Hava the Biology Genius

I was getting out treats to reward the kids for memorizing the Kingdom, Phylum, Class, etc. sequence in Biology class today when Hava materialized.  That girl has a nose for sweets :).  When she heard the test, she said, "I want to!"

I thought (of course), "Why not?"  So I had her go last to give her the best chance and she knocked it down no problem!  Even saying those unfamiliar words!  She loves Biology now.  Note-taking, memorizing.  Apparently those are some of her strengths :).

From Pets to Puddles

Today has been kind of random. I woke up hoping that the indications of last night were incorrect and that the kids would miraculously all wake up feeling great and I would be able to go to the temple with Chugger-dude for his first time going to do baptisms for the dead.  Well, Hava woke up with throw-up burps and so the kids did not head out to Sones as planned.   We have infested everyone within a 100 mile radius or so so far so I think we are going to quarantine until we are officially in the clear.

After a long day out and about yesterday, it was what we needed.  We had spent the day shopping using the money some friends gave the kids for Christmas and using money some of the kids already had. Chugger-dude had saved up enough to get the lizard he wanted, Drew got a huge Lego set and some nerf darts, Liliputian also got Nerf darts as did Pipalicious and Liliputian. and Pipalicious got hamsters.  Dwarf hamsters. Super cute.  It is surprisingly fun to have pets in the house again.

I have been having a fun day hanging and rehanging pictures. I measured it all out perfectly but then didn't account for how low it couldn't be on the wall taking into account the wainscoating.  Oh dear.  Time to adjust it all up, I guess!

We also made a quick dash to the MAAC after depositing Christmas money in the bank and right after we got in there, S;pooner had a huge potty accident on the floor. He must have been saving up.  It was a flood.  I rushed to the van to grab whatever cleaning/containing items I could and brought in a plastic grocery sack, roll of toilet paper and wipes.  Soaked up urine with TP, put into sack.  Stripped off clothes, put into sack.  Wiped up everything with wipes, put into sack.  Voila!  Ran half-naked screaming boy out into van where he very unhappily waited with his older sister as we finished up grabbing a couple things.

I also finished the sweet little "Amish" romance book my sweet hubby picked up for me for Christmas.  Pretty cute.  Nice to lose myself in a little book, too.  I haven't done that, just for reading's sake, for a while.  I like the involvement of God and faith and morals in the plot line.  A nice romance for young girls who like things like that.  Or old girls like me.  Very simple.  Very predictable.  Engaging but not disturbing.  Simple.  Nice.  And they throw in a few Amish things to make it seem more Amish, although it is hard to believe the Amish thinking and behaving that way.  They incorporate strong family ties into it.  Okay, guess I got more out of it than I thought :).

Just took a break to clean up another Spooner "flood"...this time on the bathroom floor.  Simpler to clean up this time, anyway.  And then I got to counsel the Goob as to the many options he has before him in selling/giving away an old art kit of his.  He followed me around and interpreted my emotional output as a reflection on my attitude towards what he was saying.  Let me tell you: don't try and read into the emotional state of a woman who is in the middle of three different projects, is trying to clean up a flood of urine and foresees sorrow in selling it to younger siblings at a high price and frustration at trying to sell it on our already over-priced Medina fb "yard sale" page.  Sorrow and frustration exaggerated by the heightened state of Mother's emotional status.

I advised him to to read too much into my emotional output.  I assured him that I had not emotional attachment to the buying or selling of his art kit that he hadn't used for years.

Time to go and try and make some semblance of order in my dining room.  After I finish refreshing my languages on Duolingo (missed that the last few weeks).

An Almost Entirely Vague Account Of Events Of Mild Humorous Affect...or Effect

We just did our family spelling bee, which typically ends in anguish.  So much pressure.  The winner of a series of bees gets to have the losers make dinner for them.  It is pretty intense. So, typical of our experiences, someone just went upstairs in great sadness.

We heard a loud sound.

Q-dawg asked curiously, "Did they just slam the door?"

