Visiting Tova, Bribes and Hyrum's "horrible, no-good, very bad" week

 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!

This girl LOVES to dance!

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."

Mission Calls and Farm Animal Additions

 It's crazy to look at the picture at the top of the page and see how much everyone has changed. I guess this is fresh on my mind because Reka sent some old videos from Kel's phone and one had all the kids younger by about 2-3 years, so it's like everyone went back to the next younger person's age...and it was so sweet!  We also received a bunch of digitized videos in the mail and enjoyed watching some movies from when the oldest kids were younger. So fun!

We had some stomach flu last week.  Penelope got the worst and threw up for almost three days off and on....mainly at night.  She was definitely lethargic.

Bigger news, Lily and Drew have been called to serve in the Melbourne Australia and Montreal Quebec French speaking missions respectively!!  So happy for them.  Drew leaves end of June and Lily the end of July.  Pretty much opposite sides of the globe, I believe.  Drew is learning French like mad and Lily is focusing on finishing up her school classes.  Drew is going to sell his car and try and maybe get a job. 

Hyrum and Piper are doing seminary right now. I love having the sounds in the house!

Quinn is up early attacking his appraisals.  I am going to go down and paint after this, my "Family History" for the day.  Then we are going to prep for our cow that is coming tomorrow.  I am excited to give Havala a voice lesson today and play games with Eli and Xai. I might help Maia get her room and wall prepped too!  We are hopefully going to build a climbing wall this week as well.  So many good things!

Piper just got a new baby goat for free from a friend. In return she is going to help at their farm when they tag the herd and do a few other things.  She called it "Hobbes" after the philosopher.  We are going to take the other goats in later this week for processing.  We are also prepping for our 24 meat chickens and 12 egg-laying chicks that are coming in two weeks.  And getting the garden going and the basement finished up.  And the wood shed.  So much to do and so much fun, eh?

I loved snuggling Elijah to sleep last night during scripture reading.

Lily is up and prepping for the day with the three littlest.  Super happy about that! 

Oh, I need to remember to get her money and also pick up $900 for the cow and delivery fee for tomorrow.  So much fun!!

Busy, Books and Bangs

We have been reading and discussing “Dare to Lead” by Brown as a family (older kids and parents) and discussing it. Actually, I bribe them to participate: all those who read it are able to attend a discussion at a local restaurant. We read a section a week. I have really loved it. And I think they are too.

One thing we are focusing on this week is the burden of perfectionism and being kind to ourselves. This has so much application: numbing, anxiety, stress, unrealistic goals and expectations accompanied by negative self-talk when they aren't met, numbing addictive behaviors, etc. I have appreciated the perspective and being able to use it this week. Just yesterday I stopped a lot of impulsive eating and snacking because I thought, “What is really driving my desire for food right now?”

Also, Brown emphasizes that “clarity is kindness.” Not being rude or abrupt. Just clarity in expectations, communication, expression. I have been able to use that in my communication with the kiddos. If something is not worth communicating clearly, it must not be worth saying or expecting. Voila!

I am working like mad to get all the costumes and props ready so that we can start rehearsing with them. It is a HUGE task, especially since I am trying to keep up our C4! Class (which was particularly amazing this week thanks to the unleashing of so many of the kids and their personalities with opportunities to present and share). They are truly inspiring each other and creating that safe and energetic environment of learning that I know can happen when operating on the guiding principles I have always used with groups:

-let the kids lead and teach

-ask lots of questions

-get them involved in different learning styles

-lots of group activities and challenges

-create a safe environment of love, respect and decency.

We have some kind of animal wandering our property making loud banging noises...like on metal. I am not sure what it is!

Quinn is working crazy hard. He is trying to spread out his appointments, but people are coming in with offering $500 rush fees! I trust that he knows what he is doing. He does take time out for us. He came to Piper's track meet with all the rest of us to support her in Alexander (she took 12^th place with about 60 girls!) and went to the youth activity last night. He is a good man. We are both a little crazy with stuff right now. Do we live on a farm? Kind of :D.

Guests, School and Guineas

 Penelope is not only sleeping better (knock on wood!!! 4 hours in a row last night!!), but she is also walking around single-handed.  Yes, single-handed.  She holds onto just one hand of whoever she can rope into being her personal walking trainer. F-O-R-E-V-E-R.  She is pretty determined!

