Groundhog Day

Here we are.  A little over a month into our "new" schedule, courtesy of a microscopic devil wreaking havoc across the globe.

It's starting to feel a bit like the movie Groudhog Day, where Bill Murray somehow gets stuck into a realm where he wakes up to the same day every day.  Like a shampoo bottle- lather, rinse, repeat.

In our limited little corner of the world, we're trying our best to keep life exciting.

Here's a recap of the past few weeks:


A few Sundays ago we decided to take a chilly walk around the Wellsville Dam. It was fun to just walk around and be together.

Another desperate attempt at a change of scenery led us over the mountain to Brigham City to the Dairy Queen drive through and then a little stop at the temple. Always a good stop. I love to remind my kids "you're never really lost as long as you can see the temple."  It's strange to see the empty parking lot, but Angel Moroni is still waiting faithfully at the top calling for us so I'm sure that will change.😉

Kenna and Allie decided to repaint the downstairs bathroom. Gosh I love a good paint job. Said no one ever.  Thankfully the girls took over and did a pretty darn good job.  Now they're at an age they go back and read all my blog posts and I frequently get reprimanded for my choice in pictures. Ah, the luxury of being the author.

Jace loves to be outside. He'll take any chance he can get to go out. Who said sleds are strictly for winter? We try to think outside the box. Take note of Kenna's "sugar baby" she made for Aunt Maria's class. Leo got to hitch a ride on the back of the sled too.

What do you get when you cross a trampoline and a rope? This, of course.

The kids LOVE to have Jacob come out and rope them on the trampoline. I like to think it greatly enhances their IQ.

Don't forget the importance of a good game of badminton. In our great inquiries of life, we may or may not have had deep intellectual discussions about what makes it bad......

Seeing as though this social distancing snafoo has occurred over March and April, the weather hasn't always been conducive to going out and letting off steam. Needless to say we have been utilizing the BYU TV app on the Roku. We've caught up on 2 seasons of Relative Race and a whole slew of episodes of Random Acts. I love that my kids enjoy those shows and will turn to some uplifting stuff to help pass the time.

Not gonna lie, even though I knew it was coming I had to let out a big sigh when I heard school was cancelled through the rest of the school year. I have moments of feeling really weary and overwhelmed at trying to constantly meet the needs of 5 kids, but I'm trying to gird up my loins and fresh courage take. Granted sometimes my courage is feeling more on the rotted side, but it all seems to come around. It doesn't help that banking has exploded and Jacob is absolutely buried at work with loans for the stimulus money from the government. 12 hour bank days are going to be the norm for a while. 

Guess for now we'll just keep taking it one sunny day and one episode of Random Acts at a time. This too shall pass.

General Conference

The beginning of April brings the anticipation of General Conference, and this was one we especially looked forward to. President Nelson was right, this was a Conference like no other! For our Come, Follow Me lessons the week leading up to Conference, we spent our time studying the different aspects of the Restoration.

All of General Conference was so beautiful.  It's like drinking from a fire hose- there is so much all at once. Not to mention Conference with 5 kids isn't lacking in interruptions despite our best efforts. Hopefully over the next little while I can take it in little bits at a time.

I'm realizing as a mom that I am really limited in how much I can really teach my children. All I have to offer is opportunities for learning, then allow the Spirit to take over to really sink it deep into their hearts. I love the initiative to "Hear Him." I feel like I have had such awesome experiences for learning and growth lately and I so hope my kids can experience the same and have those moments.  Sometimes I feel I have just a measly little sardine and a saltine cracker to offer. It's then I have to hope and pray the Lord is able to turn it into an incredible feast of learning for my kids. By the time it comes from my heart, out my mouth then across the room, it seems to really fizzle. I suppose that job is to be left up to the Spirit so I'll give Him room to do His work and pray that my kids will really come to know.

One of our Conference traditions is setting up our King Benjamin-style fort. The kids are the ones who initiate this and love doing it every time. Jace is learning the ropes.

The couch is also prime real estate for General Conference viewing.

General Conference for youngsters is a BIG undertaking. It's easy to get lost in big words and ideas and lose interest. Thankfully the internet offers tons of printable options. Our Conference packet this spring included fun little Restoration-themed activities which helps keep them somewhat focused. What really gets their attention though is our treat bucket. We have 4 buckets filled with treats, and each bucket has it's own word the kids have to listen for.  During the session they have to listen and keep a tally of how many times they hear that specific word. At the end of the session they get to count out treats. It's always a big hit! Surprising how well they listen when sugar is involved! And of course I missed out on a picture.

I will forever remember the scene in our living room as we all stood waving our white handkerchiefs to participate in the Hosanna shout. What an incredible and humbling experience to be part of that Solemn Assembly and hear the new proclamation. This is another one of those times where I feel like my words fall so short in helping my kids understand just how remarkable and special this was. Once again, I leave it up to the Spirit and hope that in time it is something they will appreciate and treasure.

