Tuesday, May 26, 2009

More funny stuff

Dexter ate a small powdered donut and had very white hands and lips. He went and washed his hands, then came running to me and said he was all clean. I told him to go look in the mirror. He came running back a minute later and exclaimed, "I have a water face!"

I don't usually buy white bread, and one day at church, when offered the sacrament, he said, "That's too yellow for me."

I think it's kinda funny (and sad) to have pretty much total control over teaching my little ones to speak English. I taught Dexter to call a button-up dress shirt a "manly" shirt, because it's a shirt like Daddy wears to church. I just think it's hilarious to hear him call it a 'manly' shirt.

Today, Dexter was looking at a wall that had texture on part of it, (plastic panelling in the bathroom) and he said, "That wall is overstimulating." I don't know why it's so funny to hear a three-year-old say big words, but it is.

He started saying 'kindaly' instead of 'kind of.'
When Trevor had a thin line of slobber hanging down from his mouth, Dexter said, "Wait, don't move," and he tried to grab it, like it was a hair. Another time he said, "Wait, it's kindaly going to drip," and he grabbed the slobber and ran to the bathroom and dried his hands.

Christian, Ravenna, Trevor and I went to the grocery store and a friend called about plans for tomorrow and as I was talking to her Ravenna and Christian started loading the cart with donuts and gummy worms and ran off to find more fun stuff to fill the cart with while I was distracted.

When we got home, Ravenna asked me if Dexter could have a donut and I said, "I don't know," and she said, "That means 'yes' because it means you don't care." I said, "No, it means I want to care, but it takes too much energy."

The plastic around food or a toy is called the wrapper, but when the wrapper is taken off it's called garbage. Well, Geneva handed me her piece of candy and said, "Can you take the garbage off?"

Monday, May 25, 2009

Funny kids

Ravenna took Geneva to the bathroom during church and Ravenna told her to wash her hands afterwards. When Geneva was drying her hands she said, "I always listen to older sisters, because they are always right."


I got an individual size bag of Cheetos from a Costco-size box and was planning on sharing them with Dexter, but he said, "I want my own bag of mosquitos!"

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

A day or two

So, today was rather an adventurous day.

It all started in the morning, of course. Christian was demonstrating how slippery a spot was on the hardwood floor, near the dining room table, but in the living room. Then, at breakfast time, Dexter came zooming through that spot and slipped and fell and got really mad and went away yelling, "I hate falling down!" A minute or two later, Christian who was mixing his instant oatmeal and hot water, slipped in the same spot and spilled half his oatmeal. It was the dry half, mostly, that went flying. He kinda hit my shoulder as he fell, so that kinda hurt. He left to get something to clean it up with, and Dexter came zooming through the same spot again and again went away yelling about how he hates to fall down.
I told Dexter to stop walking there. It's only slippery if you are wearing socks, and all the kids were. I asked Christian to spray and wipe there, to hopefully stop the slipperyness, but I don't think it really worked.

After breakfast, we helped Spencer with long division, using manipulatives. Yay, we did something for homeschooling!
Then, we raced off to tennis lessons for the boys and ballet lessons for Geneva; yay, something else for homeschooling, though it's not at home! The lessons overlap and are at the same place, thankfully.
While waiting for Geneva during dance, I realized that I was going to remember to bring the recorder and music to school that day, but I did not remember.
This is the day we usually get fast food for lunch, because we have to drive over 40 miles from tennis/ballet to school and we get there late, because tennis ends at Noon we are supposed to be at school for the play rehearsals at 12:30PM.

The middle three kids were invited to have parts in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the private school that the oldest one attends. They asked me to play Greensleeves for the little fairy dance. So, I'm thinking, "how can I get fast food and stop by home to get those things without really having time to do either????

So, after tennis and ballet ended, we raced toward home, and it came to me. I called the husband, who is nearly always telecommunting from home. So, I offered him a burger in exchange for him finding and gathering the things that I need and bringing them out to me, so I only have to stop for a moment at home. I also remembered to ask for the sesame sticks because Dexter won't eat fast food, except for whatever beverage we get. I was glad I did.

We got to school about 1:15pm, not too bad.
They had a good rehearsal, and I had fun chatting with the people there.

Then, I fed Trevor in the car for a few minutes, while Ravenna filled the water bottles and little ones went to the bathroom. So, our friends had left. Then, we tried to leave and the car died shortly after leaving the parking lot. It started again, but it was sputtering and wouldn't go when I pushed on the gas. BOTHER!