Maia has turned a new leaf!  She has always had a sparkle that dazzles but we have not always seen eye to eye on my home plans/rules.  We read Timothy Clarke's "Core and Crust of Leadership" article and she sees it!!  She has been so motivated to do her schooling and take care of her other responsibilities, referring often to her "core" or her "crust." It's amazing what vision will do!

Olivia and Owen have been staying here with their parents (and Laura) this past month and they have just been delightful.  We will miss them all so much!  We have played lots of games and explored lots of places together and just enjoyed each other.

Liesl has struggled with bed-wetting more and more so we just got pull-up :(.  And because they are princess style, she wants to wear them all the time :(.  Yikes! Maybe now that Penelope is sleeping better, I can start doing the electric alarm bedwetting treatment at night with her and Eli.

We are on the cusp of starting our new school year! I am excited for our classes, with acting and choirs starting tomorrow and history and English on Friday.  The rest we will begin next week...so fun!

Piper and Hyrum have started high school sports, cross country and football respectively, and they both love it!  They are also going to early morning seminary (mostly in-person, which is great) and love that as well.

Havala is excited to start taking piano lessons from her grandpa and has been a blessing in getting our sign language choir ready!  She is great at signing and has learned some of the songs so that she can teach the other kids.

Lily is doing 20 hours a week at Wendy's and then working with Drew the rest of the time around the house to help out.  They put in 7 hours a day and do some daily tasks.  It's a little bumpy right now, but hopefully we work out all the kinks before we strangle each other ;).  I do love having them around and they are trying to make a good go of it...most of the time.

Hyrum did a fun presentation about himself for seminary...he's such a funny kid! I put it in his journal.

Xai and Eli have been having so much fun with cousins. They have also been having fun doing sticker faces at Oma and Opa's, trying to make Oma laugh with their creations.  They have been snuggling in the same bed for the past couple nights, which is nice for Eli, who is still nervous at night.

Maia, Xai and Eli love running in rain storms!  We had a dousy of one last night. I was actually out in it with Quinn and Drew looking for guinea fowl.  We only had three.  We are down to our last seven and so we searched all over.  I sent Drew in at one point, and Quinn and I grabbed the dogs to help us find them.  Love was the better bird dog and led us right to three of them. Apparently our local predator took down the seventh...still haven't figured out what that is or how to deter it.  

At one point, I was hugging two fowls to my chest as I knelt in the rainy mud on a hill that had a sharper than 45 degree angle, unable to make any headway up without sliding back again.  It was dark, my flashlight lay on the ground beside me and my umbrella was abandoned long before that.  I had to dig my knees into the ground to make my way up the hill with the two guineas in my arms so that I could get them put away.  Quinn had already herded the other one up.  He set it outside the door.  When we went back later (after abandoning our search for the last one) it had not entered the coop so I had to canvas the chicken yard looking for it. I found it huddled in the nook of a tree. They are supposed to climb trees at night for protection but these biddies keep nestling into the ground!  Sigh.  Hopefully I will do better with this next batch!

Busy little baby!  Sooooo adorable.

The cool Shakespeare theater up in Akron where we were rained out a couple weeks ago.

??

Our boat cave tour in Indiana.

Liesl the kitchen helper.

Piper was dogpiled after escaping the duct tape/rope entanglement the kiddies wrapped her up in.

My Snow White and Rose Red last Sunday.

The Bad, The Ugly and The Good

 If you've read my blog posts very much at all, you will sense that I love to capture the delightful, funny, sweet and wonderful. I feel that over the years this has helped me to see the magic and beauty that is in my life.  I had something happen this morning that reminded me that sometimes this has had to be a choice.  

It was early, early morning when I heard a cat yeowling.  "Great," I thought.  "Our cat that just had babies is in heat already!  We need to get her fixed." And then I drifted off back to sleep on the couch by my sleeping baby.

