Now, for the Violin and Jazz part of our big music weekend - yesterday Natalie and Sophi had their rehearsals.
Tonight was their concert. Mel and Abi through Peter came to that with me. Mel was home after coming up to Salt Lake last night to go see Ryan Hamilton at Roots Tech (love him!!) The concert was at Holladay City Hall, which is right by a playground that the kids love, so they wanted to go play. I didn't want them being noisy during the concert anyway, so I gave them my blessing. They were all outside for the whole concert, except for Peter.
So I recorded the concert to show to Corey and all the kids that had come with me. It was super cute. They performed after half way through the program. They did a good job. Natalie went first with two variations of twinkle rhythms....
(My favorite part was the last note that Natalie played. So cute) And then Sophi was next with Perpetual Motion.
Good job girls. Natalie and Sophi with Miss Amy after the concert.
While we were at the violin concert, Corey was with Ethan and Wes at the Big Noise Festival. Here's Corey's recording of Ethan's solo tonight.
We were grateful that the Big Noise Festival was here in Sandy, so that helped. It would have been a lot harder for us to figure out logistics for this weekend if it was in Utah County like it has been most other years. Since it was closer, Corey was able to go to that with Wes and Lily last night, and then Wes went with Corey tonight to see Ethan tonight. They both had tickets that they had to sell for that, and Wes did a great job Thursday night putting forth a good effort outside of Smiths, like was selling newspapers "Extra extra! Come see the greatest show in Utah!"
Owen helped him for a little bit, it was cute. He didn't sell any there, but we were glad he tried. He got lucky and was able to sell most of them yesterday at school, just in time. Wes ready to perform - cousin Jordyn came to give support.
Here's Wesley's solo from last night.
We are proud of what our kids are learning and doing, and we'll keep on encouraging them to keep it up! But whew, it was a crazy busy weekend. I think we're gonna be grateful to take it easy tomorrow and enjoy being home!
This has been a very busy music day. Tomorrow will be busy too - It's like all the people in charge of scheduling music stuff said "Hey, there's nothing going on at the end of February, so let's do the ______ then!" Today we had five things: 1) Mel had a flute concert in Provo, then she came up to support 2) Abi at a Utah Flute Association thing. Corey was at the flute stuff while I took the girls to a 3) violin rehearsal before a concert tomorrow, then we came back home for a brief break. After being a flute Chauffer, Corey took Lily with him to go see 4) Wesley at the Big Noise Festival (formerly called the Peaks Jazz Festival) while I got the rest of the kids ready to head back out toward Skyline for 5) Ethan's Concerto Night.
Concerto night was a really big deal - a great capstone event for these seniors. They auditioned to be one of the students allowed to perform. It's been months in the works. Corey went to the parents meeting after we found out Ethan made it. Corey signed up to be in charge of the banner, posters, and program (and volunteered his talented sister to help, she did all the hard work and did such an amazing job). Ethan's spotlight in the program.
It was a wonderful performance by everyone. The musicians coming out for a bow -
I had my hands full with all the little kids, so Corey texted Hyrum to go buy flowers, so thanks Hyrum for giving us something to give Ethan - Ethan and his BFF friend Truman who performed on the trumpet.
The little kids did very very good sitting still and quiet, knowing there were cookies at the end of the show. That was why they all agreed to come. I knew there were going to be refreshments cause each parent was in charge of providing 4 dozen. There were a lot more than that though. It was a cookie feast.
They ate their fill and we visited with Ethan's friends and other parents. We got the phone number of Truman's trumpet teacher, so we're going to look into Wes taking lessons from her (he's never had a real lesson!)
We didn't go to Mel's Flute Concert, but we're glad for her friend recording it for us - Fantaisie by Gaubert
Mel came up to SL and met up with Corey and Abi.
Abi's performance today.
Day 1 of the busy music weekend done! More musical fun to come tomorrow!
We had parent teacher conferences today at the elementary school. Sophia is Smart, Obedient, Playful, a Helper, Impressing, and Amazing!
The girls are all doing great in school. Yay.
