So, after telling me more than once that I'm just paranoid about putting our kids' names on the internet, what was Norm's response when I told him that I was using real names? "You should make your blog private then." Yeah. Right. Like I'm the only paranoid parent in the house. I'm still debating what to do. Since I update so rarely, I hate to make things any harder on the few people who keep reading. ;) Google reader, which is great for keeping track of sporadic blogs like this one, doesn't give updates on private blogs. I hear that I can make it so people get email notification of updates, but that requires me to figure out something I don't already know how to do, so I'm not too sure about that.

Felicity is now officially in Young Women's. Today was her first day not to go to Primary. On the fourth Sunday in our ward, the Young Women have opening exercises with Relief Society. In the past, I've noticed most of the girls sitting with their moms, so I was looking forward to having her sit with me today. Of course, today, it was suddenly completely uncool to sit by moms. All the girls were sitting in a couple of rows together--no moms to be seen except for the ones who happen to be YW leaders.

For her birthday, one of Felicity's friends gave her two John Bytheway DVD's, so she's been watching those today, which is a big step up the spiritual ladder in our Sunday viewing. I mean, Blues Clues isn't all that inspiring. (I don't mean to imply here that Felicity still watches Blues Clues--that's usually on for the twins.) Anyway, she watches this whole video about how to get more out of church, and when I ask her what she learned from it, she tells me that she learned that John Bytheway is really funny. Hmm...I'm pretty sure there was more in there than that. When I pressed her, she said she learned that we should enjoy church. That's a bit closer, but I think maybe she should watch it again. Since I'm sure she's planning on watching it every Sunday until the rest of us beg her not to put it on again, that shouldn't be a problem.

In honor of Felicity turning 12, she and I had our hair highlighted together for a little mother/daughter date. I was looking for something that she can do now that she's older that I wouldn't have let her do before, and this is what we came up with. We also did a facial and manicure at home and put on the little bit of makeup that she's allowed to wear at this point. I'll post some pictures, but her hair doesn't look a ton different, so it's hard to tell in the picture.

It's time for an update. First off, since it is so confusing trying to remember who all the kids are by their initials, and since my husband and friends tell me that I'm just being super paranoid, I'm going to go ahead and use the kids' first names. I hope I won't be sorry about that, but most of the blogs I follow use real names, so I'm not totally crazy--at least not about this. :)

So, this month Felicity will turn twelve. Her best friend just had her birthday and has now moved up to Young Women's, so I'm having time to adjust to the idea that Felicity's turn is coming. I don't think I'm old enough to have a daughter in Young Women's. I guess I should have thought about that when we were deciding to have a baby twelve and a half years ago. Somehow, when I was 21, I just didn't think, "Hmmm...if I get pregnant now, that means I'll only be 34 when this baby goes to Young Women's or Young Men's, and 34 just isn't old enough for that." Oh well, I guess it's just another case of 20/20 hindsight. Really, it's fun to see Felicity growing up and finding her talents. She's been writing a lot. Today she was working on her book about what you should not name your children. Two of the names she had in there went together: Gluey and Papery. Some people in my family will know what that's a take off from. Anyway, I was surprised by how funny her writing was. Some of it didn't make a lot of sense, but most of it was really fun to read. I'll have to get her permission to post some of it. She also recently started violin lessons which she is really enjoying. I'll admit that I was worried that she wouldn't want to practice, but so far she's doing well with it, and she's hardly ever screechy.

Elisabeth is enjoying learning to play both piano and cello. She started cello last March and is making rapid progress. Her teacher is always very complimentary about how she's doing. Her piano is taking off as well, and she's almost ready to pass where Felicity left off, so she'll soon be the most advanced pianist in the house. She loves to talk to anyone on the phone, but most of all to her cousin Rachel. She also loves to get letters and cards and is always writing one to send to someone.

