Media Fast

So we had a media fast this last month.  And while by the end, we weren't all as enthusiastic as we had started out, everyone had agreed to do it and give it a whirl and it was insightful!  They all entered into it with a pretty optimistic, open scientific look at it.  It wasn't a moral decision, more the nature of an experiment:
-what would it be like?
-what would we miss the most?
-would it change anything?

What was it like?
At first it was really quiet.  There were a lot of requests for media with an "oh yah...media fast" to follow.  The requests died off pretty quick and the kids noticed they were distracted less by the computer since it just sat there in the corner of the dining room for the whole month.
We started singing together as we cleaned up dinner and the Goob noticed that clean up went more smoothly since there wasn't music blasting all through it. (His words.)  Evenings were slower paced and our times together felt more peaceful (to me ;D).

What would we miss the most?
For Liliputian, music.
For Hava, family history.
Pipalicious didn't miss the distraction of having it as a possibility.
The Goob was really awesome about it but I think he missed not being able to access all the things he liked to access immediately upon thinking about it.  The music was particularly hard for him.
Q-dawg said he was pretty much good with whatever, which is what most of the kids thought.
Papaya definitely the movies.
Many times we wanted to look up some bit of information but it didn't happen as often as I thought it would.  We would reference different parts of movies or youtube videos we had previously watched but it was enough, somehow, to just remember them and share the laugh or emotion that went with them.
Me?  I missed Yoga with Adrienne, listening to conference talks while cleaning, and music but also came to enjoy the silence, which leads me to the next part.

Would it change anything?
I realized how much the constant stimulus of music and media affected my little ones.  They started talking more and not just talking.  It was like their little spirits were given a little breathing room and they shared insights and spiritual truths that I didn't realize they would understand or articulate.

I realized that I really do trust and like my older kids' sense of music and media and their ability to select it for themselves.  I love the incredible media opportunities for learning, sharing, healing, sustaining and uplifting that my older kids use to bless their lives and the lives of others.   However, I also realized that I needed to moderate what is filtered down to the little minds to let them develop free from being bombarded from stimulus.  And the cool thing is that my older kids get it and don't seem to resent the little ones for it.

We are now using our media intentionally.  It is just not a default and they have to log-on to our computer using a sign-up sheet with their name, intended use, estimated time and the actual completion of the task.  Electronic devices are accessible through a password that they need from me to use for specific things and then returned after.  The older they get, the more unlimited their access. And when they leave the home (like at friend's houses and at the library) it is open season. 

The kids all seem cool with our new way of doing things and it feels right for now. I am sure it will change as our needs change!

Busy Saturday

It all started with that shoe on the wall...

Or that pile of laundry.

It was about 8 am and we sat on the couch and worked out the schedule:
-exercise
-the Goob driving to Batavia to pick up batting for his Eagle project and buttons for his vest for the multi-stake prom that night
-kids running to the MAAC (our thrift store from heaven here in Medina)
-minimal jobs for healthiness*--including that 6 foot high pile of laundry...only a slight exaggeration.
-running to market for food
-Mom being available for dance prep by 2 pm
-start the sewing of quilt tops
-Q-dawg getting in enough work so that he could not drown when Monday rolls around
-visit to a neighbor to fix a screen door (didn't happen that I know of...crazy!)
-Q-dawg trying to fix his broken windshield wipers, since wipers are so essential in our never-ending winter
-specialized cleaning for certain areas that really couldn't be left.
-eating?
-piano lesson for youth in neighborhood
-making dinner for friends and the missionaries.

Well, the war room prep was just enough to keep up on our toes, despite the unforeseen infiltration of the one-baby demolition crew. (See older post about Zulie.)   The Goob, Liliputian and Chugger-dude made it off to the dance with a delightful group of friends on time with me madly sewing on the buttons and doing make-up moments before departure. (See pictures on Instagram.**)  The little ones got to go on a whirlwind trip to the store, with money-bags Papaya in heaven after doing allowance with me before she went (because why not add something else, right??).

Q-dawg was able to finish up his work to give him that head start, although he did finish after 10 pm because he came up to save dinner instead of working.  Lek jumped in too, both with cooking and helping bring in groceries with Piper, Hava and Maia.  The piano lesson was brief, the conversation delightful and full of laughs and the food oh so good!!
Tex Mex Chicken Skillet

And we had Happiness Cookies to top it all off, followed by a game of Categories with a "spoon full of water" and a message with the missionaries

Whew!
Q-dawg and I had a great skype talk with Avot, who is away at college in Idaho figuring out her life, (squeeze in there 5 books read aloud to the littles,) finished up the dishes that Lek had done more than half of despite my insistence on splitting it down the middle, and then settled in front of "The Fugitive" to finish it up with Lek and Q-dawg.  My blood pressure is rising just thinking about it!

Days like that are fortunately few and far between these days.  Normally I have minimal accounting to anyone's schedule but our own and, boy, can I tell you how ready I am for this Sabbath day??

And the laundry was folded and put away.


*our new motto at our house is to make cleaning not the most important priority to leave space for creating, or in other words "see how dirty we can be and still be healthy."
**if I post pictures on Instagram they automatically fill up "Chatbooks" that are printed for my scrapbooks for family history.  Cha-ching!  Feel free to tell them I recommended you.  I love 'em!

Mellow Monday

Yesterday was a slower speed, thankfully!  I woke up earlier than usual and couldn't get back to sleep (darn pregnancy brain!).  I used the time to paint some long-overdue patches on the wall that I had puddied a while back and do a few other things to straighten up.  We had someone coming to look at the house who was coming from California so we were trying to get everything finished up...if we can keep up with things!  For instance, Chugger-dude sent a frisbee through our garage window last week :S.  Nice.  Sigh.  We will get at least most everything ready so the house looks nicer.  It does get a little discouraging when people come through just talking about all the ways they would fix it up, but I guess that is what we want, right?  People to see the potential?

Anyway, we got the house clean doing our morning chores and had a delicious chocolate chip pancake breakfast with Chugger-dude's help (he is on breakfast this week).  It is part of our "18 Days of Celebrating Avot!" series :).  I ate applesauce and whole wheat toast for my breakfast with a little chocolate chip pancake for dessert.  The baby still doesn't like refined foods which is good for the body if not necessarily what my taste buds always prefer.

Devotional was a kick-off to our week study on "sacrifice" under our umbrella theme of "Service-oriented Leadership" for the month.  I appreciate the way devotionals can bring the spirit into the house, particularly after having a bully of a quarrel with one of my kids.  Sigh.  The other ones all scattered during the fight but devotional was a good way to come together in peace again.  We divided into older and younger devotionals which was good for yesterday with the older ones having extra school preparation they were working on. (The younger ones can be a bit longer :)...lots of participation!)

After devotionals, we read from "The Lottery Rose," a beautiful book that starts with tragedy and ends in such a healing way.  The kids have had a hard time understanding the abuse suffered by the main character at the beginning and feel such compassion.  I am glad we are to the healing part of the book.  It is amazing what the human spirit is capable of overcoming with love.

