Midweek Update

OK everyone, this winter is SERIOUSLY a joke.  It is never-ending.  And its goal is to drive me completely insane.  The kids are home again today for the 8th snow day of the year.  Thankfully, we were able to get out and meet up with some friends this morning and that has made all the difference in the world, but regardless -- February is off to the same dismal start as January was.  Boo!

Something about this winter of our discontent is making my brain fog over and I can't really seem to find anything all that exciting or newsworthy to recap even though its been a few weeks since my last post.  If I go TOO much longer without updating, however, I'm afraid I will never regain momentum and our family record will become family HISTORY, so, with that being said, here is what I've managed to wrack from my brain regarding the last few weeks of our lives.  Let's take it from the top...

Scott --

Scott is possibly the only member of the family to have something interesting AND exciting to report.  A couple of weeks ago, he hopped in a time machine and traveled back to meet up with his besties from high school/college in order to relive the glory days with fellow members of the Bloomfield Hills Cartel -- affectionately nicknamed the BHC.  Scott flew out to Utah for a ski trip/reunion with his buddies -- some of whom he hasn't seen in over a decade -- and reveled in his time spent away from responsibility. 

 Scott, Braden, Andy

 The BHC rides again.

Me -- 

Meanwhile, as Scott was reveling, I was unraveling.  Hahaha.  J/K.  Kind of.  To be honest, it wasn't too bad being on my own {from Wednesday to Sunday} with the kids for the first couple of days.  By by the end of Saturday, though, and especially on Sunday, I was counting down the seconds until Scott was back home to help me.  Unfortunately, his already late flight home that night was delayed even more and he didn't get back until after 2 in the morning.  He made it back safe and sound, though, and that's all that really mattered.

The single, solitary moment of peace and happiness on Sunday while Scott was away.  It didn't last long.  Hahaha.  

It took about a week for my poor frazzled nerves to recover from dealing with the kids on my own, but I'm moving on and focusing now on trying to regain motivation and momentum for my New Year's Resolution/theme for the year: "Getting Clean in 2014."  Rather than come up with a lengthy list of goals and resolutions for this year, I've decided instead to sum it up with a single phrase.  What I like so much about it is that it is relevant on so many levels -- both literal and figurative.  {Although rest assured that there are no drug addictions being referred to in our theme.}  Here is the short list of things I'm working on under this umbrella:

• Bathing the kids more often.  
• Getting the basement cleaned and organized and finally completely unpacked.
• Cleaning house {literal and figurative alert} -- I would really like to have an orderly home, and I would REALLY like to get rid of certain behaviors and attitudes from the children that are polluting our home environment.  And -- to be fair -- I know there is plenty of room for improvement on my part as well.

And that is that.

I'm hopeful that February will turn out to be less of a drag than January was -- after all we have 2 birthdays, Valentine's Day, and a Mother-Son school dance to look forward to -- but even if it's not, I'm excited for my own little vacation away from responsibility that will be coming up next month at the beginning of March!  My little sister, Laura, is getting married in Salt Lake City and I will be flying solo out there to be in attendance for the happy event.  I'm rather looking forward to this getaway even though I really wish we could ALL be there for the big day.  Oh well, c'est la vie!

A birthday banner for the upcoming birthday girl.

 And a Valentine bunting just for fun.

 

 I blew up one of our Christmas pictures to poster size and framed it for the hallway.  

 

 And I also printed our Christmas card picture onto a giant canvas for over the mantle.  The picture is kind of terrible, but I was super proud of myself for figuring out how to photoshop a smiling face on Jane for this blown up version.

Another fairly terrible picture, but it gives an idea of what our entry hall wall is looking like these days.  I've started a bit of a gallery with artwork from different members of the family.

 Close-up of the newest addition.  Sophie created a "Peace" poster copying a "give peace a chance" poster she saw at IKEA the last time we were there.  This picture actually looks nothing like the real one, but I rather love the addition of the rainbow.  I must say it makes me feel happy whenever I look at it these days.  :)

Ethan --

Ethan has been busy these days creating talk shows with Grace (aka "Selfish Sally") and doing weather reports for his viewers.  I guess our semi-successful attempt at electronic detox in January spurred some creativity after all.  Haha.  In addition to these efforts, he gave a really great Family Home Evening lesson on the Creation a few weeks ago and I was so bummed when all the pictures he took while we were working on it were erased before I could upload them!  He handed out scriptures to all of us (while in teams) and after looking up our day of the Creation, we drew a picture to represent it.  It was one of those few and far between FHE moments where everyone was engaged, cooperating, and happy.  If only those happened more often!  On the school front, I am more than excited that Ethan has consented to go with me to the Mother-Son "Mustache Bash" this Friday at the school.  There will be pictures and chocolate fountains and line dancing -- who wouldn't want to attend?  Right?  Right????  Hahaha.  He's being a trooper about it, though, and I'm sure it's been made more palatable to him to know that a lot of other boys in his class are going as well.  There WILL be pictures forthcoming.  Also forthcoming?  That darn Pinewood Derby.  It's been cancelled and postponed twice now thanks to the weather and we're really hoping third time's a charm here and we'll FINALLY be able to get our race on next week without further delay.

