Just Call Me June Cleaver

I mentioned in my last post that we were working on SIMPLIFYING. Lots of things come along with that. It isn't just fixing our schedule to not be so busy. To me, simplifying means something like getting back to the basics and focusing more on what's important. 

First step: deactivate my Facebook account. Can I just say how AMAZING it feels to be rid of that ball and chain? I remember when I first discovered Facebook, nearly 8 years ago, and I said to Brandon, "I have to tell you about this time waster I found!" It was all in jest, but as I look back at the 8 years of mindless time-wasting I've spent on that website, I am ashamed. How will I explain that to my Heavenly Father? I knew it wasn't good for me, or my family, but it was so hard to quit! Do you wonder what finally made me do it? It was the negativity, the garbage, the haters. Last week our church announced a slight change in how they will handle baptizing children of same sex couples. The backlash from the haters was ample. I realized while checking my Facebook feed, that I really could live without hearing what everyone I know feels about the announcement. All that was important is how I feel about it. I was sad and frustrated and it was just enough to put me over the edge. Deactivate I did!

Next step in simplifying: Cutting out activities for the kids. When Brandon was home regularly the activities didn't seem to be much of a problem, but now that it's just me running the show, it's HARD! The truth is, Tabitha isn't going to be an award winning gymnast, dancer, cheerleader, etc. Daxton and Grady won't be soccer stars. What's the point in wasting precious family time to run them all over the state for these activities? We've told them we want to reevaluate our family priorities and cut out soccer and tumbling. They don't seem to be putting up too much of a fight, so after the soccer year is over, the older boys will be finished. That cuts out 6 practices/games each week. We'll keep the things that are easy enough for us to do and get rid of the time-suckers.

Next up: Quit decorating cakes. Honestly, the amount of money I make (which is very little) isn't worth the time it takes away from my rapidly growing kids. Sometimes I like the creative outlet, but mostly it's just stressful.

I want to be a 1950's housewife in the worst way. I want my little crazies to come home from school and then rush right out to play because their rooms are already clean (what else did I have to do all day?), they don't have homework, and there's no soccer, piano, tumbling, choir, etc to go to. Just play until it gets dark and then come in for dinner. I realize it's a little far fetched, but why can't I try to get as close as possible? 

Making a Comeback!

I honestly can't believe it's been two years since I've blogged. It makes me sad that I've missed out on recording so many memories, but life is busy. Ten years ago I would have said that life with three little kids was about as busy as it gets. I would have been wrong. The older the kids get, the busier we all get. I do not glorify busy. I actually quite despise the "busy" excuse. So, I've decided to do something about it and we will no longer be the BUSY family. More on that soon. We just finished Birthday Week around here, so I need to recap that.

Niki had a birthday on October 27th! Who's Niki you say? She is our foreign exchange student from Sweden. We ADORE her. She is an amazing (now) 17 year old who is truly beautiful on the inside and the outside. She has been the perfect addition to our family. We celebrated her birthday with a little shopping trip to City Creek and we had lunch at Johnny Rockets while we were there. We made her dinner at home and I made her a chocolate Reeses PB Cup cake. Reeses are her favorite American candy discovery. The morning of Niki's birthday she was at school, so I dropped off a candy bouquet with balloons attached and they delivered it to her class. I knew she'd hate it, and she did... a little.

Brandon's birthday was on Monday. I woke up early to get the the store for Swiss Porridge ingredients and bacon. Niki missed her first class to have breakfast and celebrate with us. We sang and we ate. In the evening we had a quick dinner and headed off to Temple Square. We took Niki there shortly after her arrival and she loved it... she had a life changing experience. She'd been asking to go back, and this was the perfect night to do it. The Balzotti's (minus Mike) and my mom joined us. We tried to find a Swedish speaking missionary to show Niki around, but we were unsuccessful. We walked over to the newly remodeled Church History museum and walked around there for over an hour.  It was beautiful and we were able to talk to Niki about some new topics, like the restoration of the priesthood. From there we walked over to the visitor's center. It was here that Niki had her first spiritual experience and she wanted to go back and sit in front of the Christus again. Her and I left the kids downstairs and walked up the ramp. We found some missionaries to play the recording in Swedish for her. She listened quietly and when it was over she said to me, "I'm going to pray for my friend."  She had recently learned that a friend from home has leukemia. It was amazing to me that she had wanted to return to the most spiritual place she knew of to say a prayer for her friend. This is a girl who had never said a prayer before she arrived in Utah! When she was finished I told her that what she just did is exactly what we do in the temple. She said, "I want to go there so bad!" It was another beautiful experience for all of us. So yes, I know this was Brandon's big day, but why not spend it doing something he loves, like missionary work! We went home and had pie and ice cream and he opened his two presents.

