Do you really want my job, kids :)?

Recently, I came across the following saying on facebook.  I was so inspired by it, I hurried and wrote it on a scratch piece of paper and duct taped it to my fridge:

If your job is to tell me how to do my job, you should at least know how to do my job.

Amen.

My translation?  If the kids want to play mom to each other or tell me how I should mother then one of the first training simulations should be what I faced yesterday:

 An inch of water (from an overflowed used toilet) covers the bathroom floor.  It has also soaked the carpet just outside the bathroom.  You have dinner with another family in 20 minutes, your husband is upstairs madly preparing fresh salsa before he heads out to pick up your oldest son from dance, and your only tool is a towel that you have to soak everything up with and then wring it out in the bathtub over and over again.  No, GO!

How do you think they would do? :)  First, they have to be willing to even consider doing it.  Then, they have to actually choose to walk onto the floor...and then, and then, and then.  Yeah.  Sometimes motherhood can have some pretty nasty stuff in it, but at least this stuff goes away! :)

Right now, it is 2 am, and I just got hit with a barrage of feelings that don't seem so easy to take care of and make it go away:

"You are not enough."

"You are behind on everything you have committed to."

"You do not spend nearly enough time with your children."

"You totally bombed on doing just the few things your children asked you to do yesterday...what were you doing instead?"

Yeah...I know where those voices are coming from, but at 2 am, in the silence of my room and in my tired condition, I am not so hot at fighting back.  

So here I am.  I'm going to try and catch up on the most urgent emails and then maybe go back to sleep if I can.  Can't make up what I didn't do yesterday with my children, but I can finish getting a couple things ready for the weeks ahead.

Le sigh.

Orienteering...with scouting and through our week!

The Goob is finishing up some of his scouting stuff and so he participates with the 11 year olds in some of their activities.  This is especially cool since his dad is helping with the 11 year old scouts right now!

The Goob is the one huddled on the rock behind the other fellow.  Q-dawg recommended that the Goob bring a jacket, but the Goob insisted he was fine (note the ice in the background).  Q-dawg brought up an extra shirt and toward the end of the hike to the top, amidst the chilly wind, he offered it to the Goob: "Well, I'll do it for mom."  Funny :).

I have given up on Liliputian and the Goob, Chugger-dude will put on a jacket every once in a while when I suggest it, and I can still insist on the younger ones doing it...although Papaya has noticed when she has a jacket on and other people don't and has a hard time with that.  It is all I can do to get Liliputian to wear shoes...she reminds me of her mom and Grandma Buchanan. :)

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Speaking of cold weather, Lek, Spooner and I went to the last home Weber State Wildcats game of the season yesterday.  Our experience was memorable, made the moreso with intense winds...up to 40 mph and enough to push me aside!  Poor Spooner was alright for the most part until the end.  A nice lady even came up to us, unprepared as we were for the intense chilly winds, and handed over a blanket: "Here.  I just want it back when the game is over."  Good people are everywhere!

Lek loved watching the football game...I guess he hasn't been to very many, and it made him think about when he played. I guess he wants to play again now :).  I told him that he just needs to work at it hard enough...that, and get past all the "politics" that come with football. I told him to stick with playing with his dad and our groups of friends every other weekend.  It is a blast!

The music was interesting: gang-banger/rapper and we had interesting discussions about our opposing points of view :).  Lek is definitely preparing me for politics :).

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I finally won the battle of the TV.

We got a TV from a friend a couple months ago...a monstrous 51 incher...and, with my dislike of having too much TV-obsession in our home, a large TV as the focus of our furniture was the last thing I wanted.

Well, it was still a TV, though, and it was still free.

So, we had it...but no cables to attach it.  To anything.

Over $50 later, we still weren't able to find the right cord to connect our TV to anything: the antenna for our house, our computer, anything.  Who knew there were so many cords out there to choose from?

Finally, I won.  I found a VCR for $8 at the DI, tested it to make sure it rewound and fast-forwarded, and bought it...and it works!  Now we can watch all our family home videos and all those VHS's that I have saved over the years--and the 10 more 50 cent ones I picked up at the DI, too :).  Love it.  It costs less than the fines I repeatedly pay at the library, right? And I get to keep these :)!

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We had a landmark day in our home yesterday: I bought two dressers, so we have now officially put away our last suitcases!  Liliputian and Chugger-dude have been using two suitcases for their clothes, but now their clothes are all put away in official dressers.  I didn't mind the suitcases, it was just messy and harder to keep their clothes separate.   We also bought a second dresser so that the girls didn't just have their clothes stacked in the closet.  This may not seem like a big deal to most, but anyone who has had a three year old obsessed with changing her clothes can imagine the monster mess that daily awaited anyone who walked into their room at any given point in the day.  Nightmare!  Now the clothes are marvelously put into drawers with Princess Papaya having a drawer of her own.  Fabulous.

