This Week at Our House #6

1. John is a romantic at heart. He loves Valentine's Day now as much as he hated it when he was single. We celebrate Valentine's Day every year. This year we went on a nice date. We enjoyed the quiet time to talk that we rarely have theses days.
2. I had a very busy week. I am trying real hard to keep my heart rate up  while I exercise. Instead of feeling great and having endorphins, I just feel pregnant afterwards-- tired and kind of dizzy. I am still not loosing any weight. Hmmm...maybe once I'm finished nursing the baby. I am hoping to run outdoors this week. It is warmer and the snow has melted a lot. That scares me to think that the neighbors will be watching me. But, I guess a whole lot of people will be watching me when I run the race in June.
3. Monday morning, Ruth testified in front of a senate committee meeting in favor of a bill that would put the sex education program online and to give parents an option to teach sex-ed at home. Ruth was embarrassed to find that she was quoted in the papers here and here. John and I were very proud of her given that she did a good enough job to be quoted in the news. On Valentine's Day, Ruth got a mystery flower from someone at school. She also had to give a presentation with the infamous Rob, who has become a regular household name for us. While giving the presentation a lot of boys teased Ruth that she liked Rob. Poor Ruth. I sure hope she really is being nice to him. He lives in our stake boundaries. Last Sunday Ruth found out that she will be going to a Trek Youth Conference with Rob.
4. Kate testified at the senate committee meeting on Monday too. Brave Kate, agreed to be interviewed by a few news stations after the meeting. She was on the afternoon and evening news, Monday. You can watch her here and here. Kate enjoyed a lot of musical practice the rest of the week. She had a lot of fun with friends at the Jr. High all week. Kate has made friends and feels slightly more ready to re-enter public school in August.
5. Johnny helped and served all week. Johnny babysat while I took the girls to the capitol. Friday, Adam was sick and Johnny spent all of his free time reading, playing with, or helping Adam.
6. Pretty much every day that Adam walks home from school he brings home a large icicle. When Adam came home on Valentine's Day with a bag full of candy, he divided all of his candy up equally and shared with everyone. He even got Rachel to do the same.
7. Rachel is as equally a romantic as her father. She spent all week making Valentines and talking about love. She excitedly picked out her Valentine's cards for school and filled them out without any help. On Valentine's Day, Rachel dressed in all pink. In the beginning of the school year, Rachel said she had a crush on this boy named Riley. The crush wore off and I asked her why. She said it was because she could not spend everyday with him.
8. On Wednesday, Anya snuck out in the morning, went to neighbor's house and asked if her friend could play. I didn't even know she was gone until she came home with her friend. That was quite frightening. Fortunately, the neighbor she went to is the one I trust the most. 
9. Joseph quit peeing in the toilet in the day and he started wetting the bed at night. Ughh!!! I hate it when I have to re-potty train. But, obviously, I did. I simply grounded him from pants until he quits wetting them. He hasn't had an accident and only wet the bed once, except the one day I let him wear pants. I wonder if he doesn't go in time to get his pants down. Because he is perfect when he just wears underwear.
10. Josh is the most adored little two year old. Everyone loves him and thinks he is cute. When we want Josh to come, we just start saying, "cars, cars, cars". Sure enough Josh will come. If we call Josh's name, he just runs the other way.
11. Arwen popped a top tooth, and started scooting around on her belly. She is growing so fast.I'll miss her baby stage when it is over.

This Weeks Pictures

 

My Experience and Opinion With Vaccinations

I was asked about my take on vaccination on a Facebook forum. Here it is:

When I had my first little baby, I had someone sit me down and tell me all of the evils of vaccinations and why I should not vaccinate. At that time there was no correlation to autism. Her objections where all rare side effects and government conspiracies. I thought about it for a while and decided her fears where completely unfounded;there is risk in everything and vaccinations are saving way more lives than they are taking. I decided then and there that vaccinations are knowledge from God and got them on schedule for my first two kids.

When I had my 3rd child,  a trusted friend and child occupational therapist told me how the MMR was correlating to a rise in autism especially in boys. She was a trustworthy source and was even working with the kids that were normal until they received the MMR. I prayed about it and felt certain that I should wait longer to get my baby son the MMR. He got it at 2.5. I was really glad for that warning and the guidance of the spirit because this particular child does have a few autistic traits.

