Family Home Evening Picnic

About two weeks ago, we took the family to a park with a duck pond for a picnic. It was warm, and not windy and really nice. Joshua really wanted to get into the water, so we had to keep a close eye on him. But we had a lot of fun watching all of the ways he tried to get to the water. We had the picnic first thing. Fed the ducks next, and then played tag on the playground. It was a very nice spring celebration.

Joseph's House

While we were driving by an oil refinery, Joseph gasped and declared, "That is going to be my house!"

Shakespeare Conquest: Twelfth Night

Ruth and Kate took a home school Shakespeare class this school year. The first semester they spent time reading and watching and learning about Shakespeare's writings, and the Elizabethan time period.  The second semester, they began studying the comedy, Twelfth Night. They tried out for different parts. Then they were assigned parts and began practicing a TON.  This past Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, they performed three shows. AND THEY WERE EXCELLENT!!!! The play was very entertaining and funny! Everyone I talked to was impressed at what a great job a small group of home schooled kids could do with the help of just a few moms.

On the first night, Kate, who had all of her lines perfectly memorized for weeks, froze and couldn't remember a thing. Fortunately, she recovered in time, and was able to speak on stage. She said her lines mistake free the other two nights.

On the second night, Olivia and Viola missed two full pages of the script, but the audience could not tell. Viola also couldn't get her mustache off the second night, so she said, "I can't get this off. I will just take this down, " and dropped down her hair.

Ruth messed up a few of her lines the first and 3rd nights, but she was able to say them all perfectly, the second night. Truly, it was all fun.

The Cast

The cast and the helping hands

The theater

Feste (amazing little musician too)

Ruth as Maria and Sir Toby

Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Maria

Feste and Maria

The drinking party

`Orsino's House

Malvolio reading Maria's letter

Olivia and Maria

Sir Toby fighting Antonio

Little Kate (First Officier) arresting the much taller, stronger Antonio with the second officer, Orsino, and Viola

Final Scene

Ending Song accompanied by Feste

Olivia and Sebastian

Breakfast Help

I need help. We are spending way too much on Breakfast-- I think. We eat cold cereal practically every morning. This is because it is both easy and at least one of my pickiest eaters is still alive from his willingness to eat vitamin fortified sugar bombs-- seriously the retard was nearly hospitalized for refusing to eat when he was 19 months, but that is a whole other story.

We go through about 1 to 1.5 family size boxes of cereal a day, plus about 1/3 to 1/2 of a gallon of milk. That is $4 to $6.50 for cereal and a little less then $1 to $1.50 for milk ($5-$8  a day). If we eat oatmeal, that is cheaper. We use about a half of carton of oatmeal which is about $1, the same amount of milk and about 50 cents extra for raisins or craisins ($2.50 -$3 a day). But none of us can eat oatmeal everyday. By about day three of oatmeal, I would rather not eat breakfast then have to gag down more slimy oats. I am okay with it three times a week if it isn't consecutive.

My question is, what are cheap and healthy thing that you do for breakfast? My husband was astonished to find out that a dozen eggs and a pound of bacon would cost about the same as a box of cereal. I thought if bought frozen blueberries and made muffins often, also wheat and honey muffins might go over well. Are green smoothies cheaper then cold cereal? What about yogurt? I suspect we could eat bagels, cream cheese and fruit salad every morning and be happy, but is that cheaper and would we need more vitamins? I have often gotten my kids nourished by giving them "vitamin fortified sugar bombs" every morning! ( I have very picky kids. Most of them are very small for their ages. And 3 of my kids would rather starve then eat food they do not like. And they do. My 60 pound 12 year old was skipping breakfast and lunch because she doesn't like the food.) Even with my obnoxious kids, our budget could use some reworking. So please help. What do you do for a cheap and healthy breakfast?

The Last Snippet of a Conversation

I think the thing that I will miss most when all of my kids are grown up is those funny things that they say, and especially the things that they say to each other.

Yesterday, I had the privilege of hearing the last little snippet of a conversation between Johnny and Adam.

