Kid Torture

What do we as parents love to do? Torture the kids of course. Barry and I often accomplish this task with chores and other dreadful jobs that need to be accomplished around the house, (I'm really looking forwards to adding 'weeding the garden' to their list.)
Ahhh, now hair cuts.... this is an ordeal the boys truely dislike. The boys were starting to look like shaggy dogs.
Giving the boys a hair cut has been on my mind for the past few weeks, so when Barry offered to take the boys to the barber, to help me out, well, that gave this a greater priority. (Besides torturing my kids, I really like to save money, where I can. I'm not about to spend $20. paying a barber to do something that will take me 15 minutes to accomplish.)

The hardest part of cutting their hair is simply getting them into the bathroom so I can actually cut the hair.

Of course, keeping them still is difficult too, they are so wiggly. Never before have they had more itches, twitches and wiggles.

Look at all that hair, we knew we only 2 dogs, not 4....two of the shaggy mutts turned out to be handsome boys.

Connor you're quite the handsome boy.

Ryan, you're so very handsome too.

Won't Liam be excited, he has no idea what joys awaits him.

And so our daily life goes on.....

My Babies are Growing Up

It's fun to watch the kids grow and achieve new milestones in their life. I'm marveling at the growth Ryan is showing lately. He is a voracious reader. In the month of January he read 20+ books alone. Yes, some were quick reads, but there were many long ones too;The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, three books from Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game series , The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury, To Kill a Mockingbird, among others. Due to being an Appie, he struggles greatly with change, changes in his environment and with himself personally. While we usually have to be careful when talking with him about 'growing up', lately he has been the one to initiate these conversations. As he has been reading 'To Kill a Mockingbird", he has been coming to me and talking about how he relates to the changes that Jem, a young teen age boy in the story is experiencing. he tells me, "Mom, I'm growing and changing too". He has been too, I love to watch how patient he is of Liam, he's becoming aware of his needs, and is more careful to try not to hurt all of his siblings feelings lately. From time to time, I see him accepting others' way of doing things.
He's discovering the joy of service. Most Sunday's he shares the Sacrament with a home bound family, the Beavers. He comes home from this act of service so happy and full of joy. I'm sure grateful for the service opportunities he has with his Young Men's group.
While writing the blog entry about our valentines fun, I realized how willing he is to do things that he's not comfortable with.

My baby Liam is growing up too. The other night although he had eaten a good dinner, he apparently was still hungry. What was fun to watch was that he knew that to 'eat', he would need a 'plate' so instead of grabbing some turkey off the table, he went to the dishwasher, got a plate out, placed some turkey on the plate, and then ate. Often he will not eat a meal until you give him a spoon or fork, not that he won't use his hands after a while, but he always starts a meal with a utensil.
Another funny antidote, he came to me pointing to his mouth ( this is what he does to let me know he wants something) I walked into the kitchen to find him something, as I approached the refridgerator he became very excited so I offered him some cheese,....no that wasn't what he wanted, I offered more food options, he became so upset and angry that he started to bang his head on the cupboard door until I said the word "Milk" "Do you want some milk?" The excited babble and happy smile that came from him told me I finally got the food item he wanted. And all I said was the word, I didn't show him the milk jug. He's really starting to better understand what everything is.

A little Valentine's Red to break up the Winter Blue's

Although Valentine's Day isn't a holiday as eagerly anticipated as Christmas, Easter or birthdays, it is a nice way to break up the doldrums of a cold winter....and the past few weeks have been dreary and cold.


Every year we attend our homeschool Explore Now's Valentine's Party and this year was no exception. Usually I take the kids to Walmart and let them pick out the paper valentines they will share with the others, this year however, we chose to make them. The kids, including Ryan, enjoyed cutting, paper punching and stamping lots of Valentine's (thanks Jen for sharing your stamps). Their creativity really came out...I especially enjoyed watching Connor create robot valentines out of hearts and Ryan stamping rainbow designs. I also enjoyed watching Cailin help Delaney, they have been working and playing together very well lately.