We were on a quiet residential street and I wondered if I dare try to drive where there was more traffic. Well, it started again and seemed to be going, got down the street. It stayed running at that stop light. Turned left, more sputtering and sounding like I was revving a sports car, which we all thought was kinda funny, but I was just pushing steadily. There was a Chevron on the corner, I should have just driven straight there, but it would've been a left turn and I wanted to turn right and go home! So, I turned right and it died on the very busy street, so I turned into the shopping center parking lot and it died and I was blocking traffic and it started again and I got a little farther and it died right in front of the store and wouldn't start again, so I was blocking traffic again, so I asked the kids to hop out and help me push it into a parking spot. So, we were all hopping out and a car was passing me on the left and telling me how rude I was to do that there, where I was blocking traffic. I was about ready to start crying at that point, but I didn't and kinda yelled back, "My car broke down!" So, they looked properly chastised and drove away. The kids were suprised that it was fairly easy to push, once we got it going and we didn't have to push it far.

I called Chris first and told him we were broken down and come and rescue us. Then, I called AAA and asked for a tow. Well, to make a long/painful story short, we decided to have it towed all the way back to our hometown, much farther than the 5 free miles. I wonder how much the premium plan is, that would have covered this expense? Mostly, we needed the help getting two more of us home, otherwise, we would've had to rent a car, or call a taxi, or tax our friends, ha ha.
As it was, we had to squish 4 people in the backseat of the husband's small commuter car. I put the baby in his car seat. Double-buckled the next two smallest together and then the biggest squished in next to them. They would've fit a lot better without any carseats, but I figured if anything happened, that would've been the safest or easiest to explain.
I went straight home and emptied out everyone, except the baby, and then went to the repair place down the street to meet the tow truck and Chris and Spencer.
The repair place was just closing, so at least we got to say, "Hi," to them before they left. And tell them that we think the fuel pump went out. And the warranty that I bought when I bought the car just expired three thousand miles ago. I guess I drive too much, because that was supposed to be a two year warranty and it's only been a year and a half.

Anyway, they think they'll be able to fix it tomorrow. I hope so, because the boys have soccer in the late afternoon and then one has Cub Scouts that night. I suppose it wouldn't be a tragedy to miss them, if we have to, because Chris takes his car to jazz bands on Wednesdays and hates missing them.

Adding to the drama was Spencer had planned to spend the night at his cousins' house and they were going to pick him up at around 4:30pm and we weren't getting home in time. So, Spencer asked his Dad to drive him the half an hour to his cousin's house. And by then, it was time for mutual, so he dropped the oldest two off at the church on the way and got back in time to pick himself up some turnovers at the store and then pick them up. Then, they picked up pizza.
I didn't have to go to mutual, because tomorrow is camp level meetings for the YW, so I got to stay home with the little three. It's kinda funny that three kids seems like so few now. I felt like we should have a party or something, just the four of us. Instead I fed the baby and read a great blog story (here:http://theprudenthomemaker.com/whenqueensrideby.aspx) and Geneva put on a movie for Dexter and then I started washing dishes and G & D asked me to cook bacon, so I did that while doing dishes, until Trevor woke up, then I was feeding him while cooking bacon, then everyone else came home, exept Spencer who is spending the night at my sister's house.

Oh, in the car on the way home, Ravenna was talking to her friend on my cell phone. I kept trying to tell her that she didn't need to tell her all the details, because I knew her friend would tell her Mom, and it would just be embarassing for me, but it was enevitable that they would find out anyway, Ravenna tells them everything! (hmmm... I wonder where she gets it??? hmmm...) Anyway, she was telling her friend how to spell something, but it's hard to hear over cell phones sometimes and she said, "no, 'y' as in eucalyptus, except that starts with an 'e'..."
We thought that was really funny.

Ravenna decided she was happy our car broke down, because while we were sitting in the parking lot, a former schoolmate's family came to the store. So, she hung out with us while her Mom shopped. It was fun to see them again.

Oh, golly. I guess we've come about to the end of a loonnng day...
I think I liked yesterday better. All we did was meet my sister and a friend at the Marina, where we walk and talk and play, then we came home and I spent a huge amount of time on iTunes, remembering old songs and looking for fun ones for Ravenna, who suddenly wants tons of music, because she got an mp3 player for her birthday last month.
'Course I should've payed bills yesterday. Oh well, that will be what I do tomorrow, while my car is in the shop.
Hope your today was more boring than mine.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Yummy

Yesterday, my five-year-old made her own sandwich. It was a cottage cheese and pickle sandwich on raisin bread.
It was her own creation of course, I have never eaten such a thing. I asked her if she liked it, and she said, "It kind of tasted like a...salad."

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Things I was going to say, but didn't

I spoke in church on Mother's Day and I'm still rewriting the talk in my head, "Oh, I was going to say.." I hate that.

I was going to tell about a lady I see at the Community Center while both our little girls are in ballet class. She has older kids, one in his 20's and one in high school and she has little kids, I think they are five and three. She said the little ones' favorite word was 'underwear' and they would say it all the time and she was creating a scene constantly trying to get them to stop. Her husband said, "Why don't you just ignore them?" And so she ignored them for like 2 days and she hasn't heard the word since. My favorite part of this story is that she said, "You'd think I'd have this parenting thing down after 20+ years, but no."