Avot scooted off to Debate while Lek busily dove into the many appraisals he wasn't able to get to that morning with the server being down.  The Goob, Liliputian and I did some math playing "Farkle" together.  They skunked me, but it was hilarious to watch and play :).  The little ones scatter as they always do after any kind of sustained interaction which works for me! :)  We then did a quick "word study" time, talking about "sacrifice" and practicing our penmanship before finishing cleaning up the house for the interested buyers.  Anyone who has moved before relates to the mixed blessing of an extra clean house and the extra time it takes to make it that way, I am sure.  Liliputian kept the kids out in the van while we finished up for about 30 minutes (she is a saint!) while the Goob and Chugger-dude helped me inside.  Then, we headed out!

We stopped by the store to pick up some ground beef for "mushroom soup burgers," Avot's birthday meal request.  I was tempted by the clearance fun lettuce packs so we ended up having a delicious salad to go with it (if I do say so myself :)...).  We also grabbed some corn dogs from the deli, a rare treat, because the kids hadn't had anything for lunch yet in the rush to leave the house clean.

I picked up the allowance money for the kids while I was there and then we headed out to the DI...my favorite place for those with money burning in their pockets.  They knew they had to save some out for savings, tithing, and donations, but we quickly figured out what they had left.  The Goob picked up a couple awesome pair of shoes (which he desperately needed) and Liliputian is saving hers for a birthday date with Avot this Thursday.  I was so happy that the Goob was able to find running shoes and nice casual shoes his size!  We call that a "tithing blessing"...when you go to a store and something you need is on sale or even available when at the thrift store.  Love it!  I found some books (heaven!) and Papaya picked out an adorable dress. It was cute to drive the cart up to the racks and have her peruse like a professional :).  I had confiscated her shoes upon realizing she had worn her Sunday shoes for our outing (she knows better...I even keep them in a special drawer!), so she was stuck in the cart, much to her dismay.  However, she had earned some money from her weekend at Oma and Opa's with Pipalicious and Hava picking up acorns in their front yard (a penny an acorn!) and was excited to spend it. I was excited for her to spend it on something besides candy :).  The dress is adorable and fits her perfectly!

We stopped by the bank on the way home and I assured the bank teller we didn't need any suckers.  Nasty!  After years of cleaning out sticky sticks from van seats, suckers have become taboo in the car.  We picked up Avot and Lek's appraisal money for January and December so they could pay for all their expenses: new tires for the car they use, money for their clubs, etc.  Yes, they have allowances and jobs, but they also pay for pretty much anything outside of food and board...and even then they have to help work to be a part of that blessing.  Hopefully this all pays off for them in the "real world"!

The afternoon consisted of me crashing for a long nap after staying awake since the early hours of the morning and a fantastic quiet time with Papaya and Spooner both sleeping soundly and the others looking at books or playing quietly in different places.  The Goob is flying through the Ranger's Apprentice series...I swear that kid swallows books whole!  I heard someone say at the homeschool conference I went to last weekend that late readers tend to understand what they are reading better than early readers that learn through memorization.  Whether that is true or not for most cases, (and, of course, is not 100% true) I do see the Goob and his reading and feel grateful that I didn't push him or make him feel awkward for learning to read later. (He really started reading comfortably at nine.)  It makes it easier to enjoy the developing reader process in my younger ones with less stress!

Upon waking up, it was still pretty quiet and I started making the dinner: mashed potatoes, hamburgers slathered with cream of mushroom soup sauce and a salad, complete with Koolaid.  Dessert was what we call "Aunt Peggy's Cake," chocolate cake bottom layer, topped with a cream cheese/chocolate pudding layer, and cool whip on top.  Yes, we love our Avot!  In between cooking dinner and eating it, the Goob, Lek, Chugger-dude and I went to our neighbors house to start preparing our "new to us" play set to transport to our house--our family home evening project.  We came home, savored out dinner, then hasted over to the playset to try and get it back before it was too dark to see.  The kids are thrilled!  We haven't had any kind of swingset for years so this is a complete novelty.  It is a sturdy wooden structure with swings, a slide, and a mini-climbing wall. I am so grateful for such generous neighbors!

Q-dawg has been crazy busy with appraisals, so he surfaced for dinner, the playset project, and scriptures, but pretty much has been either looking at houses or working up appraisals like mad...ever since we put our house on the market.  It has been an interesting phenomenon.  Whenever work has been slow before a huge life decision (the other one being moving to Hungary), the very minute, it seems, that we commit to the direction we feel we must take, his work picks up like mad.  The Lord truly provides as we move forward in the direction he wants us to take!

For those who don't know, the direction we are heading to now is upper New York state, Palmyra area.  Q-dawg has a brother who has a family there that we would be near and we have some different things we feel our family needs to do.  Many of them are not clear or in focus, but we know it is the right thing for us.  We will see how fast this house sells (we have had it on the market twice before with no luck), so we will see, right :)?

Scriptures, song, prayer and yummy cake rounded out our day, followed by me reading aloud 2 chapters of our family reading book, "The King of the Murgos" per Avot's birthday request.  Q-dawg disappeared downstairs to madly work for another few hours while I made the rounds of saying prayers, drinks, singing, and telling a few last short stories.  I used to pray with my kids when my older ones were little but got out of the habit.  When my brother Jonathan and his wife Sarah visited over the holidays I was touched by their practice of doing so and offered to do it with the Goob, Chugger-dude and Liliputian...not sure if they would feel they were too old. I was surprised how pleased they were at my offer and I have done it almost every night since.  It has been a powerful and special bonding time, a little one-on-one that I feel my "middle kids" don't always get.  Talk about "by small and simple things" making a difference!

Time to start the new day!  I slept soundly until the alarm went off at 5:45 so I feel much better today.

Last two weeks of homeschooling at a glance: golden times!

The past two weeks have been fabulous in our homeschool, even if they were both very different :).

We enjoyed a very long break from structured homeschool...the entire month of December :).  Of course, reading, games, music and field trips happened, but it was all on the kids' own initiation while I nursed sick kids, took care of projects, and got through my tough emotional garbage.

By the first week after the New Year, we were ready to go!  We are not doing any "main" homeschooling groups--ones that cover "basics"--and it has been fun to apply the principles on a family level.  Below is a basic outline (more for my reference later, but you are welcome to read :)...):

For years I have run groups called "Vanguard Youth" that are based upon certain principles that I feel are inspired and effective for a variety of learning styles, also allowing for personal agency within themes and lenses.  It will make more sense, I think, when you read how it looked:

January Topic: "How to live a meaningful life in God's eyes"
Week 1 Principle: "God-centered Hope yields a meaningful life": I center the devotionals for the week and the subjects on this principle-
DAILY
-Devotional (one for older/one for younger): I use church magazine articles, inspirational stories and media, and music during these devotionals.  The younger ones memorize Articles of Faith and the older ones 
-10-Minute Math: I take 10 minutes during lunch with each child with age/interest appropriate math. Often we play games or review a chapter in Saxon math.
-Mom reading time: everyone listens while I read a chapter or two of a classic of my choosing.  We just finished "Summer of the Monkeys" and are reading "Strawberry Girl."  Normally during the morning, unless the older kids are really busy with outside groups.
-Quiet Time: after lunch, people are able to go to their own places to study or rest...at this stage of my pregnancy, I normally sleep after reading to the little ones.
-Memorization Review: poem and scripture that re-inforce our principle, recited during our "pre-breakfast" family ritual: family creed, memorization, religious song, prayer
-Exercise: Basketball on Mondays at our church, dance on Tuesday, swimming or outside play on Wednesday, Thursday community sports day, and something on Friday or Saturday either individually or as a family.

