How Do They Come Up With This Stuff?

I simply will never understand how the young male mind works. (This is not the time to discuss older male minds ;-)

The older four boys were all outside playing, while Hewitt played inside. Hewitt tried to go outside. I assumed he was going to play with the other boys. Nope, "Me just going pee."

Side note: Yes, my boys do go to the bathroom outside. Afterall, we live on a farm so there is lots of peeing going on outside. We also only have 2 bathrooms, so many times it is simply easier to make use of the great outdoors.

A few minutes later Hewitt came back in and said, "Me make pea soup."

"You did what?"

"Me make pea soup."

Now reading the blog it is probably easier to make the connection that he was making "pee soup" and not "pea soup".

After much good detective work on my part (I'd make a great investigative reporter some day), it turns out that the boys have all been peeing in the old ash barrel. We heat the house with a woodburning fireplace, so everyday Colter empties out the ashes and puts them in an ash barrel to later be dumped on the gardens. Dad recently brought home a new one, so the old ash barrel was put to rest (or so I thought).

Apparently I thought incorrectly because the old ash barrel has become a soup pot for ashes and pee! I know in the "old days" people would make lye for soap by running water through ashes. I wonder what running pee through ashes produces?

I have yet to get an answer for what the boys were intending to do with their "pee soup". And truthfully, I really don't want to know. What I do know is that this is a Daddy (and not a Mommy job). When Daddy comes home, I will simply ask him to help the boys make their "pee soup" disappear. Because unfortunately they have been doing this for quite a while, and it has gotten rather heavy.

I shudder to think what they'll come up with next!
PJ

You Put the Tooth WHERE?

Emery lost another tooth!

When people hear that my children lose teeth, the first question always asked is, "What did the tooth fairy give you?"

Another confession, I don't do the whole tooth fairy thing - I think that must have been created by people with only 2 children at most ;-)

So inevitably the question gets asked, "Then what do you do with your teeth when they fall out?"

One of the children is usually happy to supply the answer: "We put them in our garden beds. They add calcium to the soil."

At this point, the poser of the question is usually looking at me like I have 8 heads instead of just 8 children.

But what else am I supposed to do with teeth? I can't just leave them lying around, can I? Can you just imagine the chaos that would create? I can see tooth projectiles all over the place. And I am NOT saving all those teeth. That's just gross. I once thought about making a tooth mosaic... (not really, I just made that up :D).

I think the garden bed is a very logical place for them to go. I don't know if they'll actually add calcium to the soil or not, but it sounds good!

And really, what I do with baby teeth is better than what Grandma does with them:

We were in Florida one time when Brett lost a tooth just before breakfast. Grandma put it in a cereal bowl. When Jim and I got up, Brett ran to show us her missing tooth. But the tooth was nowhere to be found!

Grandma had made oatmeal and did the unthinkable: She fed the tooth to one of my children. The children were all horrified. Jim and I were just glad we hadn't eaten any oatmeal!

So, doesn't putting baby teeth in the garden beds sound much more reasonable now?

PJ

Quick - Get the Shop Vac!

A large group of friends were arriving on Sunday at 6:00 to sing Christmas Carols with us. We had the house clean (well, as clean as we can get it ;-). We had food ready. We had children bathed. It was 5:55 and all we had left to do was get the hot chocolate going in the crockpot.


But first, I must digress and give you a little background to this story. Cassie (Brett's friend) showed up in church one day wearing a very pretty jumper. Brett and I both noticed it immediately and said, "Hey! We have that same fabric to make a jumper for Brett."

I should probably admit that I'd had the fabric for over a year, and hadn't quite found time yet to make a jumper out of it. So Cassie graciously offered to make the jumper for Brett! She also made one for her own sister. So the three of them all have matching jumpers. Brett requested that they all wear them on Sunday evening.

