Two Bad Things. One Good Thing. School. And BYU.

Bad Thing: On Mette's birthday she asked if I would paint her fingernails and toenails (along with Summer's). It's no simple process as they both require different colors for nearly every nail; but it was her birthday, so it had to be done. 

While I was about this task, Hans must have gotten a bit ... bored? curious? or??? I don't know. But he took a bottle of pink nail-polish without my knowing, went outside, and painted, willy-nilly, over every single one of our cars. 

Bless his three-year-old heart, he shan't live this down. 

Obviously nail-polish remover cannot be used on car paint, and the baking sun had dried all of it long before we could set to work removing it. The only thing that worked was scrubbing each spot until you almost lost the will to go on ... with Clorox wipes, which, most of you know, pretty much don't exist anymore (Daisy found a few hidden ones in a container in her bathroom). It was not pleasant work, and I still can't believe we ever got it all off!

Bad Thing: Our water manifold developed an enormous leak last week. We were several days with no water. No water in a house with this many kids is not something I hope to ever experience again (bless our pioneer ancestors' hearts!). Oh we had plenty of water bottles to drink all right, but there are just so many things one hardly notices they use water for until it's gone! Not just the little matter of showering and dishes and loads of laundry, and cooking, but ... for spilled milk on carpets. And sticky babies covered in fruit. And kids covered in cement chalk. And a bed-wetting accident (which we haven't had for months and months, so it would happen while our water was off of course). And for flushing toilets (it's lucky it was summer as our outside hoses were still bringing reservoir water -- which I hauled by bucketfuls to fill our toilet tanks when toilets needed flushing).

But, it was miraculous that Mike discovered the leak before it flooded our basement. And perhaps equally miraculous that he was able to figure out the whole complicated repair process without us needing to hire a plumber. 

Good Thing: I haven't read a chapter book out loud to my kids for several years. Years? Maybe? Yipes. Can that be true? I read them all A Face Like Glass two or three years ago. I might have read them The Wolves of Willoughby Chase after that? Anything since? I can't recall! Mike has read to them (The Hobbit, etc.) but I think I mostly haven't. But! I started reading Watership Down to Pen, Jesse and Anders the last week of summer. I love that book. Summer and Mette, who understood little at all of it, would come snuggle by me as I read, and even Daisy and Goldie (who I read it to years ago) couldn't resist stopping what they were doing to come and listen for a second time. We are only a third of the way through. (They've befriended and cared for Kehaar and he's just discovered General Woundwort's warren for them. Ohhh those rabbits don't know what they are in for! Nor do my kids who thought Bigwig being caught in a snare in Cowslip's warren was adventure and danger enough!) Anyway, there is nothing that makes me happier or more content than reading a book I enjoy to my kids. It made the end bits of summer seem extra happy for me.

School: Well, they are back! The kids. To school. At least for now? I'm crossing my fingers they won't send them all home for online learning ... and bring them back and send them home and bring them back again. And I'm incredibly discouraged that they are learning through the restriction of mandated face masks. But also ... I don't know. I don't feel hopeless about it all. It feels like somehow we will weather and muddle through it however it plays out. And my kids will adapt. And I will. There will be resilience. And, even if the circumstances and the learning itself end up being a bit subpar this year, I really feel we will all be fine in the long run. And, at least two days in, they all seem pretty eager and excited about it all! (Though the eagerness that had them all up and 100% ready a full hour before we needed to leave only lasted for the first day.)

BYU: The very same day the kids began school, Daisy was scheduled to check in to her dorm at BYU! Mike and I took her down and got her all settled. I kept telling her how she could call all the time and come home every weekend if she wanted -- even just for a night if she needed. It wasn't long before I realized all my reassuring her was really just ... an attempt to reassure myself. Sniffle. Such a strange and big thing to send her out of our house not knowing if she'll ever truly live here again. She might of course. (That's another thing I kept reassuring "her" with: "And if you don't love BYU, you can always just transfer to Weber State!") And she will be here for summers and hopefully at least some weekends. But not just here for Starling to run to or to take the girls off to Target, etc. And the thought makes me lonesome. 

On the other hand. It really is so great that we can call and text multiple times a day. It doesn't have the same dramatic feel as a mission when days go by without knowing if they are fine or sick or hanging out in a flooded apartment as Abe was a week ago. 

And it was a happy little atmosphere on campus and around her dorm. And I am excited for her to have this new experience. Even if I miss her being right here with me!

