My Little Ones Are Smart

I am going to be honest here. My heart just really wasn't into Halloween this year.  This is what you get.

 Julia's outfit was just a hodgepodge of orange and black stuff I have picked up along the way. She liked it.

 Eli's costume was game time decision. I thought he would do the blue and green 5-eyed monster outfit I put him in a few years ago. But he went all crazy with the dogs this year.

Yep, that is a costume that Zach wore two years ago.  And he did his own makeup.

Raef really wanted to be a vampire. He did his own makeup as well.

We did have a lot of fun trick-or-treating. We drove down to Rolling Hills, the neighborhood that surrounds the church building. It was the perfect location. The houses are close together. Lots of people did get into Halloween, so there were neat decorations everywhere. It didn't take Julia, Harry, and Eli long to catch onto the whole candy thing.  They had a ball. Harry would even walk right into people's houses when he saw the reserve candy.  Even though we were a motley crew, they got lots of comments from people saying how cute they were.  

It was a lot of fun. We made the rounds for about an hour and then headed home with our haul.  Thank you Harry, Julia, and Eli for collecting my candy.

Then when we got home I was shocked to hear the doorbell ring. Have you seen our driveway???  Sure enough, one family of trick-or-treaters.  Luckily I had some candy leftover from a homeschool party we did on Friday. If not, I would have had to sacrifice our candy.  After all, they did walk all the way up the driveway, you know.

Formula For Dry Eyes

This week has gone by fairly quickly.  I have been busy doing stuff and therefore haven't had much time to think of a witty blog post.  But I am going to write something right now.

After much struggling over the past few weeks, I really needed a boost.  I definitely got it from my neighbor and homeschooling friend Jennifer. We were able to go out last week and I talked to her about my struggles with homeschooling.  She has been doing it a lot longer than me and her kids are a bit older.  She gave me some good advice.  It has helped me to rethink everything in my educational journey.  So I have realigned my strategy and it has definitely paid off this last week.

I have been focusing all of my attention on Raef and Zach. Therefore, the little ones have had a really hard time. And so then we have all suffered.  I decided to take a hands-off approach to their education. I put all of the work that I wanted them to complete in a box.  They did it all on their own. I only helped them with a couple of things.  They actually did a lot of work. I was able to put all of my attention on Eli, Harry, and Julia. I focused on organizing and cleaning my house, playing with the little ones, and showering them with lots of attention. I stayed out of the schoolroom for the most part, because wherever I go, the babes follow.

The results were stark. There was very little crying this week. Julia and Harry took a nap almost every single day. The house stayed mostly clean. Eli played lots of games and did many activities with me. I cooked dinner every night.  Things went well.  I don't even think I cried one time.

I learned that Raef and Zach can do a lot on their own. The less I do, the better it is for everyone.

Are You an Ornithologist?

The house we live in has a whole lot of windows. It is nice because you don't have to do much decorating. Heavenly Father has taken care of it for us.  However, it is not nice for the birds.  We have had many casualties from birds that don't notice the windows and fly right into them.

This one was the latest victim. He took a rest right outside the schoolroom door.  It was so perfect because my kids were actually working on a bird book project.  And here was a bird they could actually touch and observe.  They were very gentle with the bird.

I was especially excited. I got out our Peterson's field guide and tried to figure out what kind of bird it was. Apparently, I am no ornithologist.  Anyone know what kind of bird this is?

I have no clue.

My "Helpless" Princess

On Monday, I took all of the little ones to Raef's baseball game. Rinar was out of town, so we made the best of it. At the back of the field there is a little hill that rolls down to the fence.  Harry, Eli, and Julia had a lot of fun rolling down the grassy hill. Then I started to notice something that intrigued me and bothered me all at the same time.

Julia played the helpless victim and had to be "rescued" by her brothers...over and over and over again.  "Help! Help!"  She would lie there like a little princess as her brothers would come storming towards her.  I was baffled.  Where in the world did she learn to do that? I thought of media she has absorbed that would have taught her to role play in that manner.  But really, nothing came to mind.

I remember watching another little girl at some park doing the exact same thing when she was playing with my little boys. I was a bit judgemental, thinking of what kind of crap was she watching or being to taught to act so helplessly. Little did I know.

This brings me to Tuesday. We were at the church waiting for Cub Scouts to end and they were playing in the gym.  Once again, Julia would purposely put herself in a position where she had to be "rescued".  What is going on with my little girl? Where is this coming from?

