It's a Sawzall Y'all!

I apologize for the lack of posts recently. One cannot download digital cameras or get online when they have been transported back to the 1960's. Yes, we spent several days in Twin Firs, but this time we had company! DH's sister and her family came up to visit and spend their precious vacation time working to update the ole homestead.

Here are the menfolk and plug girl/flashlight girl AKA Child #2 replacing a door. The old door was 8 ft long. The new door is 6 ft. The subfloor was rotten from decades of leaking. That means lots of extra work. DH made the funny (use your best hick town accent), "We put a hole in the wall with the Sawzall y'all!"

But all work and no play...is no fun. So we (DH) barbecued! Buffalo steaks and salmon and alligator tail! And who could forget the giant crab legs and octopus! No kidding! There was enough food to last us all week.

This little fella flew in the gaping hole in the wall and befriended us. Child #2 with her animal ways rescued the bird and released him outside where he refused to leave. He invaded our dinner! He landed on Child #2's steak with his germy feet! He stole Child #5's dinner roll! He made the kids scream as he hopped menacingly toward their plates! We have never seen a bird act like this. My Pathetic Doberman was beside herself, especially after "Charlie" landed on her behind and went for a ride. Twin Firs is where the wildlife is tame and the children are wild.


These are the kids. These five all forged special relationships with each other. I cannot even begin to describe how much fun these kids had. They climbed trees, built forts in the woods, looked for bugs, played on the tire swing, and pushed the rules and us grownups (and teenagers) to the limits!

We spent one day in Seattle at the Pacific Science Center and the Space Needle. At the top of the Space Needle we pointed landmarks out to the kids. Child #4 saw a radio tower and exclaimed at the top of his lungs, "Look! I see the Space Needle!"
One day two little kids were caught too high in a tree wearing unsuitable shoes for climbing after they had been told not to climb too high and to not wear flip flops. Child #3 felt so bad. Pretty soon I noticed that I hadn't seen him for awhile. I looked in all the rooms. His shoes were all inside. His bike was in the driveway. Everyone else was accounted for. Only Child #3 was missing and no one had seen him. We started looking all over the 15 acres. After 5 minutes (which seems an eternity when you are looking for your baby), I started to panic. DH was searching the pond, Child #2 was searching the 5 acre woods, AC #1 was on the ten acres with the cousins, I was coming back from searching the driveway. No one could find him. I decided to do a thorough search of the house; maybe he was playing hide-and-seek and the rest got found and left him. After poking through some closets and looking under beds, I finally found him under all the blankets on my bed, fast asleep. He felt so bad about disobeying me about the shoes and the tree that he put himself on time out and fell asleep. The next time he went missing (this time he spilled his cousin's bubble juice in the driveway) I knew exactly where to find him. Whew!

The last great adventure was fixing the well. The menfolk originally were replacing a pressure tank and a wall on the well house. After they opened the can of worms, or turned off the water supply with thirteen people under one roof, they realized that they needed to replace the well pump. To make a very long story short, we spent two days without water. Thirteen people under one roof with no water is not pretty. And I thought I was being smart by cloth diapering down there; it is easier to wash and dry a load of diapers in an area with no garbage service than to haul back a load of stinky disposables at the end of the week. When I got down to five clean diapers with no end to the well fiasco (which had my DH running to the hardware store many many times per day at 45 minute minimum drive time one way) I started looking at the linen closet for sheet to rip up. My kids were so grimy that when they cried there were rivers of mud running down their cheeks. The picture is the menfolk reading the owner's manual on the second day to figure out what went wrong.

We really enjoyed our visit even though there was a lot of work to do. I can't wait to have them come back!

Field Trip to the Scary Dairy

We had the opportunity to tour a local cheese farm today. Afterwards I asked the kids what their most and least favorite parts were. Child #3 liked eating the cheese the best. Is anyone surprised? Child #4 didn't like seeing the cow poop. But he did like seeing a kitty in the barn. My favorite part was this conversation between myself and Child #4:

Child #4: Are there goats here?
Me: No, only cows.
Child #4: And cats! I saw a cat back there! [pause] Why is there only cows and cats here?
Me: Because this factory only makes cow cheese.
Child #4: Cow and Cat Cheese? Cause there are cats here!

Cat cheese? I guess it could be done, but I wouldn't want to milk the cat!

And a special thank you to AC#1 for coming on the tour with me!

Stay Tuned...

...we are experiencing technical difficulties! Our computer is too old and we don't have enough memory... basic email checking takes so long!

