SuperHotMama's House

Oh the thinks you can think...

2010-03-22T16:34:00.000-07:00

So, I was giving a quiz to some students today. People with Autism tend to be very literal as you'll see from their answers. (And no, I am not making this up.)

This is a can. A can is a cylinder. A cylinder usually has three sides.

Q. How many sides does your can have?

A. Two. The inside and the outside.

Q. Tell me one way you can save water.

A. Usually it's best to save it in a jar or container.

Q. Can you tell me the surface area of the cube you are holding in your hand? (a hundreds cube with markings on it)

A. Well, the surface is the outer part.

Q. What grade do you expect to get on this paper?

A. 11th

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE my job!?!

Oh, and the funniest c0mments ever heard from a student... When this awesome boy has a good day it's called a Plan A day. However, when he makes a poor choice he ends up with a Plan B day - not good. The other day at lunch he was telling my instructional assistants about his "Alphabet plans":

Plan A - Austin (his own name - names have been changed) messes up a perfectly clean house.

Plan B - Austin cuts his losses and kicks, screams, and pinches.

Plan C - Austin tricks Mom's boyfriend outside and locks the door.

Plan D - Austin goes to the Airport to bring Devin back home to Arizona. (His brother is on a mission. He has told us before that Devin lives at the Airport - obviously, that is where they left him, he must still be there.)

When the IA's were telling me about it, we asked him to repeat his Alphabet plans for me. He did, with only one small change...my favorite plan of all...

Plan B - Cut your losses and ditch the kids!

A post, for the sake of a post

2010-03-21T20:11:00.000-07:00

Nothing to share. Life is unbelievable. Angels turned pages for me yesterday, which was incredible. But still, sometimes when there's so much to say, there's just no way to say it.

"Verily I say unto you my friends, ^afear not, let your hearts be comforted; yea, rejoice evermore, and in everything give ^bthanks" D&C 98:1

My favorite quote lately:

Bad days come to an end, faith always triumphs, and heavenly promises are always kept. - Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Stretched to my limit.

2010-02-21T20:10:00.000-08:00

Sometimes all I can do, is all I can do.

Life Lessons Sure Stink.

2010-01-18T09:44:00.000-08:00

Wolfman is still reeling from the lesson he learned this morning.
I asked him to pick up his toys. He said, "I'm too tired. I want YOU to."

I said, "I'd be glad to."

Then I snatched a trash bag and proceeded to pick up the toys, really fast.

In seconds the realization of what he'd asked for hit him. Soon, he was a screaming, hysterical basket case.

I marched the bag outside and locked it into the back of the suburban.

Life lesson #1 - You take care of your own stuff.

He gets to earn his stuff back by doing everything I ask him to this week. As soon as he's asked. And he'll answer, "Ok, Mama, I'd be glad to."

Life lesson #2 - You don't always get what you want. You get what you work for.

Anything else you'd like me to do for you honey?

It's a Big, Big World

2010-01-10T20:08:00.000-08:00

So, yesterday Wolfman said to me, "Um, Mama, the time has come for me to be a big boy." Then he curled up next to me in "the nest" on the couch, wrapped in his blanket. Today, at church, he tried being a big boy. He told me he wanted to walk to the primary room from the chapel on his own. He left, full of bravado, got just past the chapel doors and then came running back, crying. He's not quite ready yet.

Bitty, however, is completely ready. She wants to do everything on her own. She likes to narrate her adventures, "I'm awake! You're awake! Need a drink. By myself. I got a drink. I drinked it. I did not spill." She's like listening to a Dick & Jane book. I was noticing, this evening, that everything is giant next to her. Our bed is chest high for her. She has to hike herself up onto it like she's climbing a wall. Then, when she wanted a drink, she had to slide down, because she is too tiny to reach across the chasm between the bed and the bedside table to get the cup of water sitting there a foot away. She took her drink and heaved herself all the way up onto the bed again. It's the same thing when she wants to climb up on the chest high toilet, or use the sink that is actually above her head. For the sink, she actually has to claw her way up and hang on her belly while she washes her hands or brushes her teeth. And the crazy thing is that she usually refuses help.

Back to School Blues

2010-01-03T17:32:00.000-08:00

Oh, I am not looking forward to going back to school after having two weeks off. Being at home has been so lovely. Cooking meals, cleaning, doing laundry, and feeling like I'm kind of keeping up with life has been delightful.

I Love Christmas Shopping!

2009-12-21T10:06:00.000-08:00

I took the little ones Christmas shopping last night. We all went to Walmart and I got them each a reusable shopping bag. As they found gifts that they wanted to buy for each other they just stuck them in their bag so that no one could see what we were buying for each other. It was lots of fun.

Wolfman had to be reminded several times that we were not shopping for ourselves, we were thinking of other people. When he found a cool child size baseball hat with Transformers on it, he thought that he should buy it for Calvin. But when I told him that it was too small for Calvin and that it was Wolfman-sized he waved the hat in the air and shouted, "Who wants to buy me a hat?!?"

Smart kid. (I told him, "That's not the way it works." Strangers were chuckling.)

Merry, Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from The Supercool Family!

2009-12-13T17:59:00.000-08:00

I quit mailing out Christmas cards about 20 years ago. This is it.

Merry Christmas to all! I miss my blogfriends, but I'm still thinking of you! Thanks for your love and support!

Hugs,

Janie

Chicken Soup for My Soul

2009-12-06T19:04:00.000-08:00

So many great answers lately. Every day. I guess when you're praying for answers every day, and then studying to find them, they're right there. It's amazing. The other night I was having a hard time, so I was praying. I was getting really frustrated and decided I'd better get out my scriptures and read. First I opened to the glossary, then opened it again and my answer was right there, "Fear not, I am with thee. Be not afraid..." So I quit perseverating on my frustrating situation, and went right to sleep - completely comforted. It's so nice to have the Lord on my side.

On Tuesday I had class and expected Calvin to come right home and help the Princess and Arthur watch the babies until DH could come home. DH said he'd be home in about an hour and feed the kids. So I left the babies with Princess and went to class expecting that everyone would be taken care of. I got home at around 7:30 p.m., only to find that Calvin had just gotten home and Daddy still wasn't home. The babies weren't fed, and no one had even made dinner. I whipped out a couple of boxes of Kraft Mac & Cheese, slamming cupboards the whole time. Just after we'd finished, my visiting teacher called to see if she could bring us a bowl of soup that night and we could have it later in the week. I had to tell her that she'd been inspired (even though she was 20 minutes late.) She said that she'd been praying about her huge to-do list that morning and asking what the most important thing to do was. Her promise to bring me dinner one of these days popped into her mind. She had the soup ready by 6 p.m., but ... wanted to make some bread to bring with it ...and figured that I had it all together and the kids would have already made dinner by that time ...and ...and (just like we all do). It made me really wonder how the Holy Ghost knew at 6 a.m. that my plan would fall apart by 6 p.m.

What I DO know is that the Lord loves me and is taking care of me. Our service answers prayers.

(She brought me the loaf of homemade bread the next morning.) I love my visiting teachers.

Another Classic Black Friday!

2009-11-29T18:58:00.000-08:00

Camping out at Old Navy! Waiting to get a free Lego Rockband Game with a $20 purchase!!!!
Our Group was the first there! My sister, Maria, got there at 9:00 p.m. and claimed our territory with a table, chairs, and she even brought her RV so we'd have a potty in the parking lot!

We got 11 of the 26 games! SCORE!

Julie brought snacks and drinks. Her friends brought cupcakes and homemade rolls! This is Me (black and pink) with two of my sisters (Maria, far left, and Julie, far right) and two cousins (Kimm and Debra).
Most of the group went to breakfast after our 12 hour Black Friday shopping spree! We hit Old Navy for their opening at 3 a.m., then Target at 5 a.m, and after we got everything there, we headed to a couple of Walmart's for their great deals!

We truly have it down to a science! Woohoo! We don't need no stinkin' football!

(Thanks for the pictures Debra!)

Cake and Catching Criminals and Cockroaches

2009-11-23T15:27:00.000-08:00

I am lovin' my job. Today my aides baked me a cake and then we caught a criminal.

Last week we had a big adventure and caught an escape artist. Then on Friday I had an observation. After observing my lesson, the woman from the District said, "You are a Rock Star! I can't imagine anyone else teaching these kids. You are a master teacher. It was a pleasure to watch you teach."

Oh yeah! That's the part of working that I missed. Yeah, going to work every day is still hard, but I really love my job, my coworkers, and my students. I enjoy teaching, and it's nice to hear that I'm good at it too.

We also found a giant cockroach in the cupboard today. However, it didn't reduce my enthusiasm. I am going to get some roach motels though!

splatters

2009-11-08T19:58:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry, I have no thoughts. Since I've been going to school, teaching, and everything else my thoughts are spread so thin...I was going to say it's as thin as margarine on toast, but it's more like splatters of Pam on a pan - not even covering an entire surface. I spend half my time making lists, the other half I spend, standing around trying to remember what I was going to do and why I'm: looking in the fridge, standing in the kitchen, on the computer, looking in my purse, etc.

Today at church, someone asked me how I'm handling everything. I have just given up everything optional. I've missed the last couple of Bunco nights and GNO's. My house is just passable. I don't watch t.v., use the computer, read for pleasure, or do any crafts. I barely see the family. Monday through Thursday, I wake at 5:30, get people ready, drop off the babies, go to school/work, pick up the babies, drop them off, go to class, tuck in the babies, go to bed, and wake up to do it all again. Wednesdays, I have young women's instead of class. Fridays, I'm so exhausted we just have family time instead of going on dates. On the weekends, I do marathon loads of laundry, make sure people have 5 days worth of outfits set aside, make menus, go shopping, cook meals for a week or two, do homework, and try to spend some time holding the little ones.

The classes I'm taking are actually really worthwhile and I enjoy them, but it would have been nice to spread them out. I'm doing the National Board Teacher Certification Pre-Candidacy class which is very (hhhmmmmm, can't think of the word...I've strained for 5 minutes and still can't think of the word I want...yeah, see what I mean?) The other class I'm loving is "7 Habits of Highly Effective People". Sadly, my favorite part is that there's no homework. However, it's great information and goes so well with our Book Group choice, "Bonds that Make us Free". (Which I haven't had time to read except 5 minutes at a time).

Validating. That's the word I couldn't come up with. The whole object of the National Board certification process is to verbalize why what I know about kids determines my actions in the classroom and how that benefits students, and then to show evidence of how that helps my students. Very worthwhile. However, not something I'm going to attempt when I can't string 10 words together in a coherent thought. Maybe next year.

Randoms from this Week

2009-11-01T17:38:00.000-08:00

It's finally getting cold here. Well, you know, we wear jackets in the mornings and turn on the air conditioning in the afternoon.

One of my students was deciding what everyone in class should dress up as for Halloween. At first he just told what movie their character was from, then he told what character we were: His sister, was from The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Quasi Modo; I was flattered he said I was Mulan, until I asked what character from the movie, and It was Yao. Yes, "King of the Mountain".

The other day I was going to use my last cash to buy a cola to kill the caffeine headache that had been plaguing me all afternoon. I stopped at Walmart to pick up a birthday present and when I got back in my car, a woman with a small child asked me for some money to "help them out". I gave her my change, honestly wishing that I could do more for them on that cold, windy day. I thought, "Darn, there went my headache money." I rushed through the rest of my day not thinking about it. In the middle of the night I woke up and thought, "Hmmm, I don't have a headache", then realized, that was my blessing for giving that woman the last of my money.

Last week they were giving students the AIMS test at school. As I was driving past the front of the school, I saw a convertible in front of the school. It had a giant Red Bull can on the back of it. They were parked there, giving every student who passed by a free can or two of Red Bull. I really wish I could compare their scores on the AIMS to the students who didn't get the free overdose of caffeine that morning.

How are the classes going?

2009-10-25T17:45:00.000-07:00

Just finished 3 credit hours (yes, college credit hours) in one weekend - gotta LOVE University of Phoenix continuing education courses! Of course, there IS an outside assignment to finish in the next 3 weeks, but really...

When I am done with this semester, I am buying myself an entire Wonder Woman outfit - complete with go-go boots, lasso, and invisible airplane.

Handcart Trek Pictures

2009-10-17T13:11:00.000-07:00

Our son Calvin is on a pioneer handcart trek reenactment with our Stake. In order to go the youth had to be between 14 and 18 years old. Everyone had to wear period clothing and each person could only bring 15 lbs of personal property. They keep their clothing and personal items in 5 gallon buckets and have to pull them in their carts. They are hiking 25 miles over 3 days, camping out in tents, and cooking for themselves. The 200 youth are split up into families of 8-10 youth with each group supervised by a married couple (Ma and Pa).

One of the handcarts from above.

Calvin has been so excited. He got his clothes together and packed, and was even up before my alarm went off at 4 am, ready and waiting to head to the church at 4:30 am on Thursday.

Calvin is walking at the back, farthest right in black hat and suspenders.

DH and I got to go yesterday and help with some of the activities. I was there to teach the youth how to sew on buttons. DH helped them learn to use a cross-cut saw. Others were there to let them try things like milking a cow, making butter, washing clothes in wash tubs, throwing hatchets, shooting black powder guns, playing pioneer games, braiding rugs, splitting wood, etc.

Calvin is between the trees to the left.

Last night they made camp, fixed their dinner in dutch ovens, and then had a dance. They had all been taught to square dance in preparation for the trek.

Calvin farthest right, at back of group.

Today they're hoping to make it to "Salt Lake", and then they'll take apart their handcarts, and then they'll climb back into their vans and suburbans to come back to reality.

Calvin is far right of picture pulling at the front.

It was such a great opportunity for them to get a little taste of the 1,300 mile trek that our ancestors made about 150 years ago.

Calvin, bottom left.

All of these pictures were taken by an Arizona Republic Photographer and published online at AZcentral.com.

My Pioneer Heritage

2009-10-11T15:10:00.000-07:00

A statue commemorating Mormon handcart pioneers on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah

Our Stake (A group of congregations or wards, generally about three thousand to five thousand members in five to ten congregations.) at church is getting ready to take the youth on a handcart trek. My son Calvin is the only one old enough to go. I was telling him about the ancestors that we have who were among the original handcart pioneers. He claimed that I'd never told him the story. So I decided that I'd better put it here, in writing, for the rest of posterity.

"Peder Mortensen and mission: Peder Mortensen never expected to be a Utah Pioneer or a survivor of one of the most infamous and ill-fated handcart companies in the history of the western Mormon migration.

