The...Classical Academy for Boys

Several months ago I decided, definitively, to homeschool the children. We have been talking about it non-stop ever since and yesterday I dropped a LOT of bones ordering various items and curricula.

I cannot put into words how excited I am to take this step with my boys. They are brilliant and eager to learn, and I am eager to learn with them. Last month, in order to make it a little more fun for us all (we all need a little more fun, right?) I decided upon a name for my little school: the [Family Name] Classical Academy for *Boys and I have dubbed myself the illustrious Headmistress. We are currently toying with a few different ideas for mascot. Hahahahahahaha. The boys were full of lots of great ideas. Oh my!

Tomorrow, when I am feeling more serious, I will post some of my reasons, hope and dreams for this life-changing endeavor.

*Obviously this ending is negotiable and can be scrapped altogether if a feminine addition to the family ever surfaces (bless her heart). But in the meantime, it has a cute little ring to it. Don't you think? Adds substance (or false credence, maybe!).

One a Day

Last night some friends stopped by to help us load roof tiles onto the house--onto the addition. Pretty soon, some other friends, who were out for a walk, stopped to help. Next, someone from our ward drove by, noticed the party, and stopped to help. This was followed by another family in our ward and then our neighbors to the side. What was going to take Aaron and me several days of boring and back-breaking labor, took about two hours to accomplish.

People are so generous and so good.  And I am overwhelmed by the kindness.

Post-Christmas Post

Highs:

• Watching the boys romp around outside in shorts in the lovely mild December weather
• Going to a buffet and eating only one moderately sized plate of food. Deborah FTW!
• Overhearing one of the boys making "curried chicken" and "caviar" with their play dough
• Finalizing our home-addition plans
• Finally deciding to homeschool the little men--giving them a classical education (Latin anyone?)
• Disneyland with everybody for three beautiful days
• Attending Eliz's fabulous Christmas piano recital (tear up every time I go--she's THAT great)
• Starting to exercise at 5 am again and LOVING it
• Blogging less and reading more
• Watching Aaron get promoted at work
• Having a happy four-year-old (best age ever)
• 9:00 am church!
• Starting to have success with the YW planning their own activities
• Sharing a fabulous Christmas with my Father-in-law and Mother-in-law, both of whom I love very much
• Being happier than I ever have been before

Lows:

• "A" constantly wetting his pants (Though he somehow completely avoided this problem during our week in Disneyland. Laziness, maybe?)
• 90 minute wait times for rides at Disneyland--are you kidding me, people?
• Fattest I Have Ever Been. EVER.
• "A" biting one of the Christmas lights (I found him screaming in the living room spitting out blood and glass)
• Seriously moving into the life of the middle-aged middle-American--everything is full priced and heavily taxed
• *The fighting, the fighting, the fighting (scratching, shoving, biting, etc)
• Unhappy (and full out crazy) three-year-old (worst age ever)
• Wow, I tell you, laundry NEVER ends
• Home additions cost a lot of money
• Cement costs a lot of money
• Lumber costs a lot of money
• Everything boring that goes into a house costs a LOT of money

Why Aaron and I Keep These Crazies Around

Apparently H had some sort of assembly today involving "Chinese acrobats." He spent the after-dinner hour coaching E through various routines and tricks--jumping and twisting to the point of blurring the line between acrobatics and contortionism. After sufficient practice they called the family together for their opening revue. 

All tricks came to a untimely halt, however, when E, mounting on the top of H's prone body, planted his foot too close to...well, H's nether regions. "E you're off course, you're off course!" he frantically mouthed. 

Nothing is more fun than a night at home!

A Million and a Half Reasons Why I Should Have Won the Dairy Princess Crown

While I was making dinner tonight, I used some real parmesan cheese.  You know, the kind with the actual imprinted rind? I snitched a tiny bit of it as I shaved some over some bread dough. Wow! Nutty, slightly complex, a little salty and YUM! 

Remind me again why I buy the pre-grated stuff that smells like socks and tastes like sawdust?

