LET THE FUN BEGIN

Christmas was all wrapped up and ready to go just in time to buy a house last week. Closing is exactly one week away. We can't wait. The plan is to load the kitchen in the car and then unload it into cupboards, then come back for the closets while Carl is at work. Hopefully by the time he gets home mostly only furniture and boxes of stuff that goes in the furniture will be left.

We ran into a great house for a wonderful price in an excellent neighborhood, in a town with a good reputation, just in the nick of time. The house has just been remodeled top to bottom, so we won't need to even paint. YAY! Everything is working out so well for us. We are very grateful. I wish I had a picture of the kitchen to post. Its my favorite part!

Now we just have to organize, declutter and pack one more time. We plan to stay in this house for A LONG TIME.

ONE FUN FAMILY

Have I ever mentioned how fun my family is. An observer was mentioning just yesterday that our family seems really close. Well shoot, we don't get along perfectly but we really do have a good time together. I'm so glad I have them and we're able to get together often, especially since moving here.

Here's another fun thing we did over the Thanksgiving holiday. It was an adult only prefab Gingerbread House decorating contest.

CONVERSATIONS

We've had a couple of funny conversations over the last 24 hours.

Mom: Jordan you should probably tell your teacher we're moving.
Jordan: I did today, I told him we were being kicked out of our house.
Mom: What? we are NOT being kicked out of our house. We have to move because they want to sell the house.
Jordan: Hmm? I told him it was too much money and we couldn't pay it anymore.
Mom: That is not true, where in the world did you get that idea?
Jordan: I heard you talking to someone about it.

I think the conversation he was eaves dropping on was the one I had with a neighbor about not renting another house in the neighborhood for $2000/month. That's way too much for rent.

Early this morning:
Grant: Mom, I dinky den (I'm stinky again)

I change his diaper because Carl has already left for work.

Grant: Danks mom (thanks mom--its nice he can be so mannerly early in the morning)
Mom: Your welcome Grant, go to sleep
Grant: Ding a Dong mom (sing a song mom)
Mom: No, I'm not singing this early
Grant: Bye mom

Indians vs. Pilgrims

This year's Thanksgiving was filled with a little more physical activity than usual. All my family, except for my brother and his family, were in town for the holiday. So after the turkey was in the oven (the best turkey we've ever had) we met at a nearby track for some relays.

We were split into teams, the Pilgrims and the Indians. The first activity was the TURKEY RELAY where flour bag turkeys (made by Katie) were passed from one contestant to the next.

Next was CHUBBY TURKEY, exactly like Chubby Bunny but just different words. Though some of us have been known to have big mouths nobody but my dad has a physically big mouth. He was the champion of this game. We couldn't stop laughing and we watched the contestants shove marshmallow upon marshmallows in their mouths. Its important to note that some people get sick while watching this game. Next up was

THE PUMPKIN ROLL. Sounds like you roll a pumpkin right? that's what I thought but this was a little harder than it sounds. Each team had to roll a pumpkin with the stick side of a broom across the finish line. DRUNKEN INDIANS was the next on the list. Though not a very politically correct named game this is where the adults spinned (spell check is telling me this isn't a word) the kids around for several seconds and then watched them dizzily race to the end of the course. Afterward we had a wonderful CRABWALK match, which turned out to be a little painful on the track.

We ended the festivities with a CRANBERRY ON A SPOON RELAY, the idea was to keep the cranberry from falling off the spoon but someone forgot to tells the Indians that they couldn't actually hold the cranberry and the spoon at the same time.

STOCKING IDEAS

In the past we've filled our stockings with a lot of junk. You know, stuff you end up stepping on and throwing away like little plastic toys that aren't useful. Here's what I'm planning on filling our stockings with this year.

• candy


• Gouda cheese (big bag from Costco)


• wooden toy to be assembled and painted (you know, the $1 kind at the craft store). The kids love those and even though we eventually throw them away its fun for them to paint and assemble them.


• one fruit-with a message on how to prepare it to go into the fruit salad we'll have for breakfast.


• one individual item. Katie-hand made doll outfit, Grant-a new silk. Carl-wasabi peanuts etc.


• a new ornament for next year.

I need more ideas. Do you have any?

