A Yummy Fresh Start

 Today I woke up around 5:30 am and felt almost ready to get out of bed! During this stage of my pregnancy--well, probably for most of it--I have taken my time getting out of bed after waking up. It takes a lot of energy and willpower to do so, and I have been grateful that I haven't had to push it for any external reasons. What a blessing!

The weather is cooler, so my bike ride pulling Liesl behind me in a trailer was very pleasant other than the fact that it takes a lot of energy to get me and her going any where...which is why I was out: exercise ;). She was super cute, pointing out flowers and animals with excitement and calling out "hello!" to many people who passed.

Papaya was excited to get all of her jobs done this morning because I have a new math game on my phone to help her with her multiplication and division review before school starts. Hava has been enjoying it as well. Right now she is out in one of her favorite places: riding around with Lily and Hyrum while they drive comps for Quinn and listen to music. And she is playing the math game. Heaven! She totally deserves it after making french toast for all of us (with Xai!) for breakfast. I made myself some "fancy eggs"--sauteed mushrooms, chive and zucchini with some parmesan on top since I am trying to minimize my white flour and processed sugar intake. The Shazaam topping we made for the french toast, though, was irresistable and so I indulged with one for "dessert." My tummy is super happy already!

Piper has been very adaptable this morning to changes in schedule and additional expectations she hadn't anticipated. She and I share this struggle! She is so fun to be with and watch mature as she works through things. Right now she is playing on the piano, which I love! I teach them lessons and try to find music that they enjoy playing so they tend to gravitate to it often :D.

Papaya is upstairs playing with the two little boys....imagine. I love when she takes the lead like this and plays so well with them! I came up with a "School" system for the boys, where there are a bunch of popsicle sticks with the subjects I have ready to teach them that day. That way, when they decide they want to "do school" at random times, I have an activity or lesson prepared but they get to do it when they are ready and choose to...and I don't have to scramble to think about what I have ready or on hand. I am excited to try it! We are also using "Well-educated Heart" curriculum to read and study from and they have some beautiful classic pieces of history, art, science and literature for all ages. We used "Good and the Beautiful" for math, too, which I also love. I am so happy to have little systems in place for all my kiddos right now.

Until the next big change, right? ;)

A lunch of Holy Milk and NOT Daddy Rice

 I love how the world looks through the eyes of new readers.

I just found out that we are actually drinking "Vitamin D Hol-y Milk," carefully sounded out by Xai.

***********************

Liliputian is little Zuli's lunch buddy.  Every day this week (and many times in weeks past), when Liliputian asks her, "What do you want for lunch?", Zuli responds brightly, "Palacsintak!" (Crepes.)  Whenever Quinn and I go out for dinner, the kids will make a giant batch of palacsintak that normally lasts for days after.  Thus, normally that lunch request is not a problem.

However--for whatever reason--we have had a famine of palacsintak in the last couple weeks and so daily Liliputian is left to persuade Zuli that something else will work just as well.  

Well, I had a plan.

When I heard her typical request on Monday...and then on Tuesday...and then on Wednesday I thought, I'm going to have one of the kiddos make a batch for their mom help one of these days so when she asks, voila!

This morning, the stars were aligned and the universe was at peace and my moment of awesomeness had arrived.   Well, technically Hava's because she actually made the batter, but I was the genius behind it ;).  The batter was in the fridge and the moment of triumph was here.

I gathered an appreciative audience around, anticipating victory.  Liliputian asked Zuli, "What do you want for lunch?"  Dramatic pause as Zuli's little 2 year old faces scrunches up with excitement.

"Daddy rice!!"

Ach!  Seriously :D. But I had to laugh.  This was a classic example of the result of my best laid plans of parenthood.

Opposition in All Things

 They are good. They are beautiful, these children of mine. Ahhh, they don't feel mine in some ways and yet are so deeply entwined in my heart that I don't feel they couldn't be. Perhaps it is my war for them to be independent as I love to be striving against the ties that run so deeply between us that are made clear as I feel wonder and beauty as I look at them grow and progress.

