Parentheticals

Surprise! This week was supposed to be our campout - except it wasn't. It's next week. Alison is not 100% sure how this misunderstanding happened, but there you go. Camping next week. There will be a trade blanket at the campout, and Alison found a really cool craft for growing crystals on rocks and painting them. It was gorgeous in the person's blog, and she got really excited about doing it and taking it for trade fodder. Unfortunately, she forgot that she and crafts have an inimical relationship. They did not turn out so great. Mike is trying to do it better, so that hopefully the kids will have something to trade. We'll see how it goes. (Mike is now making monkey paws as a backup. Alison is very grateful.) Mike has been doing research into how to insure other people's stocks, otherwise known as options. He is pretty excited to try it out, since obviously the insurance company always wins. (Alison was a bit worried about our lack of actuarial tables, but it turns...

This last week the weather was nice, so we played outside a lot of the time. As we were preparing to plant our garden in the backyard, we ordered some fruit bushes. Alison had read about building a permaculture food forest, and this seemed like a good way to start that. We had ordered a gooseberry bush, two Serviceberry bushes, and also a pair of black raspberry bushes from a nursery in the east. The bushes all arrived on Friday, so Mike went outside and planted them and watered them heavily. We hope that they produce lots of berries for us to eat in the future. Of all of the seeds we planted a few weeks ago, very few of them have begun sprouting, so we went and replanted the whole entire area yesterday. We have also been burning a lot of wood that we got by ripping out all of the trees of heaven which were growing in our backyard. The fires have been crazy, according to Rea. Alison also went on a massive food shopping trip on Saturday so that we could get all of the stuff that w...

It still feels like we're just getting back into the swing of things, even though we have been home for weeks now. We're restarting all the kids' social activities: nature groups (three a week!), ballet class from a friend's older sister, library trips, etc. And of course getting the basics of school happening. January is always an exciting time in our homeschool. Every year, we retell the Montessori Five Great Lessons: The Story of the Coming of the Universe, The Story of the Coming of Life, The Story of the Coming of Humans, The Story of Communication in Signs, and The Story of Numbers. The goal is to put all learning into context and make it exciting! We did the first Great Lesson this week, which covers the Big Bang up to the Earth being covered with water. The big hit of this one is always the volcano, which did not explode in a very satisfactory way this year. Alison wants to remember to use a disposable water bottle for the reaction chamber next year. Rea mad...

Since having come back from California, baby Elizabeth has learned to sit and she is still only nearly crawling. She has made progress - she can take little "steps" with her feet and occasionally her hands - but she hasn't put it all together yet. She took a break to get good at sitting once she learned that. She really likes sitting and using her hands. She gets frustrated when she can't get to something out of reach, so she'll be very happy when she learns to crawl. (Although she's a very happy baby in general.) Monday night after getting back, for our family activity we went to the library to see a teenager acting group from Provo perform a short version of Cinderella. It was a lot of fun. The mice were the kids' favorite characters. The king really hammed up his part, and there was a very funny third trumpeter. We really enjoyed it. On Last Friday and Saturday we had the Plastows over for a sleep over. The kids were good, and they had a fun time pl...

Apparently, we are horrible at writing blog posts right now. I guess that we need to find a new time to write them as we keep having things after church on Sunday, and so they always fail to get written. Now - to try and remember the last few weeks: On the 27th we saw Macbeth at the historic draper theater - it was pretty fun. They used a post-apocalyptic setting so that everyone could dress in steampunk styles. They also abridged the original play slightly, and they did an awesome job; we could only recognize a few spots where they'd cut things. It was a great performance. On the 29th we opened up our winter clothes and started putting away our summer clothes. The kids have enough warm clothes for a few days now, which was good because it suddenly got cold. We don't normally have to turn on the heater in September! On the 3rd Mike went to BGDG. On the 5th we drove to Reno to visit the Poulsons while Mike went on a business trip. We had a fun trip and did a lot of...

Last week we failed to click the post button, so even though we wrote a post, it was never published. Two sundays ago we had a game night with the Fords. We played The Scarlet Pimpernel, and Nefarious. Both games were fun, and the kids had a fun time as well. That Tuesday Mike went to the Board Game Design Guild meeting, and talked about games mostly. Also on Tuesday we also went to nature group at 2:00 for the first time this year. We picked some feral plums, apples, pears, and we also saw a fox. It was fun. Timmy found bones - they looked like fox bones. Rea read a historical fiction book called "Naya nuki: Shoshoni girl who ran" for her history and geography lesson. She then made a sheet cake, frosted it, and decorated it as a nap of Naya nuki's journey. Wednesday afternoon she told us the story and then we ate the cake. Homeschool book reports are the best. For our Thursday date night, Alison and Mike played "the Perfect Moment" - it is fun...