Strep, the preferred illness

Why is strep the preferred illness you ask? Because:

1) Feeling tired and achy is so much better than stomach cramps.

2) I've been nice and patient with the kids (mostly because I don't feel well enough to work on projects).

3) I have a good excuse for not making dinner.

4) I've felt well while napping.

5) I got a much needed break.

6) With antibiotics its over with pretty quick.

So now, back to work!

Cleaver Rules Song

While decluttering I found the following Cleaver Rules Song we made up one summer day (2006 I think) while driving home from piano lessons on the windy roads of Charlton MA.

To the tune of Yankee Doodle

Wash your hands before you eat.
No jumping on the couch.
Don't forget to say your prayers.
Don't hurt or pester your siblings.
Don't scream in the house,
unless there's an emergency.
Whining is a serious crime.
Be cheerful all the time.

Verse 2
No tattling unless it is
dangerous or destructive.
Serve others before yourself.
Don't take things out of people's hands.
If you can't say something nice
don't say nothing at all.
Respond when spoken to.
That is all the rules to do.

Although many of the rules were hard to follow such as "be cheerful all the time" the kids thought up almost all of the rules. Its funny that the rules the kids thought of were the ones they especially had a hard time with. For example Alex thought of "no jumping on the couch" and "don't take things out of people's hands." He happen to be the only one that had a difficult time with these before making the rules song. If we were to make a song again I think we'd do more general rules and attach some consequence right in the song.

Moving Right Along

We're moving again. We were hoping to live in this house for at least a couple more years or until our MA house is sold (we still have renters). But alas, the owner of this house wants to sell it in this crazy crazy market in the middle of winter. We've been really busy looking at houses to buy for the last few weeks. We have one offer down on a house, but its a short sale so the bank takes its time waiting for the best price (sometimes months). Its nice that I've recently decluttered most of the closets and cleaned the fridge top to bottom and gotten most of the Christmas presents ready. The goal is to totally finish Christmas up to the stockings by next week . At the moment I'm in round two of decluttering and cleaning. If we don't buy a house by the beginning of the year we'll rent again-ugh! In our 11 years of marriage we have never lived in one place for more than two years. The day will come when we'll be settled for good.

So life has been a little stressful and as a result I've eaten more candy, worried a lot and slacked off on dinner. Why not iron, fold laundry, cook and clean during times of stress? Do you think I could train myself to be productive instead of eating junk food and wastefully worrying?

goodbye halloween

Our two decorations: the Halloween sign and Alex's school pumpkin.

I had the kids put on their costumes again this week so we could finally get some pictures. We have been so busy with life (a later post) that we didn't even get to carve our 1 and only pumpkin. We did go trick or treating in the best trick-or-treating weather in the history of the world (it was in the 60s all night) but somehow didn't get pictures taken. So here are the costumes. We're planning on taking down the rest of the Halloween stuff (the two decorations that we have) today.

Grant the frog.

Our crying cowboy-Alex. He didn't like the alternative hat.

Jordan-any number of Star Wars characters. Its totally wrinkled because he had stuffed it in the closet after Halloween.

Katie decided to be a cat instead of Alice in Wonderland because she didn't want me to have to sew another costume-wasn't that nice?

Playground political talk

Katie: "Mom, we voted today for school. I voted for Obama"

Mom: "Why did you vote for Obama?"

Katie: "Because I knew he was going to win." (the school vote)

later...

Katie: "Mom, on the playground we were saying:

Vote McCain,
things stay the same.
Go tell your mama
to vote Obama

"Kids came over and stood around us, listening to us. I was doing it because my friends were."

I thought this was really funny. It made me wonder though how many people really sift through all the political talk to get down to the bottom of who the runners are and what they actually stand for. As with Katie it seems to be somewhat of a popularity contest, perhaps driven a great deal by the media. People loving Palin yesterday and hating her today. People thinking Obama doesn't have enough experience yesterday, thinking today he's the hope of America. I suppose only time will tell who these runners really are. One more hour before we hear the final decision of the country.

