or Wednesday (whenever it was) when he found out.  I'm really optimistic about what this means for the company (and for Ben).    

I think that's it for tonight.  I hope everyone has a great week coming up!

Love,

Gabrielle

02/02/2013

1.  Happy Birthday Abraham!

2.  Fairly productive day today.  Did some seminary lesson prep, went with Ben to pick up a Craigslist patio table and chairs.  Helped set up table and chairs and supervised backyard cleanup.  Made lunch.  Updated the boys' bank balances.  Did a massive Walmart run with Brigham.  He is a good sport and a good helper.  Put away all the Walmart stuff (including about 20 boxes of incandescent light bulbs-- I cannot stand what my boys call Obama bulbs :-) and I'm trying to stockpile incandescents while I can).  Made dinner while watching "Lost."  Cleaned up from dinner and did the dishes.  Straightened up house and checked email.  And now it is 11:56 and time for bed!

3.  Joseph got out his flute this afternoon after Mosey asked him if he could look at it.  He hasn't been taking lessons for the past six months and I'm not even sure he has taken it out of its case since we moved into this house.  But he got it out and started playing, and surprised himself by being able to play some notes better than he could 6 months ago!  He wants to start up lessons again.  This makes me so happy, although I'm not sure about fitting in another lesson in our busy schedule.  I'm going to try to find someone who can come to our house.

02/01/2013

1.  This afternoon Ben pushed me out into the "forest" next to our house.  It's really only several acres of undeveloped land, but it is also little-boy-paradise.  Joseph has been wanting to show me all the places he has discovered, and it was nice of Ben to help me get out there.  It really is very cool!  Some of it is covered in pretty dense cedar, but there are deer trails that wind in and around most of it.  There are also several open clearings and some old shed/outbuildings where the boys have found all kinds of things including a box full of old letters from the 1940s.  So interesting!  

2.  I made the boys pick up the house this evening.  Just what they were hoping to do on a Friday night.  :-)  But it sure feels good to start the weekend with things in good order!

3.  We are in the middle of a unit on India in our Sonlight curriculum this year, and have been watching a series of videos about life in rural India.  It has been eye-opening for me, and even more so for the boys.  Mosey I think in particular has been struck by the vast disparity in the human experience, even in the 21st century.  It is hard to know what to make of our extreme good fortune in the face of such hardship for billions of other people on the earth.  These things are almost impossible for me to understand, let alone explain to my children.

4.  I will leave with some pictures from today.

Ben with the twins, trying to set up Joseph's animal trap.  He's had it out in the forest a couple of times, but hasn't caught anything yet.

Brigham is the Kapla block master.  Those are some serious engineering skills!

 Joseph in the forest with Sandy.

 At the top of the road that goes up into the forest-- it dead-ends at a driveway to a large house.  I think their main driveway is actually on the other side of their property, though, since no one drives up the road and they keep the gate padlocked.  Mosey likes to call it the "mansion."

Mosey agreed to pose for a few pictures:

 The kitties are sure growing!
 It is especially fun to see them with Sandy.  Sandy and Sola love to play.
Here, Sandy senses something fishy in the box, and comes over to investigate.

Sure enough, there's something in there!

I'm not sure who "got" whom, but it was a fun game for both of them, and they played Jack-in-the-box for several minutes while we watched.