Peder’s livelihood and destiny had been carefully scripted by his patriarchal ancestors. As a devout Lutheran, he made a living as a cooper, shoemaker, and landowner in the village of Harbolle, Denmark, located on the southwest end of the Island of Mon.

Although Peder was a cripple, he and his wife, Helene Sandersen, and their eight children, created a comfortable middle-class lifestyle on the inherited farm from his father’s line.
Their thrifty and industrious lives drastically changed in 1855 when missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elder Soren P. Guhl and Elder Scoby, visited their village of Harbolle.

Morten, Peder’s oldest son and a biblical scholar studying for the Lutheran ministry, listened to the missionaries with great interest. Morten first thought he could entrap the missionaries into declaring their “Golden Bible” to be a fraud. Instead the missionaries baptized all the Mortensen family members over age eight; Peter (50), Helena (47), Morten (28), Anna (24), Anders (22), Hans (18), Lars (13), and Mette (10). Seven-year-old Maria and four-year-old Caroline were baptized later.

Soon after its organization, leaders in the LDS Church asked the church members to gather together first in Independence, Missouri, then in Nauvoo, Illinois, and finally in Salt Lake City, Utah. Peder and his family responded to the doctrine of “the gathering” by selling their farm and traveling to Copenhagen, Denmark to await passage to America.

During a month-long stay in the Danish capitol, the Mortensen family became acquainted with Scandinavian Mission President Hector C. Haight, who asked Morten to remain in Denmark and serve as a missionary.

Haight, recognizing a hesitance to split the family, made a solemn promise to Peder that Morten later recorded in his journal. “If you will consent to his staying and filling a mission, I promise you in the name of the Lord that you will, everyone of you, reach the land of Zion in safety, and God will protect you on sea and on land,” Haight said.

Morten stayed in Denmark as a missionary and the Mortensen family sailed to America aboard the steamship Thornton on May 4, 1856. Once in America the family traveled by both train and steamship to Iowa City, Iowa where they joined a company of 500 people, 120 handcarts and six wagons under the direction of James G. Willie.

The Willie handcart company is listed as the fourth handcart company to arrive in Salt Lake City as part of a new, cheaper method of people-powered travel proposed by then LDS Church President Brigham Young and financed by a revolving endowment known as the Perpetual Emigration Fund. Wooden handcarts, modeled after carts used by street sweepers, measured six to seven feet long, carried 500 pounds of trail provisions, and could be alternately pushed or pulled.

Still possessing sufficient funds from the sale of his farm to purchase ox teams and wagons for his family to ride to the 1400-mile trek to Salt Lake, Peder Mortensen gave his money to the Perpetual Emigration Fund allowing his family and three other families to make the handcart journey.

Peder, disabled by rheumatism, rode the entire trip on a handcart pulled by his children. Peder’s daughter Mette wrote about the journey in her diary. She described walking to the point of Fort Laramie as “monotonous.” But after Ft. Laramie Mette said, “They cut the flour rations and it began to snow.”

All but two of the ten handcart companies deployed between 1856 and 1860 completed the trail with few problems. The fourth and fifth companies, known today as the Martin and Willie companies, left winter quarters in August 1856, too late to begin a trip across the plains. The blizzard of October 1856 caught both handcart companies west of present day Casper, Wyoming. Despite heroic efforts by company members and Utah rescuers, about 200, or one-sixth of the companies died and dozens were maimed by frostbite and deprivation.

Every member of the Mortensen family survived the journey west without lasting injuries from the cold. Mette wrote she believed their safe arrival in Salt Lake fulfilled the promise they received from Hector C. Haight, Morten’s mission president, and Morten’s willingness to serve the Lord.

On December 1, 1856, Peder Mortensen and his family settled in Parowan, Utah." Morten is my great-great grandfather. We come through his daughter Diantha Elizabeth Mortensen.

(Thanks to amygreg.com for posting this story. I've had a hard time finding it online, so I wanted to post it where we'd be able to locate it.)

The latest Pics of Our Missionary - Ukraine

2009-09-28T00:36:00.000-07:00

Canned Cheese?!? That's gross, and cool, at the same time.

2009-09-20T17:53:00.000-07:00

"Canned Cheese?!? That's gross, and cool, at the same time." - Calvin

How to do it. . .

1. Get wide mouth pint jars - be sure they're clean and dry - put them in the oven on a cookie sheet for 20 minutes at 200 degrees to sterilize them.

2. Boil lids and rings.

3. Grate any kind of cheese (cheese that gets better with age is best, like cheddar. Monterey Jack or Colby will work but won't last as long, so use the freshest date possible). Do not use pregrated cheese from the store (they coat it with something to keep it from molding quickly), buy a horn of cheese and grate it yourself. (44 lb block of cheese = 48 jars of cheese, or about 1 lb per pint jar).

4. Place grated cheese in jars - Pack it in well (you can press it down with a glass or bottle), and place in pan of water (3-4" deep). Water should be no higher than 2/3 to the top of jar. You don't really want water to get into the jars - it won't necessarily ruin it, but it's better without any.

5. Boil water and add more cheese as needed to fill jar to 1 inch from top (if you've pressed it down well, you shouldn't have to add any).

6. Melt cheese completely (15-20 minutes). With the flat of a butter knife, press the edges down, to move the center cheese out and get the entire jar melted. You don't really want to stir it, as that will allow air bubbles to enter - the idea is to get the air bubbles out, and get the entire jar evenly melted. Also, try not to get any cheese on the lip of the jar.

7. Remove canning jar from the pot and place the lid and ring on, then hand tighten.

8. Set aside until you have enough jars ready to place in steamer. (Add 2 T. vinegar to the water in your steamer, it will keep the calcification from the water off the jars.)

9. Place jars in steamer and steam for 40 minutes. "Do NOT shorten the time."

10. When you remove the jars from the steamer, turn them upside down on towel, and let them cool with the cheese touching the lid and the 1" gap at the bottom. This will make cheese removal easier when you are ready to use it!

11. Let cool and store at 75 degrees.

This is not a cheese sauce. It is like a lump of cheese. There is a slight texture difference, kind of grainy. It can be grated, eaten plain, or melted in recipes just like cheese from your refrigerator.

Cheddar has a shelf life of 3-5 years.

Thanks Roxy for the awesome class!

More Once-A-Month Cooking!

2009-09-13T22:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I purchased, prepped, and froze meals for the next month. (I know it sounds intimidating, but it probably won't once you read the menus.) I usually try to do the prep work on the day I do my grocery shopping - I brown and freeze any ground beef, or saute, chop up, and freeze chicken breasts that will later go into recipes. That way, whether it's me, the hubby, or kids who cook, half the meal is already done to toss into a dish.

So, what can you whip up in 20 minutes or under if you've got the meat already frozen?

Tacos
Taco salad
Burritos
Hamburger helper
Spaghetti
Gravy with Hamburger or Sausage
Stir Fry
Chicken Packets
Spanish Rice
Layered Enchiladas
Linguine Alfredo with chicken
Fried potatoes with Hamburger
and a bunch more I can't think of right now

Here are my menus for the next month, for your viewing pleasure, and for me to refer to (just in case the list on the front of the fridge mysteriously disappears):

9/13 - 9/19
M- bread pudding (frozen in aluminum lasagne pan) with buttermilk syrup (which would make dirt taste delicious)
T- "ham" salad sandwiches
W- corn dog muffins
Th- spaghetti
F- Mexican Rice Casserole (I also love Rice-A-Roni Spanish Rice, add precooked/frozen ground beef - gotta double it for my family)
Sat- stir fry chicken (bag o' frozen stir fry veggies, chicken is precooked, chopped and frozen, minute rice)

9/20-9/26

Sun- lasagne (all prepared and frozen in aluminum lasagne pan with directions to thaw and bake written on tinfoil cover)
M- biscuits and sausage gravy (sausage is cooked, and frozen in gladware. McCormick mix is delish if you don't do homemade.)
T- beanie weenie (I'm lovin' Bush's baked beans, toss in after frying some hotdog coins, add a little extra brown sugar)
W- chicken packets (chicken filling is cooked, chopped, doctored, and frozen in gladware)
Th- ravioli (frozen bag of premade stuff, add can of sauce and precooked frozen ground beef)
F- Rhodes dough pizzas (defrost loafs of Rhodes in the morning, quick homemade pizza that evening)
Sat- tostadas

9/27-10/3

Sun- chicken ranch pasta (crockpot in the morning, ready when you get home from church!)
M- hamburgers & fries (yes, I bought the premade, frozen patties and a bag o' fries to bake while I'm frying them)
T- ham sandwiches (mixed, filled, and frozen in tinfoil, just toss in the oven for 20 minutes)
W- Kielbasa and Potatoes (kielbasa chopped and frozen in gladware)
Th- enchiladas (frozen in aluminum lasagne pan, just add sauce and bake)
F- pancakes
Sat- soft tacos (hamburger cooked and frozen in gladware, tortillas soft fried, and frozen in a gallon bag)

10/4- 10/10

Sun- quiche (frozen pie crusts; bacon, onions, etc. frozen - no thawing required, but I precook my crust about 5 minutes before adding eggy mixture and filling)
M- fried potatoes with bacon & onions (bacon is chopped, cooked, and frozen with onions - just chop potatoes, saute them til tender, and toss in meat)
T- Easy Crustless Quiche (precooked sausage, add green chile and onion)
W- penne pasta lasagne (I had a bunch of lasagne filling left, so I cooked up some penne, tossed it in the cheesy filling, put it in a baking dish, and poured on the rest of the can of sauce. Can't be too bad, right?)
Th - baked potatoes with hamburger gravy
F - homemade Mac & Cheese
Sat - Time to Go Shopping and Cook Again. I'm going out to eat.

Everything for these meals is either in the pantry, fridge, or freezer. I like to package and freeze parts together, so they don't accidentally get eaten before their time. (For example, if you were having french bread pizzas, you could wrap your container of homemade meat sauce, bag of mozarella, package of pepperoni, and loaf of french bread together in saran wrap, before you stick it in the freezer. Get the package out the night before, defrost in the fridge, and you're all set to whip it up in about 15 minutes!)

By the way, I spent about an hour at Walmart, after I made up a list of meals in the parking lot. I spent about $200 (and that included milk, bread, cereal and some other necessities, but not a bunch of snacks or anything). My goal is to spend about $1 per meal, per person. The prep work (cooking the meat - hamburger and chicken, assembling lasagne, ham sandwiches, enchiladas, and making filling for chicken packets, etc.) took about three hours. (And just in case you're wondering, I figure I spend about $400 per month on food for 7 people (5 adult/teen, 2 picky littles. Also, I do have a separate full-sized freezer, but I think I could probably keep all the prepared stuff in the kitchen freezer, as long as I didn't have a bunch of other junk in there.) Another tip: I keep a list of the stuff I have prepped in the freezer, on the front of the freezer, so we don't forget to use it.

I also did laundry while I was doing my cooking. I didn't fold, just moved loads through the washer/dryer to the couch. By Saturday night we were ready for our "Laundry Party!" (which makes little kids beg to be allowed to come, and big kids groan). At our "Laundry Party!" we turn on fun music, and everyone sits in special spot of their choosing (just like Christmas morning!), while I throw laundry off the pile at the owner, and they fold their stuff. Each of the big kids usually has to do their own and a small sibling, while little kids fold dishtowels, and little things. I do mine and DH does his own. Whoever isn't busy (because all their laundry is still on their floor) gets to do towels, sheets, or whatever I throw at them.

(Here's BittE and her new babydoll, Spamela)

Have a productive week! (And if you're all inspired to go for it, try starting with just a week or two.)

Got any good tips for me? I'd love to hear what works for you! Thanks!

Oh, By the way, I don't do the cooking most nights. The kids (16, 13, 11) are still doing it. They just go by the chore chart as to when their cooking day is, then they make the meal on the menu calendar. Yup, life is good.

no big events to report

2009-09-07T21:08:00.000-07:00

Now that posting has become a weekly event for me, I somehow feel that it should be an event, not just random nonsense about my everyday life.

Too bad.

Today I hit the super sale at Saver's for the National Holiday! 50% off of fabulous used crap! Can't beat that!

I scored one of my all time favorite thrift shop scavenger hunt items - A Dick & Jane 1950's era New Basic Reader ($1.50) ! LOVE them! It's so exciting to just stumble upon something that you actually collect, yet weren't really searching for.

I also got the coolest little travel iron, circa 1960, for my students at school ($2.50). (Since we are a functional program, they need to learn real-life skills, and ironing is one of those skills.) I plugged it in as soon as I got home, and it worked great! Plus, it is super heavy (for a 6" iron), has a tiny spritz bottle connected to it, and one of those old black/white cords that make it look very cool and antique-y.

Besides that, I found some Born shoes for DD for only $4.00, a brand new Spiderman backpack ($3) for Wolfman - which he'd been begging for, some name brand jeans for people who are growing faster than I can outfit them ($2-6), darling school shirts for the kiddos, and some like new shoes for the littles.

I'll say it again, there is nothing like getting a screamin' deal!

This evening we had a great picnic for FHE at the park with all the family! So fun for the kids to play and run wild, while we sit and chat. I love my family!

Happy Labor Day!

Oh yeah. Have I mentioned that I am taking the equivalent of four college courses this semester, in order to maintain my certification? Um, yeah. Meaningful posts (as well as blog hopping) may just be a thing of the past for awhile. Wish me luck.

Miracles never cease

2009-08-30T22:01:00.000-07:00

So, our miracles have not ceased. Our water heater has been leaking pretty heavy and steadily for several weeks/months. I've been praying daily that it will last until we can afford to replace it. Friday was payday. On Saturday, Bro Ellertson was driving down 6th Street and saw one at a garage sale. They said it works great and were selling it for $20! I ran over and asked them to hold it for me while I ran to the bank for cash, and so it has been proven again - the Lord is mindful of our needs. Plus, it's even bigger than the last one we had. Woohoo!

He has definitely been mindful of me. The day before school began, I was all stressed. All of my work time had been taken up by stupid meetings and trying to schedule my students. I had no idea what to do with the students or even what their needs were. I had been reading the most recent conference issue of the Ensign, but for some reason it wasn't in the bathroom, and the only one there was from November 2008 (October Conference). The article that I opened up to read that morning was meant just for me at that moment.

You can imagine how moved I was when in the first sentence I read "...I wish to encourage (those) who at times feel overwhelmed with their responsibilities." And then"... Most of you have discovered that your ... duties will stretch you to the point that you wonder if you can stretch that far." "The more faithful service you give, the more the Lord asks of you... Your smile is a happy one because you know that He increases our power to carry the heavier load. The tough part of that reality, however, is that for Him to give you that increased power you must go in service and faith to your outer limits."

