Jumping Spider

You'll enjoy my disgust at the end...

Mother's Day

I think I had the best mother's day I've had in a long, long time.  The fun started on Saturday morning when Mark pulled the seats out of the van and filled it with garbage.  He dropped Ian off at Boy Scouts, went to the dump, went to the hardware store to buy lumber, picked Ian up, and got to work...

MY NEW PORCH!!!!

But he didn't actually build anything until this morning.  Yesterday afternoon was filled with teaching taekwondo, getting a flat tire in the parking lot of the hardware store while picking up things he forgot on the first trip, picking up the boys from a party in Tacoma, making dinner, and putting two tired little ones to bed.

This morning he made coffee, waffles (leggo my eggo!), and bacon.  I was served first, as the mother, and he served the girls second because they are the future mothers.  Isn't he a sweetheart?

 I let Heidi suck on my bacon for a second.  It was so good, she immediately fell asleep...

 ...just kidding.  She actually bounced herself to sleep.  As soon as breakfast was over, Mark headed out to build the porch.  Mark was quite grand when he said that I shouldn't have to change any poopy diapers today.  So when Heidi blew out her disposable after her nap, I held her up to the window and beckoned to Mark that he needed to come in.  He was like, "ARE YOU KIDDING? I'm in the middle of hauling wheelbarrow loads of dirt around so I can build you a PORCH!"  I laughed because I was just kidding and went and changed the diaper myself.

Then Ian asked if I knew where the milk was.  "In the fridge?" I asked.  "I looked there."  Can you believe we were completely out of milk?  As soon as Lula went down for a nap, I took Fiona and Heidi to the grocery store to get milk and something cold for Mark to drink while he was building.  I also got bubble gum so I could teach Fiona how to blow bubbles.

Mark didn't hog the building all to himself.  Ian was interested in helping and pretty much did all the screws himself!

 While the men folk built, the kids played...

 ...and sat in the sun...and bounced in their favorite bouncy chair...

And then the porch that has been on Mark's To Do list was done!  Just in time for some afternoon relaxation!!!

And the very first thing everyone had to do was stand on it.  And jump. And spill peanut butter and jelly crumbs on it. 

And drive Mark absolutely crazy.  Because he is the kind of guy that leaves the plastic protective coating on the couches or electronics until it falls off on its own.  Just wait until we start doing homeschool art projects out there...

"All I want to do is relax!!!"

"Quit playing with the door!"

Then Fiona threw a ball for Mina and it landed in the unplanted, freshly tilled, completely fenced garden.  But where there's a fence, Jack has a will.  That dog can burrow under the chicken yard fence under a three inch gap just to get food scraps.

It took him awhile to figure out how to get back out again.

Dinner was Thai curry with prawns that I made myself.  It was so yummy.  Eat while it's so hot it will burn your mouth yummy.

Sweetness

Now, I saved the best for last.  Shane made me the best Mother's Day card.  I laughed so hard I had tears rolling down my face and my stomach hurt.  Any time I even thought the phrase, "Stay safe (many others don't)" I would start giggling and crying again.

The card shows a man close to a rattlesnake, a person surfing with a shark fin behind him, a person being chased by a bear, deep sea monsters, a person riding in a train car approaching a broken track, a storm chaser, and a mother holding a crying baby.  Obviously, motherhood happens to those who are not "staying safe" and is just as dangerous as all those other careless activities.  I seriously LOVE this kid.  There is no better gift than laughter.  And starting my day with that card was the way I was able to change the diapers and go to the store and make everyone cold drinks and cook my own dinner when Mark was too exhausted from building to cook for me.

Crossover (Shane)

Last night, Shane crossed over into Boy Scouts and received his Arrow of Light award.  Arrow of Light is the highest award a boy can earn while a Cub Scout.

