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? ;)

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

Bread recipe and glance at my literally poopy day :)

I walked up to the back patio, the sweat from my short work-out with Piper stuck to my hair. I noticed the garbage that I had failed to take out the day before, crowned with the poopy diaper that I had found stinking up my kitchen in the bottom of the inside garbage sack.  Yuck!  Then I had to laugh as I took them to final 10 feet stretch to the actual garbage can.  It was only 9 am and it already felt like I had been up for hours. Oh, wait. I had :D.

Starting with waking up before my alarm can be good or bad: either a sign of being well-rested or a sigh of stress.  This morning I think was a good one because my mind didn't start going for a minute or two and I could just lay there and enjoy the comfort of having a real bed again. Even after four months of having a bed, the novelty and comfort of having a bed is still a blessing.

Having a jump start on my day of 15 minutes, I used them to preview the upcoming days of seminary.  I am incorporating the Old Testament with the Book of Mormon and just kind of winging it, so I do a lot of improvisation.  I like to think some of it comes from inspiration but time will tell :D.

Getting ready as quietly as I can, I check the time. 5:15 am.  Time to get those crazy kids out of bed who want to go to dance at the Y.  Drew set up a daily time to go and dance and they love it!  At least love it enough to get out of bed in the wee small dark hours of the morning.  Lily drives them over (yay for teenage drivers!) and I get some quiet time to finish prepping for Seminary and for a little personal study.

Around 6 I throw in a batch of bread.  After failing again and again for about 20 years, I think I finally am getting the hang of it and I don't have anxiety about how it is going to turn out.  I have given up for huge stretches of time but think I finally have a recipe that works for us:

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

For 2 loaves:
1/4 cup warm water sprinkled with a heaping T. yeast and 1/2 tsp sugar--set aside
Place the following in a mixer with a bread hook and turn on while you add ingredients:
2 1/2 cups hot water
a dollop of molasses
2-4 T flax
1/3-ish cup of wheat germ
1 T salt
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup honey
4 cups whole wheat flour

Here's the awesome part...because you use the flax and wheat germ, you can do this 100% whole wheat!
Once ingredients are all mixed together, add 2-3 more cups flour and the water/yeast mixture. Once it has mixed for a minute or two, add more flour if it still seems really runny.

Turn on the mixer for 5 minutes and let the mixer do the kneading while you:
-turn the oven on to 200 F
-clean off the counter top from the accumulation of yesterday's spills
-put 2-3 T of oil on it for kneading when it is done
-grease the 2 pans.

If that goes quickly you might actually get around to putting away the ingredients you have used so far.  5 minutes can be magic!

Once the 5 minutes is done you touch the dough. If it is only slightly sticky, you are good!  One thing I look for is if the dough is staying on the hook and pulling all the dough to it.  Many times it doesn't.  If it doesn't and still looks like a big lump of dough and feels a little sticky.  Regardless, unless it is super gooey, smear the oil around with your hand and then use that deliciously slippery hand to get the dough out and plop it onto the oiled counter top. At this point, it has probably already been kneaded enough. If not, add more flour, etc and you won't kill it.

Divide the dough into two masses and then place in greased pans. Put the in the preheated oven and turn the oven off. This is a speed-raise method my friend taught me.  10-15 minutes and your bread should be rising nicely.  After the 10-15 minutes, turn the oven on to 350 F and cook for 50-60 minutes. (Tap on top, should sound hollow.)

Yummm!

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While bread is not the easiest thing to do for breakfast, it is nice on the pocket book and we are trying to live within our means. It is crazy how fast money can be spent!

I finished some seminary prep and we're off!  Seminary happened with a great group of people.  We ended and got everything together for breakfast, devotional, discussion and CNN10.  Harassing Eli to brush his teeth is the next challenge.  Piper is technically in charge of helping him, but he is not much of a listener and it is a battle every morning.  Someday the ferocious 4 stage will be past and these battles is not something I will miss.  Everything else, though....sigh.

Piper and I headed to the gym a little late.  I always get caught up in things at home. I love it here.

My workout this morning focused on not pushing myself too much so that maybe I can start actually enjoying my exercise. Time will tell.  

I found Lily and Hyrum working on the sign language for a song we are performing next week.  Hava was playing the piano and Maia had the three littlest upstairs playing a horsie game.  With carrots.  Hmmmm...there is a no food rule but carrots.  Sigh.  (Don't tell Daddy.)  They were being car....eful. :D

I had a great morning. I love that Lily likes to sit at the table and do math with me in the morning.  After she was done, the other kids were still in horsie-mode with Hyrum doing his daily "tickle" rampage.  I had a few moments to work on tomorrow's seminary. Lily did some driving for Quinn, taking Ticklemonster with her.  Xai yelled out, "I want to dance to some songs!" Cue Mom, whose heart is full of gratitude to her mother for making her take piano lessons.  We sang songs about the wind, butterflies, monkeys, the seal and the walrus and even a new sad one about being eaten by lions.  (The kids loved it.)  I love the Brady's songs for Nature and for People.