Pause.  "Do we have any doors up there to slam?"

Pause again. "We will have to take that door out."

Someone else said, "I think they went into the bathroom and you have to slam the door to get it to close."

"And then they squeezed the lemon."

Anyone want to join our spelling bee??

Music and Hot Pad Modelling

Papaya's wall decorations for Thanksgiving

Music fun after Daddy spent Sunday evening playing his cello:

Modelling crochet designs for Avot:

St. Miklas Day and Baby Violinist

A look at St. Miklas Day (Hungarian Santa Clause visiting night...commercial side, done!):

Moo-man told St. Miklas exactly what he wanted.

Spooner's stash

So did Miss Hello Kitty...

See how happy he is?

And the flamingo slippers were also a special request :D

Most of the goodies were consumed that day, especially thanks to some friends who visited. (Good timing on Mom's part right?) 

Liliputian's selection of jammies was a little more reserved

Happy Hava :D

Everyone got their own box of cereal from St. Miklas.  A present for Mom!

Little one is following in his older siblings' example:

He never stops moving, so here is a video to capture the moment better:

Football Update: Letter to Lek

Football was way fun this week. (Sorry, I have to tell you about it a little...be happy for me, right :D?)  It was just a good game: 4 missionaries, Dwyers, newly-baptized young man named Scott, Paces and us.  We played for almost 2 hours, with the climax and abrupt end coming when Elder Shaw (low built very physically fit young man from Alaska) was going to get the ball when Patrick comes streaking across in front of him, only to slam into Dad who was on defense. I was directly behind it and got to not only hear the impact, but see Patrick's body rebound off of Dad's.  It was pretty epic...and sad.  Dad ended up with a bruise, a bite and blood on his head. (I am sure he will send a pic...wait.  Here is one just in case:)

What happened to Patrick, you may ask?  A picture is worth a thousand words:

And here was Patrick's update for us:

"Yes I was able to eat some turkey"

Ouch.

I got a good sized bruise on my arm from Patrick's elbow when I was playing the line. (Which I did for the majority of the game.) It was sweet.  Whenever I wanted to get off the line, I would grab someone to take my place, slide off to the side, and most of the time the Elders wouldn't notice I was there. (They were the safeties.)  A couple of times, Levi picked me up and one time I was slammed to the side. (So cool.  Rattled my brain a little.)  But, I think it was three times I made a touch down or a great catch!  It was very fun.  Maybe it was more. I think I only missed one that was actually passed to me. 

Dad was amazing as always.  He had cleats and one play, he was quarterback and zigzagged through a field full of opponents for an almost touch-down. (The Goob tagged him at the end.)  Zy turned to me after Dad had done that and said, "you know, it is nice that he lets the rest of us play and doesn't do that every time."  Too true. :)  He only did that a couple times and had some great interceptions. (You know Dad :D.)  Good man.  Good ball player.  All around awesome.

Liliputian didn't get many passes but did well.  Chugger-dude was the amazing blitz rusher and probably got the most sacks of the game,  on Levi (and some others).  The Goob and Lincoln pretty much shut each other down so they didn't see much action, poor chaps, but they had fun.

Good game.  In two years it will be your turn and you will be all the more awesome for your sacrifice...just look at Dad :).  

There is some kind of animal I keep hearing in the mudroom but can't seem to catch a glimpse of. I am up early, trying to capitalize on the last day of making a calendar for the grandparents for Christmas, wanted to write you for a little while doing so, and so it is super early and a little creepy.  Oh well.  The door is closed.  I am sure Dad will take care of it.  (It is good to have a man around.  Be that man for your wife someday, as I am sure you will be :D.)

Your package is on the way as of last Wednesday.  We had a lot of fun with it.  Not sure how "lighthearted and funny" it is...well, parts are definitely goofy, so hopefully it makes it to you and hopefully it is fun :D!

"Gyakran egy ferfi vagyok" was just a really weird phrase that Dad and I chuckled over.  What context would that be in? Or should we even ask??