Avonlea has finally gotten to start piano. She's wanted to for a while, but I put her off until this year because I didn't feel like she was really ready. She's the only one of the girls doing dance/tumbling this year which feels odd. I'm used to taking kids to two or three classes a week at the dance studio. She just lost her first top tooth a couple of days ago, so now she has that cute little smile. Of course, we had to rehash a little Junie B. Jones when it happened. "Good news folks, there's still a little pink on the cup." Unfortunately for Avonlea, who loves Junie B., she couldn't take her spit cup to school for show and tell since she doesn't go to school. If you haven't read any Junie B. Jones, I have to recommend that you do so. We laugh and laugh at those books all the time.

Tabitha is so cute and funny. She has a few words she doesn't say right. She still callst toothpaste "pooptaste." She has a couple of cavities, so we have needed to teach her to spit out her toothpaste and start using a fluoride toothpaste. She's been using one without fluoride because she still swallows it. Anyway, the search has been on for a toothpaste flavor that she likes because if she likes it, brushing is easy, and if she doesn't like it, brushing turns into a WWF match. She loved her old strawberry Tom's of Maine pooptaste. It took a couple of tries to find something else good, but I think I've finally got it. Tabitha likes to sing her ABC's now and can do them all right except for that horrible LMNOP part. She sings it ending with the "next time won't you sing with me" part, but whatever we do, we can't sing with her the next time. She'll start back up and if anyone joins in, she stops singing and orders us not to sing with her. She has to show off her ABC skills every time, and no one else better upstage her. :)

Isaac also has his funny words. For instance, he loves peak-a-butter sandwiches. He'd eat them every meal. Also, when you get a drink he doesn't "want a pissy cup." Yeah...I woudn't want my orange juice in a pissy cup either. :)One day at dinner, he took a baby carrot from Felicity's friend who was here. He sunk his teeth into it without biting it all the way and then said, "I like it, I love it...I don't want it." And then gave it back. The girls thought it was so funny that they go around quoting him. I cut his hair a couple of weeks ago and got it too short. Luckily, that means that about now, it looks right and it will be a while before I'm desperate enough to give him another hair cut. I'm starting to think that little boys should have long hair just so no one has to cut it.

I am about to fall asleep as I type, so I'm done for tonight.

school choice

This blog http://homeschooledtwins.blogspot.com/2008/08/hilarious-take-on-school-choice.html has link to a clip about school choice from one of my favorite British comedies, Yes, Prime Minister. I think anyone who wants to talk about politics should really watch that show and its companion Yes, Minister. It puts things in their proper perspective. :)

"I don't want to eat Daddy."

The other day, I. was asking me for a "peekabutter" sandwich. For the layman, that means peanut butter sandwich. I told him no because we were going to go meet Daddy for dinner soon. He started yelling, "Noooo. I don't want to eat Daddy." Of course I told the girls about it and they laughed. By the time I told N. about it, I. was well aware of what story I was telling and started laughing before I even got to the funny part.

Incidentally, I think I'm going to start calling the boy twin IN on here for his middle and first initials. It's just too confusing to me to call him I. because it looks too much like I'm using the first person pronoun instead of his first initial.

I think I am the most pathetic blogger ever. Google reader is such a great thing so that people can see when I actually bother to post something here.

For those of you who thought the "pony and cheese" was gross, you're going to love what T. uses to brush her teeth: pooptaste. That's right, we don't give her toothpaste, so she has to use her own special pooptaste. You'll also love to hear that I. puts on his swimming soup to get in the water. Yum!

The twins just turned three a week and a half ago. Tonight when I was visiting a friend who just had a baby, I was reliving some of those great moments from the early weeks of their life: like feeling like a mother cow with them both nursing all propped up on my extra large nursing pillow. A couple of times every night I would have to get myself all propped up in bed with a bunch of pillows behind me and a baby on each side of me and a couple of receiving blankets or cloth diapers handy. Next, position the nursing pillow. Then put one baby on the pillow. Carefully reach for the other baby. Latch one baby on and use the blankets or cloth diapers to position the head. Do the same with the other baby. Wa la--hands are free to hold a book to stave off middle of the night boredom or to eat a snack to stave off middle of the night starvation. Funny how both of those things only happen when you have to get up to feed babies in the night. I remember being hungry all the time, so I got in the bad habit of eating cookies or pop tarts because they were quick and easy.

