Inspiration

A few years ago, Ginga' was taking piano lessons.  I think he only did it for a year or so.  He hated it.  Finally, I gave in and said fine, don't take lessons.  I'm sure I said something like, "Someday, you will be sorry that you didn't learn to play the piano.  Every adult I've ever met that took and quite has said that they wished they'd stuck with it."  Or something like that.  However, in our home we do things a little differently when it comes to learning, it's called Inspire, not require.  It's really hard to do.  It requires you as the parent to model the behavior or actions or whatever it is that you want your children to do, you know, setting the example.  Anyway, back to the piano, he quit and we let him.  I tried really hard to not harp about, and I tried to do the example thing.  However, I'm just really not very good, no matter how much I practice, I can't get my fingers to work together unless it's a really easy song.  But this is the cool part.  Mr. T decided that he wanted to brush up on his skills, so he ordered a sonatinas book that he used to play out of when he was a youth.  He began to sit and practice for sometimes an hour at a time when he got home from work.  I think it was a relaxing thing for him to do.  I can't remember when he started this, but I'm sure it's been at least a year, maybe more.  He doesn't do it every day, but he does do it more days than not.  He would sit and work hard at one song, over and over to get it just right.  These are beautiful songs, that just make your heart soar.  Well, it has been so cool to see the inspire thing work.  But it hasn't been easy or quick.  The last few months, Ginga' has decided that he wanted to learn to play some of them as well.  And can I just say, that I can't stop him.  He is so passionate about it, and he has gotten really good a several songs really pretty quickly.  The first song he started on, he struggled to read the notes, it's been a long time after all and he really hadn't gotten very far when he had lessons.  I came in one day to see the piano flashcards out, and him studying them intensely so he could learn those notes he didn't know.  No one made him do it.  He wanted to do it.  So awesome!  Sometimes as a parent trying to school them this way, you find yourself doubting and wondering if all this is really working and if all the hard work I'm putting into it is going to pay off.  Should I really trust this system?  But time and again the results come out and I see the amazing growth that my children are getting from this kind of learning.  I am so grateful to be able to take this journey with them.  Even though it's hard sometimes.  But that's life, right?  It will be worth it.  

Sickness

We've had the pukes at our house this week.  It's my least favorite to deal with when I have little people.  Ginga' got it, and I hardly could tell, because he just takes care of it now.  So nice.  Nutmeg started with it, at 3am-of course.  Then Ginga' and Mr. T.  Then we had two full days of nothing.  I thought I had gotten the best of that little germ.  Apparently not.  Poor little Apple decided to time things just right, and lost her lunch all over her car seat in my new van.  Lovely.  At least we weren't on vacation.  :)  It was a bit scary though, because it was just the two of us in the van, and all the sudden I could here all this gurgly sounding sounds.  I quickly looked back at her and could tell she couldn't get it all out, and was gagging on it!  Scared me to death.  I quickly pulled over and got her out of her chair so she could finish the job, all over me of course.  If I'm not sick with it by Sunday, that will be a miracle.  :) All week though, I have worried about her getting it.  I worried mostly that she would start in the middle of the night, and choke on it because she won't roll over in her bed.  She stays in one place every night, exactly where I put her.  She doesn't kick out of her blanket or anything.  So, I am grateful for the tender mercy that she started during the day.  That way I know what is going on, and she will be okay.

It's been a few weeks now since I started the above paragraph.  I did get sick (at 1 am on Sunday morning :), and so did everyone else, except Rock.  Lucky kid.  Funny though, Mr. T apparently hadn't gotten it earlier in the week like we had thought, he got it along with Squirrel the day after I got it, luckily I was on the mend, because Squirrel never hits the bowl the first time around, and she got it everywhere.  We were all just sitting around watching a movie Sunday night, Rock was across the room staying clear of all of us, and Squirrel let loose all over the floor, and Ginga'.  He is such a trooper.  He took it so well, he just got up and took a shower.  Good thing he'd already had it, because that would've done it otherwise.  However, he tells the story so well, that if you ever get a chance you have to have him tell it, complete with his re-enactment of what Emma was doing, because it's hilarious to watch, brings me to tears every time, so funny.  :)  Maybe I could get him to do it on camera for me and I could post it here.  We'll see.

