Planned Power Outage Adventure

Remember that power outage we had a couple years ago where we all headed out in the van and had some fun throwing rocks in the river and stuff? I do.

Recently we were told of a planned power outage. It could last up to all morning and afternoon (or less). The kids would be gone to school most of the time and Jeremy would be at work the whole time. So that left Jet and me to make plans. He had an appointment at the pediatrician's office that morning so after he played Peek-a-boo with another toddler in the waiting room (it was so cute), we went to the Orem Library for a little while and read several books.

After our library trip, I figured a drive to Bridal Veil Falls would be good. You know I love Bridal Veil Falls. As we were driving in Provo Canyon, we found there was an accident on the other side of the road. I hope everyone was okay. Since the traffic was getting backed up on that side, I didn't want to contend with that so Jet and I stopped briefly at the viewpoint for Bridal Veil Falls then continued up the canyon. 

We turned on the road that goes up to Sundance then just continued on and drove Alpine Loop coming out of American Fork Canyon. I like driving up in the hills. As I drove, Jet and I sang, "I love the mountains. I love the rolling hills. I love the flowers. I love the daffodils..." It's fun to sing with Jet. We sang a few songs, saw some turkeys cross the road in front of us, looked at the trees with their green leaves, enjoyed that the air was cleaner up there than in some places down in the valley, and eventually Jet fell asleep after I continued driving around a little more. The power was back on by the time we got home so it was on when the kids got home.

That day was September 12, Hug and High 5 Day. There was a lot of hugging and high five-ing going on in our family that day.

That day was also Boss/Employee Exchange Day so Jr. suggested he and I trade jobs that evening. So I did his chore while he made dinner.

Productivity

June 20 was World Productivity Day.

The kids and I had "dishes and laundry boot camp," where I taught them about efficiency in doing those chores. Jr. Jr. got into it and would ask questions or make comments, "with all due respect, ma'am." Awesome.

Lucky and Jr. also got into it by having to do pushups and things like that for insubordination. Heh heh.

During dinner we watched the Studio C sketch, "The Best Book for 24 hours of Productivity." All 18 minutes of the YouTube video of it (the sketch on the TV episode is much shorter). Funny.

Velociraptor Awareness Day

April 18 was Velociraptor Awareness Day. Jr. Jr. and Lucky made me "aware" of where to find Jet's velociraptor toy. Then she spent the day with us.

 

All showered and ready to go.

Helping with chores.

Let's make bread.

Reading books.

Let's pick up kids from school.

After school snack of animal crackers for National Animal Crackers Day (also April 18).

Dinner guest.

Wow, that day was exhausting.

What She Missed- August 13

Friday the 13th of August-

Left Handers Day. My left handed uncle put up a post on Facebook. I'm sure you've heard it before. "If the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right minds!" Heh Heh.

 

Blame Someone Else Day. We were supposed to get a lot done that day because we had plans for that night. Here's how it went:

The boys did do some things but they didn't finish their chores and one child accused me of making them work work work all the time (even though they had played video games every single day that week and one of the days they didn't even do their chores but still got to play video games). So I didn't let the kids play on their devices that night.

There was also facetious blaming which is much more pleasant.

What She Missed- August 11

Wednesday, August 11-

Play in the Sand Day. After doing chores again, the boys convinced me to let them play more video games- either sandbox games or games that had sand in them.

We didn't have any real sand so the toddler had to make do with what he could find while Mom wasn't looking.

Good thing I hadn't put the eggs in yet. 

I'll say my reaction was good, though. He's a toddler. It's not like he would understand if I gave him a talking to about what he did wrong. So I let him play and took pictures. I figured the mess to clean up wouldn't be different if I stopped him as soon as I saw or if I waited until he was done. There would just be less screaming if I waited so I did then moved him over to the kitchen sink where I could wash him off. Then I gave strict instructions for people to watch him and keep him out of the kitchen while I cleaned up and started a new batch of cornbread.

This isn't the first time I've handled a messy situation with a toddler and managed to get pictures. I even blogged about some of them, especially when I kept my temper. When Jr. was little, he drew all over his face with a sparkly pen. I blogged about it in September of 2009.

When Jr. Jr. was little, he got finger paint on our new bed. I blogged about it in July of 2013.