For our subjects I seek for examples and connections with this principle in the world around us using the following four "lenses":
Monday--Leadership Academy lens: start study of principle and learn skills to help think and communicate like a leader
-Word Study on related word ("hope," in this case)
-Reading out of "The Catechism for the Constitution," an out-of-print lesson outline published soon after the Constitution was ratified to help children understand the what and why of our constitution: this is for the older kids during their devotional once or more a week.  We take turns reading just a couple pages and talk about anything that comes up
-Penmanship (well-written segment of their word study or part of the memorization)
Lunch
-Short "writer's" lesson with "Author's in the Attic" challenge (see Thursday)
-Short Grammar lesson
-Leadership games: strategy, good sportsmanship, etc.

Tuesday--Geo-conquest:  look for examples in history and the world around us and increase our knowledge of places in the world, focusing on one continent a month: song, dances, food, etc.
-Family History moment if we remember :)
-Time Machine: we pretend to go back into time to a certain place and focus on an event or person: Joan of Arc, this week. We try to either act out, eat, or immerse ourselves in some type of activity to help us learn about this person or event on a deeper level.  We also may do a map study.  It was fun to do a "tennis ball" activity while studying Joan of Arc, one suggested in the study guide for Story of the World, as well as act out the intricacies of a crowning ceremony in medieval France.
-Geo-Safari Challenge: they try to pass off one or more Geo-Safari cards about the continent of that month on their own
Lunch
-Dancing: learn a cultural or historical dance from that time period or continent: a medieval folk dance this month that Avot found online...Avot-led
-Avot-led Sign language Choir with kids
-Cultural dinner (if mom has energy :)...)

Wednesday--Eureka! study the world around us scientifically and look for truths and connections we can learn from God's creations.
-Science chapter from "In the Beginning" or chapter of Apologia Biology
-Science games, field trip or project: this week was a Tasting Test

Thursday--Imaginative Arts: through the arts we finish up our look at the Principle for the week or just study it from this lens...art projects, stories, acting something out, etc.
-Do an art project of shields from Joan of Arc's time period and make paper dolls
-Read and act out a story
Evening: "Authors in the Attic": those who have written anything can join us around a candle-lit table and entertain each other with our writings while eating a yummy treat :).
**We were going to also do another art project I was excited about but the beauty of doing it with just my family was that I could say, "We're done for the day!" after the previous projects and just save the other one for another week.  I could feel that they were done and just needed time to do their own things for a while.  It felt good.

Friday--Catch-up day :)!
Any projects that we haven't gotten to that week, we work on then, while the older kids go to choir, theater, and biology
This week, it was putting together and artistically painting and embellishing a 3-D castle my parents gave the kids for Christmas.  We also put together and delivered our "new year love-you-neighbor" gifts since I missed Christmas: a package of popcorn with a note reading:

Thanks for being such a “warm and flavorful”

part of our lives.

Here’s hoping you have a “poppin’” good new year!

 

Next week I think we will go to the Museum of Art at BYU and see one of their new exhibits and hit the zoo on the way back...if I am up to it :).

Final activity for the week: Movie or other activity as a final way to look at what we studied for the week, bringing with us stories we read on our own, word studies and connections.  That first week we watched "The Man From Snowy River" after reviewing our study of "hope."  Throughout the week, we had realized that God-centered hope can only exist when acted upon in faith, which takes courage.  We discussed this, our word studies, and examples we had seen throughout the week, tying together everything from the game of "Greed" we played on Monday to our taste test on Wednesday.

What was remarkable about this discussion is that it was with the Goob, Liliputian and Chugger-dude, pretty much started by them while I cleaned up a half-gallon's worth of milk that Spooner dumped methodically all over the floor during family reading time :).  I was soooo frustrated, tired and angry that I stormed into their discussion and said, "sometimes it is hard to have hope that things like this will work out and hope that it is worth it even when things go so wrong!"  The discussion got better after that.  (Poor Spooner!  It was the first time I had really ever showed so much frustration at him!  I just wasn't quite up to handling it right then, poor chap.  He was just studying the effect of turning a gallon of milk upside down and pumping it up and down as it spilled all over the table.  He was so intent about it!)

I was also blessed to participate in a fabulous discussion based upon a fantastic book, "Thinking about Thinking" which has a collection of articles with much to digest.  So much to learn, study and share!

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This week represents the kind of the pattern I am currently following in outlining my family's homeschooling week using the Vanguard method in approach and application.  The older two kids still have debate on Mondays, Resonate on Wednesdays, Seminary Tuesday and Thursday (and sometimes Friday) mornings, along with the choir, acting and biology I mentioned.  Avot will possibly be joining a couple more groups and Lek has recently joined a history class.  We tend to have less planned as the week goes on, which seems to be the natural flow of our abilities and attentions, with more free time for the kids to do their own studies.  Right now, some of those "studies" include Khan Academy math, Algodoo (a physics-type game), Duolingo (a fun, free online language learning program), and, of course, reading, reading, and more reading.

The kids have the option of studying the material on their own or participating in the "classes" I offer.  The older ones sometimes prefer to do it on their own so they have more time for their own studies, but this way I know that they are thinking, learning in some areas I feel inspired to direct them in as their mother, and still giving them agency to choose the depth they want to engage with it, depending upon their current needs.  It feels good and enlightening so far, so I am happy to do it for now!

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LAST WEEK:
Reality check:  Even though I love my new method for my homeschooling that I used that first week, the next week demonstrated the beauty of adaptation to situation allowable in homeschooling :):

Monday-Friday: SICK KIDS! 
After devotionals and family reading time, Monday started out with a free day at the Utah Natural History Museum up by the U of U.  The Goob started not feeling well and really took a downward turn about halfway through our visit to the museum, unfortunately missing out on a really cool physics presentation, apparently.  He headed out with Lek, who had met us after his debate class and was more than willing to take another spin with the car and get the Goob out of there, although he was sad to realize later that he had missed a huge American Indian display on the top floor that had a lot of beaded artwork.  The snow storm that descended slowed our travel to my parents' house for dinner where we enjoyed a yummy dinner with some games.

Tuesday was pretty mellow, with Drew sick and absolutely no interest from the healthy ones in doing any organized activity.  Fine, I thought, I will study on my own.  So, after devotional and family reading, I sat down with my own books and had a great time studying until 10-minute math at lunch.  The afternoon went much the same, with me falling asleep while reading to the little ones and then all of us heading over to basketball later instead of dance and sign-language because Avot was in Africa and we had missed basketball the day before.