Before the Ceremony

Shane was also a Webelos Super Achiever because he earned all 20 of the activity badges.  But you can't see them...they are little pins on his shoulder.  All those other giant patches all over his red vest are for participating in other activities like the Pinewood Derby and selling popcorn.  I ran out of places to put these patches and had to dangle them from safety pins in between other patches.  The most meaningful patches for me were his patch from his first summer camp, the baseball game, and the medals he earned by placing in Pinewood Derbies (1st and 3rd) and Raingutter Regattas (1st, 2nd, and 3rd).

Mark's assistant leader bringing the boys in.

Mark's favorite memories are also placing in the races, catching fish, and of course, the polar bear swims.  Shane's favorite memories are the same as Mark's, plus tubing at Camp Sheppard, ("Oh yeah, that was great!" says Mark).  Another classic story would be Mark's first camping trip as a leader when he came home with ticks.

We were fortunate that the new covered picnic shelter at the Civic Center was completed in time for Crossover!  The rain poured down all day and didn't stop!

Mark did a wonderful job leading the ceremony...too bad I missed it.  Heidi didn't like the cold, the rain, the crowd, or the drums.  Another leader offered to hold her so I could present Shane with his award.  She did not like that and kept checking to make sure I was holding her for the rest of the evening.  I shouldn't have even bothered going, but I love Shane and I'm so proud of him.

Arrow of Light: The stripes on the arrow represent Shane's awards and past participation

I'm proud of Mark too.  He had the most difficult den I have ever heard of.  The thing about being a den leader that no one really understands, is being a den leader is like another full time job.  Once a week for five years, Mark (or I back in the Tiger/Wolf years) had to come up with a meeting plan that would keep these boys active and interested in scouts for an hour and a half AND get them through their rank requirements.  The work is not without its rewards.  As Mark painted each boy's face, he felt like he knew each boy personally, which he did.  He was just as proud as each boy as he was of Shane.

It rained, it poured.

After the boys received their Arrow of Light, they crossed the rope bridge constructed by the boy scouts.

Waiting his turn

After the crossing, the Boy Scouts surrounded their new member and dress him with his new scarf, slide, and epaulets. 

This mom is happy that her First Class Scout was involved with his brother's crossing.

As this point, the rain was absolutely dumping on us, but it didn't "dampen" anyone's spirits (thanks for the pun, Mark).  Mark was fondly remembering all the rainy day camping trips and thought it was appropriate to be huddling under a pop up shelter.  I was remembering how it poured down when we entered scouts and how it was pouring as we left... and how it just seemed to pour the whole time we were involved with this pack.

Mark's den (raindrops keep fallin' on my lens...)

The pack that we knew is now the troop we still know, so crossing over isn't going to be a new start, just a new meeting day where the boys will have to learn to manage themselves. Both Shane and Ian have learned so many life lessons from scouting, as I've said before.  After five solid years of scouting with the same group of people, one would think that our family would have become close with at least one other family, but I'm starting to think that isn't going to happen.  One of the most important lessons we are learning together is friends come and go, but family is family forever.

That's How We Roll

Today's title is courtesy Ian.  I was sorta complaining about the fact that I cook up a good breakfast (egg and sausage burritos), just to have everyone hungry again and needing to stop doing schoolwork to eat two hours later.  "That's how we roll, Mom!"  Indeed it is. The hard part is regaining that energy we had before the snack break.

Daniel colored a picture of "Nick-a-pic-our-us" disguised as Spiderman

How about a homeschool update? I haven't posted too much about how we are doing school lately, unless it is a fun activity like painting or bubble blowing... Remember how I dropped out of our public school program last summer?  And I had a great plan for Ian and the other kids?  Well, just after things started to settle down after Christmas, I realized that we had completely lost all motivation.  I was stuck in this terrible rut of having a crying baby and a homeschool method that required planning in advance.  I had no planning time, only crying time.  I needed some go-to-the-table-and-work-on-your-workbook materials.  Luckily for me, my same coordinator had an opening and still had my lesson plans I submitted last spring.  It was so easy to just slip right back into the program.  The kids are motivated to get their work done because they don't want to get an unsatisfactory review from the school.

