a day in the life...a very random day at that

I wake up shortly before 6, check my email and start to exercise. My dear son Raymond wakes up and the questions begin. My favorite question during exercise..."Mom why are you still exercising, your stomach is just like it was before the babies" He then runs away and doesn't understand why I am trying to kiss him.

We actually read our scriptures to relative quiet...assuming car and pony noises are "relatively" quiet.

I feed everyone breakfast while Chris takes off to work.

I sneak in a shower...the babies come and find me.

Ben the 3 year old decides that he prefers the living room floor to the toilet or the diaper...I think I need another shower.

Raymond greets me with the question...how many keys are there on a flute. I wish desparately our computer were back from the shop so I could google. How did parents deal with curious children without google? I call BYU info, figuring their computer department has my computer for a rediculously long time, maybe they can work for me...naw. I all a musical neighbor and she googles it, but we are still in discussion. How about the holes that are not necessarily keys? I try to distract Raymond with discussion of Piano's being a string instrument while the organ is a wind intrument...he doesn't get distracted easily.

Snack time...ants on a log. Raymond asks...is the peanut butter the log, or the celery?

We are reading Summer of the Monkeys. In this particular section Jimbo the Chimpanzee gets the boy drunk...he feels disgustingly sick. We look up the words sober, chimpanzee and hydrophobia (did you know Rabies is sometimes called hydrophobia because the animals get so sick the stop wanting to drink?)

Raymond interupts our reading to ask about the difference between a mule and a donkey...

LUNCH and chores (surprisingly painless)and NAPS!

The children watch a short show while I read...Those who love by Irving Stone. It is a fascinating book about Abigail and John Adams. It stimulates a thought..In around 1785 there were about 6000 abandoned babies a year in Paris. How does that happen? At a lecture I attended they suggested a tipping point in government is when the people vote themselves money. I wonder what some tipping points in morality are? I also wonder again at the differences between the American revolution and the French Revolution. I discover that Ben tried to use the whole bottle of soap to wash his hands, and his belly and legs and the chair. Miraculously his face is still very dirty. I throw him in the shower...he screams because he has hydrophobia...or because he'd rather not take a shower.

The babies wake up and all deep thought is drowned out by crying. We all go outside and enjoy the beautiful day.

Dinner is later than expected, which is normal. It is also vastly underappretiated.

I get all the children to bed, except Becca who is having personal difficulties in that area.

Natalie snuggles our cat fuzzy while I read to her for her night.

Chris comes homes and devours the dinner, then changes and runs out to play basketball.

QUIET!! I do dishes and here I sit...ahhh

Now I can google all those questions, as well as the word for the day from yesterday in a black hole video "spagetification"???

Easter children

Here are a few pitures form Easter weekend. As always I wish I had taken more pictures, but here are a few...
This is our cousin Michael sharing his piano time with Susan. She kept climbing up holding onto his jeans.
Rebecca and Susan were slow and careful egg gatherers.
The other children were quick and careful egg gatherers.

Here is the loot.

Susan settled into Uncle Bob's lap, which was a sweet and sticky experience for him!

cute children comments

For some reason I have yet to determine, the cute children comments go in spurts. We'll go for weeks with normal, hum drum discussion. Then WHAMMY a few days of great comments. In the last week I can think of three comments that must be remembered. The first is from Raymond, the 7 year old. He always has a zillion questions and is always thinking. Here is a glimpse at what he was thinking for this moment...he walked out of the bathroom and said "Mom, when I grow up, some people will call me a fish, but I still won't have gills."


That's it! No explanation, no context, no background...the mind reels.

Now two darling comments from Ben the 3 year old. He climbed on my lap, put his arms around me and said, "Mom, you are my smooching thing!" Then he kissed my nose.

The next one is really a conversation. I don't know what the background for this is, but somehow the 5 year old, Lydia, got the idea to ask Ben, 3, who he wants to live by when he grows up. She obviously wanted to convince him that she should be the obvious choice...

Lydia "Ben, who do you want to live by when you grow up? Because I've always been.."
At which point Ben interupts to say "Jesus! I want to live by Jesus"
Lydia responds "You could live bythe church."
Ben says "I think I'll live by the Temple"

Just plain cute!