1 family, 5 kids, many different personalities

Very typical  reactions to the news that we were all going to the Christmas parade: Micah looked pleased but didn't really show how he felt, Felicity quietly smiled and stayed to herself , after I explained to Cassie about the parade and candy she was excited and had lots of questions, and Came squealed  lay back on the rug and kicked her feet in a happy dance, her face got flushed and her eyes filled with tears as she began laughing and talking.

More Sayings....

I try to discourage the kids from saying "hate".Camie was acting something out and making up a song in the playroom."Chesterrrr! I hate Chesssterrrr!" No, I don't hate him. Chesterrrr. I love Chesssterrrr!"

Cassie says

"I don't know how to fold my clothes and put them in the dresser. I just know how to cramble them in there."

"Micah says we can live a hundred miles."

 "I like the clumps of butter on my biscuit, but I like them better in my mouth."

Felicity: Can we watch Mary Pippy Stockings? (That would be Mary Poppins and Pippy Longstockings.)

New Pictures

I would like to learn to take great pictures. I also want pictures of the kids this year. Combining these two wants, I figured I could get some good practice in by taking one kid at the time with me for some mom/kid time and photo shoot. 

I took Camie first. She and I picked out some outfits, bought some props (a big candy cane stick and some balloons) then went to the park and walked around downtown Lucedale, stopping and taking pictures wherever we felt like it. We both had so much fun. I'm finding out my kids sometimes come up with some really cute poses or backdrops on their own. It's fun to get their input and let them be themselves (as much as they can with a camera pointed at them.)  Micah and I took a walk in the woods by the house for his pictures. I'll upload those another day. I took a lot of each of  him and Camie, but our upload speed is s--l--o--w,  so I just picked these 8 to post right now. 

Felicity is eager to have her turn. I haven't decided yet where to take her. I am trying to choose places and colors that match their personalities. Not many pink quiet places I can think of in Lucedale for her shots. :) Cassie's ought to be taken at a circus; she's our little clown. I think something bright and playful would suit her. Maybe we'll go to a playground. 

At our city park there is an amphitheater with colored tiles on the fronts of each row of steps. I was hoping to get those blurred in the background for a mix of lively colors for our lively girl, but I couldn't get my camera to do just what I wanted. But I think this is cute anyway.

She asked for this braid and loved it. She said it made her look older.

We were in a little alley in town for this picture.

 I think walking along Main Street, smelling the restaurants, seeing the traffic, looking in store windows, and talking may have been her favorite part of the trip. There is a (non-working) drinking fountain in front of a shop so she posed at it for me.

Sporting her $1.50 thrift store boots I surprised her with one day. She has been wanting cowgirl boots for months now. These are not great quality, but are some of her favorite shoes.

 There is a little courtyard beside Vincent's Clothiers in town that isn't used, so it's grown up with vines on teh walls. It is beautiful. She was watching a squirrel on the power line here.

Giggling and playing with some rocks.



More pictures to follow.....soon I hope.

Kids and Living in the South

Some more funny kid-sayings:

Cassie asked if I saw how she "anked  her arm". I asked her to show me and she pulled it back quickly.

We were driving through town and Cassie was looking at the Christmas decorations on the light poles. She pointed out one and said, "A Cow! No, a rein....what do you call those?A Reinhorse?"

Felicity was looking at a children's book from the library, and on one page there was a tree made out of pencils. She said," Like they have in Pencilvania."

We watched a movie as a family the other night and they said something about the mother's fate changing. In one tense moment, Micah quietly asked me, "Are her feet really going to change?"


Some bears in the  movie were scary and Micah's  heart was beating hard. After it was over he said his feelings were hurt. I asked why and touched his chest and said, "I don't know, it just hurts right here."

On Wednesdays Mam has been taking the kids, one a the time, with her to town. Micah knew his turn was coming up. Thinking Sunday was the day, he asked when she would be here to get him. I explained that it was another three days before Wednesday  "I get them mixed up," he said. "They sound so much alike. They both have 'day' in them."




Last night was my first experience with (Pre) Black Friday shopping. Goody's in town advertised some cute boots which would be on sale starting at 8:00. I got to the store at about 8:10 and wormed my way back to the table where the boots were. It was hard to get close and people were trying to squeeze past the crowd to go to other sections of the store. Maybe it's because it was just the start of the frenzied sale, or, as I prefer to think, it's because we live in the South, but I heard several  "excuse me", "oh, I'm sorry", "Can I squeeze past you?" and other such polite remarks. It was amusing and refreshing. And I found that there is no shortage of people who wear a size 9 boot. Or maybe there was just a shortage of that size available. At any rate, I saved $20 at Goody's during this sale....by buying nothing.

