The Great Egg Drop

Lydia had an optional school project to create a container for an egg using only 5 objects and it couldn’t be more than 12 inches by 12 inches. The goal is to drop the egg from a high place and have the egg survive the fall. Lydia looooooved this project. She finished it mid-day, and I’ll bet had a hard time waiting until I was done with work to test it because of how excited she was.

After work, the family gathered to see THE GREAT EGG DROP.

Here are pictures and videos:

The drop, aerial view.

The drop, ground view.

From the sound it makes in the video, you would think that it definitely cracked. Lydia and Lily spend some time getting the egg out from its contraption.

Video of Lydia trying to untie the contraption.

The unveiling.

It survived!!! Great job Lydia!!!

Recreating Paintings

Recently, Lily was telling me about how there is a widespread trend of people recreating famous paintings with nothing, but what they can find around the house. We looked through some websites together and it was soooo fun to see what people came up with. Here are some examples:

As part of the Summer Carnival, Lily told Lydia and Mary that they could do a famous artwork recreation to get a grab-bag. Here is what Lydia and Mary came up with. Lily wants them to recreate it with a better background, but it’s a great start!

Doctor And Burger King Picnic

This is a very long entry, so here is a short video Google Photos made to sum up the day in 45 seconds if you don’t want to read this whole entry :).

Today was another day off of work and it was magical. I skipped my workout and had two and a half hours of work meetings, but then by about 10:40, I was FREE. I was a bit worn from the morning meetings, but I found my way upstairs and ended up playing Doctor with Ammon and Clarissa. IT WAS ADORABLE to play with them. An added bonus was I got to be the patient first, which meant lying down, and I was tired :).

Here are photos and videos of us playing together.

Curing Clarissa of Banana Virus

Me fainting when Ammon gives me a shot

Ammon curing me of bumblebee virus by shooting the bumble bees with his syringe.

Curing Ammon of Bumblebee Caronavirus with the bumblebee shooter

Red means Ammon has a high temperature

After playing Doctor, we had lunch (though I fasted. Lily and I have been experimenting a bit with fasting since she read The Obesity Code.) Then I went to the basement and caught up on my personal inbox. While I was doing that, Lydia was upstairs doing her dance class. Here is a photo and four cute videos of her dancing:

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

Video 4

After Clarissa woke up, I was feeling happy both because I got a lot done personally (budget, bills, paying taxes, coordinating things, answering emails etc) and because I was so excited about our picnic.

We decide to simplify and drive through Burger King to get Impossible Whoppers for the family and pack them up to the canyon and call that our picnic. Whoppers are very special and nostalgic for me, because they were a go-to for my dad when it was his turn to have us as children. We didn’t have them a ton, but enough to make an impression. Eating Whoppers reminds me of spending time with my dad, and how eating whoppers felt like an occasion. I’ve come to like Impossible Whoppers even more, but they taste so much like the real thing, it still takes me back.

After eating, the kids ran around A LOT. I guess they’ve needed it after being at home during Carona Virus Lockdown.

Here they are playing a game that causes them to run from one tree to another tree. Clarissa just does her best to follow along.

Here a sweet mommy-daughter shot:

And I got some enchanting pictures and this cute video of Clarissa:

This photo completely reminds me of the scene in Froze when Anna is trying to climb a cliff
Still trying!!!
Here Clarissa is answering my question about where her siblings are

Then I took the three youngest kids on a small hike along a trail:

We all had such a good time at the picnic. We got coldstone ice cream on the way home and it was so delicious. Lydia and Mary were being silly with the phone in the back seat and took these pictures and this video.

I was truly happy this day. I love my family so much. I had energy to enjoy them and the weather was perfect. I love love loved this day :).

Summer Carnival

Lately, Lily has been working on how to help the children be more productive, healthy, happy and balanced now and during the summer given the Covid situation. She caught a beautiful vision of what she called the family economy (now calling it the Summer Carnival) which is a system whereby the children can earn money (and be fined) based on certain behaviors. Here is a link of her sharing how it works over an amazing borsch dinner.

