Through My Eyes

02/20/12

2012-02-20T22:23:00.000-06:00

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

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

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

02/19/12

2012-02-20T22:02:00.000-06:00

Three things for Sunday

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

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

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

02/18/12

2012-02-19T00:54:00.000-06:00

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

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

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

02/17/12

2012-02-17T23:35:00.000-06:00

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

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

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

02/16/12

2012-02-16T23:20:00.000-06:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

02/15/12

2012-02-16T01:13:00.001-06:00

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

02/14/12

2012-02-14T22:53:00.001-06:00

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

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

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

02/13/13

2012-02-13T21:30:00.002-06:00

1. I hate Mondays.

2. My kids hate Mondays.

3. I am very glad this Monday is over.

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

Weekly letter for February 12

2012-02-12T23:16:00.000-06:00

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

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

Love,
Gabrielle

02/12/12

2012-02-12T23:13:00.000-06:00

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

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

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

02/11/12

2012-02-12T02:44:00.000-06:00

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

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

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

02/10/12

2012-02-10T23:51:00.000-06:00

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

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

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

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

02/09/12

2012-02-10T00:51:00.001-06:00

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

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

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

02/08/12

2012-02-08T23:26:00.001-06:00

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

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

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

02/07/12

2012-02-07T22:50:00.000-06:00

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

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

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

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

02/06/12

2012-02-06T22:55:00.001-06:00

Here are some pictures:

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

From a couple of weeks ago:

Brigham and Sandy taking a break after doing some yardwork.

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

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

"Squirrel! Squirrel!"

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

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

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

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

Sunday night letter

2012-02-05T23:58:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone,
Happy Birthday to everyone who had birthdays, especially to brand-new baby Jane! What a great 2 weeks these last two have been for birthdays! And a few more to go before this birthday season is over.

Thoughts from the week:

1. Our new practicing-done-by-11:00 is going pretty well. 3 out of the 4 days were a success. I still need to work on helping some of my boys stay focused on schoolwork while I'm occupied with practicing. I will find one boy in particular (Brigham) sitting in the playroom building something with blocks, and I'll ask him what he's doing. "I'm waiting for you to do (math/science/writing/spelling) with me!" Meanwhile there were about 5 other things he could have been working on by himself! This is very frustrating, because by the end of the school day, he's usually the one who hasn't finished everything. Then there are tears and, "I could have already been done if only____" (insert whatever excuse you like, as long as it isn't the fact that he thought it a better use of his time to play with blocks than to get his schoolwork done). Not that I mind if he takes breaks and plays during the day-- I only mind when it's somehow someone else's fault that he didn't get his schoolwork done!

2. I'm still torn about Joseph's flute teacher. I think Joseph is doing well on flute, although it's hard for me to tell not having any basis for comparison. But Joseph is not excited to go to his lessons. I've tried to tease out what his issues are. Joseph thinks the lessons are too long. He wishes his teacher wouldn't make him practice, but would just give him his assignments. He still has some problems understanding everything because of his accent. But, after his lessons, especially if it was a good one, Joseph is happy. I ask him if he still wants to change teachers and he'll say, "I don't know, maybe not." So, writing this out, it seems like we should try a new teacher. If this one is not inspiring Joseph, then he needs a new teacher! However, Joseph often will be reluctant about things before he goes (Tae Kwon Do was a good example of this), but while he's there and afterwards, he has a good time and is glad he went. There was nothing wrong with TKD, just his attitude about it. So, will it be exactly the same with a new teacher? Secondly, I feel really guilty dropping his current teacher. He's a brand-new PhD graduate, trying to start up his teaching studio. I know he doesn't have many students-- maybe only 2 or 3. If Joseph drops out, that's a pretty big blow. Also, I know Francois really likes Joseph, thinks he his doing well, and is excited to keep teaching him. I have no idea what I would even say to him if I were to switch teachers. I hate confrontation, and I really hate disappointing people. Advice??

3. Mosey started speech again this week. He's not that excited about it. Is it worth keeping him in? It's a long drive down to UT, and especially complicated because now that we have scouts on Tuesday afternoons, the only time we could squeeze him in was right during Joseph's flute lesson on Mondays. So we drive down to UT, drop Mosey off, rush over to Joseph's flute teacher (about 10 minutes away), I drive back to speech to pick up Mosey when he's done with his session, rush back to flute to get Joseph. It's a lot of rushing around. But I do think that he is learning some valuable skills there. Advice??

4. Joseph is really good at archery! We went again on Saturday morning, but missed the beginners session because it filled up before we got there. The class starts at 8:00, we were there at 7:45, but the class was full by 7:30! I was dismayed because Joseph had been talking about archery ALL week, and was up really early getting ready to go. But the teacher told him he could go to the intermediate class if there was room. So we went and got breakfast at McDonalds, and then waited for the intermediate session at 9:00. Joseph held his own and did amazingly well. Toward the end of class, the teacher has the kids pin small balloons (water balloon size) to the targets. Last week, Joseph didn't hit any of his balloons, but I think only 1 or maybe 2 kids did. This week, he hit 2 balloons, on his 1st and 2nd try. How fun for him to hit on something he happens to be really good at!

5. I posted this on my blog, but I'll write it here, too. Brigham has perfect pitch! On Tuesday morning I was practicing the piano with Mosey, and Brigham called out from the living room, "Play a note and let me guess what it is!" So we did, and he guessed it right! I thought he was showing some sort of trick-- how he could see the piano from the mirror in the living room, or something, but he wasn't. We tested him on note after note, and he got every single one right! I've known a couple of people who could do that, but it still seems almost magical to me. I ask him how he does it, and the only thing he can say is that the notes just "sound" like what they are. I read a bit about perfect pitch (absolute pitch, technically) on Wikipedia (the source of all knowledge :-)), and it said that for people who have this ability, the sound of notes is as identifiable to them as colors are to the rest of us. Just as blue just looks like blue to us (how else would you describe it?), a G# just sounds like a G# to them! It's a neat trick, anyway. I told him he's in good company with Mozart and Beethoven, who both also apparently had perfect pitch. :-)

6. I am starting a new diet. I've been eating a vegan diet for 7 months, and can't say I've felt or noticed any change in my health. I'm not sure I should after only 7 months, but there it is. But over the past 2 weeks, two different people have asked me about a new diet developed by Dr. Terry Wahls who also has MS. She had a similarly steep progression like I did, and was wheelchair bound within 3 years of her diagnosis. In fact, she was reliant upon a motorized "zero-G" wheelchair which tilted back into a neutral position. After exhausting all the medications and being told there was nothing else to be done, she did a lot of research (she's a physician) and started a very strict dietary regimen along with elecromuscular stimulation therapy. Within a year she was out of the wheelchair, biking to work 6 miles every day. She's currently conducting a clinical trial using this dietary intervention approach. It's a bit more stringent than the vegan diet in that it restricts refined sugar and gluten-containing grains, but shouldn't be too huge of a stretch from what I've already been doing. Her guidelines are to eat 3 cups of leafy green vegetables, 3 cups of other colorful, non-starchy vegetables, and 3 cups of fruit before eating anything else, and going dairy, egg, and gluten free. There's some pretty reasonable medical rationale behind it, so I figure I will give it a try for a few months and see what happens. I don't mind trying dietary stuff as long as it's not blatantly dangerous. What have I got to lose? So wish me luck! Going sugar-free will be the hardest part. Someone dropped off a bunch of cake-balls tonight and that was a bit difficult. :-)

Well, that's it for this week. No pictures today. Have a great week everyone!

Love,
Gabrielle

02/05/12

2012-02-05T23:52:00.000-06:00

1. Today was my last day teaching my primary class. :-( I'll miss that calling. A lot of people were gone-- I guess school's out for most people the next 2 days, so they must have gone out of town for the long weekend. There were only 4 boys in my class. They loved the lesson because at the end of it we got out the paper airplane book and they got to make paper airplanes for the last 10 minutes of class. Hopefully they will at least remember what the lesson was about. :-)

2. After church I was laying on the couch, and Mosey came to snuggle next to me. We were under a blanket when suddenly Sandy pokes her wet, snuffly, whiskery nose, followed by her entire head under the blanket to sniff around and lick us and find out what the party was all about. She then quickly jumped up onto the couch, figuring that she could join in the snuggling! Mosey thought it was about the funniest thing ever, and it was pretty funny. Sandy is a good dog, although she has been sneaking into my room and eating the cat food. Naughty, naughty!

3. I made waffles for dinner with my restaurant waffle maker (the kind you flip over). My friend Melissa gave me this idea and it just might become a Sunday night tradition for us as well. Of course, now we don't have leftovers for tomorrow night...

02/04/12

2012-02-05T23:45:00.000-06:00

1. Joseph and Mosey went to archery in the morning (Mosey wanted to try it out). We missed the beginning session even though we were there by 7:45 and the class didn't start until 8:00! Apparently it filled up by 7:30. But the instructor told use we could come back for the intermediate class at 9:00. Mosey had fun, and Joseph did amazingly great! In his teacher's words, "He kicked butt." He easily held his own with the other intermediate students. He hit two balloons (small water-balloon sized) with his 1st and 2nd arrows. I don't think any of the other kids were able to do that.

2. I didn't do too much else during the day. Took a nap, did some laundry (not enough).

3. In the evening Ben and I went to a housewarming party for a coworker of Ben's. We only stayed a few minutes. It was a bit awkward for me-- no place to sit (new house, not enough furniture, lots of people), I didn't know anyone, and Ben went immediately on the house tour, which I couldn't do because most of it was upstairs! Oh well, at least they had a cute dog which spurred a conversation on dogs in general. We ended with a trip to the grocery store for our very exciting date night which had been interrupted about 3 times with phone calls from the boys about arguments over who has the right to "reserve" a book the other wants to read and other fun parenting stuff that I love so much. :-) When we got home, Mosey was still up, feeling sad. He said, "I feel like I didn't get to do anything today." Well, he did go to archery in the morning, and declined to go to horseback riding with Brigham, but I felt guilty because I hadn't really engaged with him much all day. So I let him stay up for a rousing game of Qwirkle until 11:00 PM. TOO LATE for my boy!

02/03/12

2012-02-03T22:47:00.000-06:00

1. Day 4 of hives for poor Mosey. He's been living on Benadryl. I'm amazed he can still function during the day! It's weird--the hives migrate around his body. They're a little better on his arms, but worse on his face today. Poor boy.

2. We went to eat dinner with some friends tonight. They have 3 little kids (and another on the way). Their 5 year old and 3 year old sons are learning the violin and are so cute. They have 1/10 size and 1/32 size violins!! They look like these itty bitty toys. After dinner we had an informal concert. The boys all played something on their instruments. It was a good, low-pressure opportunity for them to perform, which I think is important to keep them motivated. I thought about bringing my violin, but I don't have anything that's performance-ready, and honestly, it can be discouraging for me to play the violin and be confronted with my loss of ability as I've lost sensation and dexterity in my fingers due to MS. My fingers only started to be affected a few months (maybe even just weeks) before my transplant. I often wonder how things might have been if only I had been able to have my transplant 4 or 5 months earlier. I would be walking, that's for sure, even if a bit haltingly. My fingers would have remained untouched. But, there's not much point in going down that path of thinking. I'm just glad I had the opportunity when I did. I hate to think about what would have happened if I hadn't been able to go through with it.

3. I kept my no-yelling (in anger) resolution today. Progress! But that doesn't mean I haven't had other moments of self-recrimination when I recognize that I could have handled one situation or another better. In our school lessons, I teach with a heavy use of the Socratic method. I think it's so important because right now the most important thing is not *what* the boys learn (although that is important), but how they're learning, and the skills they are developing along the way (especially analytical thinking and writing). I think I sometimes drive Brigham to distraction because when I correct his work, I rarely tell him exactly what's wrong and how to fix it, but ask him questions hoping to lead him to the right answer on his own. When writing down answers to questions, or showing his work in math, he frequently says, "It's obvious what I mean, mom!" But its important to be clear and systematic, even when things *do* seem obvious (to him). Clear thinking, good writing, and showing your work in math are the most important skills I can teach them this year. But I'm questioning my methods a little. I think I need to be more responsive to Brigham's frustration level. Today he was writing an answer to the question, "How do electromagnets make high-speed trains go so fast?" (or something like that). He wrote, "The magnets make the train not have friction so it can go fast." Well, this is true, but it's not the full answer. To be really clear, he needed to write, "The electromagnets on the track and the bottom of the train repel each other, causing the train to levitate which eliminates friction between the train and the track." He kept *almost* getting the answer. He got to, "The electromagnets make the train levitate so it can go faster." This is also true, but still doesn't explain why the train levitates (the electromagnets repel each other), or why it goes faster (friction is eliminated). So I would ask him, "OK, so how do the electromagnets make the train levitate? How are they interacting?" I knew he knew the answer, I just wanted him to say that the magnets repel each other. But I could not nudge him to the final step, even though I knew he knew it. He ended up almost in tears, and definitely really mad at me. So, that was a fail on my part in helping him in science today. I should simply have asked him, "Can you explain to me why it is that the magnets make the train not have friction-- being sure to use the words repel, levitate, and friction?" He probably would have gotten it then. Oh well, I think I'm slooowly learning at least. I'll do better next time. Hopefully he will forgive me for driving him crazy.

02/02/2012

2012-02-02T23:52:00.000-06:00

1. Today is my brother's birthday. Happy Birthday, Abraham! I was 12 when he was born and he was "my baby" for the first few years of his life. He and I were joined at the hip (almost literally) for most of my junior high years. In fact, Abraham sat on my lap for my 8th grade graduation portrait. I'm not sure what the photographer thought about that, but baby Abraham was a huge part of my life. And now he's all grown up and still just as wonderful.


I was such a good big sister :-)

2. I didn't raise my voice in anger even once today. God must have been testing me because I think all my boys woke up on the wrong side of the bed. By 10:45, enough doors had been slammed, mean names called, and tears shed that I ordered everybody to get in the car. We drove around for a while and I lectured (in the nicest possible way) about the importance of being each others' best friends. Then I got everyone a treat. Slushes at Sonic for Joseph and Mosey, and an apple fritter from Crown Donut for Brigham. I told them that if they got the idea that every time they fought and yelled and slammed doors I would take them out for a treat, they would be sadly, sadly mistaken. :-) Everyone was in a much better mood for the rest of the day, however. Except for Mosey. See #3.

3. Mosey's hives are still making him miserable. Could account for his behavior today. :-) We had our art group in the afternoon, and he didn't want to go. And then he got mad at one of his brothers while we were doing science, and stormed out the front door. By the time we had to leave for art, he still wasn't back. So we got in the car and I drove around our neighborhood until we spied him walking up Pencewood. I drove up beside him and he started running. All I wanted to do was talk to him! So drove ahead a little, and then pulled over. Well, the little stinker turned around and started running back down the street. Brigham and Joseph jumped out of the van and ran after him, eventually catching up with him on the front lawn of the corner house of Weller and Pencewood. There ensued an epic wrestling match-- two ten year olds versus one eight year old. He beat them both off! He ran back up the street, Joseph and Brigham piled back in the car and I drove up next to him, rolled down the passenger side window to talk to him as he was running pell mell up the road. Finally I convinced him to get in the car. He had to come with us to art, but he didn't have to come into the Eckholdt's house. I figured it was because he was self-conscious about his hives, although he wouldn't admit that. Sure enough, when we got to the Eckholdt's for art, he wouldn't come into the house. I waited for a while, thinking he might wander in when he got bored in the house, but after 20 minutes, he was still out there. So I went back out to the car and finally talked him into coming into the house and hiding in the front room and reading a book while the other kids did art. This he did, and soon, as I hoped, he went out to the living room and joined the rest of the kids. And no one said anything mean about his hives. After we got back home, he was just as vehement that he wasn't going to cello lessons. But I think he knew he wasn't really going to be allowed to skip cello, and after a few minutes he grudgingly got into the car. He ended up having a great lesson. Afterward, he hopped into the car and said, "That was FUN, mom!" He has a good teacher-- she is so positive with him. On the way home, Mosey said, "Having hives wasn't as embarrassing as I thought it would be." So that was it after all. :-) He also said, "It's funny because before I went to cello, I really didn't want to go, but once I was there I liked it and now I'm really glad I went!" Isn't that how so much of life is?

02/01/2012

2012-02-01T23:58:00.000-06:00

1. The poison ivy I thought Mosey had yesterday is not poison ivy, but a bad case of hives. He was covered this morning-- legs, arms, neck, belly, face. I took him to the doctor who told us that 80% of the time cases of hives like this are due to a virus. Mosey was running a low-grade fever, so I'm sure that's it. Poor guy has been dosed up on Benadryl all day. That's the only medication that will help and the doctor says it could take 1-6 weeks for the hives to clear up! Poor guy.

2. I wonder if the barking shock collars they make for dogs would work for humans? I'm really trying to break my yelling habit. I admit, I am a yeller. My voice rises with my frustration. I like to think my boys know how much I love and adore them, even when I yell, and I really do think they do, but it's an ugly habit I'd like to break. It makes me feel horrible to think there is ever any time at all, even for a moment, when my boys doubt my complete devotion to them.

3. Mosey came out of his bedroom at around 10:00 tonight and asked if he could come down and sleep in my bed. I told him no, he has to sleep in his bed, I'm not going to bed yet, he needs to sleep, blah, blah, blah. I told him to lay in his bed and close his eyes and be as still as he can and then he'll be able to sleep. Well, he burst into tears and said, "I try that, and it never, ever works!" and then flung himself into his room and locked his door behind him. Melodramatic, yes, but still, those tears were like a fist clenching around my heart. My little boy just wanted to sleep next to his mom on a night when he isn't feeling well. How much longer will he even want to do that? And the truth is, I LIKE cuddling next to my boys. Mosey slept in our bed for a ridiculously long time because I wasn't motivated to get him sleeping in his own room. I love the feeling of that little body still turning to me for comfort. Whenever he asks to sleep in my room, I secretly want to tell him yes, but I feel like I have to tell him no, I have to establish boundaries, etc., etc., whatever. So tonight, after I thought about it a second, I realized how dumb it was not to allow him to come down. For one more night, at least, I'll have my baby to snuggle with.

1/31/2012

2012-01-31T23:41:00.000-06:00

1. Our practicing schedule worked this morning! All practicing was done by 10:58 AM. And 2 of the 3 boys were all done with their schoolwork by 3:30 PM. Another boy took until 4:30, and is still not quite caught up... but we're working on that. This boy has a tendency to daydream and to wander into the playroom to play with blocks when he probably ought to be doing his lessons. :-)

2. Mosey has poison ivy. We can't figure out how he got it! It just cropped up today, so he must have been exposed sometime in the last week or so. No one else has it, and I can't think of where he's been recently where he could have been climbing trees or walking through undergrowth. It's all over his legs and arms and neck and belly. Poor boy. He soaked in an oatmeal bath for 45 minutes before dinner, but he was scratching again before bedtime. We may end up going to the doctor for steroid ointment.

3. We went to the library this afternoon. We have a slippery library book. It was lost, we got charged for it, then we found it, but then it got lost again before we had a chance to return it. :-( This is one reason I don't go to the library terribly often. I always end up paying fines. I don't like to think about the number of books I could have bought with the fines we've paid for lost DVD's, lost books, late fees, etc. I'm not a responsible library card holder, I guess. :-)

01/30/12

2012-01-30T23:12:00.000-06:00

1. Brigham has perfect pitch! I was practicing the piano with Mosey, and Brigham called out from the living room, "Play a note, mom, and let me see if I can guess what it is."
He guessed every single note right. Even sharps and flats. Even high up or low down on the keyboard. At first I thought he must be seeing the reflection of the piano in a mirror or something, but he wasn't. What a neat trick!
After getting a D# right, I asked him how he did it. "I don't know, it just sounded like a D#!" :-) I'm not sure what advantage this gives to a musician, but it sure is cool. I'm hoping that Joseph and Mosey won't feel bad that they can't do this. Ben and I definitely can't!

