Just Go To Bed!!!

May is a notoriously busy month.  I never realized it until I had school aged children.  Everything seems to be squeezed into May.  Schedules are packed.  Normal routines are off.  Special events are everywhere.  Top that off with enough rain and cool weather to keep us trapped inside and suddenly I have a kid that is not sleeping, not focusing, not listening, and an over all unregulated mess at home.  He barely eats, he seems to not require much sleep (bedtime is a 3 hours process) and my patience ceases to exist. 

The result: by 10-11 pm I am just happy for him to pass out anywhere in the house that is comfortable.  At bedtime he says all disgruntled "why isn't there anything fun to do?"  Maybe because it is bedtime Joel!  I was entertained by the picture of him cuddle in Cecilia's bed wrapped in her blanket.  Normally he wouldn't touch either of those, but when it is after 11pm and your mom is insisting you find a bed, any bed, you just take what is available.

As I type this (I have given up 2+ hours of attempting to get kids in bed by myself was too much) he is running around the house, hiding in the house, attempting to steal the remote to turn on the tv, hiding in his room, playing music for a dance party in his room (while Vincent is sleeping), robbing socks out of my drawer and Brad's drawer.  He went to bed at 11 pm last night and nothing we could do would change that and I am guessing the same thing again tonight.  Sometimes he drags Cecilia or Vincent into it with him.  Arguing with him, punishing him, threatening to take away electronic points does nothing.  He is currently at -15 electronic points which is what he uses to get screen time.  He will be mad about it tomorrow but for now he thinks it is funny.

These episodes of not requiring sleep happen a few times a year.  It seems worse this year, but maybe that is my imagination.  Even with a lot of heavy work it doesn't seem to be much better.  I am hoping once school is out in a week we can spend our days wearing Joel.  Life on the spectrum can be exhausting.  There are other simple things that make life hard around here but they are currently taking a backseat to the not wanting to fall asleep.  I am looking forward to Joel going back to be the easy one to put to bed.

Hat Day

The beginning of May started the alphabet countdown to the last day of school.  One day was hat day and Vincent and Brad got creative.  A tower of Pioneer Hats.  Brad sewed them together real quick so that none would get lost.

Sunday dinner with Nanno

Joel, Cecilia, Dean and I headed one Sunday to my dad's for dinner.  Alyse, Brandon, Abram, Mattis, Jill, Joe, Joseph, my dad and my grandparents were all there for dinner.  Brad stayed home to work on a painting project and wait for Vincent to get home from his trip.  It was a fun to watch my kids interact with their cousins.  At one point my grandfather was teasing Dean and kept grabbing Abram and saying "mine!"  Dean was not happy, but his arm around Abram and said "no, he my cousin!" and ushered him away as quickly as he could.  Abram was happy to go with Dean.  Joseph had fun with all the kids and fell in love with Joel.  Joseph would grab Joel's face and kiss him and Joel loved it.  He kept saying "I think he loves me!"  It was adorable!

Brad ran out of primer for his project and asked us to get some one our way home.  We found a Home Depot and it was only a few minutes out of our way.  While we were parking it started to rain rather hard.   I was not very excited about running them all into the store and back out in the rain.  We were waiting for the primer to be mixed and right next to us was a flag display.  Joel begged and begged to get one.  The little ones were only a dollar so I told them they all had money for Easter and if they wanted to spend some of it on a flag they could.  We came home with 3 American flags.

On the way home Joel was talking about different presidents.  He is really into the presidents lately and has been bringing books home from school about the different presidents.  He tells me his favorite is Obama.  I asked why and his answer made me laugh.  He said mommy because he is a president and he is still alive.  And because his skin color is the same as my friend's at school.  I had to inform Joel that there were other old presidents that were still alive and he was simply amazed!

