Sunday

Sunday I took my first trip to the mountains since IJ was a tiny baby! We hiked the same hike that M, L, A, and I took when M and I first started dating, Artist Point at Mount Baker.

Here is a description of the trail I copied from seattlepi.com: "After a mellow start, the trail becomes a just-wide-enough path that switchbacks steeply through basalt cliffs held together with scraps of vegetation and mountain hemlocks. When snow-free, the trail is not dangerous for adults but is not recommended for small children. If you are prone to vertigo, you might consider another hike. It is not a place to stumble, though there are wide places to step aside so others can pass. It is a steep 1/4 mile or so to the first high point"

Not for small children??? I'm glad I didn't read that before I went and dragged my small children up scary switchbacks. And yes, they were the youngest people on the mountain that day.

S said, "Why is there no video games up on this stupid mountain? I want to go home!"

S and IJ with Mount Baker in the background while on the trail up Table Mountain.




IJ says, "Do I look like a caveman making tools, only without the Sponge Bob shirt?" He had a blast. After going to work with his Dad on Friday and then a major hike on Sunday and Cub Scouts today, this kids has his happy pitcher filled!

The weather was magnificent with a blue blue sky, warm sun, and a light breeze.

We had a quick picnic on the peak (actually F had a picnic, the rest of us just drank water), watch the kids build cairns, and then headed back down the mountain. And everyone knows that going down the mountain is more dangerous than going up.





On the way down, M carried F in our backpack and held tightly to IJ and S. My hiking buddy was E. Going down scared me more than going up, probably because I was looking at how far we could fall instead of how much higher until we were there. Watching F bounce around in the backpack as M took big steps down... ack! I had nightmares all night that one of my kids fell off the mountain. But if there is anyone I trust with my babies on a mountain, it is their father. He has climbed every mountain in this state, some more than once.

Here is brave Daddy, with our mountain we climbed in the background and F on his back.






E did the whole hike without being carried. Not that anyone would have carried her. The kids had more fun in the parking lot than they did on the trail. This is E climbing up the mini mountain next to the snow field they played in when we got back to the van.





All the pictures so far make it look like we were alone in the wilderness, just as we like it. But this is what it actually looked like:When M worked up at Paradise on Mount Rainer, he and his co-workers coined the term Tourons. A touron is a tourist moron. And we saw plenty of those!

Friday and Saturday

M and IJ at Ilabot Creek on Friday
F gets her first solid food on Saturday!

Fruit Fly Problem SOLVED!

More Greening Info: I didn't want to use poison to kill all the fruit flies that invaded my house (thanks to my fruit bats). Integrated Pest Management didn't work. Apple Cider Vinegar traps didn't work. VACUUMING the flies out of the air works! Fast! Hooray! The life cycle of a fruit fly is ten days. If we can keep water spills and fruit under control for the next ten days, we will be free and clear until next September:)

We (S, E, F, and I) are off to the pool today! M and IJ went to the mountains for some father-son time.

Ahhhh Autumn

Finally! Autumn! My second favorite time of year, after Spring. Funny, the weather is the same for both Spring and Autumn: grey, damp, and cold. But the way I spend my day is so different! In Spring I shed my woolly socks and sweaters and head outside to shiver on the porch in shorts with a blanket to keep off the chill. In Autumn, I put my woollies on and shiver under my blanket in my chair while sipping hot tea. The kids and I will be watching this Flaming Maple in our yard change this season.

F reviews Charlotte's Web: "It's a good book, I couldn't put it down. I devoured it in one sitting."Our first rainy afternoon, with our school work done. With all the kids I have, yes, we have more fighting, but we also have a whole lot more loving! There is always someone to gang up on or fight back with. Even My Pathetic Doberman gets in on the action. She wants to play with the kids so bad when they start wrestling, but she knows that I will yell at her, so she chews on her toys and sticks her face in the middle of the fighting. Today she got to be the ghost in the haunted house.

Morning Musings

I was just sent a link to an awesome blog site by one of my greatest friends in motherhood. This blog is so well written that I felt my creative mind shut down this morning! The writer is a homeschooling mom of six whose husband farms their land. This is an excerpt from her blog, which was from a letter she received from a reader:

"I think telling the truth is a means of grace to others.

I think sharing our weaknesses shows that God's grace is sufficient, that His
power is made perfect in weakness.

It is the opposite of "mommy porn," which tells us the lie that you CAN do it all, you can be self-sufficient and do everything perfectly. That lie can become an idol.