 

Crazy Little Dinosaur Kids

Why won't you post?, you're wondering. Well, who knows, but I'll tell you something that is neither here nor there. It is this, I love this book:There is no real story line or wonderful plot. It is just this awesome little dinosaur roaring his way through life. Roaring through talking grown ups, roaring through his dinner, roaring through bathtime. We checked it out at the library awhile back, and I loved it so much that when we were walking down an isle at Target the other day and Penny yelled, "The dinosaur book!" I had to immediately buy it (even though I probably could have bought it for much cheaper on Amazon, but at the cost of waiting!).

It reminds me not just of kids in general, but of some of my favorite crazy kids. Do you know the ones? Every now and then one of my siblings or friends has a kid who is just a tiny little trouble making wild tornado, and I find myself always secretly liking them a little extra.

Typing this made me think of one of my favorite things to see this past season. As I am driving back from dropping my kids off at school, I inevitably see one or two kids running to school along the snow drifts on the sides of the road. Yes the sidewalks are nicely shoveled; yes there is a clean shoulder on the side of the road; yes the bell is probably about to ring and they are rushing because they are about to be late . . . and yet . . . crunch crunch, sink, crunch crunch, sink they go. I see it and I laugh at the little souls making their way to school the least efficient way possible, and it somehow impresses upon me the whole perfect wonderfulness of kids.

A is for Apple, S is for Sherbet

I was totally duped when I bought this book. I don't know what I was thinking.
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The problem with a first dictionary is that it has words like "apple," and "dirt." And it may not surprise you to hear that by the time your child is old enough to read, they generally already know what an apple is.

In my defense, I bought it with out having first flipped through it (though, I suppose the cover is rather telling). I also bought it before my first child had yet learned much of anything. I purchased it in glorious anticipation of the day when he would flip through its pages to satisfy his curious little mind.

How was I to know that it would only be a disappointment if, at age five or six, my son would need to ask, "Mother dear, what on earth is a flower?" And then what? Rather than taking him outside to show him one -- to cure his ignorant state by giving him firsthand knowledge, I would say, "What planet are you from kid? Go look it up in your dictionary why don't you?"

I have almost been just as duped into buying those DVD's you see advertised that have your 14 month old reading Charlotte's Web out loud to you with out so much as a single mispronounced word. It is every mother's dream -- not only do you get to let your child sit there staring at the TV all day long, but they learn to read on a 4th grade level in the process.

I haven't actually given up on those . . . if any of you have purchased them and can verify the truth of their hefty promises, please let me know.

On another, and completely unrelated note: My favorite ice cream no longer exists. My other favorite ice cream, that is. My first favorite was Snelgrove's Rocky Road. They drifted off the planet because "the rising generation did not identify with the brand from their parents' generation." (That may not have been the exact wording -- Mike is always telling me I'm not allowed to use quotation marks all willy nilly -- that I must be sure I am truly quoting. Of course I say, "Bah" to that, but I figured I would take a moment here to clear myself of any and all future quotation mark abuse).

Anyway, all that was left for me to love was Dreyer's Sherbet Swiss Orange, so, when recent circumstances were such that I couldn't find my Swiss Orange anywhere for several weeks, I decided I would be the victim of circumstance no longer. I took the bull by the horns so to speak and actually emailed my plea for help to Dreyer's headquarters (or at least to a Dreyer's customer service representative). After a day or two of anxious waiting and nail biting, I received my reply. They had discontinued the product based on low national sales. The customer service representative expressed her understanding of how frustrating it can be to "search for, but fail to find, your favorite dessert treats," (those quote marks are entirely legit) and tried to give me hope (false hope I am sure) that if enough inquiries are made in regards to the product it might possibly be "reinstated" at a later date. Bah! What's wrong with the people in this country? (I say that because the only alternative question would be "what's wrong with me?" and heaven forbid. Heaven forbid, I say). I must be upset though. I had been having visions of Dreyers showing up at my door, apologizing fiercely for any strain the temporary unavailability might have caused me, with several cases of the stuff. I must be searching for a way to fill the void because today I bought a Razzleberry Pie at the store. Whaaat? I know. I know.

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Anywho, if time were permitting, I would now tell you about how I bought some scrambled egg microwaveable patties the other day (totally against both my will AND my better judgement) because I was pressured to do so by a kind elderly lady at the grocery store, but there is no time for that. The time it has taken me to accomplish what has been typed thus far has been at the high cost of having every cupboard in my house ransacked by Jesse. Constant vigilance. Farewell.

A Cool Text

I don't know that my niece Ashley has any knowledge of this, but Lorna Doone and Precious Bane happen to be two of my favorite old classic novels. That is why I got such enjoyment out of this tiny texted conversation today.