However, I still held strong to my belief that vaccines are good and worth the risk. That was confirmed to me when one church member I knew had a child spend months in the hospital with hbv. Her daughter nearly died.

My next 3 kids got their vaccinations on schedule. I trusted my pediatrician with her knowledge and got all the recommended vaccinations.

When my oldest was 11, our pediatrician told me to get her the HPV or human papillomavirus. She said it would prevent cervical cancer. I got her the vaccination. Later, I found out one of the side effects was infertility and that it is only for STD's and is recommended to gay men. I was not happy at all. I felt ashamed that I just let the doctor inject something into my child with no knowledge of what it was and what it truly prevented. From that point on I decided I would not get my kids any vaccinations that I had not done the research on myself.

Two years later, I found out that cell line of several vaccinations are derived from aborted fetuses. (Think stem cell research). Along with that I found out that every single vaccination that has viruses grown frown aborted human fetal tissue has a 100% correlation with a rise in autism-- each year one of these new vaccinations were introduced, cases of autism rose.
By this time, my 7th child had delayed vaccinations because of moving and unemployment, and I had just given birth to my 8th child. I prayed about what to do, felt like he would be fine if I got his vaccinations on schedule. So I did.

With my 9th child, a little girl, my and husband and I separately felt like we should not get her vaccinated on schedule and we should not bring her into the doctors office. We have learned from sad experience not to ignore any promptings. She is 6 months. She received her 2 months vaccinations all of which are not derived from human fetuses. We will get her vaccinated when the Spirit tells us it is okay to proceed.

I still feel like vaccinations are good and knowledge from God. I am grateful for vaccinations and antibiotics. These two things have made the death of children a rare occurrence. I am not sure I have an ancestor that did not lose a child. Vaccinations are good,but not something to just accept without knowledge.

Ruth's Talk on Media and Entertainment

Ruth gave a talk in church today. She did such an excellent job, I had to post it here. I am most impressed because she did not get any help from John or I. The only part that I helped her with was showing her how to do a key word search on lds.org.

Hello my name is Ruth Robertson, and I’m fourteen. My talk is on Media and
Entertainment. 

In our world today our access to technology seems almost unlimited. We
have cell phones, iPads, touch screens, kindles, laptops, iPods, and so much more. If we
need to have a question answered, we can just google it. This technology can have many
great uses that can help us from day to day life, but it can also help tear us apart from
the gospel and our father in heaven. 

A quote from the For the Strength of Youth says, “Choose wisely when using media because whatever you read, listen to, or look at has an effect on you.” This is very true, though some people may say that ‘it won’t affect me’ or ‘it’s only one tv show or one song, and I can tune it out’ You can try, but it will affect you. 

Though it’s many good a harmless uses, the day to day media is corrupted. It attacks the family, it portrays violence and immorality as normal everyday things, and even as the new cool thing. It is one of Satan’s ways to attack us. In the October 2012 conference Elder Quentin L Cook stated, “One prominent writer recently said, “Everyone knows the culture is poisonous, and nobody expects that to change.” 

The constant portrayal of violence and immorality in music, entertainment, art, and other media in our day-to-day culture is unprecedented. This was dramatically described by a highly respected Baptist theologian when he stated, “The spiritual immune system of an entire civilization has
been wounded” 

Not too long ago there was this one singer whose songs were almost always clean, and for Christmas I asked to get one of their new albums. Being cautious my dad looked up the lyrics to the songs on that cd and told me what over half of their new songs were saying. I was shocked and saddened by how immoral and disgusting some of their new songs now were. 

In October 2003 M Russell Ballard said this about today’s music, “We must be concerned with the violent and sexually charged lyrics of much of today’s popular music and the relatively new “art form” of the music video.” He also had to say this about our media of today, “It attacks religion. It undermines the family. It turns virtue into vice and vice into virtue. It assaults the senses and batters the soul with messages and images that are neither virtuous, nor lovely, nor of good report, nor praiseworthy.” 