Yeah, I was completely reassured that this job is something I can do. That I'm serving some of his most courageous children, and that I can handle the increased pressure and responsibility - that my back will be strengthened to bear the burden as I serve him with all my heart, might, mind, and strength.

Here are a few more passages from President Eyring's talk, "O ye that Embark":

"It is like building muscle strength. You must break down your muscles to build them up. You push muscles to the point of exhaustion. Then they repair themselves, and they develop greater strength. Increased spiritual strength is a gift from God which He can give when we push in His service to our limits. Through the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, our natures can be changed. Then our power to carry burdens can be increased more than enough to compensate for the increased service we will be asked to give." When those feelings of inadequacy strike us, it is the time to remember the Savior. He assures us that we don’t do this work alone.

Also, for the past three weeks, I've had a toothache. Seriously, it has been miserable. For a couple of days, my cheek was actually swollen up like Alfafa's and I was down in bed the whole weekend before school started. I took some antibiotics and had it under control, but as soon as they ran out, it was killin' me again. I had it pulled on Friday and have wasted another weekend in recuperation. Thank goodness I was finally able to get it taken care of though...Walking around my classroom with an ice pack on my face was starting to be really silly.

YW Spa Night

2009-08-19T21:29:00.000-07:00

Tonight for mutual the Beehives (12 & 13 year old girls) planned a spa night. They chose the activity, planned it, and even brought the refreshments.

We did a chocolate face mask, oatmeal scrub, sugar scrub for hands, pedicures, and manicures.

I got the recipes for the chocolate mask and oatmeal scrub online, but didn't save the source. Sorry. However, here are the recipes:

Chocolate Face Mask - 1/3 c. cocoa powder, 1/4 c. honey, 2 T. heavy cream or sour cream, 3 tsp. ground oatmeal; mix well, apply to face, leave on for 20 minutes, rinse with warm water.

Oatmeal Scrub: 1 T. baking soda, 2 tsp ground oatmeal; mix with small amount water, scrub face gently, rinse with warm water.

We made our sugar scrub at Girl's Camp. Essentially it contains white sugar and mineral or vegetable oil (about 1/2 cup sugar, 2 T. oil, and some essential oil scents - a couple of drops). Here's a recipe.

And Thank goodness the girls had planned the refreshments well! We had Brownies, Ice Cream, and homemade Hot Fudge Sauce! (Otherwise I'm afraid that we'd have resorted to eating the rest of the face mask by the spoonful.

Tips for hosting your own spa night: bring lots of washcloths and towels. Bring headbands to keep their hair back. If you're doing it in the kitchen, bring mirrors so the girls don't have to walk through the building with their chocolate faces to use the mirrors in the bathroom. Lots of chocolate and good tunes are a must! Enjoy! Thanks for the great night girls!

Hello. I'm too tired to blog.

2009-08-16T21:11:00.000-07:00

But I wanted to check in anyway. We survived the first week of school. I think I'm really going to like my class. They cross the full spectrum of autism - from non-verbal, still havin' an accident once in a while to the kid who is taking Algebra II with general ed students, and can calculate how many minutes left in the class period practically instantaneously.

I'm still trying to figure out how to teach functional academics in high school. Everything we work on is supposed to have a real-world application to prepare the students for adulthood. Math is all about money, paychecks, time cards, banking, etc. Reading is about ads, newspapers, menus, etc. Writing is about shopping lists, letters, job applications, personal information sheets, etc.

Here's a cute story. One of my guys has the total stereotypic version of autism - high academics, low social skills, perseveration, stimming, etc. He can quote complete scenes from his favorite movie, and loves to sing the theme at the top of his lungs (sometimes at inopportune times and places). His favorite computer program has an application that he loves - he can sing into the microphone and hear himself through the headphones, which of course are designed to keep the rest of the class from being distracted when it's his turn on the computer. The other day two groups were working on Math, one student was writing a letter, and he was having his turn on the computer. The aide noticed that he was going to his favorite program...the one where he likes to yell. So I placed a piece of tape over the mike at the top of the screen, then added a sticky note over it that said "Quiet! It's time for Math." It must have worked, because he didn't even try to yell into the mike once during his turn. Bwahahahahaa!

Have a great week.

Why didn't I think of this before!?!

2009-08-01T21:57:00.000-07:00

Knowing that I'm going to be swamped when I go back to work full-time next week, we had a family meeting. We talked over what it would take to make it work. Since we were pretty successful with 10 kids here, we discussed what we had done differently that helped make that week easier.

Our list:

woke up early and got dressed right away
ate breakfast together
everyone cleared and washed their own dishes (from 2 years and up)
wiped the table right away
kept the toys to a minimum and put them away constantly
swept and vacuumed daily
did dishes after every meal (every meal made a full dishwasher load)
no t.v. or movies after dinner
played for an hour after dinner then had scriptures and prayer
read little ones to sleep

So we decided to continue those habits and split the daily jobs up fairly. Since none of us like doing the same job every day for a week, we have a revolving chore chart. Each of the older kids has two or three jobs daily (empty dishwasher, sweep, vac, trash, water, fill dw, cook, laundry, etc.) Every day they change though, so they don't have to get into a rut.

The best part though, is the cooking. I really assigned it, so they could help with the cooking. However, they all want to cook all three meals themselves. The first day Arthur cooked all three meals. Calvin was planning his meals ahead, and woke up at 7 am to make everyone waffles! He had a stir fry and rice all planned out for dinner tonight. They are lovin' this!

I have always shied away from chore charts, since I am not one to enforce that kind of structure (making me appear lax when it all goes out the window after a week or two). So I am thrilled that they have taken on these responsibilities so willingly. Man, I have great kids!

Industrial Arts

2009-07-28T15:37:00.000-07:00

I went and picked up my classroom keys today. My classroom is very industrial, but it's really big. It's actually in the industrial arts building. I'm right across from the welding shop and wood shop. I'm hoping if I make friends with those teachers, they might let me use their tools. I could make some awesome Christmas presents. Or maybe I'll make friends with some students and just have them make my ping pong ball guns for me! Hmmmm, I wonder if schools are allowed to let their students make weapons nowadays?

Entertaining the Masses...

2009-07-27T00:13:00.000-07:00

Since we had some extra playmates this week, (and we have no internet, cable, or video games) one might wonder how we entertained ourselves.

This week we... Played Games,

Learned to sew,

Played in the clubhouse,

had a tea party,

Made a massive blanket/cardboard box fort,

worked in the kitchen,

Read and studied,

went for a walk,

played with the cats,

enjoyed homemade playdough,

ate,

and found numerous other ways to keep busy.

Midnight Muffins

2009-07-21T23:10:00.000-07:00

I'm up late baking pumpkin muffins for breakfast. I am realistic enough to know that there is no WAY that I can possibly wake up before all these kids and make a batch of muffins from scratch in time to feed the starving hoard. But cold muffins and canned fruit salad will still be a delicious and kid satisfying breakfast.

I also sorted a batch of beans and put them on to soak. That, and a few loaves of Rhodes Bread, will be a great dinner when I get home late from my class. And just in case you're wondering the rest of the week's menu: corn dog muffins with chili, spaghetti & meat sauce, and creamy ranch chicken over fetuccini.

I'm feeling very on-top-of-things. I even put outfits for the littles in their weekly clothes thingy! (There is a spot for every day of the week. Everyone had one when I was teaching before, then I gave all but one to my little sis when she went to work. But obviously I'm feeling the need to get organized again, since I'm going back to teaching.)

Also, I have to mention a couple of miracles that have happened to us recently - huge tender mercies from the Lord, and people who are paying attention to promptings:

Our washer broke. During the spin cycle it started wheezing, whining, and smelling like burned rubber. Then it died. I asked my hubby to look on Craig's List and he found a 3 year old washer, that had been listed just 3 minutes before, for FREE! It just needed a little duct tape to fix the switch and we were back in business!

Wahhoooooooo!!!

About the same time that happened, the starter on my vehicle crapped out. It's been dying a slow death. However, my sister (the one I'm babysitting for) found out and asked her hubby to take a look at it. He came to my rescue and put a new starter in it the very night she asked him, even though they were both preparing to leave for camp. I love having family we can count on!

10 kids this week - all week.

2009-07-19T22:45:00.000-07:00

These cuites, plus one, are spending the week.

Hello. This will probably be my only post for the week. (I've only been on the computer once a week. All of my posts last week were scheduled ;D) My sister and her hubby are going to girl's camp, and since she watched my littles while I was at camp, I'm watching her 5 while she's gone. Yup. 10 kids from Tuesday through Saturday.

My other sister, Crazymama, had them for a sleepover the other night. She blogged about it. I quote:

"I swear, it's like I gave them all No Doze and Redbull for dinner."

I don't anticipate that kind of craziness though.

For one thing, I'm not that nice.

For another, since it's not a fun spend-the-night and it's for several nights, I'm going with a "let's start our back to school early-to-bed, early-to-rise routine" theme. Those poor kids will be so scheduled that they won't know what hit them. As a matter of fact, they will think their mother is still home (she is the most organized/routined/anal of my sisters).

I will get a couple of breaks from the herd. Three afternoons I have classes. For two of those days, my sis scheduled subs, and another day one of her friends is going to watch them for most of the day. But yeah, I guess I'll get to see what my life would be like if the Lord didn't have more sense than I do, and had granted my wish for a dozen kids.

crap.

2009-07-18T14:01:00.000-07:00

I have been known to let a lesser expletive fly once in a while.

By that I mean crap, dang, etc.

Ok, I'll admit it, once in a while even something worse.

I'm working on it.

But the other day, I got frustrated within the hearing of little ears.

Little ears that are learning to talk and thus, using every word they hear.

BittE heard me and instantly repeated it. But I haven't heard it since that day.

Until this morning. This morning she tried it out on her own when things didn't go her way.

"Crap."

"CRAP."

"CRAP!!!!"

crap.

Around here we reward honesty,

2009-07-16T13:45:00.000-07:00

by not freaking out.

Yesterday BittE and Wolfman both had Caprisun drinks. I was silly enough to leave them unsupervised for a moment and soon heard...screams, spatters,and giggles! I hollered, "Are you guys making a mess?" Wolfman came to me and admitted, "BittE and I are just having a juice fight." He showed evidence of the few drops that were on his shirt. I went to view the damage and found splatters down the hallway, and BittE, still slurping her drink, with juice all over her face, head, arms, and stomach.

Wolfman is usually quite honest. The other day I asked him, "What are you doing?"

His answer, "I was just doing something naughty."

another time he answered, "I am just making a mess."

and yesterday it was, "I am getting out a lot of toys."

He usually has to fix whatever he's done, but at least he's still willing to admit it when he's doing something he knows he shouldn't.

Learning Ugandan from Enoch and Moses & The Secret Reactivation of Anya

2009-07-14T09:34:00.000-07:00

Our oldest son, Elder S., has been on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints since December. He's been in the field for 17 weeks now. He is serving in the Ukraine, Donetsk mission. Here's an update from his latest letter (All of his letters are on my private blog thinkhappythawts - holler if you'd like an invite!)

Saturday! we did Sister Mark a favor and helped her with her childrens english class in the morning, i was the big bad wolf. huff puff. then we headed out and contacted for a while, then planned and shopped a bit. afterwhich we went and worked some more. then in the evening i had one of the greatest evenings of my mission. the Crittendons have made a lot of friends, all of whom are from Africa, these 19 that were there on saturday all speak decent english and 18 are from Uganda. 4 of them are from our area which is why we were there. i talked with two great guys. enoch and moses. they taught me a few words in ugandan, i love languages. enoch is actually a double major in engineering and sign language. moses only has one more year before he goes home. he is a physics major. but it was a pleasant evening with a truly humble and god seeking people, the evening proceeded with a gospel study with questions posed such as, what is the purpose of life, how can God be both just and merciful. our specialities. the discussion went late and we had to leave early. but they kept going with the senior couple. the whole time i had the thought in my mind alma 32:6-8. alma 32:6-8. he is preaching to the people but then a group comes to him who have been ridiculed and cast out and are truly humbled, ready for the gospel. Alma turns around right then and begins teaching them, because they are ready. thats what we are going to do. these people are ready so we are going to help them. our main focus will be on Michael and Gilbert.

Elder Shipp & Elder Eckersly - July 8, 2009

Photos courtesy of Sister Mark!

oh and a side note, we left right in the middle of a kharkiv typhoon as the missionaries call them. 10-20 minutes of havoc, the streets flow like rivers that i could easily take a kyak down. then its over and gone. but since it was in the evening the sun wasn't around to disperse the clouds, so this was a couple hours of rain. it was great. i had the little umbrela Uncle Aaron gave me. which did the job till i made it under ground in the subway. and it wasn't to bad when we came out on our side and were walking home. hoorah for always keeping an umbrella in my backpack.

Sunday. Church is in an old institute called the institute of extreme cold tempuratures. it had a massive mural of lenin on the side too. its great but we use the first floor. it has been renovated really well and looks really nice, i really like the sacrament hall. the branch was nice enough, they accepted us well and i was quickly fellowshiped by an African from Tunsinia. he is very cool and is the young mens president. church went well, after church we went and taught a lesson to an older sister named svetlana who has a daughter that is inactive, she told us to go and visit her but pretend that we were just tracting and ran into her. we went straight there and she let us in! she speaks amazing english, so everything but her most complex thoughts were in english, it was odd, it felt really good to be there with her, like she really needed us to be there right then and the Spirit just kind of settled into the room and said, "Ah... thank you for listening" we just talked for a while and then she ASKED for a spiritual thought, so we whipped out 2 Nephi 32 and talked about studying the scriptures and prayer, which is something i know she hasn't done in a long while. she accepted our commitment to read from mosiah 15 and she said that she would like us to come back some time, but not to tell her mother. so thus begins the secret reactivation of anya sergeov velikovisk. after our impromptu lesson with her we went to the crittendons to have a lesson with michael on the plan of salvation and we ended by inviting him to be prepared for baptism for the 1st of august. he excepted to begin preparing. the main obstacle is that he has class right when church is and he MUST attend at least two meetings before we can baptize him he can miss class this next week because he asked his instructor but every week is going to be tough for him until august. so we shall see.

until next week my dear brothers and sisters.
goodnight and good luck
elder s

(some names have been changed to protect people from Googling themselves and finding out there's a conspiracy to reactivate them, LOL!)

Funky Eggrolls for Dinner!

2009-07-12T20:05:00.000-07:00

Tonight we had a fabulous dinner - Funky Eggrolls!