Oh, those funny kids

Things Cassie says:
vitamin seeds (Vitamin C)
suncsream
unrella (umbrella)
"I am full of hands" (my hands are full)
We were playing a game and it was Cassie's turn to roll the dice. She asked, "Where's the ice? I mean mice."
I was busy hemming some jeans a while back and Cassie patiently explained something to me (I don't remember what) then using a very grown-up tone asked, "Do you understand that?"


~~


I came into my bedroom the other day and Camie had made a "self-portrait" as she called it, of me, using my clothes, complete with a padded bra for shaping. She had a shirt, skirt, shoes, bracelet on the arm of the shirt,  necklace, and cell phone, opened as if I was talking on it. I laughed long at it all.

~~

The kids have been interested in jokes lately, so I got some books from the library to teach them some new ones. Micah tried retelling this one to Matt:
What happened to the astronomer when the telescope hit him on the head? He saw stars.
But his version was, "Hey Daddy, What did the officer guy see when he looked through the telescope? Stars!"

Sometimes (well, often, sadly) they branch out and make up their own. Just tonight I heard Micah ask this one:
What did the water say to the ice? You can't float!
Their jokes either make no sense at all or they are so logical they're not funny. But at least they're trying. :)

When I'm reading jokes and have to explain them, that's even worse. Felicity doesn't share my sense of humor apparently and doesn't think they're funny because they are not sensible answers.
For example,  What's the difference between an elephant and a flea? An elephant can have fleas, but a flea can't have elephants. This was not even funny to her, because of course fleas can't have elephants.

And while we're on the subject of elephants, I was trying to teach the kids this funny poem:
Way down south where bananas grow,
A grasshopper stepped on an elephant's toe.
The elephant said with tears in his eyes,
"Go pick on somebody your own size."

Felicity just could not get past the ridiculousness of an elephant crying because a grasshopper stepped on his toe.  And after  I tried to explain it again, my laugh at the end of it started sounding forced, because now I  wasn't finding it as funny. Nothing like having to explain a joke to ruin it for you. :)

And one last joke to close us out here:
Where does the woodpecker go to get his lunch? To the lumber store! (That was a Camie-original.)

Finding Joy

I follow a blog through Facebook called Finding Joy. I think I found it through  some curriculum giveaway on a site that required you "like" certain pages on Facebook to be entered in the drawing. I didn't win the prize, but have enjoyed reading this lady's posts. Here are a couple of quotes from two of them.


From "5 Ways to be More Present Today"
5. Be Authentic. Let's face it. There are some days that are just plain hard and the last thing you want to be is in the moment. That's okay. Not everyday is going to be amazing, and certainly not every minute of the day is fabulous. Be real about it. There are times where I have to simply tell my kids that I'm too tired to read right now, but I love you and will you remind me later? That's real. I cannot be super mom - she really doesn't exist. Being present to today means admitting that sometimes you need a break, or you pop in a movie, or you just rest. It's a day. However, living intentionally and aware takes work and diligence. So again, check your thoughts, just keep trying, and be real.

(The rest of the post is here.)

From "monotony becomes beautiful. a tale of motherhood" Ignore the toys that fell down the stairs and cover the floor but instead celebrate the hands that play with them.
Embrace this moment, this gift of a November day, and let the monotony become beautiful.
(For the entire post, click  here.)

In Search of a Phone

Last Monday I decided to go down to the stream behind the house to find some good picture-taking spots. I'm wanting to take one or two kids with me at the time one afternoon, dressed in something they help choose and maybe with some of their favorite toys for props, to take pictures for this year.
Have you ever noticed the lack of women's clothing with good pockets? I have. The only part of my outfit that day that had pockets was the jacket, and those were too shallow to keep anything in. Thinking ahead, I decided to put my phone in the camera bag so it wouldn't drop in the water when we crossed the stream.
After we crossed to the other side, I took the camera out of the bag with the phone still in it, but left it unzipped, since only I would be touching the bag (I thought).  I  found a few good places for pictures, the kids cooperated and stayed still and didn't make goofy faces, so I was feeling good. I announced that there was one more spot I wanted to check out. One of the kids, eager to help, thought I meant back on the other side of the stream and grabbed the camera bag, leapt across and started SWINGING the BAG. I looked up and was horrified to see the bag upside down.
"NO! Don't do that! My phone is in there!"
"No it's not." (checking the bag.) It's empty."

After an hour of searching, having my niece call the phone hoping I'd hear it ring or see it light up (so thankful for Facebook instant messaging),  I had to conclude that my (waterproof) phone was somewhere deep in the dark water, lost.  I Facebook messaged my sister and had her text Matt. Below is  the conversation from FB chat  I had with him after that.