What seemed like moments later, there was a loud cat screech followed by what sounded like animals tumbling across our front porch.  There were subsequent screeches and tumblings that moved progressively away from the house and into the neighboring woods.   Both Quinn and I were up and alert and went out (courtesy of Hyrum's powerful flashlight) to see what we could see.  But all that we could see (...but all that we could see...thanks, "Bear Went Over the Mountain" refrain!) was nothing.  And we heard nothing.

As we walked back to the house, checking on various animals to see any possible impact, I remembered our first cat that we adopted.  Xavia.  Perhaps she's gone feral? I wondered, which spurred further thoughts.

What do you do with a feral cat? Maybe I could get the kids to go out an hunt and shoot her.

Perhaps she is the one that killed our rooster and taken away the missing chicken and not our dogs?

Anyway, life is not always as perfect as it seems, I guess :D.

We are down three chickens and one guinea fowl from a month ago.

My three year old has just recently started wetting the bed. We gave her back her binki (that we recently weaned her of') but she still awoke wet this morning.  Now I have two bed wetters.  Fun.

I purchased a bed-wetting kit a few months ago but decided I couldn't get up for a baby at night and for the beeping of a bedwetter.

The aforementioned baby is still not sleeping more than two to three hours at a time until after 4 or 5 am...and sometimes even less.

The garden on our slope is slowly eroding away but hopefully will stay there at least until harvest.  My spontaneously engineered plan apparently should have taken into account our heavy rainfall, lol.

Our dogs were caught "red-handed" riling up our chickens two days ago after being caught with our dead, wingless rooster two days before that.  We're not sure if something else killed the rooster and they were just playing with the carcass or if it was them.  Time for a trail cam?  Just another thing and another expense.  For now, they just take turns roaming free with our chickens, which our hound dog definitely doesn't like.  Kujo feels he should be everywhere with everyone and I get a little tired of the barking.  Trained?  As much as I'm going to do.  For now, at least they sometimes respond to bacon.

Quinn spent 12 hours over three days driving Kel and Réka to the airport three separate times to get them on their way back to Hungary. For various reasons--all including ineptness, lack of training and general culpability on the part of United Airlines--they weren't able to fly out the first two times and Quinn had to head back to pick them up from the airport after almost making it home after the 1 1/2 hour one way drive to the airport.  Incorrectly entered numbers on the boarding pass, falsely saying the COVID test had to be within 3 days and then actually having a 48 hour policy (which only happened because of the first incompetence), and finally not reissuing tickets for all of them the third time caused such grief and delays. And it was over poor Réka's birthday, no less! 

And now our air-conditioning is out.

And our house in Medina still hasn't sold.

But enough of grousing!  There are so many blessings!

We got to have Kel and Réka here with my little grandson for over two weeks thanks to that incompetence and we got to celebrate her birthday together and give the little tyke his first hair trim.

The other chickens are all healthy and hale, running excitedly up to greet me whenever I go out, the little dears.  Our guinea fowl are getting uglier and noisier right on schedule and Drew and Hyrum have taken them on as their responsibility without complaint.

Quinn is now here full-time with no more weekly trips to Medina!  He has also been able to use his expertise to help my parents move into the house next door to us, which has been so wonderful.

Lily and Hyrum had a few weeks off of Wendy's and just started back today. Because of their time there, they have priority in the scheduling, which is wonderful.

Hyrum, Piper, Havala, Maia and I are all performing in "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" which is being presented this weekend in Pomeroy OH with a little theater company named Wolfe Mountain Entertainment.  Maia is a wood nymphy and leopard, Havala the Unicorn, Piper the White Witch and Hyrum is Peter. (Yes, that means Piper and Hyrum get to battle each other and they love it.) Oh, and I'm Father Christmas. I'm the only adult in a children's play.  Tried to beg out of that one but he said he wanted to keep me in because they were running short on parts.  It has been great to be there with them and be involved in a play that I am not in charge of too :D.

The way I got Liesl to stop using the binki was to snuggle her to sleep at night.  Sooooo sweet. 

So while there are definitely things to look at to complain about, I find it doesn't do much good in the long run...and is a lot less fun to write about. My kids love reading this, too, and come away happier, I believe, also being led to see the good that outweighs the bad most of the time.  And only if we really choose to look at it that way.