2. To jump start the 1st day of our 2nd school semester, I introduced a new practicing schedule. The boys will rotate weekly who does piano 1st, 2nd, 3rd. When Joseph is practicing piano, Brigham has to practice violin, and vice versa. I practice with each of them on one instrument per day-- so we'll have a piano day and a flute/violin day. I will still practice with Mosey every day on piano and cello. If we can do this successfully, we can be done with practicing in 2 1/2 hours, instead of the 4+ hours it often takes. As an incentive I've told them that each day they are done with practicing by 11:00 AM, they get one point. When 20 points are accumulated, we'll do something fun like go to Dave and Busters or stay the night in a hotel somewhere. If we can just get through practicing quickly and without resistance, my quality of life will vastly increase. :-)

3. Mosey had his first day back in speech therapy for the semester. Monday afternoons are going to be a bit complicated. We'll drive down to UT to drop Mosey off by 4:00, then drive up to Joseph's flute lesson to drop him off by 4:15. Then back to UT to pick up Mosey at 4:50, and then back to flute to pick up Joseph at 5:00. Then home in lovely rush-hour traffic. Mosey wasn't too thrilled about speech, and I'm wondering if it is worth it. If he doesn't want to go, will he be getting any benefit? I guess we'll see how it goes the next couple of weeks.

Weekly letter for January 29

2012-01-30T00:53:00.000-06:00

First of all, congratulations Brigham and Christine on your new baby girl! I love the name Jane. It goes really well with Lucy, I think. It sounded like a wonderful labor and delivery and I'm so happy for all of you!

This week was dominated by the Pinewood Derby. This is the last year we have to make 3 cars. THANK GOODNESS. Mosey wasn't in scouts before this year, but last year he still *needed* to make one. :-) Anyway, 3 derby cars is a lot. They turned out really great, though. The boys did most of the body work themselves. I helped with some of the painting finishing touches, and then did the wheel prep. This is the biggest, hardest part of the process. I had the boys help me a little bit, but it's definitely not something they can do on their own at their ages. This is what bugs me about the pinewood derby. If it were just making a fun car and then racing them, that would be fine. But pinewood derby racing is its own industry now, and there are about 1000 websites dedicated to how to make a winning car. So now everyone reads those websites and wants their child's car to be competitive, so now everyone has to do it or else come in last. I don't care that much about the racing, but my boys care, and they definitely would care if they came in last. So I felt like we had to jump in whole-hog with the wheel prep thing.

For those of you not in the know about modern pinewood car racing (and I know you are all dying to know), wheel prep is a difficult, time-consuming, multi-step prices. The first step is filing off the little metal ridge where the nail head meets the shaft (the car's axles are little nails). These ridges are very small and you can only really see them with a magnifying glass (which now comes standard in wheel prep kits). You mount the nail, point side down, into a drill (where the bit normally goes), and then turn it on high while pressing a tiny metal file underneath the head of the nail. Take out the nail, inspect with the magnifying glass, and then repeat until the metal is perfectly smooth. Times 9 nails (only 3 per car since we use a 3-wheel design where only 3 of the wheels actually make contact with the track, reducing friction; the 4th wheel is just for looks).
Next, you sand down the shaft of the nails with progressively finer-grade sand paper. Again, you put the nail in the drill, and then set it on high and apply the sand paper to the nail as it spins. But it's more complicated than it sounds. First, there are 7 grades of sand paper. Yes, seven. You have to cut the sand paper in quarter-inch strips, then each strip has to soak in water for 5 minutes, then you have to mix up this pumice past and put some of that on the sand paper before sanding the nail. You sand with each grade of sand paper for 1 minute each. So each nail takes about 15-20 minutes when you add in the time it takes to get each new piece of sand-paper ready. Times by 9. This is one big benefit of the 3 wheel arrangement, or else that would be times 12. :-)
Then you have to prep the wheels themselves. First you mount the wheel onto the drill using a special attachment, and sand the bottom of the wheels, using 3 grades of sand paper. This, at least, is faster than the axle sanding. 20 seconds per paper, and no soaking or pumice. Then you take the wheel off and cut these little pieces of pipe-cleaner-type-things, apply pumice paste, insert the pipe-cleaner thing into the drill, and then drill out the inside of the wheel, where the axle goes. Again, times all of this by 9.
And THEN you have to actually mount the wheels, which is a PAIN. First you coat each nail with graphite powder. Then you put the wheels on the nail and carefully pound the nails into these tiny little grooves on the underside of the car. They have to go in perfectly straight, and perfectly level. And you can't mess up, because if you do and have to take the nails out of the grooves, the groove itself has been widened, so it won't hold the axle very tightly after that, and also you can damage the nail you so meticulously sanded. Getting the first wheel in is OK, but then it gets trickier because you can't simply lay the car down on its side and pound in the nails. Once you have on wheel in, you don't want to put any pressure or impact on that wheel, so you have to mount it on wooden blocks and very carefully pound the nails in. And then you test it out, hoping and praying that the alignment is good, because if it's not, oh well, too bad. All of this times 9.
Then you mount the fake 4th wheel by drilling a small hole above the axle groove so the fourth wheel sits at a higher level than the others.
And THEN you have to get the car weighted properly. Each car must be no more than 5 ounces (and this is exact-- 5.01 will disqualify the car). But you want it to be as close to 5 oz. as possible, because the heavier the car, the more momentum and the faster it goes. Some people drill out holes in the under side of the car, and fill them with lead weights. This is supposedly best, but too much work for me. So we use these little weights that come in strips that you can break apart into smaller segments to get exactly the right weight, using our electronic kitchen food scale. I have no idea how you are supposed to do this if you don't have an electronic food scale. :-) The weights have to be glued (don't forget about the weight of the glue!) onto the underside of the car. But you have to place the weights exactkt right-- you want the center of gravity of the car to be toward the back. There is controversy online over exactly how far back to put the weights. It's all very complex.
FINALLY, you have to get your boy to spin the wheels a whole bunch (different websites recommend an hour or more of spinning-- we didn't come close to that). But don't roll the car on the ground or actually have any fun with it before the race! You might pick up little pieces of grit that will introduce friction into the system! If you've done a good job, each wheel should spin on it's own for 20-30 seconds. We never got ours spinning more than 15 seconds, so we could never begin to be competitive in bigger races. :-)
And THAT is how you make the derby car.
If you have precision tools, it's even more involved-- drilling out new axle gooves at precisely 90 degrees and at exactly even depths. Correcting alignment issues to the tiniest fraction of inches. It's all ridiculous. 8-10 year old boys CANNOT do it. It take muscle, dexterity, hand-eye-coordination, and a huge amount of patience. So the contest becomes over which parent had the most time to prep the wheels for their kid's car. Which I think is pretty contrary to the original spirit of the pinewood derby, and a pretty ridiculous contest.
Anyway, next year we only have to make ONE CAR!!! YAY!!
The race was Thursday night. We took the entire day off school to get the cars finished (ridiculous). When we got to the church and did test runs down the track, I discovered that I had mounted the fake 4th wheel too high on two of the cars. It has to be low enough to keep the car on the track (the cars all run straddling a raised wooden track to keep it in its lane), but not so low that it comes in contact with the track. But I had put the wheels in too high on Brigham's and Mosey's. Luckily someone brought a drill and drill bits so I was able to perform quick surgery before the race. Otherwise all those hours of wheel prep would have been for nothing, and I would have been very frustrated!! As it turned out, the boys did well in the race. Brigham came in 2nd and Joseph and Mosey tied for 3rd. And there were no tears and everyone was happy, so I count that a huge success. The little boy who came in first hadn't brought any graphite (which you are supposed to apply to the wheel hubs and axles between each race using this graphite injector thingamajig-- another thing the boys can't do by themselves), so he brought his to me to be graphited between each race. I could have probably sabotaged the race for him and faked putting graphite on his wheels. And I'm sure there are some parents (not in our pack) who probably would have done that. But I didn't. :-)
So that is the very long saga of the pinewood derby and why I am so glad it is done for another year, and that next year I only have to do one!

What else happened this week?

We went to the orthodontist where we got the plan for Joseph and Brigham. Braces and headgear for the both of them (they inherited Ben's narrower lower jaw), but not for a while yet.
I had what might be my lowest of the low cooking weeks. Monday was refried beans and cheese on stale tortillas. Tuesday was Kraft macaroni and cheese. Wednesday was fish sticks from a bag. Thursday was taco bell on the way home from the pinewood derby, at 9:00 at night. Friday night was frozen pizza. And last night was peanut butter and honey sandwiches. Tonight I tried to make it up to them by making a chicken noodle casserole which they said was good.
Finished a GREAT book called "The Forgotten Garden" by Kate Morton. Highly recommended.
Joseph went to his first archery lesson on Saturday morning. He loved it and did really well! I think he's found his new thing. He wants to buy a bow and practice in our backyard, but I'm not so sure that's a great idea. :-)
I finally got a smart phone-- the Droid Razr. Mosey loves it. He's spent about 10 times more time on it than I have over the past 2 days. My feelings remained mixed for that exact reason. Something else I have to police my boys over.
I got a new church calling. I'm now a den leader for the wolves and bears. This will be fun-- it's the den Mosey is in. I will be working with another lady who is in our homeschool art group and has energy for about 10 people. But I am really sad about not getting to teach my primary class anymore. I think I'm really good at teaching that age group. They are fun and challenging, and I feel like I can really teach them. I asked Brother Chase if I could do both callings, but no dice. :-( So, back to Relief Society where I will now have to be stressed over if anyone will sit next to me. My life is hard. :-)

That's it for the night!

Have a great week everybody!

Love,
Gabrielle

Sunday's three things

2012-01-30T00:52:00.001-06:00

1. Is sweeping and mopping the floor at 1:00 AM on a Sunday morning breaking the Sabbath? I suspect it might be. I have some repenting to do. The problem is that I cannot be peaceful and relaxed when the house is a mess. And I was working ALL DAY yesterday at one thing or another (laundry, errands, finally getting to some mending), and didn't get back from the grocery store until 11:30 PM (at least I wasn't grocery shopping on the Sabbath). By the time I got the groceries put away and the living room picked up, it was almost 1:00 AM.

2. My boys are getting into the X-files. A year and a half ago or so I bought a season of X-files on Amazon (using their instant player so I didn't have to actually download all of them). They were really too scary for the boys at that point, but this weekend they started watching a couple of them and now I think they're hooked. Watching X-files on Sunday night used to be almost a ritual of mine. :-)

3. I made a good dinner for the boys and Ben tonight-- a chicken pasta casserole. I'm not sure it completely absolves me of the criminal lineup of dinners last week (after the fish sticks on Wednesday, I couldn't break my streak, and finished the week out with Taco Bell on Thursday night, frozen pizza on Friday night, and peanut butter sandwiches on Saturday night), but at least now I have leftovers for next week which ensures me at least ONE good dinner for the coming week. I'm so lucky to have un-picky, undemanding children and husband.

4. At 8:30 PM I informed the boys that it was time to start getting ready for bed. A minute later I looked over to see Joseph sitting at the table, tears falling down his cheeks. Those kind of silent tears of sadness are like a fist clenching around my heart. I finally figured out that he was sad because we hadn't really done anything fun as a family that afternoon (X-file episode notwithstanding). Ben had Elders Quorum duties, and I took a nap (see item number 1 for the reason why), then I made dinner, my visiting teachers came, and then it was time for bed. Well, I'm not having a child of mine go to bed crying because we didn't do anything fun as a family! So he and I played a rousing game of Qwirkle-- this is a fun game! I think we've found a winner for our family. The boys stayed up an hour past their bedtime, but it was worth it.

Three things from Saturday

2012-01-30T00:42:00.000-06:00

1. Joseph went to his first archery lesson Saturday morning. He really liked it and did very well for his first lesson. It starts at 8:00 AM, and you need to get there by 7:45 AM, so with morning church, that means I won't get a single day to sleep in all week. :-)

2. I got my new phone activated Saturday morning. Mosey has since figured out the whole thing and has played about 4 hours of games on it. Strict rules will be enforced starting Monday. :-)

3. I did laundry. Lots of laundry. Why do my boys not bring their laundry down until they each have at least 2 loads full?? Ah well, what else was I going to do with my day? :-)

2012-01-28T00:36:00.000-06:00

1. Watched Sherlock Holmes (from '09 I think?) with the family tonight. Our projector projects it huge onto the wall in our living room (now I'm glad I left it white). Sitting back on the couch in my pj's with my feet up is the way to watch a movie. :-) Good movie and a great soundtrack. Hans Zimmer is amazing.

2. Spent an hour and a half wandering around Target this afternoon. Only bought one thing not on my list-- pretty good for me! Target is therapy for me. :-)

3. We are now officially half-way through the school year. Finished week 18 of our 36 week school year. I think we've done pretty well, although this week lessons have been a bit lack-luster. Next week will be a good time to re-energize and maybe change the way we are doing a few things. This weekend I gotta work a few things out along those lines.

A few from the last set

2012-01-27T09:10:00.000-06:00

My baby sister is now 18! She is now older than I was when she was born. Yes, that makes me feel very old. :-)
Here are a few more last pictures of my beautiful sister.

Thursday's three things

2012-01-27T00:43:00.002-06:00

1. I let the boys have the day off school today. We spent a ridiculous amount of time getting the wheels finished and mounted for their pinewood derby cars, the house was a DISASTER after 2 days of me ignoring it, and I had to prepare my lesson for art this afternoon. So, no school and not a minute of practicing happened. And it felt great!

2. Results of the pinewood derby: Brigham and Mosey tied for 2nd, and Joseph came in 3rd. On the way there, Ben and I gave the boys a pep-talk about sportsmanship and the importance of pinewood derby results in the eternal scheme of things, etc., etc., etc. Maybe because of this, or maybe because they're growing up, there was NO crying this year, and everyone had a good time and was a very good sport. Of course the pretty good race results probably didn't hurt. :-) (Although last year a 3rd place result did not inhibit the tears.) Brigham was so cute-- he did NOT want any of the Turner boys to come in 1st because he wanted to "spread the winning around." As it was, he still felt bad that the three of them bunched up in the 2nd and 3rd spots. I liked the way the race was run this year. There were about a million heats, and in the end the results were tallied for final placement-- no quarter finals, semi finals, etc. And no mention was made of the results during the awards ceremony (every boy got a blue ribbon prize for the best something or other car). So boys who cared could look at their results, and kids who didn't just had fun racing. And the million heats made it so by the time the races were over, the boys were pretty tired and I think were more interested in the ice cream sundaes waiting for them in the kitchen than in the race results.
Its not that I'm against competition. Not at all! But the truth is that the boys most likely have little to do with how fast their cars are since it all comes down to axle polishing, wheel prep, and wheel placement, most of which has to be done by a parent. Unless there are some extremely dexterous and patient 8-year-olds out there. There aren't any 8 or 10 year olds in our house like that. I wish there would be a pinewood derby in which the competition is for design, and not speed. After all, regardless of age or manual dexterity, almost all of the boys have the ability to design the car all by themselves, and probably build most of it themselves, too. And that is far and away the most fun part of making a derby car. Polishing axles is really, really boring (I am SO glad this is the last year I have to prep wheels and axles for 3 cars! Too much work!). Sawing and sanding and painting and gluing are way more fun. After the design competition, there could be a race just for fun for boys who really like to race. As it was, the awesome firetruck car that came in last place in the races didn't get much attention. But it should have because it was a really creative and well-executed design. Anyway, the point is that the competition should revolve around the aspects of the derby car that the boys themselves are most involved in, and not depend on which kid's mom or dad was willing to spend the most time getting those wheels and axles *just right.*
(My prolific and detailed thoughts on pinewood derby racing are a direct consequence of my trying as hard as I can to avoid thinking about politics. Can someone please just wake me up next November when the whole thing is over?)

3. There were ice cream sundaes for refreshments after the races. Lot of ice cream, and bowls and bowls of candy toppings. Mosey's topping of choice: skittles. Actually pretty good with vanilla ice cream! The ice cream ends up tasting a little like creamsicle popsicles. (Did I write about Mosey's sundae he concocted on Sunday night? At his "It's Great to be Eight" fireside sundaes were also served for dessert. Mosey dished up vanilla ice cream, caramel topping, gummy bears, skittles, mini m&ms, and reeces pieces. He told me, "You have to write this down mom, because this is the BEST sundae in the world!") Joseph ended up with a great big bowl of candy, with a little bit of ice cream buried under it somewhere. Oh, my sugar-fiend boys. We bought girl scout cookies a few days ago, and have already eaten 3 1/2 boxes of them. So much for my New Year's commitments to cut back on sugar. :-)

4. OK, one more. Did anyone else see the Cheshire Cat moon tonight? The crescent moon was oriented so it's illuminated curve was sitting like a smiley face in the sky. The Cheshire Cat followed us all the way home.

three things

2012-01-26T00:56:00.000-06:00

1. My new phone came today. Mosey was so excited, he opened it right off. The boys have been begging me all day to get it set up, but I haven't had a moment. Their excitement is one reason I'm still really dubious about having a phone like this. They're obviously expecting to use it a lot and I'm afraid they will be sorely disappointed. Or that it's going to become just one more thing I have to police the kids about.

2. My van's battery died yesterday. Ben jumped it this morning, but I didn't let it run long enough and when we all piled in the car to go to piano lesson this afternoon, it wouldn't start again. So, no piano lessons for the boys today. They were sooooo disappointed. :-)

3. This has been a pathetic week for cooking. I've just had no time, and didn't plan a menu for this week, and have about run dry of grocery staples. Monday night was refried beans and cheese on mostly-stale tortillas. Last night was mac and cheese from a package. Tonight was fish sticks. And I have no idea what we'll eat tomorrow because I'm not going to have a single second to spare the entire day, until after the pinewood derby tomorrow night. I think it might be a taco bell night.

Three things for Tuesday

2012-01-24T23:21:00.001-06:00

1. Ben and I and the boys went to the orthodontist office this afternoon for a follow-up consult after the special x-rays the boys had done over Christmas vacation. Moral of the story is that both boys (Brigham and Joseph) have almost exactly the same problems with their mouths. Joseph got a spacer put in his lower teeth a couple of years ago, and were it not for that, the doctor said, their mouths are twins. Funny, since the boys those mouths belong to are also twins! :-) They'll have about 2 1/2 years of braces, including a year of head-gear. Ooh, lucky boys! But they should have perfect teeth by the time they're high school age, which is not too bad.

2. Painting camouflage is kind of hard. Brigham and Joseph are both making army tanks for their pinewood derby cars and recruited my help in painting them camo green. We didn't get to the axle preparation tonight, which means tomorrow night the boys and I will be really busy.

3. On the way to and from the dentist office, the boys were having an insult contest. I really need to video these things more often. I can remember some of them, but tomorrow I'll ask the boys to tell me their favorites and I'll write them down. These kids are such... boys!!

4. OK, here's a fourth. My little sister is so pretty. I am trying to get all her pictures finished by her birthday on Thursday. I can't choose a favorite. I love this girl so much.

That's it for the day. Now off to put the laundry in the dryer, feed the lizards and go to bed. I'm ignoring the utter disaster that is our homeschool table tonight.

Three things

2012-01-23T23:55:00.000-06:00

This school year I've asked the boys to keep a journal as part of our lineup of lessons. It's been a struggle for them at times. I've come across many an entry that reads, "I got up, ate breakfast, did my lessons, ate dinner, and hit the hay." This may be an OK exercise in handwriting, but it's not good for much else. :-) So we came up with the "three things" idea. Each day in their journals they need to write about three things that made the day before good, bad, interesting, or unique. Can I follow my own advice? Well, I'll give it a try.
Three things for Monday, January 23.
1. I over-slept until 7:45!! That put us back about an hour and a half behind schedule. Which meant we were scrambling all day to finish lessons promptly (well, I was scrambling trying to get the boys to finish lessons promptly), and were frantically finishing practicing while Ben made dinner so we could have some semblance of FHE. I don't like rushed days like today. Should I have just blown off some of our lessons? I don't know. This is a classic case of my uncertainty regarding the proper balance of pushing the boys to finish their work, teaching them the value of working quickly, being committed to fulfilling their academic responsibilities, even though no one is "keeping track" of us, and the need sometimes to be flexible and to let things go for the sake of keeping our day happy and relaxed and the learning environment of my house upbeat and positive. My instinct is always for the former, but at the end of the day I sometimes look back and feel like I ought to have leaned toward the latter. Ugh.
2. I saved us $95 by finding the lost remote control for the Acer projector Ben got for Christmas. It turns out you need the remote control to switch between various modes (that is a big pet peeve of mine-- when a remote control is necessary for some vital function). Ben needs the projector for a church activity Wednesday night (video games at the church!), and it wouldn't work without the remote control. He though he must have left it in the box and then thrown it away. This is not an unprecedented event, and it would have cost us $95 to replace the remote control-- a significant percentage of the total cost of the projector, and the same amount that it would have cost us to upgrade to a nicer projector that can project Blue Ray. Annoying to say the least. Anyway, I found it this morning!! It was still in a plastic bag along with the warranty cards and instruction DVD, tucked inside the projector's carrying case which was folded up and stuffed on top of a row of books in a little-used bookshelf. Finding something you've looked high and low for, and thought you've lost forever is a very good feeling.
3. The boys worked on their pinewood derby cars for FHE tonight. The race is on Thursday, so we're cutting it close. Mosey's is going to be a speeding bullet, and Joseph and Brigham are both making different versions of an army tank. The homeschool table is full of sand paper and paint and drill bits and scraps of cut wood and wheels and axles and who knows what else. The pinewood derby is fun for the boys, but I admit I'm looking forward to having it done for another year.