THE PLAN

I'm one of those people who loves a plan. Schedules generally make me very happy (until I overscheulde). Its funny that several of my friends are the opposite, especially Carl. "What time do you plan on coming home?" I ask. "Later" or "In a while," Carl says. "Could you give me a more specific time?" I ask (very sweetly). "Around 9:00" he says. I should learn not to ask for a time because he never gets home at the time he says. Instead of planning the evenings around Carl's no schedule I decided to make my own plan and stick to it. Our nightly routine is as follows:

6:00 clean for 15 minutes (I can't tell you how happy I am when this happens)
6:30 eat dinner
7:00 clean up dinner and pjs
7:30 scriptures
8:00 reading and lullabies

I am getting better at being flexible. If dinner happens at 6:36 I can deal with it, with a few deep breaths. No, just kidding I'm getting so much better I don't even have to watch my breathing.

So here's the plan for today:

Stay happy by expecting several arguments and a few tantrums. Know it will take Grant getting out of bed at least 3 times before he falls asleep for his nap.

Organize and declutter the storage room.

That shouldn't be too hard right? I just have two things. Totally doable.

This weeks plan:
Finish up 5 Christmas presents.

confessions of a soccer mom

This is a picture of Grant who doesn't play soccer but would like to. He was posing in someones shin guards and shoes. I'm pretty sure the shin guards are much more comfortable when worn backwards.

You know those obnoxious parents that totally get into their 5-year old's soccer game? They do crazy things like yell, "Get on D Tony" or "That's your ball Suzy." So does Tony know what D means? It used to disgust me when hearing these things. I don't know what happened, but one day I turned into one of those parents. It was the day when Katie, for the first time, became aggressive and actually ran up the entire field almost scoring a goal. I was out of my seat yelling and was so into it that I almost ran onto the field and scored the goal myself. I quickly realized that I was making a great fool of myself and tried to remain seated for the rest of the game. I wasn't able to sit still. I was clenching my fists and gritting my teeth any time some great play was made. Since then during every game I find myself yelling "run up to the ball" or "go, go, go." I'm a completely different person during soccer games. I'm not typically the noisiest person but suddenly I'm a very competitive, loud watcher. I've discovered that the only way to stifle this behavior is to talk to another mom and not watch the game. That causes a problem when Jordan says, "mom did you see me score that goal." "No," I say. "I can't watch and be reasonable at the same time." No, just kidding, I haven't actually been able to NOT watch a game but I am totally distracted while talking to another parent. The only thing I have going for me is the kids love for me to yell stuff at them as long as I keep it nice and encouraging.

FORTIFY

We were reading the scriptures tonight and talking about how in times of war, armies worked hard to fortify cities. "The prophet tells us we need to fortify our homes. Does that mean we should build a big wall around our house?" I asked. Here were the responses:

Jordan: "No, its not a wall, its the spirit and it starts in the middle of our home and makes a big shield that you can't see."

Alex: "Yeah, its like a force field." I could see his wheels spinning and was sure he was remembering the Star Wars computer game he was playing earlier today.

Katie: "Yeah, I don't think that's what its talking about."

I could see the kids minds were very likely running in the wrong direction and added, "so when we are nice to each other the fortification works really well and when we are mean and fight the force field totally does not work." I wish I could have taken a picture of Alex's face. He was staring off into space, no doubt thinking of how our family applied to Star Wars. I love listening to their ideas.

Miracle

Last year when we lived in Massachusetts after I had a sudden desire to move closer to home Carl told me, "The only way we are going to move is if someone offers me a job." I thought that was silly and that he might actually have to make the effort and look for a job back West. Three days later Carl was offered a job, not where we would have looked for a job but it definitely was an offer out of the blue. I was so excited and thought it was our ticket closer to home. We thought then that we could choose to stay or choose to move and it wouldn't really matter. After all, Carl had a great job in Massachusetts, where he was loved and where there was lots of opportunity for growth in the company. The company was actually growing when we moved. So here's the miracle. We moved to another great company out West and after nearly a year we found out that the company in Massachusetts closed its doors letting everyone go except for like three people to finish up the current project. Its interesting how things turn out. Looking back at how quickly everything worked out, I can't help but think its all a miracle. We have definitely been watched over. Things aren't exactly perfect. We still own a home in MA that we will most likely lose a lot of money on but things are so much better than they would have been had we stayed and Carl lost his job.

