Poor Little Duckling
The kids and adults in our family have adjusted back to life together. It was a little exhausting the first few days, but things are going well.
We started a new clean up procedure this week. Now for Team Clean the girls each have two loops of string, one in the front room and one in their bedroom. We pile stuff into the loops and they have to clean up everything in their areas. This has been especially helpful to Sara, who tends to lose focus when cleaning. Having a confined space seems to help her a lot, and we have to spend a lot less time redirecting her. This means that we're less frustrated, which is always nice. We also set a 30 minute timer for Team Clean and whoever has finished their jobs (one parent has the kitchen, the other arranges the girls' piles and then does our bedroom and the bathroom) gets to do something fun. Anyone who hasn't finished doesn't get any parental attention until they do. We like it so far.
On Monday, Timmy was in charge of the FHE lesson, and he really wanted to sing "Once There Was a Snowman" over and over for it. We managed to redirect him into a bunch of other Primary songs that he knew and after singing them had him ask the girls what they taught us. It turned out to be pretty fun.
Tuesday was Sara's fourth birthday! She is so excited to be so big. We gave her some non-toxic, non-smelly nail polish; she loves nail polish, but it makes the adults in the house sick to smell it, so we don't let her use it much. Now she can use as much as she wants! We chose the brand Piggy Paint because it was relatively affordable. (Non-toxic options are always at least twice as expensive as nasty ones; nail polish seems to be even more.) She has been loving it! She chose waffles with homemade ice cream for her birthday dinner, and Otter Pops for dessert, but she has since pointed out that she didn't have a cake. We may make her a belated one.
On Thursday we went to lunch with Daddy at his work. We haven't done that in a few weeks, and it's always fun. We went to the pool afterward and Timmy was brave enough to come off the steps for the first time this summer! That was very exciting. He let Alison carry him out into the "Mommy water" and also bounced and splashed at the bottom of the stairs in the 2.5 foot section. Sara also went deeper than before, now that she's a big four year old.
Friday we drove to Springville to visit the splash pad with Grandpa Craig and Ellie (and Becky and Aelfric, of course, but the first two are the ones the kids cared about). We had a wonderful time. The kids have adjusted with no problem to Grandma and Grandpa's move; it's been harder on Alison, but we all enjoyed seeing Grandpa.
Friday for our date we made lists and plans for our trip to Canada. Alison had hoped to spend Saturday acting on those plans, but life intervened. Friday night Amy called and told us about a neighbor who had way more apricots than he could handle, so Saturday morning at 8am Mike and Rea went off to start picking. The kids are usually all up by 7:30 at the latest, which is why we said we'd be there at 8, but yesterday Sara and Timmy slept till 9. So Alison brought them over to help pick from 9:30 to 11. We got five large baskets full, which Mike estimates to be well over 50lbs. Yay!
While we were there, Scott and Sheila asked if we could watch their kids while they went to the temple. So all afternoon we processed apricots while the kids played with their cousins. Most of the apricots we blended in the food processor and then froze, figuring that we'd add them smoothies. When we've tried to make apricot jelly in the past, it ended up more syrup-like, so Alison (who hates canning) figured that we might as well just puree the apricots and tell the kids it's freezer jam. It should work just as well. We filled up all our containers and then started drying a few for snacks. We've used up enough that we can probably eat the rest before leaving for Canada.
Sunday afternoon the bishop showed up on our doorstep with a week-old duckling he found on the side of the road. He asked for us to help it with such confidence in us that we said yes. Unfortunately, a week-old duckling neither produces anything edible (which would make Mike like it) nor is trainable and loving (which would make Alison like it), so it's a rather annoying bit of work stuck in the corner. Sheila posted it on the chicken raisers' Facebook page and found someone who is willing to adopt it on Tuesday, so provided it lives that long, we will get rid of it then. Timmy really wants to snuggle it, though, and we don't actually have the starter feed it should be eating (just layer mash), so we'll see if it survives.