The backdrop Ethan created for the Selfish Sally talk show.

 Weather forecast.

 Weather across the country.

FHE lesson.

Grace --

It always makes me REALLY scared to say this, but there hasn't been anything extra-ordinary happening on the Grace front these days.  Granted we did have a mega-meltdown last night at bedtime -- over me not buying them "Uncrustables" of all things (before it morphed into her standard and standby refrain over the injustice of us not buying her a dog) -- but for the most part she's not had much going on.  {Paragraph ended nervously knowing that I have set myself up for some major Grace antics before the day is over.}

Sophie --

In 2 more days the supermuppet will be 7! {Although let the record show that Sophie now hates this nickname and doesn't want us using it ever again.}  Aside from her burgeoning art skills, Sophie has pranced into the world of music this last week and has begun teaching herself how to play the piano using an old book that Ethan had back in the day.  She's quite pleased with her efforts, and I have to say that I'm happy as well.  In other news, Sophie finished up the entire Diary of a Wimpy Kid series about a week ago and has since moved on to reading the Little House on the Prairie books.  On the school front, Sophie continues to be true to herself -- chatting is still her achilles heel.

Jane --

Jane, Jane, Jane.  My adorable little pet.  After meeting with HER teachers at preschool, I am now convinced that all of my children are completely different creatures when away from me and home.  When I expressed my concerns about her ADD/focus issues and space cadet tendencies, her teachers seemed genuinely surprised and baffled that we have any of these problems at home.  Huh?  What the heck!  They both assured me that she is perfectly fine at school, has really grown this year in confidence, and can name the days of the week like no other.  Neither one had any concerns at all about her starting Kindergarten in the fall.  It was definitely a helpful perspective to hear. 

Alex --

Oh Lover Boy.  I'll let the pictures do the talking to sum up his past month.

Ignore his filthy face -- getting clean in 2014 is going to take some time.

 

 Twinsies!

 

 Sleepy puppy with his peoples.

 

 He seriously would take them everywhere if he could.

Believe it or not, but Alex is a bit obsessed with superheros.  And that is a bit of an understatement.  Hahaha.  He loves his superhero Little People that he got for Christmas and drags them around everywhere and plays with them all the time.  He also dresses up in costume on a regular basis as well, with superman being his go-to guy.  It is kind of hilarious.  This is definitely his world and we just live in it.  

To close, I'll leave you with one more anecdote and a picture of an experiment.  Over the last few weeks I have discovered that there is something magical in a circle.  At least in our family.  Now, before you write this off as completely New Age-y, let me explain.  Almost without fail, I can temporarily put a pause on family contention and craziness by sitting on the floor in the family room and forcing everyone to come and sit with me in a circle.  It is seriously like magic.  It might take some time for everyone to make their way on over to the circle, but once they are there and I have all their attention, I can pretty much make up almost any game or activity off the top of my head to hold them hostage and they will willingly and happily play along.  Seriously.  It's like I'm the Pied Piper of Hamelin or something.  If I build the circle, they will come.  Hahahaha.  So either the circle is magic or I am.  I'll let you decide.  Hahahaha.

The final note I'll end on here is the experiment we started on Monday night with our Family Home Evening lesson.  After seeing this Rice Experiment online, I told the kids all about it and decided to see if it really worked at home.  I thought it would be a perfect thing to try out right now due to the atrocious language and disrespect that has been floating around our house for the last little bit.  The experiment uses three jars of rice, and every day you speak positive things to one, negative things to another, and nothing at all to the last one.  At the end of a month or so, the rice in the positive jar is supposed to be mostly the same, while the other two should be in varying degrees of decomposition and decay.  We shall see if it really works.  I don't think I did the rice correctly (I didn't cook it first --  I just poured boiling water over it in the hope that is would "cook" in the jar), so it could be that the entire experiment is a bust.  Or it just could be that the entire experiment is a bit kooky.  Haha.  The kids are enjoying it, though, so I'm just going to end on that positive note.  Until next time...