Like right now, I see Lily outside boxing, punching the punching bag given us by friends with feistiness and steam. She got up around 5 or 5:30 am so she could exercise in the beauty of this morning. It is so hard for her but she does it because she recognizes the peace of the morning and the fulfillment of exercising in her life. Or last night, as Liesl picked up an old shirt of hers from the laundry and said in wonder, "Is this mine? Oh!" (with a little catch in her darling 2 year old voice as her face lit up) "It's so beautiful." Or the sweet feeling of peace I felt when I saw my Hava with a heart full of joy as she drifted off to sleep after saying a prayer together. Or Maia at the table--breathlessly, energetically and persistently trying to convince Liesl in so many different ways that she could eat the food in front of her. Piper with her sheer, body & soul-filling delight with her aerial silks and her studies. Hyrum as he moseys around the house, defaulting to tickling and snuggling with little ones. Xai's face as I open my eyes from a nap to see him gently kissing me with such seven-year-old tenderness. Eli's soft, trusting body snuggled next to mine during scripture study, drawing strength from our togetherness in such a pure way. They are such real presences in my life. Can such wonder and beauty at a soul unfolding be completely captured?

True, there are so many times when the noise, chaos, arguing and contention drive me away and make me long for just a few moments of peace.  Yet somehow that negative energy fades away in the beauty of this calm morning...probably because they are all quietly asleep ;).

As with so many other times in my life, part of me wishes that my kids would freeze right in place where they are...forever. Yesterday as I watched Eli, Maia, Xai and Liesl building a dam in the creek behind our house, my mind flashed back to when it was Tova, Kel, Isaak and Drew at Millhollow in the Utah mountains and, for a moment, my heart longed to be back there, capturing that moment with more perfect clarity and detail. My heart focused on Eli, who for some reason at that moment reminded me of Kel and I thought, "But I wouldn't want to miss the man I am seeing Kel become, with his struggles, life's experiences and becoming." Tova's independent exploration of the world and her potential. Drew with his rediscovery of his joy. And I miss Isaak deeply but know I am also a different person because of what happened and know I will get to enjoy those growing moments in the future with him. 

Beauty coupled with sorrow, joy coupled with regret. Truly opposition in all things.

Kitchens and Music

 Chugger-dude just presented Liliputian with a T-shirt that he ordered just for her...just for fun: "5 out of 4 people struggle with math."  She loved it!  I love that my kiddos will spontaneously buy things for each other for no reason other than they are thinking of them.

Papaya and I are looking forward to making cards together today so she can send them to people.  She loves sending out mail and I love creating things. Too often I postpone little joys like this and I am grateful for a little girl who inspires me to take up the creative side of me!

Chugger-dude and the Goob went around doing parkour this morning.  They took the mini-bike with them and took turns riding it.  And when I say "mini," I really mean mini!  It is a total of maybe two feet in height, but has excellent shocks, durable wheels and a strong frame. It is one of many bikes gifted to us over the years when people are "done" with their bikes.  This one actually came in great condition.  The Goob and Chugger-dude have been our bike fixing experts for the other ones so when the two of them requested the use of this mini-bike, it was the least I could do to thank them for being my go-to bike-fix-it shop :D.  The little boys already have two bikes and the mini bike is "too little" for them to truly enjoy so it was win-win!

Hava and I enjoyed a game of Quiddler last night.  That girl loves that game!  She even came up with a Solitaire version of it.  Not sure how that works but she is enjoying it :D.  She is excited to start school in a little less than a month and has been reviewing math to get her brain ready.  Just this morning I took advantage of her culinary talents and had her make breakfast.  Sometimes I think it would be easier to just do the "take care of your own breakfast" method often employed by other families; but it is a nice way to start the day together on the same page and to run through the planning for the day.  We also do our "Biesinger Creed," recite a poem/scripture we are currently memorizing or one we have memorized previously, sing a song and say a prayer.  Often it is easier to start our devotional (the kids and I) right after so I guess it works.  Maybe I am just getting to the point where I don't want to plan breakfasts ;). I go through phases of being excited for planning and being done with it.S

Speaking of meals, Liliputian volunteered to cook with me tonight!  I love that.  It doesn't happen very often with the older kids. I think that sometimes I am too controlling with the prep of meals and it kind of drives the kiddos away.  We've watched lots of videos with families that bond while cooking in the kitchen. Maybe it is because ours is kind of close quarters, too, that it makes it more stressful but I have been trying to be better lately at making it an environment for "fun."

Pipalicious is delicious and suspiciously malicious...j/k.  That is just a sample of one of the many things Quinn does to play with the kid's names. :D  Never a dull moment with that man around.

It is fun to hear Chugger-dude, Pipalicious and Hava play the piano during the day. They are all about the same level, each with different strengths.  I give them lessons once a week in a good month :D.

The boys have so much fun playing with all the stuffed animals in the closet under the stairs. It is fun to hear their muffled conversations and laughter come from there.  One time Zsa-man even said the meal time prayer from inside of it, hollering it out so the rest of us could hear it.  It keeps their mess contained and constant access for them.  Win-win!