First, I received this text from Ashley:
Isn't Lorna Doone the story with the girl who has the harelip?

My reply:
You wish. That's Precious Bane. I have it if you are still here and want to borrow it. (Only, to be honest, my text didn't exactly say that -- some words were left out and some were spelled wrong altogether because I still don't really know how to text -- but, that is what it tried to say).

Ashley's response:
I wish? :) That is awesome that you said that. Dang. I guess I do wish actually. I checked out the movie Lorna Doone and kept waiting for harelip, but she never showed.

I love that she waited and waited through all of a movie that has nothing to do with a harelip for the girl with the harelip to make her appearance. And, I love tiny little moments in my day when someone gives me some tiny thing to chuckle about.

A "Best Day Ever"

Once, in Israel, my roommates and I had a "best day ever." I don't actually recall what was so great about it other than every single one of us got letters and/or packages, and it just seemed like every corner we turned had some new happy surprise -- even silly things -- like returning to our room and discovering our curtains had been replaced with new ones. I have a picture of us all standing there in front of our new curtains -- joyfully holding up our letters and packages.

Today seemed like a "best day ever." So far every single thing about today has just been happy. I feel so happy.

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1. It has been snowing -- ALL day. I know that running errands, etc. in snow is no fun, but my mom loves nothing more than a storm -- any storm -- wind storm, rain storm, snow storm; so we were raised to feel excitement at the slightest inkling of a "storm." Storms meant happiness, and fires in the fireplace, and stories to be read. Living close to the mouth of the canyon also meant most nights were quite windy. I was surprised when I married Mike and found that to him a wind storm meant something very different than being cozied up in bed with blankets -- happy as a Lark. It meant shingles blowing off of roofs, or tarps coming off our hay, or other stressful things. So, we would lie in bed listening to the same blustery wind -- one of us tense, the other smiling peacefully as if being sung to sleep.

I admit I don't love old slushy dirty snow, but I always feel a little sad when someone says, "I hate snow." You can say, "I hate driving in snow," or "I hate shoveling snow," or "I hate walking with snow on the sidewalks," but "I hate snow" seems a very rash declaration. When it is falling and covering everything with white. When there is nowhere specific you have to go, and especially if you have Christmas music playing; well, there is not much more lovely than all that white snow.

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2. Christmas music has been playing all day.

3. My Mike is home with us, and with no other agenda than just being with us. Mike works such long hours, that he isn't just home all that often and when he is home, there is generally something that needs doing -- house projects, errands, etc. But, today is Abe's birthday, so our whole plan was just to be home celebrating that. I feel so much more content when I have my husband home with me.

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4. It's Abe's birthday -- and a happy one at that. He told me he woke up at 6:15 and couldn't sleep because he was so excited and couldn't believe he was nine. That is one of the best things about having kids -- you get to re experience things that you've long since outgrown -- like being so excited for Christmas or a birthday that you can't even sleep.

We don't generally have friend birthday parties for our kids. When Abe and Daisy were very small, I would do a big party for them in the day with cousins, etc. By the time Mike got home, it seemed they were all celebrated out. We decided then to make birthdays more of a thing to celebrate with our family. I do try hard to make the whole day special and about them -- the kids secretly make signs to hang the night before. We let them choose their favorite sugar cereal to have for breakfast and do games, etc. with our family.

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With that said, I'm not so rooted in our ways that they can't alternate every now and again. This year Abe asked if he could have a few friends over, and we were happy to oblige. Planning it wasn't easy because Abe questioned my judgement of "cool" at every turn, but in the end, we agreed on making candy trains and playing several games that passed his "cool" test. It went great, and Abe seemed well satisfied with the outcome. He has contentedly been playing with his toys ever since. Mike is sweetly making dinner (after all my party work), and we will finish the night with cake and presents and the birthday boy getting to stay up late.

5. I know this probably seems silly, but I was already thinking how wonderfully happy this day seemed -- with the snow and Mike here and Abe so happy and the party festivities having gone so well (and having been cleaned up), but then, much later than I thought UPS drivers would still be out making their deliveries, THIS came to the door:

I was so giddy with excitement that I could hardly contain myself. Clear back in May, I downloaded the blurb.com Booksmart program to turn my blog into a book. It was fun to work on for about three days, but then I started having dreams. All night long (for several nights in a row) I would dream out an event or happening; then that event would turn into an image that I had to format correctly into a book. It was maddening.

The program "slurps" your blog right up in order, etc. If you have a post that is just words, or just one main picture, or even words with pictures that don't have to be in any order, it works great. It is just that the Booksmart program doesn't work like blogger where you can just drag your pictures anywhere in your post. You have to choose a format -- and the formats don't always jive with your exact post and how it was laid out on your blog. You can just put it in one of their formats, or you can even create your own formats, but it can drive you a little crazy (hence my dreams).