The last 2 weeks

2012-01-22T22:56:00.000-06:00

I've been wanting to write a blog post for the past few days, but I didn't want to put anything up until I wrote about Mosey's baptism, which I haven't had time to do until now. So, now for a re-cap of the past two weeks!
The highlight of the last 2 weeks was of course Mosey's baptism and my mom and dad and sister coming. My mom got me all caught up on laundry! Bless her!
We picked them up from the airport Friday afternoon, drove home, just missing rush hour, and spent a quiet evening at home, eating soup I made in the crock pot (have to show my mom I'm at least trying to be a good domestic!) and watching "Master and Commander" on the projector.
Saturday morning dawned early. I had to make 2 batches of cookies before heading up to the church for Mosey's baptism. Snickerdoodles and oatmeal raisin. Mosey loves snickerdoodles!
The baptism was wonderful, of course.
Afterward we drove to Carinos to celebrate with lunch while all of us were still dressed up. I ate too much and drank too many cherry Italian sodas. :-)
In the afternoon, Eva and I went to Burlington Coat Factory for the shopping spree I promised her for Christmas. Shopping with your sister has got to be one of life's greatest pleasures. :-)
In the evening we ate leftovers and watched "Captain America" (surprisingly good!) on the projector, after failing to procure "Sherlock Holmes" at Blockbuster.
Sunday morning was church. I love going to church with my mom, especially, because afterward everyone comments on how wonderful and beautiful she is, and I have to agree!
After church and lunch, we went to Mayfield Park to take senior portraits for Eva. She is so beautiful! I think she's the most beautiful of all the Frandsen sisters. I've only gotten through some of the pictures, but here are some I like so far. I actually love all of them and can't pick a favorite. I think you'll see why. :-)

We got to ogle at a bunch of girls all decked out for a fancy fashion shoot (I'll never understand fashion, I think, especially when it involves clothes, hair, and makeup that NO ONE would ever actually wear outside of a Halloween party. Or fashion photo shoot. :-)). The peacocks were out and gave us a great display of tail feathers.

In the evening after dinner the boys gave a music recital. Joseph played some flute duets with my mom-- so great! My mom and sister and I watched "Jane Eyre" after the boys went to bed. Girl movies with my mom and sister-- another great joy in life!
Monday, MLK Day, was the last day of my parents' visit and we tried to make the most of it. We went to the Bob Bullock History Museum and watched a 3D IMAX movie on tornadoes. Scary! After touring the museum for a bit, we left to meet Ben for lunch. And I got pulled over for driving the wrong way on a one way street. D'oh!! (In my defense, there was NO one on the road, it wasn't well marked, and I actually drove probably only 50 feet, if that, before turning again.) It was just my luck that a cop was sitting RIGHT THERE on the corner, watching me. Oops. He ended up just giving me a warning. I think he saw it was an honest mistake and saw how dumb I felt about it. We picked up a gourmet lunch at Sonic (I'm not counting the calories I consumed over the weekend) and then it was time to load up and take my family back to the airport. I love family coming to visit. I hate family having to go back home. I dropped Joseph off at flute on the way to the airport, and made it back with 20 minutes to spare before his lesson was over. His teacher was a bit distressed at my leaving Joseph there on his doorstep 15 minutes early, but I think the fact that Joseph had his best lesson ever, thanks to the diligent practicing with grandma, made up for it. :-)
The rest of the week was pretty typical. Lessons, practicing, etc. A bit busier as we had to make up Monday's work over the rest of the week.
Mosey had his first Scout meeting on Tuesday afternoon. He was so excited and looked so cute dressed up in his Cub Scout uniform.

We had art at our house this week. I filled in as substitute and taught a lesson on Classical music and the lives of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. What great music. I was up way too late the night before trying to decide on what pieces of music to play for the kids. I ended up showing a clip from "Amadeus" about Mozart. I watched through much of the movie on Youtube trying to find the scene I was looking for. I can't believe that movie was rated PG in 1984, or whenever it came out. PG! It's a wonderful movie, but there's no way I'd let my boys watch the whole thing.
On Thursday night Mosey had his 2nd cello lesson with his new teacher. I never wrote about that, I don't think. I finally had to give up on his old teacher, after never hearing back from him again. I feel bad and truly hope and wish the best for him. Mosey's new teacher is at the same studio where Brigham is taking violin. I dragged myself up to the 2nd floor of the building where the studio is located so I could meet her and sit in on his first lesson. She'll be a wonderful teacher for him. I let him go up to his lesson this week by himself while I waited downstairs in the parking lot, and he came down happy and excited. "I'm never going to quit cello, unless there are no more cellos left in the whole world!" I imagine I'll have to remind him of that a time or two. :-)
This weekend has been busy, but good. The boys got their pinewood derby cars designed and cut. I took 2 trips to Hobby Lobby and one trip to Michaels to find supplies. Mosey's already painted his a bright shiny silver. And gotten bright shiny silver paint on my table that will never ever come off. Sigh... Oh well. :-)
Brigham had horseback riding-- his first lesson back after a couple of weekends off due to Mosey events (birthday party, baptism), and did great. He got to go fast at the end-- loping I think? Is that what comes after trotting? It was fun for him in any case. I got to sit on the couch by the ring and watch Brigham ride while reading a book and petting the farm cat that staked a place and fell asleep on my lap. Later in the afternoon Joseph went with me to the Verizon store where I ordered my first smart phone-- the Droid Razr which was on deep discount. I won't have it for a few days, and have more than a few misgivings about it, but we'll see how it goes. I'll have 14 days to decide if I really want it.
Church was today. I like my primary class. They are good kids and 7-8 years old is a great age. They are smart and can really learn, but are young enough to think my jokes are funny. :-) I played some music from My Turn on Earth (a favorite of mine) and we made paper airplanes at the end of class. What's not to love?
We had dinner with friends and I went with Mosey to his "It's Great to be Eight" fireside at the Hoopes house, then went home, sent the boys to bed, and here I am, finishing this letter up and it's not even 11:00 yet! I'm so proud of myself. :-)

Mosey's baptism

2012-01-22T22:11:00.000-06:00

Mosey was baptized on January 14. On Friday (the 13th!) my mom and dad and sister Eva flew out from California for his big weekend. It was such a nice baptism!
We got to the church around 10:15 or so, and Ben and Mosey went to change into their baptism clothes. Mosey was a little nervous, and took a long time getting changed. I think being the center of attention was getting to be a little much. Finally he came out and I took some pictures out in the foyer before the service started.

He was excited and full of adrenalin and ran completely around the church hallway before coming into the Relief Society room to sit next to Ben and me.
Brigham was playing prelude music as the pianist hadn't come yet-- thank you Brigham! Mosey's Aunt Eva conducted the music (thank you Eva!). We sang "The Church of Jesus Christ" (Mosey's favorite primary song), and Ben gave the opening prayer. Mosey's grandpa (my dad) gave a talk about baptism-- specifically about Jesus and John the Baptist. He talked about what childhood must have been like for Jesus, and for John preparing the way for Christ's mission. He talked about how Mosey was about to be baptized in the same way and by the same authority by which Christ himself was baptized.
It was a lovely talk and set the mood for Mosey's baptism which came next.
Everyone who came (a lot of people! The Relief Society room was well filled) moved into the cultural hall and gathered in front of the font. When Mosey came out and stepped into the water, he let out a little gasp. The water was cold! It turned out that the hot water tap had accidentally not been turned on, so the nice warm comforting water that I had reminisced about from my own baptism was not to be for my boy. That's OK, I bet the water was cold for Jesus, too!
The baptism itself was short and sweet. Mosey did perfectly as Ben said the prayer and lowered him under the water, bringing him up again dripping and cold, but with a big smile on his face. He was soon warm again after wrapping up in the new white towel my mom gave to him-- with his name and baptismal date embroidered in silver thread.
We went back into the Relief Society room and after Mosey and Ben got dry and dressed again, my mom gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. She brought with her several gifts for Mosey, all symbols of the Holy Ghost. She started off giving him a bar of soap (a nice fancy soap!). As baptism washes us clean from sin, the Holy Ghost can help us to stay clean, and prompt us to repent when necessary. She gave him a flashlight-- one with a built in radio and alarm The Holy Ghost shows the way, keeps us in tune with God, and warns us of danger ahead. She gave him a compass. The Holy Ghost helps to keep us heading in the right direction. She gave him a book-- a neat travel book. The Holy Ghost testifies of truth, no matter where it is found. She gave him a soft white blanket. The Holy Ghost is the comforter-- offering comfort and peace when we need it. She gave him a leather-bound journal with Matthew 7:7 (Ask and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you.) engraved on the front. And finally she gave him a beautiful Carl Bloch print of Jesus with a young boy-- a boy that looks remarkably like Mosey.

Thank you for such a wonderful talk, mama. Mosey is so blessed to have the grandparents he has.
Then it was time for Mosey's confirmation. Ben, my dad, and the bishopric representative (Brother Chase) stood in the circle while Ben pronounced the blessing. It was a beautiful blessing of encouragement and instruction and one I hope he always remembers.
After warm welcoming by Brother Chase and Sister Reed (primary president), it was time to close with a song-- "How Firm a Foundation" (Mosey's favorite hymn, and mine), and a prayer, given by me.

Then it was time to celebrate! Cookies in the hall, congratulations and hugs from more people than Mosey will be able to remember, and the obligatory family pictures in front of the church.

Beautiful Aunt Eva took a lot of the pictures, so we had to make sure she was in one herself.

(Why didn't I insist on all three boys wearing their suits? That would have been such a cute picture. And so funny that Brigham was the one not wearing a suit-- this is the first time he's come to church not dressed in a suit in a long, long time.)

What a good day! I love you Mosey!

Birthday boy!

2012-01-10T23:28:00.000-06:00

I think Mosey had a good day!
I tried to wake him with a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday," and then "Your Happy Birthday," (you know, the one that goes "Zip-a-dee-ay and heigh-dee-ho, there's something we can do..."), and then "Happy, Happy Birthday Mosey Dear!" before finally giving up and instead playing "Imperial March" on Rhapsody. :-)
He had Lucky Charms for his special birthday breakfast, which he generously shared with his brothers.

Joseph and Brigham did his morning chore for him, and I was pretty easy on him as far as schoolwork went. Joseph helped him put together his worm farm that he got from a friend at his birthday party, filling it with dirt from the backyard, and the night crawler worms we got at Walmart yesterday. We went to Burger King for lunch on our way downtown to drop off Brigham's bow to get re-haired at a violin shop. Then it was home, math homework, and then he was free for the afternoon! He chose breakfast for dinner, so when Ben got home we had french toast (with blueberry pie filling as a topping) and bacon.
After dinner, it was time for presents! He got 3 new webkinz (2 from his family, one from Grandma Jackee), a stuffed animal lion (also from Grandma Jackee), a game (Quirkle), a fun little toy called a Perplexus (a large round transparent ball with a bunch of little plastic tracks that you have to navigate a little metal ball around), and a Hexbug Hive. The Webkinz and Hexbug Hive were the big hits, and he immediately got out all his Hexbugs and spread everything out on the living room floor to put the hive together. Unfortunately Sandy is pretty sure all Hexbugs are vermin that she must protect her masters from, so she had to go outside while Mosey was putting it together. :-)
Ben had to do Elders Quorum visits tonight, and we waited as long as we could, but finally it was getting late, so we went ahead and did pie and candles without him. Instead of a birthday cake, Mosey had asked for apple pie. His wish was my command. I do make a killer apple pie. :-)

Joseph lit the 8 candles on Mosey's pie.

Then more playing and finally his mean mom made him put the toys away and go to bed. My baby is EIGHT!!!

Goodbye seven, hello eight!

2012-01-09T23:48:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow is my Mosey's birthday. Eight years old!
He is lobbying hard for half-lessons on his birthday, but I'm a mean old mom and I'm making him do school anyway. I'll try to make it fun, though. :-)
So today was his last day of being seven years old! This last year for Moses saw the loss of a multitude of teeth, and the growing in of a multitude of teeth. He became expert in riding his two-wheeler and playing Tanki Online (much to my chagrin). I've loved seeing how sweet he's become with little kids, especially babies. He is imaginative and a boy who LOVES to play. His favorite things are legos, hexbugs, webkinz, computers, and any electronic gizmo he can find. He loves reading, too, and often stays up really late (like his mom) reading. If you ask him, he'll retell in exquisite detail the plots of his current reads. He's a smartypants and smart alec (at times). He loves to read Highlights Magazine and The Friend. He's also mastered the art of door-slamming, and shoe-losing. :-) He is still my giggler, and loves to lay on my lap and be a "drum" while I pound on his back in different rhythms. He loves to get cherry icees at Burger King for a treat after speech therapy, or really any time at all. Maybe that is why he is so sweet.
I love you Mosey!

Birthday party!

2012-01-09T23:29:00.000-06:00

Mosey had a birthday party this last weekend! It was a super last-minute affair. I hadn't planned on a party because Mosey's getting baptized next weekend and his grandparents will be in town. But when Mosey asked if he could have a party last Wednesday, I thought, why not? So I sent out some evites, made some mini cheesecakes (these are easier than cupcakes!), bought fruit and chips and capri sun drinks, and picked up pizza on the way to the park. I planned exactly zero activities or games or crafts. This was a purely "play at the park party" and it was awesome. I got to spend 2 hours talking to adults, and when it was over, Mosey said, "That was the best party I ever had!" Winner!

He got some nice presents, even though I said, "No presents necessary!!" People are nice.

Eight IS great! Every birthday is distressing to me as my baby gets older, but I have a feeling he's going to love being eight.

Wheee!

good dog

2012-01-04T21:19:00.000-06:00

The boys are loving their new dog. So am I, actually. She is a very good dog. And she hardly sheds! I know it's winter, and come summer and shedding season, I may be eating my words, but at least for now, the hair is totally manageable. Yay for that!
One of her favorite things to do (at least, according to her enthusiasm level) is to jump on the trampoline with the boys. It's quite a sight.

Sandy has soft fun-to-play-with ears. And she's very patient. :-)

This is what the boys do during "recess" at our house. Awesome!

Today was a pretty decent day.
First of all, I am loving this weather. Yes, I know we could use about 2 months of solid rain, but still, I can handle this 70 degree thing we've got going on. After being trapped inside or in my air-conditioned van all summer long, it's like paradise.
The boys were exceptionally cooperative in their schoolwork today. Starting this new year I'm getting them up half an hour earlier (6:30) so we can get one round of practicing done before breakfast. Otherwise I'm finishing practicing with them up until bedtime. As it was, I just finished doing flute with Joseph because he spent 6:30-7:00 on the couch trying to wake up. :-) But it's better than trying to finish off 2 or 3 practice sessions right before bed.
I'm still plugging along in my lifetime quest of getting my life more organized. I'm not there yet, but I guess I keep trying. I'm also trying really hard this year to get 7 hours of sleep. So far I've gotten closer than I usually do (6 hours and 6.5 hours respectively), so I guess that's progress? If I only had 2 more hours in the day, I would be totally on top of everything! :-)
It's 9:17, the boys are finally in bed, I've got the dinner table to clear off, dishes to do, 3 loads of laundry to fold, and 3 lizards to feed before I need to be in bed by 11:00. Think I can do it? Well, I better get to it!

Happy 37th, Ben!!

2012-01-03T23:01:00.000-06:00

Happy Birthday, Ben!
Wow, can he really be 37?! Seems like it was just last year that he was turning 27. The twins were only 4 months old. I remember we spent Christmas in California that year. Maybe we were driving back to Utah on his birthday? It's funny to think about all the changes in our lives over the past 10 years.
What's weirder is to think that in 10 more years he'll be turning 47, and we'll be about 8 months away from being empty-nesters. OK, I'm going to banish that thought immediately. Because my kids are never going to grow up and leave me. Right?
I'm afraid it wasn't much of a birthday for Ben. He worked late, then went straight to an Elders Quorum meeting, and then back home for a late dinner. He wasn't feeling very well, so I'm not sure he enjoyed it too much. The boys and I had come home late from the library than I had anticipated, and so the peach cobbler I made for his birthday was also late and had JUST come out of the oven and was too hot to eat by the time it really was time for us to light candles, sing, and send boys to bed. So we pulled out the leftover cheesecake that one of his employees gave him at lunch, stuck some assorted half-burned candles (am I really so cheap that I save half-burned candles? Yes, I am), sang a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday," and snapped the obligatory birthday picture.
It's also Ben's twin sister's birthday! (Imagine that!) Maybe she had a bit more celebrating going on at her house. Happy Birthday, Angee!
Anyway, I am so lucky to have Ben in my life. He is smart and funny and good and honest and such a good daddy, and he takes such good care of me. I'm not the easiest person in the world to live with (I should know, I have to live with me, too), but he seems to like me anyway. Weird. :-)
I love you Ben!

Back to the grindstone

2012-01-02T22:31:00.000-06:00

It was school time again as of 7:00 AM this morning. It sure is hard to get back into the swing of things after Christmas vacation!

Brigham is a good little scholar and jumped right back into his schoolwork, and was consequently the first one done. By a long shot.

Mosey, on the other hand, was more interested in hugging smelly doggy feet under the kitchen table.

Sandy didn't mind the return to school. She quite likes school. She's a smart dog, you know.

New Year's Eve Gingerbread Demolition

2012-01-02T22:28:00.001-06:00

And it's time again for the annual Turner boy Gingerbread House Demolition!

Here come the barbarians. Look how sweet and... *intact* our little house is! Not for much longer.
The implements of destruction have been made ready!

Behold the meat tenderizer!

The ice cream scoop! The slotted spoon!

The gravy spoon! The rolling pin!

And most feared of all-- the garlic press!

In the hands of these dastardly dudes, no gingerbread house is safe.

Beware of Joseph the Jerk!

He's hard at work wreaking havoc on the house.

On the other side of the table, it's Brigham the Brute! He may look gentle, but look at the rubble in front of him!

"There will be nothing but DUST by the time I'm done with this house!"

And finally, Mosey the Marauder!

Not even the candy cane door posts are safe from him.

He's plotting his next evil move.

They left no candy untouched, no wall unbroken. What Mosey could not destroy, he ate!

If you know what's good for you, you will keep your Gingerbread house far, far away from the likes of these villains.

In the end, the barbarians brought in the rest of the axis powers for the final humiliating defeat of the Gingerbread house.

Sadly, here lies the only evidence of what used to be our Gingerbread house.

Farewell, poor little Gingerbread House.