"A time to make and a time to wash"...Ecclesiastes Mom-style

 It was 3:37 pm.  The perfect time to make my bed.  And clean up my room, for that matter.  Normally, the last person out of bed in the morning is the one to make it, but this morning, breakfast came with only 5 minutes notice, so that didn't happen :D.

As I started to pull up the bedspread, I noticed a suspicious brown smear on the edge of it.  Knowing that little dirty hands was a very real possibility--and knowing the frequent occupancy of my washing machine lately and doubting that I would be able to to cycle the bedding through before bedtime--I disregarded it, thinking: "It's at the end of the bedding and a little dirt never hurt anyone."

I pulled up the sheets and bedspread, arranging the pillows. However, as I straightened up the bedspread to lay just so, I noticed another smear.  And another.  The pattern, hue and distribution was pointing to blatantly to the unmentionable substance that has plagued my life daily for the past 23 years of child-raising with its accompanying diapers.  Sigh.  Although I had just finished straightening up every tuck just right, I just couldn't bring myself to sleep in a bed with possible, well...you know.

So I pulled off the bedding and was pleasantly surprised that the stuff in the washer and dryer had just finished and the washing machine was mine.  Yippee!

*********

You know, sometimes I cannot help but look forward to the day when I have no 2 year old screaming all throughout the 13 year old's well prepared FHE lesson. (Tonight.)

Or when I will have a bathroom free of smears on the toilet seat lid that I have to clean before sitting down. (Yesterday.)

Or have a meal when no drink is spilled. (Never.)

But then those little tyrannical mess-makers snuggle up into me and look up at me with those trusting eyes, believing that just because I am there in their life, everything is okay.  And they are safe.  And they are loved.

And then I can't help but smiling as I stuff the bedspread into the washing machine...along with the underwear and pants of a five year old boy who just can't seem to ever make it to the toilet in time.

Ick-a-kee-bas, school plans, Zuli and math

Pipalicious was the designated owner and master of  Hava, Maia, Xai and Eli as Ick-a-kee-bas and Liesl as the rider of them. (They contort themselves into a hoodie so it looks like they only have heads and legs: here should be a link to a clip of the two littlest doing it:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/UbrwoWLD217qr3fA8.)  They were at it for over an hour. It is darling. I have such fun children!

Liliputian has been consistently waking up early to exercise--what an inspiration! Hyrum is dedicating himself to rigorous training schedules to prepare for football: we are trying to get him enrollled and on a team this fall if it works out.

Hava just said, "Thanks, Mom, for letting us have cold cereal!" Yah. Easiest breakfast ever and we had a bunch left over from overbuying for last Sunday. Traditionally we have "Cereal Sunday" and "Spaghetti Sunday."

We just found out that football will probably take place sometime this next school year so we are going to enroll Chugger-dude into public school. They are only in school for 5 days out of 10 (doing the other days online) and so it will be the easiest possible way to experience public school!  Papaya and Hava want to give it a go as well, so all three are enrolling. They will start on September 14, which gives us some time to still enjoy our time together.

Pipalicious is also ready for some outside mentoring so we signed her up for Williamsburg Academy, an online, principle-based learning program.  She did her first day today and loved it!  It wasn't as overwhelming as she though it would be and she loves the material they are studying: Leadership, Humanities (Constitution studies) and Language Arts.

Liliputian is starting the Pathways program through BYU-Idaho this fall for her senior year so that means I will only have a few classes with Pipalicious and then the three littlest to mentor more directly.  That will be nice since the baby is due in October. I am happy with where everyone is this year and will provide a fun change to our usual routine.  I am going to be using "Well-Educated Heart" curriculum for the boys and for our reading time on the off days of school (T and Th), which is free and online.  I love all the great resources available in this day and age to individualize my kiddo's education.

This summer has been a great one for rain!  It has been nice because the rain seems to complement when we forget to water our newly planted flowerbed and grass seed or when we are out of town :D. Pipalicious is recently in charge of watering as a way to "earn" her aerial silk lessons we pay for her each week.  I figured that she is one of most dependable of the kids to make sure our plants don't die, sweet girl.  Pipalicious likes her job.  Unlike Papaya.  She gets to wash all the non-dishwasher dishes every day to earn her gymnastics.  She is lobbying for a change in way to compensate for her lessons...I'm liking having the dishes clean. I am also paying Liliputian to take care of the laundry for the three littlest and Quinn and I.  This delegation thing is awesome!