There are advantages though. You can click a different background for each page. You can have pictures that take up entire pages or are part of a collage, etc.

I got sick of messing with it in about June and laid it aside til last week when I decided that I'd done enough to at least print one book. I've only done my blog from Feb. 2008 (when I started) to Oct. 2008, but I have so many posts and pictures that it was already a 180 page book.

Anyway, here are a few sample pages.

It just seems so fun to have it as a real concrete journal rather than just something floating out there in cyberspace. And I LOVE that I now have a journal that actually has pictures of what I am writing about right along with it. My kids were looking through it tonight reading out loud things I'd typed about them, etc. It really is one of the most satisfying things I've ever held in my hands. I wish I could order copies for all of my kids since it is a record of so much of the goings on of their own lives. Maybe I will sometime, but for now that would be a little pricey.

It is some work, but you can make it much easier if you aren't too picky about having everything placed just right. I highly recommend doing this for any of you out there who have a blog. It is such a perfect journal. I am in love with it and can't wait to get my more recent posts put into one!!

Lastly, and totally unrelated, I love to see my kids creative little minds at work. Daisy just whipped up this little hot air balloon for her toys tonight . . . and look, now this picture is here on my blog . . . which means it will eventually end up in a family journal book right in our own home!

What I've been reading and watching (or not watching) lately

So, I finished War and Peace awhile back . . . or did I? Well, it is quite frustrating. You see, the story was done. The characters gone. The 1200 pages traversed. The tale finished. . . . And yet . . . there was more . . . 30 pages more. What's 30 pages after 1200, you ask? Oh nothing. I know. I have to finish or I may as well have just stuck with only ever having read the abridged version. It is just that before, when Tolstoy would leave off the story to philosophize about wars and the whys and wherefores (in a "which came first -- the chicken or the egg" fashion), there was always the pull of needing to get back to the story to get me through it. But to end the story and then expect me to read 30 more pages of tiny print? Sigh. I must . . . but I am not the intellectual some of you might be and while I recognize the value in much of what he says and have learned a great deal about Napoleon and war itself, I have to force myself to read it and in truth, I don't enjoy it. Still, I'll do it, but may I just say, that I think War and Peace is a great great book with amazing people and a great story . . . SOOO, despite my own embarrassment at having previously read only the abridged version, it now occurs to me that I would most likely recommend the abridged to anyone wanting to just have a really good book. There you will find all of the story line with fewer of the breaks.

But, while I have been putting off reading the rest of those pages, I read Princess Academy by Shannon Hale. She wrote The Goose Girl -- which I've heard of but never read. Anyway, it is a quick young reader type of book, but just a fun and happy thing to read. Thanks Marnie for lending it to me (when it wasn't even yours to rightfully lend).

Next, I read Watership Down by Richard Adams. My mom read us this book when I was probably 10 or 11. I didn't remember the story line though -- just that I'd liked it. Anyway, its about rabbits. I know, I know, you are thinking it couldn't possibly be good or worth your while. "Rabbits!!?" you are thinking, "That's a good one!" I don't mean "about rabbits" as in "a book telling you about rabbits." I mean that the characters are indeed rabbits, but seriously, it is such a great story. I think Abe and Daisy would love me to read it to them, but some of it is a little violent so I will probably wait, but honestly, I spent the last half of the book "on the edge of my seat" so to speak -- biting my nails and thinking they would never make it. It really is quite a great tale. I think Mike would have liked it too, but I knew I was too impatient to read it out loud to him because then I could only read it when he is home (and since we have been reading a book for the past two years together, I knew what waiting to read it with him would mean).

As for watching -- I don't watch much anymore. In WA, all the shows came on at 8 or 9 pm when my kids were asleep, so Mike and I sometimes liked to watch something or other. Here they all start at like 7 pm! As if that would ever work. We still watch LOST and as much as I hate saying I love something that everyone says they love, I do like it, and I think all of you should get the first season and starting watching right away if you think you would never like LOST. Anyway, LOST isn't on right now so I really don't watch TV.

