Elf Discourse

The Elf on the Shelf was found holding Joel's Minecraft pickaxe this morning, so Joel wrote him a note:

"Dear Elf-On-The-Shelf

What you were holding was a tool in a video game.  I got it for my birthday.  I can tell you like it.  Feel free to play with it, just don't break it.  (It is a pikaxe, from a game called Minecraft.)  You may notice it is made out of blocks, that is because the whole game is made out of blocks!  You look really cute with it.  Love, Joel 

P.S. Just wondering , do you have a name, if so write it here  ---> _____________________________"

The elf wrote back tonight:

"Dear Joel, 1. I do not like to be touched by humans.  2. When you enchant your first diamond sword, maybe you'll be ready to play me in minecraft.  3. My name is too long for that space you gave me.  I'm 9,115 years old and gain a name extension every 100 years' birthday.  Just call me Elf.  Now, I have things to do.  Be good."

10th Birthday Success

This was one of my favorite birthdays.  10 is a big one, though.  Double digits and all.  It was probably the easiest birthday to organize.  Joel wanted a sleepover where he could stay up and play Minecraft all night.  We capped "all night" at midnight, because we still had to be up and ready for church by 9am, which was fine with him.  He was allowed to invite two friends, one of whom was unable to stay the night.  Having two friends was actually a little tough since all four boys didn't always agree on what to do and how to treat each other.  Jamie had a toughest time finding his place with the older boys, but once we were down to one overnight guest, things settled down nicely.

The cake was a huge hit!  And by "huge" I mean that Joel got to cut the cake Minecraft style which is 1/4th of the cake per slice, I think.  He served that one to himself, of course, and realized that was way too much cake for one person.  The other kids had smaller slices.  Good sense prevailed and none of them would eat all of theirs!  But it was fun trying.  

These next photos are primarily documenting Joel's first foray into the world of Lego Mindstorms (our gift to him).  It was really cool watching him build his first robot and dream up all the things he was going to program it to do for him.  High on the list are: chores, homework, and playing games with him, of course.  He was pretty proud when he managed to program it to move forward and backward.  Programming it to do chores is going to be tricky, but I don't think he's given up on that, yet.  I also loved watching Jamie watching Joel.  I'm sure he's making notes on how to make his own robots given the chance someday.

And of course, back to Minecraft.  This is his favorite ever toy with no other purpose than to look cool. He made sure to pose for the camera like he was off to go dig up some diamond blocks:

So far, 10 is pretty great.

Coincidence?

Today's birthday theme is Minecraft.  If you know what this is, you're a geek.  Sorry.  I'm sure there's counseling for you somewhere, but today's post is about Joel's birthday.  He's turning ten.  There are 10 red squares on a Minecraft cake.  Coincidence?  Maybe someone designing the game did actually ask how many squares should be on this cake, to which one replied, "my 10-yr old is going to love this game!"

This year, Joel opted for having his first sleepover.  (I know he's a little old to be having his first sleepover, but I'm a Mormon or some other random reason you'd like to insert here.)  And since Minecraft is a 4-person game, at least if you only have one Xbox/TV, he's invited 2 friends from school in addition to Jamie, who is fortunate to have the 4th spot in the "party".  

Yes, it's a party, in that there is cake.  But by how much work and planning I've had to do for this birthday, it's by far the easiest one we've had.  I love it.  I had so much extra time on my hands that I learned how to make my own fondant and decorate a cake with it.  And it's delicious!  Maybe it'll be my go-to for all those future parties we're going to have.  Wait, that's right, parties are losing their allure as the boys are getting older.  But who knows what's ahead?  If the Mayans are right, maybe it's a good thing I learned fondant before the world ends.  At the very least, I have another confection to replace the loss of Twinkies.

Cooking

I think I've figured out all of the reasons why I don't like cooking.

Cooking takes time.

Cooking means I have to be in the kitchen with a lot of food that I'd like to eat but shouldn't.

Cooking means making a mess that's going to need to be cleaned up soon.

I'm chopping, measuring, clanking around and someone else in the house can hear what I'm up to and is going to come looking to see how it's going to impact him:
"Will it taste yucky and I'll be forced to eat it?"
Or "will it be yummy and I won't be able to eat as much as I want of it?"

As soon as someone enters the kitchen to investigate, he realizes he's hungry, too.  But the food's not ready yet.  So, there's going to be the 1,405,837th conversation that goes like this: "I'm hungry."  "I'm sorry.  Dinner will be ready soon."  "Can I eat a fruit?"  "No."  "Can I eat a carrot?" "Well, ok."  "But can I eat a bagel? or fish crackers? or ...Can I make a smoothie?!"  "No, you can eat when I'm done. Go find something to do."  "But I'm hun...." "NO!"  and now I've lost my place in the recipe or sliced my finger.

And once it's done, there's always the critiques.  More salt.  Too bland.  Too salty.  I don't like parsley.  Too mushy.  Needs hot sauce.