We had a regular old day the next day and then it was MY TURN! What a wonderful day it was. I am so very blessed. I've had some terrible birthday's in the past. In fact, last year was the worst. Brandon went out of town and the kids didn't even know it was my birthday until the evening. It was no fun. This year Brandon was a little more determined to make it great.

I got out of bed to take care of my normal routine: wake up the kids, clean up before Shelly (Taba and Hyatt's math tutor) comes, eat breakfast, get ready, etc. I put Tabitha in the bath tub and she sleepily asked me if Dad gave me my present yet. All the kids had gone to the store with Brandon the night before and I assumed he'd bought me something she was excited about. I told her no. Brandon was in the kitchen making my Swiss Porridge for breakfast. Niki skipped her first class again to eat breakfast and celebrate with us. As we sat down to eat, the kids could not contain their excitement about me opening my present from Brandon. So, he handed it over and I opened it. Let me just say, I will never be able to talk about this gift without feeling Brandon's love, and without crying probably. You'll need a little back story. In 2013, on our Disney Alaska Cruise, I fell in love with a painting of Carl and Ellie from UP. It was too expensive to buy, but I never forgot it and when we went on our cruise this year I hoped it was still there so we could buy it. Of course it was gone. So, when I opened my gift and realized what it was, I could not believe the time and thought that went in to it. Brandon had hand drawn a replica of that painting. It is so beautiful to me! I think it's the best gift he's ever given me, besides my children, ahem. Brandon said Tabitha would watch him drawing (he did it in his office over three days) and say, "Dad, you're so careful."

That was pretty much the highlight of the day, but I was also able to go to lunch with Brandon and my mom at Cheesecake Factory, thanks to Tyfani who taught my homeschool art class. I got to take a little nap, and I didn't have to cook dinner. We watched InsideOut as a family and I may have slept through that too. As an added bonus, Jessie showed up after the movie with flowers and a beautiful minky blanket, gloves and a hat for me!

It was a beautiful day and I was so grateful to spend it with my loves and to feel so loved. Thirty seven is looking pretty great so far!
Halloween was nestled into this week too. I'll do a separate post for that, but oh what fun we've had!

Progress

The week is almost over. It's really been a good one.  Hard, but good.  Each day has been better than the one before it.  Grady is settling into his routine.  We changed some things up to help him not get so overwhelmed with all he has to do.  He is doing his reading the night before and I am stapling all the workbook pages he needs to do together, rather than handing him each book when he finishes the one before it.  It worked well today.  I warned both boys that next week we would be introducing other subjects.  They seemed excited to start Spanish.

I have to say that Daxton has really impressed me this week.  He has been AMAZING at getting his stuff done quickly and following my directions and doing what I ask him to do. I have been so proud of him.  Brandon and I decided this just confirms that homeschooling is right for him.  He seems to be thriving in this new routine. Today he finished pretty early and couldn't find anything to eat for lunch.  He asked if someone would take him to Del Taco so he could buy himself a burrito.  How could I say no to that?!!  Brandon took him and they had some bonding time and Daxton felt rewarded.

THIS is why I felt the drive to homeschool.  Come on... more time together, control over their education, and the ability to talk about Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit whenever we choose.  Plus, I can encourage with kind words, a hug, a gentle touch.  It is teaching me patience for sure, but I am already noticing a difference in how the kids are treating each other, and their willingness to help me out when I need it. I was most nervous about being together as an entire family 24/7.  Now, it's only been a week, but I think our time together is going to be a great thing instead of a terrible thing. I am one of those moms who truly did think the first day of school was the most wonderful time of the year.  I still kind of feel the same way, but I just feel in my heart that this is what is right for our family for the time being. It is hard to give up my "me time", but I haven't missed it as much as I thought I would.

First day of (Home)School.