The truth - the broken moments mixed with joyful moments mixed with the details of our everyday lives - gives glory to our Creator and Sustainer. "
So here is some bare naked truth: My name means "full of grace." Sometimes I feel like this blog is another way for me to keep up with the Jones, like I can only report the good or the funny or the positive stories of my life. And other times I want to be real. I feel fine admitting that I found a flea on my child or that sometimes my kids say naughty words (I edited that post a day after I posted it, so if you were quick, you got the full story. If you missed it, I will never tell what happened again!). Sometimes people ask me how I "do it all." And I always say, "I don't." That is why I copied the above text for today's post. If being imperfect brings glory to God, sing Hallelujah!

On Greening my Cleaning: I found that vinegar does indeed do a wonderful job cleaning glass. The smell does not stick around for very long either, which is something I wanted to avoid. I don't like the smell of vinegar! In fact, IJ said, "Wow, Mom! This door is so clean I can't even see it!" referring to our sliding glass door that was covered in dog nose and hand prints. What I didn't know (and readers write this down) if you are experiencing fruit flies, vinegar is NOT a good cleaner to use. I cleaned the bathroom mirror and returned to find fruit flies crawling all over the mirror! Duh! Fruit flies are attracted to decomposing fruit...which is how some vinegar is made! I should have known! I mean, I have an apple cider vinegar trap in the kitchen! Back to the blue stuff for now... Greening will have to wait. This is a difficult time of year for our family because M is in the field all day every day and we never see him. When we do see him, he is very tired. When he is recovered, he needs to go down to Twin Firs to take care of our dying fruit orchard. So a lot of his household chores fall on me. For example, today I made sure all the garbage was on the curb for garbage day. I had to replace the back seat in my van all by myself, which I messed up on and now the seat is stuck. S knocked a plant over watching me, and learned the joy of vacuuming. With everything I have to do, when will I have time to homeschool?

Only four weeks into our "school year" and we are already changing into a life-learning mode. We did three solid weeks of scheduled curriculum, but now we are taking a break to evaluate what is working, what isn't, and how we can change it. IJ is a great reader and is reading voraciously on his own. He has read his entire Beginner's Bible and has moved up to the Picture Bible (a comic book version). He has read every easy reader in the house. But he hates the Language Arts that goes along with his reading level. And honestly, it is too hard for a kid his age. Writing compound sentences and identifying conjunctions at six years old? I don't think so! So we are going back down to the previous year's curriculum and doing all the story writing we skipped last year. My goal is to have him love learning, not dread it. And S doesn't read yet, but he loves doing the workbooks for his language arts. And for a kid who acts like he doesn't listen, he sure gets a lot from our book themes. Last week's pirate theme inspired him to tell his grandad that when he grew up he "wanted to be a pirate so he could steal people's money!"

New Names, Old Faces, & the Time Machine

DH suggested that I stop using numbers to name our children on this blog, so now they will be referred to by their first initial. So, welcome M, L, A, IJ, S, E, F and I (myself) of course!

IJ is enjoying his new interest, photography. I have 35 versions of this picture:






Which is perfectly okay, because I remember another little kid in our family who was also interested in photographing her baby sibling.





IJ as photographed by A, many years ago. Notice both pictures have the baby in our much loved and used "Time Machine." Everyone else calls it a Mega Saucer. We call it a Time Machine after the movie that came out when IJ was a baby. The time machine in the movie had a central seat and the operator had all sorts of levers and knobs he could manipulate to determine when and where his destination would be. Much like the Mega Saucer.


Now to go back in time...

IJ in October 2002













S in February of 2004


















E in April of 2006


















And F in September of 2008


:wiping tears: My babies are growing up so fast!

Inventions and Water Vapor

Yesterday afternoon I played Super Mom, flying all over the city taking kids to activities, and my side kick Child #2 stayed home and watched the rest of the kids in rotation and put dinner in the oven for me. While I was flying in my magic minivan, Child #3 invented his microscope and built it out of Legos, rubber bands, and a magnifying glass. Child #2 taught him the parts of a flower and their function, at an AP Biology level. I love homeschool! We have also studied the water cycle this week, so Child #4 woke me early saying, "Mom! Mom! There's water in the air! Mom! There's water vapor in the air! Its foggy!" The sunrises have been incredible the last few mornings and thankfully, not as early as they have been.

Arg! There be Fire!