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Avot officially finished her driver's ed stuff this week, so it's on to licensing!  She also performed "Come thou font of every blessing" on her violin today.  She did her hair with these cool new curlers, so she sounded and looked fabulous.  She has also officially decided that she doesn't care what the other girls think about what she wears in young womens, and today even took initiative to reach out to the other girls in Young Womens.  She told me, "I realized that the difference between my friendship with my homeschooling friends and the girls at church was that I felt an obligation to reach out to the girls in homeschooling and haven't at church. Today was phenomenal."  And she even started in a bad mood.  Go, Avot!  You are an inspiration! :)

My little Isaak...

Happy birthday, dear little one.  Fourteen wonderful years ago you came into our lives, a gift and a blessing from day one...hey!  You slept through the night after just a month old and were always so steady and sweet.

Three years was just not long enough...thank goodness for eternity.

Miss you more than I can say, and the hollow in my heart doesn't seem to go away when I think about you.  Somehow, the tears and ache don't lessen over the years, but I do love you!  We think and talk of you often, and you are ever a part of our family...

Thanks for watching out for your siblings, especially little Papaya, right now.  I know she is in good hands :).

Thanks for the laughs, smiles and intense hugs that were just you.

Thanks for the gift you were and are to us.

Happy Birthday, Isaak.

Isaak and the Goob

Isaak and his cousin Wavy-Davy

Some things never change...Dog pile!

Daddy did have hair once...see :)?

Wants some?  It's delicious!

Isaak and Liliputian

What a sweet helper...look at those cute little fat feet :)

Merry Christmas, Isaak...

Love it!  I think he was actually just pointing to his nose, but it sure looks suspicious :)

Good times...love you, Isaak

Please feel free to share any memories you have below.

Long catch-up: Papaya-isms, music and plays, and baths...or the lack thereof :)

I am starting a picture project and asked the kids to pick out some of their favorite pictures of themselves.  Chugger-dude lit up and quickly replied, "The one where daddy took a picture of my shoulder owie!"

Hmmmm...that wasn't the type of picture I was thinking of :).

As I sit here, I hear Pipalicious, Hava, and Papaya happily bathing after the latest addition of hot water. (According to Pipalicious, anything sub-"red hot skin" is too cold.)  Spooner is happily reaching over the side to try and splash.  He normally comes away from the girls' baths more wet than they are...and they are in the tub!    He is finally deciding that baths are alright...no help from me.  I think he has had 10 baths total in his life, if you don't count wipe downs.  Poor chap.  Hope this doesn't come back to haunt me when he is a teenager :S.

Lek and I played a game of Risk with one of his friends (Jordan) this last week as part of our history class.  We were talking about massing armies, moving supplies and forces, and tactical strategies and I couldn't help but recommend the game.  They were all over it :).  The odds were in my favor (I had taken over about 3/4 of the world) when Lek decided that he needed to call in support: his Axis and Allies dice.  I am not sure that the logic that they normally roll high for him in Axis and Allies when he wants them to roll low holds much basis in reality, but, hey.  It worked!  He started taking over my forces bit by bit, and now he has evened things up a bit...and next time, he gets cards.  It was fun to play andeven to be ahead for a while, although, when I asked the two young men on the way to take Lek to dance and Jordan home how it feels to be beaten by a mom, Jordan kind of cringed and Lek paused.

"You can just say that your history mentor beat you," I assured Lek.  "It sounds better." :)

Avot has been putting in overtime finishing up her driver's ed course this last week.  She has put in observation time with fellow students that will give her tales to tell her grandchildren...if she lives through this last observation time :).  She has also been keeping up with her babysitting job and trying to keep up with Q-dawg's appraisal work that he has hired her to do...busy, busy, busy!  She is also helping finish up Lek's training for that same appraisal work, which he is focused on doing so he can pay for his ballroom dance "stuff."  I am so grateful that they have the means to earn money to pay for stuff like that and save up for their missions!

This upcoming week is our last week of homeschooling until January, other than a few things like Knights of Freedom on Mondays for a couple hours and dress rehearsals and performances for choir and our 9-12 year old play production of "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever."  I am so excited!  I have just finished up my work preparing for January classes for my youth group, and will hopefully finish up two scripts this week for the plays we will be doing next semester: "The Winter's Tale" and "The Wizard of Oz."

Once these projects are done, I will go and attack the pile of clothes in the girl's room's closet that has about three feet of clothes stacked in it, mingled with dress-ups, random socks, and toys.  Hopefully there are no apple cores from Papaya's ongoing pillaging of our apple supply in the garage. (There are worse things for her snitch, right :)?)  That and other projects are waiting, and I am excited :).  Some even include sewing, which I haven't done for a while and am not very good at, but I have some simple projects for Christmas that will be fun!

