What is happening?

 You know that moment when you want to punch your card, clock out, and get in your car, but instead you are standing inside a chicken coop, in the dark, with 4 children outside, and you get pooped on? Then, you end up exhausted and in the shower trying to get your hair clean while a 5 year old uses your butt cheeks as some kind of water bongos? Yeah, figured I was the only one.

Your Ears, Your Decision.

Olive wanted her ears pierced for her birthday.  Ivey decided that she wanted them pierced, as well.  Ivey, being more sensitive in every way, never liked changing them, as just the idea of sticking that metal through her ear made tears fall.  Unlike Olive, whose ears never had a problem, Ivey's sensitive ears would turn red on occasion, causing us to have to take them out, clean, disinfect, and reinsert.

One night, a few weeks ago, Ivey's ear hurt.  She cried (and was, of course, over the top dramatic about the whole thing).  I took the earrings out.  She looked at me with a very serious look and splotched face and cried that she did not want to put them back in.  She did not want earrings anymore.

For a second, I felt a wave of "but we worked for months to get them to heal!".  It only lasted a second.

I knelt down, looked her in the eye, and made sure she knew I was serious. 

"They are your ears.  It is your decision."

Her expression changed instantly.

"Yes.  It is my decision.  I really do not want earrings anymore.  Ever.  Really."

I gave her a hug and told her that I think it was a good decision, and that it is not good for her ears to hurt so much.  Relieved, she left the room.

A few minutes later, she came back in.

"But, will I still be beautiful?"

Her words took my breath away.

I leaned down again, only this time pulling her even closer and looking into her big blue eyes even more deeply.

"Ivey, nothing could ever change how very beautiful you are."

And, with that, the earring experience and three months of ear care were completely worth it.

Cheesecakes

 Ivey loves to draw & play in the sawdust while Jeff and Randy work.

"I'm making 54 cheesecakes!"

"Stop sweeping up all my cheese!!"

Feeling Super.

Just a glimpse into their day....

September Quotes

 Asa: "Olive, I have a riddle. What is never here, but always coming?"

Olive thinks....

Asa: "Tomorrow. It's always coming, but it's never tomorrow."

Olive: "Oh. I thought it was tractors. They're really slow."

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Took Olive to ballet this morning and had some good one-on-one time, which with Olive means discussing consciousness, souls, and mortality. Because what four year old isn't fascinated by and constantly asking questions regarding metaphysics?

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After inspecting the bags of groceries Jeff brought in, Addison says, "Daddy, how did you survive before Mommy?"

Jeff says, "I lived with a guy named Mark."

_______________________

In the car tonight, Olive was explaining that she can say words that are not nouns... but the sound in the air of them coming out of her mouth is always a noun.

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I'm teaching about timelines, explaining past, present, and future to the girls. We added things to our simple timeline. I asked, "What are something that happened in YOUR past?"

Olive: "When I didn't have eyes yet when I was in your tummy."

In a while, I got to "future". "What are some things that could happen in the future?"

Olive: "We will run out of food and there won't be any stores any more."

______________________

Asa found a good swingin' vine. He says (looking at his watch): " I'm gonna see how long it takes before I hurt myself."

______________________

Olive: "You know what Daddy would think was awesome? A waterproof guitar. We should get him one."

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Ivey wore her SuperGirl costume again today. When were out running errands, and a woman was very impressed by her. She bent down and told her how amazing she was, how much she liked her outfit, and asked what her secret identity was. Ivey pulled down her top to reveal that, underneath her SuperGirl costume she was actually a ballerina.

_______________________

In the past 10 minutes, Ivey has used the phrases, "Thank you for your understanding," "I'm glad you could make it" (to me as I entered the dining room), and informed me that "I think God is making us talk like puppets."

What the heck?

______________________

Ivey: "Olive, you can be the person."

Olive: "But I want to be a hamster."

Ivey: "Then you can be two things. You're a person-hamster."

_______________________

Olive is like teaching Addison all over again... with added stubbornness and stronger opinions.

Today's lesson/battle: Come up with either a subtraction or an addition equation for each story.

Example: "There are 8 crayons all together. 3 are on the table. How many are in the box?"

Me: "Ok, Olive! How would you do this problem? Would you add? Would you subtract? Let's write it out!"

Olive (frowning): It's 5.

Me: "Good... Can you tell me how you know that? What did you do in your head to know how many are in the box?"

Olive: "Nothing. It's just 5 cause I know it's 5."

(slumps in chair and frowns)

... and so on...

Scout Stuff

Not long ago, the boys became old enough for Boy Scouts.  Given that my brother wasn't into that sort of thing, and, well, I'm a girl, I don't know anything about this Boy Scout business.  In the past few months, I have learned that it can get complicated, it can get expensive, but it is such a wonderful thing for my boys to be a part of.

They have already been to summer camp, a canoeing trip, a camping trip, and participated in a Merit Badge Class Day.  My two boys have always been very independent, and it really shows when I drop them off with a sleeping bag and a backpack, and they don't even look back!  Honestly, I haven't blogged about this yet because taking their picture just seems so uncool.  Thankfully, their Scout Master has a camera phone and my email address!

Lava

 Ivey's art of the day.... Wild horses running down a mountain to escape the lava from the volcano. The red one didn't make it and was consumed my lava. Her baby, who was only pink and not red, was burned but survived.

Labor Day Camping Trip