Free Lemonanade!

Owen, Ivan, Adelia, and Lincoln

My kids and some neighbors have been running a free lemonade stand this week. Don't worry, they are quick to tell you that they accept tips. :) It's been hilarious listening to their business strategies, and how they are going to divide up the work. Lincoln was in charge of pouring, Ivan got to watch the tip jar, and Adelia and the neighborhood kids were to shout at the passing cars to attract business.

They had a great time. And they were out of my hair for several afternoons in a row. AND somehow, they made money...

Linc taped rocks to the bottom of the sign Ivan made to keep it from blowing in the wind and making it unreadable. 

Springville Art Museum Field Trip

Today went went on a field trip to the Springville Art Museum. It was SO COOL! I can't believe we've never gone until now. Admission is free, and our tour guide was awesome! She had the kids really interested in the art work by telling them things that would appeal to them about it, and by giving them breaks to look around on their own in between her explanations paintings.

The museum also had an exhibit up called Portraits of Childhood, and some fun hands-on activities for kids to go along with it.

Our favorite exhibit was Beyond Memory: The Daydreams of Corinne Geertsen

A sometimes humorous, always insightful collection of pictures assembled digitally from photos of ancestors creating surreal and quirky visual narratives about psychological predicaments. Watch for odd juxtapositions, non sequiturs, and the possible element of surprise. 

The kids got to take copies of the original photograph and walk around the room and try to find the matching finished product by Corinne. It was cool. My kids had a ball.

Love the Men in My Life

Hair

I am really kind of loving my hair right now! Thanks Mama for the great cut. She didn't want to cut it short, because she likes it better long, but she did it anyways because she loves me and I asked her to. :)

I love having short hair. It's liberating and quick. It's functional, and out of my way. And I think it looks good, even if my mother disagrees. :P

Front Yard

Our front yard is getting more awesome by the minute! This weekend we went to a green house up in Orem and picked out some bushes and plants for front flower bed.

I'm sure we looked like a circus side-show pushing all five of our kids along on the little cart. I felt like a circus....but then again, I also do, so oh well. That's life I guess. :)

BUT, our flower bed looks so nice. I'm really happy with it. I still need to go get some annuals to plant in the front where all the empty dirt is, but I'm waiting for Aaron to get some kinks in the drip-line straightened out. It shouldn't take long.

I can't wait to get the other side done. And the porch swing up. And the tree rings....Then our front yard will look so good!

Independent Much?

For awhile Rue refused to take a bottle and this caused me to have a panic attack. Major claustrophobia at being the only human on earth who could feed this child. So we've been practicing with the bottle every night at her feeding right before bed. It's going well, and I've relaxed. She's taking the bottle very well now, and sometimes she even insists that she be the one to hold it. In this picture, she grabbed it away from Aaron, and I love the look she's giving him, "I'll hold that, thank you very much!" I love this little turkey....and it looks like there is an end in sight to our nursing days, hallelujah! Thank the Heavens above for bottles.

Fight Song

"Fight Song" by Rachel Platten

Like a small boat
On the ocean
Sending big waves
Into motion
Like how a single word
Can make a heart open
I might only have one match
but I can make an explosion

And all those things I didn't say
Wrecking balls inside my brain
I will scream them loud tonight
Can you hear my voice this time

This is my fight song
Take back my life song
Prove I'm alright song
My power's turned on
Starting right now I'll be strong
I'll play my fight song
And I don't really care if nobody else believes
Cause I've still got a lot of fight left in me

Losing friends and I'm chasing sleep
Everybody's worried about me
In too deep
Say I'm in too deep
And it's been two years
I miss my home
But there's a fire burning in my bones
And I still believe
Yeah I still believe

And all those things I didn't say
Wrecking balls inside my brain
I will scream them loud tonight
Can you hear my voice this time

This is my fight song
Take back my life song
Prove I'm alright song
My power's turned on
Starting right now I'll be strong
I'll play my fight song
And I don't really care if nobody else believes
Cause I've still got a lot of fight left in me

A lot of fight left in me

Like a small boat
On the ocean
Sending big waves
Into motion
Like how a single word
Can make a heart open
I might only have one match
but I can make an explosion

This is my fight song
Take back my life song
Prove I'm alright song
My power's turned on
Starting right now I'll be strong
I'll play my fight song
And I don't really care if nobody else believes
Cause I've still got a lot of fight left in me

Now I've still got a lot of fight left in me

Rue-fuss

Could she be any cuter? Sheesh. My kids have taken to calling her Rue-fuss Scrimgeour in honor of Harry Potter. Ha!

Check her out....she's got her eye on Daddy's ice cream. She knows the good stuff when she sees it.

Um. Hair. Nuff said.

 And she's discovered her toes!