Innovations in clothes organizing

Since its getting cold, we decided it was about time to swap out the summer clothes with the winter clothes. A few weeks ago I heard about this NEW way to organize drawers. So we tried it. I'm so happy how it turned out. You can actually see all the options at a glance and fit more clothes in each drawer too. VERTICAL ORGANIZATION is always the best way to go, they say. I guess I never thought that it could work with clothes too.

I B'lieve I Can Fly

So this is not a picture of SAM, its actually Katie. She was the only one we had a picture of on kite day.

There's nothing like flying kites with the cousins on a lightly windy day. Not exactly enough wind to pick up the kites, so we had to resort to running down hills to put the kites in flight. The highlight of the afternoon was when 6 year old Sam got his kite in the air and with his hand (holding the string) held high and eyes looking skyward he sang with emotion, "I believe I can fly. I believe I can touch the sky-y-y." It was hilarious. He clearly didn't see me laughing or I'm pretty sure he would have been embarrassed to tears.

This is Sam, wearing a size 2T costume at age 5. What a silly guy!

Fasting and don't save your chocolate

Once a month is fast Sunday at church. We go without food and water for a couple of meals and pray for a specific purpose. Today the purpose was Jordan's idea-getting along with each other better. So today after we ended out fast with a prayer, we got ready for dinner. Katie asked what she could do to help. Jordan offered me the last of his flavored water even though he wanted the rest. At dinner Alex got cups and water for everyone when he noticed nobody had any. Everyone spoke kindly (except Grant, he's a little slow to catch on). When Jordan asked for more chips and there weren't any left, Katie and Alex both offered him some (their idea not mine)--amazing! This kind of thing is so rare for us. It was a fun and enjoyable dinner. I started telling the kids that fasting works. We also talked about how the house feels different and warm when we are nice to each other and looking for ways to help each other out. Without any prompting the kids started shouting out ways to be nice to each other. Alex is usual the most excited to talk about how to do better. He was coming up with all kinds of ideas like, "I know, when someone is mean to you, don't be mean back." So in the middle of this conversation Alex said all of the sudden, "I'm not going to save chocolate anymore because it melts." I love his 5 year old mind, always going in more than one direction. The moral of the story: fasting works and don't save your chocolate.

Day 5

before
after

This project actually took a lot of time since I had to make some pretty big decisions about which sheets to throw out. I put all my sheets in a container (shelf 2 from top) and folded them in a way that I can see each set. I also moved the kids papers, magnets, coloring books etc to a shelf they could see better. Now when they whine, "mom I have nothing to do" I can refer them to the closet. I had to add a few things I didn't want the kids to play with to another closet. Playdough was dried out and all playdough toys were consolidated. You know, the only problem with dejunking is that its quite messy--piles everywhere. So not only do you have to organize a closet you also have to clean an entire room afterward, its worth the peace of mind though.

DAY 4

all day field trip with Jordan (and Grant)
night out with Carl--5 hours--a little unusual but I'll take it
only time to fold the laudry I cleaned on Monday. Maybe tomorrow it will get all the way into drawers.

No time for dejunking today

Declutter Day 3

BEFORE

AFTER

Again, not a huge difference but I found some cookie cutters I've been missing, consolidated some Apple Cider Vinegar--mom I threw some out, I hope you're not mad. I also found out exactly how many bags of chocolate chips I really have. Tang, did I mention I found some of that?

Declutter Day 2

One bookshelf

BEFORE

AFTER

Okay so the before/after contrast isn't really stark but look at the pile of stuff I got rid of and guess what? I found a dvd that's been missing for months and one magnet dart for our dart set--now we have 2 of the 8 we had a few months ago.

it makes me happy

Today while we were eating lunch Grant put his arm around my neck and said,
"I wike (like) you mom."

While going through a big pile of old school papers I happened upon this written piece by Katie:
"Light bounces off of anything you see. When the light bounces off of anything you see it gos (goes) in your eyeball and gos (goes) in your brain."

Jordan laughing his head off (seriously, on the floor, hardly able to breathe) when telling the story of me spanking him 4 years ago. He laughed when I spanked him just about as hard as he laughs when he retells it.