As always, I LOVED her borsch, but I have to say her salmon, creme fresh, and dill mittens stole the show though. They were as delicious as they were cute.

I should also mention that this Summer Carnival is designed by Lily to be not only productive, but also very fun for the children. I think they are very excited. Lydia insisted on accompanying me to the bank (I cleared out ever dollar coin they had, which was 163), and Mary helped me clean the backyard to ear a dollar. Lily got them adorable piggy banks that divide their money into “save” “share” and “spend”.

At times like this I find myself reflecting yet again on how grateful I am for Lily. Not only does she put so much effort into our family, but she is brilliant and fun, and pouring creative energy (like the family carnival) into our family. Our children are so so lucky. I love Lily’s vision with this carnival, and I’ve included her letter to the kids and how it works below.

Dear Kids,

Dad and I are so grateful for each one of you! Observing you in our home is–often–delightful!  You are our favorite treasures. We want to take the best care of you we can.

One way we care for you is to provide a childhood full of opportunities to play, learn, grow, and relax. (When you are a grown-up, it is much harder to find time to relax. Relax while you can! But if it’s more fun to play, that’s good too.. Just clean up your messes, please.) 

This summer we will not be taking any big family trips, and we probably won’t even take many (any?) day trips. We will spend a lot of time at home.

Since we don’t want you cooking your brains on screens all summer, I have written up a list of activities that you can do to occupy yourselves if you feel bored. Some of these activities are naturally fun (like reading, baking, crafting, etc.). You would probably do them anyway without rewards. But to make them extra fun this summer, you can earn rewards doing these activities. You’re welcome!

There are also activities on this list that require extra effort. I hope you will choose to earn some rewards by growing yourselves through these activities. These activities will enrich and deepen life inside your heads and hearts. When you have knowledge, skills, and interests, life is never boring. There is always something new to learn. 

We will pay you to complete these activities because we want you to feel extra motivated to grow yourselves. As you get older, you will feel naturally compelled to pursue purposeful, disciplined personal growth. Humans love to learn!  But kids might feel more excited by watching a show than by, for example, the task of memorizing a Mary Oliver poem or Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech. 

To counteract the enticement of screens, we are bribing you to make better choices. Frankly, I don’t know if this is a good thing to do or not. But I also don’t want to make you memorize poems, speeches, or even new dance moves just because I say you have to do these things. I’d rather you feel bought into these challenges, and the best way I can think of that is through money and prizes. 

Think of it as our own crazy family carnival. You earn $1 for each activity you complete at any booth. For every $5 earned, you get an item from the grab bag. The different booths in our family are:

  • Healthy, helpful Habits*
    • Make your bed every day
    • Pick up your room completely at the end of each day 
    • Clear your dishes after every meal
    • Bathe every other day
    • Wash your hair 3x a week
    • Clip your nails 1x a week
    • Put away any laundry Mom puts on top of your dresser the day you find it
    • 1 hour DEAR a day
    • 1 hour of educational computer programs daily 4X a week
    • 30 minutes math 5x a week

 *Required but rewarded weekly for completion of ALL tasks. $1 will be subtracted for tasks not completed as described above

