September Pictures

Who on Earth?  Simon or Simone?  Someone has sisters...

We love our kitty, Mikey.  He is so patient with Sarajoy.

My favorite cat picture, ever.

Map and timeline display in our homeschool/kitchen.

Dinosaur land.  Ready to study prehistory and ancient history.

Excavating fossils.

The boys spent hours creating this lego skate park.  I love that they still do this.

I'm so thankful the Ruby reads so much to her younger siblings!  It is so sweet and so helpful!

This kitty is growing so fast!  We sure love how cuddly and patient he is.

This bird was just sitting there on the railing.  We were able to get pretty close.  We thought it might be injured, but it flew away.

Sisters, otter pops, and a kitty.  What more could you ask for?

The food just tastes better up here.

Our first Sumac transplant from Idaho

Labor Day Weekend the boys, Dallin, Kurtis, and Aaron climbed Mt. Charleston near Las Vegas.

Ups and Downs

Yesterday was a great day.  I struggled with being tired, but I made it through that pretty well.  I exercised, canned grape juice, got all the laundry washed, taught a history lesson and project, read for the ward book club, got dinner in the oven on time, did school with Daisy, did FHE, and dealt with all of the usual toddler issues which currently include undressing, removing diapers, 5 outfits a day, etc. 
By the end of the day, I was exhausted, but I felt good.  Days like that very rarely come in pairs for me. 
I knew that the one thing that wasn't so good was my temper. 
I'm super reactive pregnant woman right now.  I seriously feel like I have no control over what comes out of my mouth.  I had made a resolution yesterday morning to do better, and I think I did a little better, but I still lost it too many times. 

Since those "on top of it" days rarely come in pairs, I was gearing up for a rather rotten day today.  I know that sounds pessimistic, but it is just too true in my life. 
I was trying to gear up in a positive way and be prepared rather than "expecting the worst." 
And I wanted to do better with my reactions.  I just wanted to be nice. 
Well, I certainly had plenty of chances to practice....
Despite my preparation and early morning resolution, I don't think I did such a shiny job.
In my defense, It was a rather challenging day. 

The tantrums started earlier than usual and lasted all day.  There just wasn't much of a break. 
I'm trying so hard to help my 3 year old manage his noise level, and the steps I have to take are so exhausting.  My baby girl wants to be potty trained so badly, but she just doesn't get it.  She will wear her panties that she loves so very much and practice pulling them down and sitting on the potty over and over for an hour.  Then she'll stand up from the potty and pee on the floor.  And she pulls her clothes out and changes them to the point that I have no idea what is dirty and what is clean.  And she's cranky cause she doesn't want to stop practicing her new skills long enough to eat! 
So when she walked into the kitchen diaperless, I was about to calmly tell her that it is Mommy's job to take her diaper off.  When she said "poop" and turned around, the words changed as they were coming out of my mouth in a loud scary voice. 
And there were just so many of these little times where I could have exhibited some love and control yet I didn't. 

I want to be able to be nice even though.
I know I have ample excuses for being mean.  Hormones, fatigue, responsibility of my kids' education, horrible nausea that still rears its ugly head now and then.
But I want to rise above it.  I really do. 
So I guess I'll need more days with lots of chances to practice. 
Sigh.

So glad I have days like yesterday to buoy me up while I battle the storms of motherhood.

The Perfect Pet

We've tried pets before, and they just haven't been that great.  We had a rabbit named hopscotch who was huge and fun to look at, but he hated to be petted or held.  We had to find a new home for him when we moved from New York to Utah. 

We had a kitty named Socks who turned up missing a couple of weeks after we got him.  He was replaced by Zoe.  She was a pretty good cat, but never very cuddly.  She had a couple of litters of kittens, which was very fun.  After that, she would totally ignore us in the summer (except for wanting to be put to bed in her little room in the garage every night), and become a little more friendly and cuddly in the winter when she liked to come inside and lounge on the kitchen chairs.  She was never allowed anywhere else in the house unless someone was holding her because I have a slight allergy, and I didn't want cat hair everywhere.  She was very low-maintenance, which was great.  When we moved last summer, we discovered that she had peed on a large number of our possesions in the garage.  Disgusting.  When I put her in a box to bring her up to the new house (we were still a few days shy of moving in), she was totally mad at me.  She took one look at me and ran across the street.  I came back to check on her the next day and she was gone.  Dallin saw her once a few months later, but we have never seen her again. 

And we tried a little lap-dog for 6 months.  WAY too much work.  By the time we found a new home for her, her stomach was so sensitive that I had to make her dog food.  She would frequently vomit, so we had to keep her leashed to the kitchen table to protect the carpet.  Cutting her hair was either very expensive or very difficult and time consuming.  The only person she wanted attention from was me.  So when she started biting Daisy, I was done.  And I was so glad the following week that she was gone because my morning sickness with Sarajoy's pregnancy started. 