So, in general I would say that today went exactly as I had planned.  Unfortunately that means I planned on it not going as planned. I am so proud of the boys, and especially Daxton, for their bearing with me as we start on this crazy adventure.  We all had our less desirable moments today, but we stuck through it together.

Let me start with a conversation I had with Daxton last night.  He came in after all the kids were in bed and we were talking about starting school in the morning.  He mentioned that he might want to get up early and get it out of the way.  I told him that was definitely possible if he thought he'd work better before everyone got up.  We talked about how he could work in the morning, or at night, whichever he liked best.  I think he liked the freedom of being able to choose.  He said he'd get up early and try it that way first.  I was so proud! He's my boy that just despised school and working on homework, so I didn't expect him to be excited about starting.

So, this morning before I got up to walk, I woke him up and got him started on his math. He managed to get quite a bit done while I was gone.  When I got home he was helping Hyatt get some breakfast and Grady was awake as well.  I told Grady he had piano lessons at 9.  It is a huge perk to homeschooling that some of the "after school" activities can be done during the day and the evenings are less hectic. Grady didn't think so. This was breakdown #1. Nevertheless, he ate, we had our "family time" (which includes scripture mastery, talking about a virtue, and family prayer), and then I took him to his lesson. It was only 30 minutes, but he felt so behind because Daxton had gotten so far ahead. I think it threw him off for the whole day. He was stressed about finishing fast.  That might be my fault because I had told them all summer that one of the perks of homeschool was you could finish fast and be free.  Also, Grady has more English work to do than Daxton, so that didn't help.

I got Daxton settled in to do his English and climbed the stairs to help Grady log in to do his Math.  He did okay at first.  Although every time I would walk away he would call me back. He didn't want to commit to an answer until I told him it was right.  I tried to explain to him that if he got it wrong the computer would tell him how to do it right and he could try again. Anyway, he got through most of his math before he started whining that he wished he was in "real school". He made it clear to me that he doesn't want to homeschool. Though he didn't say a word to that effect all summer. I talked him down calmly and we started the next thing.  Meanwhile, Daxton kept calling me down to help him. I think I climbed the stairs 100 times this morning.  Tomorrow I will have to put both laptops in the same room.

After that crisis was diverted with Grady, I had one with Daxton.  He had a 9 question assessment he needed to take for his vocabulary.  He kept getting less than 60% and needed 80% to move on.  A breakdown ensued and he cried that he always gets 60% and that's good enough and he couldn't do any better. I was so happy to have the opportunity to take my 11 year old boy in my arms and tell him that he can do. That we would do it together and that it would be okay.  There was no rush. We went through it together and discovered he didn't read the directions for the last 3 problems. That moment was enough to get me through the rest of the day. And believe me, it was a tough day. I didn't get a shower before we started, so I wasn't able to get one until we were done. I am so hoping they can become self motivated.

Grady had another breakdown towards lunch time. He kept crying that this was too much for the first day.  In reality, I had a history lesson planned as well, but decided early on that it wasn't going to happen today. I kept asking him to take a break and come back to it later, but he desperately wanted it to be over with and refused to take a break.  Again, I had the opportunity to hug him and tell him he could do it if he could focus on the individual task, and not everything he still had left to do. He just wasn't recovering from his sadness.  Finally I told him he could be done for the day and we would just work on the rest of the lesson later. Tonight he told me he was planning on finishing it in the morning and asked that I wake him up early so he can get started.

We focused on Math and English, with a little introduction to our August unit study- finances. We introduced a new chore/allowance system and I taught them about giving, saving, and spending their money.  They seem excited, since this is the first time they'll get an allowance.  Brandon and I decided it's impossible to teach kids about managing money if they don't have any money to manage! Looking forward to seeing how that program goes.

I felt like the day was successful, simply because I got to spend the day encouraging my boys to learn. I got to spend time with them, love them, and share my love of learning with them. I really hope the days get easier, but even if they don't, I know this whole homeschooling thing is something our Heavenly Father wants for our family. I know that because I never would have decided to do this on my own.  I still can't believe I am doing it.  That Staples commercial that plays the song, "It's the most wonderful time of the year" for back to school was practically my theme song.  But, here we are. Loving each other through the chaos of homeschool. May we be blessed with patience for one another.