Our friend Tyler made a special trip over to use his metal detector, and spent nearly an hour here looking for it. Matt and I searched the water using the big mag-light that evening. The next night I used the pool net to fish around in the areas I could see. I told Matt it would have been nice if the phone had been made with a flotation device that would activate when it hit water.

It was a quiet week with no phone. A good friend of ours gave me his old one, and I'm glad to be connected again.

Matt: ?

Rose: !

Matt: what do u mean?????

Rose: I mean my phone was in the camera bag while I was taking pics and Helpful Child picked the bag up without my knowing, crossed the branch and was swinging it while the lid was open. I've had Kate call it (she said close to 40 times) and I didn't hear it ring. The volume is on. I've looked everywhere I can see in the water, stuck my hand down in places that made me shudder and tried to see in the deep spot past the waterfall, where I think it must be.

I've spent 45 minutes looking for it.

I put it in the bag so it would be safe. Didn't count on Helpful Child messing with it though.

Matt: stay out of the water or you will cover it up with silt

Rose:

ok

The places I looked in the water were shallow and not silty.

I need to feed all of us, but I'll have FB open all day if you need me.

Matt: stick your head under the water and listen for a ring or wait till I get home. It will have less battery power in the cold water. battery will be dead tomorrow

Rose:

Are you serious about sticking my head underwater?

Matt: yes any sound will be heard unless the water is to noisy

Rose:It's below the waterfall where I'm talking about, but maybe it won't be too noisy. If you'll call it for a few minutes I'll go try to listen for it.

give me about 3 minutes first

Matt: say when

k

Rose:

On my way down there now. Brrrrrr.

Rose:

I coudn't hear anything.

Matt: k but your hair sure looks better

Rose:

Gotta go get a hot shower. I had to ease down on my knees to get my face close to the water. Whew baby that was cold.

So now the right side of my body is pretty well chilled. My hair needed to be washed anyway.

Matt: u want Tyler to bring the metal detector?

Rose: If that wouild work, sure.

Rose:

Ok. a metal detector can be used under water?

Matt: no

Rose:

Oh.

You fooling with my wet, blonde head?

Matt: not sure where u lost it Are U

Rose: if we're talking about my phone, and not my head, I didn't lose it.Helpful Child did. Anyway, don't know where it fell, just a guess.

She walked in only a small area before I found she was swinging the bag.

The volume is probably on low, but I assume I could have heard it ringing if it was on the ground and not underwater.

Matt: Tyler knows physics so just recreate the scene and wala the phone is found. I will be expecting a call from you shortly

Rose:I think your brain is fried from too much studying.

Is there some way to track your phone location online?

Matt: wheres my cell phone .com

just rings it for u

fonefindr.com

Matt: ETphonehome.gov

Matt: how to throw a phone .org

Rose: Shut it man. You just sent me on a wild goose chase.

Matt: ringing the wind .com

I don't own any geese

Honk if you can't call

What happens if a phone rings in a forest and nobody hears?

HONK if you throw phones

Matt: Rosemary's new blog How to Drop a Call

memoirs of a lost phone

Matt: Howtotorch-eryourphone.lol

Rose: gladyou'renotmad.com

Our 11-Year Adventure

October 19th marked mine and Matt's 11th anniversary. For the past 3 or 4 years I've planned a big anniversary trip (as in 3 days and 2 nights away) but this year with Matt's school schedule, Daisy being 6 months old and still nursing, and a tighter budget, we made no trip. We're hoping  next month to get a date together and next year to resume the trips, but in the meantime I knew I had to get creative to make this year's anniversary fun.

On Monday night I gave Matt a card with "Choose Your Own (Anniversary) Adventure" written on the top,  instructing him to choose from a list of opposites. Each day he would receive a text letting him know what that day's gift would be, based on the words he'd chosen. These were all things we could do to spend time together like we would on a date, but at home, after kids were in bed. However, the list was very vague (on purpose) so it kept him guessing. For example, some choices were "hot or cold" (bonfire, or sitting on the porch swing one evening), "fast or slow" (action movie or romantic comedy/chic flick movie) "sweet or salty" (snacks to munch on while we listen to Mark Twain's "Diaries of Adam and Eve" and also some Bertie and Jeeves, both audiobooks on our Kindle) "big or little" (breakfast, either big spread or simple, served in bed), and "in or out" (go on a date in town for dessert and either eat at Sonic and stay in the car, or go somewhere else and get out of the car to go in the restaurant.) He chose cold, slow, sweet, and little, and in and made guesses as to what he thought each would be, and got some almost right. But having two parts to the gift (such as sweets and audiobook) made it pretty nigh impossible to guess it completely. It's hard to pull anything over on him; he knows too well how I think, so this insured I got to actually surprise him.

