Engines

Sprout sat down next to me while we were eating our dessert and said, "I want to talk about cars and motorcycles and how they work."

Me: "Hmm. Okay, well I don't know very much about that."

Spud: "Okay, well just tell me about how engines work."

Me: "How about we find a video?"

So we watched these two videos and I learned quite a bit! 

http://youtu.be/0Ko0U8oTLRs

http://youtu.be/aAWxZRuBXtw

Hooray for the Internet and YouTube! 

"It's life, Jim, but not as we know it…"

I was very surprised to pull up my blog and see that I haven't, in fact, blogged EVEN ONCE this year! Wow!  I actually did start another side blog to kind of vent about things and work through some thoughts, so maybe that counts for something in the grand blogosphere of life.  I also haven't read most of the blogs I used to follow in that time.  And it isn't that I'm not online, because I am.  I just do 99% of my online time on my phone, because I'm either nursing toddlers & putting them down for naps or sitting near kids who are working on school and need me "on call," so I will go days without sitting at my computer.  And another factor is that Noodle has become quite the Scratcher  and so it can be a challenge to even get a chance to sit at my computer. And when I do finally have a chance, Gub Gub thinks he needs to climb on the chair, on me, on the shelves next to my desk, so it's a bit of a circus and not conducive to sitting and thinking or writing.  Or really anything for that matter besides going a little more crazy.

But life is pretty good.  The twins sleep through the night most nights, though there's been something unknown going on this past week which has disrupted that, so that means I get a fairly good chunk of uninterrupted sleep and now feel pretty human most days.

We are trying out something new with homeschooling, called "Project Based Homeschooling," which basically means you allow your kids more unstructured school time and assist them in working on projects that interest them and help them develop the skills needed to do what interests them.  We are still just kind of dipping our toes into this approach, but hope to be going pretty well with it for next Fall.  We will still do our core subjects of Math & Language Arts together, and probably History (as I'm  planning a sort of LA/History combined) and do project time in the afternoons.  Noodle has shown me how great this can work with her Scratch stuff.  It's amazing how much time kids (and people generally) will spend on things that call to them and fulfill their interests and desires to create.  Spud also has been working a lot on very interesting Lego creations as well as origami.  And just tonight we started a blog for Sprout so he can participate as well.  My hope is that this will be a good approach, especially for Spud who you could call an intractable learner.  You can not lead that horse to water, even, let alone make him drink.  It's more of a "make him aware that there is water and hope he understands that water is really important," and then there is a decent chance, but no guarantee, that he'll drink.  It is a real challenge to work with him, but I am feeling hopeful.  I feel that raising him to be a useful and mostly happy individual will be a very challenging task (it has been so far) but will probably result in a tremendous amount of satisfaction for me, as I know just how #$&% hard it has been.  Some personalities are just tough.

My 36th birthday is just 3 days away.  My friend started (last year) thinking of a list of X things to do each year that she is X (I think she is 44 this year, so 44 things) which I think is kind of neat.  I'm not sure I'm up for that this year, though.  I guess they wouldn't have to be really challenging things…  I'll mull it over.  It is a "Perfect Square" number, though, and I won't have another of those for 13 years.  That seems notable.

I do hope I can get a bit better at posting.  Life is busy, but we are doing mostly okay most of the time.  It's been such a blessing to finally get some springtime weather, as the twins are loving being able to play outside, which means fewer messes INSIDE.  Hooray!!  And just for fun, a couple of pictures from Easter of my littlest ones.

ONE!!

Mooberry and Gub Gub turned ONE this past Wednesday!  We celebrated then, and are celebrating some more with David's family tomorrow.  So then I'll go through the way too many pictures and get some online to share.  :o)

I'm so glad we made it to this very BIG milestone!  And I was able to nurse the twins the whole year! And I didn't go completely insane!  And David and I are still married! (I know a LOT of twin parents who are divorced...it really does a number on your marriage.)  I actually think our marriage is stronger, even though things like date night and sleeping in the same room have been put on such a far back burner I think they may have fallen off the stove.  But we have tried to go out on dates when we can, and usually take the twins along.

.....................................