We should search for the lovely, praiseworthy and that of good report, it only takes one bad song or one immoral tv show to drive the spirit away from us. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

This Week at Our House #5

1. John had a busy week because I had a busy week. We definitely had to divide and conquer. John usually takes a nap everyday, but I don't think he got very many naps this week. Our kids sure keep us going and going.
2.  I have a private Facebook group with a bunch LDS moms who have 6 or more children. Thursday, a bunch of us that live on the Wasatch Front of Utah had a moms night out. I prepped John all week so that he would be there to babysit for me. I love these moms. They are my best friends. I am so glad to have an opportunity to meet other mothers who are going through or have gone through all of the same things that I am. It is also neat to see how differently we all do things. I spent a lot of time this week going over the Bills that are up at the Utah State Legislature. This year, as I have a nursing baby, I am doing what I can from home. We are going to the Capitol tomorrow-- more on that next week.
3. Ruth had a busy week. She had musical practice Monday thru Thursday and Saturday. She had a school dance Friday afternoon and a church dance Saturday night. Ruth danced with several guys at the church dance. The last dance, the guy who asked her dance had friends hanging around while they were dancing telling him to kiss her. She just walked away while the music was still playing. She also gave an amazing talk in church today. I am proud of my good daughter.
4. Kate had a busy week too going back and forth to musical practice. Kate has made a couple of good friends and feels much more comfortable going back to school in August. She is enjoying the musical. I look forward to seeing the end product in a couple of weeks.
5. On Tuesday, I took Johnny on down to the Family Fun Center in Sandy to bounce in the bouncey houses. I couldn't do much bouncing because I had to hold onto Arwen. Johnny helped each of the little kids get up large slides and find their way through the obstacle course. Johnny also organized a game a tag with his siblings and other kids playing there. On Friday, Johnny got contact lenses. I love seeing his gorgeous dark chocolate eyes again.
6. Adam had an eye doctor's appointment and he is finally seeing well. 2 years ago, Adam was only seeing 20/60 through his glasses. I decided to take him to a pediatric optomologist. He is now seeing 20/25 through his gasses. I am just relieved. It took effort to get Adam's eyes diagnosed correctly and for him to be put on a treatment path that would help his eyes function. I am glad that my little boy can finally see. His optomologist is researching to see if there are contact lenses that could help him.
7. Rachel is whole new child. She's been cleaning her own bedroom and taking care of her things. When I tell Rachel to clean something up, she just does it. This week Rachel told me that she is going to name her children Rachel, Rachel, and Rachel because she just loved her name. Rachel told me that she loves me better than food because I am so nice, then she attacked me with a bunch of slobbery kisses because she knows I can't stand slobbery kisses. Other kids joined in the attack and they all just laughed and laughed. I got them all back by tickling them. :)
8. Anya has been making Valentine's all week. Some are just hearts, some are a whole lot more. One Valentine had an evil dragon fighting a Valentine Dragon that had hearts. The Valentine Dragon was winning. I have pictures taped up all over the house from Anya trying to decorate the house. She has also been taking the play food out and setting up picnics on blankets in various places. Five is a cute age.
9. I can't recall getting angry with Joseph this week!!! That really means two things. 1) I was too busy to notice his pathway of destruction and 2) he didn't do anything that made me too mad. That is progress. I am trying to give Joseph more of my time. My goal for this week is to not send him to bed until I have done a puzzle or two with him.
10. Josh gets things for me. If I need something like some toys for the baby or a diaper, blanket, some one's shoes etc. Josh is a good kid to ask. Josh likes to go. When he sees me getting Rachel and Adam ready for school in the mornings, he gets his coat on and runs out to the car. He likes to go to stores and run errands and such too. Josh really doesn't like to be left behind.
11. Arwen has become a little more chatty and a little persistent. She will just gab and gab at you for a long time. She will also cry if you do not let her have the thing she is trying to take out of your hands. 