For Delaney's preschool class we read the book "Guess How Much I Love You" and decorated sugar cookies. Even the older kids joined in to see how much frosting and sprinkles one cookie could hold.

Yummy!

Enjoying a delicious bite.

Once again I was thrilled that Ryan wanted to join in, he usually doesn't enjoy getting his hands messy....perhap he knew that to eat a cookie he must first make the cookie.

The day of the party finally arrived and we had a fun afternoon of food and games with the other kids.

They all enjoyed getting together with their friends. Ryan and Connor made a new friend too. I was proud of Ryan, he initiated the first conversation with Seth. This too, is something difficult for him. Here the kids played a game called 'Giggle Belly's' Of course, giggles were a-plenty.

Playing a game of catch....with your head! What fun.

Gathering all the Valentine's that they got....of course hoping (and looking) for some candy treats too.

Later that night the kids enjoyed a special treat of chocolate donuts after dinner. Barry gave me a beatiful boquet of pink roses. I got the kids to bed early and had a wonderful dinner-date of grilled steak and chicken with vegetable kabobs on the side with Barry.

Photo Tag

This is a fun tag...one that I'm actually doing. If you are reading this consider yourself tagged. Go to your photo file in your computer, open the fourth file, then choose the fourth picture to post on your blog and explain it.

This picture is from Christmas 2006, all of the Stumm family came from around the country to SLC, Utah, for Brian and Risa's wedding. Here we are gathered around the dining room table at my sister Cheri's house playing games, I believe this is the dice game, but I couldn't tell you how to play it. I do know Ryan really enjoyed it. Brian and Risa, why are you here? I thought you were suppose to be on your honeymoon. ;) Eric, I'm sure you didn't let Elizabeth win, did you?

Yes, I'm a food storage geek!

I don't know what it is about working to build our family's food storage, but it truely excites me. I've always considered myself a 'Martha', maybe that is where this thrill comes from. I really do enjoy shopping, dry pack canning, orgainzing, gardening, canning and preserving the fruits and veggies from the gardens....anything that will help us achieve our year's supply of food and other items to that I will need to care for the family and home.
Yesterday I got the March issue of the Ensign. There are some fantastic articles in there on becoming self reliant. Yet, the ones I enjoyed the most were the ones on spiritual self reliance (maybe there is hope for me to become more 'Mary' like.)
I have some websites and blogs that I really like that focus on self reliance and giving ideas to slowly building a year supply of food. I thought that others may enjoy them too, so here they are:
http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/
http://www.funwithfoodstorage.net/
http://everydayfoodstorage.net/
http://mormonfoodstorage.blogspot.com/
http://preparedldsfamily.blogspot.com/
http://theprudenthomemaker.com/
http://myfoodstoragedeals.blogspot.com/
some of these I have recently found and haven't navigated very much, but they seem promising.

A lot of these have many recipes that use food storage. Yesterday I made homemade yogurt and it was amazingly quick and easy. (I've used another rather complicated recipe and it didn't turn out very well. So, I was excited to find another easier recipe as my children could live on yogurt and be very happy indeed.)

I have another favorite site that gives lots of ideas on using whole grain/whole foods, recipes, etc all at low cost. (low cost and free are some of my favorite words.)
http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/ most of the things I look at in this site are under the home management tab.