The post below (C is for Clive) is a photo book I made for his 9th birthday coming up in December.  He has admired one I made for Noodle when she turned 6 and has mentioned several times that he would like one of his own.  I am making a dedicated effort to improve our relationship (we have pretty different approaches to life) and it was really sweet to look through my photos and remember so many happy and fun times with him. 

a little good, a little bad

I'm 35 weeks today!  I woke up to use the bathroom at 4:04 a.m. and when I laid back down, I was too uncomfortable to sleep.  So, here I am, blogging at 4:33 in the morning after a bowl of chocolatey Special K.

So, after feeling panicky about schooling the kids this year, and knowing that just having one or more of them attend public school wasn't really an option for us at present (mostly because I knew this would just alter the stress into a new form, rather than eliminate it...and the last thing I'm up for is a NEW stress right now), I got an email from a homeschool/charter school affiliate (called Harmony Ed) that Spud attended last year for one day a week.  We called it Friday School, because his happened to be on Friday, and it was basically a day of "elective" classes for homeschool students.  This took place at a charter school in Springville.  He enjoyed it well enough, probably about as much as he can enjoy most things, truthfully (he's a bit of an over-thinker), but there were a few reasons I had decided to not have him do it this year.  One, I didn't want to drive down to Springville every Friday morning and afternoon.  Two, the program coordinators were not terribly good at communicating and it got frustrating at times.  Three, we could get more financial support for our homeschooling curriculum through MyTechHigh, which he is now old enough for.

But shortly after my blog post about feeling stressed about school this year, David and I were talking about how it really might be better for everyone if we enrolled Spud in school.  Public school was seeming like the only option, which I did not really feel good about.  A couple of days later, I get an email from Harmony Ed announcing a new program at a new location here in town!  Instead of just the elective days, they were offering and had openings for students in a 2-day/week Multi Age Program (MAP) that covers language arts, math, history and Science.  Spud (2nd grade this year) will be the middle grade of his MAP, which I think will be a good fit for him, as he's a sharp kid but not necessarily where he could be in some of the basics, and I think it will be motivating to him to have other kids that are older and younger to gauge his own skills against.  At first he wasn't at all excited about this "new" opportunity, but David took him out on some special time and they were able to have some good conversation on what we hope for him to be able to do, both this year and in the future of his education.

Unfortunately, when we went to the Open House on Wednesday, Noodle was feeling a bit left out as she is NOT going to be participating in the program this year (and she didn't last year, either).  We reminded her that she is going to be doing her Musical Theater class, as well as continuing with her girls club activities, AND playing Junior Jazz starting in January with her best friend.  She is at a stage in her education where a fair bit can be accomplished independently, and I don't think she would be as benefited by attending a program like the one Spud is doing.  It can be difficult to have kids doing different things, though, as they always tend to look at what the other is doing as so much nicer.

And Sprout is the first of my kids to be going to preschool.  It makes me laugh, because it seems really silly for a homeschooling family to outsource preschool of all things, but it is 1) just across the street, 2) very reasonably priced, and 3) a good chance for him to get some "friend time" during the craziness of what will be my life this next year.  As the youngest child by 4 years (for now), he sees Spud and Noodle going off to play with friends and has had a hard time not having the same freedoms.  Happily, he has a good little buddy from church nursery that he gets to play with on occasion, though judging from his talk, he'd like to be playing with him all the time! 

(This post seemed a little too text heavy, so I thought I'd liven it up a bit with some pictures we snapped of the kids at Anita's wedding three weeks ago. Did I mention we have another wedding tomorrow?  Good, crazy times.)

P.S.  It wasn't until linking this to facebook and looking again at the title that I realized I had forgotten to mention the bad.  Well, about 5 weeks ago we were delighted to have found a "mother's helper" who we paid to come every day and help out with things that I'm not really up to getting done lately.  The plan was for her to come at least through the fall and help with cleaning, running kids around, and some cooking.  Last week she broke a toe and is on limited mobility for the next 6-8 weeks.  Kind of leaving me in a lurch.  I need to figure out what we are going to do.  In the meantime, I've reached out to some of the local family for help and received some very generous offers of help, which I am so grateful for.  I still think I'll want to find someone to come in during the week for a while, but haven't had the energy to look around.  So, that's the bad.  

paper boats

Quite a few weeks ago, Spud asked me to look online and find the directions on how to make paper boats, as he'd seen on the Curious George cartoon. I did, and we each made one together so he could see how it was done, and by two days later, he had made at least 50, of various shapes and sizes.  We had a stack of pink boats made from some scratch paper just sitting on a shelf for quite a while.