Enough Already!

Baby is now gaining weight so fast! A half pound over the weekend alone! I'm getting tired of nursing her all the time, so enough already!

Also, now that Baby is six weeks old, the newness has worn completely off. I'm tired of people (especially women) stopping me in the store to gawk and coo, "OOOHHHHhhhhh, a new baaaaybeeee! How oooooold is sheeeeee?" It's even worse when they have a toddler with them. "Oh sweetie, come look at the new baaaaybeeee! Isn't she cuuuuute? You were once that small!" Meanwhile, the grubby toddler is trying to grab my baaaaaybeeeee's tiny hands with her booger encrusted ones. I really hate it when they look up at me and say, "I have a sore throat!" with a big grin on their face (that really happened to me). I grimace and say, "She's six weeks old. Yes, she is precious. No, she isn't my first; I have six kids. Yes, my hands are full. Yes, I'm busy." What I really want to say is, "ENOUGH ALREADY! I JUST WANT TO FINISH MY SHOPPING BEFORE THE BEAST WAKES UP AND SCREAMS TO BE FED IN THE CHECKOUT LINE, OKAY???" Instead of being rude out loud, I simply sidestep the women before they can physically grab me and smile as I sashay away...

Fashion Faux Pas

Faux Pas literally translates into "False Not" which is a double negative. Which would be a positive. So my DH's fashion faux pas in the eyes of a teenager would actually be just fine...especially if one was surrounded by other men in kilts, say at a Scottish Highland Games. I get the Best Wife in the World Ever award for allowing DH to purchase this nice Utilikilt last weekend. While he was being fitted, women from all around flocked to see the sexy man with the Chacos. I was forced to claim my territory in defense against these women! I said, "Aren't the kids behaving themselves so nicely? And the baby is sleeping through the whole thing!" as three little kids ran circles around the double stroller, made faces in the mirror, and tried to hang from the booth's tent poles.

You should see his roundhouse kick...or maybe not;)

But who really wears the pants in this relationship?

Warning! Graphic Content in next story! Sensitive readers beware!

I decided to cloth diaper Baby shortly before she was born for a variety of reasons, one of which is cloth diapers are far more sanitary, contrary to common misconceptions. I had three babies in disposables, and washed/stained many sets of clothes from poopy "blowouts." I read that blowouts don't occur at such a high rate in cloth as they do in plastic. Today we learned that this is indeed true. I haven't had a single blowout in my good old-fashioned prefold diapers. But I have some disposables left over from the first weeks when we didn't want to deal with cloth diapers that I needed to use up. Sure enough, this morning the poop flew right out the back of the diaper, onto my lap, and ran like the Yangtze River onto the floor. I think I will sell the rest of the disposables on craigslist.

Here Baby is outfitted in an organic cotton T-shirt that says "Handle With Care" paired with wool soaker shorts, yarn dyed with Kool Aid, hand knit, and lanolized all by yours truly. A fresh clean Indian Prefold is securely Snappied (no more diaper pins!) underneath. Child #5 has also moved to wearing cloth at night instead of a disposable Pull Up. She loves being diapered "like a baby" at night, although she stays dry most nights.

June-uary

Where is summer? We are so cold that our heat actually turned on today! We feel like hibernating in this cold weather... I know I just want to sit around in flannel pjs drinking coffee...

One might think I like to take pictures of my messy living room and post them where everyone can see what a wonderful housekeeper I am. But this is actually an "unschooling" science project. For those who haven't heard the term unschooling, you basically let your kids run wild and they learn from their own adventures (or misadventures). Of course if the child is in an environment rich with literature and other stimulating academic activities, they might do well. But I don't see an advantage to letting a child choose when they learn to read or do math. I don't unschool. I homeschool. And I digress... This "unschooling" science project can also be described as imaginative playtime for a six, four, and two year old. They are in their cocoons, waiting to emerge as hairy moths. IJ is under the beige blanket asking his brother, who is under the tiger blanket, "How many more days until you emerge?" Evie, under the colorful blanket, is mimicking her brother word for word. My Pathetic Doberman is just waiting for them to abandon this game so she can curl up on my blankets.

Now for our next adventure...

