A circle is complete

September 16th found me awake at 5:00 with Sam.  I can't complain on his birthday, especially since I've been sleeping well for a few months now.  After he was taken care of, I left him to clean the toilet while Ryan took a shower, and I went on a run.

 Running after childbirth is my act of triumph and reproach towards the idea of childbearing/rearing stealing everything from a woman.  I went on the same loop I walked the night I had Sam.  This time I ran, powerful and strong, remembering that  I year ago, I pumped my pregnant body up and down that hill through contractions--powerful and strong in quiet a different way.

 As I ran and watched the sun come up, I thought of the work that brought Sam into his first year of life, and how much stronger it made me.  (Thank you Sam, and please stop going down the stairs head-first.)

Some of my favorite things about Sam:  how everything he eats goes through his hair first, his bald patches on top of his head from his first and second haircuts given by big brother (whose own hair is too short to cut),  how he practices going down any and all stairs head first, and is now very successful at it (Tonight he threw our pillows off our bed and then dove headfirst off our bed onto the pillows), how fast he crawls, how excited he is to see me, or Ryan or the kids, how he can manage to get under the car with a ball faster than I can run after him, and manage to get to the very middle of the underneath so I have to crawl under after him, his ready grin.

Sweet Baby.

Change is a comin'

Madeline-  1st day of school

In the same breath, school and autumn started.  It was Tuesday, as I walked my new second grader to the bus, that I felt the crisp morning air, almost as if the north head winds have started blowing this way.

On Thursday when my new kinder-gartener started, I remembered that it rains in Minnesota in the fall.  We drove to the bus stop so we didn't get soaked.  Max wanted to go with Madeline and Ella to school, so badly that he could only be bribed to come inside with "fedish fish".  This morning while the girls were getting ready, he cried and begged them to stay home with him.

Ella- 1st day of Kindergarten

Sweet Sammy- 

  Ella is in Kindergarten only half day, but it is still different being home with just the boys.  Today we went on a bike ride.  It was hard to cheat because Max was calling me on everything.  When I stood to peddle up the hills, he said, "sit on seat momma, sit on seat".  I had to push them up a hill, and he didn't like that either.  His constant commentary precludes any sense of loneliness.  

Sam is almost a year.  He is constantly dirty.  Everything he eats goes through his hair first, noodles go on his head, through his hair, and then in his mouth.  He manages to get about 60% of the food out of his hair and in his mouth.  

Sleeping children

Here are a few pictures of our children falling asleep in unlikely places.

Madeline fell asleep during dinner

Ella Climbed out of her crib and fell asleep here.

Max quit playing with his trains and decided to sleep in an empty storage container.

The Upper Peninsula after all these years

Fifteen years ago, we met in the hall on the third floor of the Taylor Building, as we started our freshman year at BYU.  Emily was from Southern California, and I was ostensibly from Maine, but with a suspiciously Southern Appalachian accent.  We became great friends, more so after we survived the dorms and the promises threats that we would get married within the year.  Then we rode a Greyhound together from Provo, Utah to Augusta, Maine to visit my family after Freshman year.  Four days and three nights we drove through state after state, doing jump-n-jacks in behind the bushes when the bus stopped at Burger King, seeing the world through different eyes, especially in NYC at 4am.

We lived together in cheapest holes you could find on the south side of campus with our friends Julia and Jennie.  We got awesome campus jobs together, I was a custodian, and Emily worked at Taco Bell.  We took bird classes and math classes.  We didn't date very much.  We made a meal schedule, we would choose a Christmas tree every year and decorate it with York Peppermint Patties we would hang on a string.  We visited Emily's Grandma Spanish Fork, and her family in So Cal.  

Then we went on missions together to Uruguay, Italy and Croatia.  We came back and lived together until Emily got married.  Now, 10 years later, we live close together.  Emily lives in Wisconsin and for the summer is in northern Wisconsin.  She and her husband are house-sitting a wonderful home on a pond and invited us to stay for a few days.  I ventured up with the four kiddos.  I had lots of fun with the kids, and most especially talking with Emily for hours on in while we chased and played with children.

Here are some of the highlights.

There is one highlight that has no pictures.  I looked out the window our last day there, and saw that the van door had been left open.  I immediately remembered the 6 raccoons I had seen the night before peering in the window at me from the porch, scavenging for scraps.  Sure enough, they cleaned my car our.  The only remnants were the mint chewing gum, which they tried but didn't like.  They loved my bag of almonds, the crackers they gently pulled out of the box, ate, and then tucked the empty bag in the side of my door.  They even open (rather roughly), the side compartment that had Madeline's licorice and ate the entire bag.  When we got back, I cleaned my car quite intimately.

I taught Madeline to Hula Hoop- I hula'd for 10 minutes before I got a bellyache

Matthew, Daniel, Sam and Madeline --eating lunch on the porch.

Max, Madeline and Daniel in the hammock

Jacob, Ella, Matthew and Madeline in the wonderful tree house

Madeline Kayaking in the pond

Frogs for all- they are aplenty in the pond

Ella and Jacob daydreaming at the beach on Lake Superior

Madeline and Matthew very studiously building a waterway

All the kids wanted to be in the picture with us.

All seven kids making silly faces.  This is what I looked like by the time I got home Wednesday night.

Hopefully, we'll meet up again soon, we all had so much fun.

Black Bean Brownies

Madeline and I in Venice 2004

This morning I awoke to my own laughter.  It shook me awake while I rolled away from it, desiring to stay engaged in my funny dream.  Twice this happened, and when Ryan asked me what was so funny, I tried to roll away from his question as well.