A couple of weeks ago our ward's culinary arts group made homemade raviolis. As we were rolling past out, one sister was telling me how she loves her lasagna that she makes with homemade noodles, so I was inspired to give it a try and today was the big day. I must admit, the lasagna was really good with homemade noodles. E. had a blast rolling them out. I actually didn't do very many myself--I just scrambled to find places to put them so that they wouldn't get stuck to anything. My big question for myself is: was it good enough to be worth all that work? I think the answer will depend on how good the leftover noodles that I dried and put away turn out to be. If I can make enough noodles at once to last for a long time, it's worth it. If I have to do this too often, it's not. I have several recipes that I really like fresh noodles for, and I would save a lot of money doing this over buying the refrigerated ones at the store.

Boys

It is so funny to watch I. imitate his daddy. Today, N. was out in the yard poisoning fire ant hills. He would walk around studying the ground, stopping occasionally to examine a spot to see if it was an active ant hill. I. trotted along behind him, stopped when he stopped, and bent down to see the ant hill in question. Over and over they did this as I watched from the porch swing. It was so funny to see the grown up mirrored in miniature. I swear I. even walks like N., and he loves to be outside "helping" Daddy all the time. Poor boy, stuck in this house full of girls all week. :)

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Twirly

It's a little known fact that my daughter, A., is already married at the tender age of almost seven. In fact, she informs us that she was actually married at the age of two. I think she chose that as the youngest age that a child would be likely to be able to say, "I do."

It all started when A. was twirling around the living room and N. said to her, "Will you bring me my scriptures, Mrs. Twirly?" So A. proceeded to make up a husband for herself. If she's Mrs. Twirly and not Miss Twirly, she must be married right? She kept making stuff up for quite a while. I feel I know Mr. Twirly quite well, but I don't know his first name. Apparently, his wife doesn't either. At first when I asked to meet him, she said he was at work, but then she amended that to say that he was hiding in her bedroom. I asked if he was shy and she said, "maybe." But then I asked if he was lazy and that got a quick, "yes." When I asked what he eats since food isn't allowed in the bedrooms, she said that he eats imaginary food and that fills him up. But sometimes, he turns invisible and sneaks downstairs to get something from the pantry. That explains all the missing food in the house. I figure that Mr. Twirly must not be very healthy since everything that goes missing from the pantry is junk food and not vegetables. Also, Mr. Twirly is having a birthday tomorrow. That fits in well with our family since many events happen on the 18th of various months for us. We needed something for May 18th.

The funniest part of the whole thing was watching A. try to tell us all this with a straight face. She didn't break out laughing, but she couldn't help smiling part of the time. The rest of us had a great, rolling on the floor laugh though.

This is why we shouldn't have two year olds

Today the twins got a hold of the Desitin and decided that their hands looked really pretty in white. When I caught them at it, T. looked like she had elbow length white gloves on. Her brother had been less ambitious and settled for covering his hands. Of course I grabbed their hands to keep them from touching anything, but then I had no hands to open the door to get to the bathroom to wash them. I asked A. to open the door. She looks at the twins and says, "This is why we shouldn't have two year olds." Uh, yeah, too bad they have to be two before they can be three.

