A snapshot of my life

Every year my older kids take the Peabody Test--an annual test is required by the state, and this is our test of choice. Every time our tester tells me that this test on this day is just a snapshot of what my kids know--things are always in motion and always changing; the test just catches one moment.

So this post is me noting down a moment of my life...

Last week Elise and Sammy were pretty sick--so sick Elise had to sit out some ballet. She wasn't getting better when Sammy was, so I took her in to the doctor to have her hemoglobin checked. Turns out she had pneumonia. Well, that explained a lot! Today was the first day she has felt well in 2 weeks. She danced all of technique and pointe, which hasn't happened in 2 weeks. She came home feeling so good that she got the little boys ready for bed, organized the laundry room, started the laundry and cleaned up in the family room. It's good to have her back!

Now, the reason I thought that maybe her iron counts were low is because I went to the cardiologist last week for some heart palpitations I've been having. They took some blood and turns out my hemoglobin counts were at 9.6 (the bottom of the normal range is 11.8). Then I went to the midwife the following day where they took some blood...hemoglobin was at 9.3. So I'm totally anemic right now...which explains my constant fatigue and heart palpitations. But I thought maybe Elise was suffering from the same thing as me. We'll find out when her blood draw results come back.

Because of my anemia, I did something I haven't done in years: I bought red meat. Okay, so maybe it hasn't been years, but it's only been once or twice a year for the past many years (since we've been in school...it's SO expensive!!). However, I'm at a total loss as to what to do with it, because I'm not used to cooking with it anymore. I'm also taking iron supplements, and have the option to have iron delivered to my blood stream intravenously if I'm not feeling better in a week or so. I have little energy so am highly motivated to bring up my hemoglobin counts! I also can't deliver at my birthing center if my iron is below 10. :(

My mom's cancer is stage 4 and very aggressive. My brother who lives next door (practically) says there is an almost daily change in her, and not on the improving side of the scale. She has good days and bad days, and is on hospice care. I have good days and bad days with that news. All of my brothers and their families and my family and I are gathering together the week after Thanksgiving to go to a beach house and be all together in one place. We've been having family Skype calls that have been so much fun! We try not to tack on any "for the last times" in our planning and merriment. But it's always hanging there.

I bought 100# of apples last week, with the goal to do 10# of applesauce a day in my crockpot. I'm about 30# down with applesauce, and we've probably eaten at least 20#. I'll do another batch tomorrow, but I might end up canning it instead of freezing it as I am out of containers and my freezers (both of them) are full. I also need to make apple crisp filling...yummy!

At Caddie Woodlawn's house in Wisconsin

I signed the three older kids up for an online charter school that gives us some of our taxpayer money back in the form of reimbursements for educational expenses--up to $800/child. Our part of the deal is that each child submits 1 worksheet in 4 core subject areas (History/Social Studies, Language Arts, Math & Science) every other week, which works out to 9 weeks/semester. However, we just got signed up, so I've been trying to get everybody logged in, download worksheets and organize everything for 3 kids. Phew!

Plus, now we have to get all the worksheets completed by the end of the semester...which is something like 7 weeks away. Mason, Sammy and I started working on them last night, and they were having loads of fun! The fun continued this morning...until it was no longer fun and the kids learned the true meaning of "busy work". We'll push through these next few worksheets, then pace ourselves with more time to work on each one. Funny how me helping them has reminded me of all the time I wasted doing things like this when I was a kid. I'm sure there is useful information, but man! I'm glad we have so much fun learning without worksheets to tie us down!

At a nature center class--taking samples of the creek

I've spent much of the last two days (and nights) doing my Board of Directors work for the North Ballet Youth Company. My main roles are very much under control, but some immediate needs came up with things I help with, so I've been doing that. Amazing how my brain continues to stretch and grow--the older I get the more I realize I don't know. :) Thankfully I'm also more adept at figuring things out and I know more people who do know.

I'm in charge of costumes and the Silent Auction again this year. The huge difference between costumes this year and costumes last year is that I have a costume organizer and a head seamstress, along with other parent volunteer seamstresses. They make my life wonderful!! I also put a potential Board member in charge of the Silent Auction, so in both roles I am mostly just a manager. It's delightful!

So that's all the extra stuff going on right now. Normal life includes ballet 4 days/week, choir 2 days/week, Virtus (our homeschool co-op) once/week, teaching piano, making bread, having friends over, YW, Scouts and the day-to-day cooking and cleaning that accompanies a family of 7+. It's wonderful, and I wouldn't have it any other way!

Happy Halloween!

This year I had some random burst of energy and actually helped my children carve pumpkins. I know, amazing, right?

Each child also had a costume. Again, you don't have to tell me how amazing I am...but maybe you should tell Elise how amazing she is. She is really the pusher behind traditions like carving pumpkins and wearing costumes. :) She found this amazing dress at the thrift store; here she is with her dear friend, Kieva.

