Whew.

Five days.  Only five days since the boys came home, Naomi came to stay, and I last posted.

Feels like a month.  Or more.

This is my life - one dad juggling jobs, one mom juggling kids, three boys running on an adrenaline high from four flights (a big deal to those of us who aren't used to jet-setting around) and three days at Disney theme parks (pics coming soon), trying to get caught up on schoolwork and lawn-mowing jobs and laundry, and a 10-month old baby who can crawl now (hello! mobile!) who came and stayed for five days.

Good thing she's so cute :D

Also a good thing I had such good helpers.  Gunnar is my number-one assistant with the baby, while the older boys picked up the slack in many other ways.

Gunnar just cannot get enough of the baby.  I tell him that God is preparing him to be a very good daddy someday.  He does just about everything but change poopy diapers, (clearly he still has some ground to cover,) but in the mean time...

He feeds the baby.

reads her stories in the morning, (so I can take a shower!)

entertains the baby (if you can't tell from the picture, let me assure you that she was enjoying this),

and obligingly props her up for pictures, even when she's much more interested in the shoes I dug out of the boys' old stuff, than in having her picture taken.

And - yes - I know that babies don't need shoes.

But this baby has a habit of pulling off her socks and either dropping them (somewhere?)

or chewing on them until they're soggy pulp,

so shoes keep her socks on, her feet warm, and - bonus! - she's cute ;D

Gunnar also pushed the stroller, which she loved.

Sometimes it's hard to tell (in the pictures) if she's screaming or laughing.

Especially when she wrinkles her nose up and makes funny breathing noises.

We call it "Herbie Face".  But that's an inside joke in our family.

Anyway, she was being silly not angry. :D

And very intrigued by...

sheep!  Which Gunnar lured right over in front of her with fresh grass.

Because, you know,

the grass is always greener...

She spent a lot of time in the bath, because she loves it so much.  And I hoped the warm, steamy air would help clear up the crud in her lungs.  She has a mucky cough.

And, yet another towel picture :D

(For comparison, look here.)

I think I love that picture so much because her hair is out of her eyes :D

She got to have some time with Grandma...

and Grandpa :D

(If you're curious about his shirt, it says,

I just neutered the cat.

Now he's a liberal.)

Naomi spent a lot of time at the bottom of the stairs, because all the Cool Kids kept going up them!

She can crawl, but she hasn't figured out the stairs yet.  I briefly considered helping her learn, and then counted my blessings that she hadn't mastered that little skill yet.

She heard Gunnar's voice and was waiting for him...

... to come down and play some more.

Wyatt snapped off the bottom of her sippy cup and helped her express her Viking heritage when we had dinner at my folks' house.

She loves to play peek-a-boo,

and put Every Single Thing into her mouth.

Which means a lot of washing up, because she's sick.

I think we went through a box and a half of tissues, because her little nose is always running,

and her little cheeks are always chapped, and her lungs are always full of crud.

Good thing she's so cute and snuggly!

And you know what one of the unexpected benefits of having her stay was?

The older boys realizing and commenting on how much work it is to take care of a baby.

Yah, that's right, boys.

Hang onto that thought for later.

There's a good reason God designed parenting to happen in a marriage!

And that explains the lack of posting around here.

All is well, we're just trying to get caught up.

On pretty much everything.

You?

Planning Frenzy Brain Dump

1.  That's my story.  The boys have been gone all week and I've been charting out our next school year, and

OH MY WORD

it's gonna be a doozy!  Especially for Wyatt.  That boy is going to work next year, like he's never worked before.

2.  Back when I was in school we called the tough classes solids.  Don't ask me why.  It's not like the other ones are liquids.  Or gases.  I don't remember what we called them  (I know, be still my heart, you're hanging on every word, aren't you?)  At any rate, Wyatt is going to have a load of solids.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that he's decided to double up on math next year, at the high school.  Yay, Wyatt.  I'm glad he's motivated.  And really, he hasn't had too much math homework this year, which bodes well for next year, because he's taking his second year of Algebra simultaneously with geometry.  (Better him than me.)  He'll also have English and second year Spanish at the high school.  Then he gets to come home and do Chemistry (and let me tell you, Apologia's Chemistry is no walk in the park), and a half-year split of economics and US Government.