It's too much for too little return.  If we all just ate a bowl of cereal, there'd be no complaints.

Blondie

Joel's getting ready for Halloween.  His costume requires a bit more permanent effect this year.  He's not quite satisfied with it, yet, though.  "Will it get any lighter?"  I had to snap this photo before he did anything else to it, because I love it!

What is this scary feeling that I keep having of precious moments slipping away from me?

Fun at the Corn Maze

Mercy

Last weekend, I was pretty blue.  Harlan was away for work and I had had a particularly rough week full of ups and downs with the kids.  It was the last few days of summer, when the kids and I were both tired of our summer routines of negotiating every reward and ounce of cooperation, combined with all the changes that come with the first days of school.  I had known for weeks that Harlan was going to be gone, so I had time to worry about it more and more as his departure neared and my wits waned.
And then Sunday happened.
It started with prayer.  And from the moment I got of out bed and at every little moment afterward I marveled at the perfection of this day.  There were no arguments, no demands, no meltdowns.  The boys were a help and a pleasure as they got ready for church, participated in the Sunday School class that I taught, prepared their own lunches, and cleaned up after themselves.  We played some games together and no one got their feelings hurt.  We had talks.  We joked.  We had another simple dinner.  And then we called it a day and got ready for bed.  The entire day was joyful and full of light.
I had been hoping for weeks for just one day off.  I had given up on it.  It just wasn't in the cards.  I never expected it to happen on a day when I was the sole parent in charge.  But at the end of the day, still marveling at how great it was, I was relaxed and recharged.  I was completely at peace.  I felt better than if I had been on a vacation.  It was a gift.  My Father in Heaven knew that I wouldn't be able to lean on Harlan's help, and He knew exactly what I needed.  It was a gift of mercy and love.  I felt it so strongly.  I want to remember it forever.  So I prayed with a heart full of gratitude.

Oh summer!

Thank you, summer.  You were great!

Harvest Time!

These are the BEST cherry tomatoes.  Feel free to stop by.  I'll share them while they last.

I Did It!

Because the first day of school is all about me....This year, I actually remembered to take a photo of the boys on their first day of school!  Fourth Grade and Second Grade, here we come!

Yup.  Right before they ran off!  I'm usually too busy that first morning trying to remember everything the boys might need from me.  It used to be that I'd walk them in to their classes, help them get settled, share in all their excitement of meeting friends and teachers.  But now they have each other.  This year more than ever.  Their classrooms are right across from each other, and Jamie has the teacher that Joel has had for the last two years (minus that half-year at home with me).  There's no leaning on mom for encouragement.

But I'm ok.  I have a million things to do before it's time to pick them up.  Can't wait to clean out the closets!  

Goodbye Pearly White!

Jamie will say goodbye to his first tooth that fell out today.  He said he thought that if he ate some chips that that would make his tooth fall out.  Although I thought he was just making up an excuse to eat chips, he was right.  A couple of bites later, his tooth came out.

Before:

After:

With a fresh coat of paint

New decks front and back and a fresh coat of stain and paint all around.  It's finally done!  Here are the before and after photos:

Before

After

Before

After

Thank goodness it's expensive and time consuming or we'd want to change the colors and do it all over again!  As it is, we're happy that it's done!  Our house needed it.

Stehekin Valley Ranch

We live in an amazing state.  

We drove about 3 hours from Seattle to a picturesque Wenatchee valley with its orchards of pears, apples, and cherries and the lovely Lake Chelan.  Chelan is a very deep, long lake that is reachable by car, at least, the lower portion of the lake is.  But we took a 2-hour (express) passenger ferry uplake to reach the opposite end of Lake Chelan where this little village named Stehekin is located.  When we arrived, a shuttle bus met us at the ferry landing and drove us another 8+ miles upriver to the Stehekin Valley Ranch, where we stayed for 3 nights. We learned about the locals, hiked, biked, rode horses, ate amazing food, river rafted, played, swam, and ate some more.  

It couldn't have been better unless it didn't end.

 I can't take a photo. But it was gorgeous, wherever I looked

 Our home-sweet-home. Lovely cabin.

They were mostly great at taking turns on the horse swing.

 Joel tried to catch a butterfly in the meadow, without a net.

 It was a great meadow, but the butterflies weren't going to be caught that easily.

Of course, we were all there because of Nonny's 70th year. This lady knows how to live!

Rainbow falls. This was right before an uncharacteristic thunderstorm swirled into the valley and uprooted trees, rained hail on some of us, and a caused a mudslide.

 There were plenty of walking sticks, but sometimes it was just nice to share.

 The bakery. I know it says it on the sign, but this is _the_ bakery. Nobody was unhappy there. Gabby ate a cinnamon roll that was bigger than her head.

They let us take lots of pictures of them, 'cause they knew this was a big deal.

A seriously happy Jamie.

