Parentheticals

Throughout the week Mike has been slowly packing up things and moving them box at a time into his office and the carpet room. The front room is completely empty and the kitchen is as close as we can get it without moving anything that is completely necessary to living and eating in this house. Mike's office is pretty darn full right now, however it still is possible for him to work in it. On Wednesday the Water's kids found some mushrooms in their yard, so we decided to see if there were any mushrooms up at the dell. We found three morels, a few clusters of oyster mushrooms, and a cluster of wild onions. We picked one of the onions to transplant to our yard and gathered the mushrooms to make into some sort of mushroom food in the future. Mike sauteed them and froze them, so the next time we make pizza we can have wild mushrooms on one. On Thursday the kids were bored, so Mike cut up some dowels that we had sitting around the house and made some drumstick sets. He sanded them do...

 The cold that Alison had a couple weeks ago went through all the kids this week. They took turns being super whiney and grumpy and such, so it lasted all week. We ended up keeping them home from nature group and church. Unfortunately, we played with the Plastows right as Boo was starting to get sick and we didn't realize everyone was getting it, so we may have given it to them. (And then Mike decided that since we'd already probably infected them, the kids could keep playing with them all week.) Sorry, Amy! So it was a grumpy week. That wasn't much fun. Saturday morning we had a power outage for an hour or so! It took the kids quite a while to catch on to what had happened (Saturday morning is their screen time, and apparently they were all using apps that didn't require the internet), but when they did, they were excited and a bit concerned. Alison told them to collect wood for a fire, and we had a fire in the fireplace. That's always a good solution to power outa...

Utah went to "Orange" social distancing this week. After studying and pondering the directives for DAYS (because they were so contradictory), we finally figured them out: "Stay home, unless you want to spend money, in which case, try to stay 6 feet apart, but go ahead." Since we have literally engineered our life so that none of the things that bring us joy involve spending money, we can either just stay home forever (Alison isn't anticipating getting out of orange before next Christmas), change the way we live, or stretch the guidelines a bit. We've started socializing with one other family outdoors, reminding the kids to stay 6 feet apart. They try hard :). And once every week or two we'll get together with another family. However, Alison's best friend's mom just died, so we have been babysitting her kids several times this week; we feel that's far more important than the guidelines.  The kids have lost a lot of social skills in two months ...

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...

This last week we hunted morels many days. We found a few, but not nearly as many as we should have. It wasn't a good year for them I guess. We did have a fun time wandering around in the woods, and we saw some pretty cool parks in the process. We have also been reading the last unicorn recently. The kids like it, and wonder what will happen. Thursday Mike went to Bgdg, and presented his game. It was pretty good, however they didn't really give a lot of feedback this time. He has some ideas anyway, so hopefully good things come of it. On Friday we went to a play at the obt. It was A lad 'n his Magic Lamp. It was funny, and there were many memorable characters in it. On Saturday Alison mentioned that she wanted a place to store the bikes not under the car port, so mike started building a bike shed. It came out alright. The kids bikes at least fit under it, and it was made entirely out of things that we had around the house, so that was good. Alison's birthda...

The weather was really good this week. Because it was so good, we played outside a lot - many days we went mushroom hunting, and tried to find morels, but we didn't end up finding any yet. Tuesday nature group at the park went long, and Mike got off work a little early, so he met us at the park. Then we decided to pick up fast food on the way to Dimple Dell and hunt morels for the evening. It was a nice evening. Alison started to attend a water aerobics class this week. She developed Symphysis Pubis Pain this pregnancy for the first time, and all her normal forms of cardio hurt. Water aerobics was recommended by everyone she asked, so she's excited to try it out for a few weeks. Most of the water aerobics moves didn't hurt, which is better than anything else she's tried. On Friday we tried to go to the OBT and catch a show, however we decided to take the train, and the weather was so crazy that lightning struck the train lines, and the trains were no longer running ...

This week we celebrated Holy Week and Easter. When we told the kids that last Sunday was Palm Sunday, they got very excited. Apparently Rea and Sara at least remember some of our Easter traditions and were excited to do them again. That made Alison very happy. Mike was sick with a cold, so the kids took turns being the donkey for the Palm Sunday game. Then they went outside to find green things to wave while we sang "Hosanna" from the Children's Songbook. On Monday Mike was still feeling sick (as he had most of the last week), so he decided to take a sick day for himself. In the evening we talked about Jesus cleansing the temple and played a game of Clean Up Your Own Backyard with socks. Sara didn't want to play at first (she currently resents all organized games), but she got drawn in because it was so fun. We all enjoyed it. Tuesday we went outside in the rain at Wheeler Farm. Gideon actually made it a whole hour! He's hated being out in precipitation or ...

Last Tuesday we left for our trip to Italy. We woke up the kids at 3:30, and the plane left at 7:30. We were on various planes all day, and we arrived in Italy at 11 am the next day. The kids (aside from Gideon) binged watched movies all day long, and practically everyone on the entire plane commented on how well behaved they were. Sleeping on the plane was hard, but what can you do? It is a small price to pay. After landing we got a car (which took an hour at least). The car that we got was an 8 seater van with a huge trunk, which we named the "Behemoth". We had planned on getting a smaller car, but that was all they had apparently. Timmy is sure Behemoth means "A small mammoth". After we got the car, we went to a train museum and saw some trains and planes. We only really went there because we needed to find a bathroom, but we made the most of it when we were there. Timmy and the other kids loved the whole museum a lot, especially the trains that you could c...