The kids really helped out that night, covering for me while I went to the temple with our ward, cleaning up the kitchen and putting the little ones to bed.

Our principle for the week (or two) was "Making God-centered Choices lead to happiness and a meaningful life," and our devotionals were based off of a fantastic talk by Elder Nelson, "What Will You Choose?" from the Ensign Jan 2015 issue.  I thought it would be a good way to start off the year :).  We took a different section from the talk to focus on each day, reading and discussing it and using complementary/reinforcing media and stories to further our understanding.  It has been nice that even if we are doing much less in the more periphery subjects, we are still building our moral character when sick :).

Wednesday I thought would be a great time to take advantage of the discounted homeschool swim day at the Bountiful Rec. Center to get some exercise and energy out, so we headed out after devotional and reading.  We stopped by the library for educational movies and "Alice in Wonderland" (talk about choices and consequences!!), the DI on the way to pick up some much needed maternity clothes and a couple Little Caesar pizzas for lunch...my first caving into fast-food since Q-dawg and Avot had left for Africa the Wednesday before.  Yay for me :)!

Swimming was awesome!  Spooner and Papaya were exciting to keep track of and fortunately Hava is tall enough she can go through most of their family pool on her own.  Lek, Liliputian and Chugger-dude were fantastic at including the little ones who matched us perfectly without Avot and the Goob, who was still home sick.  All in all, despite one near-drowning by Spooner, we had a great time and wore ourselves out.  In fact, we did such a great job wearing ourselves out, Chugger-dude started feeling very ill towards the end and by the time we got dressed and home, Pipalicious, Papaya, and Hava were all looking pretty ill.  I happily put in the beautiful series about nature recently produced by BBC ("Planet Earth" or something like that) and the kids were wow-ed and amazed by the beauty of God's creations.  True, sometimes they were devouring each other, but we got to learn more about the circle of life that way :).  I love saving movies for time like this!

Early that evening as I was cleaning up the kitchen and listening to something inspiring (I love that combination!), I heard a knock on the door.  Hurrying down, I opened the door to find one of my visiting teachers with two pizzas and the makings for rootbeer floats in hand.  "You haven't made dinner, yet, have you?"  When I shook my head, she happily put the bounty into my hands and said, "Here!  I was just thinking of you with [Q-dawg] and [Avot] being gone and thought you could use a quick meal."

Could I!!  We were going to have leftovers so the kids were ecstatic :)!  What a sweet lady Sister Woolley is.

The next day of "schooling" consisted of "Alice in Wonderland" with a discussion on choices, an abbreviated devotional and family reading, and a short reading of our history chapters for the week on the unification/creation of modern-day Spain in between movies.  It works!  I felt that the previous week had been so packed (and we could pack it in the future weeks!) that we could just relax and get better.  I did sports day with the healthy kids, dodgeball at a local LDS building, which was kind of crazy and intense. It was a small space and lots of kids, although the older kids were really careful of the younger ones and only one child sprained his finger :).  That is good, right?  My sweet friend, Anna Kimball from up the street brought over some "left-over" spaghetti and yummy biscuits for dinner the next night, surprising me yet again.  It was a week full of tender mercies.

Q-dawg's parents came up Thursday to bring us lunch for the sickies as a sweet way to help while Q-dawg and Avot were gone.   They also brought some packages of small plastic figures--dinosaurs and animals--which have been a big hit in our almost toy-less house :).  With everyone sick and watching movies, I was able to sneak out and get some friend-time both days for myself, although I was sad to miss out on one friend's visit as I got preoccupied with eye-doctor problems and sick kids, quite forgetting our engagement.

Lek had a crazy busy day on Saturday, starting with Resonate practice at 7 am in Ogden, Cabaret team training and then an extra training in the afternoon.  The rest of us madly cleaned the house to get ready for Avot and Q-dawg who were getting back that night.  The plan was to pick them up, head to Leatherby's (an ice cream place in West Jordan), and then come home, and we all worked hard to make it happen.  It was rewarding to see the kids work so well together as we cleaned walls and sang along to the Goob's choice of music which, if you know the Goob, is just as unique and fun as he is :).  (I love that kid!)

Looking back, it was a great week, still full of growth and learning even if using a different method.  The kids are thinking, making connections, looking for symbolism and application in what they learn and see around them, from the youngest to the oldest.  I see them excited about learning and choosing to make their relationships better.

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THIS WEEK:
I am excited about this upcoming week, especially after going to a teacher-training at church today.  I will start it off tomorrow by reviewing something our trainers brought up, a link on learning how to teach more like the Savior from lds.org: https://www.lds.org/liahona/2015/01/what-manner-of-teachers-ought-we-to-be?cid=HPTH011515625&lang=eng

We are continuing to focus on making God-centered choices in our devotionals and will be using the movie "Gifted Hands" tomorrow, as I still have sick kids and don't know that they will be up to games with friends or too much activity. (Most of them stayed home sick today from church.  We actually sat on a side bench, although it was still a bit tight :).)  For history we will be doing the Family History mystery out of the Friend (the "heirloom" hunt) and then the kids will split up into groups to each cover/study a different colonizing groups in North America.  They will set up their own station to teach the others.

We will have the usual activities of leadership skills, sports, dancing, and sign-language.  For science we are studying the aspects of light and dark from the sections "In the Beginning," an apt connection when studying "choices" since a big part of our mortal experience is deciding to choose to follow the light or the dark.  Our art project will be "toilet paper art" (hopefully I will get pictures!) with Authors in the Attic Thursday night. Our concluding movie will be "Labyrinth," that very strange movie from the 80's, while the little ones watch "Alice in Wonderland" upstairs.  I think I want to try and get to do "lasar tag" on the discounted day at Boondocks, but am not sure that is in the budget for this week.  It would be fun, though!  Maybe there is another "maze-type" place?  I will think on that.

Needless to say, I am very excited about this upcoming week, which is always good when it is something you need to do, right?  I am amazed at how much "free time" I have to actually homeschool when I don't have to spend so much time managing groups and schedules and drama via email with others.  This is a good season for our family and, while I sense it will not last forever, I am enjoying it very much in the meanwhile and felt that I should record it, this glimpse into our current life.

Happiness

Can I be so happy?

Can I truly be feeling such peace and joy?

I have felt sorrow... felt the binding darkness of depression...felt the despair of personal abhorrence...

The contrast is blinding.

We feel peace in our home.  We are happy.  The kids are going crazy with their education, an education of things that matter most.  Lek getting up earlier and putting in full days of study and work, Avot starting to get more and more direction and focus after her last few years of intense study...looking towards being a music therapist where she can serve and share her love of music, and the Goob has dived right into the exuberant, unpredictable, erratic-ness of "Transition to Scholar" phase with excited projects, dreams, and ambitions and a recent love of Khan academy's clips on math, doodling, and music. (Check out this one of fractals!!! They watched it three times and then we spent the morning doing fractals!)  Chugger-dude and Liliputian go between excited study and reading and then simply learning the basics of "core phase" (good/bad, right/wrong, work/play, etc.).  The little girls do a lot of core phase in their play and work, figuring out what is good and bad, how to work, what it feels like to be nice and share verses not nice, and how to be more like Jesus.  Perfect!