Adam: That can be fixed with a shrink ray.
Johnny: Shrink rays haven't been invented yet.
Adam: I think they'll be invented soon.

Man, I know I will miss those moments. Kids are awesome!

An Hour in a Day

I am joining Stacy over at Stacy's Mothering Moments for "An Hour in a Day," where we write about one hour in our day.

Today, I am writing about my first hour.

I woke up hearing the baby crying. I knew he would want milk, but I did not want to force my pregnant--starting to be uncomfortable-- body out of bed too quickly. So, I stayed in bed for another minute or two, slowly rolled over and reached the floor. I used my arms to lift myself the rest of the way out of bed and onto my feet. 

Instead of heading down the stairs to get the milk. I walked to the top of the stairs and asked my oldest daughter to get the milk. Then I walked down the hallway to let the 6, 4, and 2 year old out of bed with a tired, "Good Morning". 

I then walked down to the end of the other hallway, and picked up the baby. He had a poopy diaper, so instead of heading back to bed with the baby and the milk, I went downstairs and changed his leaky poopy diaper. Since, he was busy drinking, he held still and didn't fuss-- which was nice.

Tuesday happens to be my "wash the floor day", so I asked my 10 year old son to move all of the chairs out of the kitchen. Still feeling a little sleepy, I signed into facebook and read what other people had to say.  I turned on General Conference to listen to while I cleaned. Then I headed to the laundry room and started folding out the laundry. 

My 2 year old boy joined me and asked for a "drink of water, from the sink, and in a sippy cup." I guess this means, a drink of water, not from the fridge, and not in a regular cup. So I left the laundry, walked to the kitchen, looked in the cupboard to find no more clean sippy cups.  I grabbed a regular cup out of the cupboard, went to the fridge and got him a drink of water from the fridge.  Fortunately, he was more interested in the water then the cup and source.

I went back to the laundry room, finished folding out the dryer, and started the first load of laundry for the day. Then I got the broom and swept the kitchen floor, the mudroom area (very small), the downstairs bathroom and the laundry room. As always, I am amazed at how much dirt I sweep up no matter how often I sweep.

I then got out a bucket and filled it with hot water and lysol. I carried the bucket over to laundry room and noticed a drippy trail behind me. The bucket had a crack in the bottom, so I transferred the cleaning water to a new bucket and threw the cracked bucket out.

I started to wash the floor. My husband came in with the baby trailing behind him, telling me it was time for family prayer. He noticed the trail of water, complained that the baby had walked through it, and didn't care that I said it was not going to poison the baby since he walked in it and didn't eat it. 

After several minutes, we eventually managed to gather everyone and get prayer said. I walked back to my bucket of water and the laundry room floor, and John washed the baby up in the sink.

 I started to wash the floor, the older kids started school work or sat down to read, and the younger kids went off to play (even though I told them to get their folders and start their school work.) At that point, my hour was up. I did finish washing the floor about 20 minutes later. Now it is time to mess up my clean floor by having a late breakfast.

Very Blessed and Very Lucky

It's not my anniversary, or father's day, or my husband's birthday, BUT... I have been thinking a lot about how very blessed and very lucky I am to have such a good husband!

John is amazing in so many ways. He is the best father ever. He spends individual time with several of our children each day. My kids know their dad, and love their dad, and respect their dad a lot. And it's because they know without a doubt that their dad cares about them each personally and indivually.

John is the best husband. He tells me that I am pretty every day-- even though I disagree. He helps me clean the kitchen. He bathes the little kids. He lets me be the one to sleep in on Saturday mornings. He takes me on dates every week. He reminds me to say my prayers and to read my scriptures. He is my best friend. I love hanging out with him and talking to him.

John works hard 5 days a week at a job he absolutely HATES! I am so glad that he does. I know for sure that he would have quit that job the first week he was there, if he cared more about himself than his family.

John is FUNNY!!!! He is always joking and using humor and I LOVE IT!!! He makes life easier by joking about it.

I am very blessed, and very lucky. I did not deserve John, but I am sure glad that he chose me to be his wife and the mother of his children. I wouldn't be who I am, without my good husband.