Soap Box

I'm sorry to have to say it, but people bug the hell out of me sometimes.

Example, I'm listening to two women have a conversation about their teenage sons who will be graduating from high school this year. These women don't not know each other very well. I don't know either woman very well either, but well enough to know that Woman A's son has applied and been accepted to 5 different colleges and has scholarship offers to several of them. He also has his mission call, and pretty much has everything planned out for his immediate future. On the other hand Woman B's son isn't sure what he wants to do after graduation, hasn't applied anywhere, hasn't put in mission papers, etc. And his family is concerned for him and don't know how to encourage him make plans for his future without pushing him away.

So Woman A asks Woman B: How's your son? What's he doing after graduation?

You can see Woman B square her shoulders as if preparing for something unpleasant, you can tell by her body language that this has been a touchy subject, and recently. She replies: He doesn't really know what he wants to do yet. He might keep working, or he might go to school.

Woman A: Where has he applied to?

Woman B: Well, no where yet.

Woman A: He's putting his mission papers in first, then?

Woman B, who, by the look in her eyes is wanting this conversation over, and pronto: Well, we hope so, but he hasn't really decided about that either.

Woman B kind of trails off. She does NOT ask Woman A about her son. And that's the kicker.

Because now Woman A has a choice here, she can keep her trap shut about her own son, and say something comforting to this woman who is obviously uncomfortable and trying not to show her own distress about her son's choices, something like, Oh I'm sure he'll come around, kids always do. Or, Hang in there being a Mom is such an emotional roller-coaster isn't it? Darn that agency! Or something, right? Or in the very least change the subject? Maybe?

But no...Woman A plows ahead, with a smug look, and coyly says "Well, MY son....." A proceeds to go into great depths about all the various scholarship offers, college acceptances, mission call, and future plans. While Woman B smiles hollowly and nods politely while glancing around for an escape route.

If you were Woman B, how are you going to feel listening to Woman A gloat over you? Like garbage, most likely. Yet Woman A does it anyway. I don't know if it was intentional, I don't know the woman that well, but it felt like it. It felt like the reason she started the conversation in the first place was because she was bursting to express to the universe how proud she is of her son.....And there really isn't anything wrong with that. I'm a proud parent, I admit it, and often. But the WAY she did it, and the way she didn't stop doing it once she knew Woman B was having a rough go in this particular area.

This is why people bug me! Why do we do this to each other? Is it so important to put yourself up a notch that you have to step on someone else to do it?

Okay, I'll get off my soap box. I'm sure I've put people down without meaning to. But hearing this conversation just made me want to try really hard to be more aware of people and how they might be feeling.

Construction Workers

Because the outside of our house surrounded by construction site isn't enough for these two, they thought we needed on in the living room as well.

Spring Break

Ah, Spring Break. The week I stay home and hit the books hard, while everyone else and their dog is out crowding up all the fun places. Go to Thanksgiving Point with 2 zillion other people? No thanks, we'll wait until you're all back in public school so we can have the place to ourselves. 

I did get is some really awesome, solid school days over Spring Break. It felt good. Here's one of our art projects. A waterfront scene, done with construction paper and watercolors. The idea was to notice how the buildings would reflect upon the water, so that water is the color of the buildings. Pretty cool. Even Adelia joined in and did really well. 

Lincoln's

Ivan's

Adelia's

Adelia has been really interested in bugs for awhile now. Almost every night when I'm tucking her in, she tells me how when she gets up in the morning she's going to study about bugs for her school work. Sometimes I feel like she gets the shaft when it comes to school, because I spend a lot of time with the boys, and they pick a lot of our subject matter, and Del just sort of tags along. So during Spring break, I decided we'd do a little bit of studying about bugs, because I knew Adelia would like it. 

One thing we talked about was Monarch Butterflies and how the migrate thousands of miles every year, from Canada and North America to forest in Mexico, and aback again. We made butterfly sun-catchers to hang in the window. And watched a Wild Kratts episode on Monarchs. Del was in heaven. :) She's been asking for bug books for bedtime story each night. 

Lincoln has been learning about the Scientific Method at Harmony, and needed to conduct a simple chemical experiment over Spring Break that he could apply the Scientific Method to.

He chose to mix lemon juice and baking soda (which creates carbon dioxide, and replaces oxygen) to put out a candle in cup. He found, and conducted the experiment all by himself, all I did was light the candle and take pictures. :)


We have a Showcase coming up on Plants. For his project, Ivan wants to show how plants roots know how to grow down into the dirt. The answer is gravity. We are trying to sprout 4 different bean seeds, each facing a different direction. We think the beans will sprout and that no matter which way they are turned the roots will go down to the bottom of the container. I'm hoping we get far enough along in the experiment by Showcase time, but I think we may have started a little late. We'll see. But here's the set up:

We're keeping our fingers crossed that they sprout. :) My other kids still haven't come up with what they are going to do for their projects. Hopefully we think of something...we're kind of running out of time to get anything to grow in time.

