Boxing Day Highlights

::working on the puzzle o' year

::reading new books, playing new games, nibbling chocolate -- bien sur!


::the Christmas cactus actually bloomed on Christmas!  I was stunned by its punctuality!


::sleeping under the Christmas tree = dreamy

Memorial Day

We just set out for the parade and then to the cemetery, but as we were passing Wesleyan I heard a badump, badump noise and mentioned to Matthew that we just might have a flat tire.  Sho' nuff that is what it was.  We were all just going to stay there while he put on the spare tire, but then Archie mentioned that he needed to poop.  So I walked home with the boys and Matthew went to see if there are any places open today that can take care of the tire.  Fun stuff!!!  But it is giving me a chance to write in my blog and I don't even have the baby today, yay!!!  He is really sweet and all, but it is tiring taking care of a newborn.  I heard the saddest story about a woman in California who had three daughters ages 2, 1, and 2 months and she killed them all last Friday.  They said they found the mom naked, in a daze, covered with blood.  My first thought is that she probably was just wanting to take a shower, but they were screaming at her and she just lost it!  I just feel so bad for her!!! And her husband!  And her whole family.  Oh my goodness.  It can be hard to take care of babies.  And moms need support.  In the past, people were usually living with their parents, aunts, uncles, etc.  Lots of people who could help hold babies or cook or clean, but now people are so separated and alone.  We ended up being able to get to the parade and over to the cemetery to go on the trolley with Miss Jen Jen.

We always enjoy romping around cemeteries!

It has been a busy week.  I had the annual mother's day tea last Wednesday.  I have moved it to a park since there are so many people now.  I put table cloths and flowers on two long tables and people proceeded to sit their children at the pretty tables and then the women were all sitting at un-table-clothed tables.  That was the only buggy thing.  Everything else was lovely -- the weather, the food, the people.  So I guess it is worth all of the headache.  There was also the Bent School carnival.  The kids had fun, but we didn't stay very long.  I missed Ali Harvey's graduation party.  It was on Friday and I didn't remember until Saturday afternoon.  NCHS had their graduation on Saturday and BHS will have it next Sunday.  Charles is doing a graduation party with Sam at his grandparents house on Lake Bloomington.  I don't know how many people want to go clear out there, but we will see.  It should still be fun.

I've been working a lot in the garden.  I spent tons of money, lots of time and effort, and then I just have to hope for the best!  It hasn't rained for a long time so I have to walk around hosing everything down.  Rain dance, rain dance! 

I'm reading an interesting book about Energy and people's auras.  I haven't gotten very far so we'll see how it develops :)

Happy Easter!

We went to a friend's house and made these Pisanki eggs.  It was really fun!  But hard to make them look nice.

Then we did our own regular dying at home.

We celebrated Charles' birthday along with Easter dinner.

After church we had a little photo session

Charles was our Easter bunny this year and was as creative as we had hoped!

and now it's april

April has already been a busy month, but it is so lovely and sunny, windy as usual, but all the better to dry all of my clothes -- yesterday I was able to dry three different loads they were being whipped into submission so quickly!  


On Friday my big girl turned 18!  I know!  It is truly unbelievable.  She is such a good girl.  Especially after the birth of my third daughter, people started coming out of the woodwork to oh, so kindly warn me what a horrible experience it is to raise girls!  With ulcers forming I've been waiting and waiting for the horrific nightmare to begin, but there has been no such misfortune around here.  She is funny and smart and pretty to boot.

She has, in fact, been so delightful that I joke about how she didn't prepare me very well for raising the other children... (hmm, what do I mean by that?)  The kids didn't have school on Friday so I whisked them all up to Chicago for some free food at Ikea -- and yes, they did foot our $60 lunch.  Charles tried to stump them by getting three meals, two sides, and a dessert, but they went ahead with their promise.  We really wished that we had bitten the bullet and put some swedish fish and candy bars on our trays -- missed opportunities!!!  And then shopping at a few of her favorite stores (what?  Ikea's not her favorite store, oh, that would be me).  Charles regretted his decision to join us after her second hour in Forever 21 -- live and learn, son.  We spent too much money which made for a grumpy daddy, so I am going to be really good and not buy anything ever again!  I even didn't press "buy" on the amazing water bottle that was on babyhalfoff.com this morning.  I am strong.  I can do this.