Or could it be one of those innate girl things? They just know to do it, just like they want to wear pink and put on lipstick?  (She does those things too.)  

I then had a startling realization. I do the same thing!  When I have a hard day with the kids, who do I call to rescue me? Yep. Rinar. When I can't find something or don't want to deal with some task, who rescues me?  You got it. Rinar!

Hmmm...now who could have taught her to be a helpless princess?

Here Is Something Else I Really Need

A lot of funny stuff goes around the Facebook circuit.  But this little saying really struck a nerve...

"Therapy is expensive. Poppin' bubble wrap is cheap. You choose."

My non-Mormon homeschooling friend Jennifer always gives me a hard time because I have so much wheat and general food storage items in my home.  She thinks that us Mormons are crazy-paranoid.  I think she may have a point. We actually have an entire Sunday lesson about crazy-paranoid food storage/emergency preparedness.  Anyways, I am realizing that my food storage is missing one very important component.

I am going to order a year's supply of bubble wrap. You just never know when it will come in handy. Hey, maybe I will be able to find it at Goodwill!

Never Again, William Faulkner

I have now had my Kindle for over 6 months now. It has been a blessing with all of the interminably long road trips I have had to endure over the same period of time. The kids watch DVD's and I listen to audio books. I have really listened to some good ones. I have been the ultimate multi-tasker. 


 However, my selections have not always been top-notch. For example, I have really been pushing my comfort level, trying to tackle the classics of our time. I listened to I, Claudius by Robert Graves and I loved it. But this has not always been the case. 


Today, after plodding through one particular author, I have had to throw in the towel. It was just a horrific book. I couldn't take it anymore. The worst part is that I invested 9.5 hours into it and only had 3 more to go. But I think I would rather eat a plate full of lima beans while watching a bowling tournament, than listen to another minute of that book.

The book was Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner.  It was the same small plot repeated over and over and over again with a whole lot of pronouns, so I was never sure who was talking or who they were talking about.  It was written in 1938, and so I guess that makes it a classic.  Here is another interesting fact from Wikipedia: The 1983 Guinness Book of World Records claims the "Longest Sentence in Literature" is a sentence from Absalom, Absalom! containing 1,300 words.   Yep, I think that sentence was the first 9 hours of my audio book, actually.

So here is my question...because a book is written by a well-respected, classic author, does that mean I am required to love and revere the book? I didn't care for The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I mean, it was just okay.  I totally don't get Ernest Hemingway and Anna Karenina was the longest. Book. Ever.

I keep a Goodreads list of all the books I have read. I love that website. I won't credit myself with reading a book unless I finished it.  However, since I invested so much time in this book and because I read the cliff notes to see how it ended, I am putting it down and checking it off. I mean, since I had to endure the 'n' word 300 hundred times, I think it is only fair.

Good For Me, But Bad For Them

It was quite a day today. After our playgroup, we headed downtown for Raef and Zach's violin/viola lessons. They have been taking lessons from Dustin Budish since we moved here and they seem to be doing well. There have been many rocky lessons where I can tell that Dustin is completely frazzled and wishes he could cuddle up to a cabernet, but he still keeps letting us come back.  

Today, they fortunately had good lessons. I am so grateful.  Dustin tells me they are very talented and could really go far in music if they wanted to. That is nice to hear. I mean, of course I think they are fabulous musicians, but it could just be the rose-colored Mommy glasses, you know?  So, we will just keep plugging away at practicing and even if it is only a few minutes everyday, hopefully they will continue to enjoy playing their instruments.

Then we got home from lessons and the boys asked to play the Wii.  I let them, and after an hour or so, I hear this horrific, shrill, screaming episode coming out of Zach's mouth. Ugh.  I tell them to turn it off.  Not to get into all the gory details, but the outcome should paint a pretty clear picture. They both lost their allowances, the Wii is in a box at the top of my closet, and my kitchen is very clean.

Lucky for me, I had already arranged a night out with my homeschool friends, Jennifer, LeeAnn, and Julianna. We went to BJ's and ate and talked and talked and talked. It was really nice and I enjoyed that time to myself.  Plus, it is great to be around women who have been there before and can give you insight into your struggles. They helped me to rethink some things I have been doing that have not been working so well for me or my kids.  I am grateful that I could just laugh and have fun and recharge my batteries.

I am really going to need it, because tomorrow I have to take all of my kiddos to Raef and Zach's soccer game.  I will take deep cleansing breaths and bring a lot of lollipops.