Big Hits were:

Chili Cheese Dog Eggrolls

Sausage Pizza Eggrolls

Sausage & Green Chile Eggrolls

and even some traditional eggrolls with sweet & sour sauce

Rejected proposals:

Peanut Butter & Jelly (we didn't have any bananas)

Tuna

Mashed Potato & Gravy

Corn

Another time we're going to do some dessert eggrolls. Calvin is dying to try Marshmallow.

These fabulous recipes and MORE available on my recipe blog SupercoolMomsRecipes.blogspot.com! (I know, You just can't wait to check it out ;D)

If you give a Mom some cardboard...

2009-07-10T13:19:00.000-07:00

She'll help you make a reflector for your dashboard solar oven.

While she's cutting the cardboard, someone will ask her to make a sword and shield,

Then, when they see the sword and shield,

they'll ask for some paint to paint it with.

When everyone else see's the wonder,

they'll ask her to cut something to decorate their rooms.

That is the point when Mom says,

"Enough! I am not making anymore crap out of cardboard!"

No system here.

2009-07-09T11:52:00.000-07:00

Me: "Hey Arthur, please fold those dishtowels."

A: Folding for a while, then "Oops, I was folding them like Sis. So&So does it."

Me: "Well, people who have systems get upset if you don't use their system. Since I don't have a system, I don't care how you fold them, as long as they get folded."

A: "Then I'm going to use her system."

Me: "fine."

A: Folding for a while more. "I think I'll make up my own system."

Me: "fine." but thinking, "Just fold the flippin' towels!"

So, do YOU have a specific way you fold towels?

Confession: Sometimes, in the interest of time, I just toss all the dishtowels in the drawer, because really, who cares!?!

Random stuff

2009-07-08T15:45:00.000-07:00

BittE just showed up at my side (in the kitchen) carrying her padded Diego potty seat and stool. I'm not sure what her plan is.

Throughout the day the three most frequently heard phrases around here are: "Check out my moves!", "Poopy. Poopy. Potty!" and "Mom, can I have some (fill in the food item)?"

BittE has been wearing two different earrings for about 4 months. She lost one from a pair. Then I replaced them and she lost one from that pair. Not a problem really, except that one is red and the other is crystal.

For the Fourth we went to the Ward pancake breakfast and Kiddy parking lot parade, then that evening we went to the drive-in and saw Ice Age 3, Night at the Museum 2, and fireworks from a distance. It was a really fun time and we even gave away one of our kittens. (The kids took the three kittens we have left and tired to give them away before the movie.)

I may upload the pics later.

I really dislike my little Nikon. It is a pain in the rear to upload the pics. My little Kodak Easy Share was a much easier camera to use and upload from.

Yesterday the news said that it was supposed to be "dangerously hot." So we tried baking cookies in the car again. I added a mirror into the experiment this time, started at noon, and forgot about them so they ended up cooking for about 3 hours. They were actually about half cooked. The candy thermometer got up to 175 too! I may take up solar cooking as a hobby.

Ahhhhh, Nature...

2009-07-06T10:13:00.000-07:00

19,000 visitors and a PRIZE!

2009-06-30T12:48:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought about a prize. I even went back and checked my site meter to see who the big winner was...

it was a total stranger (who didn't leave a comment - ahem) ,

And so were the twenty or so people on either side of 19,000.

Sorry friends. You can't win if you don't comment. And around here, you never know who's gonna win or when I might get the urge to promise a prize (that may take up to 6 months to deliver - but totally worth it once it arrives!) But, you know, nice big round numbers usually strike my fancy... (I'm just sayin'...)

Now, about the people who didn't win...

people in California, Romeoville, IL(isn't that a great name?), UK, and Italy all looking at Cherry Blossoms,

lots of people looking at wedding cakes,

someone in France looking for a secret admirer,

and the best, heeheeheee, someone looking for Poo Training! ::giggle::giggle::

It's hotter than he!! - time to bake cookies!

2009-06-28T22:43:00.000-07:00

Since it was so hot that the frosting on my donut ...melted and slid off, so hot that my silver necklace was burning me...out of direct sunlight, so hot that children will not touch a door handle on the car. I decided that it was time for another hotter than he!! experiment.

Since we were baking every time we got in the car, I was sure that it was hot enough to bake cookies.

We preheated them on the dash board on the way home from the store, then put them on the pan. It was 106 F. outside the car, and by the time 15 minutes had passed, it was around 130 (according to my candy thermometer). The kids did a little guessing - it would get up to 110, or 115 in the car. It would take about 2 hours to bake. (Package directions called for 350 for 8-10 minutes.) We took them out after an hour though, because the temp actually started to go down after reaching a high of 140 - next time we'll start at noon, instead of 5 p.m.)

We checked on them after a half an hour, and they were spreading. But after an hour we only succeeded in melting all the oil out of them. They were somewhat solidified.

But don't worry. None of them went to waste.

Myth Busters - Hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk

2009-06-27T22:53:00.000-07:00

Well, contrary to popular belief 113 is not hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk. Or in a Cast Iron Skillet.

Sade and her friend tried it out. One on the concrete drive, one in the cast iron skillet. Eggs were room temp. the pan had been preheated all day and we began at two in the afternoon.

I checked them after 5 minutes, after 20 minutes, and after an hour. It was looking kind of hopeful.

But we found that it was only hot enough to dry an egg. No frying occurred. Stay tuned for more Hotter than He!! Experiments.

(reposted from THT - 6/22/08)

Why I Love Charlotte's Web

2009-06-25T10:32:00.000-07:00

The babies and I have just finished reading our fourth "Little House" Book and since Laura and Mary start getting a little too old for the kids to relate, I decided that it's time to move on. Wolfman was voting for "the scary book with lots of creatures" (Spiderwick). However, I felt that might contribute to small people ending up in my bed, thus defeating the purpose of reading them to sleep. So, we just started Charlotte's Web.

Last night was the first night. It's not as calming as I'd hoped. They insisted on seeing every picture. They just kept listening and wouldn't go to sleep. Every time I finished a chapter they begged for more. Needless to say, we read 6 chapters before they finally succumbed. And believe me, if I hadn't been enjoying it so much, we wouldn't have read more than two.

Here are some reasons why I love it:

"So while the children swam and played and splashed water at each other, Wilbur amused himself in the mud along the edge of the brook, where it was warm and moist and delightfully sticky and oozy.

Every day was a happy day, and every night was peaceful."

"The barn was very large. It was very old. It smelled of hay and manure. It smelled of the perspiration of tired horses and the wonderful sweet breath of patient cows. It often had a sort of peaceful smell - as though nothing bad could happen ever again in the world."

"...From one to two, Wilbur planned to sleep. From two to three, he planned to scratch itchy places by rubbing against the fence. From three to four, he planned to stand perfectly still and think of what it was like to be alive, and to wait for Fern....Wilbur had gone to sleep thinking about these plans. He woke at six and saw the rain, and it seemed as though he couldn't bear it. "I get everything all beautifully planned out and it has to go and rain", he said."

"Wilbur didn't want food, he wanted love. He wanted a friend - someone who would play with him."

"You can imagine Wilbur's surprise when out of the darkness, came a small voice he had never heard before. It sounded rather thin, but pleasant. "Do you want a friend, Wilbur?" it said. "I'll be a friend to you. I've watched you all day and I like you."

"Wilbur was merely suffering the doubts and fears that often go with finding a new friend. In good time he was to discover that he was mistaken about Charlotte. Underneath her rather bold and cruel exterior, she had a kind heart, and she was to prove loyal and true to the very end."

Wilbur makes me smile. Alot.

You can do hard things.

2009-06-23T22:15:00.000-07:00

I heard a talk recently. I wish I could remember exactly which meeting, but I can't. However, a man was telling a story about hiking with his daughter. Somewhere along the hike, she got tired and frustrated. He told her, "You can do hard things."

At girl's camp last week, I heard it several times (leading me to believe it was at our Stake Conference, but maybe it was General Conference). I even said it myself a couple of times. Sometimes in sincerity, and once a little tongue in cheek (when one of the busses broke down and a girl was complaining about riding for about a half-hour with four and five girls to a seat on the other bus).

However, this morning, when I was feeling a little overwhelmed by my new job and all it entails, the thought came to mind, "I can do hard things." So, I perked up, kicked my butt a little, made my list, and got to work doing what must be done.

Remember,

You Can Do Hard Things.

Big News!

2009-06-20T11:27:00.001-07:00

Last week I had three interviews for teaching students with Autism (with three different principals). I got the job that I wanted -

Teaching High School Students with Autism!

Woohoo! I'm excited!

However, I'm sure my blogging will suffer. I'm going to be getting really busy. Just keeping up with kids and house is going to be crazy. Then add in the classes I have to take to update my certificate, decorating a classroom, lesson plans, scheduling & planning, interviewing and hiring aides, etc. Yup. I bet I'll be lucky to just post once a week. Forget about blog hopping or reading and commenting on friend's blogs. Oh well. Moving on to a new season in life always requires sacrifice.

Automated Out-of-Blog Reply

2009-06-16T00:13:00.001-07:00

Thank you for stopping by, but Supercool Hotmama is out of the blog for the week. Please leave any questions or comments on the comment form provided and I'll get back with you as soon as I'm able to get the words to "I said a-Boom-Chicka-Boom" out of my head.

Poo Poo on Potty Training

2009-06-08T09:41:00.000-07:00

BittE has decided that she wants to be a big girl. She wants to potty train. I am sooooooo not ready for that. She insists on going potty every time her diaper is slightly wet. We're wasting diapers left and right. I keep trying to talk her out of it. Picture me whining, "No potty, we just weeeeeeennnnnt." "You don't need to use the potty, you have a diaper." Then I drag my feet and let her lead me in there, grabbing a book on the way, so I can make sure that she doesn't fall through the padded Diego seat or waste half a roll of toilet paper while she waits to pee.

I finally tried putting some of Wolfman's old training pants on her. We've been through four pair in the past hour. I told her if she can wait 'til tomorrow, we'll go buy 47 pair of waffle weave padded panties and THEN she can be a big girl.

Saturday with Grandma

2009-06-07T20:53:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we went to my Uncle Gary's farm with some fun cousins and Grandma.

We fed the cow.

Picked some green apples and

all the apricots we could eat.

Grandma was watching Aunt Maria's kids while she was down with the flu, and we just happened along at the right time to join in on the outing.

It was a pretty warm day, but not unbearable. The big kids were thrilled to see a field to run in, and were never really close enough to take any pictures of them.

But the younger ones loved hanging out with Grandma and I in the shade.

We even got to see all of Uncle Gary's hunting trophies (bears, mountain lions, wildcats, deer, antelope, big horned sheep, buffalo, turkey, etc.), and he gave us all soda and gummy snacks for the road. It was a day these kids will long remember.

I'm starting to think about Christmas.

2009-06-02T16:41:00.000-07:00

It's time to begin making Christmas presents. Actually it's time to begin finishing Christmas presents. For the past couple of years we've had homemade Christmas. It's just a given that some of the presents we begin will not get finished in time.

There's an easy-knitter scarf, three quarters done.

Three Shrek babies with all their parts but no embroidered faces yet.

Twelve Christmas elves that were intended for my brothers & sisters' families, all cut out, half sewn, half stuffed - just waiting for assembly.

Yards of fleece are waiting for a little girl to make crazy hats for brothers and her baby sister,

and a studio-full of other good intentions that need carrying-out.

Earrings by StrungOut Designs - check out this amazing woman on Ebay! I want to copy all her awesome ideas.

So, since we've got some spare time on out hands, these people are going to start working on their presents for each other. I'm going to finish some projects that have been lurking in corners. We are gonna get busy!

Maybe we'll be done with them by Christmas Eve this year. Maybe even by Thanksgiving!

Disclaimer: Of course, that's after I finish making my house spotless, so I can host Bunco next week. And then I need to make a Movie Theatre Ticket Window and Consession Stand for Girl's Camp. Then there's camp, and recovery. But seriously... we are GOING to do it!

What to do when you've gone t.v. free ...

2009-06-01T00:07:00.000-07:00

The other morning, Wolfman asked if we could play Simon Says. He must have learned at preschool because he's pretty darn good at leading it. We played long enough for everyone to have a couple of turns as leader. Then we played some old family favorites: Fruit basket tip-over and Hide the Thimble. The kids had a blast and have been begging to play daily! (rules at the end of post)

Instead of drawing or painting for art the other day, we decided to sew. Big brother sewed a supergirl/princess cape for BittE, while the Princess and her friend V made super cute dresses for their American Girl Dolls. The dresses ended up being a two-day project, but they turned out great! We were sew busy, I forgot to take pictures! I'll try to get them together and take a picture of the finished dresses soon.

Our family pool pass has been the best thing EVER! The middles have been swimming almost daily! Hallelujah! They go swimming, I put the littles down for a nap, and I have a couple of hours of peace and quiet.

Once again we bought tickets for Harkins Theatres Summer Movie Fun! For $7 each, you get to see 10 awesome kid movies! We love it and it's so much fun to look forward to a day out each week. Last week was our first movie - Space Chimps. Wolfman was totally into it and has been dragging his knuckles on the floor for days and fighting space aliens constantly.

Fruit Basket Tip Over: You may have played this same game with another name. We all sit in a circle with one person in the middle. But there is no chair for the person who is IT. Everyone, including the person who is IT, chooses a fruit (no repeats). The person who is IT calls out two or three fruits, and those people have to change seats, while IT tries to get a chair. Whoever is left standing is the new IT. IT can also call out "Fruit Basket Tip Over" and everyone has to change seats! We get wild with it - lots of bumping, running, whooping and laughing goes on. It's a good one for kids because there is really no skill involved!

Another really fun game that we learned from my friend is called "I have a Little Birdie". Everyone sits in a circle. The person who is IT is in the middle. They are holding a spray bottle or squirt gun. First, they have to silently think of a color. Then they go around the circle and ask everyone the question, "I have a little birdie, what color is yours?" If the person guesses a color that is not the one they were thinking of, IT just says "No, or that's a nice color" or something. But if the person says the color they are thinking of, the person who guessed correctly gets sprayed with water. Then they get to be IT and control the spray bottle! We also shoot them if someone guesses a color that's already been said. (any opportunity to spray someone is fun). Plus, with my big kids, we all try not to guess it - so we're naming every outrageous color we can think of: magenta, burnt umber, chartreusse, etc. It gets a little boring to be IT at our house. But another great game for little kids! (If they are really little, I always make IT whisper their color in my ear, so I know what to listen for, or else sometimes they forget what their color was or don't stop at the right answer.)