Today, Pipalicious and I did "Exercise with Maurice" right after Chugger-dude and Hava's piano lessons.  Zuli had just taken Zsa-man down with a body slam to the tummy and the punching him in the face a couple times.  Brutality from the 2 year old.  While Zsa-man audibly expressed his anguish on the couch, I removed the little tyrant from the room, barricading her with kitchen chairs.  All during the 15 minute exercise video, she went back and forth between demanding to be let in to exercise and telling us that she was too too tiny to be able to exercise. (I wouldn't let her in unless she maintained a healthy distance from the recovering victim on the couch.)  She has been transitioning to no naps but really could use one most days!  Towards the end of the video, she decided that she could give the exercises a go and declared, "I'm getting bigger!" Yes, 2 going on 22.

Papaya made a little sash for herself out of yarn and told me that I could award her with stars (taped on) every time she did something awesome. :D  We had fun with that this morning.  I am learning that my kids really are good at telling me what kind of love and attention they need most of the time without me having to come up with creative ways. 

For instance, Hava and I love to look at houses together.  She is quite the detective, finding suitable houses for us to explore as potential future homes.  She goes through hundreds of houses on Zillow and winnows out the ones that have specific problems.  Just last week, she found one that Quinn and I drove to check out...only to find out that it was actually a manufactured home (and was not listed that way).  Needless to say that Hava and I (and the others) were disappointed, but she was undeterred and found another 10-15 houses today for Quinn and I to go through.  It is fun to get excited and check out different potential homes.  It is nice that our home here is so nice, with such great property, so that even if things are not working out to find another house as soon as some of us may like, we can enjoy our time here.

Spooner continues to light up every time someone mentions the word "math" and we have fun many days sitting around the table doing "math stuff."  Just the other week Pipalicious organized a little store for a math game.  I had ordered a bunch of cool dice sets (with 10s, or up to 20 sides, etc) and the kids would earn a penny each time they rolled the dice and computed them together correctly.  Then they used the pennies to claim goodies in the store. It was a great way for them to review their basics: addition, subtraction and multiplication.  I let them determine which and how many dice they are going to use, finding that most kids who are in a healthy place will challenge themselves, and if they are not in a healthy place shouldn't be challenged externally...at least with things like math and especially those who are young or have a history of trauma with mathematics ;).

I just found this note from February about Zuli in my phone and wanted to make sure it was recorded:

I love how she let's me squish her
So polite
Her teasing
Her dancing and exercising
She adores her binki and loves to play with it.
She's helped heal me with her gentleness
I love her cute little songs and words
They make me appreciate what I have
A cute moment when talking to Kel and Réka, I whispered if I could get Piper some cookie dough and then Liesl got a chunk off and said "For Piper" she just knew
Babies heal through the eyes

Shopping and Potty-training

...the two great battlefields of motherhood.

The other day I went to the store with the five youngest.  Wow! It was like herding chickens :D.  With COVID-19, I normally don't take more than one--two tops!--with me to the store.  However, I was tired of choosing which would be "the chosen one" that day and so everyone Hava and younger went.  

I remembered so many other reasons why I don't usually take more than one or two.

Running around, finding things, reprimanding each other, getting distracted, throwing unnecessary things into the cart, damaging items that--fortunately--I was planning on buying anyway.  And they all had really great attitudes and intentions. It was just that with five different great attitudes and intentions, it was just too much for me (or the store, for that matter) to handle.  I came home and Liliputian took over with directing the unloading and putting away while I just sat down and stared at the wall.  Our policy is, "you eat here, so you help unload and put away groceries." Pretty simple, but today, it was more than I could take after our "fun" at the store.

After I shored up my energy, I tried a shot at schooling....
I did math with Maia for about a chapter and a half, with Liesl running through naked after stripping down in the kitchen and Eli insisting on getting help with his "math" workbook to see if he had finished it yet.  In the meanwhile, Hava was asking my help with organizing the allowance for last month...It can sure be hard to focus! 

It was definitely a nap day.

*****

I have decided to try using cloth diapers again, thanks to my sister Sarah gifting me some of her old supplies that were in amazing condition.  A lot has changed since I did cloth diapers with Avot so these modern liners and covers are pretty slick to take care of. I even invested in a much needed diaper pail that pretty much eliminates any trace of smell.  So--other than the obvious draw-back of dealing more intimately with nastiness--it's pretty painless.

Zuli loves it for some reason and is always asking to see her poop.  Delightful.

I am pretty sure I will transition off of cloth when the baby comes in October.  I have also hired Liliputian to potty-train Zuli, but we both agree to wait until 3, the age where I start potty-training most of my kiddos. And even then, I tend to give up pretty easily.  