But, the other night I happened to turn the TV on one of the public broadcasting stations to find a little show called "From Lark to Castleford" coming on. It only lasted an hour and was as charming and good as most any English countryside show I've ever watched, but I wasn't sure if I'd just seen the end of a mini series or what. I looked it up and it turns out it is an entire BBC series. It has already had two seasons. I was so excited to watch them every now and then, so I looked on Amazon only to discover they were priced in "pounds" equivalent to about 46 bucks in American money. And that, just for one season! To add insult to injury, it said that the discs wouldn't work in most US DVD players. What?? Do we have different DVD players than the Britts? What is going on here? Since when are good English shows made exclusively for the English? I was so happy thinking of myself cozying up on my couch at night to watch an episode or two. Mike would be with me -- and while I might let him have the laptop handy to peruse classifieds when bored, he would mostly enjoy them with me. What has this world come to? Somehow I really can't accept that there can be NO "From Lark to Castleford" for me.

Anywho, there is the run down on my recent media experiences. Are books media?

Book Tag

I was reading a friend’s blog yesterday when it happened again, I was “tagged.” In this particular instance, you are to look for the nearest book, open to page 123 and record the 5th sentence down. Of course, my friend (we’ll just call her “Jami” – oh alright, that is actually truly her name, so we’ll call her Mrs. X instead – even though you all know now that she is Jami) . . . anyway, Mrs. X happens to have the book Love and Logic close at hand, so she finds her little sentence and it is of real value. I actually paused a few moments and thought, “I need to remember that.” So, I look to my nearby dresser and here are the books I see:

1. My journal – well that should be inspiring at any sentence.

2. The scriptures – ha! I could totally beat Mrs. X with this!

3. The Activity Book – a cool book of mutual activity ideas from the 70’s.

4. A notebook of things my kids have said – not 123 pages there.

5. Who’s Who in the Doctrine in Covenants – this is a great book to have close by the next time you are reading D&C.

6. Teachings of Presidents of the Church – this years study guide for Relief Society.

7. The Alexandria Link – someone in my book club told me to give it a try. It’s not my usual style of book, but who knows.

8. Wigwam Stories – this is the winner. I’m sure it is the most exciting (oops, I’ll probably go straight to heck for saying that when the scriptures are an option!). I haven’t actually been reading this book (though here it is on my bedside table) rather Mike has read a few stories out of it to our kids. His dad lent it to him for the kids on the last trip home. Anyway, page 123, 5th sentence down (drum roll please): Wait, pause, page 123 ends one of the Wigwam stories and there are not 5 sentences!! I’ll just have to modify. Ok, here we go again, page 123, last sentence: “But the Old Grandfather who had been a Witch went off into the Forest, and no one ever saw him again.”

Wowzers, now that was good stuff. I think I am going to take over the reading of Wigwam Stories to the kids. It seems Mike has been cheating me out of serious excitement! In fact, I have a sneaking suspicion that Wigwam Stories will increase in sales over the next few days by a number corresponding to the amount of people reading my blog! Thanks Jami!

A Very Awful Good Book

I read Tess of the D’Urbervilles several years ago when I got it from a sister-in-law at a family “book exchange” -- I thought I was over it now, but someone brought it up recently and I was surprised by the intensity of my feelings -- like feeling a violent surge of anger upon hearing the name of a past enemy, one whom you’d convinced yourself you’d forgiven. I guess I am not over it. I hardly even remember the details of the book, but I remember that I loved poor Tess, and I remember how awful the end was. I was mad at the author for days afterwards (well, apparently more than days). It just made you want to raise your fists to the sky and shake them at fate (fictional though it was) for allowing her life to go so awry when with a few minute changes, just a few strokes of luck, had she not gone to one place, or had she gone to another, had there been a small change in the timing of any number of crucial decisions she might have had the most happy of endings!

So, I have not yet recovered after all. What’s more, I’ve given away the ending to anyone who didn’t know. I suppose, as a friend commented, it must have been a pretty good book for its outcome to affect me so.

War and Peace

That's not just a catchy title, I really am talking about the book. I read it ten years ago, so I've always been among that special group of people who have read the masterpiece. What's more, I am one who has been able to honestly say I love the book. The only trouble . . . it's loads of work -- superbly well rewarded loads of work. I had to keep notes on who all the charactars were, the different names they went by, how they were connected to anyone else for the first 300-400 pages.

I began reading it again last week, about 200 pages in, I chanced upon a "review" of War and Peace online wherein it stated something about the book being 1200 pages or so (depending upon your translation). Well, that sounded a bit much to me, so I took a closer look at my copy. I had never actually looked at the title page, and to my horror, as you may see here, it clearly is an "abridged translation". I can hardly hold my head up for the shame of it all. I was not among those who had read the book at all. Oh no, I'd read a measly 700 page abridged version. It has since been tossed aside while I await the arrival of my new full translation. Apparently I will have to wade through 500 or so more pages to once again have the full reward.