Catch him!

. I am that awesome mom who does NOT send in treat bags for the whole class for Halloween, Christmas, Valentines Day, Easter or any other day. I send in a snack when it is our snack day. Most of the decorating for holidays is Naomi's department. That girl asked me to decorate for Christmas in September last year.

As you can see holidays are a weak area for me.

However,  the school is good at making St. Patrick's day a big deal.

They set traps for leprechauns.Of course they never catch one, but the little men make a mess in the classroom. This of course inspires my children to make their own traps at home.

Phebe came to the kitchen while I was cooking and raided the silverware drawer. She gave me some explanation that I forgot. Later Naomi invited Ethan up to see the trap they had set.

So without further delay I present their leprechaun traps.

 This is a laundry basket lined with a blanket with shiney silverware as bait.

This is a hanger with a chain dangling from it to force the tempted leprachaun to fall into that basket. (Sorry for the poor photo quality.)

On the other side of the room we  have popsicle sticks with coins carefully balanced. When disturbed the culprit will be dropped into this suit case covered with a blanket and also lined with ever tempting silverware.

 There. I hope you feel more capable of building your own trap. Though the success of these traps was kind of minimal. The trickster stole a bunch of our silverware and left a message that said "HA!" I guess they are hard to catch after all.

I can see! It's a miracle!

I got glasses a little while back. I love them very much. I just wanted to show you.

 Photo credit for both pictures- Phebe. 

I like my new glasses. They make me happy. As an added bonus the lenses aren't scratched! I honestly didn't realize how badly my old glasses were until I had unscratched ones. They are amazing.

Deep thoughts with Phebe

While rubbing some lotion on Phebe after a bath-

P:Why do I need lotion?
Me: To protect your skin.
P: From what?
Me: Drying out.
P: And flying spiders.
Me:.. Of course. We are protecting your skin from drying out and flying spiders. It is like a magic shield.
P: Yup. I am rubbing my shield lotion on to stop the flying spiders.
Me: How do you know all this stuff?
P: Mom, I make it up. That is how I know so much.

Right about now

I scored some completely unprocessed bees wax. I have plans for it. Of course I have never worked with bees wax, ever. This is a brand new experience. I am quite excited. Having an apiary uncle who only sells the honey and hasn't really delved into processing the bees wax and thus is excited to give you some is pretty awesome. The kids ate some last night. It didn't exactly get rave review. "It is more like gum" was the most common comment.

***

On an unrelated note I have exercise ADD. We joined the Y. I am excited to have access to machines and classes and the pool. So I pretty much just randomly pick what I want to do that day and go make my muscles work hard. Today was the elliptical, weight lifting machines and then to the power stretch class. I enjoyed it. And no, don't ask how much weight I lifted. Let's just say it isn't terribly impressive. Lugging this baby around has made me left arm stronger than my right though. 

***

When we went shopping I had to take Naomi to the changing room for a moment. Ethan stayed with the other kids looking at other options of things. When I returned Phebe was just wondering around examing merchandise musing to herself, "Right about now, Funk soul brother. Check it out now, funk soul brother..."

Man, do I love that kid.

Let the games begin!

For Christmas I thought it would be fun to get Caleb this tiny little Star Wars figure set. When I say tiny, I seriously mean tiny. Tiny as in about an inch tall.
Sorry the picture doesn't even let you see them well. They are kind of neat.

Caleb hasn't played with them all that much. But OK, I can't win every time I give him something I guess.

Last night he had a stroke of brilliance. We sat down to play a silly game that he had needed to save that had been inside a package of tooth past. It is called "My adventures in Tooth Kingdom." Think "Sorry" only cheesier.

It says to find dimes or other random stuff to use at game tokens.

Enter the Yoda.

These tiny little figures are the Perfect game pieces. They are tiny and all different. I love them for this purpose. It makes me smile to watch Boba Fett and R2-D2 roaming around the board trying to beat the Storm trooper.

So good.

Let's go drowning..er . I mean swimming

Here is a some happenings 'round here.

I left my journal in Ohio, back in January. That has made me sad. I am glad it was finally located.

My youngest brother, Alan graduates from Air Force basic training today. He seems to have really enjoyed himself. It sounds like a nightmare to me. The few times I have spoken to him or received a letter he seems really happy. I guess it is an even better place for him than I had imagined.

Moraine State Park has a lake where we go swimming in the summer.

It is not summer, but that does not stop Phebe from requesting trips to go swimming there.