Animals, Babies, Selling Houses and Miracles

 At the risk of being perhaps a little too personal, I am going to cut and paste my most recent journaling, which includes much about pets, children, houses and miracles.  Enjoy and please read without judgment ;D.

May 31, 2021

Yesterday we went to an open house for a young man in our ward who is heading out to a mission and then BYU afterward. The family is really nice. No one was wearing masks, which was so refreshing to see everyone's faces. At church we still are wearing masks, which I respect the need for. Next Sunday we will have our first second hour meetings together since before COVID. I am excited.

As a family, we are shutting off our wifi except for intentional use. We are trying to create an environment for healthy defaults for the kids. Last Saturday, after the Georgia family left, we spent the day playing games and relaxing and enjoying each other. It felt really good. The oldest kids only watched one episode at the end of the day. We laughed and played together. So bueno!

The Georgia family came to stop over for a visit on their way home from visiting other places. It was great! We got the house super clean and organized and that also meant finishing up my book case for scrapbooks in my room (made out of only five purchased boards and the rest scraps!). I filled them with scrapbooks and journals and it looks so amazing!!! I love coming into my room and seeing kids sitting in our padded rocking chair and looking through the scrapbooks with whimsical smiles on their faces. Family history in every aspect is so rewarding! Next step, hang up all the pictures I have in the house somewhere :D.

I am working on finding joy in the moment and not feeling driven by lists.

I have realized that it is still okay to have lists and projects and dreams, though.

I am also working on having “charity” be my default...the directive of everything I do. It is powerful! Today I am working on “thinking no evil.”

I am also excited to plan my trip for having ALL MY CHILDREN ON EARTH together :D!!! Less than a month!!

June 7, 2021

Wow! What a busy week. Today I am just going to capture a little bit.

This week we got guinea fowl keets. Because my phone and I are frequent strangers, I have not pictures but you can Google them: big, ugly and loud.

And they eat ticks by the pound.

So I ordered guinea fowl.

Apparently, they are flock creatures so you can't order them in quantities less than 15. Most places required 25 but yikes! We'll start with 15. Like I said, they are noisy.

And right now? They are absolutely adorable.

Just imagine picking up tiny beaks and legs combined with soft fluffy air with less mass than a cotton ball.

I reached in to the box they came in last Friday morning to get them out and put them in the lovely new home we had just completed for them moments before (no time like the present, eh?). I could feel tiny faint scratching limbs and then soft fluffy weightlessness. I gently closed my grasp to a ball and lifted. In it was a tiny baby. Crazy! And super cute.

Later that day, Maia and Piper chanced upon the coop when all the little fluff mites had made it out of their enclosure---apparently they are tiny enough to squeeze through the holes of chicken wire with not much fuss. The keets were all over the inside of the coop so they corralled them back inside. However, one was missing as evident by the next incident: two chickens were desperately trying to escape the chicken yard through an opening and upon investigations, Piper and Maia discovered a small pullet behind them, honking loudly and terrifying the much larger hens. Hilarious!

I have to share a miracle about this experience: I felt compelled to start the day early, at 6:30 am.  While not being early for me personally, I don't like to force the kids to get up to work with me then.  However, I kept feeling driven to insist upon it, so I told them I would get up at 6:30 but needed them all up by 7--Lily and Hava to help with breakfast and birthday set-up and Drew, Hyrum and Piper out helping me get the guinea fowl area ready.  I anticipated getting the guineas in the afternoon like I had the chicks so felt there was plenty of time later...but kept feeling like I needed to insist on early prep.

Well, the morning rolled around and I forced myself out of bed around 6:20 am, remembering I had told everyone else they had to be up soon.  I had experienced a rough night with Penelope but...here we go!  I grabbed my cell phone (with whom I am frequently a stranger) per inspiration insistence (recognized in hindsight) and after prepping the breakfast with waffle batter, headed out. I had felt driven to prep the tools and supplies we would need for the pullet enclosure the night before so most of it was ready to be taken out to the coop where we were building it. 

The phone rang a little after 7 am. "Ma'am, your keets are in."  Miracle number one--I actually had my phone with me and working when they called. Miracle number two--because we were up and everything was in place, we had just enough time to build the keet enclosure before they got there.  They require a 95 degree temp to keep them alive at first, which requires heating lamps and somewhere to experience those heating lamps.  

