🇬🇪 Khachapuri 🇬🇪 Georgian food and R.I.P. Carla

 We made Khachapuri for dinner. It was quite yummy actually.

 Sadly, the girls chicken, Carla, died today. Amy, and Lena, were especially distraught. These chickens really are pets. They are sweet, easy to handle, and even come peck at the back door window if their food is low. She just has been off her feed and acting strange, lethargic... she died in the late afternoon, after having many hugs, and tears shed over her.

God is at the helm

Sometimes life is challenging, and the world seems too full of hatred, racism, greed, and selfishness. But when the news gets me down, it’s a comfort to know that God is at the helm. 

An 8 year old baking bread by herself

Monta helped with shredding carrots for stew yesterday, and Amy made the bread ALL by herself. I told her what to put in, but usually even when I let the girls help, I kind of hover. I told myself yesterday that the best way for Amy to learn was to really do it start to finish herself.

🇦🇲 Armenia 🇦🇲

Monday we went to Armenia for dinner with our friends Dan and Emberdy. It is great to have people come over and share their experiences in that country, and speak some of the language for us.

Something kind of cool about Armenia: it has A mountain called Ararat, just like the one Noah parked his boat on.

How does being grateful make us happy?

I remember reading about the Tenbooms and how after smuggling Jews through their home, Connie and her sister were sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp. One day as they were having a small Bible study in their bunk, her sister prayed and thanked God for the lice. Connie said, incredulously "How can you thank him for the lice?" Her sister calmly replied that it was thanks to the lice that made the soldiers stay out of their quarters and they were then enabled to read from this small Bible that they had.

God asks us often in scripture to be thankful. "Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things." Why? Not just so we can realize He is the one who blesses us, but so we can be happy. The book Pollyanna gives a great example of how happy Pollyanna is when she plays "the glad game". I have this picture hanging up near the kitchen sink. I wrote it up in the first few months after Monta was born. I read through it sometimes and it really does put me in a better mood.

So, be thankful and happy.

🇬🇭 Ghana 🇬🇭

We made Peanut Butter Chicken Soup for lunch Saturday. It was a soup I got the recipe for on my mission from an investigator from Ghana. We ate it over rice. Most of the girls liked it, but Amy liked it the most.

This investigator was the one I named Amy after. Her name was Amy Fynn. She was regal, with polished manners and totally prepared to receive the truth of the restored gospel. She was reading the Bible for an hour every morning, and when we introduced her to the Book of Mormon, she immediately recognized its truthfulness and that it bore a strong witness of Jesus Christ.

Her baptism was wonderful. She was so prepared. She had been in an abusive marriage, and was staying with her niece when we taught her. She wanted to be prepared for baptism, and forgive her ex husband, but didn’t know how to do it. She told us how she said a prayer, and then called him. "I forgive you," she said. "Do you forgive me?" She was such a Christlike example to me, and I knew I wanted to name my first daughter after her.

I hope eating these foods from around the world can help our girls appreciate other cultures and people, and know that we are all God’s children and have wonderful things to share with each other.

Cathedrals

This week we learned about Louis Braille, the man who invented the raised bump writing for the blind, and Gothic Cathedrals like Chartes, Norte Dame, and the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Then we made a lego cathedral of our own, complete with flying buttresses, open windows, and gargoyle spots.

Mossy Cave and Feeding Deer

 Mom and Dad took us on a hike to Mossy Cave in Bryce. The rocks were beautiful, and Lena loved the pinks in it.

 Afterwards we took the kids to one of the best Natural History museums I’ve ever seen, just outside Bryce. The owner has spent a lifetime collecting Butterflies and insects from all over the world, and had wonderful displays of animals in their habitats. The girls also were able to feed the Fallow deer and thought that was a great experience.

Cedar Breaks and Bryce

Cedar City Field Trip

 I’m glad we don’t have to learn the Deseret Alphabet...

 Amy thought the dunce cap was very funny. When she placed it on my head she crumpled over laughing. We also took the girls to the Petroglyphs at the Parawon gap.

Heritage Museum Cedar City

 The kids took a ride back in time at the Iron Heritage museum in Cedar City.

 This was a fun field trip for them.

 Monta and Lily loved getting close to these safe horses.

Cedar City Temple

 We took the girls to the Cesar City Temple open house. I hope that they will want to make promises with their Heavenly Father, and keep them. Ryan and I find great spiritual strength in attending the Temple.

 I love the doctrine that family is forever. I want to be with my family forever.

Having it "All Together"? Not Quite

So sometimes people will tell me that they think I have it all together...

I don't know if that's because we're homeschooling, or because I have 6 kids, or because I like to garden... can I tell you the truth though? I don't have it all together. I feel very blessed, yes, but I don't always know what to do, or how to handle things, and I'm not always the patient mother I wish I was...