This week we added to our homeschool workload with special study subjects for Child #3 and #4. Child #3 is doing an extra project on snow leopards for a Cub Scout elective. Child #4 is doing a pirate study! Here are my scrogs: Bloody Sam Flint, Captain Calico Rackham, and his First Mate, Dread Pirate Vane.We read Tough Boris, Do Pirates Take Baths?, and built the treasure chest Child #4, I mean Captain Calico Rackham, is holding. He carried a penny around in that treasure chest all day. Even when we went on a tour of a local fire station with the Cub Scout troop. He actually wore his entire costume on the field trip. That is one thing I love about our troop. No one bats an eye at a young kid wearing a costume and dominating question time when they aren't even a Cub Scout yet. One older boy gave him a piece of eight (or a Canadian quarter) and made his day.

The tour of the fire station inspired my kids to play firefighter tonight. So if you hear calls of "Fire!" coming out of my playroom, don't be alarmed. It is just imaginations at work! Child #3 picks up his phone, which is a Lego, and says, "Hello? Oh, hi Pete. Your house is on fire? Again? You dropped a match? Not again! Well, I guess I better hurry up and get over there so I can put out your fire. Okay, see you later. Maybe in 3 or 4 or 5 or 10 minutes. I have some things to do. I need to find a hose. Okay, bye!"

One last funny for the day: Child #5 says, "Mama, I got a bonky on my fivehead!" I guess she is better than the rest of us regular people who have foreheads!

Sunday School

Five is a magic number! Now that Child #4 has reached this important milestone, he is writing his letters and numbers facing correctly, listening better, and has more chores. This morning we informed him his training wheels would be removed from his bike.

Today we skipped church and headed out to the public school that my boys would attend if they were not homeschooled. We decided that with the rainy season approaching and DH's busy time of year here, we should take full advantage of fine weather and spend every moment we can together and outside.

Some of the school buildings are currently surrounded by a chainlink fence with signs that say "No Tresspassing" and "Danger" because the building was condemmed last year! Not exactly a place where you would want to send your child to be educated five days a week. This year our school district has started five full days per week for Kindergarten. That's too much for those poor kids!

So the boys rode their training wheel-free bikes while their little sister ran after them. She really ran. Like a quarter-mile track without stopping! The kids also played on the playground equipment and played animal games under the trees. The only bike accidents we had were Child #3 crashing into his little sister. Child #4 took to bike riding without training wheels like a fish takes to water. Of course I should have expected him to ride so well.

Rockin' and Trappin'

Today we went to our favorite beach to collect rocks for Child #3's rock tumbler. Nothing extremely exciting happened. We found a few dead jellyfish along with our rocks. If you look closely on Child #5's left side (your right) you will see one of our other treasures. I believe if you click on the picture, you will be able to see a larger version.

And no, Child #4 is not really holding the baby. DH is behind the kids holding her in place.

We found a lot of very pretty rocks and Child #3 insisted on bringing them all home. He was the one carrying the backpack, so we let him take all he wanted. By the time we got back to the van, the backpack was quite heavy.

DH leading the group with Baby on his back.

So that takes care of the Rockin' part of our day. Now we will talk about the Trappin'. On the way home from the beach we stopped and bought the two newest members of our family. The green part of our family. Their names are Snappy and Crunch. They are Venus Fly Traps! We are hoping Snappy and Crunch will live happily on the flies the kids keep letting in the house.

Bathtime Again?

Giving Baby a bath is not one of my favorite things to do. There is a lot of squirming and struggling with my wiggly baby and it makes such a mess! So this time we made it fun...

First, adorn Baby with Big Sister's goggles. Just in case we get soap in her eyes. Then we picked a fun location where clean up would be no big deal. The back porch on a sunny day is a great place. The grape vine background gave the location a bit of a Greek Goddess touch...

Dolmas anyone? (Check out those fat rolls!)

And how about a grape leaf for modesty?

Worst Costco Trip Ever!

