27 December 2019

I have tied a sheet over some of the toy shelves upstairs.  The kids have a new game where they lay on the floor and pull the sheet out over them and kick it so it billows.  It really doesn't take much to entertain kids.

23 December 2019

A couple notes to capture some of the sweetness of the season.  The kids are all really excited to open presents and are very impatient about Christmas Day arriving.  They calculate many times a day how many days are left until Christmas.  Christmas has felt a little awkward to me this year as we are trying to figure out how fit into our new house and new community  with it - how to decorate and how to reach out to others to share our traditions.  It's been tricky but generally successful and we have learned what we'll do differently next year.

Advent in particular has been difficult.  It is our most favorite tradition but we had a hard time finding people who wanted to come over on Sunday evenings and sing with us.  One Sunday we ended up with nobody as the family we asked got sick and cancelled on us.  That Sunday we had Advent just ourselves and we sang whatever we wanted and sang over each other and sang all the time.  Rose Pink accompanied instead of me, and it was so much fun!  Yesterday was the last Sunday of Advent, and we had three families over.  It was a little crowded but very enjoyable.  Mr. Brown and I both loved listened to Rosebud sing the songs she knew at the top of her lungs.  She also gets up and dances and spins in circles when the spirit moves her while we're singing.  I love how she is all in to the experience.

10 December 2019

I am teleworking today and Bobo is downstairs playing by himself in the living room (nobody else is awake yet) and he is singing "We Three Kings" to himself.  I love how my kids talk to themselves when they're busy and happy.

As we are getting ready for Christmas, I've been helping the kids plan gifts for each other.  Last night I was working with Nut Brown, shopping online for his gifts for his siblings.  He had a budget in mind but struggled a bit with choosing a gift for Rosebud because his first choices were too expensive for his budget.  He finally settled on something and we finalized the purchase.  Then as we were talking I told him that Mr. Brown and I are going to be giving him one present and $50 for Christmas.  He said, "You're giving me $50!!! Thanks, Mom! This is so great!  This will make it so much easier!  I can use it to buy something nicer for Rosebud!  Thank you so much!"

5 December 2019

Bobo is rationing my kisses.  He told me that if I don't kiss him for a week, then he'll give me a kiss. I keep forgetting but fortunately he hasn't noticed yet.  He says that if I forget that he'll add a day to how long I have to wait for a kiss.

On the Monday after Thanksgiving, we went to the high school and talked with them about getting Rose Pink enrolled to start after Christmas break.  It went well and we are feeling pretty confident about this decision.  It will be a big change for our family but hopefully will turn out well.  She is super excited, while Mr. Brown and I are a little more cautious.

30 November 2019

Thanksgiving!  We attended a potluck at church and discovered that there is such a thing as too much pie.  (We brought nine and took home six.)

Saturday I and the kids went down to San Antonio to hang out with my brother and his family who were there for the vacation.  We walked downtown through an awesome fountain park (stopped and played), had lunch on the Riverwalk (so cool) and toured the Alamo.  The Alamo has gotten a lot more interesting since I was there last fifteen years or so ago.  We walked back and spent a couple of hours at a super cool playground near the awesome fountain park, then walked back to their rental house and had dinner.  It was really great to see them and hang out.  Bobo had a great time with his cousin who was born the day after he was.  Nut Brown also had a pretty good time, although he was getting tired of the younger kids by the end of it.  Rosebud gets along well with my nieces too, so a lot of fun was had by all.

25 November 2019

Bobo and Rosebud are currently sleeping in 'hammocks' made out of quilts looped up on the bottom of the upper bunk.  They are both on the bottom bunk inside their cozy cubbies.  For an extra dose of cuteness, they have even had me make 'hammocks' inside their hammocks out of smaller blankets for them to tuck their favorite small stuffed animals in.  The whole thing is extremely adorable.

20 November 2019

Tonight putting the kids in bed, Rosebud says to me, "Mom, I have a question."  She has a specific way of saying 'question' that I can't translate into English phonetics.  It's kind of like "kes-shun".  She has a question every night, and it's usually related to something that just happened that evening and covers every topic from science to fantasy to imaginary friends. 

