Van update, clingy babies, Articles of Faith, Sweet squirrel-isms

Sienna update:  We took it to a transmission place, they ran a bunch of tests on it, and it would seem that a good flush and refill has fixed the transmission problems.  Hmm. I hope so.  That was much less expensive than a whole new transmission.  :) It just makes me wonder about the multiple mechanics who said that there was a problem with it.  It's been a couple weeks now, and it seems to be running well. So, I guess we will just keep an eye on it.   Mr. T says I'm hypersensitive though to it now because I get nervous about any little out of the normal movement that it makes.  :)  I've recently come to grips with the fact that I really like being comfortable and having a nice predictable life, so cars that malfunction, sort of stress me out.  More on all that in another post though.

Lately, Apple has been so clingy.  She is just fine if I sit down and don't move from that spot.  (Real practical, I know.) She will then go and play, and wander all over the house, but as soon as she returns to find me somewhere other than she left me, she flips out, comes and finds me, and then won't let go of my legs.  Ah...I'd almost forgotten how annoying that can be.  I kept thinking that maybe this time, I'd get a baby that didn't do that.  I have friends with babies that never seem to get clingy, they just wander around in their happy go lucky way's, and my friends get to do whatever it is they need to do at that moment.  I'm sure that it's not always that way, but it seems that way to me.  It has made me wonder why is it that these precious little souls of mine, (and yes, all 5 of them have been this way for a period of their lives) are like this.  Is it really just them, or have I created it somehow in the way that I mother?  I guess I'll tell myself that it's them, and they needed a mom like me to coddle and love them through it, since I don't know how to be a different kind of mom.  :) So, in the meantime, I will just ignore whatever it is I think I need to do, and hold her, and sit in one place, (with a book in hand of course!) and help her feel secure in her growing up time.  I know all to well how fast she won't want me anyway.  She is such a fun baby, and growing so fast, the fancy meals, and areas of my house that really need my attention will just have to wait.

I recently discovered on some other lady's blog, this awesome DVD/CD.

Here's a link too.  Zack and Zoey explore the Articles of Faith  I decided to get it for Squirrel, because she has been dying to learn them all, and those of us around here just sometimes get a bit tired of trying to keep up with her need to be 10.  :)  (She wants to do everything that Nutmeg does, it's just not fair that she can't yet. )  Anyway, I thought, she's a visual learner, and although I don't love my kids to watch a lot of TV, a DVD about this can't be a real problem, and then we will also have something else that is Sunday appropriate as well.  Win-win.  Now I know that the church has the official songs, but the really cool thing about this DVD is that it helps the children learn what they actually mean, not just learning the rote memory of them.  That is what did it for me, that she could memorize them, AND know what they mean.  Plus, they are really pretty catchy tunes.  She memorized #4 in just a few days. (She's already learned the first three, and wanted to pass off the fourth one in primary last week, she did!)  We keep the CD in the car, so she can listen to it there.  Anyway, we like it.

Yesterday, we went to the May birthday party with Mr. T's siblings.  It was so fun to see all of them.  It isn't very often that all six of them and their families are together, but they were all there this time, love it!  Anyway, we were all outside eating dinner, and I turned around to look at what Squirrel was doing, and I saw her sitting on the swing, swinging; when all of the sudden she gets this thoughtful look on her face, and quickly bows her head and folds her arms.  Obviously, she was saying a prayer, but then just a moment later she opens her eyes and starts swinging again.  Then, just a second later, she repeats the whole thing.  It was so cute.  I wish I had a picture, but of course, things like that happen so quickly.  I asked her a little bit later what she was doing, just to see what she would say, and she said, "I was saying a prayer to Heavenly Father, because I wanted to talk to him, and the only way that we can talk to him is when we pray, and you said that I could say a prayer anytime I wanted to, so I did, because I wanted to talk to Heavenly Father."  It was the sweetest little statement of faith.  I just love my little ones, they are so sweet, and grow up far to quickly.  

"New" van, End of year, choir solos, & Rock's presentation

It's been awhile, and where to start.  Hmm..well, we'll start with the "new" van.  Back in March, we decided it was time to try a decent and small-ish vehicle for me.  We almost always buy used, and have never had much trouble with that.  (At least with the Beast, we knew what we were getting into anyway)  So, we found a car, nothing fancy, but much smaller Toyota Sienna, and figured it would also be good for Ginga' to learn on.  Well, three weeks into owning the silly thing, it starts acting up.  Big time.  Long story made much shorter, we discovered it had been in a wreck that had been unreported and covered up very well.  The mechanics we took it too both said that they had to really get in there to see what work had been done and what problems it had.  Basically, it will need a new transmission and there's no guarantee that would make it work fabulously.  So, now we are trying to figure out the best way to lose money on it.  Fix it or trade/sell it. Hmm...yuck.  For now, it mostly sits in my driveway.  Fabulous.  And I'm back to driving the temperamental Beast.