How are you doing with everything?  Companion, schedule, etc.  You seem happy. (Although feel free to take more pictures of yourself to show me how happy you are :).  Blame it on your mom when it looks like you are being vain.)  Life is super good here. I need to stop doing so many projects and enjoy the people around me more.  I am doing better with the little ones.  It occurred to me that I have some friends right here in the house that I don't even talk to very much unless we have something planned out or are doing a class.  Too bad!  I hope to spend the holidays remedying that.  

Other holiday plans?  Xai is going to start being potty-trained on his birthday!!  Happy birthday to no one, right? We are getting him a big wooden train track and a set of 12 engines.  He gets one on his birthday and one more every time he goes poop in the potty.  Should be interesting!  Hope it works.  With his soft heart and particular personality, Dad and I are gearing up to show no reaction but encouragement even if he has an accident.  My attempts with doing it the "old way" (oh no!  you are wet!) has just created a paranoia of potty-training in that little guy, so we are trying this way.  We'll see.  Can't be worse than other experiences, as far as I can see.  (Famous last words, right?)  Wish me luck!

As far as me, I am doing well emotionally. It is interesting to be happy with yourself and step back and start seeing your life a little more clearly and gently.  I have a good life.  Good kids, good husband, good friends, good family.  Blessings.  I am getting better and better with accepting that life is a test, and test equals experiences that test you.  Go figure.  I guess I always felt like a failure if things went "wrong" and would fight to remedy it.  But the phrase, "That is my widow's mite" has come to mean a lot.  That and my talk about the "one good thing" Christ tells Martha has made me look at things a little differently.

What would you say that "one good thing" is?  Dad said "Come to Christ for sustenance: spiritual, emotional and physical."  I liked that one.  What do you say?

Better go finish that calendar so I can enjoy the kids today!

Love you!

:) Anyuci

Ducks and Oatmeal

It is Spooner's turn on Mondays to pick the songs before each meal and say the mealtime prayers.  He picked "The Little Ducks" song and Q-dawg, in the interest of time, chose to start with "2 little ducks went out to play..." instead of 5.  We sang it in our usual boisterous exuberance.

Spooner's prayer went about as follows:
Please help me....be happy...Please help the ducks...to get home....(and then in a whisper) In the name of Jesus Christ...amen...achoo.

We were having oatmeal this morning, our Monday tradition that is both hated and loved in our home.  We used to have a more universal love of oatmeal until a few weeks, long ago, when Avot was on "make breakfast" for her stewardship and her interest in expediency overruled her interest in making people happy with it.  She had oatmeal the consistency of paste every morning for about 2 weeks. (She was around 12 or 13 at the time, so I can understand her priorities.) She is an easy-going eater herself and I think the uproar took her by surprise.  We are still suffering the ramifications.

Despite many efforts to explore the variety of presentations of oatmeal, we still have our protesters.  The protesting took a little different light this morning.

Papaya turned to me with a wrinkled brow and asked, "Is it bad if it tastes different?" ("It" being "oatmeal.")

She leaned in a little closer and whispered, "I think it tastes like poison."

Okay.  first question.  How does she even know what poison taste like?  Well, apparently, to her poison tastes like cloves and nutmeg, my most recent additions to the vanilla and cinnamon we regularly add.  I think she and Lek have been in secret correspondence and the plot to overthrow the serving of oatmeal in our home lives on.

Pipalicious's Birthday and Thanksgiving Pics

Woohoo! Pipalicious is delicious and suspiciously nutritious....or something.  But she is sure super cute! And one year older :D.

A little random look around the house and our days...

We feel so blessed to live by family and have such great missionaries in our area!

Yah. I don't even have a comment for this one :D.

I came across this old photo of our dear Uncle Phil when he was putting in a bathroom in the basement where we were living...when Avot was small enough to wear her favorite purple Simba shirt. (I am not sure she would wear it now with the same eagerness she did then :D.)

Thanksgiving!

Happy baby.

Here he is, enjoying his favorite song, "The Duck Song."

Resting afterward.  Good times.