Hide the Thimble = Hot/Cold Game - IT leaves the room. Someone hides a small object (we use a thimble or whatever we can find about that size) somewhere in plain sight. IT is called back into the room and looks for the thimble. The others in the room, can only say hot (you're getting closer = warmer) or cold (you're getting farther away). When IT finds the thimble, he chooses someone else to leave the room, and then hides the thimble.

Also -

Happy Birthday to my AwESoMe sister, Maria!

Sneaky Mission

2009-05-27T23:19:00.000-07:00

"Mom, don't look at me! That's why I'm on my sneaky mission." - Wolfman, Age 4.5

Make Way for Ducklings

2009-05-26T23:12:00.000-07:00

A month or so ago, two ducks came to live in our swimming pool. They stayed for about three days. Every day we would open the arcadia door and spend a joyful 15 or 20 minutes tossing them pieces of bread. We were hoping that they would stay and have some ducklings. They decided to move on though and we figured they must have headed to a cooler place to raise a family.

However, last week our neighbor got irrigation. When we went outside, we saw that "our" ducks were over swimming in his front yard. When Mr. & Mrs. Mallard saw us, they came right over, knowing that we're always good for a free meal. We ran for the bread and had a great time feeding them.

No ducklings in sight though.

Fun Summer Plan

2009-05-25T23:57:00.000-07:00

Looking for a great way to get your kids organized for summer? Try Flylady's Camp Gonna Wanna Fly Control Journal! Very fun!

My sister is doing drop-in daycare to earn some extra moolah this summer. If you're in Mesa, go check her out at her daycare blog or email me for info. She's AMAZING!

Happy Birthday to my other amazing sister - Julie! You ARE rad!

Amish Friendship Bread Fiasco

2009-05-25T23:00:00.000-07:00

Ever made Amish Friendship Bread? You babysit a bag of sourdough starter for 10 days and then finally get to make the bread and spread the love by giving four friends the joy of a baggy of sourdough starter.

My friends lucked out. Wolfman and BittE were helping me bake. It was going well. I went to get the gallon Ziplocs and a measuring cup. I only turned my back for a second...

But BittE is fast. She dumped about a cup of cinnamon in the batter. Instead of bagging up cinnamon tainted starter, I had to bake a quadruple batch of bread (after scooping out a reasonable amount of cinnamon.

A couple of days later she helped herself to the cinnamon sugar. She dumped the entire container on the kitchen counter, floors, and herself before I discovered what my sweet girl had done. I think this is why they're called "the terrible two's".

Embroidery Sampler Bears, part 1

2009-05-24T21:06:00.001-07:00

Besides Tatting lessons yesterday, we looked through my cousin's piles of Inspirations Magazines. It is the most gorgeous, inspiring magazine from Australia for embroidery enthusiasts. Simply Gorgeous. Filled with so many beautiful things to create. They publish books and A-Z manuals too. Paula brought me the pattern to make this elephant (it's about 7" long x 4" when finished)!

She brought my Mom a book that she loved so much she'd bought two. It's a crazy quilt teddy bear that becomes an embroidery sampler to practice different embroidery stitches. While we were sitting there for hours, drooling over the amazing projects in the magazines, we became inspired to actually start our bears.

We decided to use three muted neutral colors of moire taffeta as the base of our bears. We did all the patchwork and cutting out, but we were too exhausted to sew them up since we'd stayed up 'til two a.m. the night before, by 10:30 we were drooping and had to stash the project until the next time Paula comes, in a month or so.

I may have to go over and finish sewing them up though, so we can do the stuffing and finishing and we'll be ready to embroider next time. I can hardly wait! The fun is going to be seeing how four bears, which start out basically the same, are going to end up so completely different when done by different artists.

It's totally fine that we're not finishing our bears right away. My mom had already bought me an Inspirations Magazine that contained the pattern and instructions for this bear (above). Then she decided to make one too. She has hers cut and sewn already. She's thinking that our sampler bears will be a great place to practice our stitches for this and my elephant.

Family history note on the tatting: Paula's grandma Curtis was famous for her tatting. Spencer W. Kimball spoke at her funeral and said, "If you're lucky enought to have a piece of her tatting, you really have a treasure." She tatted a baby bonnet for each baby in her family.

Wolfman as Captain Kirk

2009-05-24T16:58:00.000-07:00

and Calvin as Spock...

Wolfman has never seen Star Trek. Not even the old ones. But he is obsessed. All because of the beam up badges in our Rice Krispies. Today he discovered the Trek Yourself Tricks at Cheez-it, so we had to give it a shot. And share. So that we can look at him as Captain Kirk whenever his little heart desires.

Tatt's All Folks

2009-05-23T02:19:00.000-07:00

My cousin is in town to play for the weekend. Last time she came to play, she taught me how to use a pleater to do English Smocking. I made this dress for Bitt-E.

This weekend she's teaching me how to make tatted lace.

This is what it should look like.

Image "borrowed" from this amazing woman (who really knows what she's doing.)

Mine looks like three funky, mismatched loops. But I'm slowly getting the hang of it.

Essentially you fill a bobbin on the shuttle (pictured above) with thread, and tie a bunch of knots, then connect them into loops, and connect the loops into elaborate patterns to make lace for edgings, collars, doily's, etc.

My goal is to do enough of one edging to go around a handkerchief. Anything more elaborate will probably never get finished.

Even if I never have a big finished product though, it is so fun to learn a traditional handcraft.

I LOVE learning new things!

First Day of Summer Vacation

2009-05-22T19:36:00.000-07:00

We rocked it!

People were cleaning left and right.

We are all on board for TV FREE summer! (One movie a day - don't call between 3 and 4:30, no one will leave the screen.)

We had a complete, nutritious (all food groups represented) breakfast, lunch, & dinner!

We even had "silent reading time" after lunch.

I'm hoping I can maintain this level of responsibility for at least a couple more weeks.

What's your plan?

Gilligan's Island, in my dreams

2009-05-19T08:29:00.000-07:00

I had a strange dream last night. Very strange.

First, I met The Skipper from Gilligan's Island. I was at a restaurant and asked him for his autograph. Then I turned around and there was Ginger... and MaryAnn... and Donny Osmond! I ran to find some scrap paper to get their autographs and all I could find was the back of some school fliers that had come home with the kids.

While I was getting their signatures, I had to tell them about when I was a child. My older sister used to make me be the lesser character from any sitcom we watched. She was always Marcia, while I had to be Jan. She was Ginger and made me be MaryAnn, and to top it off, she got to have a crush on Donny, and made me like Jimmy. They looked at me like I was any other nutty fan.

Soon our five kittens were swarming around their ankles and I was trying to convince them that they should all take home a kitten, but Donny had some kittens too. His were slightly cuter than mine, but almost looked like they could have come from the same blood lines. (Like every other cat in our neighborhood which have all come from the same house of idiots that keep every stray and breed tons of feral cats.) One of Donny's was a really cool cartoon cat, kind of like Garfield, only with a far out psychedelic coat. Another had gorgeous eyes that were graduated in color from green at the bottom to ultramarine at the top.

The Gilligan's Island people soon left and Donny and I were trying to sort out the kittens and figure out whose were whose. I have the impression that I was going rock climbing as the next part of my dream, but a small child came and woke me up with a pair of (clean) underwear in my face which he needed help putting on.

Hmmmmm.

Analyze that.

Flu

2009-05-18T06:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday five of us had the flu. Diarrhea, headache, fever, chills, throwing up. Fun stuff. By last night BittE was showing symptoms too. I expect it will take down the others by this afternoon.

Just in time for prom - Corsage or Boutonneire Tutorial

2009-05-08T23:20:00.000-07:00

Around $23.00. That's what a simple wrist corsage with two roses, some greenery, and a bow goes for at a local florist. Save yourself some money and make it yourself. A bunch of roses and baby's breath should cost around $10.

Besides that, you'll need: A bow (another tutorial for another day), scissors, needlenose pliers, wire cutters, chenille stems or floral wire, florist tape, silk leaves, corsage pins, and a wristlet (if desired - and all the high school girls desire them. No one wants to pin one to their dress anymore.) Almost all of the stuff is available at Walmart - although I have to buy the wristlet's at a local ribbon outlet.

Begin by cutting your flower with about a 1 inch stem. Remove any ugly outer petals and sepals if you wish.

Poke a three inch long wire or chenille stem up into the hypanthiam (base of the flower) - you can just poke it in, or thread it through, it will depend on your wire and your flower.

Then begin to wrap a piece (about 10 inches long) of floral tape around the base of the flower, as close to the petals as possible, completely covering the wire.

**The trick is to twist the flower with one hand, while pulling the tape to stretch it (without breaking it) in the other. It gets sticky and will adhere to the stem as you stretch and pull it in a diagonal direction twisting it down the stem.**

When you have the top covered, then attach a silk leaf with the tape, and add some greenery before taping down the entire stem.

Continue to cover all stems and the entire wire with the floral tape.

When you get to the end of the wire, tape back up the stem for a half inch or an inch then pull the tape to break it off and press down the end.

To finish a Boutonniere, take the end of the wire in your pliers and curl it up.

Add a pin and your boutonneire is finished.

To make a corsage, simply make several of these (without the curled bottom), then tape them together, (or onto a wristlet), adding a bow on the bottom or in the center.

Also keep in mind the size of the girl you are making it for. Young girls don't want huge corsages on their tiny wrists. Guys don't want bows and giant flowers on their lapels either - keep it small and tasteful.

The entire process is the same if you're using silk flowers.

You can often purchase corsage boxes from your local florist. I bought a box of clear bags, and some opalescent easter grass for a professional presentation.

Place your flowers in a box or bag, spritz them with water, and store them in the fridge. I usually don't make fresh flower corsages until the day of an event to ensure freshness.

Ribbon Rose Tutorial, Part 2 - The Leaf

2009-05-07T00:03:00.000-07:00

Ribbon Rose Tutorial Part 1 is here. To make a leaf, you'll need:

about 12" of 1 1/2 inch wide ribbon (doesn't have to have wire edges, we'll be removing them)
needle and thread (preferrably to match your ribbon)
crappy scissors that you don't mind cutting wire with, but that will still cut the ribbon neatly

Tip: You need 6-9 ribbon widths of ribbon for each leaf, soooo, if you're using 1 inch ribbon, you will need 6 - 9 inches of ribbon - your leaf will not be wider, but longer if you use more ribbon.

Weedle the ends of the wire out, then grip them and slowly pull them from the ribbon. Discard the wires.

Fold the ribbon in half.

Fold each end up diagonally away from you, and pin to make a "boat".

Beginning at top right, sew down the diagonal side in a basting stitch, about 2/3 of the way down the diagonal edge, back stitch once, then continue on around the edge of the "boat" to the upper left corner (do not knot or tie off) - and yes, ideally you're doing this by hand, but it worked pretty great on my machine, soooo...

You have just sewn all along the bottom of your "boat", leaving the top open.

Gather the ribbon by pulling on one side of your basting thread and scooting the gathers gently up the ribbon. Your back stitch will keep the very end from gathering (that's the long pointy tip of your rose leaf).

Now, open the top edge of your leaf.

(Back view of your finished leaf.)

Tuck your leaf under your rose and stitch it to your base of tulle.

Rose tutorial is previous post.

(I'm not really back to blogging. I'm just able to post, but not able to visit and comment. Sorry. Make some lovely ribbon roses, then you won't miss me so much ;D HUGS!)

Ribbon Rose Tutorial, Part 1 - The rose

2009-05-06T23:08:00.000-07:00

To make one ribbon rose, you'll need:

1 to 1 1/2 yards of 1 1/2 inch wide wire edge ribbon (you can use ribbon that is not wired, but you'll be doing a lot more stitching for the gathering.) Tip: measure in ribon widths - you need about 36 ribbon widths to make one rose. If your ribbon is one inch wide, use 36 inches of ribbon. You'll need 6 - 9 ribbon widths per leaf.

pins

needle & thread (preferrably matching your ribbon)

crappy scissors that you don't mind cutting wire with, but that will still cut the ribbon neatly

3" square of tulle or buckram

ribbon for leaves

Leaving the wire in, turn the ribbon, folding down diagonally towards you. Make a 1/2 inch tail.

Fold it over in half (close the book)

Begin rolling by turning over 1/8" on edge

Then roll loosely to the left to begin making the center of the rose.

After a few rolls, begin to make a couple of small (1/4") tucks so that the "petals" begin to flare out a bit.

Pin the rose center to your 3" square of tulle (pin from underneath)

Gather the rest of the ribbon gripping the tail end of the lower wire and by gently sliding the ribbon along it. Scoot the gathers carefully along the wire so you don't break the wire, until you have gathered the entire length of the ribbon (only on the lower edge - the upper edge is left full.)

Continue to wrap the ribbon around the center, pinning as needed to the tulle/buckram from underneath.

When you get to the end, tuck the unfinished end in under the "rose" so it won't show or unravel.

Sew the rose to the tulle from the back, tacking it down as needed (you don't need to stitch the entire length of the ribbon, just make sure it won't come unrolled anywhere.)

Cut the excess tulle away, so that it won't show. I pinned these to the dress, but you could sew them on, or hot glue them to a barette or headband.

In the first picture, I used the last 4 or 5 inches of ribbon to end in a bud to the side of the rose. Leaf tutorial found here.

Belle of the Ball

2009-05-05T22:35:00.000-07:00

TaaDaaa!!!! This is one of my young women.

Isn't she lovely? She's always wanted to have a dress like Belle.

I was privileged to make it! So much fun!!!

I was thrilled that she was brave enough to accessorize with the ribbon roses that I'd made. (Tutorial to come!)

Mission Rap - Ukraine Style

2009-05-04T18:52:00.000-07:00

(In B's latest letter he sent a rap that he and his companion made up. I thought it was pretty interesting to read some of the Russian Words. Heeheehee!)

!Missionary Culture Lesson! elder McArthur and i made a Rap. its about missionary life, it is not purely our genius, but we use the tune of lazy sunday, the SNL skit. i will also give a vocabulary key at the end so you can understand the russian in it. let us begin.