With Lek, it was "do or die!"  We had just experienced brilliant success with almost 3 year old Avot.  Q-dawg had read and applied "Potty Training In Less Than A Day" and in it's sage pages, the author affirmed that if a child was old enough to follow instructions and pull their pants up and down by themselves, they were ready to potty-training.  Our attention then focused on the hapless Lek, who was a mere 18 months old.  A year and a half later (of relentless determination to never give in!) he was getting the hang of it. It was not pretty and I learned my lesson. Isaa-boo was 3 before we even pretended to begin.  I would allow the other kiddos to try it out but I would never emotionally commit.

And sometimes I would even give in after! I remember with Chugger-dude that the morning started well as we decided that he was ready.  I recklessly went to the store, thinking all was well. I came home to a trail of poop from the front porch all the way upstairs into the bathroom.

I gave up.

He actually ended up pretty much potty training himself.

Hence, I am willing to pay Liliputian $100 to work with Zuli ;).

Saving kids and Cemeteries

When I asked the kiddos what I should write about this week:

-Liliputian said that Zuli told her that Zuli would cut off her leg to help her feel better.

-Chugger-dude: nothing happened this week

-Papaya: Mom saved us from the mean boys at the park. 

Hava came into the house in tears, sobbing something about Zuli and Zsa-man being in trouble.  Not being able to distinguish what the danger was, I hurriedly slipped my shoes on and maneuvered my ungainly body as quickly as I could to the park next door.  The combination of all that mass combined with the storm in my eyes must have been quite the sight.

When I got to the skate park, I saw Papaya huddled with her bike sheltering Zsa-man and Zuli while a bunch of 9-13 year old boys zoomed around the park.  Apparently, some of these young fellows were having fun scaring and yelling at my babies.  A quick stern look at the main perpetrator and some kind of deathly quiet, focused comment about needing to share the park with everyone and not picking on little kids was all that was needed, it seemed, because there weren't any more problems.

Well, it could also be that me sitting down by my babies and staying there took some of the wind out of their sails.

As I explained to my kiddos (whose emotions were still riding high with the conflict), I am sure they are basically decent kids who just were either not treated well themselves or so many other reasons.  Most kids--most people--are basically good and just sometimes need a reminder that other people are humans with feelings as well.

Or they just need a fat pregnant woman with a mother-bear complex to plop down in the middle of the situation and just watch them, smiling.

-Hava: I went on a lot of bike rides

My turn to come up with things!

Liliputian is currently slicing up a perfectly ripe mango for lunch (one of her favorites).

Pipalicious just walked in from one of her many jaunts outside.

Zsa-man just asked me his daily-spoken-10-times-or-more question, "when are we going swimming?" (Darn, Coronovirus...can't complain.  Our worries could be much worse that all the closed swimming pools and the lake full of algae.)

Hava just agreed with me that we should make less pans of hootenannies for breakfast since she also doesn't like reheated hootenannies (German pancakes).  We currently make two double batch pans compared to the usual single batch for one family. I miss my Goob!  I think that is the difference ;).

Zuli goes around the house singing, "In the name of Jesus Christ, amen...achoo!"

Zsa-man is like the little instigator, seeing who he can tease and annoy into frustration--normally Zuli and Spooner.  And then he responds emotionally when anyone looks sideways at him.

I was inspired by my visit to my friend's farm a couple weekends ago and we have redone our flower beds and planted grass around the yard.  The blessedly cooler weather (high 70's, low 80's) has helped with wanting to be outside.  We drove to Hope Cemetery in Rochester, bought pizza and donuts and walked around in the rain on Tuesday:

 

...truly one of the most beautiful cemeteries I have ever seen.  Pipalicious got quite the work-out carrying Zuli around horsie style up and down the many hills.  Liliputian gave Spooner some points on taking pictures.  The Goob joined us which always makes it more fun.

We went on a couple night walks, Q-dawg and I, with the kids joining us for some of them. I am having a hard time sleeping sometimes during this pregnancy and that seems to help.  We have been also watching this series, "Lie to Me" sometimes after the younger kiddos go to bed and have played a bunch of games.  Last night the kiddos had fun drowning each other with the hose while I went to the store and spent the same that I would have spent taking our family to a local ice cream parlor...

...and came home with 6 Ben and Jerry pints and 6 other buckets of "normal" ice cream.  (I was having a weak pregnancy moment.  A taste testing sounded fun.) I came home with "Rainbow Unicorn" among other strange flavors, just to branch out our tasting experience.

The other day, the Goob and I took in a couple garage sales and I scored finding an old fashioned red tricycle for Zuli, which she immediately fell in love with and insists she use pretty much all the time.