They are going better than the high school boys. Corey went to their teacher conferences last week. Seriously, they've got every grade available - As, Bs, Cs, Ds, and Fs. Ethan has an F in Jazz band, which is not surprising, cause he's only gone like 5 times this term. He sleeps in and misses it. We don't excuse it, so his CPA is going to hurt (thus the funny yearbook ad we wrote, haha) Ethan told us not to worry, we don't need to check his grades. And yes, he's been accepted to college, but go easy on us Eth, don't not pass a class right now and possibly mess up graduation. Hyrum's grades were the best. Wes.... he's got work to do.
Melodie sent me these two videos today by the Holderness Family. These guys are so great. I loved their Maycember video from the spring, cause they felt my pain! And I haven't seen much since, but I'm so glad that Mel sent these two videos, cause they hit the spot, esp considering the current state of our house as I shared on Monday....
"I see what's happening here.... You're face to face with neatness! ...and it's strange! I even threw away a can! It's recyclable! I know there's still some shrimp under the range. ...Focus your eyes just right here - this portion of the counter top is clear. I know there's a lot that still a mess, but I did this! Aren't you impressed!?!"
It makes me want to write songs. Sharing is cathartic. So fun. Let it be known though that Corey does the dishes a lot. I think Corey does them too much though - he and I are the unpaid servants who clean up after the kids all day. We need the kids to help out more.... they should clean it up themselves!
And then I found this one below. Hey kids, get off your behinds and help us!! And she's like "Ughh!" and she's like "Ughh!"
I gotta be honest, that is how I feel most of the time! Very relateable. "We are cooking your dinner.... We are doing the dishes.... we are plunging the toilet... and you're on your butt". Sometimes they are on their butt reading -they had a day off from school, and she just read and read all day! So even if they're not being lazy, sometimes they aren't helping cause they're doing something good. But I gotta find a way to have them pause and help even when they are doing something great, like homework or watching Peter. The teenagers all related most to the mom who comes in and turns off the movie they're watching then walks away. "She tried to discipline them but their insubordinate!" Yeah, I need to learn the lyrics to that song. Good news is that I'm trying something new again (although I'm not making an announcement to the kids about it yet.) I recently bought the Smart Kids Chore System by Freedom Moms and I'm slowly working my way through the videos and I'm hoping to get a system in place by summertime. The freedom lady says to not be a cleaning martyr, and to not make it seem like housework is drugery - and that is another great thing about these Holderness videos - they are making this a fun way for us to point out some areas for improvement for our kids. I'm trusting it will work cause that lady has 10 kids (she just had a baby) so if it works for her 10 it should work for me and the 10 I have at home. Although she homeschools, and we're all pulled in four different ways by the school and music activities (as demonstrated by our busy weekend this past Friday and Saturday). I can tweak it though, I want to make it work.
I also think that I could be a bit more fun, like the Holderness family seems to be. Sure, I don't know about problems that they might have behind the scene, but they really appear to be a fun and loving family. I don't know what we're going to do when we don't have Ethan around anymore to make us laugh. Here's Ethan yesterday - he grabbed this when I said it was heading to the DI. Ethan came back to let us know that this is the moment - this was the day that he decided he wants to look like this.
He felt pretty empowered just pretending, haha. So - a few takeaway goals:
Kids: You guys need to help more. Get off your butts and do housework (or atleast stay on top of your homework!)
Dad: keep it up breathing down their necks about their grades!
Mom (me): Stay on top of the boys grades. And at home, have a bit more fun. Lrt's figure out how to make chores fun and not drudgery. If things are starting to drive me crazy, maybe I need to find a song and write a parody. I actually did start one years ago. I don't need it now, but when I used to struggle with my teenager Ethan (he's almost an adult now!), I would sing to One Direction: "Right now I'm looking at you and I can't believe you don't kno-o-ow... You don't know you're difficult! Everyone else in the room can see it, everyone else but you!" Now maybe if I had gotten Ethan involved in helping me with the lyrics, and maybe had we made a video with him being the hard teen driving his mom crazy, that could have been fun and turned it into some fun family bonding therapy. So I'll try to turn to music when I get frustrated. Or I'll have Corey or Ethan do something else that makes us laugh. Work and play, and hopefully by the end they'll have decent grades and be able to get into college and survive on their own.
