Idaho and nieces

Dear Jessa ~

July came and I realized that I didn't have any 4th of July decor up!  So I spent the morning of July 1st putting up decorations and finishing up the wreath I've been working on.  And I got it all done!  Hooray!  It's kind of fun doing one or two new decorations for every holiday every year.  I'm starting to reap the rewards of it this year, as I suddenly have several decorations and my house actually looks a little festive.  I still have a long way to go, but I'm still happy with it!


So, of course, the crafting bug got me, and when I should have been packing/cleaning/laundrying for our trip to Idaho, I made Kessa a plastic canvas money bank instead.  I'd had the stuff for several days and Kessa kept asking me to make it … so I did.  The day before Idaho.  Haha.  Go me.  But I've been wanting to make it for awhile because I realized it's actually hard to help her pay tithing right now.  She gets a quarter and … what?  She doesn't understand that it's actually 25¢, so breaking it up to get two cents just doesn't make any sense to her.  So instead we made two boxes, one with three compartments.  When she gets money she'll put it in the first compartment.  When she gets 10 of one type of coin, she'll put one of them in the middle compartment (tithing), one in the last compartment (savings) and the rest in the other box (spending).  When she gets older and understands money better, we'll probably up the amount she puts into savings.  But for now we'll get her into the habit.

Idaho

We made these shirts for the 4th.  Ignore that Abby has stripped her stripes from hers.

We went to Idaho this week a) for the 4th of July b) to help my dad on the farm, since he's raising a cow for us and c) to get two of my nieces who will be staying with us until the 24th weekend.  It's a lot of detail, so let me sum up:


1. A 27-year old guy drowns in the river. He and his buddies thought it would be fun to swim across treacherous water before the fireworks started.  His two buddies made it.  He did not.  :(
2. Delaying fireworks so they didn't even start till 11. They were still awesome.  I was worried that I had over-hyped them in my head and that I'd be disappointed.  Fear=unfounded.  It was hard waiting with a bunch of kids (my sister had 4 of her kids and my brother had his 4 kids, plus my 2 kids).  But when it started, they were all mesmerized.  Abby was so tired and her body kept trying to fall asleep, but she fought it and just stared at the lights the whole time.  Kessa loved it, too, but conked out 3/4 of the way through on my lap.  Both slept soundly all the way home and even slept through us changing them into pjs.
3. Awhile ago a giant windstorm knocked down my dad's cow sheds (where they'd go to get protection from the elements (Don't worry, no cows were harmed)).  The wood has been laying all over for a year or so now, with weeds growing all around them and composting them nicely.  He wanted to clean up the area so maybe later he could put in a big patch of grass back there for kids to play on and people to camp on when we have family reunions.  While picking up wood*, I stepped on a rusty nail and suddenly remembered that I haven't gotten a tetanus shot since 1998 because I had an allergic reaction to it. But don't worry, it didn't pierce skin. No death here.
4. Then BJ really did step on a rusty nail and there was blood. And his last tetanus shot was 10 years ago.
5. On our way to the doctor the road was detoured due to an accident including a helicopter in the emergency crew.
6. The doctor office was closed.
7. The next one was open, but then we remembered we are between insurances. He still got the shot. (We figured it was worth paying to avoid pain and death.)
8. We were stupid and stayed up until 1:30 playing Ark of the Covenant (which your parents got a while ago, but we've never played, so we played the other day, liked it, and borrowed it to take to Idaho).
9. But turned out to be a good thing because Abby woke up throwing up right then.
10. Which means we don't get to sleep until after 3:30 that morning.
11. And then we woke up to two more kids sick. One of which I we brought home with us.

*While we worked our muscles moving wood, BJ helped us exercise our brains.  We calculated that with just my dad's grain field, we could feed about 1,875 people bread for a year.

(BJ just read that over my shoulder and commented, "I love you!  God thinks highly of you!"  Haha.  Love him.)

Talk about a fun week!  Haha.  Actually, I stayed in a surprisingly good mood despite it all.  The fireworks were amazing.  I got to spend time with Jalin who I don't often see.  I got to see Damian and his family which is always fun.  And I got to be with my mommy and daddy and who does't like that?