Everyone remembers my last trip to Costco, the one where I lost Evie? Well, today's trip was worse. Let me walk you through our trip: As usual, our group consisted of myself and the four little ones, with Fiona in the car seat carrier. We calmly walked to the front of the store, me holding Evie by the hand just in case. At the entrance, I chose to push a big flat cart instead of the regular cart because I needed both dog food and a case of soy milk and the baby could ride too. Of course all the kids climbed on and we collected many stares and smiles as we traversed the store. Did I crush a child's limb with the cart? No, read on. I was stopped many times by senior citizens who wanted to admire the size of my family, the cuteness of the baby, the amount of food on my flat cart, and how incredibly well behaved my kids are. Did anyone get lost or burst out with Sponge Bob imitations? Oh, no. Those would be much preferred to what happened. We went up and down the aisles, sampling food for lunch as is our custom. Did a child choke or have an accident or throw up on the floor? Did I have to stop and breastfeed a screaming baby while sitting on the floor with a cart full of salmon while onlookers gave me sympathetic looks (been there, done that)? Nope, keep going. When it was time for us to check out, my three walking children happily unloaded the cart onto the conveyor belt, all without me asking them to. We were having the trip of a lifetime. The man behind us in line commented on the cuteness of my family and joked, "What aisle can I find the babies on?" since Fiona was still on the flat cart with the food. He was obviously a business man, with a cart full of office supplies and a Bluetooth in his ear. The checker chatted about the size of my family (really people, four kids is not a lot!) while Ian helped reload the cart and melted the heart of the gal he was helping. After a trip like this I had to buy hot dogs for these incredible kids. The businessman was right behind us in the line for hot dogs. Because Ian recognized him from our previous conversation, he struck up a new conversation about his stuffed snow leopard that he is now carrying everywhere he goes. Is this the big problem, my six year old boy hauling a girl stuffed leopard around in public with the name of Buttercup? Oh heavens no, I am way to cool to let that bother me. We glanced down at Evie, who was absolutely adorably stunning this morning in her new blue sweat suit and blond blond pigtails. Very blond pigtails. We could see a little black spot on her scalp, right off the part in her hair. I reached down to wipe it off...and here it is...the worst trip to Costco ever... The black spot moved. It RAN! I tried to get it off her head, but it was stuck under the pigtail... It....was....a....FLEA!!!! I finally got it off, praying the business man did not see me knocking a flea off my child's head. Until she turned around and squeaked loudly, "Mama! Umfing ran down my BACK!" We looked so good today! We had the best behavior! I was the perfect example of a homeschooling mom with many children! Except My Pathetic Doberman picked up fleas on our last trip to Twin Firs and now my perfect image was shattered. We immediately turned into backwoods, uneducated, unkept, overbreeding hicks. I should have just turned right around and put my collection of healthy organic foods back on the shelf and traded them in for processed mac and cheese , Doritos, and Coke. Sigh...

Cents-scents-sense?

"Mom, give me a penny. I need to make (fill in homonym)." ~Child #4

Not Much to Say...

...So how about some cute pictures instead? Above, I was trying to capture the similar mouth shape these two have. They also have the inability to be still in common.

Captain Sassy-Pants, ready to go to the pool. Oh, I guess I do have something to report after all. I actually, for the very first time, took the kids to the pool all by myself. And no one drowned. Child #5 was scared and clingy for awhile, but by the time we left she was "simming" all by herself with a float. We've decided to scrap both swim lessons and buying a bigger pool. For the low, low price of $11 per two-hour session, I can take the kids swimming and teach them myself. That is an incredible savings of ... well, at $8 per 30 minute lesson, two hours of pool/lesson time for three kids would cost $96. Not to mention the benefit of the one-on-one time with me, their teacher, instead of sitting on the side of the pool waiting their turn. And no time wasters like bobbing for toys.

Here are my "men" with their mustaches (made of yellow squash, dark leafys, blackberries, apples, and bananas). Nothing is cuter than a two year old girl squeaking, "Yook! I'm a MAN!" And how do you like those new shirts, handed down from their cousin? The green pig shirt was headed back out the door because I couldn't imagine my boys wanting to wear a neon green shirt with a big pink pig on it. But leave it to Child #4 to ask what the words on the back said, "I'm BIG on the PIG." For some reason that really tickled his funny bone and this is now his favorite shirt. And whenever he wears it, they run around saying, "I'm BIG on the PIG (giggle, giggle, giggle)! I'm BIG on the PIG (giggle, giggle, giggle)! BIG and PIG rhyme, Mama!"

Veggie Tales

Yesterday I took the little kids to the Farmer's Market to stock up on veggies for the Vita-Mix. The kids wanted me to buy them beets. Beets? I've never eaten beets! I don't even know how to prepare beets! But the kind vegetable man told me how. And we had beets for dinner. Or as I call them, Schrute Snacks. Child #2 refused to try them, but the rest of us loved them and ate every single little piece. We also ate fresh pesto (made in the Vita-mix) on noodles, which the kids asked for seconds on, sliced yellow squash and cucumber, and a salad of dark leafy greens that were so exotic I don't even remember their names. This morning we had a smoothie made of dark leafy greens, frozen blueberries and melon, an apple, and orange juice. I feel like I am so full of fiber I may turn into a vegetable. The kids (specifically Child #3) learned about antioxidants and why they are so healthy. Now I just have to wait for the vitamins to sink into their brains (or brane as Child #3 spells it). The advice stating that kids will eat their veggies if they have some participation in the growing or buying of the veggies is so true!