Christmas vacation review

2012-01-02T01:02:00.001-06:00

From my family letter tonight.
Hi family,
Well, the Christmas vacation is at an end. We had such a good time, but it went way too fast. I didn't write last week because I went to bed early on Christmas night, having only slept for 2.5 hours the night before (the consequence of a Christmas program that went on about 1 1/2 hours longer than it ought to have, and waiting until the night before the wrap presents, but mostly due to my OCD about wrapping presents. Somebody help me.)
So. Highlights from the past two weeks:

Finishing my Christmas card! This one was the most labor intensive one I have done. All the taking pictures and then computer work of course took a long time, but what I didn't anticipate was how long it would take me to cut and fold all of them. There wasn't any place that would print and fold in the way I invisioned, so I got them printed on larger pieces of paper, and then trimmed to size, scored, and folded them by hand. It took me 9 hours-- from the hours of 9 PM on Monday night to 6 AM Tuesday morning. I did sleep 3 hours that night. I think next year might be a Walmart photo card from us. :-)
Our art group Christmas party. We decoupaged votive candle holders with tissue paper, shared lots of treats, and had a white elephant gift exchange. Those are my favorite. The boys and I had a good time at Goodwill choosing our presents. Joseph gave cow book-ends, Mosey gave a hummingbird feeder (I actually quite liked this one), and Joseph gave a set of four plastic palm tree goblets.
Joseph's flute performance. He and his teacher played a medley (the same arrangements I made for the violin/flute duets Joseph and Brigham played at the Christmas piano recital) of Christmas carols for the children at the Christmas program of the preschool/daycare where Joseph's teacher's daughter attends. The little kids were very attentive, and Joseph and his teacher sounded just magical. I was absolutely kicking myself that I did not record it. What was I thinking????? I'm so glad they got to do this. I think Joseph really got a thrill as he realized how wonderful he sounded. It nearly didn't happen, though, because I totally forgot about it! It was the morning after our art party, and I was looking forward to the first day of our vacation with "nothing" to do. I got up at a leisurely 9:30 or so, emerged from my bedroom at 9:45, and was just thinking about getting breakfast for the boys when my phone rang at about 9:55. When I saw "Francois Minaux" on the screen, my heart jumped into my throat as it all came rushing back to me. Joseph and I were supposed to be AT the preschool at 9:45!!!! The performance was at 10:15! I apologized profusely to his teacher, and told him we would leave immediately. We were about 20 minutes away, so we could still make the performance, barely, if there was not a speck of traffic on the freeway. I yelled for Joseph to get dressed, and he dressed in absolute record time, grabbed his flute and his music and we were out the door and on the road in about 2 minutes flat. I drove as fast and I dared, and luckily we got to the preschool a few minutes before 10:15. Miraculous! The preschool's director had been talking up this performance for the kids, so I would have felt terrible, and it would have been very embarrassing for Joseph's teacher if we had not showed up. As it was, everything was fine and Joseph and his teacher sounded angelic. What a great morning it turned out to be. I treated Joseph to breakfast at Sonic on the way home. :-)
Listening to my boys wrap presents. They were all in the same room, singing nonsense words to--what was it-- Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, I think. It was so cute listening to them sing, and reminded me so much of my sisters and myself at that age, making up nonsense words to "Joy to the World." (Sear's saving's bank, Sear's saving's bank. Sear's saa-vings, saa-vings bank!--remember?)
Caroling! This is the first year we did this. We went with another family that has 2 boys our boys' age (plus a little girl), and it was fun! We learned a couple of songs with the handbells mama gave us last year. I never thought I would actually get my boys to go caroling, but going with their friends did the trick.
Christmas Eve. I really like our Christmas Eve traditions. In the morning Ben and I did one more quick shopping trip to Target for stocking stuffers. Then I finished making our braided wreath bread (I make this every year for neighbors and friends, as well as one for us for Christmas morning). In the afternoon we went to the church to practice our song for the next day, and then went delivering our bread. We ate dinner at Taco Cabana (our Christmas Eve dinners are always really fancy--I think we had ramen noodles last year) before going to HEB for our Shepherds Dinner shopping. Then back home for our Christmas program. All of the boys played some Christmas songs on the piano, and then we had our Nativity play. Then we had our annual Christmas Eve dance party before pulling out new PJ's for everyone and sending the boys upstairs. I started The Great Wrapping Project which involved opening about 20 boxes from Amazon.com. 95% of my chopping was done online this year. This is convenient, and also makes hiding Christmas presents from the boys really easy. :-) After the boys were asleep, Ben went to our friends' house where Sandy had been staying and then brought her back home. She was extremely happy to be back and it was very hard to keep her quiet. :-)
Christmas morning! Of course the best surprise was Sandy. We had the boys come downstairs, had a family prayer (during which I could hear Sandy start scratching at the door), and then before starting on stockings and presents, Ben said, "Oh wait, I forgot one more thing." Then we went in our room and brought out Sandy who had a big bow on her collar. The boys didn't believe us at first-- they had to actually see the adoption papers. They were very, very, very happy, and it was a very fun trick to pull on them. I had intended our Christmas to be a small one-- Sandy being the main gift, but I can never quite manage that. I am happy with everything they got, though, so far no duds. The favorites: I got a new video camera (now to figure out how to edit movies), and Ben got a nice projector that we can hook up to our computer, and then project movies on our white wall between the two bookshelves (for those who have been to our house). This is a great system! A fraction of the cost of a giant big-screen TV. We've watched a few movies on it already. Joseph got a large animal trap with which he is hoping to catch opossums and raccoons. Brigham got a Harry Potter chess set from one of his cousins which has been a huge hit for him, plus 300 more blocks. Seriously, we need a new room on our house just for blocks. :-) Mosey got a remote control car that he adores. The boys got Ben new ties and a tie rack, and I got him some jogging clothes and reflective bands for his wrists and/or ankles. The boys got me a beautiful scarf, perfume, and a card-reader for the computer.
Our song we played in Sacrament meeting. The boys did a really good job. I've been waiting for this for a long time. It was so wonderful to play and sing with my whole family. I think the boys really enjoyed it, too. I've lost some of my singing abilities from high school, but singing with Mosey was fun. I posted a video on Youtube if you want to see-- we recorded it again afterward in the primary room. The acoustics in that room leave much to be desired, and the boys' music stands were RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEIR FACES, but you get the idea. :-)
Shepherds' Dinner. Ben roasted lamb and beef over the fire again, plus our usual fruit and nuts and cheese and flatbread and apple pie for dessert. So peaceful with only the Christmas lights and fireplace and candles lit. I played Christmas songs on my violin, another of my favorite things to do.
Naomi's visit! Oh how I loved having Naomi and Dave and their sweet girls here. Oh how I hated to see them leave. We went on walks, hiked to Mt. Bonnell (with me on Ben's shoulders-- nothing like being the most conspicuous person among a big crowd of holiday hikers), took family pictures at Mayfield Park, watched MI3 on our projector, folded laundry (Naomi and I did that together-- much more fun than by myself), ate at Rudy's, went to the Safari Park and Riverwalk and Alamo in San Antonio, went on the train at Barton Springs, walked around the Capitol building, and treated ourselves (Naomi and I) to dinner at Cheesecake Factory after Ben and Dave and the boys got home from watching MI4 at the IMAX downtown. My biggest dream is to live close to my sisters. Polly is so adorable, and CiCi is the MOST smiley baby I have ever seen.
New Year's Eve. We did our traditional hotdogs and rootbeer floats and The Destruction of the Gingerbread House. It was fun. I know Joseph and I were up for the new year, but I'm not sure anyone else was. Happy 2012!
9:00 Church! It's a bit painful waking up at 7:00 on a Sunday morning, especially when I was up till all-hours reading, but I do like 9:00 church.

And that's it! I didn't get quite as much done as I would like to have, but it's been a good vacation and I'm happy to start a new year with a clean slate. I have some goals I'm starting... tomorrow. :-)
I hope everyone else's holiday was as great as ours was.

Love,
Gabrielle

P.S. Here are some pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I didn't take very many pictures this year.

Catch up, catch up part 2.

2011-12-29T23:44:00.000-06:00

I never wrote about taking our family pictures. We ended up going downtown and taking them in front of a famous Austin mural. The weather cooperated beautifully. I picked up Ben and one of his co-workers who volunteered to snap the pictures for us. Noon is usually NOT a great time to take pictures, especially in a south-facing location. Bright overhead sun is pretty disastrous in terms of lighting conditions. But that morning it was overcast, and it didn't completely burn off until just after we took our pictures. Yay! It was a good thing, because there was NO other time we could have taken those pictures, so a re-shoot wasn't an option. The boys are so good about doing pictures now. They were cooperative and helpful and I didn't have to bribe them or anything! The one adventure was in getting Ben's shirt. All of us wore different colored long-sleeved t-shirts for this picture, and Ben's only long-sleeved t-shirt had recently been ruined in all of the water-main repair stuff from the week before. So on the way to pick up Ben we stopped off at Target. Not the usual one I go to. First of all, the parking was terrible. Why were there so may people there on a Thursday morning? So I had to park far away and walk. Second of all, there were NO ride on carts. Not one. Unacceptable, I tell you! So I had to keep walking. Third, the men's section was way in the very back of the store. So I had to keep walking all the way to the back, meanwhile knowing that Ben's lunch hour was approaching and I needed to be on time. Finally I found a shirt that would work (at least Target didn't fail me there), and walked all the way back up to the front of the store to pay for it, and then all the way back out to the van after that. Lot's of walking! A lot more than I usually do. By the time we got to the picture location, my legs were pretty much done. Ben had to carry me from the car over to where I set up the camera, then over to where we took the pictures (where I at least had a wall to lean against), and then back to the car again when we were done. Workout for Ben!
It was all worth it, though, because we got great pictures. And Ben's co-worker got treated to a super-fancy meal at Jason's Deli. :-)

catch up, catch up part 1.

2011-12-29T22:29:00.001-06:00

Christmas is the easiest time to get behind on a blog, but also the worst time to get behind!
I got a little over my head this year with all the things to be done before Christmas, and something had to give. Sorry, blog.
When I last posted, the boys' Christmas recital was the next day. It went well. I really like the Christmas recital. It's less pressure than the big spring recital, and I just love Christmas music! This year Joseph played an arrangement of The Ukrainian Bell Carol (Carol of the Bells), Brigham played an arrangement of "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear," and Mosey payed the Children's Primary song book version of "Away in a Manger." They played well-- every year I'm amazed at what these kids can pull together in only 6 weeks of practicing.
Here are the videos of their performances.
Joseph was first:

Then Mosey:

Brigham played just after Mosey:

Everyone brings some kind of finger food to share after the recital. I had intended to go to the grocery store the day before, but that never happened, so the morning of I went scrounging around the internet to see what I could make with ingredients I already had. I ended up making something I really liked! I didn't take any pictures of it, but here's a picture of something similar to what I made.

And here's what I did so I can remember for another time.
I cut out circles of corn tortilla-- I think 2 1/4 inches in diameter, and then pressed them into the cups of a mini cupcake pan (I heated them up in the microwave for a few seconds before doing this so they didn't shred. Then I baked them at 350 for 7 minutes or so, then took them out and set them upside down on a plate for a few minutes. They got nice and crispy. Then I mixed up a can of Mexican-style refried beans (with tomatoes and green chiles), the rest of a leftover box of cream cheese-- probably 1/3?, and a handful of Mexican blend cheese. I heated this up over the stove until the cheese was all blended in and melted. Then I filled each cup with the beans and topped with another sprinkle of cheese. Voila! Easy! And they all got eaten up, so I guess that means they were OK. :-)

After the recital we went home, changed clothes, and then went to get our Christmas tree. We got such a pretty one this year! Apparently the owner of the tree lot we went to got a great deal on noble firs from Oregon, and they were about 1/2 the price that they were last year, and cheaper than the usual kind we get (we usually go for the cheapest kind). I love it! It's taller than we've ever had-- Ben had to move it next to the balcony and go upstairs to put the star on it.

And after THAT Ben and I went to take family pictures for a family in our ward. This was an extended family with 3 married kids and 2 two-year-olds who really loved getting their pictures taken. Not. :-) Thank goodness for digital photography. Head-swapping, here we come! It was freezing that day (not literally, but the 40's is close enough for me), but still so pretty down by the lake.

We decorated the Christmas tree in the evening, and I spent a late night working on my Christmas card. Yay! I love Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-29T22:03:00.000-06:00

Well, I still have a few of these to send out, but Christmas is well and truly over, so here's our card from this year! This one took a very, very, very, very long time to do (including one all-nighter cutting and trimming and folding), but I think it's one of my favorites so far. I wish I were rich enough to print and mail one for everyone I know and love! Maybe next year I'll just do a Walmart photo card. :-)
Here's the front:

This card was folded and cut so that the four colored sections unfolded separately to reveal the person underneath. When the whole card was opened it looked like this on the inside:

The very back looked like this. I couldn't decide on just one picture, so I settled on 48 instead. :-)

Merry Christmas!

Main Street Bethlehem and other happenings.

2011-12-10T00:27:00.001-06:00

The boys and I went to Main Street Bethlehem up in Burnet tonight. We got there about an hour earlier than we did last year, and our wait time in line was subsequently about 1/4 of what it was last year. Ben couldn't come with us because of work stuff, so the boys and I met my friend Traci and her son up there and we braved the crowds together. It was really nice, but I didn't take a single picture. There were too many people, and in my wheelchair, I just couldn't be in the right place at the right time at the right angle (or height) to take any pictures. So I'll just have to remember the boys finding their favorite places-- the candle makers, the blacksmith, and the tax-collectors, remember Mosey sitting next to a Bethlehem girl, learning to grind corn into cornmeal (did they have corn back then?), remember all three boys quietly sitting and watching Joseph and Mary and baby Jesus, and remember Brigham reading aloud the series of scripture verses summarizing Christ's life, then commenting on how perfect they were. And also remember Joseph helping me navigate out of the parking lot-- twice I had to squeeze in between two cars, with less than 8 inches clearance on either side. It was a fun night-- not as cold as last year, although I was still freezing. It was probably 55 degrees, maybe a degree or two less, but I was freezing. I get a chill in my bones during the winter and it's hard for me to warm up. I had on a long sleeved shirt, a really warm hoodie jacket (given specially to me by my mother-in-law because it's made of some special material to keep it especially warm while still being a fairly light-weight fleece, and then a big, really thick fleece hoodie. I had both jackets zipped all the way up, and both hoods on over my head, and I was still cold. I could never make it anywhere with real winter. :-) After going through Bethlehem, we met up with another family from our homeschool group at Storms where the boys and I had our fill of deep-fried Texas food. Mmmm. ;-)
It was a nice ending to the day and to the week. Tomorrow is a busy day. The boys have a piano recital in which all 3 are playing a piece, and Joseph and Brigham will be playing 3 violin/flute duets. Afterward we will go get our Christmas tree, then I need to go take some family pictures for a family in our ward, then I need to seriously work on my own Christmas card. We took the family pictures yesterday, but getting the whole card put together is going to take several hours.
Yesterday was pretty busy, too. We tried to do school lessons, but had to leave at about 10:30 AM for family pictures. We stopped at Target to get a shirt for Ben, first. That was the dumbest Target ever. Why were there SO many people shopping at 10:30 AM on a Thursday?! There were no available close handicapped spaces, so I had to park way further out in the parking lot than I usually do. Then after I finally made it into the store, there were NO ride-on carts. Oh, no! But I had to get a shirt for our pictures. Of course the men's wear section was in the very back of the store. By the time I walked from the car to the store, then to the men's section in the store, then back up to the cashiers, then out to the car, I had about tripled (maybe quadrupled) the amount of walking I usually do in a day.
But I made it back to the car and soon we picked up Ben from work, along with one of his co-workers who volunteered to man the camera. The picture taking went fine, and then we all went to eat at Jason's Deli before driving Ben and Phoebe back to work. Then it was home to try to salvage some lesson time and get ready for art.
After art Mosey had his belt ceremony for his green belt (he passed!). The parking was HORRIBLE at the TKD studio, and I again had to park really far away. I haven't done that much walking in a single day for a long, long time. But it was fun to see Mosey get his green belt!
Back at home, Joseph and Brigham were making dinner. The Pasta Roni burned a little, but was still tasty enough for the boys. It's so fun to be able to tell Joseph and Brigham to make dinner, and be able to count on them to actually do it! Even if the pot "over-boils" a few times. :-)
Soon, my friend came over for a Photoshop tutorial and for me to help her with her family Christmas card. And THEN I still had to do all my night-time routine-- feeding the animals, feeding the crickets, cleaning up from dinner (Ben started a load of dishes for me-- thank you!), etc., etc. The upshot is that I wasn't in bed until about 2:00, which has been average this week. Not quite enough sleep for me.
Speaking of which, it is 12:24 AM and I'm falling asleep at the keyboard, so I better go and try and get at least an hour or two more sleep than what I've been doing recently. :-)
Good night!

This picture has nothing to do with my blog post. I just like it. It's the "thankful tree" that I made this year out of pipe cleaners, floral wrapping tape, and construction-paper leaves. It makes me happy!

'tis the season...

2011-12-07T00:27:00.001-06:00

...to be very busy.
I have several very pressing things that I need to take care of ASAP, but instead I'm doing things like this:

This is our elf, "Sneaky Pickle Claus." My friend gave this to us a couple of years ago, and it's languished in our Christmas boxes until this year when I decided to get him out. It's an Elf on the Shelf. The idea is that this elf is watching the children, reporting on behavior back to Santa Claus. Every day the kids have to find where he is hiding. I knew the boys wouldn't really go for the "reporting back to Santa" thing, but I thought they would get a kick out of searching for it every day. There are lots of really adorable ideas online for the Elf on the Shelf (the above idea is not mine, I am so not creative enough for that), and I think it will be fun to do this for the next few weeks.

Other happenings:
Sometime last week, Chrissy got in a fight, and got herself bit by another cat. We didn't realize it until Saturday night when the bite got infected and started oozing and dripping and being really disgusting. Poor kitty. We didn't know what it was at first-- we could only see one puncture wound, but it was big and really, really deep. I put antibiotic ointment on it, and then we took her into the vet first thing Monday morning. Turns out it is definitely a bite. When they shaved the area, you could see the smaller wound where the other tooth went in. We've been dog-sitting another dog the past few days, and at first I thought she must have bit Chrissy (Sandy has growled and snapped a couple of times at Chrissy). But the vet said it is definitely a cat bite, and that it happened earlier last week. There's no way it would have had time to get infected and abscess the way it did in the 24 hours Sandy had been here when I first noticed the bite. Chrissy will be fine-- the abscess was lanced and drained and she got an antibiotic shot and we brought ointment home to put on it twice a day. It sure is icky, though.
We finally got our Christmas decorations up! Someday (maybe) my dream of a beautiful evening of Christmas music and hot chocolate and the family decorating together might come true. Not this year. Instead I got annoyed at Ben because I had been trying to get everyone to sit up to the table for dinner for 10 minutes because the food was getting cold, but he wanted to get the Christmas boxes down from the attic first. So the boys and I ate without him, and meanwhile, since I wasn't supervising the box unloading, he didn't get the right boxes down, so I had nowhere to put the Thanksgiving decorations we took down, and we were missing a couple of boxes of Christmas decorations. I don't know if Ben got mad at me for being annoyed, or if he just had a lot of work, but in any case he went into the bedroom and closed the door and worked on his laptop. :-(
Do things my way, and nobody gets hurt, is my motto. :-) Too bad it doesn't work that way.
Anyway, the boys and I did most of the decorating and meanwhile Ben made some progress on some work he was doing, and eventually he came out of the bedroom after the boys went to bed in a better mood. I do love the house being decorated for Christmas, even though it is a lot of work.
Today was Mosey's last speech therapy session for the semester. Joseph went in and was a control for the same study Mosey tested for last week. Another $40!! The boys are getting rich. I expect really good Christmas presents from them this year. :-) So we were there for about 2 1/2 hours, and afterward I wanted to go check out a location where I want to do our family Christmas card pictures. I'm cutting it seriously short this year, but the weather did not cooperate last weekend for pictures. Well, 5:30 PM is apparently not a great time to be driving around downtown. It took us an HOUR to finally get to where we were going, just south of the river, about 30 blocks south of where we were for speech. That is ridiculous traffic. The boys were very good sports, though, listening to the final Eragon book on my iPod. At least getting home was faster, as most of rush hour had dissipated by then. I dropped off Brigham and Mosey at home and Joseph and I went to Walmart. I'm trying to figure out what Christmas craft we're going to do for our art class. Walmart didn't have any clear glass ornament balls! I was very dismayed. Still, Joseph and I had a very pleasant mother/son date at Walmart and we managed to find a cart full of stuff we needed even if I couldn't find the one item we actually went to Walmart for in the first place. Joseph ran into Hobby Lobby for me on the way home and found the right ornaments. At home again, I supervised flute/violin practicing, sent the boys to bed, and then I spent a couple of hours cleaning up the house, putting away decorations stuff, and helping a friend do some photoshop work on her family Christmas card (note I haven't done any photoshop work on MY family Christmas card yet!), and now it's 12:20 AM and I didn't make any progress on my to-do-list. The laundry is seriously piling up in the laundry room. It's all clean, just none of it folded or put away. My inbox for bills and such on my desk is overflowing and giving me nightmares. We're gonna get our gas shut off. I still need to finish arranging the song our family is going to be playing in church on Christmas Day, so that we actually have a chance to PRACTICE before Christmas Day! I still have to get to the post office to mail off some things my sister accidentally left at our house. There is a traffic ticket I TRIED to pay back in September which came back because I didn't main in the right paperwork, but meanwhile the right paperwork has disappeared and I have to figure out what to do, but I can't because I have to actually make some phone calls during business hours, or else go to the county courthouse or some other such nonsense, so meanwhile the traffic ticket remains unpaid and I'm paranoid I'm going to be pulled over and hauled off to jail. I haven't done a single speck of Christmas shopping. I haven't even made lists for Christmas shopping. I haven't finished with the family Christmas photo I took for my sister over Thanksgiving, and I haven't taken the family photos I've promised two other families in our ward. Or mine either, remember? I need about 2 or 3 uninterrupted days to get all of this stuff done, but those 2 or 3 days are not forthcoming. So I'm burning both ends of the candle and trying not to make myself sick. I got 4 hours of sleep last night, and if I went to bed right NOW, I'd get six hours tonight. But I still have to feed the lizards and the frogs and wash off the kitchen table and locate the cat and put ointment on the cat's leg (which she really loves) and stage another Elf on the Shelf scene and of course finish this really important blog post that definitely represents the best use of my time right now. So anyway! Good night!