We filled that trailer up with wood 2.5 times before we were done.  Yipes!
Also, I was out there, too.  Really!  I  just didn't take a picture of myself.

We brought back Kristen (8) and Tamra (6) with us.  They're going to stay with us until around the 24th.  The date is a little uncertain.  So, about 19 days.  Kessa is super excited about it.  Abby is not so sure.  But, to be fair, Abby is Little Miss Crankypants All The Time.  Seriously.  She's got this screechy "No!  No!  No!" that she spits out whenever she is the least bit unpleased.  Which is often.  And Tamra is a touchy person.  And Abby, turns out, has a bubble.  So whenever Tamra gets within 4 feet, Abby starts screeching.  Tamra is getting better about giving her space, though, so that's good.  So Abby is finding other things to screech about.  Let me tell you, I will be so glad when this phase is over.  I pray it ends.


You can tell that Uncle Travis is a good uncle.  Not only did he ride in back with all four girls on the way home, but he took Abby when she was crying (which usually meant taking her for walks outside.  She loves outside) and letting Kessa help him grate cheese, even though it was clearly easier and faster to do himself.  Awwww.

Misc

I'm taking a cake decorating class!  The first class is Tuesday night, so I'll let you know more next week.  But I'm excited!  Now maybe I'll be able to make really cool cakes for birthdays and not make stupid mistakes along the way like I did with Kessa's.  :D

I've decided that if I ever decide to homeschool, I will name it Hogwarts. Just so I can say I taught at Hogwarts and my kids can say they attended there. And I will rename Chemistry as Potions.  A friend gave me the brilliant idea to make scripture study Defense Against the Dark Arts.  Now I kind of want to do it…

BJ and I found this this morning.  I think all the girls have been around too much throwing up.

I just finished a book called The Entitlement Trap.  It's about teaching your kids to have ownership (the opposite of entitlement) over their lives.  Over themselves, their family, their money, their stuff, their grades, their bodies, their relationships, etc.  It's a great book and I've already started implementing some of their ideas.  I also got on their webpage and started looking at Joy School (not just when moms get together and teach their kids preschool, but an official curriculum called Joy School).  The idea behind it is "simply that children, while in their most impressionable years, should be taught life's most important thing, various capacities for joy."  Unsurprisingly, it also sets the stage to help them as they grow to not feel entitled, but instead have ownership.  So now I want to do it.  I have a friend who has been wanting to do it for ages, but where I already have Kessa registered in preschool I haven't really even considered it.  But now I'm seriously thinking about doing Joy School on TTh and still letting her go to preschool MWF.  We'll see how that turns out, too.

Abby loves to drink water out of our spray bottle

I mentioned that my dad is raising a cow for us.  We're hoping it'll be big and beefy (pardon the pun) enough by fall to slaughter it and fill my freezer with meat.  A lot of meat.  Now the question is what to name it and which cow to choose.  (We get one and my dad and Damian get the other.)  My current favorites are Sir Loin, Moe ("Would you pass me some Moe?"), and The Cow Who Must Not Be Named.  Voldemoo for the fearless.  :)  I'm leaning towards Voldemoo…

Our two options for cows

Videos
Here are three videos:

1) Kessa and Abby on the trampoline playing Ring Around the Roses


2) Abby walking around as Little Miss Grumpypants


3) Pulling down a gate with the truck




Kessaisms, with many different guest appearances

• Me: … but only if you're quick to obey.
  Kessa: Ok. But first I need to fix my battery so I can be magic.
• Abby: Oh cows!
  Me: Did Abby just say “oh cows”?
  Abby: Yes!
• Kessa: Abby is angry about everything.  {sadly, this is a true statement}
• Kristen: Why do you have sunglasses?
  Travis: Because my future is so bright.
• Kessa: We found my baby unicorn! It grew in mine own belly!
• BJ: We could put sticky notes in the intersections.
  Tamra: Hi C-sections! {Or I suppose it could have been Heise Sections}
• Kristen: Let's go pick a pea!
  Kessa: Yeah! Let's go pick a poo!