Chitter Chatter

Well. It is the end of another week. Douglas is at priesthood and some evil villain possessed my body for a short period of time and I cleaned like a crazy woman. I would, never in my right mind, do that. It isn’t that I don’t love a clean home, because I certainly do, but more so because I work so hard and it is torn apart so quickly. Cleaning tonight involved finding homes for a few of the things that have sat on the floor for a month now, wiping down cupboards, cleaning the stove top, vacuuming, mopping, full kitchen overhaul. Now, I am sipping on a soda and enjoying the quiet of my home.

Douglas and I have been watching a show called CHUCK in the evening. We try to carve (by “we” I mean Douglas some time out before bed to do that together. We have always enjoyed watching TV series and this is a good one. We will watch another when he gets home. It is so strange to have priesthood at 8pm…so late with the time difference! We are really looking forward to sleeping in the morning though. The first session isn’t until noon!

I tried to watch conference on my lap top today. It is so hard to get anything out of it with kids around. I get interrupted so often. It is so hard for them to wait to say the really unimportant important thing they need to say. Sometimes I feel like I shush them too often. Life is always busy and sometimes it is hard to always have a ready ear to listen to such silly things. I know it is important to them though, so I try to always be available.

It was a cold, rainy day today. We had arranged with some friends (Douglas’ friend Jimmy and his wife Sham and their boys—D was roommates with Jimmy his first year at BYU) to go apple picking and to the cider mill to get cider and doughnuts. We went out despite the rain, but only got the doughnuts and cider…no apple picking. I will have to take the kids to do that this week. There are lots of places around when you can pick apples. It is fun. We go through so many apples too. I bet between all of us we eat around 20 apples a week. Yikes. Douglas takes two to school every day. My favorite are the honey crisps. YUM!

They have delicious cider at these places. It reminds me of a place my parents would take us when we were kids…Apple Hill. Of the few things I remember from my childhood, that is one of them. I have a very vivid memory of the place.

The doughnuts were delicious. They were cake doughnuts and they had an apple spice flavor and a pumpkin. Yum Yum. Of course, I can’t think of a doughnut I have had that I didn’t enjoy! I wish they were good for you because I love them. As a kid my grandpa would always take us to get Winchell’s doughnuts on the way home from church when we were in Studio City visiting. Not exactly the best Sabbath day activity, but as a kid is was a special time. I remember it fondly. That and the $100 bill game we would play with my grandpa. He would have us hold out our thumb and pincher fingers and he would drop a bill through it. If we caught it we could keep it. It is much harder than it seems. I think in the end he would always let us catch it.

The kids had a blast, despite the rain. There was a cute place to ride trikes, a big tractor they could climb on, animals, and other fun things. When we finally left Jackson was so wet he stripped down to his undies and rode home that way. What a life.

We had a busy week. Let’s be honest, life is always busy, it seems! J is slowly adjusting to school. He loves it, but has some issues with obeying the teacher and being good in class. Shucks, I never thought it would be my kid that caused disturbances in class! I hope it is just an adjustment phase and will pass. I made a little chart for his teacher to mark if he is good in class. He got one star, one no star and two half stars. He gets to earn computer time for getting stars.

Tonight at dinner he told us that his music teacher doesn’t know, “I am a Child of God”. I asked him if he had asked her that which he had and she had said it sounds like a nice song. Such innocence. I love it!

I have started really making the kids do chores. Age appropriate, of course, but I am using myjobchart.com to let them earn points for the different jobs they do and earn rewards. They have been really great about getting their things done. J has to empty the dishwasher every day, P the silverware, straighten books, garbage, clean out the car, set the table, clear the table, help clean bathrooms, pick up toys, dust etc. I really want my kids to be hard workers and I figured now is the time to instill that in them!