While on a date a few weeks ago, David and I went to BYU and played Bocce on the lawn and then walked along the path south of campus.  They've made a lot of improvements to it over the past couple of years and it is beautiful!  There is a stream (I guess) running along it and it struck me that it would be the perfect place to race the boats that Spud made.  So the following Sunday evening we gathered up enough boats for us to each have two and we raced them.  It was fun to watch and "despair" as our individual boats took on water and became soggy masses of paper (which we responsibly fished out and threw away).   I can't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure that one of Spud's boats (we labeled them with our first initials) actually made it the farthest, which seems only fair since he was the one who did all the work!

Prior to boat racing, we spent some time admiring the couple of dozen or so ducklings in the pond.  It was fun to remember our duckling adventure of last year as we watched these little cuties swim and cheep around the pond.  

little high, little low

I seem to have a good week followed by a bad week. And not that events are bad, just my hope and faith and fortitude and all that stuff that is necessary to get me through this time of life. The last two weeks I felt really positive about life and even the uncertainty of our future in so many areas didn't get me down, but this week has been a lot harder. I guess that's just life, but I sure wish I could hold on to the good stuff more permanently.

My friend Julie had linked this Mormon Message on Facebook, and it made me cry like a baby. It was an appropriate reminder for me this week. I wish the things that DON'T matter most mattered even less and didn't cause me such anxiety.



We did go to the park last night because my niece wanted me to take some pictures of her (she is recently returned from a mission and doesn't have any current ones for her sweetie who is out of state all summer). Here's an album: Fun times

And here is one of my favorites:

the point of hugs

"Mom, you know what is the point of hugs if someone is gone? Actually feeling them, not just seeing them." -- Spud, after giving me a hug after asking, "Mom, do you need some hugs?"

I think this is in reference to the "hugs" we send to David through the phone and through Skype while he is in California.

Spud

This kid is so awesome. Seriously. :o)

banana boy

So, I say to Spud today, "Hey, can I take some 5 year old pictures of you?"

"Okay, if I can take some with bananas."

more Spud talk

Me: Can I give you a kiss?
Spud: Yeah, just don't steal one.
Me (kissing him on the cheek): Is this okay?
Spud: Yeah.

Noodle leans over and gives him a hug.
Spud: Hey! You stealed a hug!

forgot to share this...

So, back in January, Spud was looking at my feet. I happen to have a very small "baby" toe, so after he looked at it a while he said, "If I had a skinny little toe, I'd get a fake toe and put it over it, like a cap."

Thanks, kid.

thinking out loud

Kind of. I guess we need a blog-appropriate phrase for that. "Thinking at keyboard." Maybe that works.

A couple weeks ago was General Conference (wow, I guess it was only about 1 1/2 weeks ago, but it feels like much longer). It was my first attempt to actually involve the kids. In the past I was happy if they stayed out of my hair and managed to be relatively self-entertaining. I would tune every radio to conference, so it was playing wherever they were, but I liked to do my own thing and let them do theirs. This year I felt it was important for them to participate more, so I did a few things differently. I found some great Conference Bingo sheets, and also these Apostle Cards which I printed off and laminated. I also printed off some pages from various Conference packets--the most used page was the one where the kids could color the ties of each of the Apostles as they saw them. Pretty fun. Anyways, though it took more effort on my part both before and during the conference, I really felt like the effort was worth it to have the kids participate in Conference. As a child, I was allowed to bring toys in to the family room to play with quietly on the floor while the family watched, and I remember those times. I've always felt like Conference is a very important time, and I think it is because there was always the expectation to watch/listen to all the sessions. I want my kids to grow up with that, too. They did really enjoy the bingo sheets, and they earned treats for getting BINGO on both their Saturday and Sunday boards. So it's definitely something we'll do again.

We watched the Sunday session with David's family down in Springville. Since we don't have a TV subscription, we ended up watching Saturday's sessions in the office on my computer. Not nearly as comfortable as in our family/TV room, but at least the screen was a decent size. (I love my big monitor!) Between sessions the TV was on and there were commercials for various toys. Noodle said, "It's a good thing we don't have TV, otherwise we'd just want all these toys that they show on commercials." I thought that was rather an astute observation, and think it is very true. We do watch movies and a handful of cartoons, but we are spared from commercials. It's pretty great, really. It's hard enough for kids to be grateful and satisfied when they aren't constantly bombarded with commercials for the latest cool toy or trendy idea. My mom likes to say, "The play should be in the child, not the toy." I firmly believe this. I don't think this means only wooden or simple toys are appropriate (you should see the creative things Spud comes up with for his Transformers!), but rather that a toy should invite the child to use their imagination and not only have scripted play. One thing that Noodle does that I love is to "accessorize" all her toys. Shemakes houses for them, food out of Sculpey clay, beds, blankets, vehicles, musical instruments, etc. Plus she will write letters to/from the toy, illustrate scenes from their lives, construct a family tree, and on and on. Last week was our week off school and I sewed Noodle & Spud each a cute little plush mouse. It's pretty neat to watch how much fun they can have with one toy. Spud likes to build aircraft for his mouse from the Magformers.

