I am working on the computer and Penelope is coloring in a book across from me. The rest of the house is strangely silent and I'm trying not to fear that the other little ones might be wreaking havoc. Hmmm...
Occasionally, Penelope will say, "Mama?"
I will sweetly reply, "What, Penelope?"
She will mumble.
"Mom?"
"Yes, Penelope?"
"Blah, blah, mumble, dah dum."
Smile.
I love tender little sweet two year old conversations.
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We just got back from a trip to Texas visiting Tova and Ben. It was so lovely to be with them! I love how family feels so right together.
Tova time!
This is the crack that Liesl and Penelope climbed through first.
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Right now, I can hear Havala strumming and singing in the other room. Maia is getting dramatic and awesome with her Duolingo Spanish. Xai just spent about an hour perusing old Singing Bees posts all about him and laughing again and again at the funny ones. Quinn is madly doing work so he can be ready for his trip next week. I am trying to stay calm and centered, knowing that this life is not about rushing madly through a list of items on a checklist but to be tested to see if my sincere desire is to trust God and be glorified of Him. That delicious mandate is so wonderfully non-specific, but it does eliminate certain things: fear, doubt, distress, denial, refusal. I am grateful.
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The kids just came up. They were looking for Easter supplies in the store room. While I can only imagine what the store room looks like at this point, it was a productive, intentional process. So fun!
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."
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.
We are enjoying having Kel and his family here for two weeks!
We also got a HUGE surprise when we found out my parents closed on their two houses (moving out and moving into) by July 4th and are already here. Wow! That was fast. We are busy with them, company and enjoying time off of our usual schedule.
We also just came back from a family reunion with Quinn's side of the family in South Dakota. We visiting many of the local landmarks, enjoyed time together with cousins, aunts and uncles and are so happy to not be traveling in the car anymore. Living out of a van with 15 people is a little crazy!
We came back to healthy animals and haven't stopped running until today with helping my parents move in while taking care of urgent things around the property. Kel's poor family has been requisitioned to help with projects between eating and sleeping and we are finally getting to playing some games. Whew!
Penelope is pulling herself up on things.
Liesl is always making up songs and singing them. As Xai puts it, "she sings her feelings." He and Eli like to "play their feelings on the piano." I am personally enjoying their very snuggly phases, especially at night when we cuddle to sleep. (Often I fall asleep with them...probably because Penelope is still not sleeping well.)
Maia enjoyed a brief visit from cousin Malia, who--with her dad--drove the moving van for my parents across the country.
Havala is still in and out of books and had fun shopping with Reka and I for a new dress for the two of them today.
Piper had a great time traveling, sitting in all the most uncomfortable seats. She is super happy to be home.
Hyrum loves using our riding lawn mower to mow the lawns and got up at 7 am this morning to get it done so he could go to his friend's house.
Lily is trucking along with college in between all the vacations and is doing a great job taking care of both dogs full time.
Drew decided to slice open his leg while parkouring a couple weeks ago and is still recovering. Of course, the fact that he is still climbing, swimming and jumping might have something to do with it. And the fact that it is two layers of stitching deep.
Tova and Ben were cute to travel with at the reunion. Ben seems to have survived the shock of 24/7 with our family (Xai in particular). Being the youngest of his own family definitely did notprepare him for life with our family!
Quinn is finally full-time here and getting a bunch of appraisals from Ohio now. Yay! Hopefully, now our house in Medina will sell soon so everything will be settled here.
Dogs and animals are all alive but one guinea fowl chick and one chicken. Pretty good, I'd say! We also have five new adorable kittens. Hopefully pictures will follow soon!
