Rain and Random Tidbits

We've had three straight days of rain in St George. I love the way the rain smells and how it sounds on the roof and I love the way it brings out these rich deep colors in the landscape around here. Plus we get the best rainbows.

So I love the rain. But three straight days of rain has added up to some rather stir-crazy kids - with wet weather and Jared being out of town (he's in DC on business and visiting his sister there), we haven't ventured out much. The kids did great yesterday and we played games and read together and cleaned the house and broke everything up with lots of treats. But today things were a bit wilder. Still, we've generally had a great time. These kids are getting pretty darn manageable and while we all miss Jared a lot while he's gone, I no longer feel desperately stressed out when I have the kids on my own for a while!

Isaac had his "Eight is Great" meeting tonight to start getting ready for his baptism. Jonah took him and Ana so I could be here with the rest of the kids and that worked out great. It was so fun to see Ike come home glowing with excitement as he told me all about Cub Scouts and the Faith in God program and the tour of the baptism font and dressing rooms and all that. I can't believe I'm coming up on my second kid to be baptized! Isaac and I have been having lots of good talks lately and he's just starting to seem so grown up. He's had a tooth under his pillow for almost a month now but he hasn't complained - he did say the other day that maybe the toothfairy is really busy catching up because maybe so many kids got their teeth out at Christmas so that they could sing "All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth". I wonder how much the tooth fairy should give Ike for his tooth when you compound the interest and guilt?

Eliza has been counting down the days and busily planning her birthday for quite some time now. She's got several ideas for how she wants her hair done that day (mostly based on Pollyanna's hair - we watched that movie last night and she fell in love with Pollyanna - unfortunately, Eliza has nowhere near enough hair to do anything similar to Pollyanna's hair!). She's got all the meals planned. She's having her two best friends over for a pajama/princess/art/ tea party - they're supposed to wear pj's and stay until "really late" (9pm sounded nice and late to her). They'll be doing a bunch of art projects Liza's planned out and eating fancy finger sandwiches and pastries while wearing PJs - oh, and they also have to make princess crowns. She informed her brothers that they were invited to her friend party because "you can't have a princess party without some princes to dance with!" This should be interesting. But with just three little girls and some brothers who are willing to succumb to the princesses wishes of the day, it should all be pretty manageable and fun.

Oliver and Silas don't like Primary very much. They did better today I guess, but last week Silas snuck out of Primary and went back to Nursery (my friend who's the teacher in there kindly escorted him back to Primary where he sulked and got into a fight with Ollie who was trying to get him to sit on a chair instead of laying on the floor). Both twins really miss all the toys and treats in nursery a LOT but it's especially hard for Silas. But they'll get used to primary. They have the cutest teachers. I still can't believe my babies are so big.

The other day Eliza was talking about her "mirror friend" Frizzle (when the kids look in the mirror, they're looking not at themselves but at their special friend who lives in "mirrorland" - something my dad had us all going on as kids). I asked Oliver who his mirror friend was and he didn't really get it so I asked another way - "Oliver, when you look in the mirror, who is that kid you see?" Oliver's answer: "Silas." That made us all laugh. Ollie and Si are mirror image identical twins. Good stuff. So I asked Silas who he sees when he looks in the mirror. His answer: "Superman"

Ashton has a new random fact from "National Geographic Kids" magazine to share with me several times a day. He's always sneaking the light back on so he can read after lights out. I can hardly be mad when I remember that I was always doing that myself when I was his age. I've always been a sucker for a great book. By the way, I highly recommend some books I've read lately - White Tiger (about India - sort of harsh but very thought-provoking), Deafening (learn all about WW I and what it would be like to be deaf), and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (fun writing style, great characters, learn about the German occupation of the English channel islands during WW II). And some great kids read-aloud chapter books: Crispin and The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi (great historical fiction with lots of chances to learn morals and lessons from the characters). I love reading with the kids - and the kids love me telling them about the books I'm reading as well. I love it when they tell me "Mom - go read your book so you can tell us the next part!"

We watched Pollyanna last night. OK, old and sappy, but that is one great movie and all the kids loved it. I'm embarrassed to admit it brought tears to my eyes here and there. Watch it with your kids and see how many things you can find to be glad about in your life!