Checking Out a Pony

We have been in the market for another kid horse.  Peter Pan is good but the kids hate him because he rolled in some sand while Cecilia was riding him on a trail ride.  They are all very afraid to ride him anywhere and it is too bad because he is fun to ride, he is quiet, he walks slow and nothing bothers him.  He just is young and seems to love to roll when he is sweaty, but we have been working on correcting that.  Ollie is wonderful but the 3 older kids fight over him.  Someone Diane knows thru rodeo contacted about the fact that they were selling their pony.  Diane had seen the pony at rodeos and thought it would be a good fit for Vincent and Cecilia.  The problem was that the pony was 4 hours away and between International Night, baseball, 4-H, teaching Sunday school and the Daddy Daughter dance we were struggling to get down to see the pony at a time when both Brad and I were available.  Grandma and Grandpa were going to be close to the pony so we sent Vince with them to go check it out and see what they thought.  Part of the trip involved hanging out with Uncle John, Aunt Michelle, his cousins, and their friends, so Vincent was excited to go on a last minute trip.

Cecilia loves him!  Vincent does a great job riding him but I only have videos of him and no pictures.

Long story short after some rain days Brad was able to go with Cecilia and Diane to check out the pony.  I stayed home to keep things running.  I wanted to go but it was a lot easier to take care of therapy, homework, etc myself than to make someone else do it.   They came home late that night with a very cute pony named Speckles.  He is a sweetheart!  Vincent is not impressed by horses.  He is very matter of fact about it and doesn't get too excited by the horses.  He came home excited about how good the pony was.  Cecilia couldn't have been any more excited about the pony.  Brad said she didn't stop smiling after she saw the pony.  Even Brad liked him and considering he is a flashy paint pony (the opposite of everything Brad likes) I was very surprised.

Dean wearing Cecilia's helmet and getting a ride on Zuma.  I always walk beside him but Zuma picks up his speed if I am walking to close.  So I nervously stay a few steps away.

The rest of us like him too but we don't all love his name, so there is a bit of a struggle about what he will be called Speckles or Zuma.  I like Zuma better and so do Dean and Brad.  We are working on convincing the other kids it is a good name.  It is a name of a Paw Patrol character which is why Vince isn't on board yet.  Cecilia and Vincent just don't think we should change his name.  We were discussing his name and Dean said "I say I named him Zuma.  His name is Zuma." and he walked over to him and insisted on riding him.  For now we call him Zuma and tell the kids his real name is Speckles Zuma and they can call him Speckles or Zuma so everyone can be happy.  I am 75% sure they will all start calling him Zuma eventually because Dean corrects them every time they say Speckles.

Daddy Daughter dance

Brad was unexpectedly rained out the last weekend in April.  It happened that there was a Daddy Daughter Dance at Cecilia's school and at one of the public schools Saturday night.  It was too late to get tickets for the one at Cecilia's school so I talked to Brad about asking Cecilia to go the big community one that was being held at the high school.  Cecilia was excited but a little disappointed not to be going to the one at her school.  By all accounts they had a great time together, they got a picture taken together and one of the ladies at the dance let Cecilia have one of the left over corsages toward the end of the dance.  Those two things were the highlight of Cecilia's night!  It was fun to see the two of them go on a date together!

Opossum Incident

I don't love opossums.  Mostly because they carry EPM which is bad for our horses.  Ever since Brad killed one that was eating our chickens this past October Dean has been in love with the idea of them.  When he is at Grandma's she lets him watch YouTube videos of opossums and when she makes smoked tenderloin she tells him it is opossum and he eats it.  I don't know if he loves them or hates them but he is fascinated by them.  When we were coming back from International Night Brad saw a opossum in our yard. He had killed one the night before in his parents yard and was pretty proud of himself and his skills.


When we pulled into the driveway and saw one in the driveway by the house I offered to jump out and keep an eye on it while Brad got his big flash light and his gear.  He seemed to think I wasn't capable or it was too dangerous for me to follow the opossum and wouldn't stop to let me out.  By the time Brad went to the farm, got his light and other gear and came back neither he nor the dogs could find the opossum.  While he was searching the backyard things were out of control in the house.  The kids were excited already and the opossum took them over the edge.  They were chanting kill the opossum and marching around the house offering to look for different items to kill the opossum with.  At first Dean wasn't happy about this and said to Kasi "but I like opossums".  Kasi said "I don't think you actually know what they are."  He wasn't happy with her and said "Yes I do!"  I had to step in and explain that Dean watches videos of opossums taking baths, so strange.