In addition to going back to our old method of schooling (reading history out loud together, language arts workbooks and math independently, recess), I've added a new component: notebooking!  I really hate language arts workbooks and so do my kids.  It is such a fragmented way of learning, especially writing.  The workbook will teach, "This is an example of expository writing: a biography." Blank stares. "List people you could write a biography about." Groans "Rearrange these sentences in chronological order." Are we done yet?  With notebooking, I just printed off some blank biography note book pages from notebookingpages.com, read a chapter in Story of the World (today was Copernicus and Galileo), and got the kids writing...

Each kid writes at their own level.  Fiona wrote names, making sure to use capital letters, and one sentence that she dictated to me and then copied in her best handwriting.  Evie practiced writing dates correctly and capitalizing country names, and learned how to put information in books in her own words.  Shane wrote a list of interesting facts and then wrote a five sentence paragraph...a biography...about Copernicus.  Don't they all look so peaceful and studious? 

The truth behind the pictures is...it is so insanely loud around the table.  You don't see Lula and Daniel, but they are there.  Daniel almost always has some LOUD commentary or demand that I'm not listening to because I'm busy answering the LOUD questions from the other kids while Lula LOUDLY needs her shoes on or wants to color on someone's paper or wants the pencil someone else is writing with or wants to sit on my lap (Heidi is taking regular naps during our school morning now-yes, yes, yes!).  "Do I HAVE to keep writing?" "How many sentence do I have to write?" "How do you spell..." "What? I can't hear you! So-and-so is being too LOUD!" Then Mark comes out for his breakfast and praises us all for our awesome one room schoolhouse method and all of a sudden, everyone was hungry and needed apples and and all that awesome momentum gets lost... and so do the kids when they run off to play...So I just get on my computer and start blogging...

It's all fun and games...

I went through my pictures for the last five days and they were all just a random bunch of snap shots... But every snap shot tells a quick funny story...

Like Daniel getting buried in the sandbox.  Normally this is fun.  But when all the carpenter ants in Washington State are swarming and mating and they really like our sandbox, burying your sibling might seem like a form of torture. 

Ian and I found Ninja Penguin defeated by a foe.  Again, it was Fiona.  Did she have an explanation? She said something about him attacking the dinosaurs they were playing with or something.

Awww...my little thumb sucker!  I love the age she is in right now.  She knows me and lights up and laughs when she sees me coming to rescue her from her bouncy seat.  Mark tried giving her a bottle this evening so I could get dinner heated up.  But she wouldn't accept him feeding her! Only her mama and siblings can hold her bottle!

This is a snap shot of a wedding that Evie and I watched live online.  The bride is the oldest daughter of one of my favorite bloggers and a family we scouted with before we moved.  For some reason, this wedding had a huge effect on me.  I had to spend a few days thinking about why.  And I think I figured it out... I'm a reader and have always loved reading.  The worst part about a good fiction tale is that the story ends and you always want to know what happens next.  You feel like you get to know the characters in the book (I swear, Ramona Quimby, Laura Ingalls, Jo March, and Anne Shirley were my best friends growing up) and you cry when they cry and laugh when they laugh.  Reading someone's blog is like reading a book that never ends.  You experience the ups and downs of their lives right along with them (you know, as long as the ups and downs are blogged)!  That beautiful bride gave us Ling-Ling five years ago when she was twelve! And now she is married and moving to the other side of the world! Evie was so enchanted by the whole story of the bride and groom and every word the pastor said about marriage.  I thought about my own marriage and was inspired by the pastor's message.  The wedding was such a special moment my little girl and I shared, thanks to the family that opened their lives for others to peek in to...