Don't Forget Jace!

I started to add some of the antics of Jace in the last post, but it was getting too big so I decided to make a new one for him. Ya ya ya, I hear it all the time- "Jace gets all the attention!"

But I really do need to write about the story of our little Jace and his first 10 months. I could probably write pages and pages, but for now I'll start with the present and try to work back. Hopefully before he graduates high school....

But for now this little guy is not slowing down! Walking is his new favorite skill and he loves to practice. Getting a good picture of him has proven difficult too, he's always moving! I don't think any of the other kids could walk by the time they were 10 months. H.O.L.Y C.O.W!! No prob. I'm just weeks away from turning 40. I've got all the energy in the world.

He's following in Ty's footsteps and LOVES balls. One of his newest favorite activities is picking up and chasing the basketballs.

 Apparently first attempting to chew on the ball is necessary....

Oh wait, Jace pretty much loves to chew on EVERYTHING. I have never seen a baby who loves to chew like he does. He'll find anything on the floor to put in his mouth- keeps me a nervous wreck. We just can't keep it clean enough for this little magician who seems to make things materialize out of thin air. The kitchen rug? Of course, why not? I even pulled some of the rubber backing from the rug out of his mouth the other day. Um, EW?!

The other day Ty was trying to get a wrapper out of his mouth, and Jace bit down HARD. Ty ended up in tears with blood trickling out of his finger. Later that day, Jace managed to get right under my feet in the kitchen and I accidentally stepped on his fingers. Poor little Jace was crying, but from the other end of the counter Ty muttered under his breath, "serves you right you little jerk." This ended up being really funny because it is so uncharacteristic of Ty. He loves Jace and is really good to him.

Of course all this chewing makes sense seeing as though Jace hasn't had much of a break from teething. They seem to come one at a time, one right after another. Ya, super fun. Insert sarcasm. This hasn't helped his sleeping habits either. Yow. I have finally had to pull out my tough love card and make him cry on his own for a while. I just can't wake up multiple times a night anymore. It's not good for me OR him. The past few nights he's just had to start to figure it out on is own. I'm starting to see a bit of an improvement, so hopefully it just keeps getting better. It probably doesn't help that he has 6 of us who give him lots of love and attention throughout the day.

His siblings sure love him, and I love to sit back and watch it. Last Sunday we needed to get out of the house for a bit, so we rode over to Plymouth to help Benson feed the cows. We brought the stroller, but there was a wind that kept it just a bit too cold outside. So Jace kept Kenna company in the back seat while we waited.

Apparently he's a whiz on the computer too:

Thanks for keeping us going J Bear!

Social Distancing

I think I need to apologize to the world.

I'm afraid this whole coronivirus deal just might be my fault.

You see, for a while in my efforts at trying to improve my parenting skills (emphasis on try- I can at least hope for participation points), I've been praying for help with developing a few of the attributes of charity: namely patience and long-suffering. Well guess what? If I ever I had an opportunity to practice said attributes, it's NOW.

Yes, now. Now that in a matter of days the whole world went topsy turvy and I am suddenly taking on the role of 24/7 everything-you-could-possibly-think-of-with-limited-access-to-sanity-mom. Pretty much I have found myself on the front lines of a battle ground requiring a high degree of patience and long suffering. 

So you see, I really apologize that my efforts at self improvement have pretty much brought the rest of the world down with me!! Moral of the story: be careful what you pray for.

But then again, maybe I should say watch carefully for the blessings that come as a result for what you pray for. I have to say that in spite of all the chaos, the Lord is most definitely providing moments of respite even while the storms rage around us. And oh the storms most definitely rage when all of us are cooped up together day after day with only so much square footage to diffuse the chaos. But I am finding that He is making me much more capable than I thought I was. Note to self: remember this in 10 minutes when it all falls apart....

First item of business in finding our new norm was creating a schedule. I can't say setting up and following a structured schedule has ever been a strength of mine, but we've done some tweaking to find what fits for us. There's often something that puts a wrinkle in the schedule, but for the most part it's definitely helping out. The kids know what to expect and it helps keep us on track. Considering I have 5 dependents all day every day and am often up a few times a night with a baby who is still figuring out how to sleep well, I am not starting our day at 7 am. My hat’s off to anyone who can.

The problem with a schedule is it looks so nice and neat on paper. If only the execution of a schedule was so nice and neat.....

Mornings are definitely the best time for school work. By the time the afternoon rolls around, it's hard to keep the wheels moving. Behold, the Israelsen Elementary/Middle School. Minus Lexi who takes turns with Ty on our home computer and Jace who just roams the premises (nap time is GREAT). THANKFULLY we were able to borrow Chromebooks from the Elementary school and South Cache. Only one per family per school, but without them it would be really difficult.

