Moth Sandwiches and Sunshine Patches, Fiber Arts and Sleep Experiments

"Mom, you're super awesome at putting socks on handsome boys." -Ollie

Ollie: Mom, cut my sandwich into a butterfly!
Me: There, how's that?
Ollie: No, that's not a butterfly! That looks like a moth!

Adelia got a much needed "trim". We're calling it that because she's growing her hair out. But it was looking so stringy and ratty, and she was crying crocodile tears every time I needed to brush it, and I was sure that any minute it was going to turn into dreads. Something had to be done. She has inherited Aaron's thick and sort of coarse hair...and I'm very glad for her...however, I have no idea what to do with it. It needed to be thinned and it needed layers. Adelia does best with a "light" hair do. :) Aaron's mom volunteered to take Del to the lady who cuts her hair, I asked for an inverted, layered bob. The hairdresser didn't get the angle on the bob as steep as I had asked, but it was fine because I have noticed that most hairdressers take what you say and tone it down about 7 notches, and I'd anticipated that, and asked for a REALLY steep angle on the bob, knowing that what we'd get would actually end up being about right. It turned out cute. I always think Adelia's hair looks better with layers. It makes it light and playful around her face, which fits her perfectly.

I saw this quote on Sunday, and really loved it. I don't have anything profound to add to it, but the wording struck me, along with the thought. "Of course. Of course, it makes sense that our Heavenly Father loves us so incredibly much that he would create a place and means whereby we might find joy. And the way we find joy is through creation. And we all have the abilities and capacities and talents to create in different ways." Anyways, I just loved this.

Speaking of joy, I've also been out in my garden harvesting this past week. I pulled up the rest of my beets and canned about 5 more pints of pickled beets. I have enjoyed growing beets this year, so I think they will become a staple in our yearly garden. I could probably even plant more this season for a late harvest later in the fall, but as I was sitting out by my garden contemplating whether or not I wanted to plant more or whether I should till the ground and be done, I just had this thought, "Let it go. That's enough for you, you don't need to over-do it." And it made me a little sad, as I got out the hand tiller and started turning the soil, to be done so soon. Sad that this garden season is coming to a close. But I do know that baby season is right around the corner, and there will be a lot to do, and so I know that the counsel was wise. Let it go. Transition into the next season. It's time to start wrapping things up and moving forward. I've been so grateful for my garden this year. It has given me something to do and somewhere to go on the hard pregnancy days. It's been there to occupy my mind and my hands. It has been my little patch of sunshine.

Other things in my yard aren't quite ready to throw in the towel yet. In fact, right now it'a a race to see who will be ready first, the baby or the peaches. I hope it's the baby, because I really don't want to can peaches 9 months pregnant. That just sounds like a back ache and a couple of really swollen feet waiting to happen. At least if Cal gets here first, I can lay him down while I work, or Aaron or one of his Grandmas can hold him. I'm not saying canning with a newborn will be a slice of cake either, but it would sure beat doing it pregnant. How did pioneer women do it? I think I ask myself that at least a million times every pregnancy. But seriously? Their lives and the lives of their families depended on them being able to keep up with the farm chores whilst pregnant. So they did. I mean, it would break my heart, but if I needed to I could give every last peach away to friends and neighbors and it wouldn't hurt my family's calorie intake over the winter time one bit, because I could just go to the store. They didn't have that option. Nor did they have the option of air conditioning or crushed ice. Remind me if I ever have the opportunity to time-warp back to the time of the pioneers to do it after I'm passed child birthing year. :P 

I picked two gallon bagss full of green beans off of our tepees yesterday. I've been loving all the green beans. Keep them coming I say. Another yearly garden staple, is what I'm thinkin'. We've kept up pretty well eating fresh beans off of two tepees. I'm thinking if I did three tepees we'd have all we could want to eat, and I'd be able to can or freeze some to save. I need a pressure canner. It's on my list.