The kids got excited about this too, knowing Daddy was getting something special each day. They got in on the fun and gave him little gifts too. One day he was in town eating lunch with the pastor, so while he was inside we snuck an "I love you" card in his car for him to find when he got out. When Matt called I was busy so Lissy answered the phone and after chatting with him, handed it to me. I tried to act like I didn't know what he was talking about when he said something about a note, but he laughed and told me that the first thing Lissy said to him was "Did you find a surprise in your car?!"

On the night when we were going to watch a movie I gave him a message he had to decode to find out his gift. I found a devotional book on our shelf for couples and circled the letters on random pages to spell out REDBOX, then wrote down the page numbers to be the code.  I scrambled the word so he wouldn't guess it right away. Being Matt he started at the end of the cipher and found "__ E, X". He grinned and said "I already know what this word is gonna be." Then I  reminded him it was scrambled. :). After he decoded it I gave him a wooden box filled with Hershey's Nuggets like treasure in a chest, covering up the pirate movie I'd rented. This was by far the kids' favorite of his gifts since it involved chocolate enough for everybody.

It's been fun getting creative to come up with ideas that don't cost much and aren't completely centered around food. Favorite meals and desserts are usually the major feature of celebrations around here. And I went ahead and told Matt what the other "adventure" would have been each day when he received the gift he'd chosen. As I suspected (and hoped) he liked both ideas, so I told him we didn't have to stop after the last one he'd chosen. We could just keep on going into next week. :)

Happy Anniversary, my love. This week of mini-dates has been a lot of fun, celebrating the love that began our adventure 11 years ago.

Kid Sayings

I was in the bathroom and overheard Micah talking to Felicity in the hall: "Come watch me try out my new swing I made. It's awesome! It's like you're hang-gliding."
 Should I be worried?

The kids and I got the house looking pretty good one day and Felicity commented, "This is what the house looks like when we (kids) are not here."

Micah said he was just rolling a pool ball across the pool table, not even rolling it hard. It bounced off the pool table and landed on the sofa. Downstairs. On the opposite side of the living room. That means it went through the spindles of the rail in the loft, sailed past the (expensive) living room fan, and arched a good ten feet to land on the sofa. Ohhhh, that must've been that trick ball somebody slipped in with the others. Riiight. (or maybe Micah doesn't know his own strength? Just glad I was not in the living room when it came sailing over.)

Un-rella: Cassie's latest purchase, used rain or shine.

More into the math-mind or Micah:

What's 3+3-3+3? (I got so lost in all the signs that I got the answer wrong, much to his delight.)

Micah Figuring 10 +5.: "That's 5+5+5, so that's 15."
Me:"Why did you do say it like that?
Micah: "Because 5, 10, 15."

10-10+1=1 (He likes these multiply numbers and operations.)

When she saw the registered mark on a box of Mountain Dew, and knowing it had something to do with companies claiming ownership on a product, Lissy said, "That's the same people that own the TV! I've seen that circled R on the TV too!"

Kid-things and Family Photos

The other night Micah was worn out and went to bed on his own, and, of course, skipped the unnecessary "get ready for bed" stuff like brushing his teeth and changing out of his playclothes into pajamas. The next morning I reminded him he really needed to brush his teeth before bed so he didn't get cavities. "I want cavities. Then I could have metal teeth." Yikes! Not the look I had in mind for my good-looking 5 year old boy. Apparently they look cool to him though. So in response I said, "Well sometimes if you have cavities they just pull the teeth out." (Desperate times call for desperate measures, I say. Don't want to candy-coat things....pun intended.) He decided maybe brushing was a good idea afterall.

There is a song we all like and hear on the radio frequently. Part of the words are, "Take this world but give me Jesus..." Cassie sings it "Take this world and give it to Jesus."

Last Sunday we had some friends over for lunch and Matt helped Steve work on his van. Angie, his wife, loves to take pictures, and we were in need of some family shots now that Daisy has joined the crew. The only one we have of all 7 of us is from our beach trip, with all of us wet and in swimsuits. Not something I really want to frame for our living room. So before the men started work on the van, we posed for some family pictures. It was about 90 degrees outside, the kids remembered the last time we'd done this and how long it took, so they weren't real cheery as we trudged out to the yard. Angie's son William made them laugh a little bit, so at least some of the pictures turned out cute. If Blogger has made them appear blurry you can try clicking on them for a full-size view.

