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This picture has nothing to do with anything.  It is our Thanksgiving tree we made back in November and which is still taped to our back door.  There's a bag of thankful leaves taped next to it for us to tape on when the spirit strikes.

This post has no title.  It is not coherent enough to warrant one.  Sorry.
This week went by fast.  All weeks go by fast.  I wish I had the energy to write some clever, pithy sum-ups at the end of every day, but it just doesn't happen often enough.  And now it's Friday and I can't really remember what we did all week!  :-)
Let's see.  Monday was Mosey's birthday which I documented.
Tuesday morning I had a dentist appointment to get a filling replaced.  They have fancy new tooth-colored fillings now, yay!  I spent the rest of the day with a numb left cheek.  I was trying to read from our science book to the boys and I sounded very odd.  :-)  We went through the boys' scout books.  They are *almost* through with their Bear requirements!  Joseph and Brigham had scouts in the afternoon and Mosey and I did... something.  I try to do something special with him while the boys are at scouts.  Tuesday was obviously so special I remember nothing about it.  I had a Relief Society presidency meeting that night, and locked my keys in the car.  Oops.  I also left my iPod in the car, which meant that when I went home I had to do all the evening chores with nothing to listen to!!  Oh, the inhumanity!  I did get to bed slightly earlier, though, since I wasn't looking for just one more thing to do so I can finish the chapter.
Wednesday, on his way to work, Ben drove me to where my car was locked.  Joseph and Mosey came with me.  It was freeeeeezing!  When we got home we looked at the weather, and it really was freezing!  31 degrees outside.  Brrrrr.  When I get chilled I have a hard time kicking it, even when the house is warm.  I ended up wearing a jacket with the hood up and draw strings tied under my chin to keep warm.  What would I ever do if I lived somewhere where it was actually cold??  In the afternoon after lessons we had our art group.  Everyone came to our house and all twelve kids painted pictures and ran around sword fighting and jumping on the trampoline, despite the 30-something degree cold.  I got some much-needed adult talking time.
Thursday (yesterday) we did our normal Thursday stuff.  Piano theory in the morning to get ready for lessons in the afternoon.  Regular school lessons.  Then piano.  Violin was canceled, which I was secretly happy about because it gave me time to go home and get ready for my relief society activity that night.  We had a "Cooking on a Budget" activity and I did a small presentation on menu planning and freezer cooking, which is pretty funny considering I never menu plan, and the one time I tried freezer cooking I forgot about everything I froze until about 6 months later...  But I did learn a lot and I actually think I am a menu-planning convert.  We'll see how it goes.  I do know I'm sick of realizing with a start that it's 5:45 (or 6:15 or 6:45) and I haven't the slightest clue what to make.  I'm pretty good at pulling things together, but it's always stressful.  The activity went well-- we had 29 or 30 people there, which, for our ward, is a huge turnout.  I always take the attendance of the activities I plan very personally which I know is totally stupid.  Before I had this calling, I skipped out on plenty of activities and it had nothing at all to do with the counselor, or, really, what the activity even was.  Things come up.  But still.  It made me happy and relieved that we had a decent turn out.  Maybe people like me after all.  :-)
Today was Friday, our easy day, so I slept in until 8:30 (having been up until 2:30 AM researching math programs, still trying to find the perfect formula for Joseph).  We did piano practicing and morning chores and reading, and then the boys got started on a volcano project.  We've been studying volcanoes the past couple of weeks, so they are each making a model volcano.  I read through instructions for really fancy ones made with paper mache and plaster of paris.  I'm not that ambitious, so we made ours with poster board.  It was a good project, though.  The boys spent a few hours cutting poster board, painting it, and drinking up the 20 oz. bottles of soda we bought at the gas station so we'd have bottles for our volcano calderas.  The sacrifices the boys make for their schoolwork.  Mosey drank his Orange Crush in 15 minutes.  He is truly his father's son.  :-)  After all the paint is dry we'll erupt them with vinegar and baking soda.  Stay tuned for thrilling video footage.  :-)

Horseback riding was in the afternoon. It warmed up a bit today-- high was 46.  That's still way too cold for me, though, and I went to the barn with a long sleeved shirt on, hoodie jacket, big warm fleece pullover, fuzzy hat, and a hood over my hat.  I was still cold.  :-)  We came home to find a plate shattered on the kitchen floor and all my leftover black bean and corn quesadillas from my activity last night mysteriously gone.  Mister has been on a serious human-food-stealing kick over the past month, getting increasingly blatant and shameless about it.  He's been on my black list for some time.  The quesadillas were on my nice ceramic serving plate, covered with Glad press-n-seal, sitting way back at the very back of the stove.  He's never gotten anything from there before.  I was extremely angry since they were intended for part of our dinner.  I should be mad at myself because over the past few weeks Mister has shown himself to be absolutely, positively untrustworthy regarding anything not locked inside or put up on top of the refrigerator.  But still, he's never gotten stuff off the back of the stove.  How did he get it?  He's not that tall!  So I yelled at him a lot, which didn't particularly help relieve any frustration on my part, and which I'm sure did absolutely no good at all in deterring future escapades.  Anyone want a 12-year-old, food-stealing, fur-shedding, naughty, naughty dog?  :-)
Now I wish the boys were getting ready for bed.  Instead, Mosey and Joseph are listening transfixed to Brigham's long, ongoing story that apparently has a lot to do with cockroaches, cats, pus, and bone marrow, if my half-listening mom-ear is to be trusted.  This, after a really civilized dinner with Brigham serenading us with a whoopie cushion.  Life with boys.