Surprisingly we've kept up with the tomatoes too, I didn't think we would, having planted around 20 plants (of course a few got eaten by voles). I don't think they are doing as well this year as they have in years passed, but there definitely isn't a shortage. We've had all we've wanted for sandwiches, tomato and squash lunches, and I even made a batch of my very favorite homemade tomato soup which makes enough for one meal to eat that night and two to freeze and save for later. I'm looking at this as a blessing, Heavenly Father has given my family plenty to enjoy, but not enough to over whelm or exhaust me.

My kids are going to a charter school one and a half days a week this year. The school is called Canyon Grove, the first day was last week, and so far I, and the kids, have been really happy with it. The day that they go a full day is called Epic Day. During that day they have an American History Theme that encompasses all the other subjects that they do. (Think of it like a giant unit study on American History.) They also take care of all the state's science requirements for each grade, and give me money to buy language arts and math curriculum to use at home. The second day they go is called Special's Day, and on that day they attend classes like sewing, cooking, dance, etc. The kids had several options of classes to choose from, so they got to pick the four classes they were most interested in and attend those. Lincoln chose Heroes (learning about a heroic person from history), Sewing, Cooking, and Fiber Arts. Ivan chose Sewing, Musical Theater, Fiber Arts, and Math Games. Adelia chose Dance, Musical Theater, Fiber Arts, and Cooking. So far, after the first day, all three of my kids' favorite class is the fiber arts class, by far, who'd a thunk? But it sounded really cool. They got to take a piece of real sheep's wool and spin it on a spinning wheel. And at some point in the future their teacher is going to let them try out a loom and teach them to knit. The kids seemed to enjoy all their classes and really like their teachers. One of the ladies that works with the kids took these pictures of Specials Day.

Adelia in dance class.

Ivan in Math Games class.

Adelia in Fiber Arts.

Lincoln in cooking class, they made ice cream.

Meanwhile, I got a day and a half at home with only Ollie and Rue. It was weird. It's been a LONG time since the oldest I had at home was 3. I wasn't quite sure what to do with ourselves. The first day Aaron came with us and we went and toured the Utah Valley Hospital, which is where I'll be having this baby this time since our insurance switched. (I wasn't very happy about not being able to deliver in Payson.) I've delivered at Utah Valley before (Ivan and Adelia), and it was fine, the nurses and doctors are great, but I like the smaller feel of Payson Hospital better. Anyways, the reason we even went and toured at all is because the hospital is under construction, and I wanted to figure out where to park, and how to get inside, etc. So that we aren't trying to figure all that out while I'm in labor. We were also able to pre-register, which is nice, because I won't have to stop at the desk and do it when I'm in labor, we'll just be able to go straight up to labor and delivery. The second day, Ollie and Rue and I found ourselves at Target to buy some new church clothes for Ollie, since he spilled an entire can of yellow paint all over his (and the carpet, but Aaron was able to clean that all out thank goodness) and ruined them. I'll take ruined church clothes over ruined carpet ANY day of the week, thank you.

And this chick-a-rue is giving me a run for my money. (I know, what else is knew, right?) She still naps fantastically during the day, which I am ever so grateful for....but lately the night has been a struggle. She doesn't want to go to bed. She stays up, jumping up and down in her crib and talking and singing to herself until after Aaron and I go to bed. *sigh* And that probably means she needs to nap less, but I can't bare it. I need her to nap. And besides, if she doesn't nap, she crashes somewhere at about 4pm and then stays up at night anyways but is cranky. She's also been waking up in the middle of the night screaming bloody murder, which makes me wonder if she's having bad dreams or night terrors or something. Ugh, how much of a parent's life do you think is spent stressing over sleep? Wayyy too much at this house, I know.

Which brings me to my next meme:

School is still happening. Yay! We've done some fun things. We are about 2/3rds of the way through our Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe unit. We learned about intensifiers. I had Lincoln and Ivan each write a paragraph about a meal, and then asked them to go to town using the intensifiers to spice it up, the idea being that their paragraph would end up being over-the-top silly, to solidify the idea of what intensifiers do. Ivan thought this was a wonderful idea, Lincoln struggled. He doesn't like ridiculous or over-the-top things.