Brett had showered, done her hair, and put on her jumper. She had put on an apron to protect it. At about 5:50, she took off the apron in preparation for the guests arriving. At 5:55, Mom asked her to get the cocoa so we could finish making the hot chocolate. At 5:56, Brett opened the lid to the cocoa and POOOOOFFFFF!!!! This happened:

I didn't know that cocoa could explode like that, did you?

Brett managed to contain herself while I ran and got the camera. But as soon as I finished taking this photo, she burst into tears (you can see them forming in her awkward smile).

We carefully took the jumper off, and then Dad had a brilliant idea. "Get the shop vac!!"

Why not?

So we pulled out the shop vac and shop vac'd the jumper, the shirt, and Brett (well, she actually washed her face and hands). It worked great - there were some faint cocoa markings on her sleeve still, but nothing that anyone would notice.

So, Brett got to wear her jumper. And much to Brett's chagrin, Mom got to tell everyone about the hazards of exploding cocoa!

PJ

You Put in How Much??

On Sunday we had a large group of friends over to sing Christmas carols. The children were all cooking and baking their little hearts out. On this particular cooking marathon, Colter learned a valuable lesson.



Our piano teacher had given us some friendship bread starter. Colter had successfully divided the starter and was making two loaves to serve to our friends that evening.



He was flying solo on this recipe, but I happened to glance into the bowl at one point, and asked, "Colter, what did you just put into the bowl?" (Because it looked like powdered sugar, and I knew the recipe did not call for powdered sugar). His reply, "Baking powder."



A quick glance at the recipe showed me that he was supposed to add 1 1/4 tsp baking powder. "How much baking powder did you put in?"



"1 1/4 cups." Yep, you read that right - cups.



Now, it wouldn't have been so bad, except that he had taken his hand, and mushed the baking powder down into the batter, so there were nice hand prints in the baking powder.



After gently explaining his error to Cole, Mom tried to remove as much baking powder as possible, (but knew there was still way too much in there). Cole proceeded to finish the recipe anyway.



So for those of you non-chefs out there, baking powder causes things to rise, or as we say, "powder puffs". But if you put in too much powder, it rises, and then falls. Like this:





It was a good lesson for Colter to learn!



PJ

Simon's School of Self Abuse

Emery was a bit slow in getting breakfast this morning. And since it was a weekend he was trying to make it special by making all the French toast first, and then having everybody sit down together to eat it (except Jim who doesn’t eat eggs).

The problem, unfortunately was that he was late in getting breakfast ready. When that happens, my children turn into ravenous wolves ready to devour each piece of French toast the moment it comes off the griddle. Much snarling and snapping ensues as Emery tries to keep his wolf siblings from the French toast plate until it is completed to his satisfaction.

Jim and I were lying on the couch (playing with Indigo and nursing Jade – me not Jim ;-) I was kinda stuck, but knew I needed to help Emery or we were headed for an instant meltdown. So I called everyone but Emery into the living room and started a round of “Head, shoulders, knees and toes” which is always very entertaining.

But breakfast still wasn’t ready, so I began a game of Simon says. Brett instantly tried to become Simon, to which Fletcher rebelled. So I became Simon. After a while, I got Fletcher out, so we decided he could be Simon. Fletcher immediately begins:

“Simon says, ‘Hit yourself on the head hard.’ Simon says, ‘Keep hitting yourself on the head hard.’ Simon says, ‘Pull your nose.’ Simon says, ‘Punch yourself in the stomach.’”

By this point, Jim and I are in absolute hysterics. We’re in the living room, watching our lovely children hit themselves on the head (hard!), pull their noses, and punch themselves in the stomach. And they were having fun doing it! The children couldn't understand why we were laughing so hard.

As a friend of ours later commented, "I've been playing Simon Says for years, but I've never played it like that." Leave it to Fletcher!

I think the funniest part was that Fletcher didn't even know he was doing anything out of the ordindary.

Jim and I have been having a lot of fun with it - out of earshot of the children, of course. We've nicknamed it Simon's School of Self Abuse. It goes like this: "Simon says, 'Pull all your hair out one strand at a time.' Simon says, 'Rip your toe nails off.'" That sort of thing.