I remember when my older sister got cancer, and I thought our 'perfect little family' was crumbling -- the things that I felt secure in and understood suddenly didn't feel comforting enough for me and I didn't understand. I think that most people who 'look' like they have it all together don't. The funny thing is, I can think of Moms that I look up to, that I still somewhere in my mind think actually DO have it together, or at least they are much more organized than I am, but you know what? I think it's part of life that we're just to try and do our best, and trust to God for the rest.

With homeschooling, I am not ultra organized. I don't bust out crafty projects everyday. A typical day looks like this: I wake up at 5 when Ryan gets up for work, and I try to nurse Jacob back to sleep. I listen to the scriptures on my iPad, sometimes I fall back asleep until 7:30 (another good reason why homeschooling is nice for me). I come out and Amy's usually gotten Lily up and given her a bottle. We have breakfast. My expectations for the three big girls is: Reading, Writing, and Math. Amy reads a bit in her scriptures, and to her sisters, she's working on cursive and spelling, and fractions, multiplication, larger number addition and subtraction. Esther reads to me (and the sisters that peek over the couch), she has a hard time thinking of what to write, and often gets her inspiration from when we watch a Attenborough. Today, since we watched part of Life in Cold Blood (2007) she wrote about "Tortisis" and how they are neat because they are "vary vary slow but when you scare tham thay ran". Esther’s math is learning to carry the one in addition problems like 17+17. Lena is reading in Dick and Jane books, learning to write sentences, and practicing writing not always in all caps. She is making great progress in the Dick and Jane book. We do try to get out for walks, but that’s been harder to do since I’ve had 5 breast infections since he’s been born, I don’t dare strap Jacob to me.

We watch documentaries and love our library, but most days I’m shooting from the hip. I don’t have an awesome curriculum I’m using. I’m just being a Mom, and teaching as I go. I wouldn’t trade the opportunity to answer their questions and grow with them for anything, but it means that I have had to let some things go. Personal time is one of them. My day is filled with getting the girls through the three Rs, answering questions, reading and snuggling the little ones, or getting Jacob to nap in my lap while hearing the others read. My house is usually messy, but when Daddy’s home we tackle it as a family. Over all, I feel if I’m doing my best, God will make up the rest, but that doesn’t mean I know what I’m doing along the way.

Snow, Cat and 🇨🇱 Chile 🇨🇱

 Sunday we had our first snow of the year. Because of daylight savings we had a little more time before Church started and the girls were out to make use of the snow. They made those entirely on their own while Ryan and I got ready for church.

 

We had a nice visit from Auntie Alissa. Look at Jacob’s adorable red bow tie.

I love living where we do... I often feel like pinching myself to see these wonderful views. One of the things we’ve inherited since moving here is a cat. I’ve not been a fan of cats ever since before my sisters Hodgkin Lymphoma diagnosis cat scratch disease was put on the table as a reason for her swollen lymph nodes, but almost everyone out here has a barn cat at least to keep the mice in check. I’d been annoyed that it kept coming up to the house, but realized we’ve not done much to train it otherwise, so I spent some time today with Esther getting a wood box set up in the backyard as a shelter for it. I think she may be pregnant too, and I don’t want frozen dead kittens in my yard. The cat will be Esther’s responsibility. It is good for the girls to have animals to be responsible for.

We have been trying to travel the world culinarily with the girls, and being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints has been really helpful in that regard... since missionaries serve all over the world, some of the best "traveling" we’ve done is by inviting someone over who served in that country. They bring enthusiasm and love for the area, people and language and give us a real flavor for that country. Tonight we went to Chile with a recently returned sister in our ward named Taya. She was so nice to help me pick an authentic menu and show us pictures and speak Spanish for us. This coming Sunday we will go to Norway with another couple in our ward, and Trinidad, the Dominican Republic, and Armenia are coming up in the following weeks just from this ward. Our last ward provided us with Holland, Hawaii, Ukraine, Russia, and Malaysia. This is one aspect of homeschooling that I really love. I like being able to make the world their classroom.

End of October

 Lily has learned how to pick up chickens. :) I am happy with how much she enjoys them, and we are glad she doesn't pick them up by their wings anymore. These chickens are really easy going chickens, actually. I think it helped them to chill out being toted around over and over by the girls when they were young. The one Lily is holding lays green eggs. The girls love collecting the eggs.

 Esther's writing sample from Halloween. I am proud of her for starting to sound things out. Amy also wrote a poem for Halloween too, and her cursive is coming a long very well.

Lunchtime -- I was particularly proud of this one, because since Jacob's been born, it's been hard for me to actually make a good lunch for the girls. Amy usually makes lunch for her sisters, and can make sandwiches. This one was potato wedges, spinach smoothie, peaches and grapes.