Weeeee!

In efforts to make our backyard more fun than our front yard, we decided to make a rope swing. It started with a little one.

When they had so much fun on that one, we decided to utilize the huge trees in the backyard to make the super-swing.

We bought 45 feet of rope and slung it over a strong branch. I wasn't sure at first whether to do a tire swing or just a rope swing but I knew that I didn't want to deal with the spiders and water collecting in a tire swing. Then I thought of the little wooden disc on the end. So I went to Target and found one for $20. Uh, no thanks! So that same day while I was at JoAnns I thought to check their wood section. That's when I found a wall plaque that was just about the same size. With my coupon I got it for 3 bucks. I took it home, drilled a hole through the middle, sanded it, sprayed it with some lacquer and tied it on. The kids LOVE swinging on their wall plaque. Unfortunately, they complain when I push them now because I can't do it as high as Daddy. So I've been demoted. But I don't mind :)

Just for Laughs...

Reverence Practice Time

Destroy has a hard time at church. His high level of hyperactivity coupled with the large volume of social opportunities is just too much for him to handle. Controlling his freak-outs, outbursts and overall wildness is hard for him to do, but it's also not on the top of his to-do list. Being in primary, I get to witness all of his misbehavior. Not only to do I feel responsible for it, but I especially feel bad for the other leaders that have to deal with it as well as the distraction that he is to the other kids.

OK I realize that I"m making him sound like some kind of freak-child. He's not and his behavior isn't as bad as some I've seen :) But it's still an issue.

I've been reading a book that talks about giving consequences that are relevant to the child's misbehavior. So instead of taking away the privilege of watching a movie after church for irreverence, which is what I used to do, and which has nothing to do with being irreverent, Destroy now gets to have a session of reverence practice at home. This is unfavorable to him because A) it's boring, and B) it takes time away from doing other much more desirable activities.

Here are the rules:
*The minimum time to practice is 20 minutes.
*He must sit (with his bottom on the chair) at the kitchen table. He cannot get up.
*He can only talk about church and gospel related topics.
*He must raise his hand when he wants to say something (church-related).
*The last five minutes he is not allowed to speak at all.

For any breech of these rules, a minute is added to the clock. We have only done reverence practice twice, but both times Destroy has just about doubled his 20 minutes for breaking rules.

The question is... how many times do we have to do this until it actually shows to be effective? I have my doubts that it will ever work with this child, but now that we've started, we can't back down!

Guilty Pleasure

Martha's Fruit Dip

1 small jar marshmallow cream
1 8 oz cream cheese
1-2 T lemon juice

*Try at your own risk*

The things we do for our kids

We had a sandbox in Irvine that we got from the dumpster. The kids loved eating it, pooping it out, and throwing it at each other. They occasionally played with it :) But it was such a mess because the sandbox was RIGHT outside the sliding door of our apartment. The kids used to bring shovels full of sand and dump them inside on the carpet. But, they loved the sandbox and spent a lot of time out there.

Destroy (almost 1 1/2) outside our first on-campus apartment. Yum. This sand tastes better that your green beans, Mom!Search (10 months) outside our second apartment in Irvine.

See? It was literally right on the other side of the door. Actually, the sand in the door track made a sound much like nails on a chalkboard.

A few weeks ago when we were prepping the ground to get ready for planting our garden, we cleared out a raised flowerbed that used to have a pond in it (which we took out after we found a dead mouse in it). But, the boys had so much fun playing in the dirt that I decided to make a home-made sandbox. See it? It's right below the deck railing.

So here are the ingredients for a home-made sandbox:

2 hours of shoveling and flattening by yourself. Oh, I mean with "help". The excavator and steam roller must be manned and manage to get under your feet numerous times!

15 minutes of laying pond liner in the correct position by yourself. Oh, I mean with "help".

2 trips to the store for play sand. Five 50 pound bags the first time and seven 50 pound bags the 2nd time. Because 5 bags just wasn't enough. Make sure you get your husband to go with you the second time to avoid chronic back problems.

That's a lot of weight in sand. You do the math.

4 wheelbarrow trips of sand from the car to the sandbox.

10 minutes of dumping the sand out and feeling the pleasant squish between your toes!

3 more wheelbarrow trips hauling rocks to hold down the sides of the pond liner. Be sure to have your helpful rock haulers pose for a muscle picture.