I don't know if I even need to say it, but this last week was a busy one. We had grandma Julie over for most of the week, which was a huge help to us. She kept things under control while Mike went back to work. On Monday Grandma, Mike, and the kids went hiking up Bell Canyon to pick Serviceberries. It was a total bust this year. We got 6 berries total, so even though the hike was fun we didn't end up making anything afterward. During Mike's paternity leave he scheduled Gideon's surgery, so on Tuesday he took the day off to get the surgery done. The surgeon was apparently running super late, because the surgery took all day and though they left at 10:30AM they finally got home at 6:30PM (the surgery itself took about half an hour). Gideon was very brave, and the surgery went without any real complications, so hopefully his recovery is quick, and he is back to normal pretty soon. Alison is also still recovering, so Mike is trying to make her take it easy. It is ...

Ultimate baby wrestling This week Mike worked half a day on Monday and Tuesday, and he worked all day Wednesday, but he had the rest of the week off. This was part of his paternity leave package that he agreed upon with his employer. Alison and the kids did a good job of holding down the fort while Mike was gone, although the house did get pretty messy since Alison spent a lot of time taking care of the baby, which took away some time from her taking care of the rest of things. One thing that happened early in the week was the conclusion of the light install in the front yard. Mike was able to finish putting everything together, and the lights were easy to install. They look good, however they are not bright enough to be the sole source of light in the room. On Tuesday we picked the "last" of the strawberries on strawberry hill. On Wednesday during the day, Amy offered to watch the kids, so Alison dropped them off, and napped. When mike came home we had pizza at A...

Monday we went to the park near the Dalia's house, and discovered a huge mulberry tree, and picked tons of berries. We made them into jelly and ice cream and smoothie, and plan on making a pie. On Wednesday Mike called an arborist to schedule them chopping down our cottonwood tree. It died this year, and we miss it. Timmy is very sad about chopping down the tree, but we don't want it falling on our house, so we have to do it. Mike also took Gideon in to set up his surgery (for removing his extra toes) and got a date for that (July 9th). We ordered LED strip lights for the front room, and they arrived Wednesday. Thursday we went out and bought a bunch of stuff to finish installing them including a Costa Rican mask to hide the electronics. We got the crown molding installed, and the mask, but not the lights themselves. Mike needs to do some electrical work before we are ready for that, but we think that it is gonna look great. Thursday we also walked Rea to activ...

We were so exhausted after Elizabeth's birth, Grandma Sheila decided to drive down Monday and help us out. She got a hotel with a pool and took the big kids to stay there with her for two days. It was heavenly! We managed to get enough naps to feel recovered from the birth, and the kids had a fabulous time. Alison mentioned it to her midwife, and she said that was the best idea she'd ever heard for out of town relatives and she was going to suggest it to other families. We loved it! Grandma even orchestrated Timmy's birthday party on Tuesday. He wanted Logan and Dustin to play and ice cream cake, so Grandma brought pizza and Dairy Queen ice cream cake and invited Logan and Dustin over to eat with us. Timmy loved it. He also loved his gifts: eggs you chisel open to reveal sea creatures from Grandma Sheila and Grandpa Mike, and two decks of Pokemon cards from Mom and Dad. He got money from Grandma Julie and Grandpa Craig, which he decided to spend on a LEGO set with a dra...

Baby Elizabeth arrived at 4:46 pm on Saturday June 15th. She is a big girl, 8 lbs 3 oz and 22 in. She is a fabulous eater and is working on learning to sleep in her own bed. The kids all love her so much (just like the parents). Her birth was quite an experience. We thought after four kids, we had this down, but she was determined to do things her own way. The first three kids all had very similar labors: Alison woke up knowing she was in labor, contractions got stronger and more frequent for several hours, eventually we went in and she used her hypnosis (or an epidural) to make it through transition and pushed the baby out really fast. Gideon bucked the trend by giving Alison contractions for an hour and then nothing for several hours for two days straight, and she didn't realize that she was progressing until she hit transition. We went to the midwife and quickly pushed him out. The midwife asked us to try to get there a little earlier this time! Elizabeth started off like ...