 It was pretty miserable for a few days, Apple has taken the longest to rebound though and get her system working again.  I ended up going and getting some probiotic powder to help jump start her system back up.  It has helped TONS!!  The crazy thing about this all is that she up and decided she was done with pureed food of any kind.  Seriously, overnight.  Now she just wants whatever the rest of us are eating.  It's pretty funny when she can't have it though.  I made popcorn, and you would've thought the world had come to an end to see her face.  Talk about indignant.  If I can ever capture that expression with the camera, I'll post it.  It is the funniest look I  think I've ever seen on someone's face.

Now that we are all better, I am so grateful for our health.  It was a rough week of it around here.  Now if we could just get caught back up, then we will be doing great!

Order of the Arrow, dark 'Steal the sticks'

Ginga' and Rock are both involved in Order of the Arrow, which is a scouting thing.  Their dad is in it too as an assistant advisor.  I don't know very much about the OA, except that they spend a lot of time learning about Indian lore, and that it is great leadership training.  From what I've been told, shadow mentoring works great in this program, the way it should be working in the regular scout program, but often doesn't.  Ginga' has been serving in his local chapter as the chapter chief the past year, and has learned a lot from that experience.  In January they held elections for vice lodge chief which is where the youth in that position is in charge of multiple chapters.  (Ginga, feel free to leave a comment if you want to clear up any of this, since I don't get to go to any of these things, it's not terribly clear exactly what you do! I believe that his primary duty is to organize recruiting efforts.) Anyway, at the January elections in Logan, that weekend we had one of the worst storms that we have seen here for a long time.  Tons of snow and the canyon pass was closed unless you had chains on your car.  So, much to his dismay, because he really wanted to run for vice lodge chief, we just weren't going to chance that.  So, we stayed home.  Well, we found out the next day, that he was elected anyway.  Several people had nominated him and the vote went for him!  He has worked super hard in all the different events, that he has made quite a name for himself and the other youth know that he has all this training and that he will not just sit around but will actually take it serious and do something. I'm so proud of him, he is turning out to be such a fantastic young man, and so fun to have around.  (Not that I'm surprised by this, :)  Needless to say, he was thrilled that it all worked out.  The coolest thing that he has been asked to do is to be the Ordeal Chief for the Ordeal in June.  The Ordeal is when youth that want to participate in OA go to an overnight event and they have a bunch of things they have to do, sort of in the spirit of a young Indian boy who goes out alone when he comes of age and spends time reflecting and 'becoming a man'.  You know the Indian stories.  There's a name for it, but it's not coming to me right now.  Well, these youth are not entirely alone but spread out far enough that they can't talk with each other, and they do have to spend the night by themselves usually under the stars.  (Bad weather, really bad, will sometimes affect this, but it has to be really bad weather to bring the boys inside.)  The next day they are not allowed to talk and they have limited amount of food, while they work together in silence doing service of some kind and at the end of the day, they have a big ceremony with a huge dinner and they can talk again.  Anyway, so in June, Ginga' will be in charge of running one of these events.  It's a pretty big leadership role that he will be taking on.  Lots of organizing of other people to make sure it comes off smoothly.  He'll do great, I'm sure.

Rock recently joined the OA as well, October-I think.  He is getting the feel for it, and really starting to enjoy it.  Well, he surprised all of us the other night.  Ginga' has been the chapter chief for the past year, and they held elections on Thursday night to change the leadership.  When they do this, the leaders are not in the room, it is completely run by the youth.  The leaders are just outside the door, so if there are any problems they can step in, but the boys run it.  So Ginga' was in charge of getting all the positions filled.  Well, blow my mind and knock my socks off, but Rock pretty much ran for every position.  I was so shocked when I heard that.  He ended up getting the position of Vice Chief over Service.  I am thrilled that he feels confident enough to take on this role, and I can't wait to see the growth that comes from it!  Wahoo!!  This coming from the boy that I pretty much never know what he is thinking, obviously.  But one thing I have noticed about him over and over, is that even if he isn't super comfortable doing something, that if he decides that he should be doing it, he usually does it.  Or if he knows he has to do it, then he bucks up, takes a deep breath, and does it.  Like oral reports, he doesn't like them, but he'll do them.  We always have year end presentations in Vanguard, and the other day he asked about them, I told him that yes, he would have to do it, and I saw the look in his eyes that he gets when he decides that he's doing something he doesn't want to.  You can almost see that firm stance of resolution as he accepts it for himself.  I love seeing that look.  He's doing awesome!