It's pretty amazing how everything can be accessed online. Even before "homeschool," I have loved utilizing an app on my phone where I can access all my kids' classes and info, especially my 2 middle schoolers. I can see attendance, assignments due, assignments missing, grades, etc. I even get little alerts. Love it. Now with doing it all at home, the girls hop online and pretty much work their way through the system by themselves. I can still look on my app to make sure everything is getting done, but I'm sure proud of how well they are staying on top of work that needs to be done without me nagging or micromanaging. If they need help they ask, but are great to keep themselves on task. Even Ty and Lexi have gotten really good at navigating their websites on their own. I have been really impressed with all the work their teachers are doing as well. Considering the monumental task, it is fairly well organized. Hence I use the term "homeschool" loosely. Thankfully I don't have to prep any content. My poor kids would definitely be deficient if I had to do all the lesson plans! Perhaps I should be grateful for the opportunity to keep up with my math and writing skills? There is something vaguely familiar about the Pythagorean theorem. I think I maybe did learn that once....

Seeing as though we can only do so much school in one day, we're trying to find out other things to keep us busy. We've been painting:

We're getting in a little crafting too. They all made their own version of Forky from Toy Story 4. Lexi made her own disposable utensil family. She is also sporting some amazing face art that is only half left:

Don't forget sometimes you just gotta dance:

Of course one of the first items of business as soon as spring started to make an appearance was setting up the trampoline. I don't have a picture yet, which is odd because they spend a good part of their free time outside playing on the tramp. Ty and Lexi were out in their coats jumping in the hail the other day! 

Overall we're figuring out our new norm and how to make it work. We have good moments and pull-your-hair-out moments every day, but overall I think we all are going to learn some amazing lessons from this experience. 

Our new motto is COVID: Calling On Very Inspired Direction. We are trying hard to remember that Heavenly Father is over all. There is great peace in knowing He has a plan and this is part of it. In spite of a lot of trepidation in the world, great things can come of it. We have a great opportunity to come to Him and trust in Him completely, and I just keep praying and hoping that is one of the greatest lessons my kids can gain from this. Me as well.

Patience and long-suffering, patience and long-suffering, patience and long-suffering. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.

The Dog Experience

Hmmm. Interesting. Here I am sitting in front of a fresh blog post again. After a brief hiatus. Lapse. Apparently chasm is a synonym as well.  That's a good one.  It sounds like chaos. That just sounds so fitting for these here parts!

Regardless of what I call this great blog deficit, I just can't ignore the many (many, many) recurring thoughts (promptings) of things I know I need to write down before they are forever lost in time.

Prime example was a little experience we had today.

This morning the kiddos and I headed up to Ammon, Idaho to hear my oldest nephew speak in Sacrament before he heads down to Sao Paulo Brazil on his mission. Jacob needed to stay home for Bishopric duties so I was in the driver seat. Just me and the chaos.

We started the trip with our usual prayer then off we went.

Ugh.

I just remembered.

It was daylight savings too.

SPRING FORWARD. Lose an hour of sleep. It's not the most wonderful time of the year. I much prefer to fall back. So sorry you lovers of spring daylight savings, I don't share in your delight.

Anyhow. Back to the task at hand.

We were on a stretch through Petersboro and heading up a hill when I looked down at my speedometer and realized I was cruising along pretty fast. I had a simple thought come in my mind, "you have plenty of time, you really should slow down." So I adjusted my cruise control and took it down a few notches.

Not one minute after this, we came over the hill and onto a straightaway where a big, fat, black collie mix wandered out into the road in front of me. I had to brake fairly fast to avoid hitting it, then cringed and tried to look away as it headed toward the truck in the other lane. Thankfully the dog made it to the other side of the road and all was well. Whew!

About a minute after my heart slowed down a bit, it just hit me: I had the thought to slow down which gave me just enough distance to prevent a disaster. It hit me so quickly that I grasped the steering wheel and shouted out, "Oh my heck, that's so cool!" As quickly as I shouted it out and let it sink in, I was overcome with tears. My kids were wondering what in the world was going on! I finally got it together enough to tell them about the thought I had. They were able to put two and two together and we just kind of sat there in a beautiful silence for a minute. We had a great little discussion on the power of prayer and following the Spirit.

About 5 miles down the road as my mind was still going over what had happened and I was offering a huge prayer of gratitude, I had another thought come. (I'm slow, I admit, but I was pretty fresh on the lesson of thoughts need to be followed through with!) This thought led me to Lehi and his family. When the Lord had watched over them and helped them, they took the time to offer prayers and sacrifices specifically in gratitude. So, we had a little discussion about that and Ty offered us a prayer of thanks for the great blessing we had received.

