If You Give A Mom A Paintbrush...

If you give a mom a paintbrush, she might ask for a can of white paint to go with it.

If you give her the white paint, she might go inside your bedroom and paint the trim around your windows.

While she's painting the trim, she might notice that the closet door could use a little touch-up.

While touching up the closet door, she might realize the touch-up has to be extended to make it all blend.

While blending, the mom might notice that your dresser could also use a face lift.

Then she might paint the front of all your dresser drawers.

While painting the drawers, some paint might accidentally end up on your new pair of pants (but just a smidge).

And then the mom will realize it's time to call it quits (but not until the drawers have been fully painted.)


Ahhh, the joys of selling a house! (In case you didn't know, we are trying to sell our home. Clint has a job offer back in CA working with my Dad. It's a tough market, but we feel like this is what we're supposed to be doing. Of course, keeping the home semi-immaculate for weeks on end while homeschooling 5 children will all just be for fun and games if we're wrong; then we'll stay in this beautiful place and enjoy the friends and neighbors we love!)

Halloween

Two princesses & Prince Charming with a curly moustache

Wounded soldier with a buddy

Scary mummy at the Halloween party

With his buddy

Her friends tried to help keep her on her feet...

Didn't work so well.

Trying another strategy, and hanging on for dear life!

Scary Dragon: Take 3 (Asher is the 3rd boy to wear this costume in our family)

On our way to the trunk-or-treat; M changed costumes and went as a cowboy (I just couldn't  get those mummy bandages to stay put at the first party!)

Another costume change: a sweet little pumpkin.

Hope your Halloween was as happy as his!!

Boys

Bathtime Baby, barely fitting in the bathroom sink

Happy brothers

Week in Review: Oct. 18-22

I've set a goal to make a record of our homeschooling as a part of this blog.  I think reviewing each week might be the best way to do that; so here I go...

So, this past week, we worked on memorizing this poem (which went along with our nature study on "Feathers as Clothing," from this nature study book):
             "How beautiful your feathers be!"
              The Redbird sang to the Tulip-tree
                     New garbed in autumn gold.
             "Alas!" the bending branches sighed,
             "They cannot like your leaves abide
                     To keep us from the cold!"
                                 -- John B. Tabb





Our scripture study came from The Book of Mormon.  It was Alma 32:21 -- "Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore, if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true."

Our hymn study came from a picture book I found while at the library.  We studied "America the Beautiful," then practiced singing it.  The kids chose children's primary songs to practice the other 4 mornings.

We took a break from the Little House series, which I've been reading aloud since last school year.  We finished The Long Winter a couple weeks ago.  Now, we're working on this:

The kids have really enjoyed it, and Gabe even occasionally stops building Legos or coloring pictures to interject a thought.  Opal calling boy twins who harass her "bald-headed babies" is a particularly favorite part for Autumn!

In math, the kids have all been plugging away on their K12 lessons.  At this point, we don't feel quite as frustrated with this year's new curriculum; so I think we'll keep at it for a while longer instead of getting a new program like I had planned.

Jonah read chapters from these books for L.A:
Little Men by Louisa May Alcott, Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, The Heroes by Charles Kingsley, The Burgess Bird Book for Children (chapter 7), & Custer's Last Stand by Quentin Reynolds.  He also read a couple chapters from the Bible to correlate with our history lesson.

Micah & Autumn read the books that coincided with their K12 Language Arts lessons.  Autumn finished another unit in her K12 phonics program (because she's fluently reading now, she breezes through these but they seem to still be a helpful review and we enjoy the lessons together.)  Additionally, I had them read some chapters from their Old Testament readers that corresponded with the history lesson too (they read about Abraham, Isaac, Joseph and Moses.)  Micah also plugged away at The Journal of James Edmond Pease.  It's for his Heroes' Quest group, which is focusing on wars America has participated in.  This is one of the Dear America books, which are historical fiction in journal form, and it is a record of the civil war.

Besides this, Jonah did a couple K12 Spanish lessons, four keyboarding lessons, 

(we're using this outdated book, which is written for a typewriter but is simple enough for him and works just fine)

   





narrations from his reading (either telling me what he read about or writing a short synopsis), dictation & copywork (I hand-select poems, verses and quotes so that his handwriting practice is meaningful and inspires great thought; he's keeping them all in a notebook so I'll leave them out).

On Monday, we read a chapter from our history text for the year, A Child's History of the World by Virgil Hillyer.

Tuesday, J, M & A went to choir practice for an hour. They'll be performing at the nursing home at the end of the term.