Annie!

2011-12-03T00:35:00.002-06:00

The boys and I watched Annie tonight. It was so fun. Except when Joseph started talking about "all those old-fashioned movies when you were a kid." What?! The movies I watched as a kid are old fashioned now? Well, I guess so, but still, ouch. Anyway, watching it brought back such vivid memories of my childhood. It was one of the first movies I saw in the theater. E.T. might have been the first-- they came out the same year. I remember going to see Annie for a birthday party for a little girl in my class. And then we got the record and my sisters and I spent many hours dancing to all the songs from Annie, and looking at the pictures from the movie in the cool record album that opened up with pages of pictures inside.
The inspiration for this movie night was another dog that we're dog-sitting, named Sandy! This Sandy is a girl dog, however. She's a sweet thing. This dog-sitting business is getting good for the boys!

This morning the boys and I went to the dentist for our 6 month checkup. Every time I schedule the next appointment, 6 months in the future seems like suuuuuch a long time. And then it's here before I know it. No cavities for anyone today, happily, although both Joseph AND Brigham have been recommended for an orthodontics workup. I've known that Joseph has some orthodontic work in his future due to a lower jaw he inherited from his dad, but I hoped Brigham would be spared. Alas, I see orthodontist bills in our future. :-)

Mosey tested for his green belt tonight. I know he was a little worried. He wanted to review one of the forms they do, but we couldn't find anything online, and the quick warm-up they did before the testing wasn't very helpful for him. I think he did well-- he did forget one of the things they did, but I don't know how much that will count against him. One thing that did happen was that at the end of one of his forms (I'm not sure I'm using the right terminology here), instead of holding the position, he ran back to his spot on the floor. One of the judges called him on that and told him to go back to his end position. I could see Mosey deflate right there. It is embarrassing to get called out in front of a lot of people, especially for someone like Mosey who prides himself in being good at everything he does. For better or worse. Anyway, for the rest of the testing I could see his expression-- the slightly hurt, slightly sullen expression that told me he was sort of emotionally checking out of the whole thing. I remember being horrendously embarrassed whenever I was called out on ANYTHING in front of other people, even something very small like talking to my neighbor in class, so I feel for him. He's got to learn to keep it together, though, and redouble his effort to be even more professional and on top of things than he was before, instead of checking out. I guess these are hard lessons for 7 year olds, though, and he's got time left to learn them. I hope he passes. He's really enjoyed Tae Kwon Do and I'd like to keep it that way.

No voice

2011-12-01T23:45:00.000-06:00

My voice is still shot. It's a little disconcerting to be made so painfully aware of how much I depend on being able to yell at the boys to keep order around here. :-)
Today we had our art group at our house as usual. The normal teacher for this unit is out of town, so I was going to pick up the lesson for her. Except that I couldn't talk. So I had Joseph and Brigham study up on the topic and teach the lesson for me! It worked great. As it was, we only did one of the planned projects, so Joseph will have to do his part next week. We talked about color today and did a project mixing paints and making a color wheel. Wow, that was a hit. Actually I think anything that involves paints and mixing and making messes would be a big hit with this crowd. :-) Afterward, Mosey and Natasha were still fixated on the mixing thing, and ended up making a "witch's brew," a nasty concoction of paint water, this and that from my kitchen cupboards, frog pee (yes, really), dirt, vinegar, and who knows how much of whatever else. When I was a kid, I liked making perfume. Similar process of raiding my mom's cupboards and cabinets, but the goal was to make the NICEST concoction, not the vilest. Ah, well. It ended up outside anyway, which is where it's going to stay until disposed of.
Mosey's teacher didn't show up again today, and didn't respond to emails. What to do?! I don't want to fire the poor guy, just getting diagnosed with cancer, but I suspect maybe he's overestimating what he'll be able to keep doing during treatment. I tried to give him a nice "out," by saying that we do know of another teacher that we can go to for a while if he needs some time to recover from surgery and get his bearings. But if he doesn't check his email or listen to messages, I'm not sure how to convey that. I'm trying to move forward in teaching Mosey, but I'm really NOT qualified.
All I want for Christmas is for my kids' music teacher headache to be taken care of. :-)

Oh mud, oh my!

2011-11-30T23:00:00.002-06:00

Today I was in the middle of piano practicing with Brigham when our neighbor knocked on the door to let us know there was water leaking out of the side of our driveway and running down the road. I sent Brigham out to investigate and he told me it looked like a hose was on somewhere. Well, the leak was exactly where our water main is, so I was worried. I called Ben and he came home to check it out. Soon, he called his work and told them he wouldn't be coming back. Yep, a water main leak. At this point, I knew trying to reign the boys back inside to finish schoolwork was going to be nigh upon impossible, so I let them go on out to help. Ben and the boys dug a DEEP hole and found where the problem was. It is not easy digging a deep hole in dripping wet mud. Everyone got totally filthy. We think this probably has been going on for some time, due to the plethora of really thick roots clustered around the pipes. The nearest tree is probably 30 feet away. No wonder our water bill has always seemed high to me.
After an afternoon of work, Ben got it fixed. We had to go to piano lessons midway through, and all the boys were covered in mud and the water was off so no showers or baths. So, it was back to the pool, hopefully for the last time this year. :-) At least it was pretty pleasant outside today.
Joseph found a family of toads while helping to dig the hole. The boys named the toads and have them living in a big tupperware bin for the time being. They are really a hoot to watch eating. Long, sticky tongues flicking out to capture the poor unsuspecting crickets. :-)

Meet Thud

And hello there, Slash!

Finally, here's Little Claw. These sound like some serious toads. :-)

Yeah, these feet are NOT coming inside my house.

I'm pretty sure the piano teacher wouldn't let them into her house like this either. :-)

In other good news, I think we've finally got our violin teacher! Brigham had his first lesson with a woman who teaches out of a violin shop really close by. It's on the 2nd floor in a building with no elevator, so I can't go in with him. I think it will be good for him to have lessons independently, however. When I asked Brigham how it went afterward, he was very excited. "She's a really competent teacher, mom, I really like her!" She seems to be totally on top of the ball and I think is going to be a very good change for Brigham. And the timing works out great. Brigham has his piano lesson first, then I drive him over to violin, about 5 minutes away, go back and wait out the rest of Joseph's and Mosey's piano lessons, and then go back to pick him up-- he'll be done right about the time we'll be pulling up to the building. This will free up a whole afternoon for me, and I am really happy about that.
Yay for good violin teachers and convenient lesson schedules! :-)
On the not-so-good-news, I've got myself the first cold of the season. Ugh. It's mainly attacked my throat (I thought I had strep at first, but then the congestion hit today), and by this afternoon I had lost my voice entirely. How can I yell at the boys when I've lost my voice?? :-) Anyway, I thought it was so funny how, when I started having to whisper because my voice was gone, the boys couldn't help but whisper back to me. The power of suggestion, I suppose-- so interesting! Anyway, I've found the key to a quiet house! I whisper to them, and they all whisper back!

$40

2011-11-29T21:37:00.000-06:00

I still haven't downloaded the pictures I took over Thanksgiving. Probably won't happen until this weekend. It's now 9:33, my boys are STILL up, and I have about 4 baskets of laundry waiting to be folded. My favorite. :-)
Mosey participated in a study this afternoon, looking at language and auditory development among children who stutter. It was a long 2 1/2 hours for him (and that after his normal hour of speech therapy), but he did great. I got to watch a lot of it through the mirrored glass, and it was really interesting. I hope they get some good data from him. The highlight, though, was the $40 (!!!!!) they gave him for participating in the study. Wow, that's a big chunk of change for a 7 year old. He had grand plans for how to spend that money (the Hexbug "elevation set" was foremost on his mind), but when he got home and talked to his brothers, they somehow wrangled him into putting that $40 into a separate fund now known as "the boys' treasury." I guess they're all going to pitch in and buy something awesome together. I like that kind of working together! It's an especially good deal for Brigham and Joseph, to have Mosey jump-start the fund with a big $40 endowment. :-)
More stuff happened today, but laundry calls.

blogging hiatus

2011-11-28T23:38:00.000-06:00

Well, my almost-daily posting streak came to a screeching halt last week as Thanksgiving descended. My sister and brother-in-law and their 4 kids came down from St. Louis for Thanksgiving and suddenly other things became more important than my computer time. :-) Words can't express how much I love being with my sister, and it was made even better seeing my kids and hers playing together so well.
Cooking Thanksgiving dinner is also about 1,000 times more fun with a sister there to cook with you. We made a pretty good team I think! We cooked and baked and talked from about 8:30 AM until we ate at 4:00 PM.
The cousins had a great time together. They made thorough use of our playroom in building block castles and K'nex roller coasters. They had scooter-jumping contests off the deck in the backyard. They even went SWIMMING on Friday. Crazy kids. We went on a hike Friday morning. Ben carried me on his back so I got to eavesdrop on the kids talking and singing and showing off and catching lizards and exploring the rusted ruin of a car off of one part of the path. We went up to Mt. Bonnel (Ben didn't carry me up there, although he offered to-- I decided I valued his functioning back more than the sunset view over the 360 bridge), drove through downtown to see the capitol building all lit up against the night sky. On Saturday we went down to San Antonio to the Natural Bridge Caverns (Rosalynde and I stayed up top since it is not wheelchair accessible and talked the whole time which I think was better than seeing the caves anyway), and then down to the Alamo and the River Walk where it gradually got FREEZING! I remember the first real cold front of the year came through right at Thanksgiving last year also. Mosey left his jacket in the car and was a Mosey-sicle by the time we got on the boat for the River Walk tour. I zipped him up inside my jacket and he kept us both warm. Very soon all my boys will be too big for things like that. :-(
We ate up most of the Thanksgiving food over those three days, which was pretty amazing given the quantity that we made. I also took a vacation from my crazy diet and the food never tasted so good. :-) However, the eating fest seriously needs to STOP. I do NOT want to participate in the average 8-lb weight gain for most Americans over the holidays. :-)
The worst part was when Rosalynde and her family had to leave early yesterday morning. Getting back to reality after a few days like that is a bit of a downer.
Underneath all the happiness of this last week, however, my heart has been hurting for my dear friend over this first anniversary of her husband's death. I have so much to be thankful for and she reminds me never to take the most important things for granted.

2.5 hours folding laundry

2011-11-22T01:32:00.000-06:00

2.5 hours. That's what happens when you wait until you have seven baskets of laundry to fold. Yes, seven. I'm determined to get all caught up before Rosalynde comes on Wednesday.
Today felt very unproductive to me, despite the 7 baskets of laundry folded. I slept in-- until 8:00. I'm giving the boys the week off of school, although they all have just a little bit left to finish from last week. I thought I'd get so much extra stuff done today. Instead, I got the bare minimum done, and no extras at all. Oh well. We had breakfast and scripture study, then I got the boys started on chores while I drove through some rain showers down to Ben's work to drop off a white shirt and tie for a presentation he forgot about. Then back home to help Joseph and Brigham with the flute/violin Christmas duets they're working on. I've had to transcribe a couple of the pieces up a few notes, and then re-wrote the violin part on all three because the violin part was really dumb. So I finished that up, and then worked with Joseph and Brigham on learning their parts. I made lunch and read some of one of our school books to them, and then it was time to go to horseback riding-- a makeup lesson for the one we're missing this weekend. Brigham had a great riding lesson-- especially good after feeling quite discouraged about riding earlier in the day. Joseph and Mosey explored around the ranch and found a runaway fluffy white rabbit which they managed to catch and return to its cage. Joseph caught it by the scruff of its neck, and Mosey helped carry it by supporting it's back end. Cute to see them working together. After horseback riding, we stopped at Target to pick up a prescription, and then drove straight to flute where Joseph and Brigham worked on their duets. Mosey and I talked strategy for how to handle my new primary class. :-) Then back again through 5:30 rush-hour traffic and home. I made dinner-- black beans and rice and carrots, and then FHE and delivering thank-you muffins to a few people who helped Ben and I out with our Temple trip this last weekend, and then time for BED for the boys when we got home at 9:15 PM. Cleaning up dinner and folding laundry occupied the rest of the evening and now I'm just stalling getting ready for bed.
Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to get done all those extra things I thought I'd have time for without school lessons?

Squirrely 8 year olds

2011-11-21T00:04:00.000-06:00

Today was my first day of my new calling-- teaching the 7-turning-8 class. Since it's the end of November, most of the kids are now 8. But wow, get eight 8 year olds together, and you have some serious squirreliness going on! I'm going to have to put my thinking cap on for how to keep the attention of these little kids for one hour in a small room, with the irresistible temptation of other kids to poke, laugh at, and talk to. I'm of the opinion that it really is too much to ask these kids to sit down and hold still for 3 hours of church. Especially little boys. So, how to give them the opportunity to get out some of their energy so they can actually focus on the lesson? I can't really lead them on a romp around the outside of the church, so that's out. :-) I'm thinking about legos. I know that my boys can pay much better attention to me when I'm reading to them when they have something to do with their hands. Could it ever possibly work to give each child a tupperware of legos to play with during the lesson, with the warning that the first time the legos become distracting to another child, they are gone? Or maybe little notebooks and pencils so they can draw pictures? When I was little, I could pay much better attention if I could be drawing. Maybe I'll let each child have the choice of sitting on the chair or sitting on the floor. But they have to be sitting. Maybe all of this will be one giant fiasco. But it will be fun to see if there is something that will work!

Another Saturday

2011-11-19T23:13:00.000-06:00

Ben and I went to the Temple today-- a trip that almost didn't happen. Ben scheduled the appointment 3 weeks ago (Saturday sessions go fast), but it didn't occur to me until Thursday night to look at my recommend. It expired in October. Oops. Luckily we have the best Bishop and most accommodating 1st counselor to the Stake President ever, and both of them came over to our house to interview me. Even that almost didn't happen-- I couldn't get a hold of anyone in the Stake Presidency all day. Turns out that 2 were out of town, and the 3rd was at work, and then out to dinner with his wife. But thanks to a Stake Executive Secretary who texted Brother Erickson for me, he came to my house at about 9:00, after his date with his wife. I definitely owe him some cookies. But meanwhile, I had called the Temple to see what their policy was (after all my recommend expired only 2 1/2 weeks ago), but that was a no-go, and before I knew what happened, the nice lady had canceled my appointment. Just after that, Brother Erickson called so I knew I'd be able to get the recommend in time, so I called the Temple back, and my appointment had already been snatched up! I was very upset. But Ben kept calling the Temple back every few minutes to see if any spots had opened up, and a few minutes before closing, they called him (they figured out who he must be and then looked up his phone number-- how nice!) to let him know they had one cancellation. So I got to go after all. Take that, Satan. :-)
Anyway, a couple of hours doesn't seem toooo far away to go to the Temple, but it took us ALL day!
We got up at 6:40, left the house by about 7: 25, and got to the Temple in San Antonio on time for a 9:30 session. I'm really slow, so we didn't get out of the Temple until around 12:30, and then a visit to the distribution center (which was crowded!), and a leisurely lunch meant we weren't really on the road until 2:30. And then Ben and I decided to stop and do some shopping, which meant sitting at a really AWFUL intersection for several minutes, and then on the way back we chose exactly the wrong exit to get off to get gas, which put us in the middle of a construction zone getting back on the freeway. Long story (and long day) short, we didn't get home until 5:30!
Good thing the boys are resourceful and responsible. They did just fine at home, although the house did sort of look like 2 ten year olds and one 7 year old had spent the day having free-reign in the house. :-) Not too bad, though. They did artwork, played with blocks and lincoln logs and hexbugs, watched several episodes of "Man Versus Wild," ate half a bag of pretzels and an entire bag of Quaker rice snacks and who knows how many bowls of cereal. It sure is nice to be able to leave the boys home and not worry about them!
Tonight we went and did our grocery shopping for Thanksgiving. Wow, Thanksgiving has totally sneaked up on me this year. HEB already has Christmas trees in front of the store! Brigham and Mosey have both commented on how strange it is that the years go by so fast. I don't know what to think about that. I remember the years passing by slowly when I was their age, especially the weeks leading up to the holidays. I'm not sure their perception is a reflection of the fast-pace of life we live in now, or a reflection of the fact that they're having fun! Time flies when you're having fun, you know.
I cut Ben's hair tonight while the boys were supposed to be getting ready for bed. Instead, they sat on the couch making up insults. It was quite entertaining.
"You are a rotten wiggy!" (This has been a standard insult at our house for a few years. I still don't know what it means.)
"Well you're a dead poon!" (Another Turner-boy affront.)
"You're a worn-out toothbrush!"
"Well you're a peed-in-pool!"
"You're Barack Obama!"
"Oh, yeah? You're George Bush!" (Hey, my boys are fair and balanced.)
This went on for several minutes until I finally gave them one more insult each and then it was time for bed.
Silly boys, all three of them are rotten wiggies. :-)

11/17/11

2011-11-17T23:09:00.001-06:00

Not much of note today. Lessons, practicing, and art. Mosey's cello teacher didn't show up. He hasn't replied to my emails or phone messages. I'm worried and hope everything is OK. Meanwhile, I've been talking to another teacher who might be able to teach him at our house. I think I've found a good teacher for Brigham, but of course her only available hours are exactly when we can't make it. I'm hoping to manage to work it out somehow.
I have no pictures from today, so here are some favorites from just about 6 years ago.

three things

2011-11-16T23:11:00.000-06:00

1. I woke up the boys by blasting "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from the Peer Gynt Suite. That's a pretty sure-fire way of getting anyone up and moving. Try it.

2. When it rains here in Texas (which it did yesterday morning, at least for a little while), these tiny little snails in conical shells emerge from where ever it is that they hide themselves. Yesterday while I was at speech with Mosey, Joseph and Brigham went out and collected about 25 of them and put them in a glass cup. I came home, and started clearing things up getting ready for dinner. When I picked up the cup to put it in the sink, it was a nice little surprise to look down and find it crawling with these slimy little creatures. Ewww. I never did stuff like that when I was a kid. :-)

3. I bought a bag of mixed in-shell nuts at Walmart the other night. I made the mistake of putting them out on the table during math. Math and nut-cracking are not compatible activities. The boys don't even like nuts very much, but cracking nuts is another story. The hand-held nutcracker is pretty hard-- it takes some dexterity and muscle. So the boys found a better way-- wedging the nut between the door and the door jam (on the hinged side), and then closing the door. It cracks the nut with a very satisfying crunch, sending fragments of shell scattering in all directions. Irresistible. And very messy.

Ramblings

2011-11-15T23:42:00.000-06:00

May-May left today. The boys sure enjoyed having her, and so did I.
Joseph spent yesterday and today sitting next to her doing his schoolwork. Just like old times.