Yah.  Pray for him.  If he makes it through all that, Running Start will be a breeze.  (That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

3.  Tate and Gunnar... well, they'll be busy too, but it's just a little step up from this year.  Nothing to shock their systems.

4.  Homeschooling just keeps changing.  One look at my bookshelves and closets convinced me that IT'S TIME.  Time to participate as a seller at the annual homeschool recycle sale.  I'm cleaning out a lot of the little-kid stuff we're done with.  Though it's a little sad, you know?  Life was a lot simpler when studying history meant cutting out and assembling a cardboard model of a Viking longboat :D  Now we're doing a lot more reading.

And scheduling?  Well, when the boys were little(r) we could kind of fly by the seat of our pants a lot more, but as they've gotten older our days and weeks (and years!) have had more structure to them.  Oh, we still have the flexibility of taking a week off for Disneyland :D, but I'm mapping the course a lot more specifically than I used to.

The biggest chore has been planning Gunnar's science for next year.  By his choice, we've done three of the primary Apologia courses in a row (Biology - Flying Creatures, Swimming Creatures, and Land Animals) and he has loved it.  LOVED it.  But I - if not Gunnar - could use a change.  

He has his heart set on Chemistry.  And I have my heart set on not buying any new curriculum, so we're improvising.  Somebody asked me what I'm going to do for his year of Chemistry, which will take a while to explain, so I think I'll put it in a separate post.  Okay?  Great.

5.  The house is quiet.  Very quiet.  You know what happens when three active boys are gone all week?  Well, for one thing, I haven't done much laundry.  And Kerry and I have actually eaten out three times.  That's more than we usually eat out in a month.  We've watched some movies together, and - for extra fun! - mowed the lawn at the church, since the boys weren't here to do it.  

And thank you very much, genius boys, for leaving the new weed-whacker completely empty of string.  (Which we didn't notice until we were all the way out at the chapel.)  I guess you'll just have some extra weed-whacking to do next week.  Grrrrr.

6.  This quiet house is about to get a lot noisier.  Not only are the boys coming home this evening, we're also acquiring an extra for a few days.  My brother is bringing Naomi up to stay :D  Oh boy is Gunnar going to be surprised!  (And since she sleeps in the room with the computer, don't expect any updates for awhile.)

7.  So that's the news around the Grasshopper house :D  And what's new with you?

Aaaaaand, they're off!

Grasshopper Days

Grasshopper Days

For today, May 13, 2013

Outside my window...  clouds, heavy with rain.  Everything got a good watering yesterday.  (I told you May was a tease ;D )

Hearing...  a quiet house.  Wyatt is at school this morning, but the boys have the week off of homeschool, so Tate and Gunnar are probably melting their brains in front of a screen somewhere.

Pondering...  priorities for the next few days :D

Praying...  for safety and FUN for the boys and my parents!

Thankful...  for a wonderful Mothers' Day yesterday with my family.

Wearing...  jeans, white t-shirt, slippers - it's cool again.  (The weather, not my attire.  Though jeans and a white t-shirt are classic, right?  Help me out here, I'm fashion-challenged!)

Creating...  more plans than I'll have time to accomplish, undoubtedly.  *sigh*

Going...  to pick up Wyatt (in about an hour) and help the boys pack.

Reading...  just finished Fannie Flag's Standing in the Rainbow - a fun read.

Looking forward to...  all the fun the boys will have!

In the kitchen...  hmmm, must think of something they love for their last night at home.  Probably some kind of chicken.

In the learning rooms...  *crickets*  We're taking the week off of homeschool.  Wyatt still has to go to school today and tomorrow morning, but we'll be picking him up at the HS tomorrow and going straight to the airport.

Around the house...  mostly picked up from Mother's Day, but still some dishes to put away, and helium balloons floating around.  Along with the three mothers present, we celebrated my niece/cousin's 11th birthday - fun!

The Mother Load...  oh boy, I have big plans for the next few days involving my
* Bible Study (Proverbs)
* Sunday school lesson (wrapping up Ephesians)
* Wyatt's paperwork for flight encampment
* sorting things to sell
* simple school prep for the next four weeks
* more in-depth planning for the next YEAR
* and I'm sure there's more...