  •  Healthy Body
    • Learn new dance routines
    • Go a week without sugar
    • Run a mile without stopping
    • Hike a mile or more without complaining
    • If you haven’t yet learned–or have forgotten–learn to ride a bike
    • Do 30 minutes of yoga
    • Master a vinyasa yoga sequence
    • Walk around the block for 30 minutes daily for a week with your oldest sibling (Take Arlo monitoring bunny camera with you. Only applicable to Mary and Lydia.)
    • Play outside for four hours–no fighting
    • Go a day without any snacks between meals
    • 10 push-ups every day for a week
    • Mary: 5 sessions of eye exercises
  •  Mental Health
    • Meditate every morning and night daily for a week
    • Set a timer in the middle of the day, sit down, and just breathe (10 minutes)
    • Keep a daily gratitude journal and write 5 things every day for a week
    • Don’t fight with your siblings for an entire day (When they make you mad, take a deep breath, remove yourself by heading calmly to a different room in the house. If they follow you, alert your parents calmly and quietly. While the parent deals with your sibling, continue to remove yourself calmly and quietly to a different location.)
    • 7 days of daily nature journaling (quiet observation, detailed illustration, and paragraph of text)
  • Skill development
    • Practice your instrument for one hour 5x a week (Complete all tasks assigned by your teacher. Flashcards or work on reviews if you have extra time.)
    • Spend 30 minutes learning German or Spanish 
    • Bake or cook something new – clean up completely
    • Crochet a granny square
    • Crochet a blanket
    • Embroider something pretty onto a tea towel
    • Sew a skirt, pajama bottom, or simple dress
    • Learn to beat box
    • Bake a cake. Freeze, ice, decorate with piped flowers and clean up completely
    • Bake a pretty focaccia bread – clean up completely
    • Plan an imaginary trip (Print a map and highlight the route or highlight the route in one of our atlases. Type out an itinerary with places we will go, where we will stay, and what we will eat. Calculate the cost of each day and provide a total estimate of what the trip will cost. Explain what we will learn or enjoy or endure on this trip.)
    • Write and illustrate a beautiful, interesting picture book. Should take at least three hours to complete.
    • Complete a 300 piece puzzle and don’t lose any pieces
    • Babysit Clarissa or Ammon without using a screen for one hour

  • Idea Ingestion — each of these qualifies as ONE GRAB BAG!!
  • Memorize an approved poem or set of poems
  • Memorize an approved speech
  • Read 5 approved books and mark them on Goodreads 
  • Read 1 approved book about science, mark on Goodreads, and write a three paragraph essay on it
  • Read 1 book about history, mark on Goodreads, and write a three paragraph essay on it
  • Read 3 books on the same scientific or historical subject 
  • Listen to 5 approved audiobooks and mark on Goodreads
  • Research famous works of art and replicate them at home
  • Lectio Divina on any scripture and discuss experience with your parent after
  • Write a Shakespearean sonnet
  • Write five limericks

Blessed Sunday

I had a really wonderful Sunday. Honestly, I was feeling a little bit foggy and stressed, but all in all it was a very blessed day. I did my monthly values meditation this morning, but I didn’t choose to keep going very long, I think, in part, because I was so tired.

But it was a nice way to start the morning and Lily and took a nice and slow start to the day.

Early in the day I played play-doh with Lydia. She’s here with me now and she wanted to comment on our time together.

“This is Lydia speaking. Dad and I had a really fun time playing with play-doh. He also started to teach me how to make pizza. It’s hard. No to you dad.”

Play-doh really was fun with her. We listened to songs like “The marvelous toy” by Peter Paul and Mary, and we made things like clothes and food with the Play-doh. It was so fun to hang out with her and I’m so grateful that she came to me and asked me to play. Towards the end, we rolled out Play-doh in the shape of a pancake and I tried to remember how to twirl pizza like I did when I was a cook at Gepetto’s. I tried to teach Lydia also. It was very fun.

Home church was very nice today. We listed to “Spirit of God” by Voice Male to open, listened to Paul Cardall’s “I Know that My Redeemer Lives” while I prepared the sacrament and shared thoughts/feelings/testimonies after the sacrament. Georgia shared a beautiful heartfelt testimony. I talked to the children about recent miracles I’m grateful for like that Georgia didn’t break bones when she fell, Lily is feeling a bit better, Lydia’s breakthrough with the harp, my work going well, and Mary’s super nice notes (Ammon, Clarissa and Lily weren’t present).

