Week #8:Jason's Building Again

This week...

...I patched Benjamin's pants. All of his jeans have ripped out in the knees. Normally, we buy new jeans without a thought. Well, this time I was trying to get more use out of them because the rest of the pair is still in good condition. So I ironed on some patches. I don't think they even lasted the day as he wore them to school. I was ironing the patches back down every time he wore them or that I washed them. Looks like we'll be buying more jeans.

...Paul helped me with homemade waffles for breakfast. Where'd we get the recipe you ask? From our allrecipes.com channel. Here's Paul helping me - one hand for the remote and one hand for helping with the ingredients.

...Ben and Claire forgot to finish their homework before Friday. They had to whip it out before school to get it done.

...Lainey was a big helper as we left Lowe's. Jason was picking up wood for his next project. Lainey likes all the time she has to run errands with just her mom and dad since the rest of the kids are in school.

Jason is back in the garage working on something for the house. He's making a half shelf for our bedroom.

...I took Lainey and Claire to MyFroYo for a treat. Emma was with her Grandma and Grandpa Erickson visiting cousins and Jason had taken Paul and Ben to a Tri-City Americans game with my brother and his son. That left me with Claire and Lainey, and there was no keeping us home. Yogurt party!

Week #7: Where Sickness Strikes, A Bowl Follows

This week...

...it was two bowls in our case. It happened almost without warning. Emma and Claire got sick Sunday night. They both said their stomachs hurt as they were going to bed, but I disregarded their complaints because I was so ready to be over sickness in our house. I should have erred on the side of caution because just after 9:00 pm I found myself helping Claire down from her bed and into a bath. It was time to start a load of laundry. I woke Emma up and made her a bed on the ground. I wasn't going to chance it at that point. It wasn't 20 minutes later that she found me with her head in a bowl, feeling sick. That's when we set up Camp Sick on the landing with me on duty. They found no real rest from then until about 4:00 in the morning. At regular intervals, Emma and Claire would take turns dry heaving or dealing with the runs. I started to take care of the piles of laundry and clean the bathroom while I was on call. I wouldn't have been able to go to bed because they needed me so often. I finally tried to rest in a camp chair in between, but I would just get to a comfortable spot and then be startled awake by more dry heaving. During the day Monday, the girls were able to come downstairs but didn't show signs of effective recovery. We sent them back to school Wednesday for the early release day, but Emma didn't quite make it to the end of school. Thursday brought wellness and relief.

...Jason and I also caught the sick bug. Monday night I went to bed early at 7:00pm because my stomach was feeling queasy. I knew that whatever had attacked the girls was doing its work on me. Just after Jason came to bed, he was awake and throwing up. It was awful. By the end of the week though we were feeling better and I have since wiped down every surface in the house. To celebrate we had a big breakfast of sausage, eggs, and pancakes before the kids went back to school on Thursday.

...we made valentines. I don't know why, but this is not one of my favorite tasks to help the kids with. It actually went better than I thought considering Jason, Claire, Emma and I were recovering sickies. Since I had four kids needing roughly 26 valentines each, we went to Cash-N-Carry and bought bulk laffy taffy. Way cheaper. Then Paul, Ben, and Claire proceeded to cut out their own hearts for for each valentine. More power to them! Emma wanted something a little more zippy so I had to exert a little more effort there. Even Lainey cut out her own hearts after I drew them for her. Project valentines wasn't that bad after all.

Easy on the tape there Claire-bear!

Ben: "Maybe I can get away with eating the Laffy Taffy. Mom won't notice..."

My lefty hard at work.

Emma whipped hers out in no time.

Lainey was not to be left out.

Watching them with their valentines once they got home was fun too. Especially Emma and Ben. Two different approaches to enjoying your valentines. Ben's shot gun approach where you just throw them all out there and eat whichever one lands closest. Or Emma's more organized and methodical approach, where you set everything up in a pleasing array to make your first selection.
Ben:

Emma:

...Jason fixed our dishwasher! We have had to hit the drain button at least two additional times after a cycle to get all the water to drain. It has been very annoying. We ordered the same part three times because each time it came with minimal packaging and a broken clasp. It was unbelievable. Then once we tried the part, it didn't fix the problem. Finally, Jason bought a new hose from Lowe's and it worked! Problem solved! I'm so glad that my guy is so handy. :)

...we tried out the new pizza restaurant on CCB (That's cool talk for Columbia Center Boulevard). It's called Fire. It wasn't too bad. Jason tried the Pepperoni and I had the Pesto with chicken. I LOVED mine, but didn't care much for Jason's. I think he liked it though. 

These huge windows cover every wall in the restaurant. So you get great natural lighting and a fun view as you eat. (We were up on the second floor.)

...we had a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Zirker. They were in no hurry to get back to the farm so we went out to lunch at Azteca. Lainey was our little buddy for the meal since the others are in school. She thought the food was ok. We loved it! We had great company and conversation. 

...we had a haunting. Lainey came through the room with this sheet over her head playig a very effective ghost. This made me think of the times when we were younger and we'd do the very same thing.

