The Scooter Pies have named all their marbles after Pokemon.
My big Mom Win for this week was on Tuesday. I had announced that “technology time” was over (as all the littles had been watching YouTube for at least 2 hours while I taught piano lessons) and was making dinner. The Scooter Pies came downstairs howling to play with Blueberry Pie’s Nintendo Switch. I said, “No,” but they continued to howl and repeat themselves. Have you ever had twins howling at you in stereo? I was about maxed out and ready to start yelling. But I stopped making dinner and sat down, taking one twin in each arm. My counselor says to get kids to calm down by having them take deep loud breaths,”dragon breaths.” I have never been able to get the twins to do this, but I tried again, doing the loud deep breaths myself, and saying, “It looks like you’ve turned into dragons. Better breathe out all that fire.” They didn’t do it, but they did stop howling, and I started calming down. Then I remembered how much we all like The Three Little Pigs, so I said maybe they were the big bad wolf, huffing and puffing. They started smiling, but still no breathing. I was really calmed down by now and realized that I could let them help with dinner. Here they are cutting up the summer sausage with butter knives for our Sausage and Cabbage over Rice. They were so excited to get to help. I read somewhere that when a child asks for technology, what they are asking for is connection.
We begin school every morning at 8:00 am with CNN10 Student News. Then we sing and do our weather journals. Nature Walk was next, but now that it’s dark and cold outside, I’ve moved Nature Walk to the afternoon. So the big girls do piano and violin practice, and the littles and I do math.
We have calendar math all together.
Then Banana Cream Pie does a third grade worksheet, and Apple Pie and the Scooter Pies do a first grade worksheet. On Thursday, Banana Cream Pie’s math was too fun to keep to herself, so everyone got to try it.
After math, we have stories from the Old Testament (or New Testament, depending on the day) and then Beginning Reading lessons. Despite my efforts to put books and supplies away as we use them, somehow the kitchen table looks like this every morning by 10:30 (Snack Time)
I’ve been telling my kids that Halloween was canceled because of COVID-19 for a month. I said we would just get some candy and watch a movie for Halloween. But Thursday night, I found out our town was doing a Chamber of Commerce Trick-or-Treat at 3pm Friday. I gave in and pulled out the tub of costumes, telling the kiddie pies that we could go trick-or-treating if they picked a costume from the tub and wore a mask. Of course, none of them picked the good costumes. They just tied themselves up in our raggedy silk scarves that have seen better days and announced what animal they were. Skeeter, who wanted to be a “Snuggle Bunny” was the exception. He actually looked cute. I drove them around town for about an hour, and they each got enough candy to be satisfied.
Saturday we all worked together for about 2 hours to wash the walls downstairs and the kitchen cabinets. I cleaned out the fridge. I am very happy about the shiny, clean walls. Next week: upstairs!
Random fact of the week: I have 7 different chili powders in my spice cupboard, and I use them all regularly. Yum!
Blueberry Pie bought these very spicy ramen recently. They are super hot, even for us chili loving people. After morning chores, the big kids had a hot noodle eating contest. They only ate about 2/3 a package each, but they had fun.
Also they had pain. You can see it in their faces.
Halloween night, we roasted hot dogs at Uncle Peter’s house. This little pink vampire is the cutest, yes? This is the only picture I thought to take all night.
This week was busy and full with just the everyday things.
We did home school and stuck to the schedule, despite everyone feeling tired and draggy.
I realized that I have not been checking up with Peach Pie’s assignments. sigh. Must find time to do that more regularly.
Mom!Mom!Mom! What does this say?
Thursday morning was so beautiful, sunny and warm, I threw our schedule under the couch and took all the little kids to the park. We tried to fly our kites, but the wind was inconsistent, so they didn’t stay up for long. We still had a great time.
Banana Cream Pie
I’m glad we took that time to enjoy the outdoors because it has been rainy and cold for the last 2 days.
Our chickens started laying eggs. So far the Man of the House has collected four.
He has been hurrying to build a chicken coop with nesting boxes for our pretty hens, but it’s been slow going, and rain and many responsibilities have limited his time. I pray the Lord multiplies his time this week because next Sunday or Monday he has to go to 2 weeks of training for his new National Guard assignment. Besides the chicken coop, he also needs to write out 2 weeks of plans for the substitute teacher, and I know that is worrying him.