After that talk Dean joined the chanting to kill the opossum and our house resembled the scene from Beauty and the Beast where everyone is chanting kill the beast and grabbing weapons.  Our kids had flashlights and hard objects and Vincent came out of no where with a giant butcher knife!  I about lost it when he was walking around in the dark with it.  He was upset because I took it away from him.  It was out of control and it was all for nothing because the opossum was never found.


Kasi, Brad and I attempted to get the kids calmed down and in bed.  It was easier said than done.  We managed to get Dean to bed and the other 3 kept talking.  Mostly because Joel had ideas that he felt he had to complete.  During bedtime Joel was convinced he had to dress like Robinhood.   He wanted to cut his pajama pants with scissors.  I managed to stop him but his ideas kept coming like a flood and he could not sleep.  I finally told him to come to the living room by Brad, Kasi and I so the other 2 could sleep.  They fell asleep and then finally around 11 pm Brad laid on the couch and Joel fell asleep on top of him.   Joel goes thru times when he isn't as regulated as he normally is and the last few weeks has been one of those times.  When he gets that way it appears as though sleep is not necessary for him at all.  Those times are exhausting for me.

International night

Vincent participated in a group project for 4-H.  The group picked a country, studied the country, made a poster about the country, and then presented it at International Night.  Many clubs participated and they all had displays, samples of food, crafts and such to educate people about the country they picked.  It was open to the public and it was fun to see all the work that was put into it and taste all the yummy food from around the world.



The nice part about the project was that it gave Vincent an opportunity to work with some of the older kids in our 4-H club.  He enjoyed that his cousins were part of the project!  The country they studied was Honduras and they were fortunate enough to interview someone who is from Honduras.  Vincent amazed me with his ability to use the computer and all things Google (docs, drive, etc) to type up and share his portion of the research with the club.

Enjoying International Night

The kids all decided that they wanted to have tie-dyed shirts that were blue and white (similar to the flag colors) for International Night.  I offered to make Keith and Karoline's too and read up on how to tie-dye (it isn't hard).  I was very proud of myself that they all turned out because I had no idea what I was doing, I just followed the directions and hoped for the best.  Cecilia and Joel were bummed they didn't get to tie-dye something, so I assured them we would do it this summer as a craft project.  They were satisfied with that and then I hid the supplies because them being out of sight is best for me until I buy shirts to tie-dye.

My masterpieces ;)

Vincent was a very enthusiastic participant at International Night. He stayed by his booth a bit, but also visited all the other countries and tried out everything they had to offer.  He had a ton of friends there and he was having a blast.  My sister Kasi came to visit and she went with us to check it all out.  She stayed with Cecilia and they visited all the booths.  I was with Joel, we were done looking in about 15 minutes.  It was a long night for Joel.  Dean went around with Brad and was happy to try all the different food.  While we were there Brad pointed out an older gentleman that was taking pictures.  He told me that was the photographer from his parents' wedding!


As much as Vincent loved the project I am guessing he will be doing it again next year!

Field trip to the airport

Cecilia's class had a field trip to the Lewis University Airport to learn about planes and to see one up close.  The boys were off school that day so they all got to come along.  We had several conversations about them being older and responsible and how they were going to be helpers on the field trip.  For the most part they were good until it came down to who got to sit by the window on the airplane.  It turns out it doesn't matter how old you are or if the plane isn't even going to move the window seat is necessary for life.


Joel has an affinity for toddlers.  He loves toddlers, but he is drawn to babies too.  On the field trip we were getting ready to walk thru a shop where students were working on airplanes.  I told my kids to buddy up with each other.  Vincent quickly took Dean.  Cecilia went with her two friends and Joel grabbed the hand of a cute little boy who is the sibling of one of the kids in Cecilia's class.  I wasn't sure which one or what his mom's name was so it was a bit awkward.  I explained to Joel that while I appreciate his enthusiasm to help this little boy is going to need to be helped by his mom and not you.  That didn't stop Joel from walking next to the lady all of the field trip and even wanting to sit by them on the plane.

When we were seated on the plane a friend of ours was sitting behind me with 3 of his kids.  They have 4 kids and one is Joel's age, one is Cecilia's age, one is Dean's age and one is a couple years younger than Dean.  They were all sitting quietly and I said to Dean look at Lane's shirt.  What does he have on it?  Now Lane was wearing a John Deere shirt with a tractor on it.  I only noticed it was a tractor.  Dean says "John Deere yucky poop!" just as clear as could be.  The dad started laughing, I apologized and quickly blamed that on Brad.


