A few nights ago, Piper was relaxing in bed, doing what all good 15 year old girls do...checking out all the latest knives in the BudK magazine. Liesl was snuggled up next to her, quietly watching until one particularly ferocious-looking knife stood out to her.
"I want that one," she insisted to Piper.
"Oh, yah?" Piper curiously replied.
"I need it to cut brownies." Innocent enough?
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I am in Texas now, visiting my darling daughter and her husband, Ben. I am also getting to bond with their black lab/retriever puppy Zoe, who I am highly allergic to, but we're trying to figure out how to manage that with allergy meds :D. Tova recently finished getting her Bachelor's degree in Psychology and is currently on the lookout for Master's Programs so that she can get into "play therapy." Who knew that was a thing! Just imagine how much more fun it would be for moms and dads all over the planet to realize that playing with their kids is actually theraputic!
I know that I have a hard time just getting down on my knees and playing with them. The other day, Elijah was fixated on having a nerf gun war in the house. It was a pretty bad emotional health week for me, so I just couldn't get myself to do it. He took matters into his own hands and soon we were playing a nerf gun war whether we liked it or not--weapon or not.
In the course of one hour, he managed to accidentally hit Xai in the face with nerf bullets. He lost the privilege to use Nerf guns, despite his protest that it was just an accident. "Well, if you're not able to control your shots enough to NOT hit someone in the face when you don't want to,--three times in one hour--you don't have enough control to be able to use them."
Everything lately has been a matter of debate and discussion with him, Maia and Liesl...I am sooooo debated out!
Shortly after the guns were removed, Elijah started sword fighting with Liesl. I am not sure if it was voluntary on her part, but what I do know is that it didn't last long. Elijah managed to poke her in the eyeball with a hard play sword. No lasting damage (a little red in the eye) but then that weapon was also confiscated.
Later that night, Quinn and the other older kids came home from a temple trip they had just taken to Kentucky for the day. They also stopped by the Louisville Slugger Museum, which apparently has some pretty cool free take-home toys. I walked into the living room after hearing that they were home only to see little 2 feet long wooden bats in the hands of all my little darlings. Elijah was armed and dangerous again!
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Back to Texas, we got here without too much difficulty. There was only one leg where we had to deplane and reboard an hour later on the way there due to faulty systems. Penelope was super fun and adorable to travel with. She loved running back and forth on chairs, smiling and waving at everyone, and snuggling for the airplane rides. During the leg where we had to board and then deplane and then reboard, there was a child (I'm guessing 3-ish?) who was mad. And the whole plane knew it. As I listened to the grumbling of fellow passengers, I looked at Quinn and smiled ruefully. We both knew what it felt like to have "that" child on the airplane.
Several people around us were super complementary of Penelope, who had really been calm and sweet (or sleeping) most of the rides. We assured them that this was not always the case with her (and our other children) and that we had also been in the shoes of that poor family with the screamer. While no one likes to hear it on a plane, I think it is infinitely worse to be the one with the child causing the ruckus. I guarantee that there is not a parent I can think of who is deliberately upsetting their child just to torture everyone else on the plane!
We have played games, eaten delicious food, chatted and laughed, went to a BOOKSTORE (yes, I got some books) and just enjoyed each other. Ben is coming home today from a trip, so soon he will be here too!
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Before we left, I tried to spend the day bonding a bit. The two little boys and two little girls went on a bike ride with me, while the older three girls went out for a $20 on the town shopping adventure in another part of Athens. The library has free bikes, so we checked those out for the boys to use and I tugged the girls in a bike trailer. They were super awesome at being responsible with sharing the road space with others, although it did get a little feisty any time one of them wanted to pass up the other one. Xai was able to stay in the lead for the most part and I let them have their good-natured competition. Xai doesn't beat Elijah in many physical contests (Elijah is so strong and coordinated!) so it was good for them both. Elijah took it good-naturedly and ended up hanging back with me. I really tried to keep up, but I did have to ask them to slow down a few times.
Meanwhile, the girls had some fun!
Then they shared that fun with the baby as they kept her busy while I checked out a couple of carts of bribery to keep the kids in a food/media coma while I'm gone.
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While I am gone, Hyrum will still take on some lifeguarding shifts, Piper and Havala will travel south to help one of the current "Helping Hands" projects--flood disaster relief in Kentucky. Babysitting is a crazy combo of Auntie Loni (our fabulous ward neighbor who is staying in my parents' house while on their mission in Nauvoo), the older kids and a fantastic homeschool friend--Miss Penny--for the last day.
Things got a little tricky because Hyrum accidentally totalled our car in a stop and go accident last Tuesday. Poor guy. First he finds out he doesn't get to play football this season and then totals the car. To rub salt in the wound, we made sure he got "dirty Nora" every hand of Hearts we played that night. He's having a rough time of it, but seems to be taking it in stride, amazing young man that he is.
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We had a few miracles, though, that show how near God is to us. We received a random reminder of a doctor's appointment three weeks away exactly 50 minutes before the appointment I had scheduled that day...and forgotten about. It was the perfect amount of time for Hyrum and I to get our things together and jet. I was so grateful! It is his physical for his mission so that he can finish submitting his papers. I am so happy for him and we were both SO grateful that we didn't miss this appointment!
Also, last night, when the kids checked on the animals, someone had left the guinea fowl gate askew and all 24+ birds were nowhere to be seen. They are not old enough to be out on their own yet, so this was not a good thing. We all prayed (several times) and this morning the kids found them near the coop and herded them in! Yay! Guineas are great for eating ticks, and BOY do we have ticks for them to eat!
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Piper is one of two girls on her cross-country team at Fed Hock. Hyrum was only able to recruit 5 boys (including himself ) to commit to the football program.
We explored options with nearby schools and were treated respectfully with one district and abominably with the other. The first helped us explore OSHAA rules to see if we could make it work, but it didn't look promising.
The second, even before really being fully aware of the details of the situation, proudly declared that he never allowed homeschoolers to change districts...nor did they ever have homeschoolers participate in high school sports until the state of Ohio made them. I was okay with the verdict--which was the same as the other district. What I was not okay with was the flagrant prejudice exhibited by someone in that kind of position of authority.
I took a little too much time to write him a few emails. But it felt right. Captain Moroni kind of "right."
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