We have enjoyed our week. The kids are enjoying lots of free play time. I think it is good for them to enjoy play time while they are young. The boys are enjoying the Lego and making lots of things with that. This week they got out the Erector set and made a large tower with a pulley attached that lifts things up. They had to bring it down stairs to the entry way where the ceiling is high. The also have made a train system in the front room. There is plenty of room since we don’t have much furniture in there and they have enjoyed doing stories with the trains this week. They also discovered some new “Thomas” videos on Netfix and have been watching them this week.
The boys with their tower. Below the boys watching Thomas with their trains on the floor.
Some of their Lego creations.
Last week we enjoyed our Mini golf outing. The boys loved doing the golf. I enjoyed being with them. On the coupons we used we got a free game of mini golf and free tokens for the arcade room. The boys had fun playing some of the games. Spencer did a game where he spun a wheel and it landed on a jack pot of 500 tickets. He thought it was so fun to see all the tickets coming out of the machine. Then the fun part was when he brought his ticket count up to the prize counter and was able to pick out some toys. One thing he got was a set of police cars, plastic ones the size of “hot wheels”. He was all excited and said “now we have police cars to be a part of our stories.” The best part was that he said “we” and was totally getting it for all the boys, not just for him. Ruth had fun playing at the swimming pool with her friends that day.
Friday evening Ruth and Andrew went to the Winter’s home for a party. They had a great time playing games and being silly with their friends. Neal made it home from England late Friday night. I was happy he was able to travel safely and it is nice to have him back home.
Last week I noticed that my pajamas were getting worn looking. I even have holes in my pants. I thought I would look through the fabric I had gotten from the lady in the ward last spring and see how big the pieces were and if there was enough to make some pajama pants. The kids were interested in what I was doing so I invited them to pick out fabric to make pajama pants too. They thought it was a great idea and got excited about doing a sewing project. So Ruth, Andrew and Spencer picked out fabric and I helped them make pajama pants. They did great with sewing too. Ruth did a little more than the boys but they all sewed the straight leg seams on their own and they helped with all the steps. They were excited to finish them and wear them. Spencer really liked a chicken fabric but there was only one yard of it. He asked if he could make one leg out of the chicken fabric. So we found another fabric that matched it and made it that way. He loves them. There was enough of the black check fabric that I made a shirt for him too. With a little chicken fabric left after cutting out the pant I was able to make the sleeves with the chicken fabric. He loves his new pajamas! With all that, I didn’t find a fabric piece that was big enough for pants for me and so the three older kids have new pajamas but I don’t! Isn’t that how it works sometimes? I will go to the fabric store and buy me something soon and until then I will wear my older pajamas.
Spencer's chicken pants
Caleb's pajamas aren't new, but he wanted a picture too
Andrew was happy with his dots.
Spencer with the shirt after it was made. I didn't get a picture of Ruth's pajamas.
Saturday morning the weather was really nice and we were working in the yard. I was working in the front and our neighbor, who is in our ward, drove by and stopped to talk. She said that they had a peach tree that was needing to have the fruit picked but they were leaving on vacation soon and she didn’t have time. She invited me over to pick as much as I wanted. Ruth, Spencer and I went over and picked a lot. We have enjoyed them. They are sweet and juicy. The hard part is they are cling peaches and not easy to get off the pit. I don’t plan on canning them but we have enjoyed eating them fresh and I have frozen some. I even made some delicious cobbler. Today I went back and picked more, so I will work on those this afternoon. The family is on vacation now and they asked Ruth to help watch their yard and water their garden while they are gone. We did some good work in our yard last week too. I finally got under some dogwood bushes and cleaned out leaves from last fall and pruned them back. They look much better. Neal worked on clearing a space of rocks to make our vegetable garden. It is a big job and they got a little over half done, Andrew and Spencer were helping with it. They are moving the rocks from the landscape and spreading them around in other areas of the yard that have the same size of rock. I look forward to having a garden space. It will be more work to get the rocks out and then build up a little retention wall, then fill it with good soil and compost. I hope we can have it ready for next spring to plant in.
Our peach tree is small and only produced about a dozen peaches, they had soft brown spots on the bottoms. I don’t know what caused that. They are cling also, more of a white flesh and a bit tart but were good. The apples and pears are still growing and look good. I will learn how to take care of all this fruit. I also want to plant raspberries. I have heard from friends that they do well here. I am glad that we are in a house now and can plan things and work to make things the way we would like.