It was a great opportunity and I was glad the boys got to come with.  I remember as a kid either in kindergarten or 1st grade getting to go on a big airplane with my class.  A classmate (Justin) had a parent who worked for the airline or something.  It clearly made an impression on me since I still remember 30 years later.

Busy Night

On April 27th the three oldest kids all had events to be at and they all were at about the same time in 3 different locations.  Vincent had baseball.  Joel had a school concert and Cecilia had a mother and child preschool event.  My original plan was to have Cecilia skip the preschool event and by skip I mean never tell her about it.  I found someone to bring Vincent to the school after his baseball game and if everything went just right we could also get to the school in time to get good seats for Joel's spring concert.  It wasn't a great plan but it would work if Brad was in the field.


A week or so before the preschool event my friend, Jessica, invited Cecilia to go with her and John to the preschool event and she even let me drop her off at her house early so we could make it everywhere on time.  Then that morning it rained enough that baseball was cancelled!  No baseball and Brad could come to the concert.  Everything worked out like it always does and I stressed for no reason.  One of these days I will learn!

He wasn't smiling in this picture but he did smile most of the time...just not in my picture

When I dropped Joel off in his classroom before the concert I talked to his teacher.  She had quite the story for me.  I guess Joel had been trying to dance with her all day at school, told her he loved her and that he wanted to marry her.  Bless her heart she had a great sense of humor about it all.  She really is one of his favorite teachers ever!  We were both trying to talk quietly and not let Joel we were laughing about the whole thing.  That child, you just never know what you are going to get.  Which is always fun at a school concert when he is up on stage in front of a gymnasium full of people.  We had no surprises at the concert.  Joel did a great job and I was very proud of him!

The boys walking out of the school together.

Then when we picked Cecilia up her and John had apparently been discussing marriage.  Jessica was telling us about this when John ran into the house.  He came back with his wallet and held up a bunch of his birthday money and said look at all my money!  It was like he was showing Brad he could provide for Cecilia.  We all laughed and Cecilia and John were confused.

The Rain Dance

The weekend after Easter they were originally calling for rain.  I was good with that.  We had some stuff around here I really needed Brad's help with the following week because I could not be in 2-3 places at the same time.  We needed rain to make life work and the ground was starting to get dry and needed some rain.  Several days of them calling for rain and we got nothing or a tiny drizzle.  Brad came home one afternoon and told the kids to do a rain dance.  He demonstrated on the back porch, right down to his undies and 1 sock.  Vincent, Cecilia and Dean didn't give it a second thought and did exactly what Daddy did.  Joel realized what was going on and suddenly joined in.  By then Brad was fully clothed again and we had 4 kids in undies all wearing one sock and doing a rain dance on the picnic table.  They have some great moves!  They begged me to join in and I refused but I enjoyed watching them.



Brad jokingly said you need to take it to the field and off ran Vincent and Cecilia thru the backyard and down the path to the closest field we farm.  Doing a rain dance in their undies and 1 sock.  Joel and Dean joined them eventually but they were not as fast.  It started drizzling and they were sure their rain dance worked.  They were so very excited!  I couldn't stop laughing.  In hindsight the rain dance worked too well and we got way more rain than we needed for the next week or more.  I am not sure what the final verdict was on the rain dance if we had too many people dancing or if they just danced for too long.  We tried to have them do a stop rain dance where they would do the opposite of what they did for the rain dance but we couldn't convince them to go into the cold rain to do it.


There are a couple videos that will be saved forever so I can show my grandchildren someday how silly their parents were as kids.  I will share this picture...

Four of my favorite dancers...may they always dance like no one is watching

Climbing Trees and Riding a Pony

The Sunday after Easter we went to church and then came home and had lunch.  Dean went down for a nap and I kicked everyone out of the house so I could clean it and wash the floors without interruption.  I literally locked all the doors.  They could still get into the basement and use the bathroom if they needed.  Brad put the hammock swing back up for the kids.  They rode bikes around the yard and climbed a few trees in the front yard.  Joel and Vincent didn't like being locked out of the house and insisted on trying to break in a few times.  They succeeded once.  I pointed out that they could stay in and clean and they found other things to do.