There are two basic type of students in our household. The Eager Student, and the Reluctant Student. I shall now give a few examples. Ethan is a reluctant student right now, but we'll just blame that on Senioritis. This morning he stayed home with a kinda stomach ache (again) so I'm going to say it was mostly cause he was tired. But we were hoping the dentist office had an opening and maybe he'd be able to go get his cavity fixed - which is one of the last things he has to do before finishing filling out his mission papers, exciting! But they didn't have any openings until the afternoon, so we're scheduling it for tomorrow. I ended up taking him to school around 9, but I was glad he was home in the morning, cause that meant I was able to go without Daniel and Peter to the school to rep the parents at "Books and Bagels", also known as "Dads and Donuts" (I'm not sure which one they called it this year.) Owen came with us - with his backpack and everything!
Owen is an really overly Eager Student. Most of my up and coming kindergarteners have been overly eager. Owen's been ready to leave in the mornings with the girls... He'll tell me "I'm ready for school" as he gets on his shoes and backpack. "Not yet Owen, you have to be 5 years old to go to school" and then he says "Let's go to store and get present" cause if we go buy him a birthday present, then he'll be 5! And then he can go! No, buddy, it doesn't work that way. So I try to say "You get to go to school after your birthday, and after Park City" but that doesn't really translate for this 4 year old either. Yesterday Corey was telling him "You have a lot to learn to get ready for school!" Corey got him set up on ABC Mouse.
"You need to learn how to write your name..." And then Owen hopped down, went and traced his hand, wrote a few pretty-close-to-being-in-his-name letters, and then went and gave it to Corey to turn it in.
"Ok! I'm ready for school!" No, Owen, we've got some work to do here. Since I'm not letting him go to school, I have to deal with him all day nagging me to go to school. And I have to bolt the door so he doesn't escape. I'm glad he wants to go. Cause a month ago, any time his sisters mentioned school, he would protest and insist he would NOT go to school under any circumstances. Today he was excited about it though, and especially excited that I let him come.
I was glad I could leave Daniel and Peter at home with Ethan, cause it was a little tricky keeping an eye on Owen. Enjoying his donut and apple juice. Well, hey! This school thing is great!
The kids enjoyed a nice sugary breakfast, great.
Natalie sat by me. Pretty fun
Natalie wanted to go to the Bookfair to look at things with her friends, I said that was fine and she left. Then Lily was asking me to ask a mom for her phone number so we could set up a play date, and as I was doing that, Owen took off - he was following Natalie and a crowd of kid. Ah! I jumped up to go grab him - no, Owen, we have to go back home, sorry! I was a little afraid he'd cry about going home, but he took it well. I told him we had to go get Peter.
So this is good. I really was concerned that Owen would not want to go to kindergarten this fall, but I think he's going to do just fine. Sophi or Natalie said recently that they are a little scared that kids will make fun of Owen because of how he talks - that he still doesn't know a lot of words or pronounce things correctly, but he'll have his big sisters there to look out for him. The elementary kids are doing good, Ethan's been accepted to BYU, so Corey and I have tried to turn focus to the middle three - Hyrum, Wes, and Abi. Corey went to parent teacher conferences a few weeks ago, and Abi is struggling with Math. Corey suggested we get a tutor but Abi begged us to not make her go to a tutor. I said I'd help her and she promised she'd try harder, and this is how that is going....
Over the past week we've had one very dragging her feet study session (during chapter 7) and one good session (chapter 8). Today we tried to finish catching up by finishing all of chapter 9. First session/hour today was pretty bad....
When I started to record her uncooperativeness, it made it more bearable for me. I have vague memories of behaving like this myself when my mother was trying to help me. I'll have to ask my mom if my memory serves me right.
I told her we could stop after she got one answer correct BY HERSELF. Unfortunately, that would mean that she was going to have to actually pay attention and engage her brain and make her brain understand the concept at hand.
She finally did get one done by herself.
Then I let her take a break for a few hours. When we came back later, she was in much better spirits and that went a LOT faster! We even started to time ourselves on each question to see how long it took, and most of the chapter review questions were less than 60 seconds.
Good job Abi!
And now this memory is preserved her for you to show to your future daughter when you're helping them with homework.