Buddy, the dog was very excited that 1)we were all outside just to be with him, and 2) we brought a blanket for him to sit on. We didn't mind him being in the picture, except he kept turning his backside to the camera or sat scratching.

The kids had started to drift away once the family pictures were done and had to be called back to take these. Notice their enthusiasm in the first picture.

I decided something had to be done, so I stood behind Angie and made monkey faces at them. It worked!

Getting to stand up and hold Daisy was a first for all the kids. And it was so exciting that they all stuck around for their turns without having to be persuaded. In fact they kept getting in each other's photos and had to be shooed away until it was their turn. Micah couldn't hold her up and be still at the same time more than a second or two so he and Cassie sat for theirs.

I went ahead and put all four of the ones of Cassie and Daisy in here because they make me laugh. Daisy looks huge (her head does, anyway) because of the angle of the picture in this one.

Cassie, being sweet. Daisy clueless.

Daisy's expressions go downhill from here.

A very sweet one. I'd like to get this one framed.

The two Flower Girls (Rose and Daisy)

Daisy thought she'd shwo off the daisies on her dress.

And I played around with editing some on picmonkey.com.

See the hidden message on the truck?  (Photo-editing can be fun.) ;)

School Days

Well, we started school yesterday. We're easing into it for my sake and theirs. Daisy is sleeping all night most nights, but one bad night can throw me off for a whole day, so I'm not committed to any schedule right now. Getting around by 9 or 10, having a quick breakfast, getting Daisy fed and put back down for a nap, and spending about an hour on school is good progress around here.We are doing math this week because the kids were so excited to do it. I mean that. Oh, did I mention that  I bought a math computer game that they get to do after their workbook time? We've had it for over a month now and they saw me trying it out one day a few weeks ago, but I wouldn't let them play it until yesterday. They were so thrilled to be doing school! I know this isn't likely to last, but I'm enjoying it while it does. And I'm also letting myself enjoy a sense of accomplishment after just 45 minutes to an hour of school, because we got something done and kids were happy. I let Camie help Cassie with her "schoolwork" today, since yesterday she spent the whole time pestering the 3 older kids and trying to write in their workbooks. I'm trying to get some preschool activity bags prepared for her to be able to do stuff, and I'll dig out the things I printed and laminated for the others over the last year and a half. In the next week or so we'll start phonics/reading, and then add in handwriting for Camie and Felicity. Micah is only kindergarten age, but loves and understands math, so I'm going to see how he does with the same Math level Felicity is doing. On his page yesterday he was supposed to count objects in two boxes and circle the box with the larger number of objects. He pointed to one and said, "That's six." I asked how he knew that without counting each fish in the box, and he explained how he sees them in groups: "If there's one fish in each corner that's four, and then there are two in the middle. 4+2=6." And there you have it, folks.  And later at lunch Matt asked him if he knew what 8+8 equals. He was quiet for a bit as he counted in his head and answered "15". Matt told him that was 8+7. Micah thought a few seconds, his eyes lit up and he said, "16!" I laughed, because I'm in awe of how numbers can make sense to a child of mine, and asked how he counted it without making dots on a page or using fingers. "Because Daddy said 8+7=15. 8 is one more than 7, so one more than 15 is 16." 

Numbers aren't as easy for the rest of us, as demonstrated by another one of our kids today, who declared that Daddy is 63. I corrected her and said he's 36. "Oh. That's what I meant." Numbers are just random arrangements for some of us. :)

Here's Daisy keeping me company while I worked on the preschool bags for Cassie. We borrowed that little Bumbo seat from a friend, and have loved it. We think Daisy likes it too.

First Day of School 2012: The girls coloring the numbers for our school picture.

Cassie showing a card from her pile of matched ones she one. She stomped me at Memory.

A rare moment when kids are getting along well. There was a lot of laughter and fun, which was so nice to hear. Of course new rules were made up, by the oldest sister nonetheless. They put the card that had the instructions on it. If you picked that card, the other player got three turns in a row. And they would put the cards back in random places instead of neat rows. I offered to show them how to set them up so they could remember where things were, but they laughed and said they wanted it how they had it. Pardon me for trying to ruin the fun.

And now, the 2012 First Day of School Pictures......


Micah's "0" is colored like a target.

Oops, dropped the target.

Cassie licking chocolate off her paper that got smeared on it from her hands.

Silly faces

 More silliness

 Yes, even Superman has to go to school sometimes. Here he's using foam pieces to make a ship.

If only Superman would fold that super pile of laundry on the sofa behind him. It grows daily. Maybe tomorrow we'll tackle it. It'll be pretty tall. He might get to practice leaping over it in a single bound.