After that, I cleaned my grill deeply. I’ve only done a solid clean on it once in 5 years, and I’ve had a couple grill fires lately that I think were from all the grease and gunk under the grill. I took about an hour to watch a video, dismantle it, and clean it and re-assemble it. It was a joy to cook on it after that. I LOVE SALMON AND PINEAPPLE. Today we brazed the pineapple in molasses and it was DELICIOUS.

Lily and I set up a lamp for Ammon so he could play with his toy as he drifted off to bed.

After putting the kids down, Lily and I watched the first two episodes of season 3 of Designated Survivor. We just watched Contagion and loved it and now we are on a bit of a Pandemic kick!

Fun With Hats

On Saturday (and maybe Sunday as well) Georgia was entertaining children in her room by seeing how many hats people could stack on their head. Georgia and I each got 13. I think I heard one child got 14! Anyway, I’m having trouble uploading photos, but here is at least one that uploaded of Lydia.

Re-balancing

Lily and I are both rebalancing. I’ve been so focused at work, and Lily has been so focused on her health goals, and it has left us both stressed and exhausted to our bones. I’m taking Monday and Tuesday off and Lily is going to back off a bit on her exercise and eating restrictions. She read The Obesity Code today and we both learned about the incredible power of fasting to restore the body to a healthy insulin level and set body weight. With only broth, water and multivitamins (and in some cases, even without) people can fast for even a month at a time healthily to get the body back to a health insulin and weight level. Lily and I were both amazed by what we learned, and Lily wants to try some fasting, but she’s going to do it when she is not feeling quite so stressed and when she’s recovered from the strain of all her recent efforts.

Lydia’s Harp Breakthroughs

First, a cute picture of Clarissa. 🙂

And now about Lydia and the harp. For four years, I have watched as Lily and Lydia have spent so many hours wrestling over the harp. Lily trying to get Lydia to practice, and Lydia resisting or struggling with tears through her pieces. Finally, this week, Lily told Lydia that if Lydia wanted to keep doing the harp (and if we are going to buy her next harp required to continue at $10,000) that Lydia would need to take the initiative to practice on her own. Lily made a 100 chart for Lydia and said if it is complete by the end of August (that gives Lydia Sundays off and 8 or so freebie days), then we would continue harp and buy her next harp. We even told Lydia she could pick out her next harp if she decided to stick with it.

To our amazement, the very next day, Lydia was at her harp early in the morning knocking out her harp practice without anyone asking her to. And this has been going on for a few days now, where completely on her own initiative she gets it done. This IS a miracle. Lydia is so special, and Lily was so inspired to change the dynamic in this way. It reminds me of when Lydia and I went on a walk recently (Lily and I walk around the block multiple times almost every night, but one night, I did rounds with just Lydia), and Lydia told me that if someone asks her to walk she wont want to, but if she’s able to just walk as much as she wants on her terms she could go forever.

In addition to this practicing breakthough, we had another breakthrough in her performing. Lily got a video of Lydia playing today to submit for a competition. Lydia played remarkably.

Here is the link to the video.

Here is a message Lily posted on facebook about it.

“These are Lydia’s festival pieces. Can I please just say that I am SO PROUD of this girl!! As a perfectionist, she struggles a lot a lot a lot during harp practice and over the years has probably spent at least a hundred hours just weeping at her instrument. (Actually that’s a gross underestimation.) We have given her multiple real opportunities to quit. But she has so much grit and even though she does not like practice, she loves the harp and always chooses to keep at it. Also she has the best harp teacher, Anamae Anderson, and I feel so grateful she has patiently and diligently invested so much into my daughter.”

Lydia got so many comments and likes on Facebook. I am soo proud of Lily for getting Lydia to this moment and especially proud of Lydia for sticking it through and now taking ownership to find mastery in this beautiful instrument.

I.Love.My.Family.