Wednesday was our beloved science club, with our dear friends.  Because it was such a beautiful day, I talked with my friends for an hour while the children ran and played outside with their friends.  Finally, we loaded them up and I taught this month's chemistry lesson to Micah and his two buddies after lunch.  We studied states of matter, I presented the scientist study on Lavoisier (after which they conducted their own experiment on air and combustion, placing a jar over a lit candle to see that it naturally burned out after the air was gone).  Finally, they made a "blob" (solution of cornstarch & water), then experimented to see whether it was a liquid or a solid.  I hope this drove home the differences between states of matter.

Here are the links for my chemistry hand-outs this month:
Lavoisier notebooking page
States of Matter flapbook
The Blob chart

Thursday, J & M went to Heroes' Quest and enjoyed a nature walk with their group (Micah & his friend covered themselves in burrs on the walk, on a mission to see who could collect the most on their clothing.  Another friend was kind enough to help with the mission of removing them all, which he had to before I would let him back in the house!).  Autumn went to "kindergarten" with her science club friends.  (She's technically in 1st grade, but they're both younger.  And does it really matter what it's called??  To her, she's just learning & playing with her girlfriends.)

Friday, we finished early (too early, because M & I completely forgot about taking him to speech at the public school... for the SECOND time this week.  Woops!!!).

K, now next week I'll have to work on shortening this.  Because there's no way I'm going to want to do this every week!  But I hope to have a good record of our learning, and also hope it will benefit someone looking for ideas of what to study!!

super heroes

I have got to assign one of my kids to write a comic strip based on the Super Heroes according to Gabe...
1.  THAT Man
2.  Awkward Man
3.  The Young Woman

Can you tell which ones he's misnamed?

Asher Attack

I realized that some of you have no idea what our little guy is looking like these days.  I figured I'd better snap some shots while he was still freshly bathed and spit-up-free, so here you go...

Yes, he's a thumb sucker.  We give him a pacifier, which he takes.  Until he decides to pull it out and play with it as if it were a baby rattle.  Eventually, he drops it.  At which point he realizes he'd really like something to suck on.  And that thumb is pretty handy.  So in it goes.  We find it completely adorable.  For now.  :)

Tomato Yumminess

Autumn trying to stop the tears while we were peeling & cutting the onions (didn't work, but did make us laugh)

Yes, that's what I'm calling it.  The garden has been thriving this year; I guess SOMEONE liked the cold, wet spring/early summer.  Last night, I tried a new recipe with our garden tomatoes (thanks, Amber; I stole it from you via FB) .  Here's what you do:

Preheat your oven to 375.  Core and quarter your tomatoes (halve the smaller ones).  Spread them over 2 cookie sheets.  Slice a white onion, and lay the slices over your tomato pieces.  Next, take 5-6 garlic cloves.  Mince (or at least cut them fairly well), and place over your vegetables.  Now, you drizzle olive oil and balsamic vinegar across the cookie sheets. And pop it in the oven for about 45 minutes.  When it's finished, blend it to the consistency you'd like (of course, you could put it in the food processor if you've got one; I don't).  Then I put one cup measurements into ziploc baggies and stuck them in the freezer.  We ate this sauce on whole wheat English muffins, topped with Mozzarella and halved garden cherry tomatoes, and called it pizza.  The sauce was seriously amazing.  You could, of course, use it for anything that calls for tomato sauce.  But I wouldn't dream of wasting it on a soup or anything that would cover up its flavor.

That's all.

County Fair

This was our first year entering things into the county fair.  We weren't sure quite what to expect, but the kids walked away with ribbons and more confidence than they had to begin.

Jonah's 1st & 3rd place photos of our chickens

Autumn's 3rd place crab drawing

...and 3rd place duck family painting

Micah's 1st place bottle cap collection (the nonalcoholic version) & 1st place Lego creation

They all entered chickens, which took ribbons as well.  This was a new experience for us, but we're going 4-H and hope to work on projects throughout the year (as part of our schooling and just for fun).  It's just such a positive environment, and I saw that the kids were all inspired by the recognition they received.  Jonah & Autumn were even invited to an artists' reception (including cookies).  Now, Micah's determined to enter art next year!  :)

Gearing Up

We're back from a relaxing vacation.  We spent 5 lakeside days near Manti, Utah.  I felt calmed, refreshed and strengthened in my soul.  Bringing my parents along was a stroke of genius; we all enjoyed our days spent together.  I hope the memory of holding my baby while talking to my husband and parents, enjoying good food and watching my children play in the lake lasts all year long! 

We were stuffed to the gills on the drive down.  The rooftop carrier was full; you can see our small trunk space was too.  The kids were sitting on top of clean beach towels, resting their feet on toiletry bags and bait boxes.  Stuffed between them were our pillows and blankets.  Gabe looks worried in this picture, but no one murmured a word of complaint.  We were all just happy to finally be going on our summer vacation!!

Lake Palisade at sunrise (it's nice to take a photog along!)  :)

The lake approaching sunset

Proof that I have little pride.  Nana & the rest of us on an easy hike around the lake.