As I write, it is midnight, Saturday, and the girls and I have succeeded in removing the mountain of sweet potatoes from our dining table! I am waiting for the last batch of sweet potatoes to be done processing in the pressure canner. We have 21 quarts in glass jars. I wanted to can all the potatoes that way, but sweet potatoes take 90 minutes in the pressure canner (not counting the time to parboil, peel, and chop them and the time the canner takes to come up to pressure and cool down from pressure.) Also, the canner only holds 7 quarts at a time. So as I put the current 7 quarts in, and it was nearly midnight, I hollered “Uncle” and put the rest of the parboiled and peeled sweet potatoes in quart freezer bags. I have 13 quarts in freezer bags now in the deep freeze. Adding the sweet potatoes that looked like they would winter well in cardboard boxes in the garage, I bet we have close to 50 quarts of sweet potatoes. What a blessing.
Current Family Read-a-Loud: Adventures with Waffles by Maria Parr
Poem for this week:
The Human Touch by Spencer Michael Free
’Tis the human touch in this world that counts, The touch of your hand and mine, Which means far more to the fainting heart Than shelter and bread and wine. For shelter is gone when the night is o’er, And bread lasts only a day. But the touch of the hand And the sound of the voice Sing on in the soul always.
This week, so many things happened. It was like a month crammed into a week. Fall is definitely here, but my rose is still blooming.
I was reading a fairy tale to Banana Cream Pie for her literature class. In the fairy tale, the prince has to find a girl to marry who is the richest but also the poorest. She interrupted to ask, “how can that be? How can she be the richest and the poorest?”
I said, “Often fairy tales have riddles like that. If we keep reading, we will find out how the prince solves the riddle.” Before I could start reading again, Banana Cream Pie jumped up excitedly.
“Oh this is reminding me of something!” she said. “This is reminding me of the widow and her two coins. She paid the least, but Jesus said she also paid the most.”
I was very proud that she made such a great connection and very grateful that she shared it with me. This is what education is about.
Our folk song for the next six weeks is “She’ll be Comin’ Round the Mountain.” We learned that the root of this song was an African American Spiritual song and it is actually referring to the second coming of Jesus Christ. It was then adopted by railroad foremen, who we learned were hired primarily for their singing ability because singing is how they kept the work crews working well together. Being excited for the second coming is a relatively recent feeling for me, and singing the song with this new knowledge was very poignant. What a glorious day that will be when Christ comes in glory, six white horses pulling his chariot. We’ll all go out to meet him. All hardship will be ended, and we’ll have the best food and gifts to offer him and celebrate his coming, and
“We’ll be singin’ hallelujah when she comes”
Princess Tooth
Tuesday, I took Banana Cream Pie to the dentist because she had a tooth that was hurting. The dentist assured her that she wouldn’t need numbing shots or anything and started drilling away. However, the decay turned out to be much deeper than he thought; and after she cried out a couple of times, he had to stop, give her gas, and several numbing shots before continuing. Once she had relaxed, Banana Cream became quite chatty and conversational. As the dentist was finishing up, she said,
“That took a lot longer than I thought it would.”
“Yes,” said the dentist, “I should have asked you if it had been hurting, it was worse than I thought at the beginning.”
To our dentist, who has been fixing teeth for so many years that he was my dentist when I was a kid, Banana Cream Pie said quite matter-of-factly, “Maybe you’ll learn from this, and next time you’ll be more careful and look more closely at the beginning.”
Doctor Stidham rocked back in his stool, laughing, and I told him he was lucky to be benefiting from the kind of helpful advice I get every day from this wise eight-year-old.
Jeopardy master
For Family Home Evening, we played our traditional family Conference Jeopardy. Cherry Pie has been in charge of this game for years now. She makes up all the questions, and sets up the board. We have to take meticulous notes to do well in the game. You might ask for “Sunday Afternoon for 100, please.” and get
“This color was the tie President Nelson wore during his closing remarks.”
or “Who provided the music for this session.”
or you might be brave and ask for “Saturday Afternoon for 500” and get a really tough one like
“Elder D. Todd Christofferson provided several ways that a society can be sustainable. Name 2”
or
“This General Authority related the firey darts of the adversary to a flaming empty microwave.”
