The Little Red Hen

A favorite story of our family is The Little Red Hen.  I have read that story to the kids at least 1000 times.  Sometimes when I am feeling crazy, I will read La Gallinita Rosa to mix it up a little.  We have tried to teach the kids the value of hard work and that if you just sit on your butt while everyone else works hard, you will pay the consequence in the end.

Perhaps I have taken this a little too far.  On Sunday I said, "Who will help me grind the wheat?"  I expected the kids to roll their eyes, or to say, "Not I." But instead the kids all said, "I will help you grind the wheat!"

And so a small project became a big project, but they helped me grind some wheat.  They still can't get over the fact that wheat becomes flour.  It is magic to them.  I am glad that Mark got his camera to document the exciting event.

And then my Z buddy got out the broom to clean up the floor.  He knows the end of the story.

Mon Beau Sapin!

When I was in 7th-9th grades, I took French.  Our teacher was very fun, and she taught me a lot about grammar, conjugations, and vocabulary.  She never taught us about pronunciation, though.  Everything I learned about French pronunciation is from the awesome records she would have us listen to and sing along with.  To this day, I know every word of La Marseillaise and several chansons de Noel.  One that I always have stuck in my head Mon Beau Sapin.

So here are some pictures of our family decorating Mon Beau Sapin this year.

 

 

Witness

Joel and I drove to Albertsons this morning to get milk for breakfast.  As I was waiting to turn left, I saw a car coming from the opposite direction speed through a red light, turn left, and hit a woman who was crossing in the crosswalk.  A man she was walking with was able to jump out of the way, but she took the hit from the car, and then hit the road really hard.  It was horrible to see this happen, but it got worse.  The car slowed to a crawl and then suddenly took off FAST!  The driver absolutely knew she was leaving the scene of the accident.

I was too far away to see the license plate, but there was a guy in a van who saw the whole thing and was able to take off and chase down the green BMW who had hit the woman.   I made Joel call 911 and promise to stay in the car.  I finished my left turn and pulled over to the side so that I could help the woman until help arrived, and also to let the police know what I had seen.  It was very scary.

The guy in the van returned about 10 minutes later.  He had called the police with a description of the vehicle, and stayed in pursuit.  He said that the woman in the BMW had noticed him following and flashing his lights at her, and after about a half mile, she decided to pull off onto a side street and give up.  The police came and took her into custody.  Hopefully she is rotting in jail right now.

I am not sure what happened to the woman who was hit.  She was coherent, but couldn't move and her breathing was very difficult.  The helicopter arrived to take her away, and I headed home after I talked to the police.

It was just a good reminder to always watch out for pedestrians--and runners!   I still nearly get hit every morning when somebody turns right without stopping at a red light.  I have been very lucky.

It was also a good reminder that I should not be embarrassed when Mark dresses up like a Christmas tree when he heads out on his run every morning.

And so it begins...

It's the holiday season.  We are ready.

Yesterday I spent the day running errands.  One thing I had to take care of was buying a one gallon jug of molasses.  We really do go through it pretty fast around here.

I subbed Monday and Wednesday this week.  Today I basically got paid to do my bookkeeping and other business on my computer.  Monday was more interesting.  I had three language arts classes full of kids from refugee camps from Africa and eastern Europe.  They can speak English, and read at about the 3rd grade level, but they need to be able to pass the state tests, so they have their own specialized class.  They were awesome kids.  They laughed at my stupid jokes, and loved every fable of Aesop's that I could pull out of my head.  Thank goodness my dad was such a good bedtime story teller!  Then I spent the afternoon teaching science to small classes of struggling students.  That was very fun, too.  It's always a good time when a high school kid first learns the word homogeneous.

Aubrey got the idea last Friday that we needed a new Christmas tree skirt this year.  We have been using the very amazing one that my mom made for us right after we were married.  I love it, but it is made for a normal-sized tree.  When you put up a tree that is 18-feet high, and the bucket on the stand is 12" in diameter, you just need a bigger skirt.  We bought some fabric, and Aubrey designed a very cute patchwork skirt.  She stitched all the pieces together, and then I assembled the skirt and added the amazing border.   Pictures coming soon.

Tonight I finished the shopping, altered a dress for someone to wear to a wedding on Friday, started the Frog Eye Salad, got breakfast ready to go for the morning, did a little laundry, and organized the cleaning and chores list for the kids tomorrow.  I've been staying up way too late this week, and tonight is no exception.  My goal is to lay down on my pillow before midnight.

It's been a busy week, and my feet are tired, but tomorrow will be worth it.  Lots of cousins are coming to have a big party and I can't wait.

Slowing down

I think my emotions are in check and I've come to grips with Abram being gone and Zacky in 1st grade now, and I am not trying to find a sub job every single day.  I can handle being home alone in my empty house all day.  I actually find it quite refreshing to have some quiet time to get things done.  And trust me, there is a lot to get done after spending so much time in the schools for the past few months.

Last week was pretty great.  I had 2 full days and 2 half days of subbing.  Government, physical science, spanish, American history.  The best day was when I got paid for a whole day of doing my bookkeeping.  The teacher I subbed for has a student teacher who is in charge of everything.  The deal is that there must be a licensed teacher in the room with the student teacher, though.  So I brought my laptop, bills, statements, etc. and spent the entire day catching up on some of the finer things in life that I have been neglecting.

Today I was in my kids' high school.  I love spying on them, and eating lunch with their teachers.  You can learn so much about your kids that way.

Tomorrow I am teaching a government class all day.  I'm crossing my fingers that I don't have to watch the same movie over and over and over again.  I hate sub days like that. 

Girls Weekend in St. George

This is the weekend I look forward to all year long.  Lots of laughing, lots of good food, and such fun girls to share it all with.

I flew to SLC a day early, and after a day full of visits (my parents, grandparents, Abram, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephew),  I headed down to St. George for the party.  We basically spent the whole time sewing.  Usually the ladies craft and I bake.  But this time they were sewing, which is totally my kind of a craft, so I joined in.  I only made one batch of cookies and one pie the whole time we were there!

The girls gang for 2012.

 This year's project was Christmas aprons.  Before I left town, I found the most amazing fabric at Joann's with little nativity matryoshka dolls on it, and so we took a trip to Joann's there to find the same fabric for everyone else.

 We found the same fabric....and lots of other very cute Christmas prints.  We all got busy sewing!

 You can see how excited I was to be turning and pressing the ties for another apron...  Not my best expression, but doesn't Betsy look so cute keeping me company?

I brought home this cute apron, and fabric to make a few more.

I didn't sleep much that weekend.  It is so hard to go to bed when  you are afraid you are going to miss something exciting.  It's even hard to go take a shower when there is so much fun going on.

I returned home to find a clean house, and lots of people who missed me.  It's nice to know they can survive without me for a while, but also nice to know that they miss me.

Can't wait for next year.

Halloween

Last Tuesday I got the kids all ready for Halloween, and then I took off before I could see them all in their full glory.  I just got back from an awesome girls weekend with Mark's aunts and cousins in St. George.  I got to spend Halloween visiting my grandparents, having lunch with Abram at BYU and then going to a family party that night.  I spent the entire evening snuggled up with my cute baby niece.  I didn't share her with anyone.

Back on the homefront, Joel was Fred.  All I had to make was his red cravat.  The rest of his costume we found at the Goodwill.

I made Jacob a green v-neck for Shaggy, and we found some brown pants at Goodwill.  I created this Scooby Doo costume out of another pattern I had .  It turned out pretty dang cute.

 
Savanna dressed up like ME again, and Zack was a baby penguin.