Homework Is The Bain Of My Life

and it is not even my homework!

I don't think kids should have homework.  They are already in school 6 hours a day and there is more to life than school.  They need to have time to be kids and do house work, scouts, church, family activities and other outside interests.

Plus for most of my kids, them having homework or "home learning" as they now call it, means that I have to encourage, nag, police, sit with, review, supervise, correct, etc.  It takes a lot of time and then multiply it by 4 and you can see why I hate homework!

Ouch those hurt!

Last year the dentist suggested that we take Ocean to see an orthodontist, but I thought he is only 10, it can wait a little longer.  Then a few months later one of his bottom teeth grew in sideways (you can kind of see it in the picture below.  It is the second from the middle on your right).  I realized that no, it couldn't wait any longer.  His tooth was sideways taking up 2 spots.  Also his top teeth flare out a bit from his tongue pushing against them. 

  

The orthodontist started out putting a crib and expander in the top of his mouth (you can just barely see it behind his front top teeth).  The crib is a mettle wire that comes down holding his tongue back.  It worked great.  Just with that after about 2 months his front teeth no long flare.  

Last week they added the braces on the bottom.  It is just on the 4 front teeth since the rest are still baby teeth, but it will straighten them out so that the teeth that are supposed to come in will have space.  He has been in pain for the last few days.  I remember the pain from when I had braces.  Ouch!

They will put braces not he top teeth in the future.

Pumpkin Time

Last Saturday we carved pumpkins.  We were going to go to a pumpkin patch, but it was rainy that day, so we opted to go to a near by grocery store.  Each of the kids got to pick out their perfect pumpkin.  That evening we had family over for FAT.  They brought their pumpkins and carved them with us.

 Ocean's perfect pumpkin.

Carol grew this pumpkin herself.

Let the carving begin.

Trip did a lot of opening pumpkins and scraping guts.

Rez, Daphne, Tora, Julius and Ocean working on their pumpkins.

Good thing he has those boy scout knife skills.

Most of the kids also had a smaller pumpkin they got at the fall festival at school the day before.  Some were carved as well and some stayed whole.

Grandma and Grandpa's cinderella pumpkin.  (They are really my brother-in-law's parents, but since they are the only grandparents around, we all have claim them.)

Daphne carving her small pumpkin.

Here is another boy demonstrating his knife skills.

Tora's pumpkin

Carol's pumpkin.

Carol's pumplin lit from within.

Here are our pumpkins from left to right top to bottom.

Rez's, Ocean's tiny pumpkin (you can just barely see it.) Daphne's,

Harvey's, Mo's, Mo's little pumpkin, Daphne's little pumpkin,

Ocean's, Julius', Harvey's little pumpkin, Julius' little pumpkin.

 Here they are in the dark.

After the picture Daphne added a mouth to her big pumpkin.

(I am not always the most thorough photographer.  There were several people and pumpkins here that I didn't get pictures of.  Sorry, I still love you.)

Growing, Growing, Gone

Lately every time I stand next to Rez, he seems to be taller.  I started measuring him and sure enough he grew about 1/2 inch from August to October and then he grew 1/4 inch in a little over a week.  

He is going to be all grown up and gone before I know it!

A Better Fruit Fly Trap

For years I have used a simple fruit fly trap made of a mason jar with a paper cone stuck in the top with a bit of fruit in the bottom for bait.  The flies smell the fruit and crawl down the cone and through the hole in the bottom to get to the fruit.  Once they are trapped inside, few ever find the hole in the bottom of the cone to escape.  I don't know where I learned to make this fruit fly trap, I think from my mom.  Before I always just used a jar without the ring on it.  I would have to tape the paper cone to the top of the jar so there weren't any gaps that the flies could escape through.  The trap worked great, but it was a pain to let the flies out (I basically had to destroy the trap and start over with a jar that was now sticky around the top with old tape).

This year I happen to have a jar sitting on my counter that had a ring on it but no lid, when I was looking to make a trap.  I thought I would try it with the ring.  It was great.  With the ring on it the cone fit snugly inside and I didn't have to tape the top.  This makes emptying the jar a breeze.  Just lift the cone out,  and let the flies escape outside, then set the cone back in.

I have use this trap also for an object lesson to teach about God's way verse Satan's way.  Satan's way is wide and open to start with, but it gets narrower and narrower until we are trapped, but God's way is strict and defined at the beginning and as we keep the commandments, we find ourselves with more and more freedom.  

3 Nephi 27:33

And it came to pass that when Jesus had ended these sayings he said unto his disciples: Enter ye in at the strait gate; for strait is the gate, and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it; but wide is the gate, and broad the way which leads to death, and many there be that travel therein, until the night cometh, wherein no man can work. 

St. Matthew 7:13-14

 Enter ye in at the ^astrait ^bgate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to ^cdestruction, and many there be which go in thereat:      Because ^astrait is the ^bgate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto ^clife, and few there be that find it.

Positive Peer Pressure

For the last few weeks, we have really been focusing on doing the dishes every day.  We have 7 kids and so each one has a night they are responsible to get all the dishes done.  They have to do them before they can eat the next day (food is a great motivator at our house).

I usually help the older 4 do the dishes on their night, but they take the bulk of it, but that leaves 3 nights that Trip and I are responsible for it, since Zelda, Julian and Harvey really can't do them. (I do try to have Harvey help on his night though).

This has been some amazing peer pressure.  The other night after a long day, there were all the dirty dishes, we just wanted to go to bed, but we couldn't not do the dishes.  They kids knew that it was our day.  We had to do them.

Harvey turns the big 5!