M:is where Mcarthur sings S: is me B:is both, you get the idea

M:Dun!..dun dundun... Dun!..dun dundun Whackawhacka chuckachucka
S:Lazy Friday! wake up eat ya Gretchka with a spoon!
S:call the Z.L.s just ta see whats going!
M: allyo?
S:what up man!?
M:you thinkin what i'm thinkin?!
B: Barabashova!
S:then its happenin'
M:
S:But First! my hunger pains are stickin like bleencheeck!
M:lets hit up a prodoockti and mack on some Konteek.
S:No Doubt, that magazines got all the bomb frostings
M man i love those things like the bobs love semechkee.
S:
M: wheres the reenick hangin?
S: on the east side dude!
M:we'll call up elder hunt to find the dopest route.
S: i prefer sporteevna.
M: thats a good one too.
S: radyanskaya is the best!
M: true that!
B:double true!
S:
M:
S: pull up to the reenick, the ties are overpriced!
M: got my rucksack gunna pack it up nice.
S:dont want the debushkee to get suspicious!
M:super snickers and dzjeevcheek = Crazy delicious!
S:
S: walk up to the woman and pull out some dough!
M:girls acting like shes never seen a stow befo'
B:its all about shevchenkos baby!
S:put the ties in the bag and we're out like crazy.

vocab: gretchka: wheat kearnals, we boil them like oatmeal
barabashova: the largest market in ukraine.
bleencheeck: crepes
prodoockti:grocery store
konteek: cookies
Magazine: store
Semechki: sunflower seeds
reenick: market
Sporteevna: metro stop
Radyanskaya:metro stop
oborezjno, dveri zackoochayatsya: attention, the doors are closing. stated on the subway at every metro stop
rucksack: backpack
debushkee: girls
dzjeevcheek: an apple flavored sprite.
stow: 100
shevchenko: guy on the 100 grevin bill

hooray for rapping. that was entertaining. but on with life.

The lost years

2009-05-01T01:38:00.000-07:00

Today I was in a school setting and happened to run into the guy who would be my "Big Boss" at the District Level, if I was still teaching special education. It started me thinking about what I would say in a job interview if I were asked about "the lost years" on my resume.

Interviewer: "So, Mrs. M...what have you been doing for the last four years since you left the District?"

Me: "Well... I've been teaching full-time in a self-contained, cross-categorical program. I'm working with individuals from infancy through the college level. We work on some academics and educational enrichment activities, but mainly focus on speech, physical development, behavior management, functional life skills, and vocational training.

There are five children currently in the program, with one recent graduate who has successfully transitioned to a foreign exchange program for young adults. They have varying exceptionalities including speech delays, developmental delays, behavioral disorders, ADD, learning disabilities, and exceptionally high intelligence.

Each child has a completely individualized program designed with their special needs and abilities in mind and modified regularly to keep up with their current stages of development in order to maintain challenging goals. I also modify my teaching style and techniques to the varying needs and developmental stages of each individual.

Since the children that I work with are on vastly different levels and have varying ablilities and requirements, I have had to consistently modify my teaching style, persist in improving my teaching skills, and seek out continuing educational opportunities for my own growth and development.

I'm also responsible for facilities management and maintenance, all nutritional programs, extracurricular activities, health and hygiene, guidance counseling, and discipline. While I have a part-time instructional assistant, his mind is frequently occupied with his other (higher-paying) full-time position.

It's been an extremely rewarding job and has excellent benefits. I'm sure I'll continue to work full-time in this position for at least the next 18 years, while continuing my education and seeking further learning and professional opportunities."

*I did take the opportunity to ask about special ed. job prospects in the District for next year. He said there are possibilities for openings and asked me, "Are you "Highly Qualified"?"

LOL! "Why yes. Yes, I am!"

Sewing - Be back soon

2009-04-24T15:27:00.000-07:00

Hey, Hey! Sorry I've been AWOL, but my computer is temporarily out of commission. Plus I'm sewing up a storm: Apron, Toddler Sundress, Some cute stuffies, and a prom dress. Pics when I get back - I promise.

Hugs!

Drop-In Babysitting for Date Night!

2009-04-13T18:59:00.000-07:00

My Young Women are having a girl's camp fundraiser on

Friday, April 24!

If you know anyone who would like to take advantage of

Drop-In Daycare

so they can go out on a date or stay in for a romantic evening

and live where I live

email me at lotsostuff at hotmail dot com and I'll give you details.

We'd love to get the word out to as many people as possible.

So if you live here, plan a party and invite all your friends with small children, then have them drop their kids off for games, movies, snacks, & fun with about 10 energetic young ladies and several women to supervise.

Friday, April 24

5 pm to 10 pm

for $2 per hour/per child

email me at lotsostuff at hotmail dot com for location and details!

Tell your friends!

Every boy wants to sit around and hold his own...

2009-04-12T23:04:00.000-07:00

dog.

Yes. That's right! It's Weenie!

From the Noggin Show "Oswald".

(Oswald is an Octopus who lives in Big City with his weiner dog, Weenie.)

(My basic pattern was found here. After getting inspiration from here.)

This cute little project reminded me that I should never take on any project that takes more than an hour or two to complete. I'm all about immediate gratification. While I worked on this guy all other projects came to a stand still even though I found a million new things I wanted to do. Unfortunately, I felt like I shouldn't start anything new, because I knew I'd never get back to him and finish him. So, I'm heaving a big sigh of relief now that he's done and I can move on! Thank goodness he was well received and will be well loved.

Family Reunion Fun and Easter Egg Hunt

2009-04-11T19:23:00.000-07:00

Today was our annual Easter Egg Hunt and Family Reunion. This year the entire extended family was invited and over 250 people showed up! (My Mom is 12th out of 13 children). It was so much fun to see some cousins that I haven't seen in years, and meet the next generation. We always have a great time together - lots of laughter and loud conversation! Happy Easter!

What I've been doing this week...

2009-04-10T22:39:00.001-07:00

I made Lemon Pie for Dessert yesterday - my all time favorite.

Finished Bitt-E's Gnome...

Threw a baby shower for my SIL (but only got a picture of the food before my batteries died).

Then tonight I got to spend several hours with my Mom, some sisters, and some of my favorite cousins while we sewed, beaded, smocked, and crafted together!

We'll be partying for the rest of the weekend too! Woohoo!

Fabric Playhouse - You know you want one!

2009-04-08T23:11:00.000-07:00

A friend recently wanted some ideas for homemade gifts for boys, and I realized that my fabric playhouse would be perfect, but it was erased when my old blog was blogjacked, so here it is again.

I just hemmed a length of fabric long enough to go around the inside ledge of my table (figure two times the length around the table for fuller gathers), and velcroed it to the inside edge. I did sew the fabric into a satin blanket binding, then attached the velcro to the binding. The prickly part of the velcro is stuck (I reinforced it with a staple gun) to the inside edge of the table all the time, and when we want to play clubhouse, we just velcro the skirt on.

I also realized after we'd used it and went to put it away, that a drawstring bag to keep it in is also a good idea. Holler if you need any details!

A Community Service Message brought to you through the wonder of email and the CDC

2009-04-08T14:55:00.000-07:00

Man Flu - The Facts...

1. Man-Flu is more painful than childbirth. This is an irrefutable scientific fact*.

*(Based on a survey of over 100,000 men.)

2. Man-Flu is not 'just a cold'. It is a condition so severe that the germs from a single Man-Flu sneeze could wipe out entire tribes of people living in the rainforest. And probably loads of monkeys too.

3. Women do not contract Man-Flu. At worst they suffer from what is medically recognized as a 'Mild Girly Sniffle' which, if a man caught, he would still be able to run, throw a ball, tear the phone book in half and compete in all other kinds of manly activities.

4. Men do not 'moan' when they have Man-Flu. They emit involuntary groans of agony that are entirely in proportion to the unbearable pain they are in.

5. Full recovery from Man-Flu will take place much quicker if their simple requests for care, sympathy and regular cups of tea are met. Is that really so much to ask? Florence Nightingale would have done it

6. More men die each year from MFN (Man-Flu Neglect) than lots and lots of other things (Like rabbit attacks or choking on toast).

7. Men suffering from Man-Flu want nothing more than to get out of bed and come to work, but they are too selfless to risk spreading this awful condition amongst their friends and colleagues. In this sense, they are the greatest heroes this country has ever known.

8. In 1982 scientists managed to simulate the agonizing symptoms of full blown Man-Flu in a female chimp. She became so ill that her head literally fell off.

9. Man-Flu germs are more powerful than Spider Man, Vin Diesel and Bruce Willis combined. They are too strong for weak, nasty tasting 'lady medicines' like Thera-Flu, so don't bother trying to force them on a victim of Man-Flu.

10. While it may seem like a Man-Flu sufferer is just laying around enjoying 'CSI' it is a commonly recognized medical fact that the exact pitch and frequency of Gil Grissom’s voice has remarkable soothing powers.

Every minute in this country one man is struck down by Man-Flu. Women, all we ask is that each of you offers them a cup of tea, some kind words and your undivided attention and care. Then maybe, just maybe, we'll beat this monstrous disease together.

(Note from Hotmama - Nope. I didn't write it, but it was too funny not to share.)

blog envy

2009-04-06T23:58:00.001-07:00

I just took a few minutes to peruse some serious blogs. Blogs that aren't about crafts or kids. Blogs that have amazing photographs. Blogs written by people who can really write. Blogs by people who are or should be published.

It makes me want to write.

My friend sent me an email today that announced a free seminar on writing fiction, put on by a local community college. It kinda made me want to take a day off "work" so I can go fantasize about writing a work of fiction. Who knows, maybe I'm the next Stephenie Meyer and I'm letting my amazing undiscovered writing talent go to waste.

Kiddie Kwips

2009-04-05T23:02:00.000-07:00

Wolfman: Can I have some hot chocolate to get me warmer? (It was about 65 degrees outside the other morning and he'd been playing outside).

Me: You have a jacket on. How much warmer do you need to be?

Wolfman: Um, five warmer.

Wolfman was singing a song about Nemo. It went "Nemo, nemo, nemo. Nemo nemo nemo."

Soon BittE started singing along, "Nemo, nemo, nemo."

Wolfman exclaimed, "Hey! BittE knows my whole song!"

Create! Be inspired!

2009-04-03T21:34:00.000-07:00

Taa Daaa!

2009-03-30T21:15:00.000-07:00

It must have been spring fever or something, but I was bookin' today! I made and froze dinner for 9 nights (plus sent meals with two friends), completed 4 loads of laundry, cleaned and organized my closet and gleaned an entire trash bag of give-aways, and even took breaks to feed children and read stories.

(Hotmama cooking tip #1 - To make cooking bacon easy, I cut it into bacon bits before cooking it. I slice right through the package with my Ginsu! Super fast!)

(Hotmama cooking tip #2 - Check out this cool french fry cutter that I picked up a few months ago at Goodwill! It makes chopping up potatoes a breeze.)

So here's my menu plan for the next week:

Mon - Chicken Enchiladas

Tues - Fried potatoes with bacon and onions

Wed - Quiche

Thurs - Chicken Packets

Fri - Shredded Chicken and Bean Burritos

Sat - Potato Soup & Rolls

Sun - Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

Mon - Soft Tacos

Tues - Beef Pot Pie

I was curious about the cost of making meals ahead, so I spent a few minutes to add it up. I made 11 meals for $85. That means each meal cost $7.72, which breaks down to about $1 per person per meal. Can't beat that!

(Hotmama cooking tip #3 - Maximize your work force.)

Oh yeah! I also made a double batch of chocolate chip cookies, and a batch of oatmeal cookies! I was completely done and the kitchen was clean (I started the day with an empty dish washer, and cleaned as I went along) by 5:30 pm when we sat down to eat our Enchiladas.
Woot! Woot!

I AM ON FIRE and THAT is why they call me HOTMAMA! ;D

Mission Update

2009-03-28T22:29:00.000-07:00

Pictures from President Fry's Blog - Zone Conference March 2009
Words are Excerpts from Elder Bronson Shipp's Letters (Our oldest son is serving a full-time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the Ukraine, Donetsk Mission)

Week 1 in Kharkiv, Ukraine -

my new companon is named Elder Tyler McCarther (i think that is it in english. i have only seen it in russian. )my days have been full and exciting...figure now that you are curious as to the nature of my trainer, well he is a couple inches shorter than i and is from south jordan, utah. i like him, he is a good obedient missionary and i am learning a lot from him. we are white washing our area in kharkiv which is decently enjoyable so far, there was only one investigator in the mess of an area book we found. we have an appointment set up for wednesday which i hope goes well...

k, tracting stories... i have none really, nothing uber awesome. but we pretty much taught this random guy the first lesson yesterday,... k i guess this was awesome. his name was игор which is pronounced eager not igor like we say it. but he was hanging out at a bus stop and i contacted him and jumped right into teaching, he was decently receptive and we threw down the first lesson right there on the street standing in the mud with no feeling in our fingers and snot running down our faces bearing our testimonies and making that little dirty piece of Ukraine sacred. it was awesome. we gave him a book of mormon and invited him to come to the open house that we are going to be having for the beautiful church building that we have.

oh food! haha, nothing absolutley ridiculous to tell thus far. i had a шарьма (sharma) my first day out which wasn't terrible, but not my very first choice. it is a cabbage and chicken rap. yup... tasty... crunchy to say the least hahaha, but i ate the thing and i could say that it wasn't too bad. i never wanted to vomit hahaha. (Hotmama notes: He doesn't like vegetables. heehee) but that is so far the extent of my uniquely ukrainian dish experience. i must add though that so far i have discovered two things that ukrainians do better than us. juice and ketchup. the juices are incredible and the ketchups come in SOO many different flavours i like the orange one, it has a slight salsa taste with a bit of spice though the blue one (the ketchup isnt blue the package is thats the same for the orange) is pretty good.

Elder Tillotson & Elder Shipp

Week 2:

my companion left me! sort of, he is on his way to bulgaria to renew his Visa, so i have been hangin out with one of the A.P.s Elder Hulet and today i will be joining elders hunt and tillotson (the other elders in novia doma) for the rest of the week! but it is going to be a jam packed week with all sorts of activities, we have zone conference and the open house and stuff it will be cool to be with elder hunt. he either was a zone leader or an A.P. for a year of his mission, this is his last transfer before heading home. he knows russian as well as any professor stateside, the guys grammar is unearthly amazing, its really cool. but that will be really cool.

Another tracting story: " hahaha, it makes me laugh just to think about it. we got run out of a подездь (stairwell) quite forcefully. we were tracting this floor and about three door later this guy comes out and starts yelling at us about how we woke him up and blah blah blah. and told us to leave after using a lot of words i didn't understand (i later found them out to be some eloquent swear words) then as we were leaving he seemed to get the idea that i wanted to fight him, so he grabs me by the jacket pushes me up against the wall and starts shaking his fist in my face saying something along the lines of "you see this fist i have two of them and i will pound your face in with both of them if you don't leave!" needless to say, if i didn't have the Lords name on my chest and hadn't been set apart above the world... well, i would have been a little un-Christlike." lets just say that.