We had a great time. I had forgotten about dessert, but one of the kids suggested apples and dip, and I have this great recipe from my sister, Katie, so I whipped it up fast.
Blueberry Pie
In a medium saucepan, melt 1/2 cup butter, 1 1/2 cups brown sugar, 3/4 cup light corn syrup, and 1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk.
Stir constantly until mixture comes to a light boil. Remove from heat and add 1 tsp vanilla. Serve warm.
For art, we used chalk pastels to draw apples, focusing on drawing what we see and not what our brain knows an apple looks like.
We also practiced vertical strokes for brush drawing, and had time for a free drawing session.
I drew this as a gift for a friend.
Wednesday
This is my practice/demo of our handicraft for home school co-op. Paper sloyd teaches so much more than I ever guessed. My students are learning how to follow directions, how to measure accurately with a ruler, how to cut a straight line, how to fold a straight line, and how to tie a bow. This is only lesson 7! Who knows what practical knowledge heights we will climb with this “non-core” subject? P.S. my grandmother was so beautiful. I love her face, and even more, I love the legacy of education that she passed down.
Sad thing for this week:
Little Aztec has passed on. We gave him a good two weeks, after Blueberry Pie rescued him, but Wednesday, he ran under a vehicle in our driveway as it was backing out, and that was the end of his mortal existence. None of the kids were very upset about the accident, except the one who was driving. She had a tough couple of days. I buried the little puppy under the big cedar tree in our back yard, and even though the ground was really hard, I took the time to dig his hole big enough that he could lie comfortably, as if in a little bed. Rest in peace, Aztec.
The resident Captain talked me into doing this Couch to 10K in 13 weeks running program with him. I haven’t been walking recently because it’s dark in the mornings, and it’s harder to make myself go alone. So I agreed, and he bought me some special running shoes to correct for my over-pronating feet. I don’t enjoy running, but I like spending time with the Captain, and I like how my back hurts less when I get out and move. The shoes are making a big difference: I haven’t rolled my ankles once. Also, the kind of running I am doing is called “shuffle running” and it’s not much like any running I’ve ever done before.
I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more… rather than run.
Key Lime Pie got to dissect an owl pellet Friday. It was gross and cool and took forever. She considered the bone charts carefully and determined that our particular owl had digested a mouse and a vole, at least.
Friday morning, we had our first frost. I told myself that after school we would dig the sweet potatoes. But I had to take the van to get the tires replaced, and that took so long, I forgot about the potatoes. Saturday evening, around 8:00pm (It was after dark) I suddenly remembered.
An In-the-dark Treasure dig was announced, headlamps were handed out, and we trouped out to the garden to save the potatoes. We had planted the sweet potatoes in hills of mushroom compost, so we didn’t have to dig very much. Mostly, I pulled the vines back, and the potatoes came up. Some potatoes had grown down into the hard ground though, and we had to work harder for those. It was pretty fun, and Banana Cream Pie announced that it was Family Fun Night. Wholesome Recreational Activities? check!
The dining table is now heaped with our bounteous crop of sweet potatoes, and I’m going to have to do something with them.
Sunday Morning, I discovered that someone had thoughtfully placed T-rex to guard our treasure while we slept.
Henry B Eyring said this about John Bennion (his great-grandfather) in April 1996
John Bennion
He was a convert to the Church from Wales. He, his wife, and his children came into the Salt Lake Valley in one of the early companies of pioneers. We know something of his life because after that time he kept a journal, making a short entry nearly every day. We have the journals from 1855 to 1877. They were published in one bound volume because his descendants hoped to transmit that legacy of testimony. My mother was one of them. Her last labor before she died was to transform the day books in which he’d written into a manuscript for publication.
His short entries don’t have much preaching in them. He doesn’t testify that he knew Brigham Young was a prophet. He just records having answered “yes” every time the prophet called him on a mission from “over Jordan” to the Muddy mission, then on to a mission back to Wales. He also answered “yes” to the call to ride into the canyons to track Johnston’s army and the call to take his family south when the army invaded the valley. There is even a family legend that the reason he died so close to the day when Brigham Young was buried was to follow the prophet one more time.
The fact that he wrote every day makes clear to me that he knew his ordinary life was historic because it was part of the building of Zion in the latter days. The few entries which record his testimony seem to appear when death took a child. His testimony is to me more powerful because he offered it when his soul was tried.
