Terrible
Posted: December 17, 2012 Filed under: Dangerous Book for Boys, Little Women 8 CommentsThis past week has been draining. I hoped the kids would be on better behavior after the weekend, but no luck so far.
Let’s see…this first one will be a TMI for sure. Skip it if you have a queasy stomach or you don’t have kids. On Tuesday, June took a nap like usual. When she woke up, instead of coming and telling me useful things like “Mama, I woke up,” she took off her clothes and diaper, pooped on the floor, smeared it EVERYWHERE, and then dumped her cup of milk all over it. Guess how fun cleaning up wasn’t. I put her in the bath, set to work cleaning and running laundry, and discovered that June can climb out of the tub onto the counter. She was giving herself a new bath in the sink. I suppose that isn’t too bad, just water everywhere, but while I was dealing with her, Evan was terrorizing the dog. He likes to knock on the door because the dog freaks out, thinking someone is here.
On Wednesday, the kids were both being their usual slightly-naughty selves. Evan demanded that I put on a movie for him, and I said no. He shouted, “Fine, I hate you! June, I hate Mama, so let’s go camping without her.” I try to not let things like that bother me, but HE IS ONLY 3 YEARS OLD. So young to exclude me from camping trips! That night I had YW, and Jarom took the kids with him on a hunt for a frozen 12-lb turkey. After he finally got back (and said the kids were mostly great), my sweet friend Alitha let me come over for hot chocolate even though it was late. It was so nice to get out of the house and have a break from children!
On Thursday, I had plans to meet up with Kimberlee for dessert and thank-goodness-we-left-the-kids-at-home in the evening. Before I left, I told Evan that I wanted to come home and hear that he was a super good listener. And he was! Jarom said Evan was really good (although June made a few messes). That gave me hope for Friday.
Friday evening, Jarom came home from a rough day at work and I told him to go out and do something with friends. He left for a few hours and the kids decided to really show me what they’re like. None of this “super good listener” business. No, they got a can of peaches with a pull-tab lid, opened it, and dumped it on June’s floor. (Thankfully, it’s wood, not carpet.) Then they got my salt and pepper shakers, took them apart, and dumped salt and pepper all over the peach mess. I did manage to get them in bed and asleep by the time Jarom came home, so at least I had a chance to sit down and read in the lovely quiet.
On Saturday, Jarom was working on his car all day. He was already outside when I woke up, and he’d even brought donuts for us! The kids and I were supposed to meet Kimberlee at the mall play area, but Evan refused to look for his shoes – I haven’t got a clue where he put them, ANY of them, and he was so belligerent and naughty that we had to stay home. I tidied up the living room and finally set to work cleaning the kitchen. The kids were watching a movie. Haha, just kidding. June was shaking a bottle of mustard all over the living room. It got on the floor, the wall, the couch, the tv stand, the dog, the doghouse, and June. Evan escaped unscathed, which makes me think he knew perfectly well what was happening and moved out of the way. They both got sent to their rooms. I’ve been talking with Evan about how he’s often an accomplice to June’s escapades (if not her coach) – even if he isn’t the one doing something naughty, he knows he needs to come tell me when she’s making a mess. So the rule is that he gets in trouble with her.
After cleaning up the mustard mess and finishing the kitchen, and getting lunch for Jarom and all his helpers, I needed a nap. I mistakenly thought that Evan had gotten the message that he should tell me if June was being naughty. Nope, they somehow got some highlighters and colored all over the walls in the kitchen and both kids’ rooms. I was furious. Evan told me that he and June would never, ever be my friends. I was still furious, but I was also worn out. I started crying – to which Evan jumped around in a circle shouting, “We beat her! We beat Mama!”
As a 2-year-old, Evan was (for the most part) sweet and mild. Age 3 has been much more difficult. I thought at first I was wholly to blame, since I was stressed and busy finishing school at the beginning of the year. But even when I’m nice, attentive, patient, and helpful to Evan, he’s stubborn and surly and defiant. In short, he is me. And the Terrible Twos have only been the Terrible Threes, which has recently coincided with June’s Very Terrible Twos. She is devious and wild and uncontrollable.
This morning, Jarom got up with the kids. When he left for work I stayed cozy in bed for a few more minutes before getting up to face the day. And I found that June had gotten the parchment paper and unrolled most of it. Fixable, thankfully. She had a few more moments of mischief and I put her down for a nap. Evan settled down to watch a movie (he usually does while she naps, so he asked as soon as I put her to bed). There was a period of quiet. I began to think maybe June was the real trouble after all.