Lainey: Oooooooo! Oooooooooo!
Mom: Oh no! Is there a ghost in house?
Lainey: (lifts up the sheet off her face) No, it's a costume. 
Duh!

...Ben had an awesome hair day. He put his stocking hat on right after his shower. He happened to rip his hat off just before they walked to the bus and I wanted to snap a picture. You can see that he wasn't too thrilled with me. Wet hair + stocking cap=funky hair.

...Paul turned chef. On Roku, we have the allrecipes.com channel. Paul loves to watch it and he had been bugging me to make pancakes from scratch. So we tried it. He ran the remote, pausing and replaying so I could follow the recipe. He was so excited to be my little helper in the kitchen. 

...Lainey helped me clean under her bed. It's amazing the number of different things that get trapped under there. She was easily distracted though and I had to remind her over and over to get everything.

...I had to kick my kids out of the kitchen. They like to bring stools over to watch me as I work. Well, enough of this kind of behavior (shown below) and I had had enough. They weren't too happy with their banishment, but for my sanity, and the sake of a timely dinner, they had to go!

...my cookies turned out splendidly. In high school, I could turn out a mean chocolate chip cookie. They looked good and share-able. They were moist, but not gooey with just the right amount of crunch. Since moving several times in my married life, my cookies haven't been the same. I was relating this to my sister Shelly, and she gave me some tips. I tried them out and it worked! I was so ecstatic. I now had a cookie I could be proud of sharing. 

These are her tips:
-let eggs stand at room temperature before using
-don't over beat 
-add a little extra flour (because mine were going flat)
-add a heaping spoonful of baking soda (SIL Julie Marie gave me this tip)

...Lainey was showing off her many faces. This girl is so silly. She makes us laugh all the time with the things she says and does.

Week #6: Frozen Yogurt, A Dance Party, & One Packed Week

This week...

...we took the kiddos to My FroYo after Family Home Evening. It was partly a reward for keeping the family room so clean all week long and partly because we had a gift certificate that we needed to sue. :) For our lesson, we used the poem Pockets Full of Rocks from the Friend about the young boy, Malcolm Tent, who picks up rocks to remember the bad things that happen to him. When he finally realizes what that is doing to him inside and out, he takes all the rocks and makes a rock garden to remember the good people do instead. I had Paul collect some rocks from outside and I had them slip them into their pockets and socks to get an idea of how uncomfortable that would be. Then we used fun markers to write on paper rocks - one bad thing to let go and one good thing to put in our rock garden. They paid attention and it was quick and fun.

Here's the poem and the link (http://www.lds.org/friend/2014/02/pockets-full-of-rocks?lang=eng):

...Emma participated in the variety show at her school. I was very proud of her for trying out, making the cut, and practicing during recess time to be a part of the show. Here's my instagram of the group and the caption i wrote: "I have to post this one, even though it's several hours later. Emma was part of the variety show at her school today playing The Entertainer on the piano. She got so nervous that she almost didn't go through with it. I went up with her and told her not to pay attention to everyone there watching. She did it! She was so nervous, but she did it! The applause seemed louder somehow when she finished and we walked back to our seats." My friend Heidi commented, "Good job Emma! I was always nervous for recitals and performances and games." Our friend Lucy Lowe commented, " I would have loved to hear her play The Entertainer!!! Emma is so talented!" I was so proud of Emma for being nervous and doing it anyway. Her teacher told her that too. Mrs. Vandervert said that it's almost a greater victory to be at the brink of turning back and continuing on. Everyone there was pulling for her and applauded her for her bravery.

...we got SNOW! I couldn't believe it to begin with. I posted a wimpy snow picture on instagram thinking that was all the snow we would get.

Then the elements proved me wrong. We got dumped on. The kids were ecstatic. Claire went out immediately after getting home from school to play in it with our neighbors/friends the Bagleys. Emma was actually excited to take the garbage out so she could walk in it. Right before bedtime, Emma and I had shoveled Jason's parking spot so it wouldn't be so bad when he got home from work the next morning. (Poor guy was out all night in the blustery stuff.) We had a great time.

She was more than happy and willing to stay up past her bed time to get this done for Dad.

I went out to help her so that it would go faster. Then we both needed to change our pajamas before bed.

Emma was being silly with the snow - throwing it up in the air and on her head.

And she couldn't come back in until she had done one of these.

Emma was bringing in the Claire's scooter and slipped on the fresh snow covered sidewalk. She was super excited to find that she'd made a cool sign in the snow. I colored it red for effect. Oooo!


...we played in the snow, bought boots, and played in the snow some more! The kids were super excited. Me? Not so much. We had a two hour delay on Friday so I ran down to Walmart to see what kind of selection they had. Luckily, I found some good ones and I was in and out pretty quick. They enjoyed their extra time to play in the snow and I was glad to send them to school with warm footwear.

Emma and Paul worked on an igloo together.

...I ran in to the library in search of one book. I didn't have much time. I came out with five in about as many minutes. It was great! 