I'm really enjoying the history we are studying this year-- American History. The curriculum we are using is pretty good with history-- a few workbooks, a pretty good textbook-type-book, and lots of good historical fiction and non-fiction. We're supplementing with Joy Hakim's "A History of US" which is fantastic. Anyway, we have just finished with the Revolutionary War, and the ratification of the Constitution. When I was at home over the summer going through my things, I found this old rolled-up copy of the Declaration of Independence that I must have gotten in 5th grade-- maybe on our class trip to Valley Forge? Anyway, at the bottom of course it has the list of signatures (I never really thought about how cool it is to look and see what these men's actual signatures looked like!), and right next to it is my name-- signed with my cute little 10-year-old signature. I thought it would be fun for my boys, exactly the same age I was (well, Mosey's pretty close!), to sign it too. They took it very seriously and now I'm really wishing I had a homeschool room so I could frame it and put it up on the wall.

This week started out pretty iffy, but it's going well now. Yesterday was a busy day. Well, every day is busy, but yesterday was busier than our normal Mondays because Brigham had his London College of Music exam in the afternoon, before Joseph's flute lesson. So we all had to leave the house at 3:15, which meant that all of our schoolwork and practicing needed to be done by then. And we had Tae Kwon Do at noon, so there went another hour. So I was very stressed out and managed to have Brigham in tears twice before noon. Awesome. Anyway, I had a good talk with myself during Tae Kwon Do, and when I got home I apologized to the boys and told them that I don't have any school planned for next week at all. So they can get all their schoolwork for this week done by Friday, and have all of next week off, or they can take it easy and do schoolwork for a couple of days next week. Well, of course they want all of next week off, so now they are motivated to get their schoolwork done and I don't have to nag them. I don't know why it took me all morning to figure that out. I have to remind myself frequently to relax. It's not the end of the world if every single one of their assignments doesn't get done every single day. One day of less-than-stellar practicing will not appreciably impact their future. :-)
So, the rest of the day yesterday went much better. Brigham did well on his exam. We won't know any results for a couple of days. Honestly, I don't even know how the scoring works. We did this purely on a whim. I think Brigham was nervous until I reassured him that this was entirely for fun, and that his score doesn't count for anything, and it was really nothing but an opportunity to learn some things and get a taste of the audition process. Then I think he was fine.
After flute lessons, we stopped at Target to pick up the new Harry Potter movie on DVD, which we then watched for FHE. I've listened to the soundtrack for that movie about 100 times since it came out, and it was fun to watch the movie again, being so familiar with the soundtrack.

Today was a good day as well. I think I was pretty successful in remaining relaxed. In fact, maybe a bit too much so. I didn't sleep too well the last couple of nights, and I was dragging by around 1:00. It's that whole right-after-lunch-time that I start feeling drowsy. Anyway, I was reading aloud to the boys, and finding myself losing my place on the page, and saying the wrong words. Finally I finished the chapter and the boys commented on something in the book. I started to reply in a coherent manner, but suddenly heard the boys ask, "What did you just say mom?" And I couldn't remember what I had just said! "Did you say something about Cake Wrecks?" It came back to me then. My sentence started out just fine, and then something slipped in my brain and I finished the sentence, entirely logically from my perspective, by saying, "But you never know if it might end up like a cake on Cake Wrecks." Make sense? No, not to me, either. (By the way, Cake Wrecks is a blog the boys and I think is hilarious-- take a look at it sometime!) The boys and I had a good laugh over that, and they've been teasing me the rest of the day.
Mosey had speech in the afternoon, and then Brigham and Joseph had Scouts. Every-other-Tuesday is pretty busy for me-- I leave at 3:50 to go to speech, come home and pick up Joseph and Brigham and leave immediately for Scouts. It's not worth it to go all the way back home, so I've been going to Walmart for groceries while they're at Scouts, and then picking them up before getting back home by around 7:45. Brigham and Joseph are really liking Scouts. Tonight they learned how to change a tire and check the oil. Pretty soon I will be able to cancel my AAA membership!
OK, time to go to bed before I start spouting nonsense again.

A couple of videos

2011-11-14T23:21:00.000-06:00

Here's a video I made of the boys at the park a couple of weeks ago. They buried each other in gravel and got incredibly dirty. I love these boys.

And here's a video from tonight. Mosey learned "How Firm a Foundation," and accompanied us for our FHE opening song. I love that their teacher is having them learn how to accompany right off the bat.
Excuse the messy, messy playroom. I claim no responsibility. :-)

Brigham's violin recital

2011-11-13T23:51:00.000-06:00

Brigham's first violin recital was yesterday. He did a good job. He played 3 short pieces that he will be playing on Monday for the London College of Music exam, and then a piano piece he just finished up. He didn't look nervous at all, and played well. He got the biggest smile when he was done, though. I remember that feeling of euphoria when you know you're done, and you can relax and listen to everyone else play.
I'm so proud of you, buddy!

Mrs. May--May

2011-11-13T23:46:00.000-06:00

We are dog-sitting a friend's dog for a few days. Her name is May-May, and she looks like Mister's twin sister. The resemblance is really eerie. Yesterday, when Laurie and John came to the house and May-May met them at the door, they said for a minute they thought Mister had come back from the dead. They called her "Missus" the rest of the time they were here. :-)

The boys have loved having her at our house. It feels natural to have a dog following me around and waiting to greet us at the door. May-May is fun and energetic and loves to PLAY! And she plays fetch. It's a good thing Mister isn't here-- he might start to feel insecure. :-)

I don't know who was having more fun-- the dog or the boys!

Joseph asked me last night, "Mom, do you think we'll ever get another dog?"

Seeing the boys with this dog makes me think the answer is probably yes.

11:11, 11/11/11

2011-11-11T11:11:00.001-06:00

11-11-11

Fun!

Mosey meets the baby!

2011-11-10T22:21:00.000-06:00

The newest addition to our art group came today! Baby William is all of 16 days old, and slept nearly the whole time he was here, despite being poked and prodded by various curious kids. Mosey was excited to see him. "He's so little!" It's so easy to forget how tiny and squishy they are at first!
I asked Mosey what he thought about the baby after everyone went home, and he got a big smile on his face and said, "That baby was weird!" Which, in Mosey-speak means, "That baby was cute!" He's a little bit too manly to say that a baby is cute. :-) Then he said, "Did you see his feet mom? His biggest toe was smaller than the end of my little finger!"
I sure do love little babies.
After art, when the kids were all running around playing, Mosey dragged out his music stand, cello, and cello bench. He wanted to play for his friends! How cute is that? I'm so glad he's feeling some pride in his playing. He's told me he wants to build a cello "repertoire," so he has a few songs he can always play for people. So every now and then when he's learning a new little song from his book he'll tell me, "I want to add this one to my repertoire, mom!" So far he's got "Ode to Joy," "Frere Jacque," and "The Can-Can." He's doing well on the cello, I think. He still complains about practicing from time to time, but he gets a kick out of me trying to play his songs for him on his cello. He is better than I am. :-) Maybe I should start taking lessons!
Which leads me to another weird (not cute) thing from today. Mosey's cello teacher didn't show up for the 2nd week in a row. What is going on?! I've emailed him and called him (left a message), but have had no response. I even googled his name (it's pretty unique) to see if there have been any news reports of an accident or something horrible, but nothing. I'm glad about that, but very puzzled over the whole situation. He's been a good teacher-- he did miss one other week with no notice, but emailed me a few days later to tell me his wife had a miscarriage and he left his home without his phone on his way to the hospital in Houston where she was. That's seemed like a good excuse. Every other time he's come he's been prompt and professional and has been a good teacher for Mosey. It's very odd. The last time he was here, a couple of weeks ago, I paid him for the month of November, and that was the last we've seen of him. But he hardly seems like the kind of person to carry off, nor is this the kind of situation that seems likely to be a scam. I guess I'll keep trying to get hold of him. So my music teacher woes continue. I still haven't figured out what to do about Brigham's teacher. I found another place very close by-- a violin shop actually, out of which 3 teachers are taking students. The teachers look really good-- one of them is exactly what I'm looking for. However, it's on the 2nd floor of a small office building that has no elevator. I'd like to sit in on lessons, and I'm not sure I feel comfortable sending my son into a strange building with no parental accompaniment.
Why is my life so hard?? :-)
Well, tomorrow is 11/11/11. I've set my alarm to go off at 11:00 AM so I can make sure we take proper note of 11:11 on 11/11/11. It's the little things in life, I tell you. :-)

A Room Made of Windows

2011-11-09T21:24:00.000-06:00

Several days ago I was ordering a book online when I happened to look down at the "customers who bought this item also bought" section. There, in front of my eyes, was the very book I've spent at least the past 3 years trying to find. It was my very favorite book when I was about 14. I remember putting it away in my book shelf alongside several other books that I was definitely going to keep my whole life. Well, sometime over the past 20 years that book disappeared. And I couldn't remember the name of it. Or the author. I knew it was some award-winner, and I scoured all the Newberry medal books for about 50 years trying to find that book. I knew I'd recognize the title or author if I ever saw it again. But no luck. So when I saw that book right there, I was so excited! I bought it right on the spot and it came in the mail today. Now that it's here, I'm a little hesitant to read it. Will it be as great as I remember it being? Probably not. But, it's a piece of my past and I'm happy to have it.
Oh yeah, it's "A Room Made of Windows" by Eleanor Cameron. It won the Horn Book Award in 1971.

7:45 PM

2011-11-08T23:31:00.001-06:00

A peek into our lives at 7:45 PM, 11/08/11:

Brigham was building blocks again, as usual.

Earlier in the evening, he was doing this (video courtesy of Mosey):

Joseph was practicing the flute.

I caught him in a cute candid.

When he realized I was taking pictures, he quickly reverted to the whole "If I can't see the camera, it can't see me" thing.

I was warning Mosey that he had to finish his cello practicing as soon as Joseph was done with his flute. This is the reaction I got. :-)

But, being the giggler in our family, he couldn't stay upset for long.

I was procrastinating cleaning up dinner.

Mosey took a picture of me taking a picture of him taking a picture of me of me taking a picture of... :-)

And here I am, actually taking a picture of my own reflection in the mirror.

I did eventually get the dishes done (Ben helped when he got home from EQ stuff). And now I'm going to bed.

monday

2011-11-07T22:41:00.000-06:00

I guess it is a little easier to drag myself out of bed at 6:30 in the morning when there is a little bit of light outside. That's the only good thing about the time change, though. I hate how dark it gets so early.
Today was a pretty average Monday. School lessons, practicing, Tae Kwon Do, flute lessons. On the way home from flute lessons Joseph's teacher called to tell me that Joseph left his lesson book at his house. Ugh! I had driven halfway home already. I had to turn around, drive back down, pick up the book, and then get back on the freeway, all of this smack-dab in the middle of rush hour. That little detour cost us 45 minutes extra in the car. The boys didn't mind too much since we were listening to Darke (Septimus Heap book 6), but we still hadn't done piano practicing for Joseph, violin for Brigham, or cello for Mosey, and I had to get dinner ready and Monday night means family home evening. Oh, well. As it was, Joseph did about half his piano, Brigham about half his violin, and Mosey skipped cello entirely. Really, it's the end of the world. :-)

tonight

2011-11-06T23:05:00.000-06:00

After dinner tonight, Joseph and Brigham both teamed up against Dad in an intense game of chess. I think Ben still won. :-)

Saturday summary

2011-11-05T23:56:00.001-05:00

Ben took the boys fishing this morning, out to Inks Lake (one of the few that actually has some water in it anymore), as part of an Elders Quorum activity. I had been worried yesterday that Joseph wouldn't get to go, since he woke up sick and throwing up. What is it with my boys and the stomach bug?! Since the time they were babies they are so susceptible! I feel so bad for them when they're sick like that-- there's nothing I can do for them. Yesterday, Joseph asked in such a pitiful voice if I had some medicine he could take to make him stop throwing up. I know just how he feels, having spent many, many weeks of my life feeling just as miserable. There's nothing I could do but tuck him into my bed and put on The Lord of the Rings to try and distract him. Thankfully, by yesterday afternoon he was feeling better and this morning he was totally fine for the fishing trip. That meant I had the morning free! I really went wild and crazy and got some laundry done. :-) I also met with Erica, the new 2nd counselor, handing off material she will need, and trying to train her in the calling as best I could. She'll do a good job. I spent a couple of hours last night summarizing my calling and everything I felt like I had learned about it. I also went back and summarized all the activities that I was in charge of over the past 2 1/2 years. Twenty-one different activities! Wow. I got a little bit tired just remembering them all. :-)
While Erica was here, she also offered the boys their 2nd dog-sitting gig, over Thanksgiving weekend. (Their first starts on Monday, for a dog of another couple in our ward, and the boys are very excited.) $10/day is a deal for dog-sitting, and a fortune for little boys. Joseph in particular can't wait.
When I told the boys about it, Mosey said, "Maybe we can just dog sit a whole bunch of dogs instead of getting a dog."
This has crossed my mind, although for Joseph I'm not sure dog sitting will really be an adequate replacement. But maybe I'll be surprised. He has spent several hours researching different dog breeds online, and got a couple of books on Golden Retrievers at the library the last time we were there. That's the breed he has gravitated toward after all his reading. My grandpa always had a Golden Retriever when I was growing up, and they are sure good, good dogs. Also very, very hairy dogs. Why am I so obsessed with having clean floors? Is that obsession really worth denying my boy the companionship of a dog that I know he will love so much? Having a dog is so much responsibility, though. You have to figure out arrangements for it whenever you leave, you have to clean up dog poop from the back yard (it's been really nice not having dog poop back there), you have to train them and feed them and clean up after them and accept the responsibility for the next 12-14 years! It's a lot! I'm not ready to make any decision yet, but if we do get a dog, we'll have it for at least as long as the boys are in the house, and probably a few years longer than that. It's a big, long-term responsibility that's a scary proposition to take on when you don't know what the future will bring.
Anyway, the rest of the day went well. In the afternoon a woman from our ward came over to talk about homeschooling, as she is thinking of pulling her kids out of school after Christmas. It was fun talking to her and getting excited about it all over again, and remembering all the reasons I'm doing this crazy thing. While I was talking to her about something-- I think about possibly doing an intensive foreign language unit over the summer, Mosey was listening and said, "Mom, we hardly ever study our Greek and Latin roots anymore, it's annoying! Can't we study them again?" Talk about a well-timed commercial for homeschooling! I looked at Andrea and said, "I doubt you hear things like that from many public-schooled kids." :-) (Of course, Mosey is a pretty unusual kid-- you may not hear that from many homeschooled kids either!)
We're 9 weeks into our school year-- 1/4 of the way done already! That's amazing. I'm still really happy with how things are going. We've been able to keep up with everything, instead of slowly sliding into a less and less rigorous schedule as the semester progresses. I still always think I should be doing more, but I think I will always feel that way, no matter what. We haven't fallen behind in anything, and I consider that a big plus for the year so far. This has also been, by far, the most cooperative year we've had, in terms of the boys not resisting getting their lessons done. (To be fair, they've always been mostly cooperative in getting almost all of their lessons done, but there have been a couple of lessons for a couple of my children that have been the battleground for many a battle over the past 3 years.) There are still some complaints, of course, but nothing like what we've experienced in years past. It's so good to see progress being made.
In the evening I had delightful practicing sessions with Joseph on his flute, and Mosey on his cello. Really, delightful! (An adjective I don't always use for practicing sessions... :-)) And then it was off to get crickets for the lizards with Joseph, and to the grocery store. It was the 3rd time in as many days that I've been to HEB, and sure enough, a couple of the employees there commented on me coming in yet again. What can I say, HEB is just the happening place to be around here!
Then back home, groceries put away, kids put to bed, and the floors swept and mopped before the Sabbath tomorrow. (How is it that my floors can get so dirty in less than 24 hours-- during 17 of which my boys are either sleeping or not even at home??!!), and now I'm off to bed myself.

Like mother like son

2011-11-04T23:48:00.000-05:00

Just like his mom, Mosey does his chores better with something to listen to. :-)
Here he is listening to one of our history books for school.
MP3 players = the modern equivalent of a spoonful of sugar. :-)

(I'm a little dubious about the value of washing the kitchen table while crawling on it with your dirty bare feet, but, whatever. :-))

Cold!

2011-11-03T23:44:00.001-05:00

A cold front blew into Central Texas last night. I heard the wind howling all night long-- a sure sign of the changing weather. I don't think it got out of the 60's all day. I never thought I'd feel cold again! What a nice change.
Mosey went out in the backyard to do his math this morning-- all bundled up in his coat and mittens. I laughed, remembering the first cold front of the year back in Florida in 2006. The boys rode their big wheels to school and I rode my bike with Mosey in the baby seat in the back. That morning (probably in December), I got a kick out of all the kids walking to school bundled up in scarves and hats and gloves and big winter coats. I think it was maybe 65 degrees that morning (downright frigid for South Florida).
We get a bit more of a winter here than we did in Florida, so I thought my boys would be growing up a bit tougher. But I guess after the summer we've had, anything cooler than 80 degrees is going to raise goosebumps. :-) Today may well have been the first day since last April that our A/C hasn't kicked in at least once.
OK, now for a total non-sequitur. :-) I went to a baby shower tonight-- the second one I've been in about as many weeks. Our ward is having a veritable baby boom. I know of 9 babies that have been/will be born within a 9 month period or so, 3 in November alone! For not being in a student ward, that is a lot of babies! Baby showers are such happy parties, but still I leave with a twinge of melancholy. I wonder if that little sting of yearning will ever really go away. I remember before the twins were born, thinking that if I could just have one baby, I'd be so happy, I'd never complain again. And I'm not really complaining, but I can't help wishing I could have another one. I know it's impossible (thank you years of infertility topped by high-dose chemo drugs), but I get this weird feeling every so often-- almost like deja vu-- when I look around at my kids, and get this distinct feeling like someone is missing. Then I see they're all 3 there and nobody's missing. It's strange. It doesn't happen all that often, but when it does, the feeling comes on without warning. I remember being at Target once and looking around to make sure the boys were with me. I saw all three of them there, but still, for a fleeting moment, found myself scanning the aisle, looking for another child who wasn't there. It felt so real-- like I could almost "see" that child who wasn't there, just for a moment before I came to my senses.
I'm so thankful for my 3 boys. Being a mother has been all I hoped it would be, and more. Time is passing far too quickly.
If I could, I'd order up another 2 or 3 faster than you can say "dirty diapers!" I mean, look at these pictures! Yes, please. :-)

2011-11-02T22:15:00.000-05:00

I'm so tired. I got 3 hours of sleep last night. It happens when I neglect to organize and put things away for 3 days in a row. I couldn't handle it last night and spent a few hours getting things organized again. So I was dragging today, and I need to go to bed ASAP. Too bad I can always find something else I'd rather do than sleep.
I don't think Joseph was feeling very well today, either. He spent most of the day sitting or lying on the couch wrapped up in a blanket. This is definitely not like him. He wasn't feverish, though, and didn't have any other complaints. I guess we'll see if anything else comes of it.
We had a fun, relaxed day of lessons, although we should have been a bit more urgent in getting things done. As it was, I was helping kids finish various lessons right up until 9:00 PM tonight (with an hour break or so while I fixed dinner). The boys had Tae Kwon Do as well as piano lessons this afternoon, which put us further behind our schedule.
We're studying the Revolutionary War, and have been talking over the last couple of days about the differences between European and Indian styles of fighting, and how that carried over into how the Revolutionary War was fought. Then we got talking about how perhaps the National Guard is the modern equivalent of the Minutemen. And that led into me telling them about the L.A. riots back in the '90's and how the National Guard was called out. Which of course necessitated me explaining the history behind the Rodney King case and everything that followed. I pulled out an old photo album in which I had put a bunch of pictures I took several weeks after the riots when it was finally safe enough to drive through certain parts of L.A. What strange times those were.
That's one thing I like about homeschooling-- we can take time for detours. (Of course, if you're also a little uptight like me, it can also cause a bit of anxiety to be put off my "schedule.")
On a totally unrelated subject, I recently downloaded the soundtrack to "Big River" onto my ipod. This was a favorite musical of my family's when I was growing up. It amazes me so much to listen to this soundtrack for the first time in probably 17 years and discover that I still have all the words memorized. I hope this means that all the things that seem to slip through my brain like sand through a sieve are actually retained somewhere, waiting to be unlocked. :-) I still love the music, although it makes me laugh to think about our whole family on road trips listening to our well-loved tape of "Big River" and all of us, kids ages 2-18, singing along with the likes of "The Dadgummed Gov'ment." So funny, yet, really, so inappropriate. :-) I think we were very careful to self-censor ourselves when we sang that song. At least I know I was. :-)

1,000! A walk back through Halloweens past

2011-11-01T23:59:00.003-05:00

This is my 1,000th post!
In celebration, here are pictures from Halloween over the past 10 years. It's hard to believe how time has flown.
2001: We were in Los Angeles at my parents' house for the babies' first Halloween (Ben was studying for and taking an actuary exam). Uncle Christian made 2 month old Joseph and Brigham bug wings for their first "costumes."