We made it safely (and in plenty of time!) to Idaho. After a great Sacrament meeting and a nice meal with family, we started to work our way back home.

As I drove I got thinking again about our little happening. Who knows what would have happened? Would it have just injured the dog? Would the dog have been killed? Would it have traumatized the kids? (I'm a tender heart when it comes to animals, it would traumatize me!) Would it have thrown us off course and ended up in a crash? I really don't know.

One of the coolest things about these experiences is that the Lord uses them to continually teach us little by little. As I kept thinking about it, I had a new thought enter my mind. If the Lord is aware of me enough to simply tell me to slow down and not hit a dog, then He most certainly is aware of pretty much everything. In that moment the Lord was telling me that He knows and He's there. This time it worked out. But there are times when it doesn't- at least not how we want it to. Times when despite all our prayers and offerings, we still "crash." Times when I feel like I'm really struggling. Times when I feel like things aren't working out the way I want or think they should. All times. He is aware. He is there. Thankfully, this time we stayed safely on the course. But even in times when it's not going how I want, He is still very much guiding and directing me and in actuality it really is working out the way it's supposed to. This is something I need to know and remember.

So many lessons I learned and relearned today:

Prayer is so important. Yep, those simple Primary lessons once again that just get deeper over time.

Listen to those "thoughts."

Keep listening to those "thoughts."

Heavenly Father will always be there. Even if it's about a dog. Even if it's hard. Even if it seems dark. Even if I don't feel like I'm getting any of the "thoughts" I want to get.

I'm so grateful the Lord is so incredibly patient with me. I'm a slow learner, but He's willing to wait.

Casualties of Childhood

Ty and a little buddy of his were enjoying some spring weather out in our backyard playing some baseball.  I just knew we should have had the yearly discussion on batting the ball away from the house.  I didn't follow that thought and we ended up with this:

It's hard to see, but if you look close you can see the glass shards decorating the bottom of my bedroom window.  Fortunately it was a tennis ball and only went through the outside pane of the window, and the screen on the outside kept the glass from going everywhere.  There's looking on the bright side, huh?! 

Granted, I'm really not at all thrilled about paying to fix this little fiasco, but the looks on their faces were really priceless! I was in my room when it happened, so jumped right up to look out the window.  Oh how I wish I had my camera right at that instant to catch their reaction!  It was a combined look of bewilderment, shock, and horror.  They came rushing in to the house to find out if they were going to be beaten to a bloody pulp.  Freaking out was really useless.  The damage was done and I could see they were definitely not going to try that little stunt again, so I sent them back out again- this time clear out to the field, far away from windows.

The best part was about 20 minutes later when Ty came running in to ask if his friend had to pay for it since he was the one at bat who sent it flying into the window.  Ha!  I assured him that no, it was an accident, his friend didn't have to pay for it.  We'll take that hit.  Dangit. 

The Little Mermaid, Jr.

I just simply can't go another blog minute without doing a post about the musical!  Allie, Ty, and Lexi had a successful run of The Little Mermaid, Jr in March.

Lexi made her musical debut as a Poor Unfortunate Soul.  Pretty darn cute little group of poor souls!

At the end of the play when Urusula meets her impending doom, the poor souls are finally freed from captivity and emerge as beautiful mermaids. What 5 and 6 year old doesn't absolutely love that?!

I helped backstage at the Friday night and Saturday afternoon performances, so Jacob, Kenna, and I came to watch the Saturday night show.  While on stage in the spotlight, Lexi apparently seemed to not notice the crowd of a few hundred watching as she very emphatically extracted what must have been some very annoying nasal mucus that just had to come out right then and there.  Ya, pretty much she dug her finger up her nose.  Apparently it was in deep too, she was digging for quite some time.  Being the stoic parents that we are, Jacob and I both doubled over with the giggles.  Seriously there was nothing else to be done.  Two choices here: a) hide in horror and disown said child   -or-   b) laugh hysterically.  We chose the latter.

Ty was a very handsome sailor.  Ahoy Cap'n! (he's on the floor in the middle):

Allie made her debut as a seagull.  When they were doing group pictures I somehow managed to not get a close-up of the seagulls, dangit.  They were so cute though!  The costumes were simple but so creative and darling! (Allie is the top gull):

Here's the full cast.  They have some very dedicated parents who put these shows on and do a fabulous job. Such a great experience for elementary age kids.  I would have absolutely loved something like this as a kid!

We especially loved having some VIP's come see the show:

Of course every great performer needs a congrats gift of sugar:

Lexi is already asking when the next play is, and Ty and Allie are undecided on doing it again next year.  Guess we'll see.  Their musical-loving mama was sure proud!