Historic Nauvoo

We recently took a weekend trip with friends to Historic Nauvoo, a recreation of the 1840s when Mormon Pioneers lived there prior to heading to Salt Lake City. People dressed like pioneers demonstrate how to make bricks, ropes, candles, horseshoes, baked goods of that era, etc. Everything is free, so it's great! We enjoyed riding on a horse-drawn carriage ride, being pulled by oxen, attending many free plays or fun musical performances, and walking down the trail where the pioneers first left Nauvoo and crossed the frozen Mississippi in February of 1846. My favorite part was visiting the Nauvoo Temple. Its beautiful murals and old-style woodwork are breathtaking! Here are some more photos from our visit.

Watching them yoke up the oxen for the "Ox Ride"

Silas and our friend, Guy (left) got to help yoke the oxen.

Everyone takes a turn petting the oxen.

Old-time games at the Pioneer Fair.
Mystery Man and Azael are doing potato sack races.

Ephraim joins in.

A tug-o-war: MM is in the white t-shirt. Silas is to his left.
Just after the photo I joined in and our team won, thanks to my amazing brawn. :)

I love going to Nauvoo (this was my 6th time). Why do I love it so much? The website says it all:
Historic Nauvoo is a place for making connections.
To the past. To those you love. To yourself.

It's Always fun When Grandma Comes

Grandma (my Mom) visited last week. Everyone loves Grandma! When she arrives, ALL the kids get this silly grin on their faces, almost bursting from the excitement. Grandma gives them all a stick of gum, rubs their backs, talks to them all about what they're doing for fun, plays games, buys treats, and more!

I'm sure the kids think, "Finally, someone who has all the time in the world to play with us, someone who buys us great food, and of course, gotta love all the great back scratching!"
And I love her visits, too. In addition to all the excitement she creates for the kids, I find myself thinking, "Yay! Perhaps she can watch the kids so I can work on decorating the bathroom, catch up my business to-do list, and do some shopping all by myself!"

Grandma & Lorelai

Silas gets a tickle

Come again soon, Grandma! And bring Grandpa next time (We have some great golf in the area...)


*Confused about the dark-haired kid in the top picture? No, not ours. He's a friend of Azael's. And apparently he also liked Grandma since he kept posing in the photos I was taking. :)

Itch, Scratch, Pick

We live in the woods.

And with that comes MOSQUITOES!

AND it has been VERY wet this year.

So we seem to breathe MOSQUITOES!

Lorelai has been maiming herself as a result of those pesky little blood suckers:

In an effort to stop her from itching, scratching, and picking, we covered every bite with bandaids (Strawberry Shortcake bandaids, of course). Lorelai was plastered with so many bandaids that people assumed she had just put them on as a fashion statement.

I wish.

Currently we're down to 2 bandaids, both on the face. We can't remove them because each time we do, she reopens the wounds.

If only she could know how much her 16-year-old self will regret the scars created by her 3-year-old self's secret scratch parties each night at bedtime...

In the meantime, we don't allow her in our yard. It's too dangerous. (You'd be surprised to know, our mosquitoes are SO BAD that Lorelai got all these bites WITH bug repellant on. Deep Woods Off, actually. )

So we'll just keep hanging out at the pool. Who needs a beautiful forest in their backyard, anyway?

Photo Art: The Boyz

Big Baby Jane

Jane is growing up.

Fast.

I've tried to slow down and take lots of time to hug, squeeze, kiss and cuddle my sweet Baby Jane.

I love to nibble on her thighs, blow on her belly, kiss her neck - all of these make her laugh hysterically. I love watching all the other kids take turns getting her to laugh as they play peek-a-boo or just make weird sounds that Jane seems to find funny.

When I was pregnant with Jane, my main impression was that she was a girl and that she had a "sweet spirit." What is a sweet spirit, anyway? Whatever it means, it must be true. Whenever we're out in public, a shocking number of people walk by and suddenly exclaim, "OH! She is SO SWEET!" Interesting choice of words. And this degree of attention has never been showered on any of my other babies. It's fun.

We all love Jane!

Jane & I

(the boys say this is "Dude Jane" because she's wearing a "Dude Hat")

Silas coaching Jane on her crawling.

Jane's concentrated tongue-action, which apparently helps her crawl.

More tongue-powered concentration. Yay Jane!
Jane loves Kix cereal.
Jane Annabel Eden and her friend Flora Jane

Deciding to get pregnant with #5 was a scary thing to do, but it felt right. Now, in retrospect, we are SO GLAD we had her! Every child in our family has added so much love, energy, and fun. We feel very blessed!

Parenting Circus

Tonight I'm feeling a lot of discouragement about parenting.

Prior to this evening, this day seemed like a pretty good parenting day. We went school shopping. We spent time at the library. We went to the pool. We ate spaghetti.

I only lost my temper for 30 seconds at the store (while all 5 kids were performing the equivalent of circus tricks in the middle of the aisle while a couple of other calmer families just stared at us with a shocked expression).

Oh, and Mystery Man is out of town, so it was a doubly great accomplishment, given that I have been a single parent.