Alex telling me that 7 and 7 and 1 are partners for 15.
Alex: "I already knowed 7 and 7 was 14 and then you just put one more in."
Me: "How did you know 7 plus 7 equals 14."
Alex: "Cause I did it on my calclater (calculator) once."

day 1

project/study area

before

after

its so much easier to do a project in a clean area. Under the table are the following projects:

one quilt to me mended

one quilt to finish quilting

scrapbooking-almost done with 2004 and 2005 is our last year of traditional scrapbook. After that we're going with Shutterfly photo books

make phone book fabric covers for shorter piano students

Christmas pjs

several mending projects

a few dresses and skirts to sew

Decluttering Days

For a week now I've felt happy every time I've opened this closet. It used to be a pretty big mess. I was in the habit of stuffing things at the top, which later fell on my head as I opened the door. So I took about 30 minutes and organized it. I also cleaned out my church bags that were piling up on the closet floor. Its made me so happy I thought I'd decluttering one spot every day and post before and after pictures.

I love decluttering because:

• it clears out my brain (especially when I get rid of useless projects)



• the house it so much cleaner and organized



• I can find what I'm looking for



• I actually spend less $ after I've dejunked



• partially empty spaces make me happy

done

About 1 1/2 years ago my friend Molly (the only early morning exercise friend I've had--those were the days) gave me this mirror. She had been planning to sell it or maybe just give it away on Craig's list but she offered it to me and I stored it for several months then carried it across the country hoping to repaint it and use it at some point.









So here it is, finally done.





I love doing cheap projects that save me money and make my house look better. It makes me feel resourceful.



Though, I'm pretty sure you don't read my blog--thanks Molly.

errand entertainers

Today, while at the store, I tried on some shoes. To get a better view of them I rolled up one leg of my pants (the leg I had tried the shoe on). I decided I didn't need the shoes after all and went on my way. After Grant dumped a whole bag of sunflower seeds on the store floor, we headed to the library. While there Grant hit me hard across the face (after two unsucessful attempts to bite me--he really didn't want to cross the library to the non-fiction section). Then he booked it. He didn't know where he was heading but the chase was on. It was quickly stopped as Grant ran smack dab into a table. He screamed for quite a while and wanted comfort--I wasn't actually feeling real sorry for the guy. Next was a trip to the recycling center followed by a quick stop to the second hand store. We had to park farther away than we wanted and walked across a busy street to get into the store. As we walked up to the door I saw my reflection in the glass and realized I had forgotten to pull my pant leg down after trying on the shoes on our first errand. I'm thinking the entertainment Grant provided to unsuspecting viewers during our errands this morning was only increased by my one pant rolled look.

Just say no...to more

Lately I've been eating too much. Its great while I'm eating but then my stomach feels heavy afterward. So I decided I'm going to say no to more food (like second helping). The idea is to feel comfortable but not full. So I still eat ice cream and chocolate covered raisins but instead of eating a whole bowl of ice cream I give myself a scoop and enjoy that one scoop instead of snarfing up a whole bowl without even enjoying it. Seriously, yesterday I had tacos for dinner (my favorite meal) and since they tasted sooo good I just kept eating them. Did I need 4?-no. I wasn't even hungry when I ate the first one, but because it tasted good I just kept going. If I had just eaten one and felt satisfied I probably would have felt a lot lighter going to bed. I hate that heavy stomach feeling. I have a little points system I use with this. Every time I say no to something I give myself a point. I never give myself a point for feeling hungry. I don't want to feel hungry-satisfied is the key. After 100 points I buy myself a new shirt. So Carl says, "Do you want some ice cream and I say, "Yes I'll have just one scoop." That gives me one point because we both know I could very easily eat a huge bowl.

If anyone happens to try this and it works let me know-so far it hasn't worked for anyone else besides me. Supposedly some people lie to themselves about points.

For more information on this subject see Intuitive Eating.

The everyday conversation

Just about everyday on our way home from dropping off Alex at school (the bus driver of the bus Alex is supposed to take is not the cleanest looking person and insists on buckling the kids in their seats) Grant and I have the following conversation:

Grant: Where Alets doe Mom? (where did Alex go mom)

Me: Alex is at school

Grant: Huh?

Me: remember we just dropped him off?

Grant: Huh mom?

Me: Alex went to school?

Grant: Huh?

Me: Alex--school (thinking maybe fewer words will get the point across)

Grant: huh?

Me: I say nothing (sometimes its just easier to say nothing--this however does not work at the beginning of the conversation)

Grant: Alets at paygwoun (playground)?