The following is not an exact transcription, because it was a long conversation, so I may put more adult words into her mouth than she actually used.

Rosebud: Mom, I can never feel God when I pray, so he must not be real, because I can never feel him in my body.

Mom: It takes practice to learn how to feel him, Miss B.  But whether or not you feel him doesn't mean that he's not there.  He is always there.

At this point, Bobo leaned over the divider and said: Rosebud, one time we had missionaries over at our house and they said that after you pray you have to listen in order to feel God.

Mom: Yes, you have to listen with your heart and your mind.  It takes practice!

Rosebud: But I don't feel him in my mind!

Mom: Can I tell you about how God answered my prayers this morning?  (She nods yes) This morning I prayed on the bus on my way to work and told God that I really needed to know that what I was doing was right.  Really really really needed to know.  Then I stopped and I listened hard with my mind and my heart, but I didn't hear anything.  Then I got out my scriptures to read, and the verse on the page when I opened it said, "Judge not that ye be not judged" and I knew right away that it was the answer from God.  I could feel it in my heart.  So today God answered by the scriptures, so I had to be listening to the scriptures to hear God talking to me.  It takes practice.

Mom: Okay, time for prayers.  I'll say prayers tonight. (Rosebud does not like saying prayers and always asks me to say them at bedtime.)

Rosebud: That's right.  No, I have to say prayers because I don't know how to listen!

And then she did pray, and I had a happy feeling in my heart listening to her.  After she had prayed, she seemed very happy and cheerful and settled, so I would like to think that she was feeling the same happy feeling from the Spirit that I was.

I went around to tuck Bobo in, and the following conversation ensued:

Mom: Don't forget to say your prayers tonight, okay?  (one of the sadnesses in my life is that Bobo has decided to keep his prayers between himself and God.  He prays so sweetly and tenderly when he is genuinely talking to God.)

Bobo: I already said my prayers, Mom.  And I listened hard but I didn't hear anything.

Mom: Sometimes it is hard to hear.  Tonight when Rosebud was praying, I had a very quiet happy feeling in my heart, and I know that was the Spirit rejoicing in Rosebud's prayer.  But it was a very quiet feeling.

Bobo: I think maybe I do feel a little better about making friends.  That's what I was praying about.

19 November 2019

Yesterday we went to a skate park near our neighborhood to check it out.  It was small but very very fun.  Besides our roller blades we took the scooters, and we all had so much fun!  Mr. Brown has a lot of experience with roller blading and he coached the older three kids (and me a little bit) through learning how to navigate some of the twists and turns and jumps and things.  Nut Brown was especially good at it, just as he is with most things related to body movement.  It was great to watch him.  I also was impressed with how often Rose Pink kept getting up and trying again, even though it was not as intuitive to her.  Bobo just raced around and around, and then I realized that he was jumping up on things and skating along the benches.  Rosebud skated around and sang the whole time, such a cheerful noise.  After awhile the littles gave up skates for scooters which was also joyful.

Today I had to go to work, but Mr. Brown took them back after homework was done, and as Rosebud scootered along with Mr. Brown she looked up at him and said, "I'm just so happy!"

4 November 2019

 Bought some dirt for the garden.  Turned out to be great entertainment.

30 October 2019

And the results of the great pumpkin search yesterday afternoon:

30 October 2019

Started the week on Sunday morning by discovering that I had washed a book with my boys' clothes in the washer.  Book was COMPLETELY shredded, tiny bits of paper blanketing the clothes and the washer.  I dried the clothes twice, and collected the resulting wads of lint for firestarter.  There was a lot.  Then I washed it one more time and dried it (another wad for the fire) and counted it good enough.  It was Bobo's spelling book.

Yesterday we decided it was time to get pumpkins for carving and discovered that October 29 is too late for pumpkins.  After four stores, we found pie pumpkins so we bought seven and one large pumpkin shaped gourd.  Came home and read 2 Timothy 2 while the hash browns were cooking for dinner.