Sunday was Easter and my girls finally got to wear their beautiful dresses, from (wait for it, Jen)... FRANCE.  They looked so pretty!

::sisters

::Phin was watching me take pics of the girls

 ::the whole gang

 ::LOVE this one of Ibby

 ::Ella just pins, tucks, and voila!

 ::thanks for trying, buddy

 ::aaaah, big tears

thanksgiving!

I do love Thanksgiving and I was happy that we were able to host a boisterous crowd at our house -- reminds me of the good ole' days.  We had eight adults and sixteen children, so not quite up to the Farnsworth family numbers, but it will do to help me not feel so homesick.  Everyone helped bring lots of yummy food, the two younger girls helped set the tables and make place cards, Ella made some appetizers, and Charles made a green bean casserole with no help from anyone.  The two youngest did their part with Phin busily undoing most of the preparations as they happened and Archie perching on my back not sleeping the entire day.  I am so glad that we have a time to reflect on our blessings, although I do try to do a bit of that every day.  I have so much and the season reminds me to make a renewed effort to be a better steward of what I have been given.  Here's to resolve!

I never manage to find time to write in my blog anymore -- it's so sad!  And I really don't think about it during the day, but at night I have composed some wonderful posts.  You should all come join me then, because by morning they have vanished -- poof!


I went to the dentist this morning and had to take the baby with me.  I just didn't know six months ago when I made the appointment that Matthew would be teaching at that time on Tuesday mornings -- silly me!  So I dropped Phin off at a friend's and wondered how it would all work, but baby did great.  He determinedly concentrated on grabbing a toy, with his eyes crossed for good measure, throughout most of the scaling portion of the visit, but every once in a while he would gurgle adorably and the technician would gaze at him affectionately.  This is all very endearing to a mother, of course, except that she was madly digging at my teeth with some very sharp instruments, not missing a single beat, while she looked away.  I would will her eyes back to the task at hand, but soon they would veer back to the baby, all the while scraping, scraping, scraping and coming perilously close to my tender gums -- I may be a proponent of natural childbirth, but I definitely prefer kinder, gentler dentistry.  He didn't quite make it all the way through, sitting upright on my tummy during the cleaning and exam, smiling and talking to everyone who happened by.  And who wouldn't smile at the reaction he was getting -- you would think they had never seen a baby before!  "Look at those chubby cheeks!"  "He has so much hair!"  He is pretty cute, in my own humble opinion.

halloween

There go the tornado sirens!  I am always so surprised when they go off, jumping a little and thinking, what on earth???  But then I remember that they are tested on the first Tuesday of every month at 10:00, yet another reminder that my life is ticking away at slow and regular intervals.  There have been three since the baby came, but he still feels so new and fresh -- it can't be!  


::Speaking of fresh, he was a crisp from the garden chili pepper for halloween

::Isn't he gorgeous?

::Phin was a rocket and when I would ask, "What do you say?" meaning "trick or treat" he would either make a rocket sound or say "you're welcome."  Then we would jettison off to the next house -- it was very amusing to go with him.  When Matthew went back home to pass out candy (we had left Charles in charge and he had simply turned out the light -- when we noticed, Matthew was embarrassed) he said that he really missed being with Phin, which I thought was very sweet.