Me: yes he plays at the playground until the teacher calls the class in.

Grant: oh ... Mom where Daedee (Katie) doe?

The conversation goes on and on. There are a few different variations of this conversation. Sometimes Grant substitutes the word huh? with why? We usually discuss where the whole family is before we make it home.

cleaning

I love Saturday mornings when soccer games don't start until 10. It means we have time for our one hour cleaning (a Smart Mama idea). The idea is that every member of the family cleans for one hour at the same time. We try to stay together to ensure that everyone is in fact cleaning and not putting their legos together before they put them in the box. Its amazing what 5 people can do in one hour. We haven't been counting Grant as a cleaner--he's still pretty good at undoing what we've cleaned in record time, although he is getting pretty good at staying out of the way. Here's what he was up to today while we cleaned.

He found Katie's lip gloss and carefully put it on ... and put it on ... and put it on while nobody was looking. The plan next week is to have him use baby wipes to clean doorknobs, wipe doors and scrub the kitchen floor.

napping

I'm sad to say that Grant is showing stronger resistance to napping. Yesterday after working on getting him down for about 10 minutes I went downstairs to work on the computer. I could hear him running across the wood floor. "Go to sleep," I said. Next thing I knew he was sneaking out of his room. A few minutes later I went searching for him and found him just a few feet away from me on the bottom step. At first glance I thought he was laying there awake, but as I got closer I found that he was completely zonked out. I had to hurry and take a picture before he rolled over and bonked his head on the tile floor.

music to my ears

this is obviously the after picture--so empty, isn't it great!

When Alex can't clean up his room for the 20th day in a row--its time to do some major dejunking and reorganizing. Though I dreaded this task, it turned out to be pretty fun. The music to my ears was when he said, "No I don't want that anymore, lets throw it away." I can't remember what it was--a dollar store airplane? a card? a box which had lost its contents? It doesn't matter whatever it was he got rid of it. Truly a breakthrough.

We had some pretty great conversation which is nice since Alex doesn't talk a whole lot. He commented on the different sound of his congested voice, "My voice is talking funny today." He also said, "Oh mom, these are my imaginary friends. I need to keep these." We made sure we put them in a safe spot. Besides these imaginary friend blank papers he also made sure to keep all the nice notes people have written to him. If you've ever written Alex a nice note, chances are you'll find it in his frog lunchbox.

TEN

Jordan turned 10 yesterday.

pictured here are Jordan, Katie, Alex and Grant anxiously awaiting the opening of presents. The presents were 3 packs of star wars figures (the games ones) star wars legos from grandparents, a star wars book and money from the other grandparents.

His meal choices were:

• breakfast: eggs and bacon
• lunch: Top Ramen-Carl made it into a Top Ramen casserole with cheese and crushed fritos on top. As if Top Ramen weren't unhealthy enough on its own.
• dinner: pizza, one with pepperoni, one with pepperoni and olive and one with pepperoni, olive, mushrooms and spinach.

Katie helped me make a giant cupcake for dessert.

happy birthday to a great soccer player, nice big brother, and all around good kid!

LOVIN THE SHUFFLE

Carl got me a little ipod shuffle for our anniversary. Its been the best thing. There's nothing like turning on the shuffle when:

• I'm out for a jog-I can't even hear myself breath, which I'm pretty sure makes me jog a lot longer.
• I need to make dinner-music makes the things I loathe a lot more enjoyable
• My two-year-old is throwing a fit-I can just watch and don't have to hear a bit of it
• I'm doing projects while Grant is sleeping-podcasts are great at a time like this

The kids also love the shuffle-pictured here is my nephew Titus. It seems he was listening to a very serious podcast.

Swing Therapy

A few days ago I took a last minute trip to the playground with Grant and Alex. The playground is usually a very BORING place to be (for me) but since we were with friends it was doable. After pushing the boys on the swings FOREVER I did some swinging by myself, totally ignoring their requests, "push me mom." I LOVE swinging. I have always loved it. After reading Raising Your Spirited Child and a few pages of Raising a Sensory Smart Child I realize that I need things in my day like swinging. Sometimes I find myself wandering around the house. I'm antsy and can't really focus on one thing. I go from playing the piano to doing a few dishes to sitting down looking at the mail. I never finish anything and can't seem to be satisfied with any particular thing. Its times like these that having a swing, going for a jog, playing soccer with the kids, or jumping on the trampoline can make a huge difference. Its like being recharged. It leaves me feeling happy and ready to focus on one task. Of course the kids need this kind of variety in activities too, especially when they are restless.