Week 3 - Kharkiv

our open house went pretty well, we had around 100 people come which was far more successful than the one that they had in saltofka, but it went really well. a success. Ukraine seems to have a pretty serious surplus of crazy people though. oh! funny story, i was out on the street during the open house inviting people to come in and i just about got bum rushed by a gang of бабушки (babushkas) there was about seven of them walking down the street and they came up and all of them started talking at once, and you have to understand, babushka russian is a very unique accent. if i had a spoonful of thick oatmeal in my mouth and then started speaking russian it would come close. but these ladies were yelling at me about how i didn't have a hat on. (to babushkas no hat means you will get sick and die, kinda odd.)

(Open House Images from Sis. Kinghorn's Blog)

then they asked why i had a tie on and if i was going to church and so i am thinking "hahaha! why yes!" so thats what i say! " why yes! today our church is having an open house! and you are all invited!" the exclamations were there when i spoke too, they couldn't really herre me, bad hearing combined with thick scarves. then they started asking me above doctrine and stuff so i just kind of dropped a simple universal " we are Christians and we believe that Christ is our Savior and in this beautiful church there are ukrainian members who are willing to answer all of your questions!" so they said ok and went in. i thought it was hilarious, because not a single one was taller than 5'5" so i was stooped over yelling at them and such, pretty entertaining i thought.

k so on the mission blog that sister frye does you see the pictures of the zone conference where we are eating pizza, that is as close as we can get to american pizza, meaning that it didn't have mayonnaise on it or anything oddly ukraine either. they put mayonaise on EVERYTHING and it isn't really american mayonnaise either, lets just say it wouldn't be the first thing that i put on my pizza...

Picking Petals

2009-03-26T22:26:00.000-07:00

What is more delightful to a two year old than gathering all the rose petals off Mom's roses?

Eating them.

Join the fun at

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Beans, Beans, The Musical Fruit!

2009-03-24T09:57:00.000-07:00

The babies wanted to help me sort the beans this morning. (They always come running the minute they hear those beans start to clink in the pot.) But, after sorting through the entire pile, without culling out one dud, I decided to give them their own sensory beans.

They LOVED running their hands through them - pouring, scooping, and playing.

I guess it's no worse than the water/cracker/cereal messes they usually make in BittE's kitchen.

(Wondering about her kitchen? Click Toddler Kitchen 1, Toddler Kitchen 2, and Kitchen Accomplished!)

I Love Laura and some odd Randomness

2009-03-23T17:19:00.000-07:00

Have you ever picked up a piece of clothing on the laundry room floor, thinking it has fallen from the clean pile you're carrying, then you smell it, just to make sure...and it's not?

Today we were having our Art Class outside, so that the kids could draw roses from life, when a boy from church came walking his bike down the street. I asked how he was doing, and he said, "Well, I'll probably have to get stitches." Then he showed me the 6 inch gash on his calve where his bike chain had sliced him open! It was at least an inch deep and as wide! Gross. Thank goodness DH had just refreshed my first aid skills a couple of weeks ago when he taught us first aid to prepare my young women for Girls Camp, and left his first aid supplies sitting in the living room (Gosh, I knew there had to be a good reason). I had him come in, cleaned the wound, wrapped it up, and called his grandma to come get him, so she could take him to the emergency room to have it sewed up. I'm feeling very Clara Barton.

Why I LOVE Laura Ingalls Wilder and Little House on The Prairie (I'm reading it to the Babies every night before bed.) -

"Then his (Pa's) eyes twinkled at Ma and he told her to open the square
package on the table. "Be Careful," he said. "Don't drop it."

Ma stopped unwrapping it and said: "Oh Charles! You didn't!"

"Open it," Pa said.

In that square package there were eight small square of window glass. They
would have glass windows in their house.

Not one of the squares was broken. Pa had brought them safely all the way
home. Ma shook her head and said he shouldn't have spent so much, but her whole
face was smiling and Pa laughed with joy. They were all so pleased. All winter
long they could look out of the windows as much as they liked, and the sunshine
could come in.

Pa said he thought that Ma and Mary and Laura would like glass windows
better than any other present, and he was right. They did. But the windows were
not all he had brought for them. There was a little paper sack full of pure
white sugar. Ma opened it and Mary and Laura looked at the sparkling whiteness
of that beautiful sugar, and they each had a taste of it from a spoon. Then Ma
tied it carefully up. They would have white sugar when company came.

Best of all, Pa was safely home again. "

::Big sigh::

Here's another great excerpt that made me just wish for a little cabin in the middle of nowhere.

"Pa turned the chair upside down, and he pegged the curved pieces to it's
legs to make the rockers. And the chair was done.

Then they made a celebration. Ma took off her apron and smoothed her smooth
brown hair. She pinned her gold pin in the front of her collar. Mary tied the
string of beads around Carrie's neck. Pa and Laura put Mary's pillow on the
chair-seat, and set Laura's pillow against its back. Over the pillows Pa spread
the quilt from the little bed. Then he took Ma's hand and led her to the chair,
and he put Baby Carrie in her arms.

Ma leaned back in the softness. Her thin cheeks flushed and her eyes
sparkled with tears, but her smile was beautiful. The chair rocked her gently
and she said, "Oh Charles! I haven't been so comfortable since I don't know
when."

Then Pa took his fiddle, and he played and sang to Ma in the firelight. Ma
rocked and Baby Carrie went to sleep, and Mary and Laura sat on their bench and
were happy."

It makes me so grateful for all the blessings we have, and yet when I read those books, I crave that kind of simplicity. Gratitude for all the little things we take for granted, like windows, is such a huge part of being happy in this life. Making celebrations of everyday events can help our children learn gratitude and optimism too.

How did we all become programmed to believe that the world owes us video games, Tivo, newer cars, bigger houses, and a Wii fit?

Cousins, Critters, and Campfires

2009-03-18T21:45:00.000-07:00

We've been busy keeping the kids entertained. Yesterday we met the cousins at the park and played for a few hours.

Last night we hit the drive-in and saw Race To Witch Mountain and Confessions of a Shopaholic. Witch Mountain was good. Shopaholic was great!

Today we caravaned about 32 miles out of town and spent the day with cousins playing in water, digging in the sand, catching critters, and roasting hotdogs and marshmallows! It was the best day ever!

Word Verification Is Naming My New Band

2009-03-16T22:34:00.000-07:00

I should clarify - My new non-existent band.

I really like:

Phist! - for my heavy metal band

Nerveca - for my punk band

Combacu - for my Cajun Zeideco group

Had any good ones lately?

A Classic Repost in Honor of Spring Break

2009-03-16T20:12:00.000-07:00

Back by popular demand...well, I liked it. A pre-blog-jack post, republished for the record. (Also, when originally written there was some question as to when this all happened. So, to clarify: this did not all happen in one day, or one week, or even in one year - or someone would not have survived. However, the fact that it all happened in one lifetime, is enough for me. Ooh, and I'm using their old alias' so I don't incriminate anyone in particular too much - just know that Wolverine, is not Wolfman. And, Tattletale, was not an alias, more of a label - and yep, it's usually the same kid.)

- Old man neighbor to Me, "I don't want to get him into trouble, but I thought you should know that your little guy set a bunch of pine needles on fire. He got it out alright though. I was watching. He's sure a creative kid!"

- Q? Me, "Hey you guys, why are all the tips of my knives bent?"

A. Tattletale, "Wolverine was practicing knife throwing last week."

- Q? Me, "Hey guys, why are there a bunch of dents in this door?"

A. Tattletale, "Calvin locked the door and wouldn't let us in, so Wolverine was trying to use the broom handle to break the door down."

- Tattletale, "Mom, I need a bandage for my arm."

Me, "What happened?"

Tattletale, "Calvin told me to hold this piece of cardboard and then sprayed spraypaint at it and lit a match..."

Me, "CAAAALLLLLLLVVVIIIINNNN!!!!"

I'm drawn to you!

2009-03-14T08:28:00.000-07:00

Lately in Art Lessons the kids have been wanting to focus on Drawing. Their favorite drawing game is Statues. I write characters on small slips of paper and fold them. Each child has a pencil and a sheet of paper. (We usually fold it in 6ths, so we have 12 squares to draw in, front and back - but watch out, when drawing the back, you will get graphite from the first drawings all over your table!)

The kids take turns choosing a character, then stand on a chair (so that everyone can see well) and hold the pose for 1 minute or less while everyone else draws them.

The hitch is that while drawing you are not allowed to lift your pencil. We draw in swirls and quickly attempt to capture the shape and proportion of the person. Some of the poses have been: Ballerina, Rock Star, Football Player, Runner, Pirate, The Thinker, Drum Major, Lion Tamer, Soldier, Fashion Model, Traffic Cop, etc.

Give it a try! It's a great way to spend a rainy afternoon, or Family Night!

Sky Watch

2009-03-13T17:34:00.001-07:00

Lemon Blossoms

4:23 p.m.

I've been watching Daryl's Skywatch and had to give it a shot.

Things that Bring me Joy!

2009-03-12T15:27:00.000-07:00

The smell of magazine perfume samples

"Mommy, I just want to stay home forever...I love it here with our family." (Wolfman, age 4)

Chocolate Pudding

(Eating it. Not cleaning it up.)

Trying a new recipe!

"When you read that book to me, it makes my heart happy." - I Love You Forever by Robert Munsch (Wolfman)

Bunco with friends!

A job well done

Hearing my 15 year old say, "You just wish you had a Mom this cool."

When kids clap because I'm coming in to teach Art Masterpiece

Seeing all the beautiful new growth on my rose bushes

Kids washing my car

Chilled Fanta Fruit Punch tickling all the way down

Kisses

Holding my baby while she falls asleep on my lap

Find Joy in the Little Things at

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Giggles in the Night

2009-03-11T12:54:00.000-07:00

At 3:38 am this morning I was awakened by the strangest sound..

LAUGHTER!

I lay there, still in a stupor, trying to figure out who in the world was laughing, chuckling, giggling, and chattering in the middle of the night. When I heard the word "babydoll" I knew it was BittE but assumed I'd probably find her big brother/roommate had climed up into her bed and was entertaining her.

Nope.

She was just sitting there, giggling to herself and playing with her dolly in the dim moonlight that was filtering through the blinds.

I got her a cup of milk and put her back to bed.

This morning she slept in. Late.

Wolfman and I were up at 6:30 taking care of business. We sent kids off, had breakfast, did laundry and dishes, and watched a movie. Around 9:30 am, I decided to go back to bed. My feet were cold. Seriously, it was only about 65 degrees this morning and I was chilly. So, we moved the party into my bedroom, I put on Winnie the Pooh and snuggled back under my down comforter.

We finished Pooh to the Rescue and had moved on to The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, when BittE finally woke up. Since my feet were still cold, I got her, a cup of milk and sugar, a couple of peanut butter and honey sandwiches, then we all headed back to bed. The problem came when there was only enough milk for half a cup. Since BittE hadn't had any yet this morning, I gave it to her. Wolfman cried! "Wah, Wah, I want some milk and sugar!" (He really says Wah, Wah - I think he got it off Noggin.) But when he thought I was asleep, he asked her "Do you think I should have your milk and sugar?" Then I heard sipping. I said, "Hey, are you drinking her Milk and Sugar!?!" Pause. "Not anymore." LOL!

More Little Cooks for Daryl

2009-03-10T01:23:00.000-07:00

For Daryl

2009-03-09T17:12:00.000-07:00

Princess Academy

2009-03-08T20:02:00.000-07:00

A girl can be more casual

When sitting her jeans and tees,

But any time you're in a dress,

Be sure to close your knees!

On Friday my sister, Maria, babysat while I taught art masterpiece at the Princess' school. When I came back to pick up the kids, Maria told me that one of her teachers, for the big Stake Activity Day (for 75 girls 8-11 years old) that she was in charge of on Saturday, was unable to teach. The theme for the 4 hour long activity day was A Royal You. The classes were: A Royal Me (making a paper bag journal), A Royal Family (A Family Home Evening Lesson "I want to live like Abinadi...Except for the Fire Part"), Fit for A Queen (learning about exercise and nutrition), Royal Treasure (making a Tiffany style stamped necklace, from a washer, that said "Faith" or "Royal"), and Pretty as a Princess. She asked if I could teach the "Pretty as a Princess" class the next day. She said I could teach anything I wanted to, I just needed to teach the same 30 minute lesson, five times.

I just have to say, I ROCKED IT! (Humbly, of course.) I have been concerned about my own young women (12 and 13 years old), and feeling like we need to have Charm School. I decided that I'd teach "Princess Lessons" and give them tips on posture, bearing, hygiene, and etiquette. I have an old book from 1949 called Your Manners are Showing by Betty Betz. It has darling pictures and cute poems for many dating and social situations. I started with her pictures and then made poems up that would be more pertinent to younger girls today. (I did use some of her poems, but often they used odd expressions like "rude beyond the pale" and words like Lad were tossed around. ) I stayed up until 2 am, writing my lesson, making a slide show, and typing up a handout. But it turned out great. It was fun, fast paced, interactive, and the girls were all actively engaged!

If you need a super cute lesson on manners, just let me know, and I'll be glad to email you my pictures and poems!

Don't try this at home

2009-03-04T21:43:00.000-08:00

I was attempting to do a tutorial today, for making a super-cute ruffled apron.

Unfortunately, I had a "helper."

Obviously, it's a project that will have to wait for naptime.

My Favorite Things Swapparazzi Loot Arrived!

2009-03-04T16:04:00.000-08:00

Talk about a bounty of bloggy goodness! Marla at Stolen Bon Bons must be my long lost sister! She sent me so many great things, all her favorites! How did she know that they're my favorites too! (Mamarazzi is the best at matching up partners who have lots in common!)

I can hardly believe that she sent me a beautiful Willow Tree Angel! The first in my collection, but not the last! Isn't she gorgeous!?! She also gave me a beautiful blank book! Absolutely one of my Favorite Things!

A sampling of sweet smelling, foaming, bubbling bath and body stuff! (With five kids, she probably enjoys the peace and escape that a hot soak provides, as much as I do!)

And The Cookie and Biscuit Bible! Woohoo! I can hardly wait to whip up a batch of decadent treats! I've already been perusing it to see what I want to try first! It's like the Sears Wish Book for Bakers!