It was truly miraculous.

June 12, 2021

Another busy week has flown by.

Apparently, both of our dogs have Lyme's disease so they are going to start antibiotics after I capture a urine sample from my dog Kujo (??right??).

Penelope is pulling herself up on furniture right now, progressively figuratively following in the footsteps of her nephew, Akos. (Soon to be literally! They are visiting in two weeks!!) Unfortunately, her mobility led her to bruise her cheek on an end table by our bed and it is super sad to see the cut and bruise on her sweet pudgy cheeks. She is still as adorably sweet as ever, smiling and enjoying her life so much—interspersed with occasional frustration at not being changed, fed and adored as much as she may feel necessary, little darling. The last few days, she has been particularly insistent on being near me, content to play near me or in my lap while I work on something else or help another child.

I feel myself waxing eloquent after reading excerpts from a collection of Jane Austen biographies. Sigh. Perhaps I should scale it back a wee bit ;P.

Xai is excited to go to a Primary young boys activity. I am excited to use that as an opporunity to fulfill the last steps of a miracle...

I have felt for some time to make Drew's room a real room. It is one of those “pushings” from heaven that I have learned to recognize. I also recently reviewed President Nelson's talk about believing in and seeking for miracles. It all came together yesterday.

The next step in his room is to secure two more mattresses to make the room's bedding complete. We used to have viable bunk beds in there, but as Drew sleeps on the floor as his preferred space, I had him move the bunk beds to the other room for a visiting family to use. His room has become more and more an extension of the storage room, with box springs and bedding frames stacked about. Buying mattresses right now seems like an extra expense, not desirable on top of Quinn switching jobs from NY to Ohio and all the expenses we have had for upcoming vacations, building our chicken “palace”/coop at the height of lumber prices and finishing up our Medina home to get it on the market.

Feeling prompted to buy more mattresses I looked online and found nice mattresses on sale at a location over an hour away. However, I would be passing that way en route to taking Xai to his activity.

Now, for the money.

I didn't feel right asking Quinn. So I asked God. “Please let me know about or find any stash of money that may be about so that I can purchase the mattresses not using funds that we are currently delegating every other direction. I really don't want to stress Quinn out. Please help me if possible, but if not, no worries. I trust You.”

Enter miracle number one.

Hyrum came up to me after using our old laptop for some “random” reason and held out a roll of bills. “Here, Mom. I found this in the laptop and it is probably yours.” (No one else in our house loses $100 without noticing...the kids are always paying me back for random expenses on Amazon and I frequently stash the bills somewhere that I am “sure” to remember later!)

I felt driven a day later to organize my bookshelves downstairs. We had recently purchased two more on sale (only $35 each, yay!) and had emptied the storeroom of the extra book boxes...so it all matched up to happen soon. I started yesterday and upon clearing off a top shelf, I found the money from our plays that people had paid me that I thought I had already deposited. And—witness the miracle—it was just over the amount I needed for the two mattresses. Amazing.

As we say in our house, “God is good...” “...all the time...” “...and all the time...” “....God is good.” (From “God's Not Dead” the movie.) Truer words were never spoken.

Another miracle: this week I went to Medina with Lily, Hyrum, Xai, Eli, Liesl and Penelope.  We were there for less than two days and were able to get our house there pretty much ready for market--adding flowers and mulch to the flower beds, painting trim, mowing and trimming the lawn (thanks to superhero Hyrum) and still have the little ones be mostly happy (thanks to superhero Lily).  Quinn added the final shutters and grow boxes and I had fun filling them with fake flowers.  I felt guided and not frantic, with a prayer in my heart.  The only disappointment was that I wasn't able to get my kids back for their church youth activity this week--I hate making decisions that make them sad or suffer at all.  I need to learn how to better deal with that but until then, I will get a little grumpy and my heart will hurt a little whenever I need to make those decisions.

Maia hurt her foot this week...bruising it pretty severely.  She has been rocking it on crutches, though making her keep the foot elevated and iced has been a challenge.  We have "Family Camp" next week so hopefully she can keep it happy until then!