I call this picture Bigfoot Sighting.  Ian earned his First Class rank in Boy Scouts this week AND his feet are bigger than mine!  Mark and I left Shane in charge of Fiona and Daniel and enjoyed a potluck dinner with only two little kids in tow (Evie was in dance class) for Ian's Court of Honor. It was almost like being on a date...with two babies....and a room full of scouts...  and then Lula decided she was no longer a good little girl and I spent the evening with her in the car.  I would have just left and come home, but I left the keys at the table.  We are so proud of the work that Ian is putting into scouts.  He seems to have figured out how the whole system works and is showing a lot of growth in his time management and goal setting.

Daniel has been pretending the wood stake and flower pot are a teeter-totter.  He was not happy with the way the stake kept sliding off the pot, so his little scientific mind went to work...

 ...he needed some way to stick that stake to the pot and the stickiest thing he could think of was glue.

I loved, loved, LOVED watching his mind go through the scientific method all on his own and coming to his own conclusions.  I couldn't have planned a better problem solving activity for him.  Of course the glue didn't stick and he wandered off to do something else before the glue dried, but watching him identify a problem and come up with a solution just made my day.

Now if only he could come up with a solution to the hole in our bathtub!  Can you believe that Lula did that with her CHIN?  The same chin that split open? The doctor must have added some reinforcement or something, because she hit that tub HARD!  I was washing her hair and she tried to escape, but she slipped.  I pulled her right out expecting to see blood pouring down her chin, or at least out of her mouth, but there was nothing...just a teeny tiny scratch on her scar.  Mark was MAD. He said to Lula, "You are the most expensive kid yet!" Yep, highest charge for her birth, had to buy a new van, the bill for the stitches, and now replacing the bathtub! (We are actually going to patch the hole, but when Mark called her the expensive kid he didn't know the hole was fixable)  She is also the first kid to wander down to the pond by herself, so I'm going to install some field fencing around the sandbox/play area and lock her up!  There isn't enough money in the world to replace my Lula Joy!

Tomorrow is going to be a big day for us.  Shane is crossing over from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts.  We are packing up the entire family for this.  And the weather forecast is for rain! 

I've been trying to locate all the patches Shane has earned this year and get them sewed on for his last day as a Cub Scout.  I'm out of room though...

Blank Slate

I wish I could crawl inside Daniel's head and erase everything naughty and negative and start over with a blank slate.  And since slates have gone the way of the buggy whip, I wish I could just erase the white board in his head!

Daniel has been screen-free for five days now.  His badgering for screen time has decreased and his attitude over all has been much better.  His naughtiness peaked on Tuesday while shopping; he said he was going to shoot an arrow through my head if I didn't let him play video games when we got home!  Daniel is so bright that I know that every image from Zelda and every bit of dialogue from Sponge Bob is etched permanently in his brain.  I'm making a huge effort diminish its effects on his personality now that the insanity of Heidi seems to be over.  But how do I plant the ideas of a good character in his head without him wanting to do the exact opposite?

I'm hoping through casual story-time.  I've pulled out our copy of The Children's Book of Virtues and when the timing seems right and Daniel is receptive (a few planets need to align for this), I quickly read a story.  Yesterday, when Daniel came in with a cut finger and claimed an ant bit him, I read the story of George Washington and the cherry tree (minus the spanking part).  After the story I asked him again about his finger.  He again insisted it was an ant and not the broken glass I knew it really was.  We still have some work to do...

This morning we read the story of Saint George and the Dragon.  He really loved that story!  I could totally see the valiant knight in him puffing up in indignation over the fair maiden going out to meet the dragon.  He got pretty excited when Saint George pulled out his sword and ran it down the dragon's throat, just as the dragon was going to swallow Saint George and his horse.  He did ask to watch a dragon movie afterward, but he didn't throw a fit when I said no.  Instead he came up to the school room and drew and labeled some pictures (I helped with spelling).  A spider, an ant, and an ant stuck in a spider web.  A psychologist wouldn't worry about retirement with this kid!

Heaven is for Real