We've been extremely careful that Fletcher in particular doesn't hear us. We don't want to give him any ideas! :D

PJ

Happy 5th Birthday to Greyden!

Birthdays at the Jonas house start very early in the morning. Jim leaves for work at 6:30, so we are supposed to have our morning birthday celebration finished by then. Although I admit, we don't usually make it.

Since everyone was awake but Greyden, Jim went in and woke him up like this:

Jim: "Good morning, 5 year old."

Greyden: "Good morning, Dad."

Jim: "Were you 5 yesterday?"

Greyden: "No, it's my birthday today."

Jim: "Do you remember what we do on your birthday?"

Greyden: "Well, we'd better get to it!" (Said with much excitement and a jump out of bed).

We always start birthday mornings out the right way - with Breakfast Birthday Cake!! It's a yummmyyyy homemade crumb cake that Brett has taken over preparing. (Plus the extra sugar helps us to get going).

In this photo, Greyden is wearing our birthday crown. It has seen better days. I made the crown about 5 years ago and even Daddy and Mommy have (I mean get) to wear it on our birthdays. The birthday child gets to wear the birthday crown all day, so it suffers much abuse. Daddy and Mommy usually decline the pleasure of wearing it throughout the day ;-)

After finishing the cake, Greyden goes around the table from youngest to oldest, getting hugs and presents from each person.

Throughout all of this, anyone can (and often does) start singing Happy Birthday. The rest of us then loudly chime in.

When we finish the cake, we retire to the living room, circle around Greyden, and yet again sing Happy Birthday. This is followed by a big "family hug" - which is basically just an excuse to huddle up and squeeze as hard as we can.

I gave up having birthday parties years ago. The last birthday party I remember throwing was Colter's pirate party. I buried the goodie bags in gold foil in a back yard garden bed and the children had to dig to find them. We also made them walk the plank over the kiddie pool. It was fun, but a lot of work.

I guess you can just call me lazy, but I'm not about to subject myself to 8 birthday parties a year. So this is how we celebrate birthdays. We make the birthday child feel special all day by doing lots of their chores, making their favorite dinner, and singling that child out for special things. It's our tradition and it works well for us.

One new thing we did this year were the placemats. About 5 years ago I had made birthday placemats by laminating heavy paper covered with stickers. Problem was, we now had a lot more kids than placemats. We got by the last year by using construction paper, but Hewitt was starting to notice that his placemat didn't have birthday stickers on it. So I let the children choose "birthday fabric". They chose this colorful hot-air balloon print. Then they each got to choose their own backing. I let them cut out the fabric, I sewed them together, they turned them inside out, and I stitched them closed. Took about 3 hours to make placemats for the whole family. These are special placemats, and only come out for birthdays. That will hopefully make them last for at least 6 months! ;-)

So, Happy Birthday, Grey Bear! I can't believe you're five!

PJ

Why do I bother to clean?

Yesterday was Greyden's birthday. I was going to write about Greyden turning 5, so I started looking through the photos that I took yesterday. I got to this photo and had to stop. (If you can't see the photo well, click on the photo, and a bigger version should open).

Will you LOOK at that sliding glass door!!! What did the children do to it? It looks like they were fingerpainting on it. I see handprints, I see the word "snow", but most of what I see looks like they licked the door and spread their spit around with their fingers.

I wonder who the culprit(s) is/are. It's high up, but the perpetrator could easily have been standing on a kitchen bench to do it. Maybe I should match their hands to it. Maybe I should call in a forensic expert to test the spit. Maybe I should just give up and get out the windex.

Better yet, I'll have the children get out the windex. Odds are it was a team effort that produced that beautiful mural on my glass door. I'd also bet that many other windows are in the same condition. Based on previous episodes, my theory is that they all couldn't fit at the sliding glass door, so they split into teams and spread their masterpieces on other glass surfaces.

Oh well... more about Greyden's birthday later.

PJ

Why Am I AWAKE at Midnight?