Noticing that...  you should see the PILE of (mostly homeschool) stuff I'm hoping to sell at the homeschool recycle sale next month.  Yah.

Something to remember for later...  Gunnar and his teeth!  He leaves them until they're sort of dangling (being pushed out by the teeth coming in beneath them) and then works and works and works to get them out.  (I think he's a little bit afraid it will hurt.)  But he got another molar out last night and was quite proud of himself.

Something fun to share...  on our walks, Gunnar and I are enjoying how everything is greening up.  I mean, this is the Evergreen state, and - yes - it's green all year.  But it's a different green.  From November to March or April everything is sort of dark green and brown.  Drab.  But almost overnight - BING! - everything is fresh and green and growing.  You've never seen so much chlorophyll ;D

With little pops of vibrant color - like this salmonberry blossom.

A favorite quote for today...  

Giving money and power to government is like

giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

P. J. O'Rourke

One of my favorite things...  Lindor milk chocolates.

A Bible verse... 

Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, 

but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.  

Proverbs 31:30

A few plans for the rest of the week...

May Is Such A Tease

May is such a tease, here in the PNW (Pacific northwest, y'know.)  We'll get a couple of weeks, maybe even a whole month of warm, sunny weather.  People go nuts.  A little too nuts.  (Attention, tweeny shopper in Kohl's last week:  the fact that the thermometer rose above 70F does not qualify this as BIKINI weather.  Please put on the shirt your mom keeps handing you.)

The warm weather does mean that everything with chlorophyll is putting on a show.  Like my pink dogwood.  What a change just a couple of days makes!

See my sun chair, on the little patio?  Yes.  That's where I go to get my daily dose of Vitamin D, with a side of peace and quiet.  And if the breeze is blowing, even a little...

... see my neighbor's white lilac?  I can sit in my chair with the aroma of lilac wafting over me.  Bliss :D

I have my own lilac...

... still in recovery from when we excavated to level our driveway.  It just started blooming again last year, so I don't dare pick any yet, but it's coming along.  And it's a double lilac, see?

It's over by the ugly side of the garage, next to the mystery tree.  I don't know what it is, but it sure leafs out a lot later than everything else.

It's worth it, though, because in the fall, it's gorgeous :D

But back to spring.

This is one of my favorite sights, 

laundry on the line.  

Gramma Grasshopper would be proud - I bought the boys new socks today.  Because, yes, we are those geeky homeschoolers your mother warned you about.  Absolute fashion disasters.  The boys have not internalized The Rule about socks, yet.

Long pants, long socks.  Shorts (short pants), short socks.

But the time has come.  They will wear their short socks to Disneyland and they will like it.

And I will sit in my sun chair, liking the view.

Brain Dump - It's the Month of May-hem

1.  Nuts.

We're going a little nuts this week.  No surprise there, right?  Especially given that the boys will be IN DISNEYLAND a week from today, (as Gunnar has reminded me about 47 times since breakfast).  I'm holding out a vain hope that perhaps, with a few days free of their exuberance and activities, my brain will clear up.  But then again, maybe not.


2.  Mother's Day

My sister and I took our mom out for Mothers' Day yesterday.  And - yes - I do realize that Mothers' Day is actually Sunday.  Turns out my sister had an idea, back before Christmas, that we buy tickets to take my mom to see Beauty and the Beast (live, Broadway show).  Turns out that my mom, being the generous mom that she is, (and knowing how broke I am) offered to take us out to dinner, before the show.  Which we all enjoyed.  (The dinner AND the show.)  Of course, there were lots of kids at the show, especially little girls, and double-especially little girls dressed up like princesses.  Which reminded me how thankful I am to be a mother to three BOYS, because while all the little princesses were very cute, I'm very aware that "girly-girl" is not my native language.  And the show itself was fun.  Gaston was perfect.  What an over-cooked ham!

And for the ACTUAL Mother's Day, we'll be hosting the family here for lunch, and celebrating a birthday as well.


3.  Mowing, mowing, and more mowing.

The boys are up to FOUR lawns now, and very thankful for that.  It's quite a juggling act, between homeschooling, CAP, Wyatt's job at the motocross, and whatever else.  Things will lighten up considerably when we wrap up school for the summer, but in the meantime...