Sometimes it seem that obtaining a year supply is a neverending goal, much like doing the laundry, it's never really finished. You have to use it, rotate it and keep adding to it. Yet, I know this goal is a worthy one to have. I go to these websites for ideas and information to follow the prophet's counsel. I'm also encouraged by the words of the prophets themselves. One quote I like of Pres. Monson's is; "Many more people could ride out the storm-tossed waves in their economic lives if they had their...supply of food.. and were debt-free. Today we find that many have followed this counsel in reverse: they have a least a year's supply of debt and are food-free."
I love how Pres. David O. McKay said 'Outwardly, every act seems to be directed toward the physical: re-making of dresses, canning fruits and vegetables, storing foodstuff, choosing of fertile fields for settlement--all seem strictly temporal, but permeating all these acts, inspiring and sanctifying them, is the element of spirituality. (see there is spirituality in 'Martha' like actions ;) Pres. Marion G. Romney tell us that self reliance in closely interrelated to our freedom to choose and act for ourselves, our ability to comply with the Lords commandments. How neat to see how the temporal is intertwined with the spiritual. Enough of my ramblings, I'm off to start seeds indoors for my spring garden...see you in the dirt pile in a few months.

A Hint of Spring

It was Saturday and that means cleaning the house, running errands and getting ready for the upcoming week.
The girls, Liam and I went shopping, (we got some great finds-clothing- at the thrift store's $4.00 bag sale, the girls are wearing new shirts.) The weather was wonderful, windy but warm. We opened the windows to freshen the house and then quickly got the chores done. We wanted to go play at Randolph Park!

By the time we got there the temperature had dropped a bit and the wind had picked up quite a bit, but we still had lots of fun. We're all hoping for spring and got a taste of the coming season yet to be. (I'm also looking forward to not paying a rediculiously high electric bill each month.)

Delaney is very doting on Liam and his needs....quite the helper for Mom. Those two enjoy playing together often."Oh yeah, we're bad....You can't touch us!"

Having fun navigating the tunnels

"I can do this, just like the big kids!" says Liam

Huzzah!, Isaac and the letter A

Every other month, during the school year we get together with other homeschooling families that are studing the same time period in history to give presentations on projects that they have put together. This past month we meet and the time period was 1600's to the 1700's. Ryan and Cailin shared their interest in the Revolutionary War and George Washington.

Ryan did a power point presentation on George Washington, Commander-in-Chief and 1st President of the United States. Cailin created a lap book that contained tidbits of information on the Founding Fathers and others who contributed to the founding of our nation along with other facts about the war.

Can you guess what Connor's presentation was on? Isaac Newton--of course! He gave a biographical presentation on his favorite scientist. He also gave two demonstrations on Newton's laws of motion. Here, with eggs demonstrates the 1st law. If you want to know what it is, call and ask, he loves to share this with others.

Here he is showing the 3rd law of motion. Although he was disappointed that the experiement didn't go as he had planned, he knows what he will change for the next try....and looks forward to the chance.

Not wanting to be left out of the fun, Delaney wanted to "present" something too. Here she shares a cut and paste worksheet she did on the letter A. She loves to do "school things' along with the others. I guess for the next meeting we'll have to plan a project for her to share too.

Now, what does this have to do with Huzzah! Huzzah was the chant or cheer the soldiers said to show commeradere' and respect for their beloved General Washington as he lead them. It help unify the army and motivate them as they went about their duties of the army. I asked Barry if that tradtion is continued today. "Yes", was the response, and what do they shout to encourage comeradere', unity and motivation nowadays? .....Hooah! (pronouced who ah) How funny, it doesn't sound much different than Huzzah! Washington's apple hasn't fallen far from the tree or was that a cherry tree? ;)

Our Sunday Night Family Tradition

It's 8pm on a Sunday evening and we are preparing to watch 'Nature' on PBS. We have warm from the oven chocolate chips cookies ready ( most times we have popcorn or nothing at all, but Mom has a major sweet tooth tonight and chocolate chips sound great) we all curl up on the sofa and chairs in the family room, snuggle under the warm quilts and get ready to embark on our journey to faraway lands and see very interesting creatures. This has been a family tradition for quite a few years now. If, for some reason PBS isn't airing Nature then we watch a segment from BBC's 'Planet Earth' a wonderful Christmas gift from Grandma and Grandpa Stumm; now when Nature isn't on, we can still travel abroad and be back in time for bed at 9pm.