It is amazing how much easier it is to trust the principles of something after you see some "fruit" of it, when you have just been exercising that particle of faith in a seed planted so many years ago.   It is so freeing!

Our devotionals are getting more and more peaceful.  The kids are doing reflection time on most days after it with a little sweet square of chocolate at the end of it to remind them how sweet it can be :).  Reflection time comes after devotional, with peaceful music playing while they doodle or write about what they watched, heard and felt during devotional.

We are using the computer and media to strengthen our souls with goodness, exposing them to greatness beyond my capacity.  For instance, the Khan academy links I have inserted above take you to the doodles and mind and sheer contagious enthusiasm that this lady has for math, patterns, and doodling :).  The kids were just on-edge with excitement to do what she is doing!  As we daily watch a few "I am Mormon" messages, we see a diversity of exciting, motivating individuals who are imperfect and beautifully living the gospel in their own way, changing the world with their own voices.

We have a house full of great literature where the kids can be exposed to greatness because they don't have the distraction of excess found in our libraries at home.  Believe me, I love the resource of the library, but here, without it, I can see the flip side of the virtue of not having excess.  They read and re-read amazing books and bring up examples of how this or that books relates to what we are talking about.

Hava and Papaya are learning how to play as friends, how to say sorry, and how to share.  Beautiful.  I learn daily from them and their quick forgiveness.

The kids are doing fun and creative things with everything they can find, from paper, to lego guys, to balloons to snails.  Case in point...

Chugger-dude did this during his quiet time the other day: "the clown is doing a headstand with a pie and his hat, with the racer watching.  The other guy that the baseball player is watching is singing."

These guys are climbing and hiking and they have pet monkeys...one is a gorilla and one is a spider monkey

The kids are learning how to work well...the jobs are done most days by 8:30 with peace still around.

Of course, we have our rotten days, when kids seem like they are bouncing off the walls, everyone seems easily offended (especially me :)...), and tempers are short.  However, the contrast is wonderful and I just like to soak in these days while they are here.  But just because there is bad, it doesn't mean I need to focus on it.  And as I don't, the good seems to be coming out more and more and I find myself finding joy and rejoicing in the golden moments, the drops of awesome, the tiny miracles that make up my life.

Such a great guy...

For the sake of simplicity, we have rotation of certain things at our house: jobs, Family Home Evening assignments, and "days."  The latter of those rotations has produced an interesting phenomenon at our house.  We do not label days as "Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday..." nor do we label them in their hungarian equivelants of "Hetfo, Kedd, Szerda..."  No.  Our weeks go like this: "Hava's day, Pipalicious's day, Chugger-dude's day, Liliputian's day, The Goob's Day" and then the weekend gets split between the rest of us.

What is so special about our "days"?  Well, when it is your day, you get the following:
-to pick the song we sing before each mealtime prayer (something we have done for years now, thanks to the great example of the Richardsons...)
-to say the meal time prayers for the day (yes, that is three prayers in one day)
-to plan the devotional (or help, depending upon the age)
-to have about half an hour of computer time on sites like lds.org, google earth, etc.

Doing this, I have noticed certain patterns:
-Hava loves the song "I love Daddy,  he love me..." down through Spooner, and chooses it at least once a week (you should see her and Papaya grin when it comes their turn to be named :)...priceless!)
-Chugger-dude loves "I'm so glad when daddy comes home" where Q-dawg becomes a literal mountain of children climbing on his knee followed by scratchy daddy kisses liberally bestowed all around
-The Goob is all about speed: short songs, short prayers
-The number of times a particular phrase is repeated in a prayer increases the more a child is distracted by other things :).

Lately, Pipalicious is showing particular care and inflection in her prayers.  These special and tender prayers can be quite long in length, but each word and phrase is heartfelt.  Just yesterday, one of her phrases went something like this... (and you have to say it all breathy, sighing, and sweetly as only a six year old girl can do it)

"And...thanks for being such a great guy."

Phrases like that have just got to make Heavenly Father's day :).

Assembly line bathing...

No pics for this one, but, as I am "turning in" for the night, it occured to me...I actually had the kids lining up and going into the showers one at a time! Well, the little ones, anyway, from Chugger-dude on down, but still :).  Funny.

We had come back from a quick "exercise" trip to the soccer fields, where it was boys against girls while the three little girls played in the sand pit (making huge faces in the sand) and Spooner watched us or had some "tummy time" as Q-dawg puts it, watching us.  It was getting late, Q-dawg was finishing up a record 14 appraisals in less than 7 hours, and the Goob and some other kids still wanted to watch a segment of a series on "Doing DaVinci" before bedtime.  Like I told Avot today, it's not that I don't want to do everything the kids want to do...it's just that we run out of time!  Even as it was, the few DaVinci clips I let them watch didn't end until around 10:30 pm!  And Lek wanted to stay at the park longer, too, playing soccer on one of those perfect spring evenings.  I agree, Lek!  But how do we all do everything we want to do :)?

Just a glimpse at the rest of the day.  Chugger-dude, our cute little "Franklin" had a rare morning: he got up at 5:40 am and started doing his basics and jobs, determined to get them done.  He was done by breakfast (around 7:30 am) which was record time for him, and had an hour and a half to play before devotional.  It was amazing!  Maybe this will herald a new chapter in his life.  I anticipate a few relapses to his previous "take-all-day-to-do-his-job" methods (as all the kids have done) but it was a glimpse into future responsibility.  Woohoo!

Right after devotional we were able to finally watch the segments of Act I of Romeo and Juliet that we put together so far.  Pretty hilarious for a tragedy.  Shakespeare, Singing Bee style :).  We are hoping it will get them excited to start learning their lines so we can finish up the rest of it.  Good idea, eh?

I added some "new-to-us" toys to the "blanket time" stash, and everyone wanted to do blanket time...well, except Avot and Lek :).  Crazy.  I had all of them in the girl's room, sitting on blankets, being calm and quiet in anticipation of getting to play with one of the new toys.

I did some preschool with the little ones--they helped me decorate some things for an upcoming birthday--, make palascinta (crepes) for lunch, did Euclid and Latin with Avot, and then took a quick nap with Papaya while the lunch dishes sat and Avot started her "End of the Year Bible Class Social!"  It was a huge event, with many games, treats, and costumes. (We'll have to post those later, or I'll put in a link to Avot's blog when she does it.)  Avot has quite the list of games and activities, and the kids had a grand time.  They ran out of time to do is all, but I am sure Avot can use the games later :). One game I heard was "fruit basket" but instead it was "good/evil fruit" and "tree of life fruit" and the "mix-up" phrase that included everyone was: "cast out!" I think.  Clever Avot :).