There are others but sometimes I'm pleased with how I handle situations. I think it helped that I was already in a good mood when I found Jet with the cornbread mix.

What She Missed- August 10

Tuesday, August 10-

First full day without Nichole as she was off at Girl's Camp.

Since it was National Lazy Day, the boys hurried to get chores done so they could play video games later and be lazy.

OK. So I joined in a bit, too.

Lucky made me drag him around while he held on to me. He was too "lazy" to walk.

At the end of the day, we had S'mores to celebrate National S'mores Day.

The Little Things...

 The boys: We cleaned the living room, can we play video games?

Me: I guess so.

 

Food and Not Food Celebrating

The beginning of June, the kids made dinner. I wanted to try giving them a chance to make a whole dinner, each child (except Jet) choosing and preparing a main dish or bread or side or dessert. I want them to do this on a regular basis then they can rotate responsibilities. The day we had planned didn't work out and one of the things planned didn't work out so that child was willing to do a last minute change. Mom stepped in and helped out a little because of the changes. Eventually, though, we'll get it right. Those four kids have all been learning about cooking lately so they can help each other and Mom can take a break. This was a trial run.
Nichole prepared Polish sausages split and topped with mashed potatoes and cheese with a few red pepper flakes sprinkled on. Jr. made garlicky bubble bread. Jr. Jr. gave us pineapple rings. Lucky gave us microwave s'mores. Additions to the meal were green bell pepper slices, corn, and apple slices. Good job, kids. It was yummy.

Then we had a day when Mom refused to make dinner because the kids wouldn't do their chores and the next day was June 3, Repeat Day. I refused to make dinner again... you know, to celebrate the holiday. I also decided to use some of the kids' excuses for not doing things and repeat what they often say to me when they walk into the kitchen and I'm obviously in the middle of making dinner. "I'm hungry." "Do you know what I can have to eat?" Petty, I know, but my original plan was to make the same dinner on Repeat Day as earlier but since I didn't make dinner...
The next day, the kids did chores. They also helped make dinner and one of the things we ate was Parmesan rice since it has Parmesan cheese in it. June 4 was National Cheese Day after all. Parmesan rice is a family favorite (for some of us). Yumm.

Another note: On Repeat Day, I was thinking about how Lucky was reading a Pete the Cat book. So in my mind, because of the holiday, I was thinking of the joke, "Pete and Repeat were in a boat. Pete fell out. Who was left?" I could just imagine a little kid (probably a 4 year old) trying to tell the joke with their understanding of things. "Pete the Cat was in a boat. Pete fell out. Who was left?" It wouldn't have the same result but the idea made me chuckle.

Penguin Awareness Day 2020

January 20 was Penguin Awareness Day. Since the kids had that day off school, Jeremy took the two oldest on a birding field trip to look for gulls. 

At home, Lucky helped out by doing laundry without complaining so I let him watch Penguins Spy in the Huddle. He had so much fun making me aware of things he was learning while watching the video. I love it.

Jr. Jr. made a penguin out of play-doh. Lucky helped take pictures of it.

Later on, we ate our traditional fish sticks since penguins eat fish.

On a different note, that evening we went over to have Family Home Evening with the couple who were helping us get ready for the Book of Mormon in 2020. We talked about Lehi and Nephi and their family. They sent us home with some scripture figures that we can use in our scripture study and Family Home Evenings.

One of the things that happened in Lehi's family was that Nephi was commanded by the Lord to build a boat so they could cross the ocean. His brothers Laman and Lemuel murmured and told him it was a bad idea. There's a great Primary song about this called "Nephi's Courage." You can find the account of Nephi building the boat in 1 Nephi Chapter 17 of the Book of Mormon, which can be found in the scriptures section of churchofjesuschrist.org (it used to be known as lds.org, which I have mentioned that name in previous blog posts).

Anyway, at one point Nephi showed his brothers that he was filled with the power of God by reaching out and shocking them- enough so they wouldn't continue doubting who the command came from about building the boat.
We had our own shocking activity. The boys took turns sliding down the stairs on mattresses that were set up. As they slid, they built up a static charge so that they could shock whoever was at the bottom waiting. Later, they were able to send balls down as well. They had a blast and I of course enjoyed the social time chatting while they were playing.

It was a pretty good day I'd say.