Bountiful Basket

I Love, Love, Love Bountiful Baskets. We love having all this fresh produce in the middle of the winter. And it has been totally helping me with cooking, because I have ingredients for fantastic meals, and sometimes different ingredients than I typically buy so we've had some different meals. It also helps the boys get some fruit and veggies, maybe not lots, but some. :)

I am always trying to tell people what I get and I can never remember. So I thought I would take a pic to show how awesome this is. If you haven't done Bountiful Baskets and you live in Utah, Idaho, or Arizona, it's time to try it! It is $15 per basket and you don't get to pick what you get. You just show up with a basket and they dump all this food in. It really is awesome!
Here is this weeks basket.


8 apples
4 Asian pears - which are really different, but really good
grape tomatoes
5 oranges
9 bananas
1 tiny butternut squash
1 large celery
1 head of broccoli
2 pounds of baby carrots
1 head of green lettuce
maybe 8 or 9 tiny yams

Bountiful Baskets is a Food Co-op. It is not a business. They just buy produce in bulk and split it up. It makes it so you get the food at rock bottom prices.
http://02b8ce3.netsolstores.com/producebaskets.aspx

You turn your back for 2 seconds...........

And suddenly your son has made himself up with a blue sharpie. And boy did he feel bad about it. He knew it was a huge mistake and was so embarrassed. This picture is actually old, and it occurred on a Saturday. I was considering staying home from church the next day as Sharpie's are PERMANENT!!!! I think the Lord read my thoughts and gave us a miracle, because all the permanent marker on his face wiped right off as though it were Crayola Washables. Not so much for his arms... Haha!

My little Valentine

Isn't he way too grown up to be MY son?? Isaac had a lot of fun with his Valentine's party at school today. They did some etiquette stuff so they wanted them to wear their best dress (with red accents of course). So I slicked his hair to the side and dressed him up. I couldn't believe how grown up he looked. I love this boy.



So he took my picture too. I had to squat to avoid the "looking up the nose" shot that I usually get from my kids. This is the only red shirt I own, so I wore it two days in a row. :)

Dawson's Valentine

Dawson is extremely proud of his valentines. I can't take the credit for this idea, my sister in law gave me the idea. But I took the picture, designed it, printed it, cut the slot on his hand and stuck the lollipop in it, doesn't that count for something? Okay, the truth be told, I'm pretty proud of his valentines too. There, I said it...... and Happy Valentine's to you too. :)

When I knew it all

Today I was getting the kids ready for school. I handed Dawson his socks and told them to put them on. I walked away and came back to a struggling child who had one sock half way on. Frustrated, I grabbed the socks, and had his socks and shoes on in 2 seconds flat. I wondered how he was going to put his own socks on after swimming today at preschool. Then I had a flashback..........

The year was 2005 and twice a week I carted my little 9 month old boy to the Sports Academy preschool to teach tumbling. This job brought in a measly $100 a month, so really it was a hobby, and I really enjoyed these little preschoolers. At the end of the tumbling class, we would have to help kids put their socks and shoes on. "I can't put my socks on." I would hear in a whiny voice. "Yes you can." I would say, and the very same scenario would take place, just as it did this morning.

The thing was, I knew it all then. I would roll my eyes and think about those lazy parents that never taught their kids independence. I knew everything about parenting, because none of my theories had been proven wrong yet.

I really don't think there are very many moms who teach independence better than me. There are a lot of things in motherhood I don't do very well, but I am an extremely independent person and like my children to be independent too. But try as I may to teach Dawson independence, he still wants me to put his socks on him, and shoes, and he'd really like me to wipe him when he goes to the bathroom too, but I refuse. So I've raised one of those whiny kids who say, "I can't put my socks on." and I now understand that those parents may not have been as lazy as I thought they were.

It was nice back in those days to know everything. I wish I still knew everything. But there is good news. I know EVERYTHING about raising teenagers. And I'm going to enjoy that as long as I can. Until my theories are blown to smithereens and I look back and long for these days.

I AM excited about having all these teenage boys. I have frequently been told that teenage boys spoil their moms, and I look forward to that. And I just think they will be funny too. I'm going to have to work full time just to afford the milk, bread, and pizza they'll eat though.

Did I ever mention I love these boys?

Deep thought

Everyone is using such different names these days. If you use a super common name like Kim or Melissa will it sound really exotic when that child is in high school?

Randomly I would like to write that I saw a lady at Macey's last night that literally looked like she had a yoga ball inside her shirt. I stopped twice to stare. I hope she has triplets in there. Maybe sextuplets. Until that moment in time I was convinced that I had been the largest pregnant woman of all time. Now I know that she is. I hope she delivers tomorrow. Because she must be in tremendous pain.

Isaac

I've sent my sweet little Isaac to school, and he's picked up some "not-so-sweet" behaviors lately. "I don't care" is the latest. "Isaac, we don't say that word." "I don't care." Oh honey, you will care when you're grounded from the Wii. OOOOHHHHH it makes me so mad. School is a tough thing, but he'll have to learn how to keep his manners even if the kids in his class don't. He's really done pretty well, but don't you expect perfection from your oldest? ;) If you have any advice for me, please let me know.

Isaac was playing the Wii before school (his morning ritual) and he came into my room and told me he was sick. Nice try son. Go eat some breakfast. He totally isn't sick, he just wanted to stay home and play the Wii all day. Little monkey!

I went to his parent teacher conference on Tuesday. He is doing much better than at the beginning of the year, which is naturally a great thing. But I do think that his new teacher is a little less likely to tell me negative things than the old teacher was. The very interesting thing was his test results from the Dibels testing. There were three sections of the test. 1. First sound of the word. 2. Isolate each sound. 3. Read nonsense words like "Jib" or "lob" that prove the ability to do the first two things and blend it together. So the funny thing is that he scored on the very bottom of the Kindergarten benchmark score for the first two. That would be a little bit concerning except that the third score, which can only be achieved through mastery of the first two, was much higher. His third score was actually at the top of the second grade benchmark.

So I learned two things. One, he's doing fine on his reading, I need to work on spelling with him so that ISCDT doesn't spell "ice skating" and two, testing is so faulty. Seriously, he must have been distracted or confused on the first two tests. I've quizzed him on them since then, and he's nailed it. I need to remember not to worry about test scores too much, because sometimes, and in this case, they prove nothing. Isaac also needs to work on his hand writing. He has terrible handwriting. I guess he takes after his parents.

Our little Isaac is a pretty good Kindergartner. We really do love him. What, oh what, would you do without your oldest child? They are so valuable!

Oh yeah, see disclaimer 12/11/2009