I need my sleep. I am not one of those people who functions well without enough of it! So why am I writing on my blog at midnight?

Well, it's been quite a week. Full of lots of comings and goings, lots of eBaying, lots of birthday partying (Greyden turned 5), and lots of vomiting. Yep, we had a virus strike. Fortunately, thus far only Emery has succumbed to the vomiting part and he is old enough to make it to the bucket.

Today I was hit with a horrid (that's Brett's favorite word ;-) headache. I tried to battle it all morning and into the afternoon. But I finally gave up at 3:00 and took 1 excedrin. Just 1. That's it. But I guess I am not used to caffeine, because here I am, wide awake.

So I decided to describe the awesome evening we had. Jim came home from work today pretty early. But he was not in a good mood, because he had forgotten to stop by a customer's house and pick up a truckload of stuff the customer had for us. Since it was Greyden's birthday, Jim decided to make a special trip back to town with Greyden. When he returned, in his pickup truck were:

• a dozen bags of tortilla chips
• half a dozen bags of potato chips
• two bags of good chocolate and almond candies
• 65 pounds of potatoes
• 35 pounds of apples
• 20 pounds of shredded cabbage
• 2 large packs of diapers
• 22 cases of frozen whole chickens (each case averaged 35 pounds of chicken)

Oh my! Now, all of this was not garbage - it was all good food. I turned on our two outdoor upright freezers, and we fit 15 cases of the chicken in them. But that still left 7 cases that had to go tonight (it's a warm night here).

So, I started calling people to see if they could use some chicken. I have lots of friends who would have taken the chicken. But we called people who really needed some food. With the rising costs of gas and food, there are a lot of people who are really struggling, and we wanted to bless them. And bless them we did!

It was SO much fun! We gave away 11 cases of chicken tonight. Some of the recipients were an older retired couple, a family of 9, a newly married family, 2 families that just had babies, and 5 other families as well.

We also gave away some potatoes, apples, diapers, all the cabbage (remember the 100 pounds of cabbage I already got?), and chips. I admit, we did keep the chocolate for ourselves. They were a gift to Greyden for his birthday from Jim's customer, so how could I give them away, right? ;-)

So I still have 11 cases of chicken in the freezer, but that's just 385 pounds of chicken instead of 770 pounds. I have two other families that will be getting a case each tomorrow, and some other phone calls to make as well. I'll probably keep 2 for us, and find homes for the rest.

Everyone really enjoyed giving the food away and hearing how thankful everyone was. Brett in particular was really moved by it. She's thinking about ways she can start a food ministry. Who knows what will happen, but every time we eat chicken, I'm sure we'll be reminded of this night.

Now, if only I can get to sleep...

PJ

Time to Empty the Bookshelves

We currently own 26 book shelves - 14 of them are filled with books, 10 are filled with clothes, and 2 are filled with movies and music. Even with 26, they are still overflowing. So, it was time to either acquire more bookshelves, or reduce what was on those shelves. As much as I wanted to do the former, I opted for the latter.

After much work, I came up with 6 full shelves of stuff to eBay. Oh my! Trying to fit that into my schedule has not been fun. But eBay is running a sale right now that ends December 12th - so I set a goal to finish by then.

Almost all of the stuff I listed on eBay were books. But there was one special item that Jim brought home that needed to disappear from the homestead. It was this:





















Here is the eBay description I listed for it:



Spiderman Ninja Knife

My husband is the greatest guy in the world. He’s forever bringing home lots of things for me. Some things I specifically ask for. Some things he just knows I need. But, when he brought home this spiderman ninja knife, I just had to laugh at him.

“What am I supposed to do with a spiderman ninja knife?” I asked him. His immediate reply was, “Open the mail?” Ok, I had to laugh at him again.

Let’s take a closer look at this thing. It is a heavy (ceramic? plaster?) hand, dressed in a spiderman glove. The wrist is coming out of what looks to be rocks, with 3 big spiders on it. In the hand is what my husband describes as a ninja knife. The knife has a cover on it. The knife and cover can be removed from Spidey’s hand.