So it was a pretty big decision to get a kitten.  We weren't sure we wanted to do the cat thing after the pee incident.  But when I saw how wonderfully cuddly and socialized my friend's kittens were, we started begging Dallin to let us get one.  It took him over a week to agree, but I don't think any of us have regretted it.  Mikey is the perfect pet.  He was already used to being outside at night, so we don't have to worry about him peeing on stuff.  We let him in to play during the day.  The fact that we have very little carpet in this house makes me worry less about the hair thing.  He is super cuddly and tolerant of even our littles cat lovers.   The day after we got him, I went downstairs to find the girls playing house in the play kitchen.  Guess who was curled up asleep in the baby doll rocker?  So cute.  He also tolerates stroller rides. Ruby is in charge of his care, and she has done a wonderful job of keeping him fed and watered and played with and keeps the litter box clean. 

Sarajoy had so much fun with him yesterday, that I had to take some pictures.  She spent about 20 minutes dragging him around the floor on a towel.  He seemed to enjoy it as he was fast asleep.  Then she curled up with him for a rest.  She'd pick him up and carry him over to his food bowl for snacks now and then. 

 This was today, as soon as we walked in the door from church, she found her "neow"

 This was just too funny.  I opened the garage door to call her in for dinner and saw this! 

 This is the towel that she took him for rides around the kitchen on.  She's all about dressing herself these days.  She mostly just wants to pull underpants on over her diaper. 

So nice to have a pet that fits in around here!

Here We Go

It took me an extra week to prepare, but I decided the preparation would have better dividends than 4 extra days of unorganized school. 

Preparing for school was hard this year.  It is usually something I do gradually over the summer, and I quite enjoy it. 

I enjoyed it this year, but in a "hard work" sort of way. 

I didn't have the capacity to really think about school over the summer.  I was enjoying reading and resting and keeping food down, but I wasn't really "getting stuff done." 

I have to say that though my ability to work a full day without a nap has returned, my ability to think really hasn't.  Multiple times, I've had to stare at a certain book or list for hours before it finally "clicks" and I know what to DO with the information. 

Slowly, but surely, I checked it all off my list. 

My first project:  The timeline and maps in the kitchen.  They looked horrible stuck to the wall with packing tape. (I ALWAYS forget to take "before" pictures :(   )  The timeline was WAY too small to fit any reasonable amount of stuff on.  I quadrupled its size and made it look a little more classy by putting the tape directly on the wall and printing the words on cardstock.   I bought molding from the hardware store to make frames for the maps.  Then, I added an area to display the artist, composer, and poet that we'll study each month.  I LOVE how it turned out, and it was a fun project that motivated me to do the other more mentally exhausting tasks on my list.

Then, I printed out the timeline figures and composer, etc. posters that we will need for the whole year.  This was one of those things that should have been so quick.  How hard is it to think of 9 artists to study?  Pretty hard, apparently.  But I feel like I'll be more likely to keep up if I don't have to spend a lot of time preparing during the school year.  I also compiled a month by month syllabus of what we'll be studying as a family for the year.  This year is Ancient and Medieval history and Chemistry. 

I also had to make a year outline for the choir class I'm teaching at co-op.  This proved to be extremely difficult.  I had no idea it was so hard to find choral music online. 

Each of the kids had an interview where we talked about their favorite things, recorded their weight and height, and talked about areas they think need improvement and things they are excited to study this year.  It was really neat to see into their hearts a little as they shared their weaknesses and strengths and we worked together on a plan to move forward.  I thought it was interesting how the two oldest kids saw obvious academic weaknesses that they wanted to improve.  Appropriate for their age, according to the educational philosophies that I lean toward.  My most ambitious and academic natural, Ruby, said Dance, Spelling, and Piano.  The funny thing is that she is a natural speller.  She is actually much better than her older brothers at it :)  Her 3 things she'd like to learn are hairstyling, sewing and babysitting.  How fun is that!? 
Daisy's list was very sweet:  Obeying my parents, Doing my Jobs, Be nicer to the little kids (don't yell at them).  How appropriate for Core Phase!  Her 3 things she's excited to learn: Math, Discoveries that she makes (she explained that this idea came from her archaeology lesson in co-op) and Ancient writing (also inspired by co-op).
I just asked Simon (3) about some things he likes to learn.  He said: How to draw, Hug, and Play with Sarajoy. 
Sarajoy only got as far as "What's your favorite food?"  Her reply was, "num". 

I am so glad that I was inspired to do this.  I think it will help my kids feel like they are responsible for their education and be motivated to improve.  I could tell that they appreciated having some input about our family schedule as well as their personal schedules.  I am excited to see how this school year unfolds!

Nathan has moved his school things to a desk in his bedroom.  I am excited to see him rise to the challenge of having a full and mostly independent study time.  The next 3 all filled their school drawers (inspired by workboxes) with things they would like to work on tomorrow.  I'll be filling Simon's drawers with a few chores and fun activities.  He is excited to have moved up to the world of having a desk and drawers of his own.  I'll put a few fun new school supplies out for them to find in the morning.  They've already been wearing the fun new "school clothes" that Grandma bought them a few weeks ago so they won't have that this year.  But we will, of course, be going to the Bean Museum when Dallin gets off of work.  It is the one tradition that we have done every year since we began homeschooling. 

Ready or not, here we go! 

But it is nice to feel mostly ready!