On Monday we celebrated Memorial day with Mike's family, having a picnic at the park and playing with the cousins. The kids all had a fun time together while the adults talked. The kids then all wandered too far away, so we had to break up the conversation to discover where they all had gone off to. Grandpa Mike helped them catch a little garter snake, and they all loved holding it. After that, we worked some more on the fort, and also prepared to swap all of the winter clothes with summer clothes. The girls needed new clothing, but aunt Amy had supplied enough boy clothes for Timmy and Gideon that we didn't need to buy them anything. The day was blessedly free of rain - We like rain normally, but picnics in the rain is another thing altogether. Overall this week was pretty rain free, so we got more time outside, however the kids still fought a lot, so perhaps we have to break the habit from them. Tuesday Alison and the kids went to Wheeler farm. The kids met up with some...

On Monday we went to Macey's and bought ice cream cones for Family Activity Night. Macey's smallest cones are a very nice size and only 50 cents each, so they're a good treat. We had fun. This was the last week to spend money and be reimbursed through the homeschool charter school we use, so Alison spent lots of time doing math to get all the best things. We got a bunch of books, another Kindle, and some math, botany, and French stuff. It's starting to feel like spring, so we played outside a lot in the nice weather. Our daffodils started blooming this week, and the kids were very excited, since they'd been watching them for a month and waiting. Gideon is at the age of wanting to pick every flower he sees, so we have to guard them from him, but they are beautiful. While Mike was milking earlier this week, he noticed that the goat that we have been calling Enchanted is in fact a male goat. Apparently Mike somehow messed up when he gender identified him. Because...

On Monday Mike went to his new office for the first time. It is down near where 1800Contacts used to be, so he is not that excited about the move. They don't have car charging stations set up yet, so he has to drive carefully on mornings where it is cold enough to warrant the heater. Monday night we watched the Emperors New Groove for family night activity. The kids loved it, and the adults did as well. Kronk was (as always) the favorite. Wednesday we watched Paw Patrol, and ate popcorn for Timmy's date night. He had a fun time, which is sort of the goal of them. Mike discovered the SaltCon Math trade had started some time this week, so he has been adding his games to it, and perusing the games for trade. He really enjoys the math trade. On Friday morning Alison went to get an ultrasound to determine the gender and healthiness of the baby. It is a girl, and healthy. Mike was working from home at the time, so he stayed with the kids, although they didn't end up needi...

This weekend, Gideon finally took his next steps (apparently he took his first step several weeks ago but hadn't repeated it until now). On Saturday he was standing up and saw something he wanted and took three solid steps before sort of collapse-shuffling the rest of the way. That evening he took another two steps, and Sunday afternoon he took one solid step and then collapsed on the next one. We're all very excited; he may be walking a bit by Thanksgiving! The bulk of Saturday we were participating in Extra Life, which is a charity event that Mike's work put on an instance of. It is to help the primary children's hospital. We raised over $1000 for the hospital. It was pretty fun. Mike liked best playing games with the kids. You can see some of the games we streamed here . Alison has been re-adapting to polyphasic sleep after giving it up when everyone was sick a couple weeks ago. If you've been polyphasic for more than a few months, you're supposed to be a...

Mike has started to work on his Lil'Warbucks website again. For those that do not remember what that is, it is the website that he made to help keep track of the kids money. It works like a phone app on Android phones. It doesn't work on iPhones yet. As a side note, Mike is looking for an old iPhone to test the app on. If anyone has one that they are not using, and would like to sell for cheap ($20ish) he would buy it from them. This week Mike created  a Patreon page  as one of his new years goals for making alternative income.  For those that do not know what Patreon is, it is a website that allows fans to pay creators a monthly income for things that they are creating. If any of you would like to become one of his patrons, he would work on things that you want. You can pay as little as $1 a month. Alison's plan to wrestle with the kids every day has been going well. Sara said that wrestling was her favorite part of the week. It seems to have helped Sara's whini...

We had our first sub-goal achieved this week: Rea finished reading 1st Nephi. Her goal for the year is to finish the small plates section of the Book of Mormon, but waiting until the end of a year for a goal day party is too long for the kids, so they get parties for important milestones. We went to a drive through for a chocolate Oreo milkshake and made homemade macaroni and cheese with ham to celebrate. (The mac and cheese had a secret ingredient that no one even guessed: a baked sweet potato pureed in the sauce. Alison had her doubts about the recipe, but no one noticed a thing, so maybe this will always be done in the future; more vegetables are always good.) Gideon loves grabbing on to people's fingers and getting picked up in that manner. We compliment him profusely when he does (calling him a strong baby). Whenever he is done with a diaper change Alison does that, and Mike just does it whenever Gideon seems to be in a good mood. He really is a very easy baby. We are so h...