Gabe spent hours playing in the sand and wading in the water.  (Or, "swimming in the baby water," as he said.)  I took this picture moments before he asked me to get him down from the bench.  I told him he could get down by himself.  He reluctantly did, face planting on the rocky sand.  It was not a tall bench, but he definitely taught me a lesson!

Autumn and Ptallan.  We inadvertently scheduled our trip at the same time as our good friends, who recommended the Palisades.  Our kids loved having friends at the lake, and our inflatable kayak was a hit with them all.  A few months back, Clint taught a FHE lesson on conserving energy.  To drive the point home, he told them the money they saved by turning off lights and taking shorter showers would go in a vacation fund.  As we saw our power and gas bills reducing, I tucked the money away and we jointly decided to buy life jackets and this kayak with it.

Stopping by the Manti Temple on our way home

We came home to a full garden, so now I'm spending our last days of summer canning beans, peaches, tomatoes, pickles and jalapenos, freezing corn and gearing up for the new school year.  I know we all say it, but summer is just too short!  (Even when it lasts 3 full months!)

Splash Pad

We found out about a new "splash pad" which was recently installed at a nearby park.  We decided to give it a try Monday night, picked up ice cream cones afterward, and called it Family Night.  I don't know who had more fun; our kids playing in the water, or Clint & I watching them.

Little Archaeologists, Summer-style

I found this idea somewhere, and it was a fun summer activity.  The kids each found a few trinkets (shells, rocks and toys), I froze them in a Tupperware container (in layers, so the goodies weren't all together), then they brushed them out with old toothbrushes.  This would be especially great for a home school unit on dinosaurs, archaeology or paleontology.

The Birth Story

At my last Doctor's appointment (just 2 days before my due date), he again suggested induction. His schedule must have freed up, though, because he wasn't selling it as hard as he had been a week earlier. I, on the other hand, had my own plan. First: request that he strip my membranes. Next: go for a nice, long walk with the family. Lastly: go to bed and wait for real labor to begin. The doctor liked my plan and went along with step #1. Walking out of the office like I'd just dismounted a horse, I began to question the intelligence of my plan. But I decided to trudge forward.

When I got home, M requested "special time." (This is when either Clint or I takes one kid on a date of sorts.) A asked to tag along, and off we went. They both had allowance money to burn, and we started out at TJ Maxx. After laboriously sorting through each toy in their selection, they both decided to move on to the dreaded "W" store. An hour later, I was hunched over in another toy aisle, begging M to please make a decision between multiple toys he'd been eying. Ultimately, he settled for a chocolate bar, in order to save up for something more exciting. We grabbed some ice cream cones on our way home, then I put the kids to bed.

An hour later, I was watching a movie. Clint had given up on it, and as I lay by myself on the couch, I began contracting. I finished the movie, piddled around the house (that sounded disgusting, didn't it?), then went to bed. The contractions, while wrapping around to my back, weren't very painful. And I thought I'd get a few hours rest before possibly heading to the hospital. When I woke up four hours later, they were coming every 4-6 minutes. I couldn't sleep anymore and began making preparations for the hospital trip. Then, still contracting and filled with nervous excitement, I went downstairs to clean the kitchen. After 90 minutes, the contractions began to slow and eventually they were gone.

We told the kids the baby would probably be born that day, and Clint took the cell phone to work, fully expecting a call home. But the day came and went with only a few random contractions.

Thursday night, I woke up at 12:50 AM. I felt a stronger contraction, then another 8 minutes later, then another 4 minutes after that. Four minutes later, another one came. And then they were coming every two minutes. I started thinking about women delivering their own babies while their husbands are busily driving them to the hospital, and made the decision to wake up Clint. After a groggy few minutes, we were both in high gear. I finished packing my bags as he phoned a neighbor who had volunteered herself for this exact moment. Minutes later, we were headed for the hospital. The contractions slowed to every four minutes, but grew stronger and always ended in my back.

Clint suggested they might turn us away. He laughed as I explained the physical punishment that would be inflicted on such an irrational nurse. By a quarter after 2, I was declared to have dilated to a 4/5, and we were checked in. Punishment averted.  Our nurse explained how quickly she expected me to progress, this being my fifth birth. She also immediately began hooking me up to machines. (I was not happy with this; I wasn't ready for an epidural and kneeling on the ground while resting my hands on a chair seemed to offer the only relief I could find during the back labor contractions.  Machines mean staying in a hospital bed.)  She asked if I wanted anything, and I asked for the labor cocktail I'd enjoyed four times previously; half apple juice/half cranberry on a bed of crushed ice.  She told me I could have the crushed ice.  I wanted to punch her, but said nothing... until she left the room.  A few minutes later, Clint left because I asked him to get the ipod from the car.  And I decided to make friends with this nurse.  We chatted and, when Clint returned 10 minutes later, it was to see me enjoying my labor cocktail in between enduring contractions over the chair in the room, belly bands detached.  Mission Make Friends With Nurse: Accomplished!  :)  (Apparently, this nurse didn't know what to do with a woman in labor who was not drugged up via epidural.  Her words, not mine.)