The Decision to Homeschool

Daxton must have asked me 50 times last year to homeschool him.  I never gave it a thought.  NO WAY. I told him no many many times.  And then I watched this video that changed everything. It was filmed by the Today show and it was about a family with a bunch of kids who all went through college at a young age.  It wasn't the fact that the kids were advanced early and had successful careers already.  It was something their mom said. She said, "We just allowed them to choose something they love and study that one thing as much as they wanted." She went on to talk about how they all love what they do and they started learning their job at a young age. This is what I got out of it.  Daxton needs to be allowed to do more of what he loves, and less of what he isn't good at.  He's forced to do so much math and he is convinced he isn't good at it because they move faster than he is able to move. This was my AH-HA moment.
I ran my thoughts by Brandon to see what he thought about homeschooling the boys.  Grady isn't being challenged the way he should be, so we thought it might be advantageous for him too. Brandon was a little skeptical at first, but to his credit, he saw that I was serious and he was on board.  He has been so amazingly supportive and is willing to help with some of their school. He plans on helping them learn Spanish and we have grand plans to have morning devotionals, scripture mastery learning and other family time each morning. I am not an idealist.  I know this isn't going to be easy, but I really feel this will be so good for our family.  I don't know how long it will last, but I hope the boys know that I love them enough to give up my own time to teach them what they aren't learning in school.
My goal is to teach them how to be self motivated and to love learning.  I want them to know that if there is a subject they are interested in, they can stop what they are doing and go find out more about that.
Wish us luck! We are definitely going to need it.

The Disney Wonder takes us to Alaska!

Summer of 2013 and it is a "Kids Trip" year.  We had some really fabulous places in the Christmas drawing for this year's trip, including 4 votes for Disney's new Hawaiian island.  Alas, Grandma's choice was picked again and we headed off last week for 7 days of exploring Alaska on Disney's cruise ship, The Wonder. Can I just say PERFECT!  It was the perfect trip for our family.  ALL 6 of us had an incredible time because we all got out of it just what we wanted. I got to sleep, read, relax and spend time with my family.  Brandon got to see cool things, eat a lot and spend time with the family.  The kids got to eat and play and go to bed late. PERFECT!

Here we are during our brief stop in Vancouver. We arrived Sunday afternoon and hung out at our hotel, got an easy dinner and just enjoyed each other's company.

FINALLY! On the bus to the Vancouver port to get on the Mickey Boat!!!

Waiting to embark...

On the ship and the first thing we do is get ice cream... and lunch (which didn't get eaten).

We love Grandma!  It is still unfathomable that she loves us all enough to take us on these FANTASTIC trips.  We are so lucky!

The Disney Wonder is a beautiful boat.  Brandon and I are perfectly posed together just to the right of the frame of this picture.  I was counting on Tabitha to capture us and the side of this tower.  She got the tower.

Beautiful Vancouver.

After "lunch" the boys hit the pool.  The weather in Vancouver was a beautiful 75 degrees.

Tabitha and Hyatt had to wait for their luggage to arrive with their swimsuits, so we checked out the KIDS CLUB!! Tabitha and Grady played a little Just Dance.

Brandon took the kids to the Anchors Away party.

Chris and Andrea, Millie, Dallin, Piper, and Matilda were there too!

Dallin and the boys looking so sad to be on a Disney cruise.

BEAUTIFUL view leaving Vancouver.

Another dip in the pool... and some food to go with it for Daxton.

Spending some time at Kids Club again.

Awaiting the Princess Gathering with Ariel, Snow White, Tianna, and Cinderella.  I let Steve take all the pictures with the princesses, so I don't have any of them yet.

Here they are from far away, with other people's children.

And, of course we needed more pool time. The kids didn't seem to notice the temperatures dropping as we left Canada and neared Alaska.

Daxton found the hot chocolate machine.

And then he found the "soccer field".

This is what much of the coast of Alaska looked like.

 Millie and I got to have a playdate almost daily.  I just can't get enough of her squishy little cheeks! Here she is for formal night.

Here we are at Triton's on formal night. Look at all those handsome boys!

There was a little bit of zoned out TV time.  I think he was watching Jack and the Giant Slayer.  One of the fun things about the Disney cruise was all the first run movies that we could watch.  The Lone Ranger was playing in the theater, along with Monster's University.  Both are still in theaters!