Lest you think I'm a slave driver, you should know that we also went up to Hooper to play with Gramma Tam for part of Spring Break. And, Aaron had Friday off, and so we decided to make a wall around our front flower beds. We only got one side done. And we still need to put in the drip line and buy plants for that side, but it looks AWESOME! I'm so excited to get it all finished so that our front yard doesn't look quite so redneck.

The Wind

I saw you toss the kites on high
And blow the birds about the sky;
And all around I heard you pass,
Like ladies' skirts across the grass--
               
I saw the different things you did,
But always you yourself you hid.
I felt you push, I heard you call,
I could not see yourself at all--
               
O you that are so strong and cold,
O blower, are you young or old?
Are you a beast of field and tree,
Or just a stronger child than me?

Easter Things

Ollie wins the prized for maddest egg-hunting skills. All the other kids went for the fast, easy ones, but not Ollie. He took his time, and figured out the best way to get the hard eggs nobody else even noticed. :) Love this kid.

We had quite the number of egg hunts this Easter weekend. Three to be exact.

Friday night we went to a BBQ and egg hunt at our friends the Crandall's house. Her husband is a cow and sheep rancher, and so we had fresh BBQed lamb. OH! I was in heaven. Lamb is one of my most favorite things. We had it every year for Easter when I was a kid, but now my mom and Kerry don't do that tradition anymore (it was kind of my Dad's thing), and so I was very grateful to get the tastiest lamb I've ever eaten this year, fresh off the grill.

Saturday in between General Conference session, our friends the LaMonts put on their annual egg hunt and potluck lunch. It's a big event where everyone in the neighborhood is invited. This year some of our cousins tagged along for the fun. I did my best to get a picture, but pretty much everyone was WAY more interested in their candy than they were in making a Kodak moment. Oh well.

Saturday afternoon we listened to Conference while we drove up to Hooper to stay with my family for the rest of the weekend.

Gramma Tam let the grandkids color eggs while the men were at Priesthood session. I'm glad she does the whole color-the-boiled-egg thing, because it totally lets me off the hook. My kids love it, and I love that it can be a fun tradition they have with Grandma. :)

Also Saturday night Adelia and I got much needed hair cuts. Adelia kept saying, "You can cut my hair Gramma Tam, because you're an expert!" Haha. Del, we wouldn't have to cut your hair so frequently if you'd stop cutting it yourself. You tell me all the time that you want hair like a boy, and then you go in your room and snip your own hair off. If I take away the scissors, you do it with fingernail clippers. I'm telling you this, because someday, you'll have a little girl that cuts things, and you won't have a clue what to do about it. And when you ask me, or call me up in frustration, I'll laugh and tell you it's the Mother's Curse, just like Gramma Tam says to me when I call her to tell her about the latest T-shirt you've chopped to ribbons. I think she's still bitter about that time I cut the sleeves off of all her nice blouses.....

Sunday morning Kerry made us Sourdough Pancakes. YUM. And he gave me some sour dough start to take home. (My last attempt to make sourdough start was a disaster, btw)

Then we all cozied in to watch Conference. I love Conference, but I regret to say I didn't hear much of either session on Sunday. There were too many people at my mom's. Love them all, but it's really hard to focus with so many, especially all the kids and babies running in and out and all around. So I'll be reading that talks, and then I'll let you know what I think.

Sunday in between sessions Gramma Tam and Papa Kerry put on an egg hunt for the grandkids. And after the afternoon session we celebrated Brighton's and Tanya's birthdays.



We stopped in Centerville on the way home to have Kelsey pull the staples out of Ivan's head. And then we came home.

 I didn't take many pictures, but I did get this one of cute sleeping Rue, and this one of Ollie and Abi and Uncle Kyle jumping on Gramma Tam's trampoline.

Noteworthy Items and Un-noteworthy Items

I don't have pictures for this post really, but I feel like a few of these things need to be documented, but I'm not sure where else to stick them, except all together in a miscellaneous post. So here it goes.

-Ivan got 4 staples in his head. For some reason there was an empty, glass pickle jar sitting on top of the fridge. Ivan opened the freezer to get out a popcicle for Adelia, and the pickle jar came crashing down, broke over his head, and smashed onto the floor. He had a really deep gash. Blood was everywhere. Once we got him calmed down, we took him to the Instacare, where he got 4 staples in the back of his head. After 10 days or so, we had Aunt Kelsey take them out for him, instead of going back to the Instacare.