But now what? What am I supposed to do with a 7” sharp stainless steel blade?

I could slice some meat for dinner with it. But to be honest, spiderman doesn’t exactly go with my kitchen décor. And the knife doesn’t exactly fit in my knife block – after all, it was made to fit in Spiderman’s hand!

And let’s just say, for the sake of argument, that I decided to keep the spiderman ninja knife as a conversation piece. I can just picture the conversations it would start. In case you didn’t know, I have 8 children, and five of them are boys. I can picture tons of conversations like this:

Mrs. Jones, the neighbor: “Well, PJ. I certainly enjoyed the view out of my back window today.”

Me: “Uh, oh! Now what did you see.”

Mrs. Jones: “Oh nothing much. But Emery sure can run fast.”

Me: “Dare I ask why was he running?”

Mrs. Jones: “Well, it appeared that Fletcher was chasing him brandishing a spiderman ninja knife and threatening to slash his throat.”

Me: “Oh, yes, I think they were playing pirates this morning.”


Or another conversation:

Knock. Knock.

Me: “Hello, Mr. Electric meter man. Can I help you?”

Mr. Electric Meter Man: “Your children have threatened to cut my arms off if I don’t report that you used only 2 kilowatts last month. You do know that is fraud, right?”

Me: “Ummm, yes, sorry about that. We’ve been trying to figure out different ways to save electricity. I guess they were tired of turning off the lights. But you do know they wouldn’t hurt you.”

Mr. Electric Meter Man: “I don’t know, that Spiderman Ninja Knife looked pretty convincing.”

Me: “Well, thank you for not suing us for threatening you with bodily injury.”

So you see, I simply cannot keep this thing. It is going to lead to mayhem and loss of blood if it is allowed to stay. I appreciate the thoughtfulness of my husband in bringing me this lovely gift. But I really think it is better off in another home. Preferably one without lots of blood thirsty boys :)









So, do you think I'll be able to get rid of it?

PJ

Updated: Spidey didn't sell. Anybody want a Spiderman ninja knife??

Another Jonas Invasion

We were invited to a hymn sing at a local church last evening. Friends of ours just recently started attending this church, so we had never been there before. Since we love to sing (and love our friends), we went, even though it meant keeping the children up past their bed times.

Let me set the scene for you...

There is a quaint, country church. It is a dark, cold evening. The night is still and quiet. Then we arrive.

A glance at my watch proves all my pushing and prodding did get us to the church with ten minutes to spare. A glance around the parking lot discovers our friends' vehicle, so they'll be there to greet us.

At this point, children start erupting out of the Sprinter:

Emery goes running. Mom yells, "Emery, come get the diaper bag!"

Brett runs with Indigo clingling in piggy back fashion to her back. Mom lets them go.

Fletcher disappears arond the corner. (Before Mom has a chance to yell something to him).

Colter prepares to sprint to the church. Mom yells again, "Colter get the baby wipes."

Hewitt goes running off without his coat. Mom yells, "Hewitt come get your coat." Hewitt runs off. Mom yells again, "Hewitt you have to put your coat ON." Hewitt puts his coat on. Hewitt can't zipper his coat. Mom says, "You don't have to zipper it, just run into the church." Hewitt responds, "Me want it zippered." Mom responds, "Fine, come here."

Greyden... hmmm, I don't know when Greyden disappeared.


Meanwhile, Jim is patiently waiting to get Jade and her car seat out of the Sprinter. Mom gasps, "Oops, nobody buckled Jade into her carseat." Mom gives thanks that we weren't in a car accident.

(This photo is what Jade is supposed to look like - notice the buckles that are actually fastened.)





Ok, fast forward. We are all now actually in the church. There are a bunch of old people, our friends, and us. Later we found out the attendance was a whopping 45. That means we made up almost 1/4 of the attendance! :)





My children are tearing around the church while Jim and I are being introduced to people. (I think boys possess some primal urge to explore every inch of any new, unchartered territory they encounter.)