Tootsie Rolls and Sprinkler

Today through the rest of the week, I was very exhausted from my exertions at work. Thank goodness for my upcoming vacation! Today after work, I just went outside and hung around the kids to keep an eye on them. The played in the sprinkler and at one point disappeared into the garage. Ammon came out and announced that Clarissa had found my stash of tootsie rolls. The bag didn’t have that much in it, and I was too tired to feel like controlling the intake, so I just decided to let them have at it. I think it was very very fun for them.

Here is a link of Clarissa talking about her candy.

Lydia’s Work and Ammon getting stuck.

Lydia has a wide range on the quality of work she turns in from school. On the “just get it done and check the box” side, Lily told me an adorable anecdote of when Lydia ran down the stairs and the following conversation ensued:

Lydia: “Mom, I need to plant a seed for my school assignment. Do we have any seeds?”

Lily: “I’m not sure that I have any seeds to plant honey. Maybe we get get some a little later.”

Lydia: “No mom, I want to do it right now. I just need any seed. Oh, look, a lemon. Can I have a lemon seed?”

Lily: “Darling, lemons are tropical and won’t grow here. That seed won’t grow.”

Lydia: “It doesn’t matter mom, this will be perfect, thanks!”

Lydia then grabbed the lemon seed, went outside, plucked it in the dirt, and came back inside victorious. Haha, I thought that was hilarious.

On the other end of the spectrum, the “I can create beautiful, thoughtful, outcomes when I really want to” is the nature collage she spent hours on which you can see here:

Here is a comic she made a couple weeks ago, which resides somewhere in the middle of the two extremes. As usual with Lydia, it is very sweet, smart and adorable.

On other news from the day, I was already running late to a meeting when Lily hollered for me from the yard because she needed my help. Ammon got stuck between the springs of the trampoline and she couldn’t get him out. I have to say, at this stage of life it feels like Ammon is constantly breaking things, getting hurt, crying, fighting, or getting into predicaments. Some recent things that come to mind: Ammon putting rocks in my my garden planters, Ammon putting a shovel in our basil plant pot and dumping the dirt all over the patio, the cabinet door mysteriously falling when Ammon was sitting right in-front of it with no one watching (Lily said he often kicks that door), and lots of fights with Clarissa. There is this difficult cycle with him, when Lily or I will ask him to do something, or not do something, sometimes repeating ourselves multiple times. Then he will go and do the exact thing opposite of what we instructed. Then we will scold him, and then he will cry big alligator tears. And then we will hug and try to explain for the hundredth time, that we wont get mad if he will just simply do what he is supposed to. It’s hard to tell if he’s not processing instructions, or acting out to get attention and the eventual tender make-up that follows the scold. There probably is a more elevated way than this to parent, but right now it’s where I am. I need to be kinder because sometimes I really lose my patience with him, which I think is why sometimes he doesn’t tell me the truth when he does something wrong. Yesterday, (May 2, I’m writing this blog from the future), I felt exasperated even at a time when he was barely doing anything wrong and said, “Ammon, stop being a problem!”. I felt awful and apologized profusely, and later repented on my knees and got myself a better place. I need to give myself a little bit of a break for being hard on him at times because I’ve been very stressed and right now it seems like he is creating problems or situations a lot, situations that are hard to deal with gracefully when I’m tired or already stretched. But that doesn’t make it right. And I want to parent better, and it was a good opportunity for me to reflect about how to be better. I need to give him a break and find a way to be more kind and understating to that sweet boy, so he can always feel my love. I’m going to really try to get myself to a better place to not get frustrated with all of his energy, playfulness, and curiosity that so often results in messes to clean, things to fix and situations to resolve. I’m so glad in this situation, even though it made me late for work, I had the sense of humor to grab some photos. He really is so innocent, adorable, and good natured. I adore that boy, and in this situation, because my perspective was right, he really gave me some much needed amusement during a stressful day of work, even though it made me later for a meeting. Boy he gives me so many opportunities to smile if I’m just wise enough to enjoy it.