Thanks so much Marla! I'm sure if we lived next door to each other, we'd be best friends! However, with 11 kids between us, I'm sure the neighbors are glad that's not the case :D

I'm so glad that I participated in this swap. I wasn't going to. I was feeling poverty stricken and stressed, but Mamarazzi saved me a spot ('cuz she loves me) and I'm glad I took the chance! It is really as much fun to plan and prepare for a swap as it is to get a box full of treats in the mail. The best part is making a new friend! Go check out Our Dandelion Wishes to put help decide the theme of Mamarazzi's next swap, coming up in April. Talk about democracy in action!

Mission Update - He arrived in Ukraine safely!

2009-03-04T08:29:00.001-08:00

what a beautiful day here in the ukraine! we are going to be running around here at the mission office in donetsk until we recieve our new companions on transfer day in a coupple days! exciting and then s\freom there we head to wherever President Fry assigns us. he is such a kind and quiet man. very nice and loving, just what this country really needs. i am so exctited to be here.

the flight over the atlantic was pretty tough, one of the armenian sisters on our flight was really sick, so elder hyer and i annointed and blessed her in the back of the plane. it was in russian so it sounded horrible because i cant really speak at all but i got the important parts right.

this email is just to let you know that i live and that i didn't get bum rushed getting off of the plane because i was american, though i got plenty of looks hahahaha! it was interesting the further and further away from home i got the less and less english i heard, it was so cool. when we walked of the plane in vienna and hardly anything is in english and these angry people are barking german at us. i like german, its a nice language. it was wild when i got my bags in donetsk, the security (military) seemed to think that i had an odd item in my baggage, the way he described it was bomb like, so after they got done digging through my bags the assistant to the president came and saved my rear. you could tell the guy was getting tired of my poor russian, but it all turned out ok. good times.

but i am going to go now, i have a lot to do and i still feel a bit air sick so staring at this screen doesnt help me much.i love you and i will email soon from my new area.

He's on his way!

2009-03-03T13:28:00.000-08:00

Bronson just called from the airport! I looked at the odd number on my cell phone and didn't answer at first, because less than an hour ago I got an obscene text message! The minute I hit "ignore" though, I realized that I'd been waiting all day for an out-of-area call and could have just kicked myself. I listened to the message, and sure enough, it was him!

He said, "Hey Mom it's Bronson, um, I'm in Washington, Dulles. I'm not going to have an opportunity to call you, probably until Mother's day, so um, I just want to let you know that I love you and that everything is going well. Um,yeah, I hope you get this message, make sure you check it, ok? I love you, tell all the kids that I love them, thank the Ward for me, I'll talk to you later, Love you. Bye."

I tried calling right back and he must have been trying me again at the same time. But the second time I called a girl answered. She was the sister of one of the Elders and handed the phone over to Bronson. We talked about how excited he is to get out there. He said he's "learned to swim, and ready to get tossed in the water!" I teased him about his tendency to get airsick and asked if he'd taken any Dramamine. He said, "No, I'll just throw up a couple of times and then I'll be fine." Keep those bags close, honey!

He said to thank Aunt Julie and Aunt Maria for their letters that he hasn't had time to return yet. (I'm pretty sure those aren't the only ones he hasn't had time to return :) I asked if he knows what the procedure is when he gets there. Apparently, he and two other Elder's will get to Donetsk. The mission president will meet them there and they will be given their assignments right away. He'll continue on to his assignment straight away. If he's in a larger town he'll have internet access through an internet cafe, but if he's in an outlying settlement, he won't have access and pouch mail could take up to 3 weeks to arrive and they'll get mail at transfers, every 3-6 weeks. We exchanged I love you's and he had to run, presumably to go sit around for the next two hours while he waits for his flight.

I'm kind of glad that he had to leave a message before I got to talk to him. It will be fun for everyone to be able to hear his voice and listen to his message for themselves! I think I'll go listen to it again right now.

My Babydoll.

2009-02-26T12:40:00.000-08:00

The other day I looked out the door to see my BittE Baby scooting along with her Babydoll. She is obsessed with Babydolls and says it like it's all one word. Babydoll. MY Babydoll!
Just about every female form depicted in the house is labeled as ... Babydoll.

I may have to change her nickname to Babydoll.

Bellybutton. The cutest part of any Babydoll.

Go check out Fishfulthinking! It's as cool as

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

"I am So Happy with MYSELF!"

2009-02-25T16:23:00.000-08:00

The Princess has been working so hard to clean her room. A friend came last weekend and got her started. Every day this week, she has been choosing a small part to work on and doing it in steps. Today she finished with her closet! Then she asked me to come and take away the pictures that she no longer wanted to display and declared the job FINISHED! She proudly exclaimed, "I am so HAPPY with MYSELF!"

I am so proud that she set this goal and worked on it in small, achievable increments. When the children were smaller I used a technique that I learned in a training on Fred Jones' Positive Classroom Discipline. Often we attempt to praise a child and say something like, "Wow! Your room looks great, but you forgot to vacuum." A comment like that completely deflates the person being "praised". It's the "but", "however", or "although" that negates the good done by the praise. Dr. Jones suggested that a better way is to recognize what has been done correctly and then help them to identify the next step. When the kids were little, and cleaning their rooms, it sounded like this, "Great! You put all the dirty clothes in your hamper! Next you need to pick up all the Barbie's and put them in their box. I'll be back to check on your progress in just a few minutes!" Try it! When they're a little older, you can have them identify the next step and begin to back off little by little. You and your children will love the technique.

Go Princess! Go Princess!

Did you go check out Fishfulthinking.com yet? They have awesome resources on teaching your children persistence and goal setting.

We're throwing off the bonds of seasonal oppression and declaring our independence!

2009-02-25T09:14:00.000-08:00

Here in Arizona we like to keep up appearances. Even though we don't have a "real" Winter, we go through the motions with the rest of the Nation.

In August, as school creeps closer, the stores begin to fill with plaid wool and knit sweaters while we're still enduring temperatures above 105 degrees. The crazy thing is that we all start buying them because, ever-hopeful, we crave that change to Fall too. (Perhaps even more than most states.) Invariably you'll see a girl in long sleeves on the first sweltering day of school. You know she's insisted on wearing her favorite magazine dictated Fall fashions despite the warnings of her Mother. This year, I even saw a high school boy sporting his awesome long black Goth duster over his long black pants and knee-high boots, on a day with record-setting heat. I'm sure he felt extremely cool, even if he was about to faint from heat exhaustion.

Through November and December we revel in our chilly temperatures. The slightest frost is all the excuse we need to remove the candelabra from the fireplace and stick in a paper-coated 4-hour fire log. We may have to turn on the air conditioning to make a crowded Christmas party bearable, but at least it can look like Winter.

At school, little Arizonans go through the motions (I assume kids in Florida and small Californians also carry on the charade) by making sponge painted fall leaves that we won't see until January, cutting out snowflakes when some have never seen one, and bringing home construction paper snowmen to decorate at the kitchen table before they're allowed to run out to have a light-sabre war on the lawn with the other neighborhood kids.

But I, for one, am done keeping up appearances. I declare that it's time for the South to rise again and throw off the shackles of seasonal oppression! Today my kids are going barefoot and wearing shorts, even if it is still February!

Games Daddy Plays

2009-02-23T07:55:00.000-08:00

My Hubby (DH) isn't a rough and tumble Daddy. He's not a sports Daddy. He won me over with his patience and his sheer determination and endurance. The night we met, a fun cousin had helped my two year old to twist a comb in his, very 80's, beautiful blonde bowl cut. He ended up looking like Pebbles Flintstone. I took a look and assumed that I'd need to go home and give my baby a buzz. However, the friend my brother had invited to his Eagle Scout court of honor, patiently took the time to gently work each hair free of the comb until he'd preserved my baby's surfer-do. That night he made at least two conquests.

The things he does with our children aren't big and obvious. I'm the one who the neighbors get to watch running down the street behind a bicycle as five year olds learn to balance and pump their legs at the same time. DH is the one who holds the babies while he eats and coaxes them to try new foods.

He takes the time to dress a toddler on Sunday mornings and always remembers to play right foot/ left foot, and teach eyes, nose, ears, and belly button.

He likes to read them the books that his Father read to he and his brothers each night while Mom made dinner. Our little ones, and the big ones before them, are all well versed in the adventures Thorton W. Burgess created about Old Mother West Wind and her Merry little Breezes, Mr. Toad, and Happy Jack Squirrel.

At church I give the little ones a bag of fruit snacks to keep them busy, and quiet. Daddy always makes it a game. He hides one in his hand and has them peek under each finger until they discover their treat.

Years ago, when the older boys wanted to start having rowdy tickle fights with Dad before bed, he instituted a rule that has saved many tears and misunderstandings; they can laugh, and scream, and holler "no, no, no" as much as they want, but when they have really had enough and are ready for the game to stop, all they have to do is say the magic word "Please" and play instantly stops. The safety and comfort they get from knowing that they are in charge of the game has had immeasurable benefits.

One game Daddy plays has always bugged me though. I'm a stickler for accuracy, so Daddy's silly game of holding a child's hand and then asking why their foot is stuck, or talking about their red shirt when they were wearing blue, really drove me crazy. Until I read I Love You Rituals by Becky A. Bailey, PhD. Besides creating strong attachments these little games give children positive interactions, and even Daddy's silly game gives our little ones the opportunity to show their knowledge by correcting Daddy's silly statements.

Daddy's games accomplish exactly what Dr. Bailey suggests and "demonstrate the difference between responding to the physical needs of a child and bonding with the child by responding to his or her emotional needs" creating secure attachments that enable a child to "feel that the world is a positive place"! When children have these secure attachments they become "equipped with enough confidence to explore, to develop healthy peer relationships, and to rebound from adversity" and they see themselves as "being loved, loving, and valuable."

So, what games and "I Love You Rituals" do you have at your house?

Want to learn some other ways to give your children confidence, encourage resilience and teach optimism in your family? Click on the Fishful Thinking Link on my sidebar or just click HERE :)

Photo credits: Darling photo of DH holding tiny BittE (6 weeks early, 4 lbs 8 oz) by my Amazingly talented friend Debe, Babies in blue are Bronson and his 2nd cousin, Sarah, taken by me 1990, and Mom and Dad M. circa 1990.)

Week in Review

2009-02-22T12:08:00.000-08:00

I have been sitting here for at least 10 minutes, trying to think of something blogworthy. Our days just keep slipping by and without documenting things as they happen the cute things get lost, the silly things aren't funny, the hard things are forgotten, and now I sit here with nothing to write but the events of the week. Sooo.... working backwards, here's the week in review.

Yesterday I had quiet time with my little ones, while DH and some boys were gone doing ROTC and Scout stuff. We spent a peaceful hour or two at Grandma's while the kids played. Then went on a nice date. Afterwards I went and had a brave friend trim my hair!

Friday I had a GNin with the Princess after the babies were in bed. We snuggled into my bed with some snacks and Disney Channel. I wasn't a very exciting date though, since I fell asleep during the third episode of Zack & Cody and missed the new DCOM (Disney Channel Original Movie) that we were trying to wait up for.

Without pictures, the fact that I crocheted little stuffed animals on Thursday for homeless children (sad fact we learned - the average age of a homeless person in AZ is 9 years old. Most of them are Mother's leaving a domestic violence situation, with small children), isn't very exciting. But it was a lot of fun and always feels sooo good to give service. Plus, they are super-cute!

DH taught first aid to my young women on Wednesday. We're doing camp prep throughout the year (once a month) so that we don't end up with all of it the month before camp. The girls absolutely loved wrapping each other's broken ankles, legs, and arms.

We had book group on Tuesday. We are discussing Bonds that Make Us Free by C. Terry Warner. We're reading one chapter a month and it has been delightful. We are having the best discussions EVER!

On Monday, for Family Night, we had biscuit donuts (fried by my brother) at one of our favorite parks. Tomorrow night we have big plans for roasting hot dogs and marshmallows with friends for family night! Woohoo!

I fully expect the same kind of thrills during the upcoming week, since I have a parent teacher conference, an assignment to bake rolls for the homeless shelter, a planned visit to a group home for Adults with special needs on Sunday, a cutesy craft for the Young Women on Wednesday, teaching art to the kids again on Thursday (they are absolutely loving the drawing portion of our lessons. Want a great resource? Mark Kistner's Draw Squad!) and my usual fun while I cook, bake, clean, and care for my awesome family!

Our missionary only has about another week in the Missionary Training Center! We're really hoping that his VISA comes through in time so that he can ship out to Ukraine in early March as planned! He is so excited to begin teaching the people there!

Things That Brought Me JOY Today!

2009-02-19T12:55:00.000-08:00

On Sunday in Young Women's our lesson was on Having Joy! My friend Carol taught it and gave each of us a little notebook. Inside is a quote by President Harold B. Lee,
"Happiness does not depend

on what happens outside of you,

but on what happens
inside of you."

She encouraged each of us to make lists of things that bring us joy daily. I have loved making my list today, it made me notice all the little things that make me happy,
Like:

Sleeping in
A spotless floor
the smell of banana bread baking
uplifting music
dinner bubbling on the stove
reading scriptures with my babies
a good book
looking forward to Home, Family, and Personal Enrichment meeting
watching the kids play outside in perfect weather
my roses
nap time
thinking about my missionary
giving a child a clean bed
wearing an apron
talking with a friend
drawing a cute bunny for Bitt-E to color
teaching art to the kids and their friends
looking at the desk that my Princess cleaned for me
remembering to recycle
letting kids help
feeding dinosaurs green beans at lunch with Bitt-E
using my pretty forks
making Grandma's chili
making two dinners at once
veggies with lunch
seeing things I've made being played with and enjoyed
cold orange soda
Girl Scout Cookies - Samoas!
waving at neighbors
real butter
a walk with the little ones
noticing happiness

You are two-two cute!

2009-02-17T17:09:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Little Bitt-E!

Bitt-E's tutu is from Devri at The Naulu Tribe! (She sells them! Go check her out!)

It is Gorgeous and Bitt-E was Thrilled! Thanks again Devri! YOU ROCK!

Family Her-story

2009-02-13T06:36:00.000-08:00

My cousin recently posted this family history picture to our family website. She's my great-great Grandmother. I had to stop and take a few minutes looking in the mirror and comparing to see if I could find any of my features in this woman whose genes I carry. The jaw, the nose, the cheekbones all pretty similar.

Last night when my Mom came for dinner, I had to show her the similarities, in a side-by-side comparison. I even got a dish towel out of the drawer and put on a babushka. We laughed about having a look-alike contest on the family website! We laughed so much that we couldn't even begin to get the camera or a solemn look.

So, here's my alternative.

What do you think? I'm sure with 10 or 15 more years of Arizona sun, I may be more like her than different.