Israel's birthday

Today is Israel's 6th birthday. We started it last night with his birthday party. The kids had a great time giggling while trying to blow up the balloons.




He had a few friends over and we had a treasure hunt to find the pinata (which I made) and then broke the pinata. We had a few problems with Israel being overly excited and he got to the pinata before we were ready so I had to put it back together as best I could.

The kids had pizza, chips, and fruit for dinner with some juice and we turned on the old transformer series to watch while they ate. Then we had cake and ice cream. Israel told me he wanted chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and M 'n Ms on top and chocolate ice cream. Definantly my kid. My friend Verna offered to make the cake and in less than 24 hrs she came up with this:
Isn't it perfect? Israel was so excited and loved it! When Israel opened his gifts he was very excited to see that had got guns. Four water guns that become one from one friend and a really fancy Nerf gun with a laser from my mother in law. He loves them! And so did the other boys that came. Unfortunately, the extra bullets my MIL sent to go with the gun are not the right ones, but don't worry. Luci found a great way of playing with them.


Some of the boys were not old enough to spend the night so we only had a couple spend the night (which was fine by me). Ben made the mistake of turning on Narnia for the kids at around 10 pm so they were up until around 1 am. Then they were up by 7am this morning and guess who was up with them last night as well as this morning. Me! When I got up with the kids I made cinnamon rolls as Israel had asked me to do. Then we had Israel open his gift from us. We got him a bike and a bell to go on the bike but we only wrapped the bell. I had the bike waiting outside. He opened the bell and I told him he had to do it outside. He was happy with the bell, but kinda disappointed you could see. Then he went outside and saw the bike. He loved it! Israel isn't the type to show much emotion. His excitement is more of a quiet excitement, but we could tell he was excited. He just kept thanking me for getting it and rode for quite a while. When I have a chance I will try to upload the video cause of course we had to get it on video.

As for the rest of the day, I am still waiting for the other kids to go home, then who knows what. Ben is taking a nap and has tons of Army stuff to do today but I am hoping we can get atleast a little family time today. We will see.

No updates

Ok, so I have been really bad about updating the blog but there are reasons. Ben is gone right now, we are still homeschooling as we go year round, the kids have been sick, I am in school right now, and sometimes it feels like nobody reads these things. It is so hard to know or not. So here is the deal, if you do indeed read any of these blogs, leave a short (or long) comment to let me know so I don't feel like I am just writing for the air around my home. Thanks.

Me, held up at gun point?

So this is what happened on Friday night/Saturday morning. We had a friend text us and it was really weird. Ben called him to find out what was going on and he was on pain pills and drinking. His wife has been cheating on him in the past and has been doing some shall we say rebellious stuff now that makes him wonder if she is again so he was really upset. He took off in the car and she joined but he wouldn't let her drive. So he was drunk, on pain pills, driving angry, and texting all at the same time. Not a good combination. He stopped by our house and we were not going to let him go. Then we found out he had a loaded, cocked gun in the car. We made his wife get out and stay with us and he took off. We were scared to death he was going to kill someone so we called the police but just was it was going through, the phone died.

Just then she said he texted her he was coming back to get her. When he pulled in we again were trying to get him to give her the keys but he refused and I grabbed her arm as she was getting in the car and refused to let her get in. I was leaning in his window talking to him just as the police pulled up suddenly (we had no idea the call had gone through) and since they didn't know what was going on cause of the phone dieing, they had come flying into the yard, jumped out of the cars, and pointed the guns as us yelling "get away from the car lady"! I backed right up and they immediately got our buddy out of the car and cuffed him.

Long story short, he just passed the breathalizer so they couldn't arrest him but knew that cause of the pain pills he wasn't where he should be driving. They found the gun and lucky for him, since the caught him pulling out of the driveway but still in the yard, they couldn't do anything. Had they been one minute later and caught him in the road, he would have been in a HUGE amount of trouble for carrying a loaded, cocked gun in the car without a permit and drinking would have added to it.

So they had us keep the gun until the next day and had his wife drive home. Didn't do much good as he took the keys when they got home, but she wasn't in there. As soon as they left, he tried to get us to give him the gun but we refused. He is so mad and refuses to speak to us ever again but we did what we felt was right. Could you imagine how mad he would be if we had let him go and he had killed his wife or some other innocent person? Anyway, that was in the middle of the night and Ben had to work the next night so he didn't get much sleep at all but says he would do it all over again. I just wish our buddy could understand we were trying to take care of him. You should NEVER drive even angry. Certainly not angry, drunk, on pain pills, and texting all at the same time. Please people, be smart. Even when you don't care about yourself or your family, there are those of us that do and you will only make it all worse if you end up hurting or killing someone else.

My sweet boy

It is just ripping out my heart to see my little Israel. I am not sure how much is chemical, and how much is because daddy is not around much, but he is in a deep depression. He is 5 and already is having depression like an adult. He cries all the time. He wouldn't eat a thing all day today. He just has this sad look on his face and won't even go out to play. He sleeps 15+ hours at night and is starting naps again. He sleeps with me every night with his arms around me and his head on my shoulder and freaks if I even move. I was falling off the bed last night and didn't dare move.

It is just breaking my heart and I know it is going to get much worse when Ben is actually in Iraq and gone completely. How am I supposed to help him? I can't just sit back and watch. Sometimes I just hold him and want to cry feeling so helpless as to how to help him. I wish the politicians in charge of all this war stuff could see what they are doing to the helpless, innocent children. It's really tearing me to pieces.

Mine!