Yesterday I had a really great start to the morning. I was doing dishes, and Owen (our early riser) was dressed and ready for church, and so then I started serving up his oatmeal, and as I did, Owen and Peter started emptying the silverware from the dishwasher.
IT WAS SO CUTE!!!! Look at little Peter! He is so adorable.
I took two videos. A short video -
And then a longer one - this was so funny cause Peter started to taste test the knives and other silverware (shh, don't tell Ethan! haha)
So that was a great start to the day yesterday morning. And then here is the kitchen sink that greeted me this morning.
Not as good, but hey, the counters were all cleaned and wiped off. I can handle dishes. I had woken up at a the reasonable hour of 6:00 this morning and got to work as I listened to Teaching with Power's 2 Nephi 31-33 video while I did the dishes and before I had to take carpool (I love his videos!) This pile of dishes was here because we had friends over to dinner last night. We enjoyed a nice meal and visit with Iveth and Diego who we hadn't visited with since December. They are super busy. So we had a nice chat while all the kids ran around being crazy. They made another fort in the front room. Around 10 o'clock, Peter was coughing on something and made himself threw up a little bit. It wasn't much, but it did get over him and half of my shirt, so I excused myself to go give Peter a bath and feed him and put him to bed. I assumed they would be leaving soon or atleast that they would be gone by the time I was done, so I said goodbye. I ended up falling asleep as I nursed P. I woke up around midnight to see that the hall lights were on... and I heard voiced downstairs... and they were all still downstairs talking! I didn't go down to join them, as I assumed if they were about to finish up, my joining in now would keep it going, and they needed to get home and go to bed! Corey told me this morning that they stayed so late because they were all in a deep conversation about religion and about the welfare of our eternal souls. I might touch upon it later. Anyway - lots to do today before our Brazil friend Rafael comes this afternoon. Here is the basement.... where our friend is going to be sleeping tonight....
Isn't that lovely? sigh. I tried to work on it a little bit this afternoon. The little boys joined me. Peter loves the piano, and cool,I just realized that the train table makes a perfect piano bench for him!
A wide enough base that he can't push it over, wide enough on top to allow him to reach all the keys on the keyboard, yay. Even though, Peter, I do think you are standing precariously too close to the corner...
Pretty nice dance moves they both got going on there. So, if you're wondering how it ended, Abi ended up cleaning the carpeted side of the basement and setting up the inflatable mattress for Rafael and everything, she did a great job. And the rest of the mess increased substantially, since Abi admitted she just pushed and shoved most of it over to the unfinished side. So that's a big mess, but it's all behind a curtain/hanging sheet to block the doorway. Someday I hope we finish the basement.
I am feeling frazzled once again. I'm going to try to focus on things I am grateful for and things that I love. I love Owen's eyes:
I love Peter.
I love nursing him and being able to step away from all the work that needs to be done. But at the same time, it wears on me to not be able to get done all the things that need to get done. I sit here and nurse him as the figurative snowstorm from these children falls all day and I never have a chance to shovel or get ahead. But I do love it. I can't and shouldn't wish this away.
Our friend Rafael is coming on Monday to spend 10 days here. He's doing some consultant work with Corey. The house is a mess though. Today we were going to make a place for him to stay in the basement today. The lego area has once again become a lego war zone. We were going to work on the finished side of the basement for him since that seemed more doable, but we didn't get to it. But Corey did do a good job cleaning his office though. And we moved things from his office into one of the locked kitchen pantries, so now he has a place to hide the treats he buys for his church class and stuff, without fear of the kids or I getting into it. I told him to not tell me the code, cause then I'll give in to temptation and eat them. So it's good they are locked away from me too. He locked up his Nerf guns and all their orange and yellow bullets, so hopefully this will keep those things locked up safely and I won't find them all over the house anymore? Fingers crossed. We should probably put the Keva blocks in there too. Well no, those are good to have out, but I'm getting a bit tired of seeing them all over. Corey recently ordered these blocks (Feb 5th), per Wesley's recommendation. He and his friend Michael at school always skip lunch and head to the library so they can build tracks with these. Last Thursday Wesley built an example of the kind of tracks they create:
We "only" have one set of 400 of these, so that limits the size and scale of his buildings, but it's all good. He showed us how they race the ping pong balls down their creations...