Lincoln's paragraph:
"I sat down at the terrible big table, my extremely nice mom gave me a huge plate of really yummy food. (My mom makes especially good food!) Then I went upstairs and did my extremely hard chores. Then I had a really short lunch. Then I had a totally awesome quiet time. I was very tired, so I took a long nap."

Ivan's paragraph:
"I woke up and I was super tired so I stayed in bed and skipped breakfast. I was way more hungry than I had been in my life. I put on my clothes, they were too big. I started to do my school work a little faster than usual. I was fairly grumpy. I came rapidly down the stairs and had lunch. I ate too much and I got super sick. I ate a little dinner and felt way better. I went to bed because I was so sleepy. The end."

It's been awhile since we've done an art project, so I pulled out our At Home Art Studio DVD this week and we learned about impressionist paintings and made landscapes. I thought all the kids did surprisingly well at this. (Sometimes some of my kids have a hard time with abstract things.) I'm excited to have some new art work to hang on the wall in the school room.

Lincoln's

Adelia's

Ivan's

Ollie's

We also had a Not Back to School Party, with another homeschool family in my ward. The mom is my good friend, and then one of her friends who I only know briefly but like a lot came too. We did it last year too, and decided that the three of us would make in an annual thing. We spent the morning and afternoon at the Reservoir. To my great astonishment and surprise, Ruby was an angel, and didn't once try to go too deep into the water, or stray too far from me. Probably because I spent pretty much all night praying that she'd be safe so we could go to the reservoir because I really felt like my big kids needed it.

Even though we were there for hours, this is the only picture I took. Hyrum buried Ivan in the sand and Ivan asked me to take a picture. 

On Friday night Aaron took us on a family date night to a little drive in place in Spanish Fork. We got good and then took it over to the park to eat and let the kids play. It was a beautiful night, and it was nice to just sit in the shade of a tree, watch the kids having fun, and enjoy that Aaron was there to get up and chase after Rue when she got too far away or attempted something dangerous on the playground. Aaron took these great pictures of the kids.

Saturday Aaron spent a good deal of time on the bunk beds and made awesome progress. The head boards and foot boards are all screwed together and the screw holes have been filled with wood glue and everything has been sanded over one time. It needs a couple more rounds of sanding (using a finer grit each time), and we need to put the side rails on and decide how to keep the slats in place. Then I think it will be ready for staining. 

Ivan was a cute little apprentice carpenter. He sawed the dowels into little pieces that Aaron needed. I'm glad Aaron finds ways to let the kids help with projects. He's way better at that than I am...probably because he is more patient than I am. 

I went to a doctor's appointment on Thursday and again today. I am dilated to a 1.5 centimeters. But the doc said that's exactly what he expects for someone having their 6th baby. So I'm not packing my hospital bags or anything. :) Doc also said the best indicator of when I'll go into labor is what I've done in the past. So, on average my kids come about a week early. Ollie came two weeks early, so that is still a possibility, but most likely I'll be about a week early. That's the 12th of September. I bought myself a birthing ball, and I am excited to pump it up and start bouncing on it to see what happens. If nothing else, having the posture, and pressure off my back sounds like it will make the ball worth what it cost. I'll keep you posted.

I was craving doughnuts again....and rather than swing by Daylight Doughnuts for the four billionth time, I decided I'd just make my own and use Family Home Evening treat as an excuse. I'm glad I did because they turned out fantastic! So much better than the ones I made last October for Genreal Conference. I used a new recipe out of my new doughnut cookbook (Yep, I had to have a doughnut cookbook, and I can't wait to try every single recipe in it!) and it was pretty easy, and very tasty. And the really great part was that it only made about a dozen, which is the perfect amount for a family of seven to enjoy in one evening, since doughnuts never seem to keep very well.