writing

F has been a great reader for many years now, but I've always had a hard time getting her to write more than a sentence or two at a time. When she was just starting out, a lot of the problem was that it took so long to write each word because she was new to the mechanical process of putting the letters on the paper. But even when she got so that her handwriting was better, she just didn't enjoy writing at all. She didn't like writing on paper, dictating to me or using the computer. I haven't pushed too hard on that one because I figured that if she kept on reading good books, a certain amount of writing skill would come with all that reading. Now she's writing a story to give to E. for her birthday. The last time I asked her, she had written over twenty pages, typed. She has a story within the story going. I am amazed. Her punctuation needs work, but her vocabulary, word usage and grammar are really quite good. It just reminds me that kids are learning all the time, whether we teach from text books or just by living life.

We are the homeschool kids...

This is a funny parody of "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything." Check it out. http://dpenguin.com/blog/?p=498

It's official: T is not ready to potty train. She loves to take her diaper off, so I thought we'd give it a try. She has good bladder control, but doesn't have the faintest idea what it means to go pee pee on the toilet. She loves to sit on the toilet, and sit and sit and sit, and then flush and flush and flush. It's just the peeing part she doesn't get. More than once, she has sat on the toilet and done nothing and then peed on the floor while washing her hands. I thought maybe the running water was the trick, but turning the tap on while she sits on the toilet doesn't seem to help. But I could deal with all of that. It was the pile of poop on the bath mat that made me decide to wait a month or two and try again. The other day, she was wearing her panties and playing upstairs with the big kids. The next thing I know, the girls are freaking out and telling me that T pooped on the floor. I pictured horrible smears of poop everywhere, but fortunately, it was all in one place, as if she just figured that the bath mat was a better place to poop than the toilet. Great. I figure I lucked out this time, and I'm quitting while I'm ahead--or at least not too far behind. Hopefully, she'll be more ready in a few weeks, in the meantime, I'll keep buying diapers.

The other night the twins went to bed really early because they hadn't had a nap. When I went to get ready for bed, T woke up, but I figured that if I laid down with her, she'd go right back to sleep. So I hurried to brush my teeth and get into bed. She was quiet cuddling with me, so I figured she was going back to sleep. Pretty soon, I zonked out. Meanwhile, N was up late working in the computer room. T did not go back to sleep. Instead she decided that since there were still lights on, she should be able to get up, so she went into the bathroom, took off her pajamas and diaper and tried to go potty. No pee ended up in the potty, but apparently she managed to pee all over the floor. When N found her, she was sitting on the counter getting soap all over herself (she loves soap). Thankfully, she didn't fall or anything, but the mental image of her sitting naked on the counter after peeing on the floor when she was supposed to be sleeping was just so funny that I had to share. :)

Which Jane Austen heroine are you?

Here's what it said about me:

Take the Quiz here!

There's a whole new series of Jane Austen adaptations coming out on Masterpiece Theater, so I'll have to see how they portray Elinor. I'm especially excited to see Northanger Abby since there's not already a good verson of that.

I think perhaps it's a bit pathetic that I didn't post one single thing on here between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but on the other hand, things were just too dang busy to worry about my blog. We had a really nice, relaxing Christmas with plenty of time to enjoy our new presents. The hit of Christmas morning was probably I's Bob the Builder tool bench, complete with working electric screwdriver. He was not even interested in opening any other presents at all. Later in the day, though, the Star Wars DVD's were more popular. Since F. has become interested in the trilogy that came out in the last few years, we figured that she should also see the favorites from when we were kids. (I find it so confusing how to refer to those movies. Which ones are "first"? The ones made first or the ones chronologically first?)

I spent a good deal of the day in the kitchen, but also found time to enjoy one of my new books by one of my favorite authors, D.E. Stevenson. They're not so new since they're out of print, but they're new to me. I've been spending much too much time reading the past couple of days, but it's been nice to have things quiet after all the Christmas rush.

Our Thanksgiving

We just had one of the best Thanksgivings I can remember. I love getting together with our extended family, but this year we didn't end up doing that. It was just our own little family in our own house having only the Thanksgiving foods we like. I have never been so relaxed on Thanksgiving day. And we had the best turkey ever with this recipe thanks to my good friend Siouxsie. It wasn't hard to make and it had so much more flavor than any turkey I've ever had, so I'll probably always make this one from now on. My kids even wanted seconds, and usually they just want ham instead of the turkey. :) The drippings made great gravy, too.

One of the best things is that I was done cooking, eating and cleaning up before the twins went down for their nap, so I got to spend a couple of hours sewing in the evening. T.'s nightgown is ready for Christmas Eve now, and she is going to be soooo cute in it.

We hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving as much as we enjoyed ours.