Mason coded his Arduino and some LEDs he got from a mentor. On his back is his backpack--holding his laptop and Arduino. He was pretty proud of his wizard costume! The lights flashed all sorts of different colors and patterns. Lincoln was a pirate/Jedi/knight/bad knight and Sammy was a knight. Trevor was a lion--my little brother wore that costume when he was 3--made by my mom.

We had 4 different Halloween parties that we went to--two mostly sugar free and two full of sugar. We've been figuring out how much sugar is in each candy bar, and it is slightly astounding. We aren't big sugar eaters here, and have had some great talks on how sugar in excess is bad for us. I'm very impressed with the kids and their lack of whining for candy. They are (with the exception of Trevor) quite good at self-regulating their sugar intake. Makes me proud!

Monarch butterflies

My awesome friend, Sandy F, got me hooked into the wonderful world of monarch butterflies. In no time, we identified all the milkweed near us, found a single egg and a 2-day old caterpillar. We soon added 4 more caterpillars of various ages to our menagerie.

Once we started looking for milkweed and caterpillars we were amazed at how many there are around here! Learning about their lifecycle was nothing short of incredible--in 2 weeks they go from an egg that you can hardly see to a 2"-long fatty caterpillar that splits it's last skin and forms an incredible green chrysalis with gold jewel-like trim. 

Then in 8-9 days that green chrysalis turns dark and then clear and then, pop! Out pops a beautiful butterfly!

 

Out of our 6 caterpillars we had 5 hatch into beautiful butterflies, only one of which was a male--and he was much bigger than the females! Their names were Radiance (RIP), Milky (aka Turkey), Sven, Stripey, Engbuhlite (aka Olaf), and Marshmallow. It was a magical 5 week discovery--with every new caterpillar we learned a little more about their life cycle. Maybe wherever we move next will be in the monarch's migration route--we sure hope so!!

Staycation

At the beginning of the summer we sat down as a family and made a list of all the places we'd like to go and things we'd like to do this summer.

We decided to have a "staycation" and have lots of fun with day trips--we really wanted to go camping on the North Shore, but decided our homeschooling camping trip was going to have to suffice. When I started planning what to do within an hour of home I was astonished at everything we could do!

Our first day we went to Minnehaha Falls and played in the water and visited the sandstone caves. Then we really splurged and WENT OUT TO EAT. It was kind of a big deal, even if it was just Smash Burger!

Day two we went to the Como Zoo, and then the Como Pool. Early on I decided to have fun and not try to get pictures of everything. The kids had so much fun being all together--including Daddy!-- every day. That night the boys had a pizza party to celebrate the end of soccer, so two nights of no cooking for me--a great vacation!

Day three we visited a little town on the St. Croix called Stillwater. We visited the old City Hall where the kids spent a good bit of time in the old prison, searching through old records to see why people were incarcerated. We also went to an ice cream shop called Nelson's, where a child sized serving is two softball-sized balls of ice cream. Most of us managed to at least make a dent in said ice cream, and decided we were paying for the experience, not actually eating everything. :)

We also visited the Warden's House, built way back before Minnesota was a state. The kids had fun climbing the walls...

The best part really was just being together with no constraints on our time. I think we'll do something like this again--it was relaxing to come home every day and sleep in my own bed. :)

Band-aids

The kids have been loving this cool summer, and have spent lots of time playing "Forest Children" and riding bikes & scooters in the driveway. This has resulted in much spilt blood and many band-aids. Unlike Grandma's house (where you get a band-aid for hurt feelings), I have to see blood before I pass out a band-aid. I'm mean like that.

Trevor got many a scrape, but once his band-aid was on, he was all better. 

However, the other day he really hurt his elbow. There was lots of blood, and even more tears. All through the washing he kept asking for a band-aid. It was heartbreaking after I put the band-aid on--he looked up at me with his big brown eyes full of tears and in shocked anguish said, "It still hurts!" 

Oh, little buddy! Yes, it still hurts. Band-aids don't actually make the pain go away, but don't I wish they did! I'd give them out to so many people!

Random snippets

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!

And she looks healthy and like she might be a thumb sucker. :)

***

When I was a kid, I remember having my little brothers pray with me and encouraging them to say two new things in every prayer they said. I never dreamed that one day my kids' prayers would include:

"Please bless A that her cancer counts can go down. Please bless B that he can be kind and helpful and do what he knows he should. Please bless C that the doctors can fix the hole in her heart. Please bless D that her kidneys can start to work again."

***
While Stephen was away for 5 days at a conference, Sammy took over the "camel" duty. Every evening after family prayer he would give the little boys a camel ride in to bed. This is also my boy who asked me the other day, "What would you do without Daddy?" I replied that I honestly didn't know. He said, "I would do the things that Daddy does to help you out." What a sweetie!