5 minutes to take pictures for blogging purposes.

Ending result: two little boys happier than a tornado in a trailer park! And one tired mom. Be sure to have someone take a picture of you lounging in your kid's blow-up pool.

What happens when your contraption of tarps to shield the rain and rocks to hold the tarp down doesn't work out? A beach in your very own back yard. And two little boys happier than two tornadoes in a trailer park. And guess what you get to do then? Bail water. Lots of it. Especially the second day after rain when there is so much water in the sandbox that you can't even SEE THE SAND. Next you devise a better plan to keep the water off.

And be prepared for obscene amounts of laundry as a result of this new play area.

And he reads...

Now that he finally shows interest, Destroy likes to read! For a few months he has been spelling, but he has not had the desire to sit down and read. In the car, for instance, we would give him a word. Like DIG. He would figure it out in his head and spell it for us.

But we could not get him to sit down and sound out the words in a book.

But just recently he has decided that reading is fun. The other day he blew me away at Costco when I caught him sounding out the letters to "restrooms".

"Mom, that sign says 'restrooms'!" That was the day that I decided that it was time to start teaching him how to read. So, upon this highly recommended book, we have started a lesson a day. The lessons are short, they're not flashy, and it's all very simple. He starts kindergarten not this fall but the next, so I figure we can take all the time we need!

I have found that when I go to the library to look for beginner reading books, they are all way too advanced for his level. Does anyone have any recommendations for easy, early reader books? I want to find some that are simple and with few words so that it doesn't push him away from wanting to read. Any advice?

Taggage Baggage

Nicole tagged me FOREVER ago. I'll try to think up new answers this time.

5 Things people don't usually know about you:

1. I love playing any sport but I hate watching them. Even my favorites like volleyball and skiing. The only sports I do like watching are gymnastics, dance or ice skating. Not sure why that is.

2. This one if for you, Julia. I am a phonophobic. What is this??? It is a fear of the telephone. Well, not of the actual phone, but of talking on it and especially answering it or making calls on it. This is why I have a stack of phone numbers of Moms and kids we've met at parks, swimming lessons and preschool that are stashed away in the kitchen drawer. It's not that I don't want to hang out with these people, I just have a fear of picking up the phone to call them. But when these moms force their phone numbers written on little scraps of paper upon me, I start feeling a little nervous and agitated. So, I put them with all the others that have been accumulated. So, to all of you out-of-towners, now you know why I don't call you. And also why I love blogging so much.

3. I have some kind of muffin allergy. This one is very strange and I am never able to explain it in a way that actually describes what is really going on. Confusing, sorry. Here's some history. I remember specifically the first time it happened. I was in junior high. I had eaten a muffin at church and I started to feel a bit strange. Suddenly, strange thoughts entered my head and the organs in my stomach felt like they were all expanding and rising. It was almost like memories were placed in my head that were not mine. Like I was having an out-of-body experience mixed with hallucination. To this day, I cannot eat a muffin without having this weird and uncomfortable sensation come upon me. It's too bad for me that I really like the taste of muffins.

4. Most people have a fear of heights, small spaces or airplanes. I have fears such as the telephone and getting in car accidents. I am terrified of getting in a car accident which makes me a paranoid driver when I'm driving, and a backseat driver when I'm not. I pity my poor husband. The last at-fault accident I got in was 8 years ago (and my last ticket as well). It (along with all other accidents I've been in) was so traumatic that it still serves as the source of fear to make me paranoid today. You know the metal part between the front and rear door on the outside? Well, it got so smashed that it did this to me:

Remember this roomies? I was taken to the hospital in the ambulance because they thought I had broken my hip. Funny thing is, that when I got in this car wreck, I was actually on my way to check out a new car. Ha ha. Oh, and Mica and I also found out one of the few ways to get Brooke out of the house without make-up. Just a simple call from the paramedics to come down to the hospital will do the trick. Thanks to phobialist.com, I now know that I have dystychiphobia (a fear of accidents) as well as phonophobia. So there it is.

5. Excluding grocery shopping, I pretty much return half of what I buy. This is especially true for clothes. Marlo, remember when we used to wear clothes with tags on just for this reason? Lucky for me, the Target I go to will take almost anything back. Opened, used, whatever. It's the only Target I've ever been to that isn't anal about returning things. Like milk, Jordan.