Saturday and Tuesday we went out to Moraine to go ice skating. It was lots of fun. I think it finally got through to Phebe that swimming there is not a possibility.  It was lots of fun. If you have a lovely frozen body of water I recommend enjoying it while you can. I do wonder how long it will take for that lake to resemble remotely warm water this summer though...

On a completely separate note-I appear to have misplaced my patience. I am not sure where it is. If you come across it I would really appreciate if it was returned.

Today Phebe, Ruby and I went adventuring down to the local YMCA. We filled out papers and gave them lots of money so we can be card carrying members.

I have a confession. I am not a good swimmer. I have a terrible nightmare that plays in my brain that one of my children will be drowning and I won't be strong or skilled enough to save them.

Before I finally went to the Y I made a list of pros and cons about getting a membership. Finally what tipped the scale for me is that it will give me the opportunity to get more confident at swimming thus allowing me to relax a bit when we go as a family near bodies of water. If you had ever witnessed Phebe near water you would completely understand my paranoia.

Let me give you an example.

Today after school I took all 5 kids to the Y to swim in the smaller pool. They were very excited. (Sadly my patience had checked out long before we arrived. It would have been a much nicer trip if it had joined us.) the oldest 4 walked down the stairs into the pool, pausing to see how deep it came up on them.I was holding the baby and for a split second I glanced at another child, or possibly the life guard, I don't even remember. Suddenly Phebe is completely submerged desperately struggling to get out from under the water.

That child has no concept at all of when water is too deep for her.

She did that TWICE tonight. Luckily I was within arms reach each time.  I decided to go ahead with the membership so I would be able to gain confidence in the water. That was the final tipping point. Much higher on the list was the kids could take lessons and learn to swim. I would like to avoid a more serious incident.

So on to swimming we will go!

I should post something

This is a post because I haven't posted anything in a while.

Things just keep on moving here.

Phebe is still Phebe and asks me crazy ideas like having only frozen raspberries for dinner and does things like hide whole bags of chocolate chips inside the doll house or smear Vaseline on EVERYTHING. She has some serious cabin fever.

Caleb is doing a fantastic job learning how to read.  He and Phebe are being ninjas and I have been told to pretend I can't seem them as they sneak in to take me out.

Naomi has had boys attempt to impress her lately and has decided her only defense is to have an army of girls surrounding her at all times because boys are so weird.

Victor has a pinewood derby car he is allegedly working on. He devotes a lot of his time to convincing other people to play Monsterpocalypse with him.

We have had a ton of snow days lately. All built in snow days have been used up. They even changed a day that wasn't a snow make up day into one so that we wouldn't have to add it on later. Too bad we have started adding them on anyway.

Ruby is 4 months old now and a burning desire to be on her stomach, until she gets there and then she is very upset. She hasn't figured out that she is that awful person rolling her where she doesn't want to be. She grabs things now which makes her a dangerous predator. Hair, glasses, flesh, your dinner, it is all for her. She NEEDS it. She is moving into one of the hardest stages for me to deal with. The "carry me around with you at all times" stage. Sorry baby girl, I have to make dinner and your fingers are not of the helpful skill level yet.

I have a case of chicken on the very cold porch that needs canned but a baby in the house that makes me unsure of where to even start for fear of being interrupted. I also have decided the giant bag of frozen black raspberries someone gave me may need to be turned into jam. Yet again, so intimidated to start that project.But is would be so rewarding. Just listening to those lids pop makes me so happy!

Today is my husband and my wedding anniversary. We have been married 11 years. That is pretty awesome. I love him so much. I am so glad that he lets me be part of his life. It is awesome. Sometimes I feel bad for other people, cause my husband is just so great and they didn't get to marry him.

He just got me a set of essential oils to celebrate and I am so excited about it. I love oils. They are so fun to work with. He is so thoughtful. All the time. I am so blessed

I  am desperately craving being outside and planting. Oh warm sunshine, I miss it so.

Oh and  before I forget. I found a book I HIGHLY recommend to anyone dealing with kids. It is called "Cleaning House" by  Kay Wills Wyma. I love this book so much.


It was funny, mostly relateable ( no I don't have a house keeper once a week or even know people who do), insightful, inspiring. The idea is that this woman decides to empower her children instead of entitle them. Instead of telling kids how they are amazing and they can do anything they want, she teaches them the skills they are going to need to actually do it. I love the concept. Seriously an awesome book.


That is what I have to share today.