We needed a weed-whacker, since the one we had was pathetic and powerless.  Rechargeable battery?  Yah, right.  That thing never worked for more than a few minutes before it would poop out, at its best.  And lately?  More like a few seconds.  One of the neighbors has a nice electric one, but it took three adults, two teen-age boys, and two clothes-pins to reload the string on the spool.  So when we went to buy a new one (a GAS one - woo-hoo!) I told the guy at the shop that he had to show all of us (the three boys and me) how the string worked, and we all had to be able to do it before we left.

"Oh, ma'am, this is the easiest thing there is," he grinned.

Yah, charm will get you nowhere.  Prove it.

And he was right.  Easy squeezy.

Minutes later we were off to the church to mow, when teenage hormones came into play.  (Lord have mercy if you have teenage boys, because you can't tell them anything.)

The lawn at the church has not been mowed yet, so it is long, thick, and wet underneath.  Wyatt started weed-whacking around the fence and Tate fired up the mower.  I suggested he raise it up as high as it goes for the first mow, but I am obviously an idiot.  Why on earth would he want to do that?

After the mower died about thirty times in the first ten minutes (and he had not even gone once around), he grudgingly consented to let Wyatt help him raise it up.

When it died again, he brought it over on the concrete to restart it, but he couldn't get it going.  I suggested he check the gas, but - again - I obviously have the IQ of algae, there's plenty of gas in there.

After he nearly jerked the rip cord right out of the engine I banished him to the car, filled it up with gas, and continued mowing where he'd left off.

But then when I had to restart it (after talking to Gunnar about kicking out the mole hills) the little plastic bracket that holds the cord broke, and that was the end of mowing for the day.  Of course, when I suggested to Tate that if he hadn't yanked it so hard in frustration it might not have broken, I was informed that it broke because it is old and a piece of junk.


4.  The Chicken.

My friend Ann had a great description of stress that I'm borrowing.  It's like a giant chicken, sitting on your head, and pecking at you all the time.  Ugh!  Too true.  It's the Mother Load gone bad!

Maybe while the boys are gone I can kill the chicken ;D


5.  Bible Study tonight.

We are studying Proverbs and it couldn't be more timely.  Especially this week's lesson on Wealth and Poverty.  Debt is bondage, my friends, bondage.  Ugh.


6.  The pink dogwood.

It is glorious, right now, and I must go take a picture before I forget.  And, yes, I am saying the PINK dogwood is glorious, even though pink (along with brown) is my least favorite color.  And I don't HATE pink.  It's fine, out in nature, where God put it.  Just not in my house.  And the tree?  Really, it's not too pink, but kind of coral.  At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.


7.  And lastly, about standard of living and quality of life.

Don't confuse the two.

Yah, I get it that there is definitely some overlap, but the two are not the same.  And maybe, just maybe, if your pursuit of a higher standard of living is MAKING YOUR FAMILY SICK, it might be time to think about the quality of life you're actually achieving.

Rant over.

And how is YOUR Wednesday going?

Grasshopper Days

Grasshopper Days

For today, Monday, May 6, 2013

Outside my window...  in shocking news, yesterday's weather forecast:

I'm tempted to just cancel school for the whole week and add another week on in June, when it will be raining again.  May is such a tease here in the PNW!  May tricks you into thinking summer is here, and then... Junuary comes back with a vengeance.

*sigh*

Gotta get our Vitamin D while we can, you know!

Hearing...  a very persistent robin.

Pondering...  once again, a very busy week with lots to keep organized, lots of guests, and many mouths to feed!

Praying...  to keep my head on straight this week!

Thanking...  one of my four pregnant friends delivered a girl on Saturday evening, and Mom and Baby are doing fine.  We take that for granted in this day of modern medicine, and we shouldn't.

Also thankful that after finally burning the Old Lumpy Futon (seen here in *ahem* better days...)

... we had a nice, if empty, guest room (aka family room.)  I borrowed an airbed from my folks for our wedding guests last week.  (Aren't they cute?  They've only been married about five months.)

Kerry seemed to think I was crazy to burn the old futon before we had a replacement, but it made the room so much nicer (ie more spacious) for guests.