In my research, I also came across a blog that pointed me to another blog, which belongs to the preacher in blue jeans. I think you can search for him on youtube, though I haven't. Anyway, I read a couple of his articles, a good one with marriage advice and another about homeschooling (I used one of his core principles in my talk - about when anger takes over, learning stops).
But, my favorite part was where he wrote something like, "What are my credentials? I have failed many many times and I have learned from my mistakes and now I'm successful beyond my wildest dreams!" I thought that was very clever and I was going to use that idea in my talk, but I forgot because I didn't write it down. I was wondering why the Bishop wanted me to speak on Mother's Day when there are so many other worthy mothers and grandmothers in the ward. I thought maybe it was because I currently have the most kids in the ward, though I know that there are grandmothers with more kids and grandkids than me. Or why not ask a man, so that the Mothers can take it easy and not stress about speaking on Mother's Day!!!
I asked Chris why he thought they asked me. He's the ward clerk, so occasionally I'll ask him if he knows stuff from sitting in Bishopric meeting. But, he said, "I have no idea."
I said, "This is when you're supposed to tell me what a good Mom I am."
I decided to open my talk with that little story.

Then, I was going to say, "I guess my credentials for speaking to you are that I've failed many, many times and I hope I've learned from my mistakes."
Next, I was going to say that the father is the Patriarch of the home, but I think it's really the Matriarch that keeps the family together and give the example of Chris' Grandma that just died and now all her kids (that are middle aged) have all gone their separate ways without plans to get together regularly, anymore.
I was also going to tell the story of how her mother made her kids call her "Aunt Mary" instead of Mom, so that out in public, she could say, "Oh I'm not old enough to have these kids, they are my sister's kids."
All but the youngest called her "Aunt Mary" because the older kids would all tell the littlest one that that wasn't her aunt, it was her Mom. Grandma kind of hated her mother for that.
I think it's o.k. to tell some imperfect Mom stories on Mother's Day, so that we can think, "Well, at least I'm not THAT bad." But, then, I was also trying to pass on the message of how we shouldn't compare ourselves to others, because we don't really know all that is going on in any situation except our own.

There is an excerpt from the book, "It takes a Mother to Raise a Village," by Colleen Down here:
http://www.meridianmagazine.com/books/010726mothers.html and in it she talks about the game Red Rover that she hated to play as a kid and how as adults we are playing it still, but with our thinking. We want people to come over to our way of thinking and we judge them if they don't. I'd like to read the rest of her book.

Like in the movie "Stranger Than Fiction," when he starts keeping a tally on whether he is in a comedy or a tragedy, I think I might keep score one day, on whether I am a fantastic Mom or a failure. Sometimes it's hard to recognize or give credit to ourselves as Moms when we handle something well or do something simple that will be meaningful to our litle ones. It's easy to beat myself up for the pile of Mount Washmore that is almost as tall as my head. And feel guilty that my #1 daughter's friends held an 'intervention' in the car on the way home from school on Monday. The driver (who also happens to be her seminary teacher and the school owner) said they were going to line up the boys and have them all kiss her if she didn't clean her room by Wednesday.
There is a little background to this story: they had a youth activity a couple of weeks ago where swing dancing was taught and there was one part in a dance where the girl is supposed to push the guy back and her main partner would just back up automatically. Well, his older brother would just wait for her to push him and once he said, "If you don't push me, I'll kiss you." So, she pushed him pretty quickly. Her teacher figured if that threat worked for dancing, it would work for cleaning her room.
I said, "Maybe you shouldn't clean it, and see if she really carries out her threat." After all, seminary teachers shouldn't be encouraging kissing among those too young to date! Haa, haa. (Love you, D.) But she said, "NO."
Anyway, another part of this story is that a while ago, the kids went on a field trip to Petco, and Ravenna called me to ask if she could have a Siberian hamster, because they are sooo cute. She called me while she was in the store! I said, "If you can keep your room clean for a month, then you can have one." So, then I was not motivated at all for her to clean her room. I should've just said, "No way, Jose," but I'm much too nice sometimes. I hope it's been long enough that she's forgotten about that, but I doubt it, her memory is really good. So, now I'm hoping againg that she will not keep her room clean for a month. This is not what Mother's are supposed to hope for. I'm supposed to teach her how to clean and organize and how to maintain cleanliness, so that it won't be such a huge production to clean her room.
At least I had spent a while cleaning my room recently, so that I didn't feel like a hypocrite.
We had also spent a day cleaning the boys' room that had gotten out of control, also.

But, back to my original topic...
I was going to quote my boys' tennis coach when he said, "Do you ever make mistakes, like in your schoolwork? I hope so, if not you would be perfect and that would be scary!"
I think that's a good thing to keep in mind as a Mom. If you were perfect, you would be scary!
I did say that my Mom wasn't perfect, but she was perfect enough for me.
I love you, Mom!