2002: We went as the dog family. Ben was an awfully good sport. :-)

The adorableness of my babies just about kills me.

Yeah. Like I said, Ben was a very good sport. :-)

2003: Thing 1 and Thing 2! I went as the (7 months pregnant) Cat in the Hat.

2005: Our first Halloween in Florida. The boys went as bats.

Mosey went as his cute, rolie-polie-adorable little self.

(Joseph helped to decorate his own face.) I made the bat wings and ears. They had requested to be bats, and these costumes got lots of wear.

2005: Store-bought superhero costumes this year. Spiderman, Batman, and Superman. The twins wore those costumes until they were practically rags. I'm pretty sure that at some points they actually believed they *were* the real Spiderman and Batman. :-)

2006: Skeletons and a cute bumble bee. Poor Mosey was positively drenched in sweat when the boys finally came home from trick-or-treating.

2007: Joseph and Brigham had 2 costumes this year-- they were pirates at the ward Trunk or Treat.

Of course Mosey went as his adored Sunshine Bear.

For the actual Trick-or-Treating, however, Joseph and Brigham wanted to go as the Scream and a Dementor. (No masks allowed at the church party, which accounts for the pirate costumes. I wish they would have stuck with those costumes which I liked better anyway.)

2008: First Halloween home from the hospital.
This is still one of my favorite pictures of Brigham, dressed as a knight.

Joseph wanted to be a zombie this year.

But Mosey stayed with the adorable scene and stole the show in his Scooby suit.

2009: Homemade costumes this year! Ben and Joseph went as sorcerers. Brigham was a union soldier, and Mosey was a wolf.

2010: Homemade again that year-- Brigham was a zombie.

Joseph looked totally creepy as an alien.

Mosey the Pirate!

Which brings us to 2011! I wonder what they will be next year?

999: Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T23:58:00.001-05:00

Hey! This is my 999th post. Wow!
Well, we had a great Halloween.
We had lessons in the morning/afternoon as usual. By around 3:30 PM the boys were cleaning out pumpkin guts and getting ready for the evening's festivities.
The boys were pretty creative in their pumpkin designs this year, and between helping them, I didn't get to our traditional pineapple jack-o-lantern. I did the watermelon, just no pineapple. Oh well, next year!
Ben took the boys out trick-or-treating and I stayed home handing out candy. We had more trick-or-treaters this year than we ever have! It was really fun. Joseph has this motorized bat that flaps its wings and flies around on a string you hang from the ceiling. He hung it up above the front patio and it was irresistible to all the little kids coming by. They all had to come and stare at it up close.
The boys stayed out for about an hour I think, then came home and watched "The Great Pumpkin" on the computer before finally being persuaded to go to bed.
Here are the pictures!
When the boys told me they wanted to be British red coats, I was a bit worried. There are no children's sized British red coat costume patterns, so I had to find another pattern and modify it. They turned out well, although they took a long time to make. I finished listening to 3 audio books while making these. :-) ("The Worst Hard Time," "The History of US volume 1," and "The Forgotten 500" for the record. All very good books.)
Over the past week or so, the boys have been wearing their costumes almost every day. It's really gratifying to see how much they like them! Also funny to see them going about their normal day in costume. :-)
Here's Mosey working on some spelling.

And Joseph practicing his flute. He actually looks like an army fife here, I think!

This picture made me laugh-- look what he's reading! We're studying the Revolutionary War right now, so it is great timing.

Last Saturday was our ward's trunk-or-treat at the park.
Here are the three British regulars!

Anyone need children's British redcoat costumes? I've got three!

Marching off in-step to interrogate the rest of the crowd about their loyalty to King George. If they were not sufficiently enthusiastic in their professions of loyalty, they were shot without mercy!

I tried to get a couple of individual pictures of each of the boys. Here's Captain Brigham Turner:

And Lieutenant Moses Turner. He takes this all very seriously!

I didn't get an individual shot of Joseph (he slipped away mysteriously), but here's a candid during dinner:

And Colonel Joseph Turner with Lieutenant Mosey.

There were also a number of pirates there, which the boys were quick to capture and demand to see their letters of marque. If they didn't have them? Bam!
Here's one about to lose his loot to Brigham.

Anyway, that was a fun night.
Now for tonight. Here are the boys getting ready to head out trick-or-treating.

And the pumpkin masterpieces.
Joseph carved a pumpkin pi. Get it? :-) He just finished a unit on finding the area and circumference of circles, so pi was on his mind. I thought he was very clever to think of it!

You can't see it in the picture above (it was still a little light out when I took that picture), but pi was also written around the top of the pumpkin-- to the 26th decimal place!

Here's a little better shot when it was darker.

Brigham carved a British Regular on his pumpkin. He made the design and carved it out all on his own.

Here he is with his masterpiece.

Mosey found a wolf pattern online and carved about half of it himself. We don't have any good pumpkin carving knifes, so I thought he did a really good job.

And here's my watermelon jack-o-lantern. No pineapple buddy this year!

So that was it! I hope everybody else had a fun Halloween. Let the sugar-fest begin!

Weekly letter Oct. 30

2011-10-31T00:11:00.000-05:00

Hi Everyone,
[Edit: I was released from my calling as 2nd counselor in the Relief Society presidency last week. I've known about it for a couple of weeks, but didn't talk about it on this blog since it wasn't announced at church yet. I've been in the presidency for 3 years, and served as the 2nd counselor for 2 1/2 years, so I suppose the time was right for a change. It was good timing as it happened on the same day that Ben was called to be Elders Quorum President, but my feelings have been very mixed about the whole thing. I've love this calling, but it has absolutely pushed me beyond my comfort zone on a regular basis. It's good to feel important and needed, and a little disorienting not to have a calling. It's also nice not to have a calling for a little while. :-) I'll really miss the close association I had with the other women in the presidency and with the women on my committee. Will I have any friends anymore? :-)]
I think I did my very last ever 2nd counselor related task last night. I made a poster and attendance and food sign-up sheets for the November activity that my committee and I had planned. I emailed them to the new counselor, and that was that! I will miss so many things about this calling, but I am also quite happy not to have to make a hundred phone calls and stress about asking people to participate and figure out how to make it to the church to decorate before hand and keep track of receipts and stay up all night the night before to make sure everything is all set to go and then analyze and over-analyze how things went and did we get enough people coming, and was it worth their time, etc., etc., etc. Today at church I happily signed the attendance sheet that I had made, signed up to bring a topping for our potato bar, and then passed the clip-board on to the next person. What a strange feeling!
I have no calling yet. In Sacrament meeting, one of our Gospel Doctrine teachers was released, and a new one was not called, so I am REALLY, REALLY, REALLY hoping I am not being considered for that calling. I know callings are supposed to help us to learn and grow, but that is one calling I am petrified of, and I really don't think I would do well. I need to go and find some wood to knock on for the next 10 minutes. :-)
This past week was pretty good. My van is back from the shop, and fixed, although over the last couple of days the brake/ABS lights have gone on randomly while I'm driving, which was one of the problems it was having before getting repaired, so I'm wary. Maybe it's just residual "issues" getting worked out with the new part? I hope so. When we picked it up from the shop and drove it home, I was very annoyed to find that the right blinker was still blinking abnormally fast-- something it had started doing just a couple of days before taking it into the shop. I thought it was an electrical issue. After we got home I googled "turn signal blinking too fast" and lo and behold I discovered that cars are wired for the blinker to go really fast when one of the lights are out! Who knew? (Don't tell me if you knew that.) So for FHE last week we went to O'Reilly's and Ben showed the boys how to change the brake lights. I'm sure I could have come up with some spiritual analogy, but I didn't. :-)
Tuesday was such a busy day. Since I didn't get my car back until Monday night, we rescheduled Joseph's flute lesson for Tuesday evening. So Mosey, Joseph, and I left at 3:45 to take Mosey to speech. Joseph hung out with me during his session. (Another clinician is supervising Mosey's therapy right now since his previous one is on maternity leave. He's also a (mostly) former stutterer. So interesting to talk to other adults who stutter! I don't really define myself as a stutterer too much anymore, but there will be elements of my character that are forever shaped by those formative experiences growing up, and there are situations still that bring up all those old feelings. I've actually found myself using some of the techniques Mosey has been practicing in speech in certain situations for myself!) Afterward, we quickly swung by Burger King to get the boys some food (did you know BK now carries veggie burgers?? Awesome!), and then not-so-quickly sat on the freeway in 5:30 rush-hour traffic until we got to Ben's work where I dropped Mosey off and then got back on the freeway in rush-hour traffic to take Joseph to his flute lesson. Then we got back on the freeway and sped as fast as I dared back home in time to take Joseph to the scout pack meeting that night where he and Brigham got their Bear and a few other patches and pins and whatnot. Then finally back home at around 8:30 to supervise bedtime and last-minute cello practicing before having my final 2nd-counselor-related meeting with Judy. Phew!
On Friday night we had a pizza party for our art group. We had 12 kids here eating pizza and watching The Sound of Music. I was actually pleasantly surprised at how well many of the kids did in maintaining their interest over that 3 hour movie. There was a lot of gun and sword fighting upstairs during some of the slower scenes, but I believe everyone saw enough of the movie to follow the plot. And it was so fun to hear all those kids singing along with "Do a Deer." I also realized having a pizza and root beer float party for 12 kids 3 hours after the house is finished getting cleaned is probably not a great idea. I spent 2 hours after the party cleaning up again. :-)
The mom of 4 of the kids in our art group finally had her baby this past week-- 10 days late and 10 lbs! Mosey was disappointed when I told him she wouldn't be bringing her baby to the party. I can't wait to see him. I love babies (especially big fat baby boys just like my Mosey) and I wish I could have had a few more.
Last night was our ward's fall festival. We had it at a park out in Steiner Ranch instead of at the church, which was being used by the other 2 wards for their joint Trunk-or-Treat (still feeling a bit rejected that Anderson Mill ward was pointedly not invited...) It was good, though, because more people probably came than would have anyway because of it not being 30 minutes away for the Steiner Ranch folks. And other people at the park joined in with some of the games the Youth set up, and for the Trunk-or-Treating, so it was a missionary opportunity to boot!
The boys' red-coat costumes were a hit. They do look so cute together. The boys have been wearing their costumes non-stop this past week. So funny to look around and see red-coats working on math and spelling. But the fact that the boys so clearly enjoy these costumes makes it worth the effort it took to make them.
On the way home, we stopped at HEB to get pumpkins to carve on Monday, as well as our traditional pineapple and watermelon. My 3 red-coats were also a big hit at the grocery store. :-)
I'm still looking for a new violin teacher for Brigham. Why is this so hard? The lady I really want is all booked up. I need to find out if she has a waiting list. There are a couple of other teachers that teach out of the violin shop down off of Lamar and they look promising, but then I'd have to drive down there every week. There's another violin shop really close by, about 3 minutes away, and there are 3 teachers that teach from there, including one I'm very interested in. But the studio is on the 2nd floor of this cool little mediterranean-architectured office building which I'm pretty sure does not have an elevator. Maybe I'm wrong, I need to check that out. It's going to be awkward in any case quitting from the guy Brigham's taking from now, and I'd rather not have to do that again if I can avoid it, so I want to make the right decision with this new teacher. I think I will schedule 1 trial lesson with 3 of the teachers I'm looking at and then hopefully be able to make a decision. Joseph wants to try another flute teacher. I'm really torn on this. His current teacher is a very nice person and an outstanding flutist. He came to Joseph's piano recital last year, and has been very supportive and encouraging and kind to Joseph. But Joseph is the first beginning student he's ever taught, and I wonder if there are things a more experienced teacher could be teaching Joseph more effectively. Also, his teacher is French and while he speaks English, his accent is heavy and sometimes his word choices are awkward, and Joseph doesn't always fully understand him. But Joseph is too shy/embarrassed to say when he's not understanding. I think those things combine to make lessons stressful for Joseph. But I really like this guy! There aren't any other male flute teachers around, and while I know that isn't a huge deal, it was definitely a plus. And he is such a very nice person, and as far as I can tell a really good teacher. I don't know. I have a trial lesson scheduled with a teacher that lives a lot closer by, so if we do switch I guess I can tell Francois that it's too far to drive every week. Why do I feel guilt like this? Joseph is my primary concern, not Francois.
Well, that's it for tonight. Tomorrow is going to be a challenge keeping the boys focused on schoolwork. They were dismayed to realize that Halloween is not a no-school holiday. :-)

Love,
Gabrielle

Weekly letter Oct. 23 plus some pictures

2011-10-24T23:05:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone,
Here are the high (and low) lights of the week:

1. The primary program was today. The boys all had a part. Joseph gave one of the talks he gave in primary last June, Mosey had a part that he memorized, and Brigham played a violin solo-- "Praise to the Man." They all did a great job. I commented to Ben as they were up there about how far Joseph has come from 4 years ago when he first of all refused to go up there for the program, and then when we sternly "encouraged" him to go up there, he did and then hid under the sacrament table. I guess they do grow up. :-) Not only did Joseph very happily go up there, he actively volunteered to read a second part originally supposed to be given by a boy who couldn't come at the last minute. Mosey is fun to watch up there. He is an enthusiastic singer, and so cute. Brigham did a super job on his violin solo. I guess he got a lot of compliments-- he told me after church, "I feel like I'm famous now!" Joseph and Brigham are among the "big kids" up there. How can it be that they have only 1 more primary program?! :-(

2. I finished the boys' costumes! They turned out really well I think. I don't have pictures yet, so you'll have to wait until next week. They took a long time to make. My problem is that I am not a very fast sew-er. And I'm a perfectionist. Those two qualities combine to turn any sewing project I do into a bigger production than it ought to be. The more time I spend on a project, the more perfectionistic I become ("I've already spent this long on it, it better be perfect!"). Anyway, after a week of late nights and blowing through 3 audio books, they are finished! The boys really like them. I have gotten a lot of "These are the best costumes we've ever had, mom," which makes it worth it. And the boys get a lot of use out of costumes because they actually use them!

3. The boys had their Halloween piano recital yesterday. Joseph played "Theme from E.T.," Brigham played "Harry's Wondrous World," and Mosey played his own arrangement of 3 Halloween songs, entitled "No Moon for a Witch and a Mouse." It was his first piano recital! And I didn't even get to see it. The Halloween recital is only for students. :-)

4. Ben fixed the garbage disposal. I never knew how much we rely on a garbage disposal (or at least 2 functioning sinks) until ours broke. The boys and I did a science experiment making a homemade battery with pennies, aluminum foil, and salt water. The battery worked, and then the salt-encrusted pennies got put into a cup of water to soak. Then the cup of pennies accidentally got dumped down the sink. Ben thought he got all the pennies, but apparently one lodged inside the garbage disposal, jamming it up. But Ben put on his Mr. Fix-it hat, took the garbage disposal out from under the sink, found the rogue penny, pried it out, and then successfully put everything back where it goes. My hero!

5. My car broke. Well, it didn't actually break, but it came close. Apparently there is some part that provides pressure to both the steering and brake fluids, and it cracked. It started making a funny sound a couple of weeks ago, and steadily got worse until by Wednesday I did not dare drive it anymore. And it's a good thing I didn't, because if that part had fully broken, the steering and the brakes would have gone out. And that would have been a very bad thing. It's unfortunately an expensive fix, around $1,000, but that's how it goes. I'm really glad it didn't totally break on me while I was driving. Ben took it to the shop yesterday morning, and they ought to have been finished with it by yesterday afternoon, but they got the wrong part and now it won't be done until Monday. Grrr. We'll have to skip TKD, and reschedule flute lessons. There's never a good time to not have a car.

6. Related to #4, Ben played chauffeur for us yesterday. He got up at 7:00 to take the car to the shop, jogged home, drove the boys to the piano recital, drove me to a baby shower, drove to Target to buy some gift cards for me to give as a present for the baby shower (like I said, I hadn't dared drive since Wednesday, and so I hadn't purchased a gift), then drove back to the baby shower to give it them to me, then drove over to pick up the boys from the recital, and drove back to pick me up from the shower. Then an hour and a half later he drove me and the boys up to a park so I could visit teach while our kids played. He went to Best Buy to look at laptops, and then drove back to pick us up. Then it was back home for quick baths for the boys (at the park, they took turns completely-- totally and utterly-- burying each other in the gravel under the swing set. They got very dirty. :-)), and then he drove the boys over to Traci's apartment where she took them to go to the "Boo at the Zoo," a fun haunted zoo thing at the Austin Zoo. Ben and I drove around for a while trying to think of what to do with no kids (it doesn't happen often, and our minds went blank!) before deciding to split a veggie burger at The Cheesecake Factory and then go to the grocery store. It was apparently Homecoming for one of the local high schools, so the place was overrun by gangly teenage boys and appallingly skimpily dressed teenage girls. I can't understand how any parent-- especially any father-- can allow their daughters to go out like that! Even if you have no moral standards of modesty, it defies sense that any parent can think it's OK for their minor daughters to go out in public like that!
Ben and I talked about whether or not the secularizing trend in the western world can be reversed, and if so, what it would take for that to happen. I wonder similarly if the sexualizing trend in our American society can be reversed. Preferably in the next couple of years before my boys reach puberty. :-)

Well, that's it for tonight. I'm going to try to get more than 4 hours of sleep a night, which is about what I averaged last week.
I hope everyone had a great week!

Love,
Gabrielle

We put up our Halloween decorations last week. Mosey got my witch's hat out of the box and sported it while doing his math homework. :-)

Cute witch!

Mosey likes to do his schoolwork in interesting places. On the stairs, on the floor, sitting on top of the table (if I don't catch him doing it first).
Here he is doing some history narration while standing on the couch. Whatever works!

One of the boys' favorite computer games (and Ben's too), is Civilization. Recently a friend of ours gave the boys the most recent version, Civilization V, about which I have mixed feelings. Among computer games, it is pretty good. It's a game of strategy, it incorporates elements and characters from history, and there is no graphic violence (there are armies that destroy each other, but it's along the lines of Risk). But it is a computer game, and it's no substitute for regular play or reading. Played in moderation I think it is fine. But Brigham loves, loves, loves that game, and, like his dad, can get lost in it for hours. I have to watch him closely. :-) But look how happy he is playing it!

Here are videos of the boys playing their Halloween songs and wearing their new costumes.

tough week

2011-10-18T01:20:00.000-05:00

Last week was a rough week. Mostly because of one very stressful thing going on. But this week is better, and I'm hoping to be able to stay on a more stable emotional keel.
A couple of significant things have happened, mainly that Ben was called to be Elders Quorum President. Not that much of a surprise, but still a little overwhelming when it becomes a reality. He'll do a great job, but it's going to mean a lot more time away from home for him. He was gone for 6 hours on Saturday helping with a move. I've got some strong opinions about the Elders Quorum Moving Company (sarcasm), but this isn't the forum. :-)
The boys had a good day today. We got very nearly all of our schoolwork done, despite getting started about an hour too late. I was up too late the night before and overslept by 45 minutes. And I'm up too late again, tonight. Oops.
I'm trying to cut down on my yelling (that is my weakness), and staying up too late doesn't help. I yell when I get frustrated-- it's not indicative of me being really angry, usually I'm not angry at all. Just frustrated. But it's way too easy to interpret yelling as anger, and that's not fair for the boys. I don't yell THAT much, really. :-) But I'd like to get to the point where I don't yell at all.