Eli has drifted from "sweet momma's boy" to "belligerent feisty man" in his transition from five to six years old. I am always amazed at how much Skousen's "So You Want To Raise A Boy" nails the stages of boys on the head!  He just needs a good wrestle, tickle-session, or battle of some sort every day.  Several times.  Enter Hyrum, Drew and Daddy....invaluable.

Liesl calls me and everyone else "stupid" at least a hundred times per day.  Quinn tried to help her transition to "stupendous" but she didn't buy that.

Speaking of Quinn, he is currently still in Medina longer than his usual three days a week. Even though I saw glimpses of him earlier this week, I miss him excruciatingly.  The house, however, is now officially on the market so he is trying to get it under contract asap with the hot and hopping market in Medina right now. My prayers and heart are with him...I miss that man.

Xai is still doing so well at trying to do what is right. I love conversations with him about making good choices. He really thinks clearly about things. Unforunately, that means when others don't think clearly or want to make negative decisions he is not very sympathetic. He, Drew and Piper are so much alike in this regard! And maybe a little me.

I think the dogs may turn out to not me chicken killers after all. We haven't lost one yet, miraculously, but will still keep them in our prayers and keep actively training and observing them. While I got “extra” chickens for the express purpose of “just in case,” I still don't want to lose any of my silly feathered darlings.

Havala and Piper had a great time staying home this week taking care of animals while we were in Medina. It is fun to see their friendship grow! Last night I was touched to listen to Havala play the accompaniment to a song called “Footsteps” while her sisters sang along. I am so grateful that I still have children in the home that I get to watch grow and unfold in their talents. Being a mom is so rewarding.

I am still amazed on occasion walking through our woods at the beauty we have here.  While there is thick humidity at times and more bugs than I am used to, I guess that is to be expected to have such green and to be in such  "camping" type place.  I love watching Penelope outside.  She is almost always looking up at the sky, watching the light filter through the branches in wonder.  So sweet. I love having little ones around me to help me remember to find wonder in the world around me.

Here's an excerpt from a Messenger conversation with Tova, after she shared some Jane Austen biographies and other documents:

I loved this one so much! What depth and perspective it gave into her writings and life. and from so many people's view. Loved it! Right now I am going downstairs to organize my bookshelves. I need a little time to myself...I think this is the only time I am going to get it, as I love my darlings during the day and want to spend it enjoying them . Love you! Thanks for the delicious opportunity to hear from you yesterday! My phone is struggling to recover from its encounter with baby slobber so I may not be able to communicate much in the near future, save for this medium, but I must confess that reading those biographies have inspired me to wax eloquent in my written communication with you, most darling Tova . LOVE YOU!!!

I felt a little overwhelmed with the projects I feel I need to do and still spending time enjoying my darlings. I prayed for help. Maybe getting up at 4:15 am after a moderately interrupted night's sleep with Penelope is the answer? I just needed some alone time.

I think I will go and organize my bookshelves some more and get Drew's room ready.

Life is truly about doing a great work. And that requires...work, ironically enough :D.

Maia's injury

Front yard in Medina

Penelope loves eating solids!

Eli turned 6 this month! What a great kid!  As part of last week's busy-ness, we had a fun birthday celebration for him, complete with a "treasure hunt" of Dollar Tree items along a curling ribbon path set up by Havala. I love that the kids pitch in their efforts to wrap and hide presents and decorate for birthdays!

We also watched "Raya and the Last Dragon" (enjoyed it), had a delicious waffle, sausage and Orange Julius breakfast by Lily, ate "chicken with a bone" and went swimming at a local pool after buying a summer pass, which we intend to use weekly! Super fun!  The kids love the water and little Penelope is like a tadpole.  I can't wait to see how my grandson does in it in a couple of weeks <3.

Best news ever!!! My parents are closing on a house and are moving next door this summer! I am super excited for the kids to have grandparents living near them after so many years of being at only extended traveling distance.  There has been a lot of ups and downs for them, but having them near will be the fulfillment of a dream I have had for years.  Super excited!

We also will be able to spend time with Quinn's parents this summer, between a reunion and hopefully a visit later.  Coolio!! My kids are super blessed with loving grandparents on both sides and this summer seems like it will be a great time for the kids to bond with them again <3!