At their chapter meetings for OA, they usually have some kind of activity, because they are boys after all and they love to have fun!  So, Ginga' was trying to think of an activity to do on Thursday night, and I named a few of their favorite group games that they have played with our homeschooling groups.  He settled on 'Steal the sticks' which is sort of like capture the flag, except that they aren't hidden, and each team has 5- 6 sticks that they have to try to get in order to win.  After he decided on that, he started thinking about what he could use as sticks inside the church building, since any sticks we have are buried in snow, and he didn't really want to have to vacuum up all the debris anyway.  So, he thought of glow sticks ( he also thought of beef sticks, but figured the boys would just try to eat them, and they would cost a lot more than glow sticks).  Then as we were talking about it, we thought; how about glow in the dark steal the sticks?  Turn off the gym lights and have each boy wearing some glow sticks as well so everyone could see where the others were, and put some glow sticks down to mark the center of the room that separates the two sides.  Cool, huh?  According to the boys, it was totally awesome.  Mr. T took one picture of it, and of course all you can really see is black with colored glow sticks, but perhaps when I get it from him, I'll add it on here anyway.  One of their friends, nicknamed Spinach, took a great liking to the glow sticks, and decked himself out in as many pink ones that he could get his hands on, I can totally picture it, this kid loves to be unique, and pink in one of his favorite ways to do so.  He is so much fun to have around.  :)

I'm so glad that they are finding things that they love, and that also it's something they can do with their dad.  What a great bunch of young men I live with!

Squirrel-isms

Have to remember this one.  So, we have this rule at our house regarding bedtime.  The kids have one free pass to get out of bed and come ask for whatever it is they think they need.  This mostly applies to the younger kids, since as they get older, they can get up whenever because they will just go back to bed when they are finished.  That means that this rule is for Squirrel at the moment. I should add that she knows that coming out to use the bathroom doesn't count as her one time.  The one time rule applies to her coming to ask me questions, and just trying to not be in bed.   Tonight she came out and said to me, "I really want to get more books, so could you just pretend that I haven't come out yet?  I still want to be able to come out one more time."  She had the most adorable little face when she said this.  Melt my heart.  Such a sweetie.  I just love the way she thinks and phrases things.  Love, love, love her.  Of course, I have to pretend this time.  :)

Squirrel's Birthday request

Squirrel's birthday is coming up at the end of February, and she is already planning.  At our house we have the tradition that the birthday child gets to request what meals mommy makes on their day.  So the other day, she realizes that she gets to choose!  I think this is really the first year that she has fully grasped the concept.  So she is bouncing around really excited and trying so hard to figure out her favorites foods. (That's a BIG deal right now, since she is having to eat lots of things she doesn't really like now that she is growing up.) Breakfast she said really fast, waffles.  Then she thought some more, and said, "For lunch, I want....I want....PANCAKES!"  Then she thought some more, "For dinner, I want....(you get the picture, she has to think about it), FRENCH TOAST!"  I busted up laughing.  Apparently her favorite things are anything covered in syrup.  Did I mention the need we have had to break her sugar habit?  Yea, I guess we need to keep working on that.  Waffles, Pancakes, and French Toast.  I told her that maybe we should talk about some of her other favorite foods and pick some things that have a bite more diversity.  I don't know that all that sugar and carbs are that wonderful for the rest of us.  I guess we'll see what happens.  What a funny little girl.  We sure love her.

Squirrel's bad habit

See this girl?  Guess what her bad habit is?

That's right.  She bites her fingernails something fierce.  And when there isn't any fingernail left, she goes after her skin.  Ouch!  Her poor little fingers look just awful, and look like they should hurt.  I can't think what to do about it.  That's tape on her fingers, it's not really helping. She does it all the time, you can tell she isn't even thinking about what she is doing.  Grrr.  So, any of you out there have any good ideas?  Please share if you do.  In the meantime, sweet Nutmeg is trying to show her what pretty fingernails look like and is setting a beautiful example for her little sister.  Maybe she will be able to inspire Squirrel to think before she bites.  

Toy obsession

She's rather crazy about this toy. The funny thing, is that she likes it when you clap and cheer for her. If you say "Yea." she will often move over to the spinning toy and start spinning it for you.  Unfortunately I had a better video, but due to my lack of tech skill, I can't seem to get it to you tube from my google plus account, so that I can upload it to the blog.  So if you are friends with me on Google + then go check it out.  It's a much better take on her obsession.   I have found that as soon as I take a video, I have to upload it to you tube before my phone does an instant up load to google plus.  Whatever works I guess. :)  Sorry about the shaky-ness in this video, I was trying to clap and get her to go into her zone.  Oh well.  You get the idea.