Avot is doing so well on her violin.  She will be performing with the choir the youth are in, playing "Oh come Emmanuel" and I love to hear her practice.  Next week we will be playing "Come thou Fount" for Sacrament meeting, she on the violin and I on the piano.  I love playing with her.  The other kids are also doing very well in the progression of their piano skills.  It is fun to find pieces that they loves to play and teach them.  I am not so great at being consistent, but they normally each get at least one lesson in two weeks. 

 Recent Facebook posts, for the record:
"My three year old keeps dressing up in her baby brother's clothes. Boy, she loves that baby. It will be a miracle if he (and the rest of us!) live through her! This morning, she shut off my computer (and apparently my internet) in the middle of an important email. Mommy was not such a good mommy at that moment :S."

"Just spent 10 min looking for our three year old. She wasn't anywhere in our house or yard, so Q-dawg mentioned that we should check at the neighbors house...a nice older lady who gives the kids treats. The screen door was open, no one answered when I came in, and when the lady answered at last from where she was upstairs, she had not seen our little Papaya. As I turned to go, I glanced over under a table in the far corner of the room and saw our little wanderer. Apparently she had come over for a treat, not found anyone there, played with some toys and fallen asleep. Glad we found our own little Goldilocks...and apparently the floor was "just right.""

Love that Papaya.  When we tell her to go to bed she will say, "Just a minute!  Getting Hava water" and things like that.  Darling when she is not driving us nuts, but that is what makes it worth it, right?  I think that is the key to enjoying my young adults,...it is finding the "darling." :)  And they are!

Lek  is loving his ballroom dancing, and apparently he is really good at it.  I have a hard time, sometimes, with the "set-in-stone" nature of the performance and rehearsal schedule but, being in my own theater and choir groups, understand the reason for commitment :).  Lek has been so good paying for most of it, as well as even doing the hard work of getting himself there on a bike, when it is a couple cities away (almost a full hour's bike ride). 

I am excited to begin my Synergy book group this Wed, although it did end up conflicting with Avot's YW in Excellence night, where the young women are honored for their work in the year.  I moved the book group back an hour, so that I could go to Avot's event, when I found out about the YW evening yesterday :), but I am happy to do so.  She is a sweetie!

Liliputian has been doing a great job babysitting lately, and is learning to sew in her girl's group.  She did a great job making book jacket covers, even overcoming her fear of sewing her fingers in the process.  Her teacher told her how the teacher's mom would just sew right into her fingers when sewing.  Liliputian was, understandably, a little hesitant, but ended up doing a great job :).

We got to go up and see Q-dawg's youngest brother's new baby last night...he is adorable!  I couldn't hold him enough, and it was so fun to see Kotig and his darling wife.  They are such sweet, good people.   Liliputian, Lek and Spooner joined us, and had a great time holding the little one as well.  Well, Spooner didn't :).  He got to play with their two dogs, even if he was a little overwhelmed by their love at times :).  He did keep insisting on getting put on the ground with them, which was fun!

Avot went on her first date yesterday and had a great time...well, her first date with someone besides her father :).   We know Jordan really well, so when he came to the door, Q-dawg teased him about showing him Q-dawg's gun collection and having Avot home on time, "so she didn't turn into a pumpkin."  Love it :).  I was very happy for her, and it was just lots of fun,...just like dating should be!  Fun and not too serious...especially at this age :).

Avot and Lek also went to a region dance last night, but were disappointed.  Apparently, in the past, the "attendants" have been lax in the dress standards, and so Avot was the exception in her Sunday dress.  Well, this time they were enforcing the Sunday dress and tie, so we had to come and pick them up.  Avot had the fire in her eyes that I recognized from my own brushes with injustice and inconsistency...poor dear.  She inherited her mother's sense of justice and right.

We had a rousing game of Carcassone yesterday, with six people playing around the counter-top.  We had a few flare ups of temper and injustice (Q-dawg threw a memorable tantrum :)...), but it was fun to play games again with the kids.  I feel like I have not taken the time to do that much since we got home, and feel that I need to do it more.  That, and smile :).  Yesterday at our Stake Conference, I watched another mom who has 10 kids, and she just kept smiling at them!  So cool!  It was gentle, loving, and came easily to her lips.  The kids looked calm and comfortable in her love of them.  It is funny--even sitting here at my computer, "practicing smiling," it feels rusty and creaky :).  Silly woman :).

Well, I started this post yesterday, and still haven't got to all the kids, but maybe I'll try to do a quick cap on the rest of the kids :).