Luci's latest word that seems to fascinate her is MINE! She was drinking from her sippy and the cat walked by and she said, "Mine. Juice Mine. Mommy, cat take my juice. It mine." Then she picked up her shoe and said, "Mine. Shoe Mine." then walked over to a sleeping Celestial and said "Mine. Shoe Mine" again. Then again to me. She just has had this thing lately about telling me everything that is hers is hers (and somethings that aren't hers) and thinking everyone or thing is trying to take it from her. Can we say possessive?

So, I am reading this book...

I just started it. It's called Heros at home. I ordered it from MilitaryOneSource.com . Did you know that military can order books for free from them including shipping? I have received so many awesome books that I love! If you have a chance, read: "The Long Road Home" by Martha Raddatz, "While They're at War" by Kristin Henderson, and "Going Overboard" by Sarah Smiley. Military or not, awesome books!

Anyway, so I am now reading "Heroes at Home" by Ellie Kay. I just started but found a chapter with a cool exercise in it. Try this.

Step One: Think about all the things you enjoy most in life right now. These must be things that are on the outside of your home, and they cannot be your own family.

Step Two: Narrow your list to the top three.

Step Three: Walk over to the trash, and throw it away. You just moved and no one cares.

Now, image doing this over and over again with very little warning to places you have never been. This is the life of military. Only with the military the spouses get to do it alone most the time. No one to take turns getting up with the baby (and the baby may not even know Dad when he comes home). No one to fix the garbage disposal. No one to go on a date with, accompany her to the principal or doctors' office. No one to share the funny little thing that Holly did or Hunter said that only the other parent would find so endearing. No one for Hunter to play catch with or take Meg to the father/daughter party. No one to kiss tenderly, wipe her tears, and most of all, no one even to know she cried herself to sleep or to snuggle with at night.

Those are some of the things Ellie Kay lists in this chapter. She isn't looking for people to pity military wives, just understand where we are coming from when maybe we seem emotional, air headed, or can't seem to get the kids to behave. The book goes through the lives of different military spouses with different experiences. I don't know about you, but I love learning about other people lives and experiences, military or not. So, gives these books a thought, and if you happen to see some parent at their wits end, just remember there is probably a very good reason for it.

Update on curriculum and kids

Curriculum update on top. If you just want to read about the kids, skip to the bottom.

So a few weeks ago we started a new curriculum. It's a living books curriculum following the Charolette Mason method (reading entertaining, historically accurate books instead of textbooks and lots of hands-on and outside time) from http://www.livingbookscurriculum.com/ . I thought I would update ya'll on how it is going. So far, I think it is the best one we have had by far. It is not perfect. I would definantly change somethings. There are some typos that make lesson preparation confusing at times but for the most part, it is soooooo easy to prepare the lessons is a very short amount of time. Most the books are so wonderful and I love all the classics (like Pollyanna, Pinocchio, and The Jungle Book) though there is one book that is great for older kids but not so much for the little ones so I kinda summarize it. I love the nature study outdoors stuff. My kids are the types that love to spend all the time they can outside. They do not provide math so I am still looking for a better one to fit my kids than the ones we have used in the past. Right now I have kinda a mix of different ones. All in all, I would definantly order this again if I had to do this all over again (thank heavens I don't).

Ok, on to the kids. Luci is now walking and talking like crazy. She will be 20 months on the 19th. This morning she said to me, "Mommy, I want down please." She loves to tell the dogs, "Deliah, leave me lone." (Their names are Delilah and Jezzabel but she calls them both Delilah, who BTW hid a garbage sack from me that I can't find but that is another story.) She insists on being with the kids at all times. She loves the outdoors and as soon as she wakes up tends to say, "Outdide, Outdide". I have to watch her closely cause she loves to walk up the road. The other kids tend to leave the door open too and I will find her outside every time. She is very attached to Ben and when he isn't home on time she will wonder around the house calling, "Daddy, Dad, Daddy" and if he doesn't answer she will go into our bathroom and find something of his (yesterday it was his electric razor) and carry it around until he gets back. It is amazing how many things are missing now.

Celestial has taught herself to add and reads small words. She has really been pushing her limits lately and driving her dad and I nuts. Her hair is finally growing and is past her shoulders by a couple of inches. She has the little boy across the street, Brody wanting to marry her. Even with her pushing it lately, she is still our easiest kid so far.

Israel is now bald. He talked his dad into doing it and I was shocked (the pic looks like he has more hair than he does). But he wanted to look like Daddy and he loves it. His reading has really taken off lately and so has his math. He is able to sit longer through school and having much fewer tantrums. He used to Hate to draw but now he loves it. Ben bought him his own notebooks for drawing and making paper airplanes and for a while, every prayer he said (which is almost all we have) he thanked Heavenly Father for the notebooks. He made a whole bouquet of airplanes and put them in his Easter basket and has made pictures for all of us and uses tape and staples to make books. He has really turned into quite the artist.

Eden had her hair cut finally. It turns out I am the ONLY one that has ANY idea as to how to take care of her hair when it is long so we got it cut so she or anybody else that needs to can care for it when I can't. She looks really cute and she loves it. She has been quite the helper around here and hasn't been sick much at all, yeay. Now if I could just get her to keep her room clean...

As for the rest of us, we are preparing for Ben's deployment. He is in WLC right now until the end of May. He will leave for NTC a month or so later. They have a month there and will be home for a little bit (with field trainings to keep them gone) and then off to Iraq again. We are looking forward to getting out and returning to Idaho but we have just under five years left. The kids keep begging to go now. They really miss my family. All in all, we are doing pretty well. I know things will get more difficult with Ben leaving, but we will just have to enjoy him while we can.