Meanwhile, I headed to the Posta to mail that birthday stuff with Papaya and adorable Spooner, did it myself in Hungarian, bought some velcro by myself in Hungarian, and did our usual quick trip to the local grocery store.  Papaya went with me and helped herself to a kifle (hungarian roll--that pic to the left), which I thought she deserved after being so good in the stores.  They are the equivelent of 7 cents each.  Not going to break the budget :).  (The kids call them "smile bread.") The kifli also kept her quiet and calm for those last treacherous moments of grocery shopping when I have to somehow hurry and get all my groceries on the conveyor belt, then get them off into the basket again after the checker scans them and before she starts on the next person's groceries, and then pay her as soon as she is ready for me in coins that are finally starting to look a little more familiar.  Then I take them to the side to load them up in a backpack and in the stroller.  Woohoo!

Lek has been his usual, boisterous self.  He needs his dad around more to take the edge off some of his pizzazz :).  He is good at making us laugh, though.  He said that he can be like the "entertainment" bunnies in "The Country Bunny and the Golden Shoes" that sang and danced and cheered people up while they did all the work, since that is what he likes to do anyway :).  Funny.  I put a "Studio C" in devotional this morning just for him.  He also mowed the entire back area today, which took him 2-3 hours.  Whew!  Thanks, Lek!

School schedule...adapted :)

Alright.

After one month of our crazy school schedule I had to take another "look see" and figure out what could give :).  I was in a continual sense of panic of "not being ready" for one class or another for the kids, but what to do?

I prayed about it...good answer, I know.  I felt like all the things were actually still supposed to be there, but got some great answers about how to "tweak" them a little.

Avot has since taken charge of the "Little Kid History" we have on Thursdays...our Time Machine.  She gets to teach something out of the chapters we are studying for "Big Kid History" (Avot and Lek and I), and make it fun, usually with a power point.  The kids love it and she enjoys it.  With her level of scholarship, she is at the stage where she needs to be teaching to learn more and more, so she has taken this class on, helps Hava with her devotional on Monday mornings, and also volunteered to mentor a "Scripture Class" for the Goob and Liliputian, who both wanted a class like Seminary for themselves.  Awesome!

Lek loves science, so he has taken on teaching the kids science on Tuesday, which has been wonderful.  He gets to do some experiments with them and then teach them a few basics out of the chapter that he and Avot are studying with Q-dawg each Tuesday.

The Goob, as Den leader for the Cub Scouts for Chugger-dude, has taken on the whole thing, with mentoring by me.  I have never really liked the "requirements" for passing off at the Wolf level, although I understand that they need to be simple for a reason.  So, I told the Goob I wanted him to think of things that he feels are important for Chugger-dude to learn, we still review the oath, etc., pledge, prayer, and I do something from the Faith in God program; but then, the Goob does something with Chugger-dude like "boot camp," or a building project, or something else, and it has worked well so far.

I am recommitting to not take up the whole afternoon with history, just because I can. :S  More is not always better, but there are so many awesome things to talk about!  However, I felt drained after my class yesterday, that went for two hours, so I feel that something needs to be tweaked.  We just cover three short chapters, and it doesn't feel like a good amount of time. That should help :).

Authors in the Attic and the Spelling Bee have been relegated to once a month, and I tend to do my art projects (when I do them :)...) in girl's group, in Young Womens, or in preschool.  Fridays are definitely the time to recover and be a little less structured!

We are starting the "blanket training" method I found in the book by the Duggars, and it is working sooooo well with my little ones...and even with the "middles": Pipalicious, Chugger-dude, and even Liliputian.  They seem to enjoy being calm, and it took very little "training," especially with bigger kids there to model the ideal behavior and with positive verbal and physical reinforcements.  It has been fun the last couple mornings to sit in the middle of a room with blankets spread out all over, and five kids sitting quietly on their blankets playing with their one toy or book.  In fact, this morning, I said, "Okay, blanket time is over!" and they all protested. 

Is this a bad thing? I wondered, and let them still do it, as long as they agreed to let me know when they were done and fold up their blankets afterward.  Even Papaya did it!  I'll help her be calmer yet :).

The Basics dash

We have something called "The Basics" at our house:
-brush teeth
-say prayers
-make bed
-get dressed
--clean room
-read scriptures
-write in journal
-comb hair (for those who have it)
-my favorite: ask mom if there is anything they can do to help me that morning

Pretty much, these have to be done by 9 am (give or take a few minutes, based upon what I am doing at the time), and then I check them to see if they are done.  If they are not, they get to help me with some other job of my choosing.  Lucky, eh? :)  They also have to do their area of stewardship for the week, so the house is relatively clean before we start "school" for the day.

Seeking inspiration for our latest Authors in the Attic, I turned to this daily ritual and came up with the following poem :)...the kids loved it. (The child in the following poem has "breakfast clean-up" for their job.)

Brush, brush
Make them shine!
Hurry, hurry!
Almost nine!

Clean the room
Make the bed
Hair is combed
And prayers are said.

Go to mom--
"What to do?"
Oh no! Chagrin!
It's nine o'two.

Mom is busy
Feeding... (Spooner);
No extra jobs
If I can fly!

Garbage out...
What a mess!
Take a breath,
No time to rest...

Lining in,
Now I'll zoom!
Down the hall,
To the Girl's room.

Shake the rugs
Put them back
Clean the counters...
Ant attack! (yes...we have an ant problem in January)

Smash the bugs
And sweep the floor 
Quickly now!
It's nine o' four!

"Time to start!"
I hear mom say.
Whew! No
Extra jobs today.

Every morn work
Like a flash!!
That's what we call
The Basics Dash!

Chugger-dude had fun dragging Papaya around the house in this little upside down stool.  He loves his little sisters and brother!

Kid-isms, Scheduling Successes, Visa, Games

Kid-isms :)
Last night, Avot was carrying Pipalicious around on her front, like a monkey--having some silly fun.  As she did, Pipalicious said, "You smell like Spooner, and Spooner smells like ice cream!"  Love it!

Another "kid-ism": I was teaching what we call "Kid's Science" about the water cycle.  We had just covered how much water was in the planet.  They had just figured out that most of the water was in the oceans.  (They were able to identify that it was salty thanks to "Ice Age 4," the part where Sid sticks his head in the ocean, drinks some in, and then puckers up, saying, "Salty!"  Whatever works!)  Anyway, I asked, "So, where does the fresh water come from...the water we can drink?"

Hava: "A cup!"

Chugger-dude, turning to her said, "No, Hava, not a cup.  The faucet."

Apparently, we need to find a movie that teaches about the origins of fresh water...or not :).

Papaya's latest favorite phrase is "Big Huge!"  Everything is "big huge!"  If she needs a book to support the paper she is drawing on, she points to a book and asks, "big huge?"  If she anything slightly large, she gets a deeper, dramatic voice and says, "biiiig huuuuuge!" So cute!

All I can say is, it is a good thing that little Spooner's nose is "Big Huge!" like his daddy's, so, even though he is congested a bit, it is never enough to completely obstruct his breathing.  A good thing, too, because I haven't found a "booger sucker" (blue bulb syringe) yet here in Hungary.

School Scheduling Successes!
Avot is truly blossoming into womanhood, discovering its joys and trials :).  One of those is the art of scheduling all that you want to do in a day.

