Not quite right...

Michael is at his first scout campout tonight. As we knelt for family prayer it didn't feel quite right. Henry doesn't fall asleep very well if Michael isn't there, and neither do I. I hope it goes well... This afternoon I had a precious experience and shared with my Mom and sisters in law, but I wanted to post it here for journaling sake. :)
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In twenty minutes I need to go pick Michael from school. He is going on his first 11 year old scout camp out. This will be the first night in his life that Dave or I are not there. I feel trepidatious. (red squiggly line says that isn't a word, but it is how I feel)

I was snuggling with Henry while he fell asleep and I was praying that I would be able to prepare Michael. I was thinking how I need to remind him we don't play truth or dare. How if the other boys get inappropriate he knows what to do... My mind got full of all the things I need to cram in his head one last time.

Then, Henry starting snoring and I picked up my scriptures and opened to Mosiah 5, I finished Mosiah 4 in the Book of Mormon last night... but my eye went straight to the last 2 verses of that chapter, they say:
29 And finally, I cannot tell you all the things whereby ye may commit sin; for there are divers ways and means, even so many that I cannot number them.
30 But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not.


And I got teary. Those verses didn't seem memorable last night, but suddenly I'd like to post that as a giant sign on every wall in our house. "O, Man, Remember and PERISH NOT!" I suppose M is ready for the world. As ready as he can be and needs to be for scout camp with good friends we trust. I can't tell him every scenario and role play them all out. But, we have taught him. I just love how sometimes God answers us so quickly and using his own words given to us by prophets.

(If you are not LDS and you happen to read this and are interested in learning more about the Book of Mormon, go Here, they'll send you a free copy and answer any questions you might throw their way. :))

Field Trip

Last week the kids and I played hooky on Friday and went field tripping instead of schooling. It was awesome.

First, we slept in. Lovely!

We went to the library armed with a list of Caldecott winning books. Michael, Jane and I found about 12 of them while Eve helped Lily and Henry to NOT destroy the children's room. ;)

The kids read books and talked about their favorite stories, favorite pictures and how they had been created all the way up to the Museum. Then, we went in the museum and saw many of the pictures we had just seen in books. It was really cool! The kids were interested in how the art work was done and what it takes to win a Caldecott. We learned a lot and all picked favorites. Mine was a non-Caldecott winner, the picture from Little Women... I love those heads all crowded around a book.

Don't you love my wild things with THE Wild Things? ;)

Then we wandered a lovely little path by the Brandywine River. It was peaceful and happy and I had that feeling you have when you love the moment you are in so much that you want to cry.

We also stopped along the way and had a picnic at the visitors center at the Battle of Brandywine. Do you remember that one? You don't? Me either. Michael did though. He recounted the whole event for us... Two amazing things here, 1. We live where driving along the road we see a sign for a Revolutionary war battle ground and 2. My son really is learning American History and can now picture exactly how that might have played out.

It was totally fun. I love skipping school!

New Specs for Lily K.

About 6 weeks ago we started noticing Lily's eyes turning in. My eyes are seriously crossed without correction so I was concerned and so was Dave. Our pediatrician however, was not. At all. She basically said I was off my rocker, but whatever. 24 hours later we visited a very nice eye doctor who was really good at dealing with REALLY nervous 4 year old girls, and he informed us that Yes, she really does need glasses. :) Lily picked out a pair of cute pinky purple specs, but was so sad that we didn't get to take them home that day!

So... Jane and I trot her off to the Dollar Store and Jane forked out $3 for 3 pairs of fancy reading glasses, one for each girl. (Isn't she a dear?) We popped out the prescription lenses and the girls were happy with their glasses! Lily didn't take hers off till the next week when we replaced them with her "real" ones. I can't count how many "Fancy Nancy" comments she got!I was feeling so smug. What a great idea this was! She practiced wearing glasses, (funny, she was so tickled with her "real" glasses because she could turn her head and jump without them falling off!) Then... she decided to pop the lens out of her real glasses... oops. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all. No worries, superglue saved the day. :)

One nice thing...

One of the many nice things about having "SO MANY" children is that when they are doing things that might be just a teensy bit annoying I can think "Oh, yeah, I remember when Michael was doing that when he was 9 and he doesn't bug me any more!" poor Michael. It took me a few years to figure this out, so I was probably overly hard on him about everything under the sun. I'm setting money aside for his counseling...

For example: I remember when my older kids were mastering their understanding of the English language... and figuring out how to turn it on me. This feels a little bit like arguing/sassing/looking for a mistake.... Like when you say "Go put on a cozy shirt it is going to be cold" and they come out dressed in a short sleeve shirt and say "You said I was going to be cold!!!" Or when you ask if they have brushed their teeth and they say "Yes." You question this and they say "Well, I brushed them yesterday, you didnt' ask if I'd brushed them just now!" This is very very "7" with my kids. I can ENJOY this annoying phase because I know it won't last.

Or, for example, when I walk into the bathroom and all of the towels are always totally and completely soaking wet. This is "4" at our house. Four is about learning and manipulating water. Pouring, soaking it up, squeezing it out... Won't it be nice when we can do water play outside? I can ENJOY this annoying phase because I know it won't last.

Or, another example, the toys spread from h#$% to Breakfast all. the. time. This is 2. Two's biggest job is moving stuff. Putting some things away even (if only we could find where he put my keys away for me!!!) Getting things out, moving them to a new location. I can ENJOY this annoying phase (just be careful where I step) because I know it won't last.