But…I asked Evan to go brush his teeth, and instead he squirted toothpaste all over the bathroom. He said it was for a party. I made him clean it up, and sent him to his room. That’s been the only major incident today. So far.
The kids are just terrible! I must be doing something wrong. Or else they just love seeing me get riled up. I know – I should stop reacting.
You try, when your living room is covered in mustard!
Bookcase
Posted: December 14, 2012 Filed under: Book of Sand 4 CommentsWhen we moved, I bought a large IKEA Expedit bookcase for the living room. I’ve seen a lot of interior design blogs about “styling” your bookcase and here’s what I have to say: I don’t have knickknacks to display, I have books – hence the bookcase.
So mine is just filled with books. I am ok with that.
I love having all the books right on display – in our basement apartment, I had one shelf in the living room (with the books arranged by color), and four shelves in the bedroom. That meant only colorful hardcover books were lucky enough to be in the living room, and my well-loved paperbacks were all hidden away. Now I have a mini-library, and I’ve already lent a handful of books to friends.
Forgive the bad lighting, I took this late at night when I thought of the post:
Not pictured: the total destruction of my house. And the top of the bookcase, which has become the final (easily accessible) kids-can’t-reach-this-even-with-the-stepstool place.
The top left cubby is filled with cookbooks, and the rest of the books are arranged alphabetically by author until the bottom left cubby, when I ran out of regular books. Then there are some church manuals, a yearbook, and some cool things.
If you’re curious, here’s a complete listing of the contents of the bookcase, with columns A-D and rows 1-4. (Hey! Late-at-night ideas aren’t necessarily brilliant!)
1A: Hillery family cookbook from the Brian Head reunion
The Pie and Pastry Bible; Bite-Sized Desserts
How to Cook Cookbook
Korean Cooking for Everyone
Party Cakes
The Joy of Cooking
The International Chocolate Cookbook
Food Network Favorites
Spices of the World Cookbook by McCormick
Three & Four Ingredient Cookbook
LDS Hymns
1B: Watership Down
Little Women
The Book of Three; The Black Cauldron; The Castle of Llyr; Taran Wanderer; The High King; The Founding and Other Tales of Prydain
Tuck Everlasting
The Wizard of Oz
Chasing Vermeer
A Witness and a Warning
The Best of Betjeman; Coming Home
A Man for All Seasons
Collected Fictions
1C: Fahrenheit 451
The Secret Garden
Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling
Pathfinder; Ender’s Game (these should be reversed to be correct alphabetically AND chronologically, but Pathfinder and Graceling were exactly the same height, and I wanted to break them up)
Graceling
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Over Sea, Under Stone, Silver on the Tree
Sharing Nature with Children
Walk Two Moons
Jurassic Park and The Lost World
*ON LOAN: The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; Matilda
1D: The Twits; The Roald Dahl Treasury
The Confucian Transformation of Korea
Because of Winn-Dixie; The Tale of Desperaux
Oliver Twist; Sherlock Holmes
The Count of Monte Cristo
Nickle and Dimed
Magician: Apprentice; Magician: Master; Silverthorn
2A: Krondor the Betrayal
Inkheart; Inkspell
The Perry Mason Casebook
Julie of the Wolves
The Wind in the Willows
The Meaning of Life
The Client
The Other Side of Heaven
The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong
Princess Academy
The Last Laborer
2B: The Dark Wind; Listening Woman; The Leaphorn and Chee Novels
Standing for Something; Go Forward with Faith
A Prayer for Owen Meany
Lotta Prints
Howl’s Moving Castle
George Shrinks
The Phantom Tollbooth
The Scarlet Slipper Mystery; The Secret of Red Gate Farm
Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Education of a Wandering Man
2C: Still Life with Rice
A Wrinkle in Time; A Wind in the Door; A Ring of Endless Light; Troubling a Star
Ella Enchanted
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; The Horse and His Boy; The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; The Last Battle; The Great Divorce
The Princess and the Goblin (I am amused that C.S. Lewis ended up right next to George MacDonald)
Adventures of Perrine
Judy Moody
Moccasin Trail
Moby Dick
Anne of Green Gables
2D: Anne of Avonlea; Anne of the Island; Anne of Windy Poplars; Anne’s House of Dreams; Anne of Ingleside; Rainbow Valley; Rilla of Ingleside
Fablehaven 1-5
3A: The Candy Shop War; Beyonders 1-2
Abhorsen
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
The Scarlet Pimpernel
Nineteen Eighty Four
The Holy Temple; Mine Errand from the Lord
Bridge to Terabithia
Cry, the Beloved Country; Too Late the Phalarope
A Long Way from Chicago
3B: The Twenty-One Balloons
A Treasury of Bunny Stories
Summer of the Monkeys
*ON LOAN: The Name of the Wind; The Wise Man’s Fear
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone; Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets; Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban; Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire; Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
3C: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
The Little Prince
The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip
Print Workshop
The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Hamlet; King Lear; Shakespeare Collection
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew
The Grapes of Wrath
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
The Amulet of Samarkand
3D: The Golem’s Eye; Ptolemy’s Gate
Gulliver’s Travels
*MISSING: Bitter With Baggage Seeks Same; Hatched
Mary Poppins
The Chronicles of Harris Burdick
The Everything Book
*ON LOAN: Cutting for Stone (2 copies!)