This Weeks Pictures

This Week at Our House #4

1. John is the same old same old. We went to his parents house for his dad's birthday yesterday. (That's why the day late on the blog) John enjoyed hanging out with his dad and his brother a ton. I am truly married to a great guy, by the way. I didn't deserve him. 
2. Me, well, see the blog post below about being cynical. I have spent the week trying hard on the exercising front, and feeling frustrated with: exercise, weight loss, disobedient little kids, my lack of nice furniture and decor, and my kids breaking things without a thought. I guess I need an attitude adjustment. Life is better than all of these complainy feelings.
3. Ruth did not enjoy her back to full on everyday life. She had a few days off the previous week and was just not into going to school, doing homework, going to Young Women's, going to musical practice, studying, doing chores, etc. But she did it all anyway and didn't really complain.
4. Kate talked Anya into liking a different Samurai. She drew some pictures of herself and Heihatchi. Ahhh, young love. Hopefully someday she will love more than a cartoon character.
5. Johnny never ceases to amaze me at what a good boy he is. He is honest and true and truly tries to be good and to do better. I am very glad Adam, Joseph, and Josh get to have such a good example.
6. I am trying to get Adam to learn to love reading. He is so unconvinced that reading can be fun. I hate forcing him to read because that seems counterproductive, but how in the world can he learn to love reading if he never reads?! Everyday, I tell Adam to read, and everyday, Adam tells me he hates to read. 
7. I am pleased to announce that Rachel is finally doing bigger and harder chores without a lot of nagging. That has been a long time coming. I had parent/teacher conferences this past week. Rachel has been a slow reader and I talked to her teacher pretty extensively about that. I asked if there were other kids at Rachel's level. Her teacher told me that most of the kids are at Rachel's level. I think that means Rachel and her classmates are probably developmentally right on and it is the curriculum that is off. Anyway, that is good to know. Rachel's teacher did rave about Rachel's imagination. Apparently Rachel brought her teacher a tardy slip with the excuse "I am late because I was halucinating in my dreams".
8. Anya is actually making leaps and bounds in reading and writing and I have done very little with her. I am looking forward to homeschooling kindergarten with Anya next year. She really wants to go to school, but I think she needs that one on one time with me everyday before I send her out into the world. With this many kids, I just can't always do things the conventional way.
9. Joseph is driving me nuts. He is breaking things, ignoring everything I say, hitting and biting and fighting. I can hardly stand him at all right now. I am trying to think of some good things to say about him. I think I better spend the next few days finding everything he does right and letting him know. I would hate to be stuck with him acting this way much longer. It is time for some serious positive reinforcement.
10. Josh is still just the cutest toddler. He calls all round fruit "ballbulls". I love it.
11. Last week Arwen started fake coughing and sneezing. This week she growled at us and begged for our food.

This week's Pictures

 

Teaching Cooking and Meal Planning

I have read all of these fantastic blogs of other moms with 9 or 10 kids that just have it all together. Their kids are organized in cooking, cleaning, and doing their own laundry. I am not that mom. I have struggled to get my 2 to 3 oldest to clean bathrooms and do laundry over the last three years while wondering how in the world am I supposed to add cooking into the mix. I fear that my kids will not grow up and be able to do the basic house keeping chores to keep their own homes running because I am not making it work now.

Every attempt I have made to get Ruth and Kate to cook meals has completely failed up until now. I decided to use a little manipulation to get those slackers involved. I told Ruth and Kate that if they cooked one meal by themselves and helped with most of the others each week, I would clean their bathroom and they could rotate with Johnny every three weeks cleaning the downstairs half bath. They took me up on it.

Ruth and Kate are now required to help in the meal planning and cooking. They have been doing it for three weeks. Things are working out. They are planning for and making dinners without help. I was thinking I would never see the day that this happened.

I am still in no way like those other moms that can get their kids to clean hard bathrooms and cook and do laundry and and and. But hey, at least I am making progress.

There is one part in all of this that makes me feel pretty good. One week Ruth and Kate have to plan the menu and then we shop for all of the ingredients. The next week, they have to plan the menu using only what we have available at home-- no shopping allowed. I do think both menu planning skills are worth while.

Now, I am just hoping that in a few more years, I can convince them that they can clean bathrooms and cook and do laundry and babysit and get all of their homework done and practice their music and do extra-curricular stuff, etc. For now, I'll just take what I can get.

Feeling Cynical

Okay, so I have been exercising more than I ever have in my life. I am not feeling the benefits that everyone claims comes along with the exercise.

• Weight Loss-- I am supposedly burning 1500+ a week, I have not lost an ounce, and I am not eating more either.
• Energy-- you always hear that you will have more energy if you exercise a lot. Well, I don't. I exercise hard and I am TIRED. I finish and I feel like I need a nap. I don't take naps, though, I just struggle through the rest of the day trying to get everything else finished. I liked it better when I could get everything done without feeling so tired.

I really, really want the weight loss and the energy. At this point, I am not expecting to get that. Alas, I will still press forward and attempt to run a half marathon in June.