Saturday

Ok, so I didn't mean to let the week go by so fast. I had a plan to blog everyday this week with the title of each post being the day of the week because I'm feeling so creative. So I guess I will just have to cram them into one:

Tuesday

It's Saturday and my memory has expired for 5 days ago. But I do know, we woke up, did homeschool, and went to bed.

Wednesday

Emily and Bradley had art class. I took the van through the car wash to wash the pollen off and I anxiously watched hoping that the automatic car wash didn't break off the antennae. It was stressful. It didn't break off, but something is wrong with our back doors and water pours in when we take it though the car wash.  I forgot about that. Next time I will have to have a kid hold a towel on the inside of the door where it leaks. We had Sister Missionaries over for dinner  I visited a friend. By the end of the evening I was too tired to go grocery shopping. My husband and I watched American Idol.

Thursday

Laundry. Homeschool. Grocery shopping. American Idol.

Friday

I took the kids to the library.  We go every three weeks. We used to go on Saturdays, but I think Friday works better during gardening season. On Friday morning we woke up to a big puddle on our tile kitchen floor (mornings like these are when I'm glad we don't have wood floors in our kitchen). The first place my husband looked was at the ceiling because there is a toilet located above the puddle. The ceiling was fine, thank goodness. The dishwasher leaked. I was confused because I rarely use my dishwasher...

(I know it's weird that I don't use my dishwasher with having such a large family, but I just prefer to wash by hand because I hate unloading dishwashers. The thing is, when you have a large family you use the same plates and glasses for every meal, so if I used my dishwasher I would be running it 3 times a day. Therefore, I feel it's more efficient to do dishes by hand.  I suppose I could run it every evening after dinner, but I don't want to listen to the swish swash of the dishwasher while I watch TV and I NEVER fail at forgetting to turn on the dishwasher before I go to bed, and nothing peeves me more than waking up to a dishwasher full of dirty dishes that I have to wash before breakfast.  It makes me gag.  So THUS the routine of hand washing dishes continues ....)

Anyway, back to my story. It ends up that it had to do with my sink getting clogged the night before because I put too many fettuccine noodles down the the disposal at once.  When it clogged my sink, it caused water to go down the dishwasher drain tube thingy and into the dishwasher. Then when we ran the disposal last night it clogged the dishwasher drain tube thingy with chunks of fettuccine noodles, and water that went into the dishwasher couldn't drain and it leaked out and made a mess.  It was an easy fix, but during the process, I noticed the sink drain on the non-disposal side of the sink was rusted and leaking rusty water drips onto my stash of garbage bags underneath my sink.  So I had to get my sink drain completely dry so I could caulk the rusty part and stop the dripping. I suppose I could've used this diaper method, but I wanted to do it the right way. So since we hadn't eaten lunch yet, I needed to keep the sink dry while the caulk dried, I thought it was a good excuse to take my kids out to lunch to Subway. They love Subway. Emily says she loves Subway because it reminds her of vacation.

While at Subway, some nice young gentleman, saw me and my kids and said, "Can I ask you something?" 

I said, "Yes." 

He said, "I hope you don't take this offensively, but....are you babysitting them all?"

I laughed because it's hardly offensive. It made me feel like a young college kid again. Unless....he was picturing me as the Nanny McPhee kind of babysitter....

I told him they were all mine and he thought that was cool.

My kids were well behaved in Subway and they each earned a chocolate chip cookie.

I order three $5 foot long sub (ham) to split among the 7 of us and two drinks (one for kids and one for me) and four bags of chips. Rachel didn't cooperate for this photo because it was her turn with the drink.

George and I had a little date to ourselves in our own booth.

I was trying to get a picture of him and he was trying to grab the camera.

 Coloring time at the library.

 Emily reading a craft book.

 George playing peek-a-boo with Sarah.

Bradley looking up books on the computer catalog. 

I love how he shouts across the library, "MOMMY! HOW DO YOU SPELL 'VAN BUREN'?!" 

(Bradley has a goal to learn about each president in order of their presidency.) 

Isn't it kind of sad that our kids don't know how to use an actual card catalog? Ok, so it's not really that sad, but those tiny little drawers were so fun to open and thumb through.

Our bag of 50 books and 1 DVD. I was so glad I thought to bring this duffle bag with wheels. It made our trip to the library so much easier!