We started a new clean up procedure this week. Now for Team Clean the girls each have two loops of string, one in the front room and one in their bedroom. We pile stuff into the loops and they have to clean up everything in their areas. This has been especially helpful to Sara, who tends to lose focus when cleaning. Having a confined space seems to help her a lot, and we have to spend a lot less time redirecting her. This means that we're less frustrated, which is always nice. We also set a 30 minute timer for Team Clean and whoever has finished their jobs (one parent has the kitchen, the other arranges the girls' piles and then does our bedroom and the bathroom) gets to do something fun. Anyone who hasn't finished doesn't get any parental attention until they do. We like it so far.
On Monday, Timmy was in charge of the FHE lesson, and he really wanted to sing "Once There Was a Snowman" over and over for it. We managed to redirect him into a bunch of other Primary songs that he knew and after singing them had him ask the girls what they taught us. It turned out to be pretty fun.
Tuesday was Sara's fourth birthday! She is so excited to be so big. We gave her some non-toxic, non-smelly nail polish; she loves nail polish, but it makes the adults in the house sick to smell it, so we don't let her use it much. Now she can use as much as she wants! We chose the brand Piggy Paint because it was relatively affordable. (Non-toxic options are always at least twice as expensive as nasty ones; nail polish seems to be even more.) She has been loving it! She chose waffles with homemade ice cream for her birthday dinner, and Otter Pops for dessert, but she has since pointed out that she didn't have a cake. We may make her a belated one.
On Thursday we went to lunch with Daddy at his work. We haven't done that in a few weeks, and it's always fun. We went to the pool afterward and Timmy was brave enough to come off the steps for the first time this summer! That was very exciting. He let Alison carry him out into the "Mommy water" and also bounced and splashed at the bottom of the stairs in the 2.5 foot section. Sara also went deeper than before, now that she's a big four year old.
Friday we drove to Springville to visit the splash pad with Grandpa Craig and Ellie (and Becky and Aelfric, of course, but the first two are the ones the kids cared about). We had a wonderful time. The kids have adjusted with no problem to Grandma and Grandpa's move; it's been harder on Alison, but we all enjoyed seeing Grandpa.
Friday for our date we made lists and plans for our trip to Canada. Alison had hoped to spend Saturday acting on those plans, but life intervened. Friday night Amy called and told us about a neighbor who had way more apricots than he could handle, so Saturday morning at 8am Mike and Rea went off to start picking. The kids are usually all up by 7:30 at the latest, which is why we said we'd be there at 8, but yesterday Sara and Timmy slept till 9. So Alison brought them over to help pick from 9:30 to 11. We got five large baskets full, which Mike estimates to be well over 50lbs. Yay!
While we were there, Scott and Sheila asked if we could watch their kids while they went to the temple. So all afternoon we processed apricots while the kids played with their cousins. Most of the apricots we blended in the food processor and then froze, figuring that we'd add them smoothies. When we've tried to make apricot jelly in the past, it ended up more syrup-like, so Alison (who hates canning) figured that we might as well just puree the apricots and tell the kids it's freezer jam. It should work just as well. We filled up all our containers and then started drying a few for snacks. We've used up enough that we can probably eat the rest before leaving for Canada.
Sunday afternoon the bishop showed up on our doorstep with a week-old duckling he found on the side of the road. He asked for us to help it with such confidence in us that we said yes. Unfortunately, a week-old duckling neither produces anything edible (which would make Mike like it) nor is trainable and loving (which would make Alison like it), so it's a rather annoying bit of work stuck in the corner. Sheila posted it on the chicken raisers' Facebook page and found someone who is willing to adopt it on Tuesday, so provided it lives that long, we will get rid of it then. Timmy really wants to snuggle it, though, and we don't actually have the starter feed it should be eating (just layer mash), so we'll see if it survives.
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