The kids had their first horseback riding lessons and were all grins the whole time. I'm not sure I've ever seen them so happy as when they each got up on their horses.

 The tire-swing horse that the kids rode when they weren't eating or sleeping or doing some grownup-planned activity.

 Playing in the lake while we waited for the ferry to take us downlake.

Waiting for a ferry was never this fun before.

Little Chairs Project

Thanks to Ana White's Child's Adirondack Chair Plans and Harlan's Saturday afternoon with the leftover deck wood, we now have two cute little adirondack chairs for the kids to paint and enjoy!

Personality, please.

When trying to get the boys to just take one normal, smiling photo, this is what we got:

Do I look smarter, now?

Drumming

A few months ago, the boys expressed an interest in taking drum lessons.  We didn't hesitate to sign them up for lessons and got right down to it.  Well, of course, they loved it, and we're delighted watching them enjoying another aspect of music that we love.  But over the past few weeks, whenever another parent got wind of us allowing them to take drum lessons ("...starting early, aren't you?"  "...all that noise!"), I realized that there's a real stigma against having certain instruments in the home, or rather, certain instrumentalists in the home.  Where does this aversion to drums come from?  Totally unnecessary fears that kids are going to be in a rock band and do bad things with their lives?  Or is the noise really that bad?  (If the noise bothers you, you're not listening closely enough!)

So, I'm looking around now for what other fears, obviously not music-related, that I might have that maybe I let get in the way of helping my sons find their interests and explore the world.  I have so many!  I don't want to be the parent who doesn't let her sons play football because I don't want them to get hurt, but I've already caught myself thinking it and trying to steer them into other sports.  Parenting just keeps catching me off-guard!

Old Deck, New Deck

We're rebuilding our back porch/deck.  We'll gain enough space to put our grill just outside the kitchen, making it much more convenient.  And it will be nicer to have more deck space in general.

Here is before picture:

 Day 1:

Day 3

Much improved!

Minecraft Week

If you've ever watched "Tangled," there's an opening scene where Rapunzel gets up at 8am and whirls around, while singing, cleaning, painting, cooking, brushing, dusting, and on and on, and then she looks at the clock that says it's 8:15am.  Our boys are sortof like Rapunzel during the first week of summer break.  They are happy little chore busters first thing after breakfast, but unlike Rapunzel, as soon as they are done, they run to the living room and play Minecraft all day long.  Of course, the rule is that once they've done 10 chores, mom lets them do whatever they want for the rest of the day.  It's my gift to them for working hard at school and being good kids.  They could use this week to do anything they want.  My job is to transport them and feed them.  But they have chosen Minecraft, every single day.

Granted, they missed out on the two loveliest days of June and they talk about Minecraft incessantly when they are running to the bathroom or enduring a meal at the table.  But it's raining nonstop again and I've read a book and completed a long list of to-dos, so I have no complaints.  Actually, I'm enjoying surprising them with tasty meals and rice crispy treat breaks because they lose track of time and forget to whine about being hungry all day.  If only life were always so carefree.

Don't worry, my next post will be about the struggle of learning real life skills again as we adjust to our real summer schedule.  I know you're on the edge of your seat!

Soccer time

Swimming may not be Joel's favorite sport, but he takes instruction well trying to do what his coaches tell him to do, improving his strokes and times over the last couple of years, and making friends.  Most of the time he seems to be having fun, even when it's hard work, so I'm not yet convinced that it's the right thing to do to let him quit the sport.  But I'm at least open to discussion.

In the meantime, we've been introducing him to soccer, per his request.  I'm so new to the sport that I don't even know how to dress for spectating.  After the first practice I was so chilled to the bone that I spent the rest of the night huddled in my electric snuggie.  I worry that he's a bit older than most of the other beginners, but he doesn't seem to mind much, yet.  He runs around for an hour and has big smiles on his face most of the time.  His enthusiasm is exactly what I've been hoping for.  It's a little early, but I guess I should start looking for a solar-powered snuggie.  

55 Degrees F

I love that boys aren't deterred by cold, wet and nasty spring weather.

Sad Day

Today, Joel quit swimming.  He was supposed to have a swim meet tonight.  It broke my heart to see his times seeded in the heat sheet and his events go by while he sat in the stands.  :(
The silver (or was it platinum?) lining is Jamie steadfastly committing himself to the sport and bettering his times tonight.  He did not give in to his big brother's influence.  Good for him!

Lego Birthday Party

For Jamie's 7th Birthday, he asked for another Lego Birthday Party.

 Best tasting cupcakes ever, made by mom mom, of course!

 Some stuff to keep kids busy if they got tired of sunshine.

These little buckets were for stuffing with Legos and candy.

 This cute cheese and cucumber idea was a hit at someone else's party.  Not so much here.

 The weather was gorgeous, so we spread out a blanket full of Legos and let the kids do what they do best: build and play games.