Saturday

We did a lot of yard word today and I took zero pictures. I taught Emily and Bradley how to use the lawnmower. They were excited about it for about 5 minutes. We have a small yard with a lot of fence that requires a lot of maneuvering of the mower and it's kind of difficult.  It looks like I might have one more year of lawn mowing duty. Our garden requires a lot of manuring, which is what we did (with bags of compost) in preparation for planting some vegetables.  George had a great time crawling around in the grass and dirt.  I really wish I had a pictures, but I was so dirty, I didn't want to go in the house to get it. I also went to a baby shower which was fun. I am so tired tonight. I'm ready to read one of the kids' library books and go to bed. 

Monday

First of all, I read over yesterday's post and I felt stupid for writing that I wanted to "curse at the alarm clock" that was waking me up for church. I hope you didn't mistake the word "curse" for "cuss". I'm not a cusser aside from the occasional stub-your-toe "shoot" that surprisingly has a way of coming out with a different vowel sound because of the way the mouth is clenched when the body is in pain. 

(Try it.... clench your teeth, crinkle your nose, and form your mouth as if you have a fake smile. Now say, "Shoot!" really fast three times. It doesn't work, right? I'm not making it up. It shocks me every time I say it.) 

So, .....what I meant by "curse" was Webster's definition #4: a cause of great harm or misfortune. I don't like alarm clocks. I prefer to use my natural biological alarm clock which usually wakes me up between 7:30 and 8:30 AM. Basically I just wanted to say "Darn you, alarm clock! Go away!"

So, my apologies. (I deleted the sentence, in case you were going to read it.)

I had a dentist appointment today. I was so dreading going because I knew for sure I probably had cavities.  The hygienist scraped my teeth, poked my gums, and polished my pearly whites. The dentist looked at one molar I was concerned about because it has a dark spot on the side. He said it wasn't a cavity, but it was a very narrow groove that is hard to clean because it is narrower than a tooth brush bristle. Because it's hard to clean, it can get stained and possibly get some decay. So he said he could "take a diamond and smooth it out" (whatever that means). I have a similar groove on the other side of my mouth that he will do as well. He said by doing so, it prevents decay.  I totally don't know what he is talking about, but I like my dentist, I trust him, and it will only cost me $18 per tooth because my insurance pays 80%. 

I also asked him about this giant silver filling I have on one of my upper molars that I had done 10 years ago. I had a small filling in the tooth from my teenage years and when I was in my early 20's, I bit down on a popcorn kernel and it totally broke the tooth. I was devasted. I didn't have dental insurance at the time, so I just let it go for a few years. It didn't hurt and you couldn't see it when I smiled, so it wasn't a big deal, except that my tongue always wanted to go there and feel the jagged edges of my broken tooth. Finally, after Emily was born, and while I still had dental insurance from my previous job while I was on disability, I decided to get it fixed. 

I feel like I can taste the metal and I was wondering what it would take to get it replace with a tooth colored filling. Only $29! I was so excited. I think I'm going to get it replaced. I wonder if I get to keep the silver? I might break even. Is it even real silver? I don't know.

So that was my day. We had our Jello tonight. We postponed our Family Home Evening until tomorrow because my husband unfortunately had to work late tonight, but the kids and I had fun the eating Jello.

Watch it wiggle, see it jiggle. I couldn't help myself.  I must share 5 seconds of my Airplane! humor:

"Surely you can't be serious."
"I am serious... and don't call me Shirley."

I think the Jello made Rachel nostalgic for her infant nursing days.

Bradley sprayed a bunch of whip cream on his Jello and slurped it off. He didn't like the Jello. All the other kids called him crazy because who doesn't like Jello? 

For some reason everyone thought you were supposed to eat the molded Jello directly off the plate. I tried it too and it was actually fun and it was seven less utensils I had to wash.

Emily holding her hair back as she ate her Jello off the plate.

Jason enjoyed his Jello and whip cream. I also introduced him to Cool Whip, or as he called it "Clue Whip". He liked that too.

During all the wiggling and jiggling, I accidentally put the leftover fetucini, that we had for dinner, away in the cupboard. I think I'm losing it.

Other News?

George falls asleep at random times and in random places.  I really need to get him on a better nap schedule and location.

The pollen is out in full force. It's delightful for those with allergies. I don't get allergies that bad, but when it's this heavy, I can feel some irritation in my throat and sinuses. I can't wait to rinse the porches.