Dean and Buttercup

It isn't very often we get a picture with just Dean.

I finished cleaning about the same time Dean woke up and we went outside to play with Buttercup.  She had not been ridden in a month so I lounged her first and then I jumped on her bareback.  The boys didn't want to come outside and play anymore so I jokingly said "who wants to see Mommy get bucked off a pony?"  They were all over that and wanted to film it with my phone for knucklehead tv (the name of the YouTube channel they want to created...they have a whole collection of movies for it).  They were rather disappointed when Buttercup was a perfect angel for me.  Cecilia took a turn on her and did a wonderful job.  Vincent rode her and got her to listen really well and not just follow me around.  We let Dean ride her bareback too and I asked Brad to walk next to him because usually he isn't very steady on her.  He sat so tall and perfect on her it was amazing!  Buttercup was even walking slow which is not something she normally does when we ride her, but we did keep her best friend Ollie within view which I think made a big difference.

Brad put Dean in the tree which started the tree climbing.  My phone died and I didn't get any pictures of the other kids climbing.

When we were done the kids decided to get lead ropes and use them to climb the trees in the front yard.  It mostly worked.   More than mostly I suppose since no one was injured.


Then at the end of the night Tally came over to visit.

Sisters...12.5 years young

Incident at the Park

Vincent had his first baseball game of the season a few weeks ago.  It was a Saturday and Brad was able to come to the last part of the game.  The game went well and the kids were all happy to have Brad there.  I had promised the kids if they didn't bug me about going to the park during the game that after the game we would all go play at the park together.  When the game was over they convinced Brad to come see the park.  It is at a school Brad attended as a kid and some of the playground equipment is the same and some of it is new.  We had a lot of fun and before we left the park the kids and I jumped on a newer version of a merry go round and Brad pushed us as fast as he could.  After we all started to beg him to stop he did.  Abruptly.  Then he started making us all stand up and walk.  I was the last one he made stand up. I fell flat on my face like a drunk.  I don't even know how the kids did because I was so dizzy.  I didn't hear any crying and Brad was laughing so I assumed they probably fell and got right back up.  After I fell I tried to get up and my arm gave out on me and my body failed me.  I had to just lay on the ground a bit longer.  To say Brad found it entertaining is an understatement.  I am not going to lie I thought it was a tiny bit funny at first and then again after I was finally able to stand.  That in between time that felt like hours but was only minutes I was thinking when did I get so old? how can I not handle this anymore?  I used to spin in circles in my living room for fun when I was a kid?  why are my children not more concerned about me right now?  I wonder when Brad is going to come help me so I don't look like a bum that passed out in a school park.

Our Two Littlest Helpers

Cecilia and Dean are wonderful helpers, actually helpful helpers.  Cecilia's willingness to help depends on her mood which is ok because sometimes she just decides to clean and organize on her own.  While I find that odd I am ok with it because she does a lot around here without being asked.  Plus I have learned that if I kindly suggest things she is more likely to decide to help.

Helping Daddy spray

 Dean loves to help do anything, especially if he can be in a piece of equipment or pretend to be a piece of equipment.  Some days he is a skid steer, other days a fork lift, and sometimes an excavator.  It turns out if he is a piece of equipment then I have to be one too.  I play along and call him fork lift (or whatever he is that day) and he calls me skid steer (or excavator, I never get to be a fork lift) and we unload dishes, switch laundry around, do chores in the barn, and he loves it.  He is actually really good at putting silverware away.  He gets his step stool and opens the drawer, I hand him the basket with the silverware (minus any sharp knives) and he puts them away while I empty the rest of the dishwasher.  It is actually really helpful and it is one of his favorite jobs!

Notice his arms wrapped around Brad's...he knows he can't touch the steering wheel

Cecilia is helpful too and is good at washing dishes and folding small towels.  She is capable of putting away silverware but seems to only like that job because Dean does it.  She is awesome at scrubbing the inside of toilets and thinks getting to use the toilet bowl brush is a huge honor.  I may have not so accidentally made that job sound more glamorous than it really is.  She also does a wonderful job feeding the dogs.  She is also fabulous at keeping Dean entertained and safe when I don't have my eyes on him.  She is my extra set of eyes and Dean can't get away with anything while she is in charge.  Don't think I drive off and leave her in charge but I can't sit and watch them play and cook dinner and help the older boys with homework.