Later, as I was mowing the lawn, thinking about my dream, it wasn't nearly as funny as what Ryan suspected me of laughing about- the black bean brownies I made last night.   Everyone was looking forward to the brownies.  The kids had gone to the Mayo child care for the day, and I was so refreshed, I told everyone I would make brownies while we watched a Ken Burns documentary on Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. I told Ryan as well that I would make some extra to take to his work party the following day.  As I was making the brownies, I decided to blend some black beans and add them to the batter, in order to add some protein and nutrition.  I had to be a little sneaky because all five of my family members are limited in adventurousness when it comes to healthful desserts.  

I succeeded in mixing two cans of black beans in with two boxed brownie mixes, and Ella, the bowl cleaner, couldn't tell a difference.  We watched the movie, the girls and I ate our brownies while Ryan put Max in bed.   He wanted to savor his brownie in all its fatty glory (little did he know).  Finally, he got a brownie, and took a big bite.  I saw his face as he processed the slightly less sweet taste, then he placed the rest of the brownie down, "I think I"ll wait until tomorrow to eat this since it's soooooo late", he said.  He walked around the kitchen for about five minutes, with what seemed a confused look on his face, and finally in a befuddled voice asked me if I had noticed something different about the brownies this time. Ohh, how carefully he asked this, not wanting to insult or offend my cooking, but not quite understanding why the brownies tasted different that he was expecting, and not wanting to take a mistake to his work party.  I debated how much truth to divulge, knowing that a certain amount of trust in my cooking for be lost forever.  (after all, if you put black beans in brownies, what else are you willing to do).  "Well", I told him, "I just put a few black beans them, could that be it?"  He stared in wide eyed disbelief, "Black beans?".  What more could he say, he could think of nothing except an unequivocal "Gross".

That commentary put me to sleep laughing last night, and must have fed my dream.  It certainly kept me entertained as I mowed the lawn for 1.5 hours this morning.  

June, she'll change her tune

....In restless walks she'll prowl the night (Simon and Garfunkel).  
Gratefully, Ryan or I haven't been prowling the nights lately, but now that school's out and summer's here, the tune around our home has changed.  


We hosted the last remaining stragglers at the Dalia residence for five days last week.  Mom and Dad visited with them, and we had lots of fun.  Madeline and Ella would both like to have additional siblings Emmie and Alisa's age, or have Emmie and Alisa as their siblings. 

                              Madeline, Emmie, Gabby, Ella and Alisa by the Mississippi River


We visited the National Eagle Museum, and learned lots about those Majestic beauties that we see all the time now  in MN.  The eagles they host are injured eagles who would not survive in the wild, those who would have died but for the caring eyes and hands of passersby.  I was inspired to care about all God's little critters.

Caleb, Alisa, Emmie, Seth, Ella, Tony, Madeline and Gabby with Harriett the Eagle (found on the side of the road).

Max waiting to go inside after his fruit snacks

Wow- this is awesome- the kids were entertained here until we corralled them all inside

Seth

We learned a lot and had a lot of fun.  While they were here, I also took all the kids minus Max and Sam to the pool.  Everyone had a buddy to increase the chances of no one drowning, and I mostly tried to keep up with Seth.  I made it down the water slide several times and really enjoyed it. 

We also celebrated Madeline's birthday.  In the end, she wasn't very happy with the party, she was disappointed with the nature scavenger hunt that I was so excited about.  She was mad that I didn't do a pinata with lots of candy.  We learned several things about Madeline during and after the party.  I hope we can help this girl learn to experience joy with all the imperfections in life, and help her learn to be happy with herself.

Sammy Boy

What a change from the normal school schedule.  We've had lots of fun. We enjoyed mom and dad's visit. What great kids the last 6 are.  I was impressed with all of them.  We were sad to see them go, though we did find a parting gift from Gabby on the wall downstairs in the form of her name and a drawing. 

Keeping it Real

Well, the kids are no longer undefeated, Parents have scored one.  We do have a long ways to go to catch up, but it's always nice to even the score a little.  While I am a slightly biased reporter, events transpired somewhere along these lines.
Ella and Madeline were playing with Gabby, who always makes them second guess the validity of their parents requests.  After several failed attempts to have them come inside for bedtime, Ryan decided to have a sit down talk with Madeline and Ella.  Now, Bethany (my younger sister) has some experience with Ryan's sit down talks- and she confessed to mom and dad that she would much prefer to have mom and dad yell at her than one of Ryan's sit down talks.  When we worked with birthmothers who would milk you for everything, we would sometimes intervene with what we called a "Come to Jesus" talk.  Ella had a Come to Jesus talk last night.
Miraculously, she was too tired to talk when she finally got in from playing with Gabby.  After the whining, rolled eyes, rebellious looks, and why's, we finally had a good conversation.  Then, we asked her to got ready for bed, and she refused.  Ryan came to me and told me he was getting ready to spank her.  I asked him if he thought that was what was best, as we have a goal to use spanking as a very last resort.  He spotted the "if you don't get out of bed and get dressed quickly you'll get squirted" water bottle on my sink, where I'd used it just that morning.  "No", he said, "I think this would work better."
He went into our bedroom where queen Ella was sitting on her throne reveling in how she had won when Ryan sprayed her for all he was worth.  Ella is like a cat, can't stand to be wet unless she is playing in the water.  She went to bed quickly, and I have hidden the water bottle, because the girls have threatened that they are going to get us.
Today, we are working further on quick listening.  It's exhausting.