The good news

Today we had orthodontist appointments. F. had been having the whole treatment (expanders, braces, etc) for the past year, so this was a regular appointment for her. At the same time, I was taking E. for an evaluation. Her teeth look pretty good, but I wanted to be sure they were fine. The good news is that nothing needs to be done for now. There's always a possibility of needing something later, but she certainly doesn't need all that F. is having done. It's a big relief because A. is certainly going to need a lot of work eventually. I figure the whole thing is a trade off for E. after all the horrible cavity work she had done as a toddler.

lefties

My mom is left handed, so I've always wondered if any of our kids would be lefties. It looks like I. is going to be left handed. I keep forgetting to tell my mom about it, so I thought I'd just post it on my blog as a test to see if she ever reads this. :) If she knows about it next time I talk to her, then I'll know she checks in here.

accomplishments and birthdays

Today I started off just wanting to crawl back in bed, but I didn't. First, I actually did my day 3 workout, so I have now accomplished week 1. Also today, I did a couple of little fix it jobs that have been waiting for Norm to have time. One was getting our new microwave (new in January, that is) into position with its trim kit. The other one was fixing a curtain that had fallen down. One of the brackets for the rod has been down also since January. It's a good thing I got N. that handy cordless drill for his birthday. ;)

Both T. and I. are totally obsessed with the idea of their birthday. Ever since I started planning E's birthday party (she turned 9 last week), they have been asking every day if it's "my birday?" They know they get cake and ice cream and presents and friends to come play. They will go over the whole list every day. T. has even learned to say that her "birday" will be in July when I remind her that it's not yet. Not that she has a clue what July means, just that she's heard me say it so many times.

Today's workout went much better than Monday's. I am totally amazed that my body actually gained something from a single workout, but today I ran farther in the jogging intervals and felt better when I was done.

How crazy am I?

Crazy enough to take six kids (my own five and a friend) to the Dallas Museum of Art. Of course, four of the six kids were not really a problem. I'm sure you can guess which two were the problem. A homeschooling friend had organized for us to go see the Turner exhibit as a homeschool group, which was awesome. We actually got to see it for free. But two year olds aren't that interested in art--unless it's the kind they draw on the walls and furniture themselves. Still, things were going ok until A. reached out to touch one of the pictures. I had talked to all the kids before the tour started about not touching anything, not even the walls, but she was so interested, she just forgot. The docent doing our tour was very nice about it, but A. spent about the next 20 minutes clinging to me as we went through our tour. Of course, at the same time, I'm trying to keep I. in the stroller and carry T. Fortunately, our docent was nice and also really interesting. She did a great job of talking to the kids at their level and keeping it interesting for them. She picked a few paintings to highlight, rather than overwhelming them with everything. Then at the end, she took us back to the beginning so that we could go through at our own pace to see anything else. The kids would like to go back to the museum. I need a few days to recover before I think about it. :)

exercise for the terribly unfit

A friend posted on her blog about how, despite being a great biker and swimmer, she wanted to take up running, so she's doing this couch to 5K plan. I looked at it and thought, wow, I think maybe I could do that. It'll be hard, but I can do it. So, today I did day one. Ouch! I am so out of shape it's not even funny. I mean, considering that I haven't done any regular exercise since I got pregnant with the twins, it's not surprising, especially since that pregnancy included ten weeks of bedrest. Anyway, despite wanting to quit half way through, I made it through the workout. Now there are just 26 left to go. :)

Pony and cheese anyone?

T loves, loves, loves macaroni and cheese, but in typical two year old fashion, she can't say it correctly. So she asks for more "pony and cheese, pwease."

F on Easter morning. She got her hair cut a couple of weeks later, so it's much shorter now.

I and T together. It's such a relief to have them cooperating with some picture taking for once. Maybe we're past the hardest part.

E on Easter morning.

T on Easter. It was hard to get a picture of her without an absolute cheesy smile, but this one was cute. The others were cute, too, but in a really silly way.

Obviously picture taking has gotten more fun for I. He used to run away screaming, and here is is laughing at the silly sounds I was making to get him to look at the camera.

A on Easter, trying not to freeze!

Lockhart's Lament

This is a really fascinating article on the horrible way that we teach math. It doesn't really matter, ususally, whether we're talking about public school, private school or homeschool, math is mostly taught the same way. After reading this, I think it's time to find some "math classics" and find out a little more for myself.

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