Imagine my surprise and sadness when one child decided to unload all his negative feelings during a pre-bedtime chat: "Mom, I really don't think I want to live with you in Heaven. I think I'd prefer to hang out with my friends....I don't really like being around you because you make us do too much work and you always punish us even when we don't do anything that bad."

Oh.

My initial response: "Well, I really love you and I definitely want to spend all the time I can around you."

Then he complained some more about all the work I "force" him to do.

My secondary response (and it probably wasn't the best response): "Fine. If you don't want to do work around the house, don't. But please know that I am under no obligation to do things for you. It would be difficult to go to Noah's Ark Waterpark, for example, if our house is a complete mess. I'd just have to stay home and clean instead. And tomorrow when it's time to go to the pool, I'd probably have to stay home and wash the dishes all of you kids leave all over the kitchen instead of swimming. If you can't help do the work, then we can't go have fun."

I just feel very unappreciated (by that child in particular-and, yes, this is the classic mother's sob story). Perhaps the best solution is to completely stop doing things for him for a while. No more ordering library books. No more playdates. No more tennis, swimming, trips, purchases, etc. I want to make him earn them. I want him to be humble and grateful. It made me sad to think of all the time and energy I expend to help, bless, and make him happy - and then to be told I’m basically worthless, that nothing I do matters to him.

Ouch. I feel really sad about that.

What to do.

I will sleep now. And pray a lot in the morning.

And I know one thing. I will never stop trying. And I will NEVER stop loving.

I love you, buddy. Even if you can't see it. I REALLY DO LOVE YOU! I hope that one day - perhaps when you're a parent- you'll realize I did my best. I hope you'll be able to look back and know my primary goal in life was to be a great Mom: one who helped you to be happy, who loved you and respected your unique talents, and one who took the time to help you learn all the skills you'd need to lead a fulfilling life (kindness, generosity, responsibility, honesty, etc).

Life is a highway.

And a circle.

And a circus*. Step right up...





*don't expect me to grow a beard...We already have one of the best freak shows around. Just ask Mystery Man. Or my Mom.

Science & Scenic Sites

We visited the a great science museum before dropping Aunt Joni off at the airport. They had a model deep diving ocean lab submarine. Azael, Ephraim, and Silas spent a long time in here. There was even a periscope going from the sub up to the top of the building so you could see what was going on outside. You could turn it in a complete 360 degree circle and check out the scene in the parking lot, at the pier, etc. So fun!

The museum had a full-sized replica of a ship that sank over a century ago.

Silas took us for a spin.

Lorelai pulls herself up on a chair using a complex (but cool) pully system.

The aquarium with freshwater fish

Ephraim rests on a REAL bed of nails.

Azael takes a turn, too. Silas wouldn't do it.

Posing outside... the weather was BEAUTIFUL!

So, everyone reading this is officially invited to come visit. Fun adventures await...

More Fun with Auntie J

On Wednesday we travelled to the Wisconsin Dells for a tour of the ACTUAL Dells (not the commercial stuff). We did the Upper Dells Boat Tour. It was GORGEOUS! I would definitely encourage everyone to go... beautiful, undeveloped. It was like being an explorer. You couldn't see much of anything except nature.

Waiting for the boat.

On the boat.

Relaxing...

In the Witches Gulch (and it WAS haunted)
Sooo pretty!

Fun with Aunt Joni

My Aunt Joni came to visit this past week. We drove to a nearby city to pick her up at the airport, then stopped to visit the children's museum.

Each child wanted to pose by the first letter of his or her name....

Lorelai saw a yoga display and knew just what a tree pose looks like.

We all enjoyed checking out the pier outside.

Having fun with Aunt Joni.

Mom and the gang (minus Jane)

The boys

Everyone with Aunt Joni

The children's museum and pier were only the beginning of our fun... more pics to come.

Camp Invention

Ephraim and Azael just completed a weeklong day camp called Camp Invention. They absolutely LOVED it! Azael doesn't get too excited about many things, but one day after I picked them up, he said, "Today was the best day EVER!" They got to take apart electronic items and create their own invention, make working robots, design sports equipment which they made and used, built a new world economy for a virtual world called Hatched, and so on. Azael was a member of the "red team" and Ephraim was on the "blue team" (the teams are basically age groups). Camp Invention runs from first through fifth grades. They would like to go again next year. And Ephraim is already planning way ahead to the day he can be a camp counselor.

Working on the math module. It is crazy hair day. Ephraim is in the red shirt with blue hair.

Ephraim designing his robot. He used styrofoam and golf tees for the legs. He connected a toothpick to the engine, so basically his "animal" went around in circles. But he was happy with it. The counselors let the kids design things all by themselves.

Azael and some teammates doing something with duck tape. This is crazy hat day.

Azael wore three hats!
Azael is taking apart his "take apart item." He decided to turn it into a Homework Machine. It was great to hear him talk about it. He got in the van on Tuesday and said, "Mom, I am making a Homework Machine. And it REALLY works! It will spit out all the homework using this little scanner and the homework will all be done!" I was happy to see he still uses his imagination, even though he's getting older.

Azael and some teammates discussing their plan (problem solving and teammwork was a huge part of the week)

Ephraim and a fellow teammate posing with the store they made for their Hatched economy.

Ephraim with a blue team counselor.

Azael with a red team counselor.