A few weeks ago Elise and some of her classmates performed at a Mexican restaurant to help raise money for an orphanage in Mexico. They warmed up in the arcade...

We spend about an hour with a fire fighter touring the truck and asking questions that he had never heard before. People who take the time to answer our questions are gems in our homeschooling world!

Mason and Sammy finished up a fun summer playing soccer--Sammy especially loved it, and now has dreams of going to the World Cup (we watched a good bit of soccer this summer...).

We dogsat a friend's dog for a couple of weeks--what an angel dog! I think I could handle having a dog like Cooper! Trevor (and Lincoln) took great pride in taking him on walks.

Trevor stole Sammy's glasses...

What to do when it dumps buckets of water from the sky? PLAY TIME!!

Losing Lincoln

The kids and I had a super fun trip planned to go visit my cousin, Darci, and her family in Wisconsin today. She lives a little over an hour away, so we loaded up my phone with "The Fellowship of the Ring" and away we went. Close to half way there I realized that both little boys had been quiet for a while, so asked Elise if they were sleeping. She said Trevor was, and I asked her about Lincoln. The following ensued:

Elise: I can't see him, Mom.
Me: He probably just fell down because he's asleep.
Elise: No...he's not there!
Me: Are you sure?
Elise, slightly panicked: He's not there!
Mason: I don't see him.
Sammy: Mom, he's not in the car!

My stomach lurched. How could I forget my boy??? Elise asked if she should call our neighbor across the street, but I knew he wasn't home. I had her call our 80-something neighbor, praying that he was home. His wife answered the phone (I knew she would be home, but she couldn't really go over to help Lincoln), and thank heavens, Howard was home!

His training as a fire fighter saved me today--he was completely calm and asked if any doors were unlocked. No, but go to the sliding glass door by the dining room--Lincoln knew how to open that one. He immediately went over and I heard him knock on the door, then knock again. Oh please, please, Lincoln--please have stayed inside! Then Howard's comforting voice, "I see him. He is fine. Hey buddy, I've got your mom on the phone and she wants to talk to you. Can you unlock the door?"

And then I hear heart-wrenching sobs as I try to talk to him through my own tears. "It's okay, buddy. I'm on my way home. I'm so sorry! You go home with Howard and I'll be home as soon as I can. I love you." And Howard in the background, "Can you say hello to your mother?" And Lincoln's shaky, scared voice, "Hi, Mommy." Then Howard on the phone again, "He's just fine--a little shaken up, but totally fine. I'll take him home until you get back."

Everyone in the car (except Trevor, who was asleep, and Mason, who after noting that Lincoln was not in the car went back to reading his book) was crying and scared and blaming themselves for leaving without Lincoln. Elise, "I told him to go in and go to the bathroom--it's my fault!" Sammy, "I knew he wasn't in the car but forgot to say anything because we were listening to the tape story." And me, "I'm the mother, for goodness sake!!!"

We made good time on the way back to the house, and when we pulled in the garage, there was a smiling, chocolate-ly little boy waiting for us. Howard had taken him home, given him 2 popsicles, potato chips and juice. Thank goodness for good neighbors!!

Apparently when Lincoln came out of the bathroom and went to go get in the car and saw it was gone he cried, then went to rest on the couch, then went to rest on his bed, which is when Howard came and knocked. Boy, was he relieved to see him and not be alone any more!! It couldn't have been too bad, tho, because tonight he said that one of his favorite things today was going to Howard's house and having 2 ice creams.

I tell you what, we catered to his every whim this afternoon!

Boy or girl?

What do you think? Jones baby #6--boy or girl?

Another Lincoln quote

Lincoln came into the bathroom this morning while I was showering and proceeded to do his business. All of a sudden he pipes up with, "Well, I'm mostly a big boy, but sometimes I still put my underwear on backwards."

It made me think--I'm mostly a big girl, but I still...
...get annoyed at little things
...slam doors when I'm really mad
...can't stand sudden changes
...say things that I know I shouldn't
...get impatient with children acting their ages
...and the list goes on...

BUT--Lincoln won't put his underwear on backwards for his entire life...in fact, it's only rarely that he still does--and it doesn't bring him down that he slips up sometimes. There is hope for me, too! I'll just make the goal of being better today than I was yesterday, and take it one day at a time, remembering to look behind me and see how far I've come.

Elise is 12!

Where has the time gone? My baby girl has grown up so fast! Here is my walk down memory lane...

2002--Wilsonville, OR. New city, new apartment, new job...a very new time of life!

2003--Beaverton, OR

2004--Portland, OR

2005

2006

2007--first dance class

2008

2009--Provo, UT

2010

2011--Brooklyn Center, MN

2012

2013

2014

We officially have a young woman--busy with ballet, YW's activities, Girl's Camp, babysitting, friends and family. I can truly say that my daughter is a joy and delight to be around!