Pipalicious turned 7 this week!  So fun!  We had movies and yummy food all day.  She also got her first bike, and so she has been dedicated to trying to learn how to ride it.  Unfortunately, the brakes seized up so we need to work on that, but she is a sweet and tolerant one.  In her prayer for the day at one of the meals, she said, "Thanks for this tremendous day!"  I agree.  Thanks, Pipalicious, for being one tremendous girl!  She is so gentle and loving and is normally the peace maker.  She also comes up with beautiful and thoughtful poetry already that I try to write down for her.  She is one of my best thinkers (at least out loud) when I try to have discussions for devotional...already!  I love to hear her thoughts.  Well, I amend that.  I love all their unique insights and strengths.  I have just been surprised at the depth and connection of Pipalicious's thoughts at times.  She seems to really be able to discern truth and connections and it is fun to listen to and watch her share her thoughts on things.

I love finding Spooner and Papaya playing and giggling together.  Papaya adores her Spooner!

Lately, Papaya and Hava have been spending a lot of time playing together.  They love ponies and Pet Shops and can play pretend for hours.  Hava is my little painter and designer: she has been creating paper crowns by the dozens lately, as well as filling book after book with artwork.  She is busily copying letters down and creating words, even if she cannot read them.  Papaya and she love "The Letter Factory" by LeapFrog, and it has been a great help to them both with letters and their sounds.  Technology can be a gift, that is for sure.

Q-dawg pulled his leg the other day playing basketball, although it wasn't while he was really doing anything.  When he skyped with Jon and Sarah about it, Sarah told him in jest that he should leave the playing of basketball to younger people :).  Sigh.  I hope not :)!  I miss it, as I don't go while he is not there, but am happy that he is taking it easy so he can play in the turkey bowl on Thanksgiving.  He did play a little football last Saturday (with all our kids and some other families) in the snow, but just played quarterback and didn't do much running.  He has had experiences with injuries that get re-injured, so he is doing well at trying to help it heal faster :).  Poor guy...he sure does get jittery in the legs when he cannot exercise though!

Speaking of injuries, Lek has had a hard time with back pain when exercising, but we are hoping that some key lower-back stretches and more consistent exercise will help with that.  He is in relatively good shape, but maybe more consistent exercising will make it less of a shock on his body when he does do it hard...like in football.

Oh!  Speaking of which!  Lek had a red-letter day a couple of weeks ago:
HE SOLO TACKLED HIS FATHER WHEN Q-DAWG DIDN'T WANT TO BE TACKLED!  Honestly, I did wonder if the day would come, but I guess it did.  It puts a sparkle in both of their eyes to talk about it :).

The Goob has been having fun designing Lego sets.  He wants to design his own, make books on how to build his sets, and then sell them.  He would be great at it!

Chugger-dude is my steady, solid one still.  Love that boy. He just earned his Wolf in Scouts, although I still want to go to the firestation with him.  Apparently, he missed it with his group, but we have gone over fire safety with him, so his leaders feel that counts.  Chugger-dude just wants to go still, so I think we will plan a field trip with it :).  The other morning, in the snow, Chugger-dude wanted me to go on a bike ride with him to a local park and then ride around it.  We were pretty wet and cold by the time we got back, but he was quite the bike rider: keeping up with him made my own legs burn :)!

 

Q-dawg is taking FHE to the next level

It was Daddy's turn to teach the lesson last week in Family Home Evening.  He went to use the laptop to help prepare his lesson, only to find Avot busily doing school on it.

He straightened up and announced, "I am going to do something new and different: I am going to prepare for the lesson without using the computer!"

And he did!  And it was amazing :), of course.

We talked about scriptures.  He had the kids think about what makes a scripture a scripture, then had us "write our own."

They were pretty classic but I can't seem to find any right now.    Avot's was about our "sojourn in the land of the Magyars in the fifth year of the reign of Obama," but that is the only one I can remember, because I just cleaned it up yesterday.  Oh yeah, and mine, something about how cleaning and picking up after ourselves brings happiness to ourselves and our mothers :).  True stuff.

Maybe if my kids or Q-dawg read this, they can chime in with theirs in the reply section? (They are my most avid followers of this blog :)...funny, eh? I guess it must be partially self-preservation.)

Anyway, then we had a great object lesson with the iron rod being the word of God and how it will help us get to the tree of life. (I accidentally used the iron rod to walk away from our tree of life...hmmmm...).

End that with a rousing game of Got IT! and happiness cookies courtesy of Avot, and FHE was awesome!  (Acknowledgments for amazing talent go to Pipalicious at the piano and Hava with singing, and Papaya's testimony was sweet: "Amen! Achoo!")

Lunch with the Foodies

Lunch with some fun ladies in our ward!  They call themselves the "Foodies" and like to try different places to eat. This one was Vietnamese, and I loved it, especially the flavors and lots of veggies!  Wow.  I really have come a long way from not even liking onions and cheese as a teenager :).