Christmas card pictures

Last Sunday we set out to take some pictures to put on our Christmas card. It all starts with Mommy spending hours finding matching shirts for the kids to wear. Then Mommy does everyone's hair to match (except, of course, I.'s). Mommy and the kids troop out to the back yard to take pictures. Kids last about five minutes. Mommy lasts a little longer before sending A. off to get Daddy to come help. Pretty soon Mommy abandons Daddy to play with the kids and take more pictures because she is too frusterated to stand it any more. Daddy takes over 100 pictures and NOT ONE has all five children looking good. Every one has someone missing or looking goofy. Mommy spends quite a while editing and trying to get everyone to agree on one picture--without success. So the top three all made this year's Christmas card and the print order is already on it's way here.

And since this post took me several days to write and it's now Thanksgiving, let me add a Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I am so thankful for all the wonderful people in my life.

And I'm thankful that I have five super cute kids to take pictures of and that I have a camera to take pictures with--even if they all look silly. :)

I do it

T.'s new thing is to tell me "I do it," all the time. She's discovered that she's more capable than she thought, but sometimes she expects to do things like roast her own hot dog and marshmallows over the campfire, and that doesn't work so well. But I realized something today. When kids get to this age, everything they do, we praise them. "Oh, you did that all by yourself. What a big girl you are. Good job." Of course they want to do everything themselves when they realize that's the result. :)

I am a Snapdragon What Flower Are You?

"Mischief is your middle name, but your first is friend. You are quite the prankster that loves to make other people laugh."

What is up with this??? Does anyone who knows me think that I am a prankster? I think it's fun to do these little personality quizzes when I come across them, but I don't usually put them on my blog because they never fit me. But this one wins the all-time prize for not fitting me. After I did it, I went back to check over my answers. Surely I must have hit the wrong answer on something. Nope. Well then, which answer got me this mischievous answer? Couldn't tell you. I answered the most boring thing to every question--unless you consider it mischievous to refuse to lie to your best friend's spouse. Or maybe it's the fact that I have too many books. Oh well, at least I like sweet peas. :)

T. has learned to ham it up for the camera. It's a big change from the days when she would cry at the sight of it. I think I like her pictures better this way. :)

A little chocolate on his chin only makes him cuter, right?


In looking for some cute pictures to post, I realized something: I need to get the camera out more often. I've been so crazy busy this summer that I keep forgetting to take some really GOOD pictures instead of just the silly ones. Well, soon the beautiful fall weather will give me the itch to do some cute outdoor pics, so then I'll have something better to show off. :)

Thanks for the encouragement in my comments, Shaunna and Shara. I wasn't really trying to make people leave comments (well, not very much), but it is definitely encouraging to know that there are some people who read what I write here. It feels like such a waste of time sometimes. So now I will renew my efforts to keep this blog updated. It'll probably go about the way my efforts to write in my journal regularly go. That is to say, I'll write a few posts and then leave it for several months and then write a few posts and then leave it for several months and so on and so on and so on.

Have I mentioned lately that the twins are into EVERYTHING? We have this latch on the fridge door that's supposed to keep them out. Ha! Not only can they open the fridge and get out whatever they want (picture eggs on the floor, fortunately not broken; a bottle of ranch, unfortunately completely emptied on the floor; the older girl's water bottles, sometimes emptied all over the twins), but after they're done with getting what they want, they kindly relatch the fridge. What is the point of that?!? Right now, they are dismantling everything in F.'s scripture case. And I'm letting them because it's giving me five minutes of peace to write this. But I'll pay for it tomorrow when she sees what they've done. :) They used to not be able to reach things on the island between our kitchen and family room. It's been the repository for everything that needs to be kept away from them for many months, but slowly they're able to reach more and more of it. Now there's a safe strip in the middle and everything else is fair game. Our kitchen chairs live tipped over under the table so that they can't be used easily for climbing on. Recently we had to add keeping the bar stools tipped over, too because they've learned to use the rungs like a ladder. Good thing they're both so dang cute!

I really will try to post some pics of them soon.

I have to thank Jessica for leaving her comments on this blog. It's nice to know I have ONE reader. :) She pointed out that I haven't posted pics of the haircuts. The truth is, this summer has been really hard somehow. I think that two full years of total sleep deprivation have finallly caught up with me and I have just been struggling to keep myself going. So the blog went by the wayside. I have no other excuse. Things are gettting better though. It helps that the twins are starting to be able to communicate better. I. has been slow to learn to talk, and at their 15 month check up, his pediatrician was already talking about speech therapy if he wasn't doing better by 18 months. That just really doesn't fit my parenting philosophy very well. Not that I don't think there's a place for speech therapy, but I just think kids need to be allowed to develop in their own time as much as possible. Also, he was showing no other delays in his development, and he understood us very well. We actually haven't been back for a checkup since because the few times I've taken them in because of illness, they have totally freaked out. So I keep thinking they'll outgrow that. In the meantime, I've been second-guessing myself, thinking "what if I. never learns to talk and then when he's three or four I have to take him for therapy and they think I'm a horrible neglecful mother because I didn't bring him in when he was 18 months????" I'm sure I'm not the only mother who does this to herself. Well, at 18 months I think his ped would have referred him out for a speech evaluation. At two years old, I think she still would have. At two years and six weeks, he's fine and meeting the milestones for his age. He's not talking as much as T., but I'm not worried any more. What do you know, I was right to let him learn to talk when he was ready! I love it when I'm right. :)