I received another church calling. I have been called to teach Relief Society. I was actually excited about that because that means I will be able to keep attending Relief Society class every week. The last two wards I have been in I had callings with the children so I was missing being with the adults and have enjoyed it a lot the last two months. I also enjoy teaching. I don’t think I have ever been an official RS teacher, but have taught a lot as a substitute and when I have served in the RS Presidency. I look forward to getting to know the sisters even better as I teach and serve them.
Sunday I was sitting in church and realized I forgot to start cooking my pork roast in the crock pot I had in the fridge for dinner. So I had to do something different with it. I decided to cut it into pieces and make a breading on it and pan fry it. I thought it turned out pretty good. The kids were asking what I was making for dinner and Andrew came up with a name for it “pig nuggets.” I preferred saying pork bites.
Monday was a holiday. We had a ward breakfast at the church. We were combined with the High Desert ward, the ward we just moved out of, so we had lots of people there and many friends. The breakfast was good but the activity was the fun part. They did what they called a “bike derby.” They had blocked off half of the parking lot and had cones up to mark the area and they kids rode their bikes around the circle. They loved it. Even Caleb enjoyed riding his bike and was doing well with it. Now he is deciding that the bike might be better than the tricycle, which he is getting a little big for. That afternoon we made ice cream and enjoyed it. We had hamburgers grilled outside and were going to eat at our picnic table but it started to rain a little and we decided to eat inside. That evening we went into our back yard and had a great view of fireworks from our neighbors across the open space and down into the city, we live on a hill. It was fun to watch. I am thankful for our freedoms and thankful for this country.
Tuesday morning I took the kids to the Explora museum. We bought a membership so we can go back lots during the year. We decided to go to a different museum than the one we had a pass to last year. Both of the museums are on the “passport” system to get into other science museums across the country. On our trip we plan on going to a science museum in Iowa. We enjoyed the museum. It was a fun place to explore and play. The kids were so excited to find a water table like the one they enjoyed playing with at the Mayborn in Texas.
Wednesday was a busy day. Ruth had a young women activity in the morning. They ate breakfast together and watched the movie “17 Miracles.” She brought a breakfast (coffee) cake to share. She enjoyed being there. That morning I noticed that the bath tub that had been dripping and having a leaky faucet was starting to dribble more. I was worried that we can’t get it off. Neal and I agreed to call a plumber and I said I would figure out who. So that took time to get information and call around. I have an appointment with someone to come out on Monday morning. It is a stressful thing to me. I don’t like having things not work.
Ruth was given some clothes to look through. She found some cute, nice things. She is enjoying dressing up and looking nice every day. The dress pants and nice shirts in the box fit her better than the jeans, so she got some nice things. We will need to find her some jeans to fit though so she can have something for those times she doesn’t want to be so dressy. I am thankful for the clothing. It is hard to keep the kids with things when they are growing so fast. Caleb wants to grow faster. Yesterday he was all upset that he had weighed himself and he was two pounds less than last time he had. I tried to explain to him that was normal to vary some, but he was so sure he had stopped growing.
I did some piano time with the boys yesterday. That was stressful for me too. Andrew and Spencer just do it half heartily and don’t really progress. Spencer seems to only be able to play by ear and gets really frustrated when he has to try to read the music. Andrew has been working on the same song for over a month and still can’t play it. I try hard to be patient and work with them but sometimes I wonder if it is worth it. Caleb on the other hand loves the piano. He practices often. He knows his notes and can read music better than Spencer. He is working through the books so fast too. He has caught up to Spencer. I had them working in the same series because I liked the books and now I wonder if it was a good idea. Caleb is going to pass Spencer up soon, they are working on the same songs right now. Caleb gets so excited about learning new things and it comes easier to him. He likes to write little melodies and then writes on a paper what note to start on and then finger numbers, so he can remember it. So something like “start on the E above middle C, then play ...” and a list of numbers follow. I asked him if he wanted to use some music staff paper and write out the notes and he said no.
I love my little family. I am amazed at the things they do. Caleb likes to write out math problems. Sunday at church he was writing numbers and I didn’t think much of it until he showed it to me and said “Mom, I made the multiplication chart, but I only went up through the sevens.” And he had a perfect chart in nice rows with all the numbers correct. He amazes me. They all do. I feel so blessed to see them learning and growing each day. This has gotten way long so I will stop.
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