And so much less comfortable for TV watching....  (ulterior motive?)

Either way, I knew that with a little patience, craigslist would come through for me.  And VOILA!  (Or, in Grasshopper-speak, WA-WAH!)  Our "new" fifty buck couch.  It has a few scratched spots (cat, maybe?) but it passed the smell test.  Literally.  I'm kind of picky about odors.  And by "kind of" I mean extremely.

Don't know and don't care if it's real leather.  Probably not.  The important thing is that it's "wipe-clean-able."  If it smells faintly of baby shampoo, well, that's a good thing, and the result of my efforts in the driveway before it came inside. ;D

Wearing... capris and a tank top!

Creating...  not this, but isn't it gorgeous?!  Amazing effect, and it's a perfectly flat quilt, made by women in Romania.  I got the photo from the blog of the woman named Geta who designed it,  HERE.  She's a genius.

Going...  to take the boys out to the church to mow the lawn there.  Another job :D

Reading... about to start Standing in the Rainbow, by Fannie Flagg.  Kerry picked it up for me from the free table at the library.

Learning...  more about Proverbs!

Looking forward to...  the boys being away for a few days NEXT WEEK!  It's like a vacation at home!  I have great plans to get the next school year mapped out and a bunch of other organizational tasks done.  Woo-hoo!  Fun for them (Disneyland!) and fun for me (beat back entropy!)

In the kitchen...  I'm cheating tonight.  I told the boys we'd go mow at the church late in the afternoon and I'd treat them to a dollar-menu dinner out :D

In the learning rooms...  counting down the days...

Around the house...  light, light, light.  The days are getting long and the sun is shining and I am loving all the LIGHT!

The Mother Load... oh boy.  Don't ask.  It's merciless.

Noticing that...  the $%^&* deer are at it again.  Time to start stinking up the yard before bed... (Liquid Fence).

Something to remember for later...  a visit from Naomi, and her first bite of ice cream.  She liked it.  A LOT.  She did that open-mouth-little-bird thing, accompanied by some impressive vocalization (FEED ME, SEYMOUR!)  to get the message across to her dad ;D

Something fun to share...  though we see her so rarely, she seemed to recognize Gunnar.  She always lights up when she sees him.

A favorite quote for today... 

There cannot be a crisis next week.

My schedule is already full.

Henry Kissinger

One of my favorite things...  Gunnar gets her grinning, and Grandpa takes great pictures :D

A few plans for the rest of the week...
* Monday - we'll head out to the church to mow (and it'll be a real job the first time, as the grass is pretty high)
* Tuesday - the boys have CAP, and my sister and I are taking my mom to a musical - Beauty and the Beast - for Mother's Day.  And Mom, being the gracious mom she is, is taking us to dinner first :D
* Wednesday - we're hosting the youth-group here for dinner and the evening, but I have Bible Study, so I'll be making all the food ahead, and then leaving it to Kerry to manage the group (he agreed to this ahead of time...)  And they're a GREAT group of kids.  Young adults.  Whatever. :D
* Thursday - Wyatt works
* Friday and Saturday, prep for...
* Sunday - Mother's Day lunch here (12 of us) and celebrating my cousin's daughter's b'day.  I almost said "my niece" because that's really the way the relationship functions.

A peek into my world yard...  my pink dogwood is blooming :D

Greetings, from the Grasshoppers

Friday Brain Dump

Well.

My mom mentioned I've been kind of scarce around here (hi, Mom!)  Yah.  We've been a little busy lately, and I don't say that like it's a badge of honor, y'know?  I'd rather not be so busy.  One year I wrote in our Christmas letter that I felt like I was waging a one-woman battle against a hectic pace of life, and let me tell you, friends, this week I'm LOSING!  But we had so much good stuff to do...

Like...

*  Wyatt started his job working the gate at the local motocross, on Thursday afternoons.  He seems so grown up when I hear him tell someone, "I was at work..." or something like that.