Fast forward another 15 minutes and it is time to start the hymn sing. We had just assumed a "hymn sing" meant a bunch of people singing hymns together. It did mean that, but with a twist. It seems the church also wanted people to perform "special music". Uh oh! This little church had no idea what they had just gotten themselves into.


After prayer, the music leader begins, "OK, does anyone have any requests. Colter's hand immediately shoots up - "The Old Rugged Cross." We sing that. Colter's hand shoots up again and he starts to yell out another song, but Emery beats him by yelling out, "He Arose!" The poor music leader was thinking that Emery was saying "Heroes" and couldn't figure out what Emery was talking about.


Now, if you don't know the song, "He Arose", it's quite a good one. And it happens to be a Jonas trademark song. It is one of the songs that Daddy used to sing in his Church Musical Dramas. It starts out, low and soft:

Low in the grave He lay
Jesus, my Savior
Waiting the coming day,
Jesus, my Lord.

Then the tempo and volume build:

Up from the grave he arose,
With a mighty triumph o'er His foes,
He arose a victor
From the dark domain
And He lives forever
With His saints to reign

He arose (He arose)
He arose (He arose)
Hallelujiah, Christ arose.

That's how it is usually sung. But that is NOT how the Jonases sing it. We sing it like this:

HE AROSE (HE AROSE)
HE AROSE (HE AROSE)
HALLELUJIAH, CHRIST AROSE!

Picture little boys yelling at the tops of their voices.

Now, our friends are used to this from us. So they knew what to expect the minute Emery chose this song. (One of their children even put his hands over his ears since they were sitting in front of us). But everyone else in that church turned around to stare at us with big grins on their faces.

Colter and Emery tried to choose the rest of the songs to sing, but at that point the music director was wise to them and said, "Does anybody from this side (not ours) have a song they'd like to sing?"

After a few more songs, our friend's children and our children went to the front of the church to sing for everyone. They've performed together like this many times, so they are quite good. (Or at least quite entertaining).

They sang a few songs and then broke into the second signature Jonas hymn - Victory in Jesus. Now, picture Hewitt (age 3) up there. Victory in Jesus is his favorite song. He's got a huge grin on his face, singing as loudly as he can, 3 words behind everyone else, and is swinging his butt from left to right. Fletcher (also up front) is laughing and saying to me, "Mom, look at Hewitt, look at Hewitt" (I guess he forgot he was supposed to be singing?) It was quite a spectacle. Once again, everyone was looking back my way, grinning.

Did I mention that I had all the boys dressed in matching blue and white striped shirts?

Then it was back to more group singing. By this point, over an hour had past. Fletcher was very hungry and thirsty and kept asking for food. I told him when we were done singing he could have a snack. It was during this last group sing that Fletcher noticed the back of the pews. Next to where the hymnals and Bibles are held, there is a piece of wood with 3 holes in it. This is to hold the little drink cups that are used to hold the juice from communion. I'm assuming that Fletcher was thinking how thirsty he was when he announced, "Dad, are we going to get some Jesus juice tonight?"

The morale of this story - beware of inviting the Jonases anywhere - we always manage to make quite a spectacle of ourselves! :)

PJ

Eight Children and Animals Too ?!?!?

Many people think I'm crazy to have so many animals. They think that 8 children is ridiculous and wonder why I would also have a mini farm as well. If I even hint at feeling frustrated or overwhelmed, the immediate response is, "Just get rid of your animals!" (I guess they say that because they can't say, "Just get rid of your children?" ;-)

I'm not going to explain why I won't give up my animals (that would take a book). But I will explain why I keep my bunny rabbits.

We have a huge garden. And what every garden needs to be productive year after year is fertilizer. I won't use chemical fertilizers on my garden (the subject of another book). What I do use is manure - and lots of it. One of the best producers of manure for the home garden is rabbits. Since you don't have to compost rabbit manure, you can put it straight onto the plants.