I also got the boys signed up for a gymnastics class for homeschooled boys, thanks to a generous gift from the grandparents for Child #4's birthday. Because we missed one day of class, the second sibling gets a discount, and we paid our annual fee last year, I was able to get Child #3 in the class too. We have a very full schedule now and it will be a miracle if I ever get the laundry folded and put away.

Kindergarten

I remember the first day of school last year when Child #3 was supposed to start kindergarten. This year would have been Child #4's first day on the bus. I cheered as the bus went by this morning as I am very grateful we are able to homeschool. Instead of getting in trouble all day long with a new teacher in a school that has been condemned, my little savant is getting in trouble here at home. Somehow he disassembled the globe and hid it in his room. He talked loudly through his brother's spelling test. He didn't raise his hand when he wanted to speak. But he did really well on his first grade math sheet, and followed directions better than his older brother!







Spelling test! He has to write each word he missed five times and today he missed four words. Spelling and handwriting are his worst subjects. Writing 20 extra words was just too much for this guy.

Blender Love

Child #5 with our first Golden Delicious Apple harvest at Twin Firs.

I was in love with my freezer...until I got a dehydrator. I was in love with my dehydrator...until I got my Vita-Mix 5200. I used it three times today. This morning, before any kid was allowed cereal, they had to drink their smoothie. It was made of two brown bananas, a frozen mango, a handful of coleslaw mix, an eighth of a green pepper, and of course, zucchini. And soy milk, so I could drink it too. It was a funny color, but I kept the lights low and used bright plastic cups so they couldn't tell. I think I went a bit heavy on the green pepper, but it was still tasty! Anytime I hand out a green tinged smoothie, Child #4 asks, "Does this have wheat grass in it?"

I promised the kids if they did all their scheduled school work, their chores, did well in Taekwondo, and didn't complain about what I served for dinner, I would make them ice cream. I'm such a tricky mom. Chocolate ice cream was just the chocolate milk left over from Grandad spoiling his grandkids over the weekend, frozen in ice cube trays and pureed. Strawberry Mango ice cream was just that. Frozen strawberries and mango with some sugar, vanilla, and soy milk. Child #3 and I ate so much we both got frozen tummy aches. I will never buy commercial ice cream as long as I have frozen fruit to make my own. Maybe I'll toss in some cabbage next time...

School today was incredibly boring. When the boys were complaining about our math lesson, which was indeed boring, I said, "You can still go to public school tomorrow! It's not too late! I can put you on the school bus tomorrow morning and you can find out what boring really is!" We were done by 10:30 this morning. Two kids, two language arts, two social studies, science, and math. I even had "quiet time" after lunch with the kids separated in different rooms while I napped with the baby. Unbelievable. We will see how long I can keep that up...maybe as long as I can keep sneaking cabbage into their smoothies!

Weekend Highlights

We headed out to Twin Firs to celebrate our three end-of-summer birthdays this weekend. AC#1 is 20 years old, Child #2 is 18 years old, and Child #4 is 5 years old. I'm not sure if I'm ready to call Child #2 an Adult Child yet. Maybe when she gets a job, a driver's license, and a high school diploma. Anyway, here are a few of our favorite weekend highlights...

While visiting my parents, Child #3 got stung by a yellow jacket. He exclaimed (while looking down at his leg), "Look! A bee is stinging me! And I'm not even crying!" Meanwhile, the yellow jacket is pumping its venom into my child's leg and he isn't even trying to get the insect off. DH ended up slapping the wasp for him. I guess a bee sting is nothing compared to stepping on a rake!

The next day, DH and I took a trip into town to purchase some materials for re-roofing the shed. We drove through a rain storm that stopped traffic. Visibility was nil. We literally had to stop the van because we couldn't see where we were going and the windshield wipers couldn't keep up. After we passed the squall and headed up the hill, we passed a rich-looking man in a super fancy convertible with the top down. He was looking up at the clouds with a worried look on his face. He had no idea what he was going to experience. And we had a good laugh at his expense. What kind of a moron drives a convertible in this climate?

When we got home, Child #5 immediately climbed onto the tire swing and squeaked, "Sing me mama! Really high!" As I passed her on the way to the house, I pulled the tire swing as far as I could reach and let go. She squealed with happiness and I turned to watch her return swing.... except we left the van in the path of the swing. And I watched her crash straight into the passenger side door of the van. Luckily, there was no damage.

Well, I will have to finish this later. The baby is awake and I need to start readying my school room and preparing my kids for their...

FIRST OFFICIAL DAY OF SCHOOL!