Mosey and Joseph had TKD, and then Joseph had flute. We all went to Target after that to pick up prescriptions, look at Halloween decorations, and do a much-needed grocery run. In the car we are continuing to listen to Joy Hakim's A History of US. We're listening to volume 1 right now (about halfway through). I'm having them read the other ones on their own, but this one we're listening to together. She has a bunch of interesting questions she asks, and it was pretty cool to have discussions with the boys about making judgments upon other cultures and times, about how things might have changed if only for one person or one decision. They're all smart boys and it's fun to be able to hear what they think.

We came home and Ben was asleep (up until past midnight at his first EQP meeting), so we decided to postpone FHE until tomorrow. Frozen pizza and grapes made a super-fancy dinner. :-)
The boys have decided they want to be British redcoats for Halloween, so I've been plugging away on the boys' costumes, hoping I'll be able to finish by Saturday when they will be wearing them for their Halloween piano recital. There are no child's red coat costume patterns, so I'm modifying another one I found. It's working out, but it's very slow going as I try to figure out what I'm doing. I love how excited they are about the costumes, though, so it's worth a few late nights. I might disagree with myself in about 5 hours when I need to be up for the day, but oh well. :-)

Weekly letter Oct. 9

2011-10-11T22:31:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone,
I'm so tired right now, I am eating chocolate chips to keep myself awake enough to write this email.
The biggest news of the week is that it RAINED! A lot! I woke up Friday morning to the sound of rain on the roof. There is no more beautiful sound around these parts. And then yesterday it rained even more! The boys were so excited-- they got on their swimming suits and ran out in the rain and got totally drenched. I wish I could have joined them!
During the first downpour, Joseph and Mosey went right out in their clothes.

(pretending to be mimes trapped behind glass)

After that, I made them change into their swimming suits.

I think it was the first time since about last March that my kids have felt COLD outside!

Ben went out to Bastrop yesterday as part of a regional clean-up project (Bastrop is where the worst of the fires was). He came back covered in soot, and totally exhausted. He spent 4 hours with a chainsaw, cutting down burned trees and piling them up to be hauled off. The clean up required out there is overwhelming.

Fireman Ben

The rest of the week was pretty normal with school work and music lessons and tae kwon do and such.
I've signed up Brigham for a month of lessons with another violin teacher (his old one is now in Boston). I'm not thrilled about him, truth be told, but I'll give him a month. I emailed several people who advertised on Craigslist, and heard back from 4 of them. One is a very sweet girl who lives pretty close by, but I get the sense that she's not going to push Brigham very hard. I heard back from two other guys-- one seemed great until I checked out the blog and facebook page he linked to. Ummm, a facebook page with bizarre pictures of yourself, and a blog page with new-age-y really bad poetry is not a great way to advertise yourself. Maybe I'm judging too much on appearances. The other guy also seemed OK, but he's very young. I think a college student at UT, and I'd rather have someone with more experience. So I went to this other guy who has a music conservatory about 15 minutes away. He teaches piano, cello, violin, and viola. His main instrument is piano, and then cello. On his resume I couldn't see any performance experience with violin. But, he has lots of years of teaching, and an established studio, so I thought we'd give him a try. I'm underwhelmed. He's this short, odd, 40-something year old man who is not married (and I doubt ever has been), whose mother runs his studio office. None of which make him a bad teacher or human being at all, but I'd prefer a teacher that Brigham can sort of relate to and want to emulate. And he didn't really do any teaching during Brigham's trial lesson-- just heard him play, and then talked to us about signing him up for the London College of Music exam next month. Hmm, writing this I'm wondering why I signed him up for any other lessons. But, I did, so we'll see. He does have an established studio with lots of students, so that's something. Why is this so hard?
What else? I taught music leading at our art class on Thursday. It was rather entertaining to watch 11 pre-teens enthusiastically waving their arms around. They did a good job!
I can't think of any other noteworthy happenings this last week. I've read (listened to) a couple of really interesting books recently, if anyone is needing a book recommendation.
"The Clockwork Universe." Here is Amazon's description:
The Clockwork Universe is the story of a band of men who lived in a world of dirt and disease but pictured a universe that ran like a perfect machine. A meld of history and science, this book is a group portrait of some of the greatest minds who ever lived as they wrestled with nature’s most sweeping mysteries. The answers they uncovered still hold the key to how we understand the world.
At the end of the seventeenth century—an age of religious wars, plague, and the Great Fire of London— when most people saw the world as falling apart, these earliest scientists saw a world of perfect order. They declared that, chaotic as it looked, the universe was in fact as intricate and perfectly regulated as a clock. This was the tail end of Shakespeare’s century, when the natural and the supernatural still twined around each other. Disease was a punishment ordained by God, astronomy had not yet broken free from astrology, and the sky was filled with omens. It was a time when little was known and everything was new. These brilliant, ambitious, curious men believed in angels, alchemy, and the devil, and they also believed that the universe followed precise, mathematical laws—a contradiction that tormented them and changed the course of history.
The Clockwork Universe is the fascinating and compelling story of the bewildered geniuses of the Royal Society, the men who made the modern world.
And then yesterday I finished "Demon Under the Microscope." Here's the description:
The Nazis discovered it. The Allies won the war with it. It conquered diseases, changed laws, and single-handedly launched the era of antibiotics. This incredible discovery was sulfa, the first antibiotic. In The Demon Under the Microscope, Thomas Hager chronicles the dramatic history of the drug that shaped modern medicine.
Sulfa saved millions of lives—among them those of Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr.—but its real effects are even more far reaching. Sulfa changed the way new drugs were developed, approved, and sold; transformed the way doctors treated patients; and ushered in the era of modern medicine. The very concept that chemicals created in a lab could cure disease revolutionized medicine, taking it from the treatment of symptoms and discomfort to the eradication of the root cause of illness.
A strange and colorful story, The Demon Under the Microscope illuminates the vivid characters, corporate strategy, individual idealism, careful planning, lucky breaks, cynicism, heroism, greed, hard work, and the central (though mistaken) idea that brought sulfa to the world. This is a fascinating scientific tale with all the excitement and intrigue of a great suspense novel.
These were really great books! My favorite combination-- interesting, well-written, and teaching me something new. There are so many interesting things to learn in this world, and not enough time to learn even a tiny bit of it. And I also just finished "A History of Us: Volume 1" by Joy Hakim. She has a series of 11 books of American history, aimed at probably the upper elementary/middle school level, but totally interesting and accessible to all ages! It's not dumbed down at all and I learned a lot. The first one goes from pre-history to 1600. So interesting! So well-written! I've decided to add these books on to our history curriculum. She also wrote 3 books on the history of science that I've been working my way through. They are also aimed at kids, but they again, are so engaging and well-written and fascinating, anyone would love them. The 10 volume American History set goes for more than $100 on Amazon, but I think I'm going to make the plunge.
Well, that's it for tonight.

Love,
Gabrielle

Fun

2011-10-07T00:34:00.000-05:00

Today in our homeschool art co-op, I taught the kids the basics of leading music-- 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, and 6/8 time, finding the downbeat, starting with the upbeat, etc. I was happy to see how fast they caught on. And there was something really awesome about seeing 9 boys (and 2 girls), ages 7-11, waving their arms about, leading music with the energy and verve that only kids that age can muster. I should have taken a picture!

Overheard

2011-10-07T00:30:00.001-05:00

While eating lunch today, Joseph and Brigham had a very interesting conversation. They were discussing what to be when they grow up. Apparently they have decided that they want to have a business together, and they were brainstorming ideas. Joseph said to Brigham, "Maybe you can become an expert in fission or fusion and we can have a company that does that." Then followed a great little exchange in which Joseph described the difference between fusion and fission. He got it right! And then Brigham said, "I don't understand how making two atoms fuse together can release energy. If splitting atoms apart releases energy, then doesn't making them go together take energy? You can't make energy out of nothing." Hooray, some of the things we've been learning about the last couple of years are sticking! It's actually a great question, and I'm too far removed from my chemistry days to give him a very good answer. :-) Next, Brigham said, "I'm going to find a way to make a new kind of steam engine and get rich." He is forever coming up with some Rube Goldberg contraption, often involving steam engines. :-) But Joseph shot him down saying, "Steam engines aren't energy efficient." Some other ideas they had: a company making army tanks. An oil company. Starting a new car company. Making a satellite company. "I bet you can make a lot of money by sending satellites up into space!"
I loved overhearing that conversation! And I can't wait to see what they end up doing with their lives. :-)

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 02, 2011

Weekly letter from October 2

Hi Everyone,
Late night again, tonight. I should be in bed in 20 minutes, but I know it isn't going to happen.
Here's what else happened this week:
Monday: Lessons, tae kwondo. Visiting teaching in the afternoon.
For FHE we went to Walmart (so spiritual! :-)) in hopes of finding a pattern and fabric for the boys' Halloween costumes which they have been "reminding" me about. Frequently. :-) Anyway, this was the only Walmart in the area with a sewing department, and I was really dismayed to see it moved around, and greatly reduced in size. No pattern books, just a few generic costume patterns on display. And their $1 and $2/yard fabric section is gone. I think there are still some good prices, but they mixed all the fabric up, and you have to search through each bolt to find the price. Grrr, boo, arrgh! I'm so disappointed. First of all, Walmart was way cheaper than Hancock Fabric (the only other fabric store near me), and also Walmart has the ride-on carts. Hancock Fabric does not, so I have to lug my wheelchair there, and then I don't have anywhere to put bolts of fabric because I can't push a cart, so I have to bring one of the boys with me to push the cart, and there's really nothing 8-10 year old boys love more than browsing through a fabric store with their mother. :-) Oh, well. I don't sew that much anyway. But it's still annoying.
Tuesday: Lessons, Mosey's speech therapy appointment. It was cloudy all day, and it actually rained a little bit! Not much-- barely enough to get the driveway damp, but enough so that the boys ran outside and attempted to take pictures of the rain falling.

It was windy and blustery, with big dark thunderclouds piled up all across the sky. But that one little sprinkle of rain was all we got. In the evening, it was blowing and gusting and I thought for SURE we'd get a big downpour. Nothin'. Boo. But, one good thing was that my friend Caroline from back in my Rice days came over! She was here doing a deposition (she's an attorney in Portland), and so stopped by for dinner. It was so fun seeing her. So hard to believe how long it's been since we were at school together. We video-chatted with her husband Adrian (one of my sophomore year roommates). I got to see her two kids, and they played a little piano recital for us. I didn't take even one picture with her. What's wrong with me?? We had grilled shrimp and vegetable kabobs that were really good. Actually, I can't take much credit because Brigham and Joseph did most of the work. I had to take Mosey to speech, and I knew I wouldn't have time after I got back to get the dinner ready. So I left Brigham and Joseph with instructions to peel the shrimp, put them in the marinade, then chop up vegetables and put them in the marinade, then clean up the kitchen and playroom. And they did it! It's so hard sometimes seeing how fast they are growing up, but also so awesome sometimes. :-)
Wednesday: Lessons, tae kwon do, piano lessons, violin lessons! Joseph is such a funny boy. Not exactly ha-ha funny (although he is that, at times). After being really enthusiastic about tae kwon do over the summer, he's been giving me a hard time about it. He claims he didn't understand that I was signing him up for lessons through December. He thought I was only signing up Mosey. It's not true, and he knows it, but whatever. Anyway, the deal is that he needs to go twice a week. He can choose not to go, but then he needs to reimburse me $8 for the lesson. He's taken me up on this offer once. The thing is, almost every time he goes, he has a good time! I tell him to remember how good he feels so that next time he won't be so reluctant, but he can't retain the feeling, I guess. He is so, so afraid of the teacher "yelling" at him. But truly, the teacher does not yell. He sometimes corrects, and sometimes uses a stern voice (although never to Joseph as far as I have been able to observe). He comments when students come in late-- makes them stand at the back of the class instead of according to belt rank, but even then he is not angry and doesn't yell. We've been late (by only 1-2 minutes) a couple of times, and now Joseph is petrified of being late and
"yelled" at. Once we went, he went inside and saw people in the class already stretching and warming up. He thought the class had started and he was late, and so he ran back to the car and refused to go into the class. He wasn't even late! Argh. Anyway, he didn't want to go this time (again), but I finally talked him into it. He had a great class, and on the way out, the teacher said to me, "He had a great lesson today-- he's doing really well." I was so glad he said that-- I pointed out to Joseph that I've never heard him compliment another student specifically like that after class. I really hope Joseph can develop a little more emotional toughness. It will help him so much in life if he is able to take criticism, even chastisement now and then without it devastating him. Is this something he'll just grow out of, or should I still keep trying to give him opportunities to experience that sort of thing so he can learn how to process and cope with those feelings? I don't know. We'll see how TKD goes tomorrow-- if he gives me a hard time about going again. In general, he's doing really well, though. I'm proud of how he is growing up.
Piano lessons were fine. Brigham had his very last violin lesson with his teacher. I'm sad! This was a good teacher for Brigham, and I still haven't lined up another teacher yet. I think his teacher was sad to leave, too. I have a feeling that Brigham was one of his more favorite students. He came to our house, since he was staying at a friend's before actually moving out to Boston, and lingered quite a while after Brigham's lesson, giving him advice and saying goodbye.

Brigham and Mr. Eversole

Thursday: Lessons, cello, art, flute, Relief Society activity! Phew! Busy day! Mosey's cello teacher finally came back. He's been gone for 2 weeks dealing with the death of his wife's grandmother. Such drama involving his wife, an estranged aunt, a grandmother who disinherited her children in favor of her granddaughter, and then a subsequent murder investigation instigated by one of the disinherited children against the granddaughter (it was nothing-- pure spite, and was quickly dismissed). Boy am I glad I have such a (relatively) sane family! :-)
Art class went well. I even got Joseph singing! "The Ants Go Marching" is another good song for this age group.
We had a RS activity at our house-- a woman in our ward who is a registered dietitian did a workshop on nutrition. I'm always paranoid no one will come. But about 20 people showed up, which was great! Especially because we didn't have a single chair or bench or stool left in the entire house for anyone to sit on. And Jacqui (who gave the presentation) was really good at deflecting the occasional controversial comment. :-)
Friday: Yay, Friday! Joseph and Brigham had worked hard to get extra work done on Thursday so they didn't have as much to do on Friday. I got my hair cut (much needed) in the afternoon. When I got home, I found Mosey on the back porch making pottery. We have a little toy potters wheel that doesn't work very well, but it didn't stop Mosey. He made two little vases and painted them. Natasha (one of two girls in our art class) invited the boys to her birthday party on Saturday, and Mosey decided to make her something. He carved her name in one of the vases, came inside, found a gift bag and a birthday card, and got the whole gift ready by himself. He's such a sweet boy. After Ben got home, he took Brigham and Joseph to a ward member's house to watch the BYU game. They came back halfway through, not wanting to stay for another BYU defeat. The host is a former BYU football player and is rather... intense about all things BYU football. Mosey and I went to Hancock Fabric and he was very good about pushing the cart and helping me find things. :-) We came home to find 10 minutes left in the game, and Ben completely disgusted. I went into my room to fold laundry, and was shocked when Ben came in a while later to tell me about the miraculous turn around. I feel sorry for the original quarter back. Great turn around for BYU, but a rotten night for that guy, I think.
Saturday: Conference! Yay! I love conference weekend. My boys really love it, too, which I'm so happy about. I remember not really loving conference when I was their age. Maybe it had something to do with having to go and sit for TWO HOURS in the darkened Stake Center with absolutely nothing to do but listen to talks I didn't pay enough attention to to understand. My boys are much more mature than I was, and played on the floor with blocks while listening to the talks. Mosey spear-headed another craft project for the boys. He decided he wanted to make a bracelet for Natasha, too, and Joseph and Brigham joined in. They got out all my bead stuff and spread it out on the kitchen table, and spent a good hour and a half designing and stringing bead bracelets for Natasha. So sweet, I could barely stand it! :-)

They went to the birthday party between sessions, came home for the afternoon session, and then helped Ben stain the deck for an hour or so before he had to go to the Priesthood session.

So they had a great day! I spent most of the day doing laundry. Folding laundry is a pretty good listening-to-conference activity. I tried to go grocery shopping, only to discover that our garage door opener is broken. The big spring broke, and I could not get out of the garage. Ben was able to muscle it up when he got home, and wedge boards under it to keep it up. What a pain. I'll have to get that fixed tomorrow.
Today: More conference! The boys were so excited when all three of the hymns they're learning on piano were sung in the various sessions. Praise the the Man, We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet (that was an obvious one), and Now Let Us Rejoice. Mosey ran over to the piano when the choir started singing We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet, but was sad to discover they were singing it in a different key than how he learned it. Otherwise, how fun for him to accompany the Mormon Tabernacle Choir! I made a good Sunday lunch (almond parmesan tilapia, green salad, and roasted pine nut cous cous), and then we took Ben to the airport. Closing session of conference, then a fun google video chat with Mama, Daddy, and Eva, (in which the boys performed a little piano recital of their hymns), then a super fancy Sunday dinner of cold cereal, and to bed!
I really enjoyed conference. I'm not sure which was my favorite talk. I really loved Elder Anderson's talk. How I wish I could have another baby. Siblings of mine, you all need to have one extra one for me, OK? :-)
That gets me all caught up, I do believe.

Love,
Gabrielle

rain, friends, and a big tantrum

2011-09-27T23:12:00.000-05:00

We got RAIN today! As in, actual drops of water falling from the sky!! In truth, the rain lasted about 5 minutes, and was really only enough to dampen the ground, but it was nice for a change, at least. As Mosey and I were driving home from speech, we saw some thunderstorms happening in the distance, actually not far from our house, so some people must have gotten a lot more rain than we had. It got really windy and blustery and I thought for sure we'd get a big downpour, but no such luck. It would have been nice to get a freebie yard watering in the middle of the week! (We're only allowed to water the yard on Sunday morning.)
My friend Caroline from Rice is in town for a couple of days on business and came over for dinner tonight. So good seeing her, and so unbelievable realizing it is 17 years ago that I matriculated at Rice. I was 17 when I matriculated. It was officially half my life ago. That is not possible!!!!
We got to google chat with her husband back at home, who was also a good friend of mine at Rice (and roommate! Yes, the scandal! I had 2 boys as roommates! Well, and one girl, too. :-)), and I got to see their two cute kids. I wish I could arrange reunions with all my friends from my past. I would love that.
When I left to go to speech with Mosey at 3:45, I was not ready at all with my dinner preparations. So I left Joseph and Brigham with a big list of things to do, and they did it all! They were so awesome. Here's what they did:
Peeled 2 lbs of shrimp, mixed in marinade.
Cut up potatoes into bite sized pieces, and boiled for 5 minutes.
Cut up 2 zuchinis and 2 yellow squash .
Washed and cut up a carton of mushrooms.
Mixed all of those up with the marinade and put in the refrigerator.
And then they cleaned off the tables, picked up the playroom, and vacuumed! What good boys.
Brigham was very willing and helpful and made up for the humongous, gigantic tantrum he threw this morning when he couldn't do his morning chore (vacuuming) because the battery wasn't charged. He was trying to vacuum on almost no charge, and was wildly sweeping it across the floor. I made him stop and wait until the battery charged back up. I *thought* it would take 45 minutes. I was wrong. He tried vacuuming again, and I made him stop again. That's when he really threw a fit-- "You can't make me vacuum THREE TIMES!! It was YOUR fault mom, because you LIED! It's like you're a bank and you took my money and you were supposed to pay it back and then you DIDN'T!" (So hard to know if I should laugh or be stern, or what-- we definitely have to have some lessons on analogies and false analogies sometime soon.) "I DEMAND that you pay me extra when I vacuum because you LIED!" This was so out of character for Brigham, I didn't know what to do. My inclination was to simply ignore him and leave the room until he could be rational again. But then, I know how frustrating it is to have someone refuse to engage when you're angry. I tried to be calm and speak rationally, but after a while, I just had to leave. He slammed the door 3 times. And Brigham knows how to slam doors. My eardrums about ruptured from the force of it. I felt bad, because I know that Brigham really, honestly felt that he was being wronged, and that's a rotten way to feel.
Anyway, it was nice to get my kind, willing, helpful Brigham back for the afternoon. :-)
I'll make sure the battery is charged tonight, though, that's for sure.