On to much more positive notes-Choir has just wrapped up, and the kids had a blast.  Here are the two soloists from their performances.  Rock and Nutmeg didn't have any close ups, when they were singing, they were usually blocked by other people.  What to do.

The little girl in red-she's the same age as Squirrel.  Crazy, huh?  She got tall genes and Squirrel got short ones.  Funny thing though, Squirrel never would look at her choir director to know when to come in on the song.  She performed it four times, and every time was unique.  But she loved it!

My phone had a new camera on it, and I couldn't figure out how to make it so that it wasn't so glaring.  Oh, well.  Ginga's on the right, and sings first.  Just in case you can't tell due to the white out.  :)

Aw, still cute.  Love that girl!

Rock.  It's been a harder year for him as he has been transitioning in his studies.  Growing up can be hard to do.  He started our scholar class this year, and I've said so many prayers on his behalf that he could catch a spark and get excited about the things we were doing there.  I don't expect him to be like his brother, they are complete opposites, but I do want to see him excel in his way and get excited about what he is learning.  As the year has come to an end though, I was still thinking and wondering what to do with him.  I finally thought that perhaps he should see how another Vanguard class worked.  He went to a class, and enjoyed it, but in his Rock like fashion, didn't say very much about it at first.  He tends to think on things for a while before sharing what he's thinking with anyone else.  He finally came to me and shared that he just didn't feel like what we were currently involved in was working for him.  He didn't really feel like he had any really bosom buddies in the class, and that made it hard for him to want to push himself there very much.  So, we decided to let him attend another class at the other Vanguard again, but this time he looked over what was being taught the day he was going to go, and he did the work to attend so that he would be able to have a more meaningful experience and understand what they were talking about.  (He has done all the work for our group all year too, so at least he knew what was happening, but he never really got excited about what we were learning.) Anyway, the mentor of the class had assigned each youth a letter from the Hebrew alphabet and they were supposed to come prepared to teach the others what they had learned about their letter.  At first, I thought, yea, he's not going to want to do all that she has for them to do.  But I handed it to him, watched a couple videos on Hebrew with him, and off he went.  Like crazy.  He got super excited, made a power point presentation, and worked through most of what she had put on the assignment to help them prepare for the day.  He was having fun, and was excited to go.  Then I thought that he might not really want to give the presentation to a bunch of kids that he barely knew.  (He knew a few pretty well, but a lot of them he didn't.)  When it came time for his letter, the letter tet, he got up there and did it.  It was awesome!  His eyes were dancing, and he was smiling, and having a fun time.  I could tell he was a little nervous still, but he pushed through and did awesome!  Afterwards, I talked to the mentor and told her that at first I wasn't sure if he would actually do it, and told her that he hadn't done anything like that in our class all year long, and she was so surprised to hear that.  She thought that he'd been doing things like that.  When we got home though, he was happier than I've seen him in a long time, and he couldn't stop talking about how it felt, and how much he enjoyed being there.  (Okay, so he didn't talk very long about it, but for him he talked about it a long time.  :) After seeing his excitement to them and that experience, I knew that we needed to make some changes, no matter how hard they would be for me personally.  In the home school world, it's easy to get attached to these moms and their families, and so when changes come, as changes always do, it can be hard.  It's a bittersweet thing, I love all the mom's from both groups, so although it's sad to be moving on from some of them, it's happy to be able to spend more time with the mom's from the other group.  Talk about mixed emotions.  If only all our kids needed the exact same things, then we could all just work together forever!  :)  (keep dreaming, girl, kids in the same family don't even need the same things, let alone kids in different families!)  I just hope that these mom's know how much I care about them. (yea, I know that some of you read this, but I really do want you to know how much you've helped me grow and learn through the years.  Thank you so much!  And I'm glad that our paths will always cross, even if it's not as often as we would like, and thank goodness for technology to help us stay in touch!)

As this school year is winding down, I am grateful for all that I've learned this year, about myself and about those that I am here to serve and grow with.  Changes sure can cause growing pains, but I am grateful for the opportunity to stretch myself and become better than I was before.  

Please forgive any typos and such, if I have to proofread this, it may not get posted for another three months!