the weirdest thing

So I went out later this evening with a friend and when I came back, Sprout was already asleep. I got in bed about 11:50, and he started waking up. It had been about 3 hours since he last ate, so I expected him to be hungry. But he wouldn't latch on to nurse. Weird. He also was making these little "blowy" noises periodically. He didn't seem at all distressed, and he has been teething, so we thought maybe his teeth were bothering him and made him not want to nurse (though this has never been the case before.) I go down to get his teething drops and bring them up. He happily takes them, seems fine, but still no nursing. I check his diaper--he's damp but not very wet, but I decide to change him anyways. So I go change his diaper. Finally, we are in the hall and he makes his blowy noise again, and I think I see something in his mouth. I stick my finger in and fish around and I pull out a wrapper. What?? I smooth it out and look at it. It's a temporary tattoo wrapper from one of the kids' tattoos, a 2-ply plastic pouch about 1.5 inches sqaure. It had been in his mouth WHO KNOWS how long, but he'd slept with it in his mouth! He wasn't at all bothered by it, apparently. I'm very thankful that he didn't swallow it. Now I'm wondering if he'll be another orally fixated infant/toddler like his brother was. Spud ALWAYS stuck stuff in his mouth, but NEVER choked on anything, and only once swallowed something (a tiny metal marble that was only found because I dumped out the diaper [we use cloth diapers] in the toilet and I heard a "plink"). We actually gave up trying to stop him from doing it, and opted to just watch him closely. Crazy boys.

cute boy

the kidlets

Seriously, they crack me up sometimes.

clear the sidewalks!

Spud can now ride his bike training wheel free!! And I'd post pics if my memory card wasn't giving me fits...

kids

a benefit of homeschool

It's okay to bring your pet to class.

Merry Clivemas!

Okay, I know I call him Spud here on the blog, but "Merry Spudmas" just doesn't quite have the same effect.

My little guy turns four today! (Tonight at 11:14 p.m., if you want to be precise.) And I have to say that even though I'm VERY pregnant right now, I'm quite happy that this baby isn't going to be born for another 5-6 weeks. One holiday birth/baby is enough for me.











We had his friend party (his first one) on the 13th. He had a few friends over and they painted wooden toy cars, played "Pin the Wheel on Lighting McQueen," decorated those scratchy color-under-black things, raced cars down ramps, and had cake and ice cream. David designed and made both the cake and the poster for the game. (He's really good at using a grid to size things appropriately.) Today David's family came over for a little celebration.

Here's to another year, little guy!

at the zoo

The last Wednesdays of the month, November through February, are free at Hogle Zoo. Normally the end of November would not be ideal for a zoo visit, but we've had such nice weather that last Wednesday actually was pretty nice. Chilly but not terrible. We were all okay with jackets on and occasionally warming up inside buildings. I'd originally tried to see if any of my in-laws wanted to come with us, but they had plans already. I then thought about calling a friend with kids to join us, but in the end decided the kids and I could use some relaxing, "quality time" together without the distraction of other people. I'm really glad we went alone. It was nice to just go where they chose and not feel constrained by what other kids wanted to see. We meandered through the zoo happily for about three hours and the kids did great. A new addition since our last visit was the Conservation Carousel. It was $2/kid, but since we hadn't paid admission, I figured we could splurge. (I even got to ride free because I was accompanying a kid!) Seriously the most BEAUTIFUL carousel I've ever seen. What a fabulous addition. They were playing Christmas music and it seemed that all we needed was a light snow falling to make it movie-worthy. I had a wonderful time with my two little kids.

(There are many more pictures of Noodle than Spud because she was in a more cooperative mood. The weird blue picture turned out oddly anyways, so I thought adding a blue cast to it was appropriate.)