A Series of Exceptions

Today went surprisingly well--considering the severe lack of sleep I have been experiencing lately. I actually exercised, read my scriptures, did a little laundry, and successfully avoided last night's candy haul. (Miracles will never cease!) I have decided to lose 50 lbs by next April. Oh, and skip sweets for awhile. (Do you like how non-chalantly I just typed that?) And, I LOVE that I decided to start this journey on the precipice of the holiday season. Gives it a little more of a challenge--something that seems to work well with my personality.

I actually feel pretty jazzed about dieting and exercising this time. I don't have the same overwhelming desire to stuff myself full of cookie dough on bad days like I used to. (Pity really. It made for entertaining blog posting and cookie dough is delish...) And ever since the daily exercising stint I experienced pre-baby, I have craved and enjoyed the feeling of a great workout.

The question, as always, is when. When to exercise when the baby is up all night? When to exercise when the others wake at 6, when we have to prep for school, and when picky-pants (E) absolutely and tearfully at times insists on a hot breakfast? Not to mention all of the other things that scream for my attention.

Today, however, while grappling with this question, I remembered the great secret that I have already realized before. Successful people do what they should do and what they want to do every single imperfect day regardless of what is going on, because life is a series of exceptions.

Frankly, I don't know if I'll ever have a full week where everything goes smoothly enough at home for me to perfectly exercise and perfectly do all of the other small but important things that I need to do.

So, today, I decided to do it no matter what.

Don't Judge Me

I bought "pajama jeans" today. 

And they're smoking hot, people!

Post Script: Food Fancies #2

Only one fleeting craving today:

Peanut Butter Cookies

Well, actually, I was really toying with the idea of making PB cookie dough, crumbling it over several cups of raw oats, raisins (or dried cranberries), toasted coconut, chopped almonds, and chopped chocolate pieces and making it into some heavenly granola. Good idea, don't you think?

Maybe one day...

Skivvies

  

Tonight was one of those great Summer nights where we had a leisurely family dinner followed by friends stopping by to chat. Pretty soon the kids were splashing around with the backyard hose in their underwear.

I rocked in the easy chair and nursed the babe while watching the boys soak in the last sunshine rays of the day. Oh how I love these quiet and happy Summer nights!

Pretty soon, A came in to take a shower, and before I knew it he was asleep in the hallway with nothing but a damp towel on.

I truly think motherhood is happier for me with four kids. I never would have let H as a toddler fall asleep on the floor (bad parenting for sure!). But tonight it seemed like the perfect ending to a hot day.

Food Fancies a la Mode

I am horribly overweight, again. Ok, maybe not horribly. But unacceptably.

I am trying to diet...kind of. I just keep falling off the wagon...like every night.

So tonight, instead of caving into that bowl of ice cream I am starting a new series of posts--that of confessing my unrequited food cravings of the day. Maybe just saying it will be enough.

---

I really wanted (but did not make [and then eat]) the following:

• Warm Berry Crostada with Ice Cream
• Peach Cobbler with Ice Cream
• Vanilla Ice Cream with a generous dollop of natural peanut butter, homemade fudge sauce a la Ashley, and a few crushed pretzels for some salty crunch
• A tube or two of Bottlecaps candies

---

Are we sensing a theme here? And I don't even really like ice cream! Maybe it is just the fact that I am trying to avoid sweets this month (ha!). How do people survive without dessert, I ask you?!? The whole thing just makes me feel very very angry at the world.

Not that what I did eat was stellar. It just seems a little hard right now--trying to get everything to work correctly. Having a newborn has thrown me off my groove as far as exercising goes. And it takes considerably longer for me to weigh all of the food I make. 

Alas I guess that is life. Maybe next week I will really motivate/embarrass myself by revealing my weight to the world. 

Confession is good for the soul.