Oh Granty Boy

Oh Granty Boy
Your mom, your mom is calling
from room to room and down the hallway
Your brothers gone and all the house is quiet
Tis you tis you must sleep--I'll have a break.
But come ye out when you are nice and pleasant
To see my happy smiling face
And I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow.
Oh Granty Boy Oh Granty Boy I love you so.

And when you come make sure that you are rested
Then I can be my very nicest self
We'll read some books and then we'll cut some paper
Then sit and sing some funny songs with me.
And I will watch you playing without tantrum
And I shall hear you talking nicely too
For now I'll bend and tell you that I love you
Oh Granty sleep Oh Granty sleep until about 3:00

Adapted from one of my favorite songs "Oh Danny Boy"

she's here

My sister Emily moved here a few weeks ago. Three kids out of six in one city--that's pretty good.

nice thought

The world has enough women who are tough,

we need more women who are tender.

There are enough women who are course,

we need women who are kind.

There are enough women who are rude,

we need women who are refined.

We have enough women of fame and fortune,

we need more women of faith.

We have enough women of greed,

we need more goodness.

We have enough vanity,

we need more virtue.

We have enough popularity,

we need more purity.

Margaret D. Nadauld

Hooray Kindergarten

Alex is pictured here in his "I'm a little nervous" look

Alex finally started kindergarten on Friday. While the kids played on the kindergarten playground, waiting for school to start I said, "Alex I'm going to leave now. We'll see you later." I reached out to give him a hug and he turned right around and walked away. No hug, not even a "goodbye." Of course it wasn't too shocking since he very rarely actually responds to anything anyone says. So I left happy knowing he'd be learning things like how to write in lowercase, how to play well with others and how to respond when spoken to.

YAY KINDERGARTEN!

Christmas Inventory

I hate being stuck in December finishing last minute Christmas presents just to find a stash of gifts I bought earlier in the year under my bed and in the closet--I'm such a stuffer. So this year I thought I'd take an inventory of all the great sale items I've bought throughout the year. Hopefully with a little planning I'll be able to finish up most of Christmas by Halloween so I can spend the rest of the holidays baking and doing fun crafts with the kids. We never get to do those fun things because I'm too stressed out.

Our favorite Christmas was a couple of years ago in Massachusetts when we bought one thing for each of the kids--something they really wanted. I spend a whopping $70 total on Christmas for the kids. They were given a few presents each from grandparents. It was such a simple, relaxing Christmas because we weren't loaded with stuff. And best of all the kids were happy with what they got. I was glad they weren't whining for more. We had another, more stressful Christmas a few years before that when I wrapped up tons of stuff, even socks and underwear. It took a lot of time to find a home for all of the presents when the unwrapping was over. It was so stressful as apposed to the more simple Christmas with less presents. So I'm going to try my best to keep it simple and get what people really want.

I was planning on listing the gifts here but can't because sometimes the kids read over my shoulder.

All I'll say is Bristle Blocks will be a hit with Grant.

"good mom" daydreams

Last night at "meet the teacher night" at school the Kindergarten teacher encouraged parents to limit TV and video games and do interactive types of things with our kids instead. Having just sent her daughter off to college she said with emotion, "You've got to have a good friendship with them now because you can't expect them to all of the sudden want to talk to you at age 14 if you haven't been fostering a relationship from earlier ages." She named specific things to do and suddenly I was daydreaming. I saw myself being a really good mom, going on walks to look for new bugs and birds, sitting down and painting with the kids, and reading out loud to all of them as they sat quietly and laughed at the funny parts. In this daydream the kids were all happy and smiling, nobody was fighting. I even dreamed (as I have several times) that Carl walked into a clean house and found us all happily working on something together. This crazy, unrealistic daydream made me want to work a little harder and plan a few more activities during the week to do with the kids, depending less and less on movies to keep my kids occupied. Just this morning I thought maybe it would be fun to finger paint with Alex and Grant. I mentioned it to Alex who said, "that's boring." When I sat down and got myself a piece of paper he said excitedly, "You're going to do it too? Then I want to do it--that'll be fun." I remember feeling the same thing about playing games with my parents. It made it so much better than just with the kids.