Being silly in the sprayer

They both love to help outside and over at the farm.  They helped Brad work on the boom of his sprayer and a few days later were pretty excited to get to ride in the sprayer and help Daddy.  Brad also showed them how he could watch both planters work in the same field together on the iPad and they loved watching that.

Inspecting the sprayer boom

Brad took these great pictures of the kids with the sprayer

They both like to help with most horse related things but they are a lot smaller than the horses and I don't enjoy worrying about them while I am catching horses.  A couple weeks ago we solved that problem.  I put them in the horse's hay feeder and they are safe while I catch horse, plus they can't get out without my help!

Locked in the horse feeder

Cecilia and Dean have a great work ethic and I hope they keep it as they grow older!

They make a good team!

Mattis Owen

On April 17th our nephew was born.  Alyse and Brandon welcomed Mattis Owen to the world.  We were very excited he finally arrived.  Alyse was having contractions for several days before he was born and we were growing impatient.  Probably  not as impatient as Alyse after all she was the one doing the laboring.

Aunt Kasi and Mattis

While we were waiting to hear what they were going to name our new nephew (they didn't tell us until he was over 24 hours old) my family thought of some great suggestion which included Luke Skywalker, Pixar, James, and Bradley.

Cecilia and Mattis

A couple weeks after he was born we were able to meet him and somehow I hardly got any pictures.  We wanted to meet him earlier but Dean and I had a very mild cold and didn't want to share it with Mattis and once that was gone our crazy schedule got in the way.  As usual Cecilia loves holding him.  But she also was able to get Abram to laugh really hard so I am not sure which she found to be more fun.

Easter

The night before Easter my mom had Cecilia and Joel over for a sleepover.  I had only Vincent and Dean from early evening.  We cuddled, watched Wild Kratts, and ate food in the living room.  It was a glorious night.  It gave Vincent and Dean some much needed bonding time and I was exhausted from the day and was happy to sit around a bit.

Attempting a family picture..pretty good for us

Jill  with Reata and Kerri with Joseph 

Jill and Joseph

Sunday morning we were up bright and early for the Easter sunrise service.  It is a newer tradition for us and I really enjoy it.  Afterward we headed home, loaded up the car and headed to my mom's church and we were reunited with Joel and Cecilia.  We also were able to see my nephews Joseph and Abram.  Alyse was close to going into labor so her and Brandon were at home.  After church at the church I grew up in we headed to my mom's house.  My step sister her husband and 5 kids all flew in from Wyoming and were spending Easter with us.  I can't tell you the last time I saw them all in person.  They have 3 boys and 2 girls.  A couple of the boys are slightly older than Vince and one is a year or so younger.  Vincent was thrilled to have other kids to play with at Easter.  The boys had a great time playing together.  Vince couldn't believe he had cousins he didn't know about!  He didn't seem to believe me he had met them before when he was younger, and that wasn't a fight I was going to win.  Surprisingly Cecilia was not all over the 2 girls that were younger than her.  She liked them, she interacted with them and it was all good.  I was worried she would be trying to hold the girls and treat them like her personal dolls all day.  It was good to see all the kids together and it meant no one was begging me to jump on the trampoline with them!

Dean

Candy and Abram

Scarlet and Joel

Kerri and Annie

Vincent, Casi, and Cecilia

Casi, Vincent, Cecilia and Kristian

It was a typical Easter with fun games for the adults.  Competitive like always!  An egg hunt for the kids with some very difficult to find Easter eggs (think top of trees, barn roof, duct taped to horse's tails), delicious food, and of course wonderful company.  By the time we left we had 4 very tired and happy children.  Well they were mostly happy except the part were we had to leave.

Pre egg hunt picture

Joseph's first egg hunt

Joel

Kerri and Scarlet

Joel

Joe and Joseph

Grandma and Abram

Daddy for the assist

Helping the little kids find eggs

Petting Angel

Uncle Chris getting Cecilia an egg out of the tree

Joseph

Birthday celebration

Uncle Brad and Joseph