-Aaron and I have new callings. A month ago, I was put in as a Relief Society instructor (my dream calling!). It was bliss for an entire month. Then the Bishop and one of his counselors called one evening and wanted to drop by to see Aaron and I. I figured for sure Aaron was getting a calling, since he didn't have one, and I'd just barely gotten one. Nope. The calling was for me. I am now the secretary in the Relief Society Presidency. Did not see that coming. I'm excited about it though, and think it'll be an awesome calling once I figure out exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. A week or so after that, the Bishop called Aaron in. I thought for sure he'd be getting a Primary calling, or at least something low-profile, since we have 5 kids and my calling is fairly time-consuming. Wrong again. Aaron got called to be the Ward Clerk over Finance. It'll be a good calling for him, and I think he'll be really good at it and enjoy it. I'm not really sure how the time commitments are going to work out. But  I know they will. When I got set apart I was blessed that I would find "hidden reserves of time and energy". I'm excited to see how the Lord brings that about. :)

-We gave away Adelia's toy kitchen and all the food that goes with it on a whim. Well, not exactly a whim, but on a very quickly-made quickly-executed decision to try and contain my sanity. Let me explain...I was realizing the other day that I am not fun. I used to be a really fun mom, I'd let the kids paint with shaving cream, or do all kinds of messy projects, play with buckets of water at the kitchen table, etc. I like them to be creative, and if that means a little mess so be it. But lately I've been noticing that the mess has been making me angry. All the time. And I realized it's because we have so much stuff that I am constantly cleaning up mess. Constantly. And so when someone makes unnecessary mess that I have to then spend time to clean up, I get really upset about it. My kids just spread, and spread, and spread things around, so much faster than I could ever hope to keep up with. I was feeling like I was drowning in stuff. I realized this one evening, and decided I needed to do something about the out of control amount of stuff, RIGHT NOW. The toy kitchen was my first victim. Adelia had this really adorable wooden kitchen set, and an entire Costco-sized diaper box full of food/dishes to go with it. But she doesn't really play with it except to spread the food/dishes from hell to breakfast (that's my new favorite idiom, btw), and so I decided it needed to go. All of it. Immediately. I took pictures and put it up on our ward facebook page for free, and it was gone within a half hour. And my soul was lighter. I can't wait to give/throw away more. We seriously have way too much crap.

-Books and Movies. I feel like I'm in a reading slump. I've read a few ok/good books, but I'm craving a GREAT book. Something on par with my favorites. Something that reaches out and grabs me and never lets me go. I can't wait for July, when I'll get my copy of Harper Lee's new novel. I hope it's as good as To Kill a Mockingbird, but is that even possible? Aaron and I have watched a couple movies...He finally talked me into watching Interstellar. That's 169 minutes of my life that I'll never have back. Such a dumb movie. There were a few funny lines, and I like Matthew McConaughey, I thought he acted well. But oh boy, talk about a non-plot, a lot of gaping holes, and a stupid ending. We also watched The Theory of Everything, which I didn't think I'd like either, but I ended up loving it. It's probably one of my favorites. I just thought it was really well done. I love character movies so much more than action movies. Because of this movie I'm considering reading Steven Hawking's book.

-Here's something random...The word "homegrown" do not sound good put to music. Period. I'm hearing it all over in songs these days, and it just plain sounds terrible. No matter how you hold it out, no matter the tone of voice, or which syllables the emphasis falls on, it never comes out sounding like the desirable quality the songs are trying to make it be. It sounds more like an insult. So there's that.

-I have officially decided that Ruby is a Type 3. Heaven help us. This means she and I are either going to get along really well, or else butt heads really hard.

-Speaking of Dressing Your Truth and Energy Profiling....the video that I made with Carol Tuttle awhile back came out. I can't link to it, because it's actually part of the new, updated course they just launched, so you have to log in to your membership account to see it. But it was really neat to finally see that as a video. All the things I was nervous about were there, but they weren't as pronounced as I'd envisioned them to be in my mind, so maybe other people watching won't notice them as much as I do.

Marty McFly, Ivan's Latest Invention

School Days...

Wynter and I have been History and Science-ing up a storm. I just haven't posted about it. We studied the Great Plains tribes in Native American Cultures this week. The kids each made tipis. It was short and sweet, and still fun. :)

Wynter has been doing some fun things with the moon the last few weeks, including the phases of the moon in Oreos. Yum!

And, Adelia's preschool class went on a fieldtrip to the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum. The boys and Rue and I tagged along.

This is Adelia and her buddy Brynlie. They are so cute, whenever they see each other they run together and give each other a hug. How did I ever get to be raising such a girl? Haha! I hate hugging people. But whatev...Del's all over it. :) 

4 Months Old

Ruby Ruester Magoo is 4 months old today. She tried to eat Ollie's ear to celebrate. Silly girl.