Xai then helped me cut potatoes for dinner, which was so fun for him until he sliced his finger a little halfway through.  Then he moved to the safer occupation of opening chicken bullion cubes from their wrapping while Eli took over at the cutting board...cutting butter into slices :D.

Maia did a blissful stint in the mud outside with Liesl and Eli while Havala made hootenannies for lunch.  

Lunchtime now and I have my "study" time.  I pay Hava $1/lesson to teach Xai grade 2 math from The Good and the Beautiful (great curriculum!).  They are doing it right now in the other room. Hyrum and Lily are back enjoying lunch. Maia is upstairs reading to Liesl.  Eli is lying next to me for his quiet time.  Constant supervision is the only way he can do a decent rest time.  It works.  he is super cute as he plays with his dinosaur.

I could list all the things I didn't do, the subjects I didn't cover, the people I didn't reach out to and the laundry that I didn't do. I could focus on the poop, the stink of my day :D.  But I am kind of past focusing on that. I like what God has to tell me about my day at the end of each day and have come to realize that what I do do is just fine. I have a sincere heart and good intentions.  I like to look at the beautiful.  It makes for a good day.

Beautiful Day. Not So Beautiful Bedtime.

The sun has come!

We spent the morning outside burning and gathering sticks while I helped the Goob with math and we talked about classification in science with the other kids.  They spent a few minutes classifying and categorizing everything they could see in the yard. It was fun!

The river is still raging so I was keeping a close eye on my little boys while they were outside.  Pipalicious was busy trying different ways to cook grass over the fire.  Papaya was her main helper.   Hava enjoyed riding her bike around.  The Goob kept trying to find a smoke-free place to do math while I tried to keep the sticks burning from our seemingly never-ending supply. Binks was pretty awesome at gathering sticks and throwing them into the fire from a safe distance.  Pick up. Throw.  Pick up. Throw.  That kid is determined...aka stubborn.

Take last night, for instance.  Q-dawg the Saint has taken on the role of person sleeping on the same side of the bed as the baby to give me a few months of full night's sleep before the next one comes.

Imagine the following--
1 am-ish.
"Daddy."
"Daddy."
"Daddy."
"Daddy."
"Daddy."
"Daddy."
"Daddy."
"Daddy."
"Daddy."
"Daddy."
"Daddy."
"Daddy."
"Daddy."
Imagine it said with every emotion possible: anger, pleading, sweetly, happily, sleepily, wonderingly, unhappy, with tears...yep.  That is what we hear off and on sometimes for an hour. And when Q-dawg finally acknowledges it--just hoping to stop it--we hear something like:
"-Ink?"
Q-dawg gives him some of the handy-dandy ever-present water bottle.  Binks takes a sip (if that) and about 5 seconds later we hear:
"Daddy."
"Daddy."
"Daddy."
"Daddy."
"Daddy."
"Daddy."
"Daddy."

If/when Q-dawg snaps at the little tyke to just go to sleep (which always takes a long time for my dear to lose his cool), we hear:
"Mommy." (Imagine super sad, tear-filled voice...which would be more effective if we didn't hear it so often :D.)
And...as before...
"Mommy."
"Mommy."
"Mommy."
"Mommy."
"Mommy."

You get the picture.   Last night we let it go on for quite some time without a break.  Poor Q-dawg finally went downstairs to the couch to try and catch some sleep.  But all he could hear was:
"Mommy."
"Mommy."
"Mommy."
"Mommy."
"Mommy."
"Mommy."
"Mommy."
...getting gradually louder and louder and louder.

Not very restful.
That kid is pretty persistent.  He reminds me of Chugger-dude.  And their father :D.

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 :).

Last Day in Virginia: Jamestown...with the Dwyers!

We met up with our friends, the Dwyers, at the Jamestown site.

Hava is all caught up in the nets at the Native American portion of the exhibit.  They had all sorts of cool stations to teach us how they learned.

Binks didn't get much out of it :).

Following are a bunch of pictures that Chugger-dude took...

Can I just say how much I loved being on board these ships?!  Dream world: I own one and am sailing.  No pirates.

This was the kitchen on the ship! So cool, eh?

Pretty sure this is a toilet, knowing my kids.

The captain's armor.  Very heavy.

The kids got to help adjust the lines to lower something off the boat onto the wharf

Some of these shots are just cool!  Good job, kids.  Way to capture the memories.

They had some cool hands-on exhibits

Spooner loves riding in the "alligator"

Spooner's collection of stamps: everyone else got them on a card.  He was pretty tickled to get them on his arm :).

Okay, this visit to the glass shop right outside of Jamestown was definitely one of the highlights! I am so glad my friend told me about it. You got to see them create a beautiful blown glass work of art right in front of your eyes, old fashioned furnace and all.  So cool!

On the way home...lots of interesting shots to follow on the next post.  Yes, that is a toy gun.  Not the best habit to get into.

My phone was on the blitz so it took an extra hour to get back to Maryland on Friday night.   At least the baby was armed and loaded to protect us from highway bandits.