So in between all the housework, blogging, reading, meal preparation and errands I'm going to try to spend a little more time on:

nature walks
reading or being read to
painting
going to the playground
playing games

in short, doing things I usually resist because its sometimes time consuming, messy and often physical exhausting. I'm sure it will get easier the more I do it just like reading Bearenstein Bear books have become easier--I used to hate to read them but now its not such a big deal.

Clear Eyes

My eyes tend to get clouded over by worries, frustrations, and just STUFF. The cloudiness causes me to be crabby, snappy with the kids, and though I hate to do it I usually blame Carl for every bad thing that happens--he's not even usually around when bad things happen--of course that's why he gets the blame, because he's not there to bail me out. Anyway, in the last few days my vision has totally cleared up. I'm attributing this change in vision to a clean kitchen (always makes me happy) and the temple. Every time I go there my mind seems to kind of clean itself out (like turning on the dishwasher) and my worries and frustrations go away (at least until I get home). So my mind gets clear and then it gets filled up with great thoughts about treating my kids with more kindness and spending more "fun" time with them, being a more supportive wife and happier around Carl. These thoughts probably don't seem that unusual, if only I could describe how great they were.

Though I love going inside the temple, I've noticed that there is also peace and a mind-clearing power found even outside the temple on the temple grounds. I remember being at the Boston Temple grounds with Jordan and Katie when they were ages 4 and 2 and thinking there couldn't be any other place in the world that felt more like what I imagined heaven to be like. How great to be able to feel that same thing at any temple any time.

READING AWARD

It may look as if Alex reads while fishing but that is not the case. Alex would not allow our camera man take his photograph and is therefore shown here in a family picture.

Alex, genius son of Jamie and Carl Cleaver, was awarded one week ago for finishing his 100 lessons from the Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons book. He celebrated his achievement with his mother and father by eating a 1 foot hot dog at a local restaurant. The 100 lessons started nearly 2 years ago and because of his fabulous mother's diligence and premeditated patience he was able to go through the lessons at his own speed. Jamie, who is known to complicate lessons among younger children said, "I love the book because it tells me exactly what I, as the teacher, am suppose to say. Besides reading the introduction of the book, which was very helpful, there was really no preparation involved with teaching reading, just open the book. I also liked that it teaches letter sounds before letter names--it makes reading much easier." The acclaimed book includes in each lesson: sounding out letters, words, reading stories, answering questions about the stories, and practicing writing letters. Alex is the third Cleaver to use this reading method but the first to finish the book--just in time for kindergarten. The other Cleavers, Jordan and Katie, started kindergarten and continued their reading progression through school.

What's next on Alex's list of goals?--tying his shoes.

Getting the Brain Back

I noticed a couple of days ago that after a short 2 1/2 years since Grant was born I have actually acquired more brain. You know how a portion of your brain goes under construction after having a child and you do silly things like forget about doctor's appointments, place the cheese in the cupboard instead of the fridge and go downstairs to retrieve something forgetting what it was you were looking for by the time you get there? Well I was thinking that was going to last for the rest of my life but hooray I can actually remember some things without even writing them down. Just yesterday I remembered to write a check to someone well before the deadline--amazing. I have also remembered as I've been going out the door about odds and ends to deliver on my way to running errands--miraculous. My memory still isn't at its peak but I'm glad that its improving and one day might be totally back to normal. I'm afraid the history of normal in my family is still slightly absent minded but better than being doomed to having lost many a brain cell never to be retrieved again.

WOOHOO!

YAY for SCHOOL! I was so excited for school to start today. Yippee! The house was quiet and the little boys were nice to each other all day. Everything was nice and smooth until the kids came home at around 1pm. So why start school if you're going to have half days for the whole first week? Oh well! The peace will come again tomorrow. Its not that I don't like any one of my kids, its that they're pretty wild all together. I'm sure its about 95% due to my lack of mothering creativity--I'm going to work on that in my spare quiet hours. 10 more days until Alex starts kindergarten. WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO! Nap time during kindergarten will be absolute bliss.