She uses Q-dawg's cell phone to wake up in the morning (alarm clocks are ridiculously over-priced here).  The other day, as we were "mentoring" together, she said, "I think I am going to get up at 4:30 instead of 5:00, because I can't seem to get everything in in a day that I want to, and I keep getting distracted."  I recommended getting her extra half hour of sleep, and just trying to focus more :).

Yesterday, she did it!  She was able get all the things done she wanted to do in a day, and you could see her relief and happiness at having a little while in the evening to herself.  And her day was full of awesome, amazing things! This scholar phase* stuff is incredible!  I have worked towards it for so many years in faith, letting her decide her own schedule, read her own books (for the most part), and, when she was younger, it was hard to see her, with all she is capable of, do things that seemed trivial or just seem to waste her school hours.  This past year she has really taken off and it is so awesome to see her find her way through her genius and be passionate about developing it.  Like it says in a book I read recently: "Leadership comes more naturally to those who have had a chief hand in their own education." ("A Thomas Jefferson Education for Teens," pg 3)

Lek is really catching on, too, and it has been amazingly powerful turning over his accountability to Q-dawg.  He gives his dad the schedule of things he wants to accomplish in a day, and then reports to Q-dawg at the end of the day.  Even if he doesn't do it all, it is amazing how he tries harder the next day to do it, or revise his schedule to be more relevant and realistic.

*I think I have postings on what "scholar phase" is...or at least Thomas Jefferson Education on my Lazarus blog, for reference.

Residence Visa...today?
Q-dawg may be getting his residence visa today...woohoo!  He really wants to get a job teaching English, or in English, somewhere.  It has been quite the process, but we think this is the last step today--faxing over an agreement between our landlady and us that we can extend our housing contract if we both want to. (I don't know that either of us do, but it is there :)!)  He has worked so hard for so long to get this.  It has been challenging, since we had to appear in person at the office to submit the paperwork, so we couldn't get it started in America

The older kids are excitedly hoping it happens today, because then they will get to go and see "The Hobbit" with him in Buda.  I will take my turn later this month, when Spooner is a little older and we go in for our doctor's visits, doing it all at the same time.  Love it!  This way, the older kids will be a little happier about watching the youngers while we are gone longer, knowing they already got to see it...at least that is the plan :).  We are all excited to see it.

Games!
The kids have been on an UNO playing spree lately.  Pipalicious even plays it by herself, dealing out 3 hands, and then taking the turns for each one :).  We sometimes use it to practice our colors or numbers in Hungarian, too.

Speaking of Hungarian, we almost have "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" mastered in Hungarian.  Woohoo!  Between that and the "Rainbow Song" we are learning at least a few things to help us interact better with the beautiful people we are living among.

Another game we all really like right now is "Dabble," a word game that kids of all ages can play, if you adapt it a little.  Last night we used it in Scouts with the Goob, giving extra points to those who created words that had to do with scouting.  So fun!

The Goob and Lily played in the snow yesterday for quite some time, generating a ball a little taller than the Goob.  Lek went out to help roll it for them when the Goob came in saying, "I need someone with big huge muscles to come out and help us with something!"  Go, Lek!

For preschool, Chugger-dude, Pipalicious, and Hava picked out books that started with "S", our letter for the week, and I read them as they practiced writing their letters.  Chugger-dude says he likes cursive because you don't have to lift your pencil.  I hope that lasts, because most of the other kids have given up on cursive.  I think it is just Avot that has truly taken the time to master it.   Anyway, one of the books was one of my favorites, "The Fisherman and the Sea," about the fisherman who catches a magic fish, and his wife wants him to ask the fish for bigger houses, and, eventually, power over the sun, the moon, and the stars.  The kids wanted to act it out, with Hava as the fish, Chugger-dude as the fisherman, and Pipalicious as the wife.  They have read it enough that they could do it all pretty much without my help.  Pipalicious was especially adorable as she would say, "Us shall see!" to her fisherman husband when he says, "now we can be happy" with each wish the fish grants.  "Us shall see"...

First day back...

As I looked around my house at about 8 pm, the little ones running around crazy, the bed in the girls room stripped off with books all over the floor, the kitchen a disaster from a dinner thrown together between "Debate Club" and "11 year old scouts," I sighed.

"Oh, boy...Is it worth it?  Maybe I need to tweak something," I thought.

However, then my mind flashed back to times after groups at my house in Utah, and thought, "Hey!  This actually looks very familiar, and is actually a little better, since it is just my own kids that made the mess!"

And, the several interruptions during classes were easily the same number or less than when I was running other groups in my home then.

So...let's do this!

Day in Review :)!
We started out with devotional...almost at 9 am...woohoo!  Jobs were mostly done, the house mostly straight, and I was mostly ready for the classes of the day :). Then I went on a walk with the littles that turned into an hour epic journey filled with ditches to explore, trees to hide in, and ice to slide on.  I didn't get much of the exercise I was hoping to get, but Chugger-dude, Hava, Pipalicious, and Papaya had a rock n' roll time, as Q-dawg puts it :).  Spooner had a blast hanging out with Daddy and smiling (I missed it!), and he welcomed us back through the window.

The older kids then went to play soccer at the field we found on New Year's for their exercise, and didn't end up getting back until noon.  That was great with me, because it gave me time to catch up and get a power-point outline to follow along with for Vanguard.  When they got back, we had our preschool, focusing on "Faith," hungarian words for body parts, and the letter Q.  (Random!)  The littles colored squares after cutting them out, and we put them together for a "quilt."

Lunch was a quick affair, with Q-dawg quizzing the kids on random math during the meal--something that I find quite fun, and am glad he is here to do. :)

Vanguard came right after (whew!) and apparently 3 hours, even with only two kids, is not long enough!  However, it was nice for Avot, who normally didn't have enough time to present what we call "inspirements," and we were able to even play most of the jeopardy game she made of Joan of Arc's life :).  We started this super easy Latin book, and then did Debate Club, headed up by Q-dawg.  The kids can't wait to start actually debating :).  Papaya spent time bonding with me after hours of neglect, coloring contentedly in my lap.  I wrote up random math problems for Liliputian when Papaya would let me, so it was good to do a little bonding.

Dinner was a rushed affair, prepared deliciously by Lek: "Heidi's Peas, Ham, and Potatoes" (lovingly dubbed "HPHP") and then it was right into a den meeting with the Goob: knot-tying, scout memorization, and planning and elections...boo-yah!  The Goob is our new den leader (it was unanimous) and we have a family full of knot tying geniuses.  This morning, Hava used the skills she learned there to make a little sled for her stuffed dog out of the dust pan, and Pipalicious and Chugger-dude have been tied hand and foot to each other at random times.  Nothing like knots and a little rope to keep kids busy!

Dishes were only a minor catastrophe, with Papaya helping and dumping out half the dirty dishwater onto the floor and down the side of the drawers by the sink.  Sweet.  When I went to get the mop, it was still outside from airing it out last Saturday (which it desperately needed!), and it had dipped below freezing by that time, so the bottome of the mop was stuck at a 90 degree angle from handle.  Interesting.  Oh well!  It absorbed most of the liquid! :)

Mutual with the older kids was great, kicking off the theme, and splitting into YM and YW to see where they are at in their Duty to God and Personal Progress respectively, with Avot and I multi-tasking and making the treat (choco chip cookies!) at the same time.  Yummy!  Avot is either the second or third time through Personal Progress and she said it was nice to have someone working with her personal progress again, after coming to Hungary with no help at the church level.  She is trying to do it in Hungarian now, so I hope I am up to it :).  Fortunately, she is self- motivated, so I can be a cheerleaders, right?