Things That I May Never Understand, Part 1

• those naked girl-devil profile sticker things that men have on their truck back windows
• trucks with lift packages
• women driving huge trucks with lift packages (with weird girl-devil stickers on the windows...)
• packaged iceberg lettuce salads (with the red cabbage shreds)
• large sized bras without underwire
• facebook games
• leggings
• skinny jeans
• Jolly Ranchers and/or Now & Laters
• Lady Gaga
• female rockers (like Pat Benatar...)
• fabric softener
• any ready made "dough" by Pillsbury

to be continued...

Stretchy Pants - Hate Them, Love Them

I am food journaling again...

greeneyeddebonadiet.blogspot.com

And, by jingo, I will fit my clothes again. One day.

NoNo

And the little angel has gone three nights, now, sleeping for 8 hours straight. We love this little sweetie.

Baby Boy Number Four Arrives

Sometime during the first night home I turned to Aaron and told him in tears "we may just have four children..." But sitting here holding this little guy today and seeing the sunshine outside, I bet I could do it again.

We are so glad he is here.

In The Mouth of Babes - A Sunday Pick Me Up

You know, you wonder to yourself when your children are wiggling on the floor and sitting on each other's heads during Family Home Evening and Scripture Study, if they are actually listening. But every once in a while you see glimpses of heaven.

Lately, Hyrum has asked me to sit down and be scribe at the computer as he dictates his "novel." (He is quite interested in writing, reading, and illustrating things as of late.) We have done this the past two Sundays and, though it is somewhat repetitive, I have been humbled by his sweet testimony (and rocking diction...makes an English grad proud!). I wanted to copy it here on the blog to remember it, realizing fully that it reflects far more on the stature of his spirit than the quality of our parenting. Clearly.

Here is the transcript thus far. In typing for him, I have only stopped occasionally to help him choose a different word from say "importantest" to "most important." The body of the text, in its entirety, is his.

The pearl of great

Chapter 1

Believe in God and read the scriptures and the Book of Mormon. The Bible and Book of Mormon teach you what to do. Do the right things to live with Heavenly Father again. The testaments are true. Ponder and pray the things that you must do to live and read the Bible and Book of Mormon with Him.

Chapter 2

The keystone is Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. The little bricks are--one of them is--testimonies. And also one of them is, read scriptures and the Bible, and the Pearl of Great Price, and the Doctrine and Covenants. And another one of them is the Holy Ghost. The articles of faith is one of the bricks too. The keystone is the most important. It is in our life. The keystone is it. 

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

by Hyrum Baker, March 13, 2011

---

Chapter 3

The Church is true. Believe in the Gospel. Have family home evening, and listen to the prophets. Watch Stake Conference, and General Conference. These things are important. This is another testament of Jesus Christ. This book was translated by Hyrum Baker.

Chapter 4

You must read the Book of Mormon and the Bible. These things are the most important. Believe in God. Knowledge of the truth. Listen to the Holy Ghost.

The End 

Chapter 5 - Article of Faith - New Story Index

1. We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.   

2. We believe that man will be punished for their own sins and not for Adam’s transgressions.

3. We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.

Back to the Pearl of Great

Let’s talk about Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith went up to the HIll Cumorah and he found the golden plates, but before he could take them, the Angel Moroni came and told him not to take the golden plates.

Every year for four years. The angel said I’ll teach you in the second year, third year, fourth year. The fourth year he could take the golden plates, but before he could take the golden plates, Joseph Smith knew he had to translate these golden plates. 

Hyrum Baker, March 20, 2011

The End 

Chapter 6

Read Doctrine and Covenants and the Book of Mormon. Do you remember the keystone in this story? Let’s talk about the keystone some more. And the little bricks too.  We will be resurrected in life. In these things, you will read this real testament. Read it every day and every night. This book is the very importantest book of all books. The book will be copied ten pages. The pages are important.

Chapter 7

Doctrine and Covenants has the Articles of Faith. There are some at the top. Did you read them? Yes or no? You are supposed to.