IJ went to his first Cub Scout meeting last night where he crossed the bridge with the rest of the scouts who were advancing. This meeting was the big end of the year shin dig, where scouts were honored by their families for all their achievements for the year. The meeting was from 6:30 to 8:30 pm at a local park. This was the view as I drove to the park...My windshield wipers were going super-speed. I had to drive 25mph on a road I normally take at 45mph. When we got to the park, three of my kids were sound asleep. Did I mention I was alone with the four little ones?  Mark was at his Mason meeting, being promoted to Master Mason. Laura was studying for her 8:00 am final in Greek Mythology. Ami was performing in her last Jazz Band concert. Busy night! So, the little kids were sleeping. It was freezing and raining and did I just see lightning? And thundering and pouring down rain... Was I crazy for brining a 5 1/2 week old baby out in this weather so her big brother could be honored? Yes, I was. So I started the long process of waking a two year old from a much-needed nap. This is what happened when we headed into the park:Shane took off running when he saw the play structure. IJ was lagging behind, helping his sister who wouldn't walk... I know it is hard to see, but he is trying to carry his sister down the wet slippery stairs. I'm stuck in between them, in the freezing pouring rain, holding a baby. Who do I go after? Do I run after Shane to tell him not to go down the slide because his bottom will be wet and cold for the rest of the night? Do I turn around and helping Evie walk, but expose Baby Fiona to more cold rain on her little head? Or should I just stand there like an idiot and take some pictures?Luckily we made it to the covered picnic area without hypothermia. But it was close! One thing I already love about this Scout Troop is how family friendly they are. This troop is for homeschoolers only and there are some pretty big families involved! Kids were running around crazy, making the sounds only kids can make in the excitement of being outdoors in a lightning and thunder storm. The meeting was jam packed with fun songs and jokes, one joke being performed by Ami's much-admired biology teacher (that's right, a public school teacher that homeschools!). My favorite part was when Evie had to go potty. I had to take the four on them in the heated bathroom where I played SuperMom. I breastfed the Baby while helping Evie go potty while telling Shane that he had to untuck his shirt from his underpants before he put his coat back on while telling IJ that the sink would turn off by itself so stop pushing the button. Mrs. Biology Teacher walked in while this was happening and witnesses what nutcases Ami's family really is. Her cool facade was busted!

Here is IJ crossing the bridge to becoming a Tiger Cub...And here is his brother congratulating him... not on becoming a Cub Scout, but because he took the step necessary to get us all back in the van and heading home to hot cocoa!Coming up Next... I could have KILT my husband for what he bought at the Scottish Highland Games last weekend!

What Else Could I Say...

...when they (the Icky-Wicky Party) asked if they could go play outside on this rainy June morning? We don't really have anything else to do today. And with gas being $4.29 a gallon (as of yesterday, today it could be still higher), we shouldn't be taking any frivolous trips anywhere as it is. And I spent plenty of time and money running errands yesterday (do I hear a $200 trip to WalMart anyone? Where an old lady asked me if all the kids were mine?- No, I picked them up at random from school bus stops on my way here, lady.) But still, the library isn't that far away, and I have books on hold, and my favorite librarians still haven't met Baby... looks like we are headed to the library and gas prices be damned!

Pity Party and Naked Mole Rat

I was abandoned this weekend! I was left all by myself...with the four youngest kids...and My Pathetic Doberman...and no debit card...and NO WAY TO ESCAPE (no van). Feel sorry for me!

Child #3 created a new game after watching hours and hours of Johnny Quest. They are super heroes. Child #3 is Jaguar Man (in a leopard costume). Child #4 is Bat Man (after much arguing over whether or not he could choose his own character. Child #3 wanted him to be Bat Boy). Bat Man's costume is the fruit bat costume from Halloween. Child #5 is Naked Mole Rat Girl. And this is her costume. Her character was created by her older brother who doesn't see anything strange about pretending you are a Naked Mole Rat. Yesterday they feasted on Jaguar Snacks (lunch meat), Bat Snacks (crackers), and Naked Mole Rat Snacks (a carrot). Their secret hideout is in their bedroom and is called CRR. Don't tell anyone that I know where they are! Like the noise wasn't the first clue...

At least they are using their imaginations. I was starting to worry.


A smile is worth a million bucks. Baby is starting to interact with me. She was making some squeaking demanding noises that usually come before a loud crying spell. I copied her sounds back to her. She stopped, looked at me, and repeated her squeak, which I again repeated back. She forgot about crying and smiled real big at me. She is no longer a newborn and is just beginning the cute baby phase! Now if only she would stay asleep for longer than two minutes so I can get some work done!


I saw a great movie last night called August Rush. I recommend it to anyone who likes music! But if you have a super soft spot in your heart for kids (like I do...you don't have six kids by not liking them), you might find yourself considering adopting a bunch!