Harvey has been looking forward to his birthday.  For the last several months he has been asking me, "How many days until my birthday?"  He was so excited when it finally came, we let him unwrap his presents (so elegantly wrapped in news print) along with his crepes for breakfast.  

He got legos.

His very own flashlight!

And a double sided nerf sword.

Harvey and Julius had a great battle.

His sword is taller than he is.

That night after dinner, we had cupcakes and ice-cream.

 

Happy Birthday Harvey!

Bunny Started Laying Again.

A little over a month ago, Bunny went broody.  That is what you call a chicken that wants to sit on eggs and hatch them.  I think it was triggered from us not collecting the eggs for 2 days and with 5 chickens laying, there were a lot of eggs in there.  What ever it was that caused it (she was not yet 6 months old and has only been laying for a month and a half, which I thought was very early to go broody) she only wanted to sit in the nest box, all the time.  I would take her out.  When she tried to sleep in there, I blocked it off for the night.  After a few days of this, she stopped trying to sit in the nest box all the time, but she had stopped laying.

5 weeks have gone by, but a couple of days ago, I found a gigantic pale green egg in the nest box.  We ate it today, it was a double yolkier.  

Welcome back Bunny to the egg laying world, we missed you!

My Wonderful Visiting Teacher

Last Thursday was curriculum night at the middle school.  Trip and I were both planning on going, and each of the boys, Rez and Ocean, were supposed to come with us.  We would go through their schedule and meet all their teachers.  

This meant that I had to get a babysitter for the younger kids.  It was a hard night to find someone, but a friend of mine agreed to come and watch my kids.  Thursday came and 15 minutes before things started, my sitter called to say she was sick and wasn't going to make it.  I should mention that Trip was not home from work yet, so I had been trying to figure out how I was going to go through both of the boys classes at the same time by myself and then to not have a sitter, I wasn't sure what I was going to do.  My good friend across the street was going to curriculum night as well and her husband had another commitment.  I asked another friend, they were already busy.  I finally prayed, because I didn't know who else I could call at the last minute to come and watch 5 kids.  

Then I thought of my visiting teacher.   

Visiting teaching is a program in our church where 2 sisters are assigned another sister to visit each month.  Their job is to watch over that sister, give her a spiritual message, serve her and help her come closer to Christ.  It is a wonderful program and I have made many friends through it.  But, I had just had a change in who my visiting teachers were and had just met one of my new ones the week before.  She was new in our ward and I didn't know her at all. (If you want to learn more about visiting teaching, you can click here.)

Anyway, after pleading for help in my prayer, I thought of my new visiting teacher.  When I called her, she was wonderful.  She said, "I just need to go get my husband and will be right over."  Within half an hour my visiting teacher had dropped what ever she had been planning that night and come to my rescue.

(Trip made it home from work also and we were only a little late).

I am so thankful for the visiting teaching program and that the Lord loves me enough to assign someone to watch over and take care of me.

  

FHE Games - The Chocolate Game

Another fun game that we love is called the Chocolate game.  You need a large chocolate bar, wrapped, a die, a pair of gloves, a hat, a scarf and 2 table knives.  We usually use a large jelly roll pan also.

You put the wrapped chocolate bar on the pan.  Each person  in turn rolls the die.  When someone rolls a 6 they put on the gloves, hat and scarf and use the 2 knives to open the bar and eat the chocolate.  No hands or mouth (meaning you can't just lean down and eat it with your mouth).  You have to use the knives to get it up to your mouth.  Mean while everyone else is still rolling for a 6.  It gets pretty intense when someone is about to get some chocolate and someone else rolls a 6.  Off come the hat, gloves and scarf and on they go on a new person.

It is very fun.

Harvey is trying to put the gloves on,

He is too late, Rez rolled a 6.

We only had regular sized chocolate bars to play with this time, but it worked, we used 2.

If you are playing with little children, it is a good idea to have some chocolate in reserve to have at the end so there are no hard feelings:)

Zelda wants to play.

FHE Games - Penny in the Flour

On Monday nights we have family home evening.  We have a little meeting with songs and prayers, a short gospel or other (something we need work on) lesson and then a game.  The game was always my favorite growing up and it is my kids favorite now.  We have some great games.

Penny in the Flour is one we played growing up.

First you pack a cup with flour and turn it out onto a plate, so you have a moulded cup of flour on the plate.    Then you place a penny on the top.  The object of the game is to slice away the flour without making the penny fall.  If it falls, you have to get it out, with your teeth.  We take turns with the knife, slicing away the flour, until the fateful turn when it falls.

Here is the penny, will it fall the next turn?

It is so fun, but you get a mouth full of flour/saliva paste.

As a bonus, here is the vintage '80's Penny in the Flour shot.

I Love Power Tools

I do.  I have so much fun with my miter saw and electric drill.  I recently got a dremmel.   We got our first power tools when we bought our first house.  My bother- in -law, tired of us borrowing his, I am sure, bought us a cordless drill.  That was fun.  When we fixed up our house to sell, we acquired more power tools.  A circular saw, a jig saw, a couple of sanders.  Then when we built our fence. 

 We bought a miter saw.  I love that saw.  We now have a new cordless drill, a corded drill, a reciprocating saw, a palm sander, a belt sander, as well as all the other tools listed above.  I have so much fun making things.  

Except last year, when we were finishing the pinewood derby cars.  All I can say is, don't hold a pinewood derby car in your hand while you are trying to drill a little weight out of it.

We ended up in the emergency room, with no feeling in my ring finger.  It turns out I had severed the nerve and had to have surgery to repair it.   I still love my power tools, just not pinewood derby cars.

The evil pinewood derby car.