We are in the middle of bad head colds (side effect from recent trip to Michigan maybe?) and Mr. Brown has been wiped out for the last couple days.  Nut Brown and Rosebud and I are mostly mended, and Rose Pink never got sick, but Bobo is also really really ill.  He spent a good chunk of yesterday afternoon laying in bed dozing, which is unlike him. 

26 October 2019

We spent the last week in Michigan visiting friends and working on the annual clothing distribution.



We stayed with our friends the Scotts and had a great time.  Our plane tickets were only thirty dollars, which compensated for flying out at 6 am.  The flight landed in time that we got to help unload the truck, which was a key event, and then we stayed and worked for several hours before going up to the Scotts' house.  Thursday we rested up and that afternoon I went out to see my aunt and uncle in Ann Arbor, which was a very nice visit.

Friday we went back and worked at the clothing distribution in the morning, which was okay but not as fun as it has been in previous years.  It was not as well organized this year, and it's clear that interest in supporting it in the ward is waning.  It was nice to hug and love on friends from our old congregation.

Saturday was a beautiful day, and we went to a cider mill with the Scotts and watched the cider press work, and ate cider and donuts outside.  Yum.

Sunday we went to church, and then over to Tiffany's house for lunch.  The Laswells were sick so we didn't get to see them.  We played games with Tiffany and Ben Hafen, and went for a walk.  Bobo and I collected seven different types of pinecones.

Monday and Tuesday Colin took off work so we played hard!  Monday was rainy and we went to an indoor laser tag/go cart/arcade place in Warren.  It was super fun!  We drove go carts, played laser tag, ran around a giant play place playground and spent a lot of money on arcade games.  All of us had a lot of fun.  That evening it was a double date at a ramen place and an escape room for the adults, which was super cool.  (We successfully escaped from the Colosseum.)

Tuesday we went out to breakfast at pancake house, and then I took another friend out to lunch.  Colin and Mr. Brown split kindling for awhile, and we went to Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum, which was also fun.

It was a lot of fun to see old friends and familiar places and enjoy all our favorite things about Michigan.  By the end, Mr. Brown and I were ready to come back to Austin, but the kids wanted to stay longer!

26 October 2019

Nut Brown's Halloween costume:

26 October 2019

Joint creation by me and Rose Pink

20 October 2019

Pushing Bobo on the tire swing in circles at Tiffany's house and he suddenly stops shrieking and puts his head down. I ask him, " Are you okay?" And he says "I'm fine, I just feel like barfing. "

Then we went for a walk and found seven different kinds of pinecones. 

16 October 2019

Out to dinner and they bring the drinks and Rosebud says, "You ordered me some really good water, Mom!"

8 October 2019

Update for Nut Brown's birthday.  His birthday was awhile ago, and it wasn't until the end of September that I managed the birthday party he wanted - a trip to Main Event with all you can play laser tag and climbing walls.  He brought his best friend and the friend's dad and the rest of us, and we climbed, laser tagged, and mini golfed.  Next time we're getting all-you-can-play arcade games!

This week we had blinds installed in the house.  The installer commented on the fact that all our kids were laying around reading books.  He said it had been a long time since he'd seen a kid just reading, not on a device.  Mr. Brown told him all about our philosophy of no devices.  He was impressed that Mr. Brown also doesn't have a cell phone.

Last week I watched Bobo cleaning the living room.  He was moving the couches so he could sweep underneath them, and encouraging Rosebud to climb up and ride on them - they were playing a game as he cleaned.  It was so sweet to see.

15 September 2019

At church the speaker says something an keeping our first estate, and Nut Brown leans over and says, "I think we've sold too many houses to keep our first estate."

9 September 2019

When Rose Pink went to Nauvoo this summer, she came home and told me that in one of the bathrooms, she suddenly had memories come back from when we went to Nauvoo with Spencer's brother and sister-in-law when we lived in Iowa.  She was five years old, and she suddenly remembered how the hand dryers in that bathroom had made her nervous because they were so loud.  Funny how memories work.

7 September 2019

The kids heart attacked our bedroom door.  These are some of my favorites.

This one cracks me up.  You have to pronounce each letter to find out that it's not an insult.  Hee hee.

Bobo was writing 'in code'.  He was reading a Geronimo Stilton book that involved code breaking.