Sunday

Yesterday I did a lot of hard work in the yard and house and was extremely exhausted last night. My husband asked if I wanted to eat an orange with him at about 11:30PM and I politely declined and said, "I'm going to bed." I think I literally fell asleep when my head hit the pillow. I thought only men did that.

It was painful to get up at 6:45 this morning, so we snoozed through two 7 minute snooze cycles. I was extremely tired after church, and really wanted to take a nap, but during my cleaning of the cupboards the other day I found some pretty Jello molds, that I bought at a garage sale about 10 years ago, that I wanted to try.  While Daddy played chess with the older kids, I made Jello with Jason. I love that little kids are so easily pleased when you give them a job to stir sugar and water.

We are going to have the Jello tomorrow for Family Home Evening. 

After I saw this picture, I realized my shirt totally looks like a maternity shirt. 

(Note to self: Do not wear maternity style shirts when you are not pregnant. That is how rumors are started. Although it would be totally logical to think I was pregnant since George is 10 months already, I don't need anybody to ask me when the due date is and have to tell them that I'm not pregnant. Awkward.)

The chess players. It looks like Daddy could use a nap too. Emily won the game. For real.

I also had seven very brown bananas, so we decided to make banana bread too. I had two very helpful "mushers."

Wendy helped beat. Having four small children begging, "I want to beat it!" made me break out in song to the Go Go's "We Got the Beat." Jason had the privilege of cracking an egg into the the creamed butter and sugar. I failed to realize that you need to tell a four year old NOT to lick the egg white off his fingers.  I also learned that egg yolk actually cleans quite nicely off kids' suit pants.

George really looks up to his older brothers.

(He made that mess in the background.)

Rachel was the flour dumper. She did a good job.

Of course Bradley cannot walk away from any kitchen event without a messy piece of clothing. At least he changed out of his suit when he got home from church.

I forgot to take a picture of the finished products.  The loaves were beautiful and we nearly finished both of them at dinner. (The banana bread actually was our dinner.) We did a test with one loaf made with butter and one with margarine.  There wasn't a huge difference in taste, but I think the butter was better.

Our lesson in church today was about Charity, or the pure love of Christ and the greatest of all virtues.  We discussed the story of the Good Samaritan. Tonight we were good Samaritans and brought our neighbor two slices of fresh banana bread because I'm sure if Jesus baked banana bread, he would share it with his neighbor or 5000 of his neighbors. Charity is awesome because as the scriptures say, "Charity never faileth," (1 Cor 13:8), which basically means that you will never go wrong when doing good or helping someone. Sometimes a charitable deed might be as simple as smiling at a grumpy looking person, or posting a :) on somebody's Facebook wall. It doesn't have to be complicated or as heroic as saving a dying person on the side of the road. Just something very Christ-like. In addition to bringing our neighbor banana bread, it was a joyful experience to make Jello and bake with my kids. It was more fun than taking a nap.

That's about all for today. Rachel is talking more. Today she brought me a broken toy and said, "Nee buy mo one," which translates to "We need to buy another one," for those of you who don't speak toddler.

She also says very clearly, "My do it myself!" She's obviously been working on that one a lot with how clear she annunciates it, mostly when it comes to buttering a slice of bread or putting on Carmex.

HaPpY SpRiNg!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

My husband doesn't like St. Patrick's Day. I don't know why. My theory is that it's because his birthday is two days before and he gets post-birthday blues because everyone has moved on to the new celebration. In other words he's jealous of St. Patrick. I don't know, but despite his St. Patrick's Day bah humbugness, the kids and I like to celebrate. They are always quick to remember to wear green. They all picked out their outfits the night before, but poor Bradley was so sad he didn't have a green shirt. However, I surprised him with a new green T-shirt in the morning that I bought on clearance (score!) last evening on my grocery trip to Walmart. It was fun to see the smile on his face when he saw it. My husband ended up enjoying the festivities and he even put on a green shirt to join in the fun. I think he was in a better mood this year because he got a cool guitar for his birthday that hasn't lost it's novelty yet.

Family Photo

Rachel did not want to cooperate and wear jeans like the rest of us. She insisted on the pink tutu. It also took some convincing her to wear the striped green shirt this morning that actually belongs to Wendy. Rachel has her set favorite outfits and doesn't like to deviate from them. I usually only take a picture of the kids on St. Patrick's Day, but I had a cool Kelly green shirt to wear today, so I thought I'd throw Mommy and Daddy in there this year. 