:) But, right now Henry and Lily are cuddling on the couch and she is reading him story after story and I should put them down for bed but--- I am ENJOYING this because I know it won't last forever either.

Brag, B-R-A-G, brag!

He is a winner. W-I-N-N-E-R, winner! :)

A Sappy Birthday Post. (belated!)

My boy Michael turns 11 today. ELEVEN! How did that happen? (ok, so actually that happened a few months ago and I just never got pictures added to post this! ack.)

It was different with one child! I spent all day everyday loving on him. Why set him down? Why not read the book 500 times. We walked and talked and looked and learned! He was squishy and sweet and gentle, even as a toddler. I'll never forget the look in his eye when he realized I loved Jane and that she was staying. I was changing her diaper and cooing at her and I looked up to see him staring at me. It wasn't sad or jealous, more like, "Oh. We love her. Ok!" He has been an incredible big brother ever since. Every child should have a big brother like Michael!

When Janey was just a baby Michael kissed her head-- in that sweet little spot where I'd stuck a honey bow. He then licked her head! He looked at me like "She's cute and she tastes good?!"

When Michael was about 3 he grabbed a handful of blossoms off a tree and shoved them in his mouth before I could stop him. He then spit them out and shrieked, "It isn't really so!" We think of that story a lot this time of year with the popcorn trees in full bloom :)

Michael is awesome. I wish you all knew him. He is sensitive, trustworthy, honest, and funny! Lately I've been enjoying his developing sense of humor. He and Dave were teasing me about taking one of my really nasty old pizza pans to the Antique Roadshow. He had such funny lines! It is fun to see him "becoming".

He is also really really smart. I have recently realized that when he tells me things that are totally new to me, I don't doubt what he is saying. Camels can hold 10 gallons of water? Ok. That is how that seldom told Old Testament story played out? Ok. A computer does blah blah blah... Ok. He has a fantastic memory too. Lucky boy! Michael will be competing this Saturday at the District Spelling Bee. His school Bee was INTENSE! All of the kids were terrific spellers, battling down with words like flamboyant, vacuum, recommend, exquisite, scholastically, kaleidoscope!!! More than once I thought "Dang, he's wrong! Well, he did awesome!" Just to have the judge say he'd gotten it right! Oops, I better step up my spelling practice.

He recently earned his Webelo and his Arrow of Light award, then crossed over from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. It was fun and we felt so proud of him! Dad and Bev were here that night and it was so fun to watch him go from all those squirrelly young boys in blue shirts on one side to those tall, confident guys in brown shirts on the other side of the "bridge".
Last week he and I spent over an hour playing trombone/piano duets. I thought to myself "Hey, this "having kids grow up thing" might not be so bad..." Michael is wonderful. He is just the kind of boy you'd want as your first born, we are lucky to be his parents!

Spring

Every time I pull into our development I say "Oh! WOW! I love living here!" It is so pretty! These are taken while driving, but it was really safe because our street is empty and I was going super slow! ;)
This collage shows that while I might not cooperation for family posing shots, I get cooperation for letting Big Brother put shoes on. :) Can you tell how much personality Lily has?? What a child!

Tomorrow or the next day I'm going to blog all about Michael. Mom keeps telling me he is missing on my blog and she is right. He is awesome and I'm excited to post how amazing he is.

p.s. These pictures don't look very clear! I'm wondering if I can get the child *cough*Henry*cough* to undo what he did to my camera. they also are small. If you double click, then click on the picture it enlarges it more... so you can see how blurry they really are...

Today...

Today I:

• Listened while Dave explained to our children important doctrine we were reading in the Book of Mormon, all while they kids munched breakfast.
  
• Sat in the sunshine and read 4 chapters of a book with Janey while Lily and Henry dressed up in winter gear and stomped around the house on a mission.
  
• Sat in that same sunny spot with Henry and watched a robin dig for worms in our yard. We watched for about 10 minutes--- If only I could figure out a way to keep him still for 10 minutes during stake conference this weekend...
• Perfected my play dough roses.
• Shared my turkey sandwich with a little boy who hugged and kissed me between each bite.
• Listened to Jane and Lily play "best friends".
• Played a tedious game of race Doc Hudson back and forth with Lily-- but her laughing till she snorted and almost fell over was worth how lame the game was.
  
• built a very nice wall with blocks, knocking it down is the best part!
  

And it is only 12:47. Don't you wish you were me? If not me, don't you wish you were here with me? I do.

Popcorn Popping on Easter

We had a lovely Easter weekend. It was so nice to have lovely weather and happy kids. Yesterday we took the kids down to the Brandywine River and had a picnic. The weather was perfect and the blossoms were amazing. I made a really cute collage, but it keeps showing a blank pink canvas... so here are a bunch of pictures!




We were lucky! We sat by that river for about an hour and nobody fell in! :)



I don't think Dave was annoyed... but we do need to teach our budding photographers to get the job done a bit faster!








These trees were amazing. AMAZING! I love Spring in Delaware and Maryland! LOVE IT! :)

Happy Easter!

Last year I wrote a blog about Good Friday. This is a video created from the talk I referenced. I love it. I love the reminder that no matter how dark our Fridays may be, Sunday Will Come.



This weekend we are feasting upon the words of our spiritual leaders. Our church holds a General Conference every 6 months. We love it. I'm immensely grateful for the Hope that Easter brings. My heart is full...