Potty Training: Day 3

I potty trained each of my kids differently, but I never enjoyed the process. Now it's Faythe's turn. I've gone back and forth on this--should I wait until she's older? should I start now? She acts like she's ready and I am tired of changing diapers. For 8 years I have had at least 1 kid in diapers. I'm DONE!

I have been putting her on the potty at random times, but haven't been consistent. (I keep forgetting.) So, I figured if I put her in underwear that would force me to remember. (Who wants pee-pee spots all over the house?!?) Day 1 there were a couple of accidents. I took her to the bathroom every hour or so. As soon as she sits down I know if she's going to pee or not. If she starts playing around she's not, but if she sits and holds still she goes. Today she told me 2 times that she needed to go potty. She's making progress.

Wish us luck!

Faythe is 2!

Yesterday we celebrated Faythe's birthday. Jonathan commented on how weird it was to say that our youngest is 2.
Friday we spent the afternoon at my parents'. They gave her a suitcase and some princess shoes. Faythe doesn't really like to wear dress-up clothes, but she loves the shoes!

We also had cupcakes and ice cream.
On Saturday Grandma and Grandpa Mecham took Faythe out to eat and to the bookstore. Faythe's favorite thing to eat is pancakes. So they took her to lunch at IHOP.


For our family activity we went to the water park and ate ice cream sandwiches. Faythe loves to put her "suit on."
I love watching Faythe discover and learn new things. She is fun to watch. Happy Birthday!

Quiet Time

We've always had quiet time at our house. At first it was nap time, but then the older kids grew out of that stage and it became known as quiet time. I've always felt that it was important--a break for them, a break for me, and I recently found a blog post that put the importance into words for me.
Here are my 5 reasons to do quiet time:
1. I Need It--This is a time for me to be kid-less, a time to recoup my energy so I can "face" the kids for the rest of the day. I've recently added personal study to my quiet time. I can study my scriptures without falling asleep. Then I will read whatever book I happen to be studying. Right now it's The Declaration of Independence. Sometimes I will take a nap.
2. It Is Good for Children Mentally and Physically --Most of the time our house, with five kids under eight, isn't very quite. I read on the blog: "It is so important for children to have quiet time that I would even suggest the lack of it has had a negative physical and mental affect on our children. Without quiet time, children become over stimulated. It becomes difficult for them to manage simple daily routine such as sitting at the table during mealtime or being able to relax in preparation for bedtime. They lack the patience to appreciate the natural setting around them."
3. Quiet time is a good time for them to relax, and enjoy the simple parts of the day. No rushing about, just peace and quiet.
4. Helps Children feel less Anxiety's and Stress--after a morning of learning and playing kids really need this quiet time to help them wind down.
5. Children are Less Cranky After a Peaceful Quiet Time!--I can tell when my kids have not had quiet time. They are whiny and have a harder time playing with each other.
During quiet time the kids can read, color or rest. I try to remove toys and other distractions. I want a time for them to relax and be quiet. It's one of my favorite times of the day.

Grassland, Forest and Pond

We recently started a unit on habitats and I thought it would be fun to visit the habitats that we study (at least as many as we can). Thursday we took a trip to Mingus Mountain in Prescott. The plan was to explore a meadow, but we actually got to look at 3 different habitats in 1 day. There were 2 meadows in the area we went. One of the meadows was surrounded by a forest and there was a pond (it was called a lake, but it was more like a pond) in the middle of the other meadow.

We hiked through the forest enjoying the sounds of birds, the squishy-pine needle covered ground, the trees, bugs and a variety of mushrooms.

Jonathan and the kids also had fun climbing a tree.



Seeing the kids walk through the grass in the meadow reminded me of Little House on the Prairie. We were bummed not to see any wildlife, but I was excited to see some pretty flowers. Too bad I didn't take any pictures of them. We saw some foot prints and grasshoppers and felt the itchy grass.

Here are the kids hoping to see a frog.
My favorite thing about ponds is the cattails. I was so excited to find some there. We also saw some water bugs and spiders. The kids wanted to go in, but we would let them. What is it with kids and water?!?!

We also hiked to the fire lookout tower.
It was nice to get away from the hot weather and spend some time as a family.

Mom, Can I Keep Him?

This morning, Jonathan and the kids came home with a puppy.
My first question was "Why?" If you remember, we had a dog, and we didn't do too well. Jonathan explained that it was running around the neighborhood and he didn't want it to get hit, so he brought it home. Jonathan gave the dog a bath, we fed and watered it and the kids played with him. He checked out our back yard and barked/whined at the door when the kids went inside. I tried to get some pictures so we could put up signs. Thankfully the signs did their job. The dog was gone by lunchtime. But, we had a very sad Corbin on our hands after he left. He wants a pet, but I'm not ready to get another dog. I'm (kind of) OK with a pet, but it can't stink or take up too much space, and it has to be easy to take care of. I haven't found the perfect pet yet, so poor Corbin will have to do with trips to the pet store and playing with other people's pets.

Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Have you ever had a day where nothing goes right and you want to move to Australia? A day when you go for your morning run, but have to quickly turn back because you have to poo? (This is known in my family as runner's trot). A day when one of your kids grabs the egg carton and breaks some eggs on the kitchen floor? Or a day when your kids are fighting and your good teaching lesson goes in one ear and out the other? Or maybe a day when another one of your kids (actually the same one) finds the air freshener and proceeds to "paint" the bathroom floor with it. A day when you are getting an arthrogram and MRI and the doctor can't get the dye to go into your shoulder so he has to dig around? (very painful!) Or a day when quiet time is over before you get to take a nap? An afternoon when there is nothing to do and the kids are whiny? Or a day when you can't find anything to fix for dinner and when you do the kids complain about it? Or a night when your kids won't stay in bed and spend an hour giggling in their rooms? I'm moving to Australia!


Actually only a few of those things happened to me today and it was a better than average day, but I got to thinking about this book after the first 2 things happened and thought it would be fun to notice all the bad things that can happen. Maybe tomorrow I'll look for all the good things and write a post about them. It would probably lead to a happier me.

Banana Bread

Today the kids and I made the best tasting banana bread ever! I knew it would be good when I licked the bowl and the batter tasted good.
The kids mashed the bananas

measured the ingredients

stirred the batter and poured it into bread pans. Then we waited. We ended up eating it for dinner with lots of veggies, edamame and cheese. It was so good.

Here's the recipe to try on your own.

Banana Bread
1 1/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 c. mashed very ripe bananas (3 medium)
1/2 c. buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 c. chopped nuts, if desired

1. Move oven rack to low position so that tops of pans will be in center of oven. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottoms only of 2 loaf pans.
2. Mix sugar and butter in large bowl. Stir in eggs until well blended. Stir in bananas, buttermilk and vanilla; beat until smooth. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt just until moistened. Stir in nuts. Divide batter evenly between pans.
3. Bake about 1 hour.

Bread Bowls

The rainy weather (and fasting) gave me a hankering for some chowder. I found a yummy looking recipe(see below)and decided that it would be good with bread bowls. So I went searching for a simple recipe. My mother-in-law pointed me at allrecipes.com. I remember her one time saying the best way to know if a recipe was good on that sight was if it had at least 4 stars and A LOT of people gave it that rating. The recipe I found had 4 1/2 stars and had 211 reviews. I figured that meant it would be good. It was! The kids liked the chowder, but not in their bread bowls. They just ate their bread bowls plain and their chowder in a regular bowl.

Chicken-Cheese Chowder
(I got this recipe from Once-A-Month Cooking Family Favorites. It's a book I disovered when visiting friends in Colorado.)
1 c. shredded carrot
1/4 c. chopped onion
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 c. flour
2 c. chicken broth
1 c. shredded chicken
1 4oz. can mushroom pieces and stems (I omitted this--YUCK!)
3 tablespoons dry white wine (optional)
1 teaspoon celery salt
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
2 c. milk

In large skillet, saute the carrots and onion in the butter until tender. Blend in flour; add the broth. Cook and stir until thickened. (I moved it to a pot after adding the flour). Stir in the chicken, mushrooms, wine, celery salt, and Worcestershire sauce. heat through. Add the mild and cheese, and heat well; do not boil. Serves 4. (It served Jonathan and I big servings and the kids small servings and there was a leftover big serving for Jonathan to take to work).

Italian Bread Bowls
2 packages dry yeast (4 1/2 teaspoons)
2 1/2 c. warm water
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
7 cups flour

1 tablespoon cornmeal (I was out of this so I skipped that step)
1 egg white
1 tablespoon water

1. In mixer, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
2. Add salt, oil and 4 cups flour to the yeast mixture; beat well. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 6 minutes. (I let my mixer do that part--I let it mix for about 6 minutes). Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to cat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm lace until double in volume, about 40 minutes.
4. Punch dough down, and divide into 8 equal portions. Shape each portion into a 4 inch round loaf. Place loves on lightly greased baking sheets sprinkled with cornmeal. cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 35 minutes. (Next time I'm going to do 2-3 big ones and dived the rest into small ones. They were too much for the kids to handle.)
5. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a small bowl beat together egg white and 1 tablespoon water; lightly brush the loaves with half of this wash.
6. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. brush with remaining egg mixture and bake 10-15 minutes more or until golden. Cool on wire racks. (Mine fit on 2 cookie sheets. When I pulled them out half way I switched the racks that they were on.)
7. To make bowls: cut a 1/2 inch thick slice from top of each loaf; scoop out centers, leaving 3/4 inch thick shells. Fill brad bowls with hot sop and serve immediately.

Here's a picture of Dyllan holding her bread bowl. This might give you an idea of how big they are.