I found the first two books of a new series by Lemony Snicket - the author of A Series Of Unfortunate Events - called All The Wrong Questions. The title itself is so fun. I can't wait to find out what they are like. Then I found The Extraordinary Education Of Nicholas Benedict. If you've read, The Mysterious Benedict Society, you might enjoy this one. I'll let you know once I've read it. ;) I picked up The Dark by Lemony Snicket just to see what it's like. Then I checked on book two of the Septimus Heap series, Flyte, written by Angie Sage, so I could read with Emma. She was reading the first book for school so that she could take an AR test on it and get her monthly required points last month. Her teacher gave them all an extension over the weekend on the deadline because they'd had the wax museum. She didn't read Friday. She didn't read much Saturday. She showed me Saturday night, at bedtime, that she had just over half of the 578 page book left to read and told me that she was feeling nervous about it. Yeah, I would say so. I reassured her that we would work on it the next day, even though it was Sunday, and gave a small lecture on using her time more wisely. So after the Superbowl , Go Seahawks!, I started reading out loud to Emma. I read fast, hardly stopping to take a breath or swallow my spit. I barely let her give me the back story when I came to things I didn't understand, and just plowed on through. Luckily, the pages were short and it was a good read. Even with my accelerated pace of reading, we could finish no earlier than 11:40 pm. Youser! We both went to bed tired, but feeling great. She scored a whopping 18/18 on her AR test and I was hooked for the next book in the series. The only hang up is that she gets ahead of me at school. Thus the need for me to check out my own copy. This way I can keep up. ;) There you go! You got the long of a short list of books.

...I went with Paul to his first cub scout den meeting. The biweekly meetings are held at the Bagley's down the street. (Isn't it fun that I caught all three Bagley children in the background?!) 

Paul is super excited to go be with other boys and get to do some hands on boy-type activities. Unfortunately, his leader is new and things weren't as active as we both were anticipating. Hopefully, things will pick up for Paul's sake. We have been reviewing things at home though - working on the cub scout promise, scout motto, scout sign, etc. He is eating it up. And...I find that scouting is a good engine for me to discuss him having a better attitude, being kinder to his siblings, and trying harder to help others. Paul has always had a strong sense of what is right and a desire to do it just the way he's been told. It was exciting to bolster him as I related this to him when we were talking about the motto - Do your Best - and the sign - help others and obey. Friday morning, after the big snow and as they were getting ready to go out to the bus, we were digging out warmer gloves for everyone. Sadly, my stockpile of warm gear is dwindling because the kids have grown and we haven't needed anything for so long. It came down to Paul giving Emma back her warm gloves and him taking a slightly smaller pair that would fit him but not Emma. He didn't want to and he shed a few tears, but there was no fit throwing; no anger. I pointed out that he was serving his sister by being willing to switch so that she could be warm. I said, "That's what scouting is all about - helping other people."

...Lainey took a sudden turn for the worst and threw up Thursday after preschool. At least she made it all week. Now we can hunker down for the weekend and get her feeling better. She went from playing with Pax, to feeling wiped out pretty quickly. She hasn't quite mastered the use of the bowl like Benjamin. Cleaning up after him when he was recently sick was truly not that bad. He made it in the bowl or on his bed sheets (that were easy to change) every time. For Lainey, we promptly made a bed on the floor and kept the bowl handy anyway.

Instagram of happy kids - Lainey with Thursday buddy Paxton

Instagram of sleepy Lainey with upset tummy

...Paul got sick. He was apparently the next one in line after Lainey. Fortunately, it did not last for days  on end and he was back to playing in no time.

...I took Ben back for his ear infection follow up and had Lainey's eyes checked as well. She had the goops and I wanted something for it. We're becoming regulars at that office, let me tell you.

...I caught this for instagram. Caption: "Ben is to sitting on the table as cold is to winter; as cozy is to blankets; as addictive is to chocolate...you get the idea." I can not count on two hands the number of times I have to tell Benjamin to get off the table. He loves it.

...we watched Lainey's beanstalk shoot up. She carried it upstairs one night and ended up leaving it in the bathroom overnight. It stays very warm in there because it's such a small room and no windows. That little beanstalk wasted no time in shooting up several more inches.

...I marvel at the wonderful new Come, Follow Me curriculum for the youth of our church. It truly is an amazing program of teaching and learning. It's life changing. I love studying the outlines and writing things down that stand out to me, techniques and insights. I love to think of my girls and what I can prepare that will help them. I love to evaluate how my activities and lessons actually go - what worked and what didn't. (This self evaluation part is new this year. Criticism can be hard to take, but I thought if it was coming from me I have less to fear in trying to be a better teacher/facilitator.)

Instagram of my notes and Wednesday mutual evaluation. I had my Beehives make a Smash journal page and write down something they learned from last year and something they want to learn this year - a sort of spiritual goal. I showed a video from the course intro videos and led a discussion on the invitations to act and their responsibility to follow through when they receive a challenge during our lessons on Sunday. It went so smoothly. They knew that they weren't doing the best they could to follow through and my admonition to do better was well received. I shared this printout with them for their journals. They have to change to accept the challenge, but accepting the challenge will change them as they grow spiritually and come unto Christ.

(I saw this on facebook and I redid it because I didn't like the colors.)