Ready for another day of Disney magic!

Character breakfast visit from Minnie!

We all got some cool headgear made out of napkins.

On Day 3 we cruised through the Tracy Arm Fjord.  The day started off extremely foggy and we were so lucky the weather cleared and we were able to see the first signs of an impending glacier... ice floating in the water.

There it is! The Sawyer Glacier.  Just a little closer!

Some of us took in a show. It was called Who Wants to be a Mousketeer.  Tildy and Steve got called up on stage, but by then Brandon (who had the camera) had left because Hyatt had a potty accident.

I spent some time out on our veranda watching the coast go by.

We arrived in Skagway, Alaska on Day 4. We spent some time walking around the town and then met for our excursion.  We did the White Pass Railway train up the mountains, and then went and panned for GOLD!

Every time I would snag Millie from her mom, Tabitha came along and wanted to take her from me.

Brandon has always been really good at taking pictures of the back of my head.

I believe it was Hyatt who took this picture.  We are lucky this picture isn't of Grandma's nostrils.

Here is Chris and family panning for Klondike Gold.  Believe it or not, we ALL found gold in our pans! Most of us found about $10 worth!

This was my favorite piece of art in the gallery.  It MOVED me. To tears.  Seriously.  It is called Paradise with Ellie.  You know, Ellie from UP? One of the greatest love stories of all time, and here's the happily ever after.  I would own it if I had the extra $650.

We found Alaska Mickey wandering around one of the decks and made him stop for a quick picture.  He's always smiling that Mickey!

Dinner at Animator's Palate.  It's a great restaurant that starts out completely black and white and gets colorful through dinner.

Sorcerer Mickey showed up for dinner, but we didn't get a very good pic.

At our stop in Juneau we did a Mushing Dog Training Camp visit.  There were 150ish dogs at this compound and each had their own dog house.  It was CRAZY.  The trainers were very passionate about their jobs and the dogs loved to pull the "sleds".  They were crazy hyper when they knew they were about to run.

Later, on the boat, we attended the Pixar Pals Party.  It was very loud, but fun to see some of the different characters than we'd been seeing around the ship.

My sweet Hyatt was happy to just watch movies on TV too!

Each night the kids would race through dinner so they could go see their new best buddy on the ship.  This man, Fernando from Brazil, won their hearts by giving them PINS!  Lots and lots of pins to trade. Pins became an obsession by all the boys while we cruised.  We got on the boat with zero pins and we left with a boat load. On another Fernando note, the first week we were home Grady cried over missing Fernando. He cried and cried real, heartbroken tears. He misses him more than I've ever seen him miss anyone.  Fernando was a really nice guy, but I do not understand the heartbreak. Tyfani speculates he just misses the whole experience in general. He seems to be getting over it very slowly, but my goodness it is so strange.

Tabitha helped decorate the Talent show banner at Kid's Club.

Brandon and Hyatt spent some time out on the veranda together watching the planes go by.  Juneau has no roads that come into the city, so everything is brought in by boat or plane.  There were tons of planes flying right by our ship and Hyatt was in awe.  He told Brandon to take pictures of the planes and boats, so here ya go.

In Ketchikan, we watched a native dance and learned about totem poles, which are basically family history carved into wood.

Audience members got to join in the dancing. Brandon looks like he is doing the Thriller dance, but it's just some native dancing.

The kids got to do a scavenger hunt.

When we left the native camp, we headed to the GREAT ALASKAN LUMBERJACK SHOW. It was a lot of fun! There was hatchet throwing and tree climbing and some seriously hunky dudes chopping away with some seriously sharp axes.

Hyatt loved it so much he used his money to buy a wooden hatchet that the lumberjacks signed.

The Mickey boat parked right by downtown Ketchikan.

The front of the Disney Wonder.

This landing played our family room.  We did a lot of gathering here before meals, before activities, etc.

Brandon spent a lot of time looking just like this.  Unfortunately, he still didn't see much.

We did see Steve being the great dad that he is, and painting Matilda's nails with her new UV changing nail polish.

And the sun sets on our beautiful Alaskan Disney Cruise.  A FABULOUS trip for all of us!

Leaving the boat : (

The last bit of daily snuggle time with my Millie Sue.