The contractions were still coming about every four minutes.  An hour later, I was checked and the nurse said I was between 5-6 cm. dilated.  An hour after that, I was at about a 6-1/2.  I started thinking about if requesting an epidural.  Usually, transition begins at this point, lasts 15 minutes, then I'm pushing through a couple contractions and it's over.  Hardly seems worth the inconvenience or the stress of an epidural.  But, when I asked Clint if he thought I should get one, he said, "You always want an epidural."  And I realized that I do, so we took care of business.

Which was a good thing because, despite this being my fifth delivery and my history of fast transitions, things did not speed up at this point.  It took another hour to dilate to an 8, then an hour again to get to a 9.  Now it was about 6:30.  The nurse decided I should wait to be seen by a doctor until 7:00, when my Dr. would be arriving at the hospital.  Dr. Kirkman was also surprised at how slowly things were progressing, and decided to break my bag of waters.  The nurse later emptied my bladder with a catheter (the only time I experienced this humiliating procedure...until she did it again after wheeling me to the recovery room.)  Ugh.

Finally, sometime between 8 and 9 o'clock in the morning, he realized what was going on.  The baby was basically lying sideways, head facing up, in my uterus.  This made coming through the birth canal difficult, which explained why I was contracting well but not dilating quickly.  It also explained the back labor (since his skull, the hardest part of the head, was against my spine, I felt strong pressure and pain in my back at every contraction).  My Dr. decided to give me a very low amount of Pitocin.  Not long after, I began to feel a lot of pain in my back.  This did just enough to get the baby down and for me to fully dilate.  Now, he would just turn him as he was being born.

I started pushing a little after 10, and he was born 11 minutes later.    He arrived with a round head (since he didn't spend long in the birth canal), and covered in vernix.  Honestly, he looked like a cute little ghost, he was so white when the doctor laid him on my belly.

Little Unnamed Ghost, after having his face wiped

Clint and I watched him, he was snatched by the pediatrician and cleaned up, and then returned to me.  Clint decided it was time to call our family and let them know he had been born.  Which meant deciding on a name.  I convinced him we didn't need to rush the decision (9 months of indecisiveness leads to me not being able to make a shotgun decision in a matter of minutes), but that only put things off temporarily.  We had narrowed the names to Gideon and Asher, continuing the trend of Biblical names for our boys.  Pre-meeting the little guy, Clint and 3 of the kids were voting for Gideon.  Gabe (who was more easily influenced than his older siblings, which is weird if you've ever met our little spit-fire) and I were voting for Asher.  Now that we had met him, we were ever-more ambivalent.  Clint suggested we toss a coin to decide the fate of this boy.  I told him that was no way to decide on our son's name.  He pronounced he felt 50/50 between the names.  I said I was probably 60/40, leaning toward Asher.  And so we named his Asher.  Asher Clinton, to be exact.

And that's it... the story of his birth.

Looking like a tiny Prize Fighter

Getting to know each other, while I tried to decide on the name :)

Summer Visitors

All winter long, we dream about friends and family far away.  We sometimes even dream about those close by, who seem further because the snow and cold keep us all inside, huddling near fireplaces and around cocoa mugs.  And then, once the snow melts and the Earth remembers what green is, people gradually brave their way over the mountain pass to visit us again.  By June, the visits are more regular.  This month, they've been nearly non-stop.  Now, we'll have dreams to last another cold winter and our kids are remembering what "cousin" means.  If I could think to get out the camera EVERY visit....

Thanks for coming Nana & Papa, Blue Lilies :), Englises, Almeidas & all Firths!!

All of Clint's family stopped by on their way to the annual reunion for a rare picture (before I enjoyed myself to no end with only 1 baby at home!!)

The adorable Almeidas.  Sharla & I were mission companions.  At the end of our missions, our parents (who came to Spain to pick us each up) started talking & we  realized our great grandmas were sisters.  Marintha & Annie Edwards.  Crazy.

Papa, after Asher's baby blessing

Nana getting in some cuddle time after the blessing (which Clint performed Stevie Wonder-style because of a paper cut to the eye Gabe accidentally gave him the day before.  Ouch!)

Great Grandma Firth loving on Asher

First Month

Thought I'd show you how he's been growing...

5 days old... 

9 days old...

2 weeks...

3 weeks...

and exactly 1 month old, on his blessing day....