*  The boys are in charge of three lawns (and hoping for more).  I don't know what it's like where you live, but around here the grass sort of lies dormant all winter (too cold and dark to grow).  And then spring comes.  You take the warm-ish weather, lengthening days, and lots of moisture and, stand back, because the grass starts growing like bamboo on steroids.  Of course, it still rains.  A LOT.  And then it's too wet to mow.  So when we get a sunny day and it dries out they have to drop everything and go mow RIGHT THEN.  Good thing we homeschool.

*  Wyatt and Tate went to a Marksmanship Training Activity, hosted by a nearby CAP group.  Oh my word, they were - as my dad would say - in HOG HEAVEN.  They camped out at a gun club and got to shoot .22 rifles and do archery.  Fortunately they remembered my advice to pack up their tent and sleeping bags first thing in the morning, before the rain hit.  So they came home tired, soaked, and happy as fleas in a doghouse.  And I was happy, too, because at least all their gear stayed dry.  (Because I do not enjoy the aroma of soggy sleeping bags airing in my living room.)

*  They made it back just in time for (or a little late for, since someone got lost picking them up...) a chapel potluck and game night.  Oh, it was a little piece of heaven, since the theme was "Comfort Food".  The pastor's wife, Jane, made chicken with home-made noodles that made my taste-buds want to cry for joy.  I think we have Dan and Emily to thank for the teriyaki chicken.  And there weren't any leftovers of my Lutheran Funeral Potatoes either.

*  All that delicious food, won't be fixed - I'm afraid - with this.  And who in their right mind decided that this was exercise???

*  While they were gone, none of Gunnar's friends were available to play - a great tragedy, from his perspective.  Meanwhile, I was trying to get school planned for the next week, finish my Sunday school lesson, and prepare for our Bible study (which I'm co-leading... must be prepared!) and there was Gunnar.  Lonely and bored.  And good heavens, I love that boy, but he can talk the paint right off the walls.  I have to confess that he had Quite A Bit of screen time on Saturday.

*  And then came... Wedding Week.  Sweet, sweet friends from the chapel were married yesterday.  We've occasionally hosted Jim (missionary to Myanmar) when he passed through town.  Bless that boy, when I offered him a spare room with a lumpy futon, he took me up on it and we have loved getting to know him over the past two or three years.  And when he revealed an interest in Breanna, (Gunnar's first Sunday school teacher when we came to the chapel, adored by all of us, and a creative and godly young woman) we were practically giddy.  Not many people get engaged after ONE DATE (and an email/facebook/skype relationship), but these two were meant for each other.  So...

*  We hosted Jim's friend and fellow missionary and his wife, in town for the week for the wedding.  Let me tell you, if you're feeling a little hospitality-challenged, missionaries from third-world countries are really low-impact house guests :D  And fun and interesting as well.

*  I did something I'd never done before - made home-made potato salad (for the wedding reception).  I kind of favor the more eggy potato salad, with sweet pickles, so when they handed me their recipe for an egg-less dill-relish variety I was a bit skeptical.  Still, I followed the plan, made my ten pounds of potato salad, and it was FIIIINE.

*  I had fun putting together a little assortment of a wedding gift - mugs, teas, and treats - and then forgot to wrap it until an hour before we needed to leave.  I know, genius, right?

*  We had to leave early, to drop Wyatt off at work (he joined us for the reception) and got five minutes from the house before I realized we'd forgotten the salad.  (I couldn't exactly leave it out on the counter so I'd remember it with mayonnaise in it, now could I?)  We had just enough time...

*  And the wedding.  It was fabulous.  Extra fabulous because we all have such unreserved joy for these two.  The wedding was reverent, yet fun and very personal.  The boys all came away from the wedding and reception talking about what a fabulous time they had, and how they've never been to a wedding like that, and guess what - there wasn't anything about it that would uniquely appeal to adolescent boys.  Which tells me something even better...

they get it.

Okay, not completely.  I mean, they are still adolescent boys.  But they get it that we are freely and truly celebrating this relationship, this marriage because it is glorifying to God, and that's a joyful thing!

*  So, now I'm ready for some down time.  Wyatt and Tate are working at the Guard Building where CAP meets (probably mowing, weeding, cleaning, etc.) tomorrow afternoon, and then we're BBQing at my parents' in the evening.  And I can't forget that on Sunday we're in charge of "Greeting and Treating" (bringing snacks), so is it any wonder that...

Wish me luck.