02/23/12

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


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

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

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