So...10 o'clock pm, Chugger-dude was still on the computer doing Google Earth and The Friend, the  little girls were just going to sleep, Mom was being the Bomb (short-tempered and tired) and Avot was still playing chess against Q-dawg (our combined activity for Mutual).  Lek had soundly defeated me rather quickly about an hour and a half earlier :).  Go Lek!

What a day.  As I watch the kids tie knots together, entertain each other, and help each other out, amidst the fighting and mess-making, I can still say I wouldn't trade this for anything.  Totally worth it! :)

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, what do we do, we swim, swim...

Christmas week and schedule for new year :)

With new baby and holidays, it has been quite a week!

We had a great visit from Sándor, a gentleman we met in our Buda ward, on Christmas Eve.  He brought a delicious Christmas cake for us to enjoy, and it was very chocolate-y.  Avot was in heaven.

That night, we lit candles and acted out the nativity story.  Avot played the violin, Hava was a wonderful Mary, with Spooner playing a perfect baby Jesus, with "no crying he makes." :) Lek was Joseph, Chugger-dude the excited donkey, Avot the angel and heavenly choir with her violin, and the rest of us filled in as shepherds, sheep, and wise man. With Christmas carols mixed in, it was surprisingly spiritual and sacred...not a usual event for our Christmas eve nativity :).

The kids opened the gifts they bought for each other on Christmas Eve, and it was sweet to watch.  There was a lot  of chocolate involved.   We had had a whirlwind shopping experience the Saturday before, with all of us at the Tesco, doing all of our shopping for everything, and trying not to let people see their gifts...a  little tricky!  We divided into pairs and wandered around the store for a couple hours.  Hava saw one of her presents from her Grandma and Grandpa Biesinger, and, after only one glance at it at the store before we covered it again, was sure it was hers (a good thing it was, too!), and knew which of the wrapped presents were hers.  She is too smart for her own good!

Pipalicious made a nativity out of Legos...the one decoration I was missing this holiday season.  Thanks, Pipalicious!  She says, "It was sort of hard to do!"  At times like this, I am glad for Legos...when I am not stepping on them :).  The yellow bars around are the hay :).

Pipalicious gave us a scare that day, though.  She had a sudden stiff neck and a few other symptoms that could have pointed to meningitis.  We were worried, but, after getting in touch with our favorite doctor and PA in Maine :), we decided to wait and look for other symptoms.  What a relief!  I had had enough time running to doctors and hospital in Budapest to last me for a while :)...and nice to not have to do it on Christmas Eve or Christmas :). 

The Goob had fun with a little puzzle box that we brought from my house growing up.  It is definitely not the use for which it was intended, but I loved it!

He took the pictures and wanted to get all the angles

There's the genius himself!

The next morning we had a casual time of it, waiting until we got in touch with our grandparents in Norway to open presents from them, and slowly making donuts.  "Baby Jesus" filled the kids shoes with candy (they were smart enough to find their biggest shoes out), so they were satisfied until the donuts were ready.  Papaya was a little punchy, but we made it alright. :)  Then, the kids opened presents from Q-dawg and I, service-cards that they could redeem later (like, "no jobs for one day") and homemade things.  The fun just kept going when we got to open presents with grandparents from Utah later that afternoon.  We all decided it was more fun that way, all drawn out, so maybe we'll try it again next year this way.  This way, we could savor the joy of giving to each other, and the homemade, smaller gifts from each other didn't get lost in the bigger, more glamorous gifts (which were also wonderful for making Christmas magical).  It was nice.

One of the least popular presents was the playdoh that I picked out for Papaya from her Norway grandparents...at least to Q-dawg.  Probably rightly so, as I had to google "how to removed playdoh from a plaster wall" last night in the middle of our New Year's Eve party.  Sigh!  I keep trying, but he keeps being right about the messes and chaos playdoh brings :). Darn him!

Q-dawg gave the kids and I all priesthood blessings this week.  He gave them blessings from their Heavenly Father all so wonderfully, and so uniquely! Mine mentioned, among other things, that I will have the inspiration to know what is necessary and that I would have the energy and ability to do all the wonderful things that I want to do with my life.  What beautiful promises!  I have cherished the words all this week.  Q-dawg normally gives the kids all blessings at the beginning of the school year, but this year was a little crazy, and it worked to do it now, just as well :).

This week has been full of getting ready for the new year for me.  The kids are done, I think, with our relatively schedule-less December (which worked well having a new baby and Christmas in a foreign country demands), so I have things up and ready to roll after an intense week of evaluating "good, better, best."  The church programs in our area don't have things like "activity days" or "scouts" and YM/YW only meet once a month, so we are trying to do what we can as follows: 

(subject to many imperfections and disasters, of course, but I am going to try and treat it as though others are coming to our house to participate, so I hold these things while the disasters pause around me--we'll see!)
Liliputian: Beautiful Girlhood, which combines Faith in God requirements with good books, domestic skill (this semester is crocheting), and good one-on-one time with mom talking about being feminine (a good thing for both of us!)
The Goob and Chugger-dude:
-Cub Scouts: The Goob is our Den Chief for Chugger-dude's Wolf den, which will meet once a week, -Knights of Freedom twice a month, a boy-oriented book group centered around becoming good men by studying biographies of famous men and inspiring each other.
-11-year old Scouting hour (for the Goob) before Lek and Avot's YM/YW, where Q-dawg is the scoutmaster, and the Goob and I work on merit badges.  I will be doing the merit badges for Isaak, something my brother and his family gave us--a kit for doing scouts "with Isaak."  Fun idea, eh?
Avot and Lek:
-online Seminary (one of the few classes not from me, fortunately!),
-Vanguard Youth every Wed for three hours (Vanguard Youth) with debate class afterwards with Q-dawg,
-Master Class (Avot, goes with Vanguard) once a month to go with it,
-History on Thursday with me (based on Bauer's "History of the Medieval World"),
-Science on Tuesday with Q-dawg after his work (out of "Physical Science" from the Apologia series)
Littles: Preschool daily in the mornings...this seems to be when they want me and when the older kids want their space, so it works well.
Everyone who wants:
-Authors in the Attic (see "terms of what we do" on home page)
-Spelling Bee  (these two will be every other week from each other on Thursday nights)
-Time Machine for history every Thursday morning (the topic comes from what I study with the big kids...this week, it's Attila the Hun!)
-Science every Tuesday morning (again, this it taken from what we are already studying with the big kids, with a little magic school bus and Bill Nye thrown in for flavor :)...)
-Choir: Mon and Thursday
-Art Class: Fridays

This schedule makes me appreciate having a community of people and a church-support system that combines their talents to raise my children :)!

"And the sun rises!"