And yes, 400 pieces. They are pretty easy to clean up, but still - FOUR HUNDRED. (sigh... all I want is a clean house.) Another one of Wesley's architectural works was this tower, which was also hollow to allow the ping pong ball through.
Impressive Wes. So that was where the blocks were the first few days, I cleaned them up and put them away. I saw Sophi bringing them upstairs on a Friday night. "...Nonono, those stay downstairs..." I said. Sophi doesn't complain or talk back, she just gives me a puppy look of "please?" Then I said "OK, fine! But you have to pick them up afterwards" "OK Mom! ThanksMomYou'reTheBest!" She played with them, picked them up, but did not take them back downstairs. So they have remained upstairs since. These next pictures were all from two weeks ago on Saturday, Feb 8th, which was when Wes and Abi found them and played with them....
Wes tried to cage in Abi but she kept bumping it and it would tumble to the ground, so he gave up and told her to do him - HE knew how to stay still...
It's a good game. The blocks have remained upstairs since. They do keep everyone entertained that night for scriptures - Building a fragile cage around Natalie -
She accidentally bumped it, so that meant her turn was over. Sophi was next. She was determined to hold still...
We were all listening despite there being a lot of building activity going on.
Sophi was doing great, but there was still the possibility of Owen, Daniel, or Peter bumping it, so we had to finish it! It is a little addictive - like you can't help but want to hurry and build up a wall!
...and FINISHED! One Sophia cage done.
It does keep the kids kinda quietly entertained while we read. It's a little loud when the knock down each other's towers on purpose or when they argue over whose turn it is to be built around. Owen and Daniel make simple little creations.
Sophi did so good holding still Wes does her again
He wasn't able to finish that one - it's tricky to do build that high. They've provided a few weeks of fun, but my fear of them being left out and all over the floor was not unfounded. They usually don't pick them up, of if they or I do, it usually doesn't matter, cause Owen and Daniel will find the picked up box in a matter of minutes and dump it. The blocks are currently all over my bedroom floor. I can't remember which night it was that we were building as Corey shared this Indian and Snake lesson ....
That's a tale that we both remember hearing in our youth. After the video was over and scriptures and prayer were done, the kids got up and left to brush their teeth or go to bed. I looked at the left over mess on the floor and told the kids that I felt frustrated by it - especially cause they always say they'll pick it up after! Ethan said "You knew what I was..." Haha, should I be surprised that the kids leave messes? No, I know what they are: kids. And Kids=messes. Lol, kudos. Yes, I knew what would happen when I said yes to Sophi. I knew what she was. She would not clean it up. And so here we still are. So the keva blocks are contributing to the mess, but I like them. They are a good simple all natural toy.
Corey and I are going to try and simplify all the belongings and clutter around here soon, but the keva blocks are on the list of toys to keep. We might have gotten to the basement but we had to pause our productivity at 6 to go to little gathering with some neighbors - a gathering of all of us parent's that have kids on missions. We all have sons out right now, it was fun to get together. Corey and I brought Peter along.
We had a nice visit and were there until 9:30 talking. I doubt we'll clean tomorrow, and Rafael will be here Monday, so we'll see what happens. I'm not going to stress about it.
Peter is doing really well at walking. I think he's gotten the hang of it. Although he does walk more staccato-like than legato (to use violin terms)
He started doing advance level walking today by thinking he can balance on the rolled up area rug in the front room - and to his credit, he didn't fall and bonk his head.
Trying to show off - "This is so easy!"
He kept pretty good balance, so yeah, I think he's passed advanced level! Good job P. He's working hard at advancing levels with his mess making abilities, too - as demonstrated here when he found a roll of toilet paper - He was fascinated by how it rolled away as he pulled it - cute.
Last night he was throwing around a bouncy ball in the laundry room -
Earlier this morning he was playing with this little toy car -
He was scooting it all around the front room
He's a boy - he likes balls and cars.
I like my little boys.
Natalie lost her other front tooth last night.
That tooth has been crooked in her mouth for over a week and last night she finally let me yank it out. Thank you Natalie.
I think you look better toothless than with that thing dangling sideways in the front of your smile. And with those two baby teeth gone, it looks like Natalie is advancing to a "next level" too. Everybody just keeps growing up.