So we got rabbits. And if I'm going to raise rabbits, I might as well raise meat rabbits, right? After all - do you know how much it costs to buy organic chicken for a family of 10?

I had never eaten rabbit meat before. And I admit to being a little skeptical. But a friend of mine gave me one of her butchered rabbits and I cooked it and pulled it off the bone just like you would a chicken. And then it was time for the true test...

I fed it to Jim.

Now, for those of you who don't know Jim, he is an extremely picky eater. If he'll eat it, anyone will.

And Jim didn't believe it wasn't chicken! Yippeeee! It passed the Jim test. So I pulled the rest of the meat off the bone and made what Jim termed, "Bunny Burritos".

OK, now for those of you who are completely freaked out by the thought of eating rabbit, sorry. But if you eat chicken, it really isn't very different. If you are a vegetarian, sorry again, but we're not :)

So, now I have an animal that is easy to keep, raises its own young, provides lots of super manure, and great tasting meat. Oh - and the best part - they eat my grass and weeds! We have a movable pen that they go around the lawn on, happily eating grass. We don't keep them in individual cages at all. In this photo, they are in their winter quarters. They get rabbit pellets and as many greens and vegetables scraps as we have available. (This rabbit - I think it is Clover - is checking out a radish plant I threw in.)

Now I do admit that most of our friends don't handle the fact that we eat rabbits very well. We went to a friend's house for Thanksgiving Dinner. I asked her what we should bring. I teasingly asked her if we should bring the turkey. Her response, "You'd better not bring any meat, that way we don't have to wonder about what we're eating." She was only half teasing back ;-)

The grandparents have yet to try one of our rabbits. But Mom and John are coming for a visit before Christmas... bunny burritos, maybe?

PJ

No Longer Offended

Jim called today. He wanted to know if I would be offended if a friend of ours paid somebody to clean our house. Offended? OFFENDED!! What does he think I am, crazy!

Of course I’m not offended. I offered to kiss this person’s feet, but Jim said that wouldn’t be necessary ;-)

Now I do admit, there was a time I was offended. When Brett was born, my mother-in-law came down to meet Brett and help out. I remember very vividly when I realized that Donna had cleaned the window of my toaster oven with windex! I was appalled! How dare she!! Was she trying to imply that I didn’t keep a clean enough house for her son and granddaughter!!

Ok, I now realize I waaaayyy over reacted. I can blame it on hormones and pain medication (Brett was a c-section). But honestly, I admit that I had never windexed my toaster oven in my life. The thought that you would do such a thing never even crossed my mind. And since I’m airing my dirty laundry (of which there are piles), I’ll also admit, even after I was aware you could do such a thing, I never did. I no longer have a toaster oven, so I don’t have to feel guilty about it. :D

Actually, I have grown up a LOT since Brett was born. I now happily let ANYONE clean any part of my house that they wish. My mother-in-law has since cleaned many parts of my home that do not see much attention. The one I remember best was after Indigo’s birth. Donna was sitting on the floor, having moved the refrigerator, cleaning out underneath and behind it. (I think she also vacuumed it as well). I can happily report, Donna, that we just did it again about 3 weeks ago – although I did assign the job to Fletcher and Greyden. They did a marvelous job. :D

I remember when we lived in New Jersey, a bunch of the ladies from the church came and helped me clean once. It was after some sheet rock work had been done, and there was a fine layer of white powder EVERYWHERE. It would have taken me weeks to remove all that dust by myself.

More recently, some friends came and cleaned when I was 9 months pregnant with Jade. On that occasion I particularly remember Koreena scrubbing the mildew off the shower curtain in my bathroom. Yes, I do admit, I let the mildew build up (hangs head in shame). It had been on my to-do list for weeks, but there just never seemed to be time to get to it!

And then there was the time Julie brought her 6 boys and they all got on their hands and knees and scrubbed the kitchen, dining room, and bathroom floors! (I handed them each a knife to scrape the food off first, of course ;-)

So back to the original question: Would I be offended to have somebody clean my house???? All I have to say is, “No way, bring forth the cleaners!!”

PJ

December Second - Play a Game

Today our Advent Activity was to play a family game. Now normally playing games as a whole family is pure torture. The younger children can never concentrate, so you're always having to remind someone it is their turn. And because there are so many of us, the games last forever! And there are few games that the whole family can play.

One game that does work well for the whole family is yahtzee, because even the youngest children can roll the dice. And Mommy gets to count it as math time ;-) But, if you allow each person to play, it is the loooooongest game (even worse than monopoly!)

Enter... Team Yahtzee! It was Greyden, Emery, Brett and Mommy against Hewitt, Fletcher, Cole and Daddy. Mom and Dad were the cheerleaders. Greyden and Hewitt got to roll the dice the first turn. Emery and Fletcher rolled it for the second turn. And Brett and Colter were the closers!

And of course we let Indigo roll every now and then by herself.

What a super way to play yahtzee! Poppy got us an awesome yahtzee game. It has a wooden box where you roll the dice and a place that holds the dice you choose to keep. A great alternative to chasing dice all over the floor, retrieving them from under the stove, and removing them from the cat's paw!

Brett started out keeping score, but she had to let mommy finish doing it because she was getting too upset by it. Of course, that was before she got yahtzee by rolling two threes to complete the 2 threes Greyden rolled and the 1 three Emery rolled. After that she was all smiles ;-)

And yes, my team did win - it's hard to beat a yahtzee.

PJ

December First - Decorate the House

This is the advent calendar that Aunt Ellie gave us years ago. Sometime in November, we sit down as a family and make up a list of 25 things we want to do together. Each one then gets written on a slip of paper and placed in one of the pockets of this advent calendar. Each day we open a pocket and do the thing inside.

The first year we did this, I kinda made the mistake of putting waaaaayyyyyy too many food things on here. All those Christmas cookies sound really good in November, but we had Christmas cookies coming out of our noses that year. So now, we do a lot more simple family fun things.

Today, our Family Fun Thing was - Decorate the House! (Which fortunately doesn't include the tree).

So, here's the drill: Send the children upstairs to fetch the Christmas bins. Watch the children bump down the stairs with bins that are bigger than they are. Hope Hewitt isn't carrying the nativity set. Catch the wreath as it rolls down the stairs. Dive for the lids to the bins before they land on Jade. Restrain the children. Pose the children for a photo with their stockings. Play some Christmas music. Send all the everyday stuff back upstairs. Hide the frankincense and myrrh in a place where the children can't reach it (it's poisonous). Remember all our favorite decorations. Listen to the children exclaim, "I remember this. I love that. I want to put that up. Give me that. No, it's mine." Restrain the children some more.

You get the general idea.

I must admit that decorating the house is a lot easier now than a few years ago. First of all, not doing the tree on the same day helps. But also, a few years ago, I went through and drastically reduced the number of Christmas decorations we have. We kept just our favorite ones. They each have a specific place where they go (so we don't have to figure it out each year). Christmas decorating is now not only fun for the children, but fun for mom too!!

Their favorite decorations are the Christmas stockings. I personally made one for Jim, me, Brett, and Cole. At that point, I was ready to quit making them. I was going to go out and buy matching stockings for everyone, but Grammy jumped in and saved the day! She makes a stocking for each new baby. It takes a LOT of hours to make the stockings. And each child cherishes theirs.

The tricky part of course was figuring out where to hang 10 stockings. Daddy figured that out our first year in this house. He hung little hooks on the living room wall. They stay there year round collecting cobwebs (if you click to enlarge the picture, you can see all those pretty cobwebs). And then in December they get put to good use!

Each year (I mean, each new baby) Daddy just needs to add another hook.

So the house is now decorated. The candles are lit. The Christmas music is playing (although we can't find my Kenny Roger's Christmas CD which is not a good thing because it reminds me of my Dad).

The Christmas season has officially arrived at the Jonas House.

PJ