Super Completely and Totally the Messiest
Candide
H.G. Wells: Seven Novels
4A: Behemoth
Stuart Little
The Picture of Dorian Gray
On the Banks of Plum Creek
The Castle in the Attic
The Virginian
Dealing with Dragons
The Paper-Bag Princess (pocket-sized)
The Secret Garden (pocket-sized)
The Velveteen Rabbit (pocket-sized)
Selma
I Like You
Stories and Fables
4B: dictionary
thesaurus
Hillery family history
The Arabian Nights
4C: Jarom’s mission photos
The Complete Calvin and Hobbes
4D: Korean books
P.S. If you’re still reading, I’ll treat you to this factoid: I keep a little tool behind cubby 1B to measure the distance from the front edge of the bookcase to the edge of the books, so they all line up nicely. Every so often (because June likes to attack the books) I realign everything. Obsessive? Maybe slightly. But it keeps the bookcase looking nice, even if it’s only filled with books!
Keepsakes
Posted: December 13, 2012 Filed under: Secret Garden 12 CommentsThis is the first in a series of sporadic blog posts about items I have in my keepsake box. If you think I’m not sentimental, this should prove otherwise.
In third grade, we did a unit on the human skeleton. At the beginning of the unit our teacher, Mrs. Van Putten, had us draw and label the skeleton – so we could compare it to what we learned later. Here’s my charming drawing.
Including: brain skull, skull, elbow, ribs, finger bones, toe bones, and leg bones.
Thankfully, I also kept the end-of-unit drawing, for at least some slight redemption. I swear I am not an idiot, regardless of what the previous drawing might indicate. Proof that I learned something, at one point in my life:
Including: brain case, eye socket, humerus, rib cage, radius, ulna, carples, metacarples, vertebrae (or something like that), tibia, fibula, ankle bones, and metatarsles.
Forgive my 8-year-old spelling. I did go on to become a pretty great speller. More or less.
I don’t actually remember the skeleton unit from third grade. I do remember the Native American unit, which I’m fairly certain we called the Indian unit. We all had Indian names – if I looked through all my papers, I might be able to find mine – and Renee and I (and another classmate, I can’t remember who – maybe Ashley Mitchell?) made an Indian hideout under the class steps. We went on a field trip where we learned how to grind acorns, and afterward we used broken bits of concrete under the class steps as rocks to grind grass and leaves. Or something like that. My memory is getting a little rusty at this point. Any help, Renee?
One of my other distinct memories from third grade is meeting a girl who was as small as I was – Samantha Herrera. Because I was in a special program for Extra Smart People (it’s my blog, so let me brag), most of my classmates didn’t live nearby; Samantha lived in Lawler Ranch, which I’ve never visited as an adult, so I can’t really say how far away it was. But it was far enough away that I always had to be driven to her house. Samantha was best friends with Soleil, who I now realize got her French name via her Vietnamese mother. But at age 8, I didn’t know anything about world history.
The last thing I’ll share is that I loved math until third grade. Because I entered GATE (the awesome thing I got to do for being an Extra Smart Person) in third grade, I went from second-grade math – which I loved – to fourth-grade math and had a LOT of trouble with it. I remember struggling with multiplying two 2-digit numbers. The jelly-bean explanation confused me. A few of the other students were so good at math that they went up to the fourth grade GATE class for math, which really put them at a fifth-grade level. I think they were mostly boys (Brad Handel, Andrew Gemmer, Jason-whose-last-name-I’ve-forgotten. Counihan?), and I felt like maybe that meant something. But by fifth grade I was in the advanced math group, and most of us were girls. So I guess it was just chance.
What do you remember from third grade?
Jarom
Mika
hilleries 