Now we can talk about another story of Joseph Smith. When Joseph Smith told somebody in one place and other people, they laughed at Joseph Smith. The person who he talked to the very first, made him go off his trailer. Joseph Smith wanted to tell more people about it--what he had seen. They laughed at him because they went to a bad church. Joseph Smith had to restore the church, and he did.

Chapter 8

Let’s talk about some of the Book of Mormon. Alma and Amulek were good people. Zeezrom tried to fight them, but Alma was a true prophet and Zeezrom obeyed him and some people got mad at him and took him to the judge and the judge asked him some questions and yelled at them. But they couldn’t trick him. The judge ordered them to be put in prison. 

The End

Tid Bits and a Tad Much

The ultrasound tech gave us an unmistakable (read: not appropriate) snapshot of our new little BOY to be. Wow! I don't think I have ever seen such a clear shot. After sending a few text messages with the ultrasound pic, and getting some hilarious responses from my siblings:

"Wow, he certainly is [a boy]! Wow!"

"Yes. That is either definitely a boy...or a girl with a tumor."

"Wow. It has it's own weather system..."

Aaron asked, in the interest of...well everyone...I stop sharing the centerfold pic.

Hyrum reacted to the news with surprising emotion: "No. We don't need any more brothers..." Ezra was happily content with the idea of a new "brothy" and Asher flat refused to accept the inevitable. Even today, when you ask about his new baby brother he will promptly correct: "No brother. Baby girl!"

To celebrate the news we took the family out for meat and potatoes at the local diner--some "guy" food.

---

Last night, I found a zip lock bag stuffed with size 6 tighty-whiteys stapled shut and hidden in Hyrum's closet. What he was planning to do with it today, I truly have no idea. But come rain or high water...he's prepared!
---

I've gained 18 pounds in the last 8 weeks. That is roughly 2.25 pounds a week. That takes consistent effort in overeating, folks!

So, as a consequence, I decided to be on a "better for me" diet (like 2000 calories emphasizing fruits, veggies, whole grains, and lean proteins, blah, blah, blah). It went pretty well today until breakfast, where I had two bowls of Blueberry Morning cereal with milk. After estimating the calories consumed as, oh somewhere around 1000, I promptly opened the freezer and pounded down as many twinkies as I could muster the courage to do so. So there, you stupid diet!

In other news, despite the burgeoning belly, I am still exercising every morning with my great friend, Ashley. She is looking great. I am looking more and more like Bessy. Moo.

That being said, life is so so good and sweet. Ez and I sat outside yesterday eating ice cream (him) and lemon sherbet (me) just watching people walk by and admiring the clouds. For a moment I felt absolutely giddy with bliss.

I remembered hearing a single friend of mine lamenting "all I want to do is stay home, have babies and make cookies...is that really so hard..." I just laughed because that is precisely what I get to do every day.

Not a bad gig, really.

"If You Can Bake a Cake, You Can Land a Man"

Today is National Chocolate Cake Day.

Who comes up with these ideas, I don't know. But heaven bless them.

Wouldn't the world be a better place if we all took the time today to make a chocolate cake?

Post Script or "Mom, why did you boil the garbage?..."

p.s. Dinner tonight was amazing--Campanelle with Asparagus, Lemon, Carmelized Onions, Pecorino Romano, and Balsamic Reduction. 

Somebody really should come over so I don't have to sit and enjoy it alone while three little boys unite in a cacophony of "YUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NEXT TIME YOU MAKE THIS, DON'T PUT ANYTHING ON IT! YUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Later, they had oatmeal.

So there.

Regrettfully They Tell Us, But Firmly They Compel Us, To Say Goodnight....To You

I was going to blog, but I have nothing to say.

Really, I just want to eat chocolate and watch The Sound of Music with Aaron.

I think I will.

Ezra May Have It

We couldn't tell. Though there were some moments throughout the ultrasound that we thought we saw "boy parts," as the technician called them.

The whole process, and idea of 4 BOYS made me giggle for the rest of the day.

We'll try to see it again in a couple of weeks.