Alison and the kids went outside a lot this week, and almost every day the kids got to play with the Dalyais. That made it one of the best weeks for the kids. It's nice to have good homeschooling friends. It also gave Alison time to work on rewriting the science curriculum she loves into a more usable form. Alison has also been working about two hours every night this week (one time she had 5 back to back English classes). She made almost $200 last week, which is pretty good considering all that she does is teach on the computer from 5:00 - 7:00 (before the kids get up). On Tuesday Mike went to his design guild meeting, and presented his witch hunt game. He made a 9 card version of it, which was very well received. Mike also got back a rejection from a publisher for "The Citadel of Madness" this week, so he is going to shop it around a bit more, as he thinks that it is a great game. While he was at the BGDG, Alison and the kids went to their martial arts class. It h...

Apparently, last Saturday the morel hunters wandered through a patch of poison ivy without realizing it. Rea woke up Monday with an itchy, red, oozing mass on her neck that almost drove her crazy all week. Luckily she is old enough to rub hydrocortizone on it when it itches instead of scratching, and also luckily, it only lasted one week. Daddy, Sara, and Timmy just had localized patches of red bumps, but all three of them still have it hanging on and refusing to heal. Daddy's is the worst now. Mommy and Gideon are glad that they missed it. Other than the poison ivy attack, the week went fairly well. We played outside almost all day every day, since it was warm-to-hot (in the eighties all week). Saturday we planted some seeds in the backyard and fixed up bikes for the summer. For Sara's date on Wednesday we got pizza and ate it at Dimple Dell and then looked for more mushrooms. We didn't find any, but we had a lot of fun wandering and exploring new trails. Mike and th...

Another week has passed. Alison got a new bike this week. She is trying to figure out how to bike around four kids, and was hoping that having a bike with a higher seat would allow her to attach a trail-a-bike to it, which would mean that she could carry two kids along behind her on her bike. It doesn't seem like it is going to work, however, and she might end up just hauling the kids in the bike trailer like in previous years. Wednesday was Rea's date night. She chose to have a fire, read books, and have a dessert. It was fun. This week Rea and Sara went to theater camp to prepare for a play that they put on on Saturday. It was The ugly duckling. They said their lines clearly, and spoke toward the audience most of the time. They did very well. At the same time, Alison, Timmy, and Gideon waited outside for them, and got good naps. Grandpa Mike and Grandma Sheila came over to Utah this week, so we were able to spend some time with them on Friday and Saturday. We watc...

The kids have loved riding their bikes this week, but they've all outgrown their own bikes. We need to buy Rea a bigger one, put training wheels on Rea's for Sara, and move Timmy from the trike to Sara's bike with training wheels. Alison also wants to put a handle on the back of the trike so she can push Gideon. The kids are not too excited about the changes. Sara was OK as long as the doll seat moves to the back of her new bike, but Rea was very upset about losing hers. Alison finally had to tell her that she could only keep her old bike if she bought Sara a new one with her own money. Then she started fighting with Sara about the name of the bike. Rea insisted it keep whatever name Rea gave it, and Sara wanted to transfer her old bike's name to her new one. Finally they agreed that if Rea paid Sara $2, Sara would keep the bike's name. So we hope that's all settled, and this week we'll get Rea her first geared bike and another set of training wheels, and th...

On Monday, we had a special treat. Grandma Julie came to town to spend a week at the cabin with her sisters, and we picked her up at the airport and went to the zoo all day. It was wonderful! Grandma said that she should start coming to Utah once a month, spending a day with us and a night with Patty before going home. We would sure love that! It was great to talk and play and see all the animals. This week Mike has begun getting ready for the Ion Awards again. He has three games this year that he hopes to have ready by December 1st. That is a month earlier than is usual, but he still hopes to have them all ready in time. He has also been doing more work on the website that he is making in his spare time. It is nearly ready to show off to the board game design community. Perhaps in a few weeks it will be done. Gideon is working on standing and walking and climbing on everything. This week he learned to stand for much longer at a time and once even picked up a foot while standing...

This week Alison has felt pretty good most of the week. We even got the entire house cleaned on Saturday for the first time in a long time. It was nice to have the house clean (even if it doesn't last very long.) Our gardens are starting to grow wonderfully. We stole some lettuce, strawberries, raspberries, chives, and other various plants from Sheila and Scott (they had some extra that had volunteered from last year). The raspberries died, and so did most of the lettuce, but the strawberries, mint, and chives transplanted like champs. We got a weed whacker last week, and tried it out this week (a little bit). It worked well. I still need to whack most of the weeds in the front yard. The funny thing is that the more weeds that I look at the more edible plants that I am finding in the yard. As of yet we have lambs-quarters, mallow, henpeck, alfalfa, blue mustard, shepherds purse, nettle, and I am sure that we will find other varieties edible as we look more. We have also found...

Over the course of the week we finished up changing Micronesia to be Norse themed. We have learned more about Norse mythology than we knew before. They sure had a lot of war gods. This week for breakfast in addition to pancakes we had muffins. The kids liked them, however they were really messy, since their muffin etiquette is far worse than their pancake etiquette. Specifically, they would carry their muffins all around the house and leave them all over the place. On Monday Alison and the kids all went to the park and stayed for 6 hours. Alison was exhausted after it was over, however the girls had a fun time. They all got sunburned, but that didn't last very long. Probably it was just the fact that they are all so white after a winter. Rea wants you all to know that after they got sunburned she broke the bottle of aloe, so we have to get a new bottle. She will be paying for it herself, since she threw the bottle. Rea has also been reading a lot of Calvin and Hobbes recent...