Here is his record of one of those times. His daughter Elizabeth died in his arms. He reported her burial and the location of her grave in a few lines. But then the next day, November fourth of 1863, this is the entire entry:
“Wednesday. Repairing up the stable my little children prattling around me but I miss my dear Lizzy. I pray the Lord to help me to endure faithful to his cause to the end of my days, that I may be worthy to receive my children back into the family circle, who have fallen asleep in Christ in the days of their innocence Ann, Moroni, Esther Ellen & Elizabeth, blessed & happy are they because of the atonement of Jesus Christ.”
All the elements are there. He taught the truth. He testified that it was true. He lived consistent with his testimony, and prayed that he might endure faithful until he could be united with his dear family.
Alma 5:6 “ And now behold I say unto you, my brethren, you that belong to this church, have you sufficiently retained in remembrance the captivity of your fathers? Yea, and have you sufficiently retained in remembrance his mercy and long suffering towards them? And moreover, have ye sufficiently retained in remembrance that he has delivered their souls from hell?”
John Bennion
John Bennion was born in the little village of Hawarden in Flintshire, Wales. His father had little chance for education in school and had to earn his living from about age 12. He went into the employ of farmers by the year for a livelihood until grown, when he married Elizabeth Roberts. After his marriage, John’s father changed his labors from a servant hired by the year to a day laborer at which he continued two or three years, until he had saved a little money, after which he took a small farm to rent in the township of Moor in Hawarden Parish where he procured a comfortable livelihood on about twelve acres of land for raising hay, grain, vegetables and pasture, besides a garden and orchards.
As John grew to be a teenager, going to Sunday School and to hear preaching became burdensome to him and he choose rather to spend the Sunday with his friends. One Sunday, he with two others were rambling through the fields with a dog chasing rabbits when the dog caught one. A watcher came upon them and declared they were poaching. Next day he was summoned to appear before a justice for trial, but determined not to submit to such proceedings, he ran away to Liverpool.
In Liverpool, John worked for a boilermaker. There he heard two elders preaching the gospel in its fullness; namely, John Taylor and Joseph Fielding. After much study, he became convinced that what they were teaching was of God and was baptized by Priest Robert Reid.
John and his brother Samuel came to America with their families and joined the saints in Nauvoo. Then driven from Nauvoo by the mobs, they crossed the plains to Utah. In 1849, Samuel and John Bennion and several other families moved south crossing the river Jordon on the ice in January. There was little in the way of building materials, so the families dug into the bluffs of the Jordan River for shelter. The tiny settlement, the first “over Jordan,” was called Harker’s Settlement, and they began the difficult work of digging ditches to move water out of the Jordan River and onto the land on the west side. The soil was hard to work and they kept looking for better land to farm. The infamous crickets destroyed much of that year’s crop and so the group moved farther south to where Big Cottonwood Creek flowed into the Jordan River about 4800 South known then as Field’s Bottom. By working together eight families managed to bring in the first successful crop in 1851 using water brought down from Bingham Creek by what was later called Gardner’s Millrace. John and Esther Bennion’s daughter, Rachael, was the first pioneer child to be born in Field’s Bottom. Despite the struggle to get food and shelter in those early days, John Bennion described Field’s Bottom in these words:
“If peace dwells upon this earth it is here and here are the happiest and most prosperous people in the world, enjoying free soil, pure air, and liberty to worship our God just as we please.”
In his later years John Bennion was called on a mission to Wales. He visited Hawarden, Wales, to gather genealogy and visited with William E. Gladstone, then Prime Minister of England, at his home, Hawarden Castle, who expressed wonderment at the development in knowledge and understanding of affairs of one who had started out as the son of a tenant farmer on the Hawarden estate. He asked Elder Bennion how he, being so poor, seemed so educated and to know so much. John Bennion replied, “My education was in the kingdom of God and its priesthood.”
Henry B. Eyring, relating this meeting of Wm. E. Gladstone and John Bennion at the Nauvoo Temple dedication said:
“Our belief is that within these temples we are taught things that lift us and give us a perspective on life as it will be in the worlds to come, and as it can be here. Everything that happens in these temples is uplifting and gives people hope for this life and for the world to come.”
Marvelous Pigs in Satin 