In other news, A. is now a champion reader. She's been reading Junie B. Jones the last few days, and she loves to read scriptures out loud with the family. I love it when they make the jump from sounding out all the words to being able to read fluently. It's so amazing to watch. F. has a mouth full of hardware. How does she eat? I have no idea. But hopefully it will all pay off in straight teeth some day. Her bottom expander came out yesterday, but I know she's anxiously waiting for the top one to come out because it's the one that really gets in the way. E. is just as sweet as ever, but I think she's starting to hit some of the pre-puberty hormones. She just cries for no reason sometimes. Thankfully, she's now old enough to tell me that she doesn't know why she's crying, so hopefully this won't be like when she was a toddler and cried for no reason (that I could find). :) She and I have been reading Anne of Green Gables aloud recently and that's been fun for her. She likes having a time that is just her and me. We're reading for a mother/daughter book club that I'm starting. All the moms and daughters read the same book and then we'll get together to discuss it. I wanted the books to challenge F., but that means that I need to read them aloud to E. for her to be able to participate.

peaches

We just picked our very first ripe peach from our peach trees. The trees are fairly young, so this is the first year they've produced really good fruit. I had forgotten how much I adore fresh, tree ripened peaches. Everyone got just a couple of bites of it--just enough to make us want more. Once T. got a taste, she took over and refused to allow anyone else a bite. I. continues his boycott on all fruit.

On a completely unrelated topic, the girls and I all had our hair cut today. On Sunday we'll take some pics when everyone's done up nicely and I'll post them. A. only had a trim, but the rest of us had some pretty dramatic cutting done. F. managed enough to send some to Locks of Love. It's the first time in years that her hair hasn't been almost to her waist, so I'm in shock a bit. Not that long ago, she was refusing to even consider cutting it and now it's just below her shoulders. Kids...who could ever understand them?

I was thinking the other day about how much more I learned from my extra-curricular activities in high school than I learned from my actual classes. Lots of people I know feel the same way, so I was trying to figure out why that is. Of course, it's really simple. I learned more from those activities because I loved them, the other kids there loved them, the advisors loved them (well, maybe not so much loved as liked them better than classes). In fact, everyone was there because they wanted to be there. It's amazing what you can learn when you have a passion for the subject. Also, those kinds of activities tend to be more hands-on, active learning than class time. It just goes to show what I already knew: kids learn better when they're interested and involved.

piano recital

Tonight was the piano recital for F. and E. They both did great--much better than I expected. They practice on the keyboard and often have the volume down so low that I can't clearly hear what they're playing. It was great to hear the progress they've made this past year. F. is currently in a phase where she doesn't want to do anything except read, play with her best friend and play on the computer, but I've talked her into continuing with piano. We'll take a couple of months off for summer and then get started with a new teacher since this year's teacher is headed off to college in the fall. He's been really good with the kids, and it's also been great to see his teaching skills grow through the year. I have been really impressed that someone his age could accomplish so much with a bunch of beginning students. It's nice to know there are some good teenagers out there. :)

A. on Easter. She is easy to take pictures with these days because she's in such a cute phase.

E. on Easter. This was just before her 8th birthday. She is such a sweet, happy girl.

F. on Easter. I can't believe how grown up she's getting. I can just rest my chin on top of her head these days. :)

The three musketeers together. Can you tell they like being sisters? One of my favorite things about homeschooling is that my kids seem like they are better friends because of it.

T. on Easter day. I was thrilled to get her smiling!

I. and T. on Easter. This was the only moment we could get I. to sit still long enough to take a picture.

I had to take a picture of him on a different day. I finally put him in the swing just to get him to hold still long enough to take the picture. :)

E. is getting baptized next month, so yesterday we took some pictures in her pretty, white dress. This one is my favorite.

I.'s first haircut

I has really beautiful, blonde, curly hair, so I was determined not to be one of thos moms who lets her son go around looking like a girl cause she can't bear to cut the curls. Yesterday N. commented that I. needed a haircut, so I decided it was time. I just trimmed off the whispy ends, but with it combed nicely, he certainly looks more like a little boy instead of a baby (or a girl). I'm sure that people will still think he's the girl and T. is the boy unless they are dressed very gender specifically becasue T. still has very little hair. It's thick. Just really, really short.