 ::I didn't get very good pictures of the girls -- a queen, and a pixie -- which I guess is what you get when you're not the littlest anymore

 Phin just asked if he could see pictures of him getting candy, but I had to disappoint and tell him that we haven't chronicled every single moment of his life.  His sticky candy face has pieces of lint stuck to it right now because we started on the candy first thing this morning.  I had to pull a chocolate tootsie pop out of his mouth and insist that he eat a whole wheat english muffin and a glass of milk before the gorging began.  I let them eat what they want for a few days before I confiscate it, which is meaner than my mom who let us keep it in our rooms for months -- I was one of those who paced myself and ate a little bit each day. Ugh, I already feel sick.  Phin is being so sweet offering me reeses pieces and candy corn, but if I'm going to be eating sugar I need it to be yummier than that.  We had a trunk or treat last week so they've all already been eating candy every day, lazily scattering the wrappers pell mell around the house -- because you can't just be a glutton without the accompaniment of disorder and chaos, can you?

holidays

I was just sitting down at my dining dream table dreamily thumbing through the latest House Beautiful whilst sipping some egg nog when along came my adorable and playful kitty cat who proceeded to first, sit directly in the middle of my magazine, and second, after I tenderly shoved her away, daintily dip her paw in my glass and coldly tipple the whole thing over!  I had just barely put a fresh tablecloth on, too!  I suddenly had something pressing to do and took it as a sign that I should change my activity and not be so lazy.  So after changing the cloth, wiping down the floor, chair, and table legs, and starting a load of laundry I'm here being industrious at the computer.  Maybe I'm singing different words, but it is pretty much the same tune, I'm afraid.

We had a wonderful Christmas and I hope that all of you did, too!  My kids always are so pleasant on the actual day and then this year we left early the next morning to drive to Washington D.C.  I can't believe how good everyone was in the car -- we even went one six hour stretch in the middle of the afternoon without stopping!  I really had some pressing needs, but with everyone else content I wasn't about to rock the boat so I suffered through it.  It did snow most of the way, but the roads were fine and we made it in good time.  Coming home was the same, just long, but no one too miserable.  Once again, my camera battery was always dead when I wanted to use it, but I did get some pictures from the last couple of days.

::Philo standing in front of the Philo

 ::listening intently to the very good tour guide.  I used to conduct tours of the capitol building when I was an intern, but now the security is so tight that you can't just walk around by yourself.

 ::I took this picture while I was waiting for people in the car.  Isn't the sunset colored capitol pretty?  I spent a lot of time on this day waiting, so one time I decided to charge my phone and camera while I waited.  I turned on the car to plug in my chargers and didn't realize the lights were also on so the next time I tried to start my car... it didn't.  I then asked a very nice man from Ghana to help me and he turned his car around on a one way street to help me jump my car.  So nice.

 ::after plenty of museum-ing the kids skated on a rink in the sculpture garden of the National Gallery

 ::a new (to me) memorial to FDR that was very nice and fun to play on

 ::Ella was cold and tired -- there were of course very cold temperatures in D.C. during our visit, with Illinois enjoying unseasonably warm weather -- we call it the Smith curse.

 ::Phin LOVED playing with his cousins.  I am quite sure that he wouldn't have noticed if we just left him there at their house forever.

 ::Doesn't it look grand?

 ::more romping

 ::Ella and Charles made it around the construction at the Jefferson Memorial long before the rest of us.  Can you see them?  The whole time we were there I kept insisting that Matthew imagine the cherry blossoms and he obliged.  I don't know if his imagination is very good, though.

 ::the horse riding police were a hit

 ::this time Phin didn't want his picture taken -- a change

 ::we kept noticing so many Charles' at the Vietnam Memorial and then we saw a Charles M. Smith

 ::being irreverent -- sorry!  he is not very containable -- Rebecca was so nice and kept him at home most days that we went into the city.

 ::another new memorial -- this one for the Korean War.  Everyone agreed that it was a little creepy, but in a good way -- it was very poignant

 ::waiting for the dad's to come get us.  They walked in the wrong direction, which I knew, but no one would listen to me so we played while we waited.

 ::lights at the Washington D.C. temple

 ::and a fun free concert which I didn't see the end of because of mr. wiggly pants

There you go.  And Happy New Year!  My goal for the year is to not completely lose it.  I have made more lofty goals in the past, but that doesn't make this  one more attainable necessarily.  What are your resolutions for the coming year?