J started soccer this week as well. Being the space cadet I am, I thought I signed him up for the Wednesday class when in actuality he is in the Monday class. I am glad because the Wednesday class had older kids in it and one of the kids just bugged everyone. The coach was a dufus (seriously) and I had to stand on the sideline and keep this annoying boy from touching all the other kids. J was lazy about the whole thing and just wanted to play on the playground and not have to do soccer (though he was the one who told me he wanted to.) I hope getting into a class with more kids his age will be better for him.

There is a really fun museum here in town called the “Hands on Museum”. I am trying to take P every week and she is loving it. There are all sorts of science projects that can try, play houses, building toys, huge bubble makers, water tables, beehives. It is really cool. It will be a great winter time activity!

Jackson’s school had a fundraising night at Chuck E. Cheese. Douglas was actually able to come (which was nice on many levels.) We really enjoyed sitting and talking while the kids ran around playing. It was nice because they stamped everyone with one of those invisible stamps that can only be seen with a certain light. Each family was a different number and when you left they would check to make sure the adults were the same number as the kids. That way, no one could walk off with your children. I thought that was really well thought out. Jackson would give away so many of his tokens to other kids (so Jackson to share like that). Paige was very conservative with using her tokens. She liked the rides and would wander around for some time before deciding on exactly what she wanted to do. I think she only used about 8 tokens the entire night. Douglas and I will definitely take the kids back there.

Douglas has been so busy in the evenings meeting with recruiters. Different companies come to the school and put on presentations so you can get to know the company. He has been excited about meeting all this different companies he is interested in. He even got to go to a free happy hour J put on by one of the companies!!

So, I am one step closer to hanging pics in my living room. I have made the goal to do it for the last three weeks or so and this week I finally made progress. I want to do a big gallery on the long wall so I cut paper out in the size of all the frames and arranged those on the wall. I think I like how it looks so now I just need to hang the actual frames. I have to put hangers on the back of most of them. That seems like so much work. But, I will get it done. I am hoping I love it when all is said and done.

Did I mention that I am refinishing my kitchen table. I sanded down the top and then painted the legs white and stained the top a dark brown. I spent the past week doing things slowly so everything had time to dry. Well, Friday night I had it sitting out on the driveway with the intention of bringing it in the house before we went to bed. Douglas and I watched our TV show and when we came upstairs to move it in, we were too late. Everything was soaking, including the table. We quickly dried it off, but it was too late. I will need to resand and stain it again. Rrrr….all that work down the drain. The legs, luckily are still fine.

I read a new parenting book called 123 Magic. I have really liked it. It has made a big difference with getting the kids to stop doing things they shouldn’t. It seems that I read these things and am really good about doing them for a while and then slowly I get out of the habit and everything goes back to how it was. I guess I should call it the discipline cycle. Jackson has really been difficult at home too, so I am looking for some more positive, consistent ways to get cooperation.

Well, it is Sunday and I have spent the day in the kitchen. I watched conference on my computer and made Doty Beans, white bread and pumpkin waffles (YUM!). Doty Beans are a total comfort food. It is a recipe passed down from my Great Grandma Doty. I ate it growing up and even now, when I make them, it makes me feel home. Not physically home, of course, but close to my family. You eat the beans on top of white bread (usually Wonder brand). They are a simple concoction of white beans, onion, bacon, tomato soup, baking soda, salt and pepper. Sounds strange, but trust me, there is a delicious hominess to them.

It is definitely fall here. I have my electric blanket on the bed and will possibly be getting one for the kids. Paige woke up cold a few times last night. We still haven’t turned the heat on, though I think the day is close for that! The leaves are changing colors. It is great to enjoy a real fall…such a gorgeous time of year.

I finally found the kids coats for the winter. I have been stressing about that. I found them at the Lands End Overstock. I still need to get them pants, boots, hats and gloves. What??? This is going to be quite the experience. I bought myself a coat to. I tried to find the warmest one I could!!

Well, there you go…life in the Shaw house. It is finally feeling like home.