Breakfast

It was magically delicious. We had green milk too.

Lunch

We had ham sandwiches and Green Hawaiian Punch. This was a special treat for the kids, all 21 grams of high fructose corn syrup in each serving. That stuff was super sweet and so yummy. Emily even wrote about it in her journal before going to bed tonight. 

 Dinner

Green eggs, green grits, and green beans (and potatoes).

The kids ate all their eggs even though Bradley said they looked like vomit. When I was cooking the grits, Jason exclaimed, "Green grits?! I LOVE green grits!" as if he's had them before. He did enjoy them.

Dessert

My dad and sister sent some little plastic shot glass size shamrock cups filled with golden Rolos. They were super cute. They weren't actually dessert because I think most of the kids ate theirs before lunch. Poor Wendy left hers on a window sill within reach of a 10 month old. He got as much chocolate and caramel out of the two Rolos he grabbed that he could with the wrappers still on. Some tears were shed by both parties when I swiped Georges mouth clean and broke the news to Wendy. Curious Jason thought it would be a good idea to see what happens when you take the leg of a stool and stick it inside  the cup while the Rolos are still in it, and sit on it.

He also thought his cup was a cool place to put the rubber band that comes on Broccoli.

40!

David turned 40 today! He was quite excited!

For his birthday he got a pink electric guitar. 

I was going to buy him an iPod. We are a very musical family and we have a cheap CD player that doesn't work. The only time we every really listen to music is in the car or on my computer if I am not too lazy to plug in the external speakers. 

I didn't have the iPod yet, so I was going to take the kids out to Target this morning and buy it. As I was getting ready to leave, David asked me where in town I was going, to see if he could guess at which store I was going to get his present.  I told him not far and I could see the disappointment on his face. So I asked him what it was that he really wanted for his birthday. 

He said, "So you're not getting me a guitar?" (The guitar store is about 20 miles away.) 

I told him "No." The thought didn't cross my mind because I would have absolutely no idea what to get him. I told him about my iPod idea and gave him the choice. He chose the guitar. It's a good thing I let him pick it out because I most likely would not have picked a pink one. We went to the guitar store tonight as a family and he spent two hours plucking away, deciding between acoustic or electric, and how much he wanted to spend. I think the guitar was a good choice because we spent less than I would've spent on an iPod. Guess who's going to get an iPod for her birthday? Maybe I can persuade him into buying me an iTouch.

3.14 Happy Pi Day!

On Sunday my husband took the kids to church for a baptism. Rachel was taking a nap so I stayed home and Jason stayed with me because he didn't want to put his church clothes back on. I was hoping for a nap, but it didn't happen.  However, I tried to get some quiet time. During my quiet time Jason drew pictures.  Every now and then he would shout from the other room, "Mommy, what should I draw?" I would suggest some random things. I think it's funny that he numbered his pictures. He is going through the mirror image writing phase.  All my kids so far have gone through it at some point.  It's kind of weird and kind of cool. Later in the evening I had him tell me what he drew:

"Clear"

He didn't draw anything but the #1.

"Man Wunning"

"Bird Coming Out of His Egg"

"Man Pwaying"

I thought maybe it was a female robot, but those are the man's arms folded.

"A Fing to Put Hats on"

A Lego

"Me and Wendy Playing Wiff George"

I think Jason thinks George is our pet.

"A Truck"

"A Flower"

I told him to draw a flower. It's upside down.

"A Chair"

I told him to draw a chair.

 "A Roobot with Fat Arms"

I told him to draw a robot.

"A Wainbow Wiff Black in it"

"A Fat Man Wiff Legos"

Get it? LEGos...

"A Man"

[#15 was missing.]

"A Man With a Bawoon Head"

"Sharp Fings Wiff No Handles"

"Da Temple Wiff Windows Dat Wook Wike Sleds"

Tonight my husband told me something that made me happy.  We went to a party on Saturday evening with our kids.  It was at a home of a guy my husband knows. My husband heard another guy at the party point me out to somebody and the guy referred to me as "the blonde over there." My husband says my hair is clearly brown, however, I prefer to think of it as dark blonde. I was blonde as a child, my arm hair is clearly blonde, and in the summer I get some nice natural blonde highlights. I don't think I can officially call myself a brunette. It just doesn't sound right and the man at the party totally proved my point.

Tonight we celebrated Pi Day by calculating the area and circumference of an Oatmeal Creme Pie, followed by eating them: