Playing Survivor

When my sister Amy was in town three weeks ago we watched Season 1 of a show called "Out of the Wild" about 9 people who volunteered to be dropped off in the middle of Venezuela and backpack out with no assistance.  The goal was to survive and find civilization. It made a great impression on me.  I think I spend an excessive amount of time thinking about survival and preparedness, even though I would not consider myself a very eligible candidate for one who would actually survive some kind of disaster.  Anyway, I told the kids about the show and they decided they wanted to watch it so we turned on season two about surviving in Alaska.  After 3 episodes they decided they needed to play Survivor so we had to dig up the winter clothes (because Alaska is cold, right?) and get out Paul's hiking backpacks, which I made heavy by secretly adding gallons of Apple juice, and we set off to survive in the wilderness. The woods behind our house has become a great sanctuary.  It is magical back there.  We have built a pretty impressive little stick fort.  On our expedition we hunted moose and bear and hung them up to make jerky and we foraged for berries and nuts and made a stew over a "fire" we built.  I made a snare and taught the kids how to make their own too.  Then Paul gave us a Survivor 101 class.  It was a lot of fun and we made plans as a family to go on lots of real outdoor adventures.

Can I drink out of a coconut shell when I grow up?

For months now Joren has been asking me the same question: "When I grow up, can I go to a beach and drink coconut milk out of a coconut shell and lay in a hammock?"  The kids remembered the one I made for them in the old house so they asked me for a sheet.  I told them we did not have any trees close enough together but I challenged them to try to come up with something anyway.  They went outside and thought of hanging it on the swing set!  Brilliant.  It worked great.  It's awesome when the ideas don't all have to come from me!  Of course I felt guilty being in Miami last weekend laying on a beach looking up at coconut trees above us so when we got home I did my best to try to make a bit of his dreams come true.  I made some coconut/ lime smoothy and encouraged him to lay in his  hammock in our backyard and turned on some Hawiian music and let him relax for as long as he wanted.  I think he really liked it.  You can see here, he is winking at me!  What a little charmer.

Joren in May 12

Joren has been insisting that I make him a vest and belt and headband out of pampas grass so he can go play with the monks.  Now, I'm pretty good with costumes, but I told him pampas grass is out of my expertise. After a few days and some discussions on the issue, we settled on making him a koonskin hat and a fur vest.  He is crazy about it and wore it to preschool for crazy hat day.  He also got to wear it to the Father/ Son campout.  It was a hoot.

For weeks Joren has insisted that his preschool class and family call him by his chosen name of hte day.  For many days it was Bill.  Then it was Lars and lately it is Chuck.  He gets really mad when someone forgets.  He says, "I SAID, my name is CHUCK!"  He also locked himself in the dog kennel yesterday and told me he was my pet panther and that he had a pet worm named Torin.  

I set up some 2 L bottles with sand in them for Joren to bowl.  He got so excited and bowled for a long time.  He told me lots of times that he was an expert bowler.  The next weekend we were invited to a birthday party at a bowling alley.  I have not seen Joren so excited except when we go swimming.  I took a video of him dancing around.  

Joren's preschool hosted a Mother's Day tea party this year it was so fun.   Joren put make up on me and did my nails and we potted flowers in a pot he had painted for me.  We had a little tea party with cucumber sandwiches at apple juice and tea and cookies and then we danced to Louis Armstrong. Joren decided to wear a cowboy outfit instead of "tea party" clothes.  He wore his cowboy hat and boots with his funky cowboy shirt.  It was adorable!  Mother's Day is my new favorite day!

When asked at preschool what he was going to do for his mom for Mother's day, Joren told the class that he was going to invent a three armed robot to help mom do her chores.

"Second's up mom." Joren


"What is happiness Joren?" I asked, to which he responded, "Happymess?"

Oregon meetings

Paul has been in Oregon this weekend.  He went to meet with Dr. Denman, Dr. Goodkin, Dr. Young and Dr. Hale.  3 out of the 4 want to sell their practices to Paul next year.  I think it is UNBELIEVABLE that three doctors are looking to sell at the same time in the same place.  We would be fools to look anywhere else when there is such a need and we are practically being handed whatever we want all wrapped up in a bow.  Unbelievable.  Honestly.  How are we so blessed?  Now, we have the hard choice of which doctor to work with and how much to pay etc.  Paul said the farmers market in the area is unreal and there is a artists community college that he says I will love.  I am really excited.  I am glad I will get one more delicious Michigan May!

Money in my pocket

 "I've got a headband and a light saber.  I am ready for anything!"

 Always watching and learning

 Teig's "smile" face as he pours vinegar into baking soda and food coloring.  This fizzes up and makes great overflowing eruptions.  Very fun!

 Lunch party and slip and slide at Annie Christensen's house.  Kids are Annie's twins, Nicholas and Alexander and Tiffany Hillam's twins, Zach and Mae, and of course cutie Teig.

 Teig and Tor-  loving friendship

Teig has figured out that money is what it is all about. He is crazy about having coins. He puts them in his pocket and takes them out over and over again to make sure they are safe.   He carries them around all day!  This morning when he woke up I pried open his sweaty little hand to reveal a handful of coins he had clung to all night. 
I picked up a book about potty training at the library.  He has been practicing sitting on his potty chair and wants me to read him the book every time.  So far he has not gone potty in the toilet but he has wanted to sit on the toilet many many many times I think were getting close. 

Mother's Day!

Yesterday I went on a long bike ride around the island with Teig in the basket seat behind me.  The goslings were out on East River and we saw muskrats, squirrels and birds and I sang Teig songs, and it was the most perfect weather.  It was glorious.

Joren's preschool hosted a Mother's Day tea party this year.  It was so fun.  Joren put make up on me and did my nails and we potted a flower in a pot he had painted for me.  We had a little tea party with  cucumber sandwiches at apple juice and tea and cookies and then we danced to Louis Armstrong.  Joren was so cute.  He decided to wear a cowboy hat and boots.  It was adorable.  On Sunday Morning, my boys all snuck out of bed and surpised me with crepes, strawberries and blueberries complete with a flwoer and a water and a straw  for breakfast in bed.  They honestly did not wake me up until they brought the food in.  (Quite an accomplishment.)  Eirik brought home a darling card and a poem printed with Eirik's silhouette and they all just soaked me in love.   Mother's Day is my new favorite day!

carpenter ants

Joren just went to his cave so that he could turn into a panther and grow claws.  Then he came out stalking us.
In the mean time, Teig was chasing around a carpenter ant and picking him up, letting him crawl all over him, squealing and then flipping him off just to do it all over again.
Such good, crazy boys.

I'm not a liar

Eirik had a dream last night.  In his dream he was playing on the playground, but it was not his real playground.  His dad came to the school, but it was not his real dad, it was a big buff guy (sorry Paul.).  His dad did something..... ( can't remember what he said)  and then somehow his dad found out that Eirik had been telling lies, like that he has science class at school and that he made up the songs that they learn at school.  Then they put a sign on him that said, "liar" and all the kids and teachers started pointing and laughing and taking pictures and videos.  He felt so bad and when he woke up he repented.  He said he thinks it was the Holy Ghost teaching him in his sleep not to lie.

Joren 4 yrs.

Joren has started insisting that I call him Lars instead of Joren.  "I'm not Joren, I'm Lars!"

He decided yesterday that I was his owner, and he was my pet panther.  He lives in a cage and has a pet worm named Toren.

I set up 2 L bottles with sand in them for Joren to practice bowling.  He got so excited and bowled for a long time.  We went to a birthday party the next weekend at the bowling alley.  I have never seen Joren so excited except when we go swimming.

"monks are kinda like people, except they are very wise and vey meditate a wot.  I am friends wif de monks." 

He is so random! 

Today Joren asked me to make him a coonskin cap like Davy Crocket.  He has been balancing a piece of fur on his head for weeks so I made him a cap and a vest.  He looks pretty cool.  He asks me all the time if he can be a caveman or an indian or a wild woodsman when he grows up.

Today at preschool all the kids got to say what they did over the weekend.  Many of the kids talked about what movies or what video games they watched or played.  I loved that my son could say, "we caught a giant frog and a baby bird."  For some reason that makes me really happy.

Goslings on East River

  Yesterday I went on a long bike ride around the island with Teig in the basket seat behind me.  The goslings were out on East River and we saw muskrat, squirrels and birds.  It was the most perfect weather.  

I picked up a book about a new potty chair for baby at the library she has been practicing sitting on his potty chair and wants me to read him the book every time he brings it up to me when he wants to try so far he has not gone potty in the toilet that he has wanted to sit on the toilet many many many times I think were getting close!

 "When I am a gadget engineer I'm going to invent a force field that will keep all the animals out of your sunflowers.  It will have a remote control to turn it on or off."  Eirik Oct 2011

"In the middle of the night I wake up, steal your things, turn on the lamplight and put on your glasses.  Then I do mad scientist laughs and do mad theories and experiments and stuff.  I made a  whole secret lab and I chart my experiments that I'm going to do when I'm a mad scientist."  Eirik Oct. 2011

Friends over

We had the Whiting kids sleep over.  It was one of the first warm weekends and the butterflies were out in abundance.  We spent the good part of the first evening catching butterflies and putting them in jars.  The next day we were lucky enough to catch our spectacular pond frog and the kids all got to play with him.  The funnies part of the weekend was when Brynlee came inside for dinner and said, "excuse me, I have to go wash nature off my hands."

Life is so good when you can be outside all day long.  I got to plant my garden this week.  For 4 days this week we were outside 80% of the day.  70-80 degree days!  To say I have been a happy girl is an understatement.  I read my new square foot gardening book and found out a few things I did wrong the past few years and tried to correct those and then I planted.  I learned to compost this year and used my own compost in the soil.  I also bought a drip hose and hay.  I am very interested to see if my garden will do better this year.  I planted (2) 4 x 4' gardens and 10 pots and hollyhocks and lavender in the flower garden.  I hope they will all do well.  Paul went to Oregon this weekend. (more details about that to come.) and I watched two Davis boys for two nights while he was away.  We played outside and had sleeping bag sleepovers each night.  We set up the tent, did bobsledding on the lawn with sleds and Tor, set up the pool and water slide, made homemade bubbles, played in the forest fort, had a read-a-thon in the tent, ate lots of pop-cycles and ice cream, and caught a baby robin and a huge bullfrog.  (This was obviously the highlight.)  The Davis boys and perfectly mannered and great to have around.  It was really fun, and they were all so good.  May is pretty much perfect.

 I learned how to make homemade bubbles and let the kids go to town.  They really liked that!

 On another day we had Nate Hillam come play.  He came on the very first day it was warm enough to get the sprinklers out.  They had so much fun!

Home Depot

 Hammering, gluing, sanding, driving a tractor, running around in the parking lot... a perfect spring morning at Home Depot.

Frogs in the car

 Paul and I took the kids on a nature walk and were lucky enough to find a toad for each kid in graduating sizes, small to large, just like the boys.  They were so giddy.  It took Teig a few minutes to get over his nervousness, but as soon as he did he wanted his own toad and did NOT want to give him up.  He tried to keep him in his pocket, but we explained that he would get smashed to which he did not respond well.  We explained to all the boys that the toads would need to be let free to live in the wild before we got back to the car.  Again, we did not get a good response from any of them.  We insisted and they all let their frogs go, Teig with a tantrum, Joren surprisingly pleasantly, Eirik, obediently.  On the drive home we suddenly heard Paul cry out, "What was that!?" as Joren's toad leaped out of the boot he had hidden him in!   He's a sneaky one, that Joren!

 Joren is always talking about living in a tree. Today he got to try to fit inside one.  He tried and tried, but it was a pretty tight fit.

 "my bone cowection!"

 A little nervous, but willing...

 Brave baby, caring brother

non-fiction

Playing the animal guessing game today Eirik insisted that we all took more than 20 questions to guess the golden breasted eagle.  We said we did not thing there was such an animal and he insisted that he had seen such an animal in the library at school in a non-fiction eagle book.  Joren said, "Eirik, you're so non-fictiony."  Eirik said, "I love studying."  Joren replied, "you're freaking me out."
It's hard to argue with a 6 year old who likes to quote non-fiction books.

Yesterday Eirik told me a lie.  I was explaining that lies are not permitted in our house and Joren said, in all sincerity, "so we can only lie outside?"

Joren still does not say l's or th's.  I think I will have a little crying moment when he starts to say, "I love you" instead of , "I just wove you so much."  

I spent a lot of time in the woods behind our house this week building forts and exploring with Joren.  The moment he gets home from preschool, he runs to his woods.  He tells me all the time he wants to sleep in a tree and live in the woods.  He wears his fur vest and jeans with no shirt and no shoes to do much of his "expworin in ve woods".  He calls himself a caveman or a adventurer.  He has a mighty stick collection and he makes tools and weapons out of sticks and rocks as his main hobby.  They are everywhere!

We lost Teig's bottle this week and for a couple of days he had to go without one for the first time in his life.  I baby grows up a lot when they don't get their familiar comforts.  He learned to say bobble, which I think is his first 2 syllable word, and he is showing some pretty fierce independence.  I had to make a big change in my behavior to him because I realized I have been happy letting him stay the baby in some ways and I have not been explaining every little thing to him like I used to do to Eirik.  Since Eirik could talk so well by this age, I was explaining everything to him, but Teig can understand as well as Eirik can, he just does not say the words yet.  I need to step up his education in a big way.   He is not a baby anymore and he is hungry to learn. 

Homesick

I finally got the guts to tell Paul how sad I felt about going to Oregon.  I have been trying not to feel sad, but to feel excited and happy.  After admitting my feelings, and crying for a bit, and talking again about how Utah just won't work out, I told him I just need to mourn my loss for a while.  I feel I am losing my family all over again.  I have spent a lot of my time away thinking that it is good for me to be away from them to develop my own strength or to bond with Paul.  I have spent some time feeling glad I am not near them because I thought I would get too frustrated with my brothers for not going to college and I feared my frustration would drive a wedge between us.  But really, those feelings just helped me not be so homesick and I fostered them so I would be ok.  I miss them and long for home.  I just miss them so much.