Tick Tock Girl

Julianna is obsessed with clocks. She LOVES clocks. It all started a few months ago when she began to be unhappy in Sacrament meeting in church. To keep her happy, but to keep my sanity, we'd go to the primary room where I could still hear the talks on the speaker.

In order to amuse her, I'd point to the clock and make a ticking noise. She loved it so much, she began demanding it over and over. Then she began noticing clocks everywhere. Now, she can make the ticking noise by clicking her tongue on the roof of her mouth. I was surprised when she figured out how to do that so young!

She looks for clocks in every room in the house, and in every store. She has her own "sign" for clock. And she's fascinated that Courtney has a Bird clock with birds instead of numbers.

She loves it when I take the clock off the wall so she can watch the second-hand go around up close. It never fails: if she's upset or mad, all I have to do is put a clock or timer next to her hear, and she'll immediately quiet down so she can hear the ticking noise. It's hilarious. That tells me how much of her crying is wailing is for attention. What a show!

I'll need to get a watch that has a second hand and ticks so I can have portable amusement for her. I sure wish I'd had something like that at JC Penney's today. I forgot a stroller or backpack for my toddler, and it was a nightmare. Julianna threw a royal tantrum, screaming, headbanging, the whole works....all because I kept stopping her from throwing all the clothes she could find into the aisle. She bruised her cheekbone on a clothes shelf, and nearly gave herself a black eye. It was quite dramatic. And for those of you who have heard Julie cry, you know she REALLY knows how to scream into those upper registers. She discovered at a very young age that the louder and shriller she screams, the faster she gets results. My girl has a TEMPER.

I dream of someday going to the mall...or any store for that matter, BY MYSELF! Someday.

Angel the Storyteller

My little 3 year old has developed a surprising new talent: STORY TELLING.

Just this week, here is a sampling of her latest tales:

"Mommy, I can't sit down on the big potty because it will suck me down and flush me away and I'll die and drown. You got to be careful or it will get you too! We can't let Julie fall in, because then she'll get sucked a way and drown...and then we'd have to get a new Julie!" (No amount of persuading will convince her that our toilets are safe)

While coloring the picture of a bird at nighttime when it's dark outside, "There's this really really CREEPY BIRD outside, with GLOWING RED EYES and when you look at it it will jump out and GET you! Watch outside at the bird feeder, look out the window in the dark, Mommy, and you'll see the really really CREEEEEPY bird!"
(Okay, who has been reading my child horror stories?! Where does she get this stuff? And I had no idea that the word creepy was even in her vocabulary!)

During dinner while we were eating tacos: "Mommy one time when I was at the store they built a big taco, it was as big as me, "This" (she puts her hand up to her head) tall and it was 10 feet high! It's really really really true! A taco as big as me....and I ate it."
(Angel's new favorite word is really really really really....she prefaces every sentence with it!(really ;))

"Once upon a time Hyrum and I were playing outside and exploring, and then we saw a deeeep dark well, and Hryum fell into it! And he was like "HELP HELP!" and then I called out, Hryum, Hryum, I will save you! So I crawled down and pulled him back out, and then we played and played....The end!

(WOW, okay, this kid is only three years old and yet she spontaneously told me a made up story with 1. a beginning, 2. a conflict, and 3. a resolution. She's got the formula down pat! I am so impressed. Hryum is her cousin and best friend. It's cute that she's making herself out to be the hero of her own story)



It's not telling a lie, it's telling a story, but whatever she says, she believes. At the magical age of 3 years old, there is no definite line between reality and imagination. It all blends into one another, and she really can't tell what is true and what is false. This is why I am so careful about what I let her see in the media, or what she hears...because whatever you tell her, she believes it with blind faith. (unless you are trying to convince her that regular sized flushing toilets are safe...she's already made up her mind about their deadly dangers!) It's a very special, magical, and vulnerable time in a child's life.

I am enjoying her stories very much! And I am trying to get the kids to be able to accept her tales of pretend and imagination for what they are, instead of calling her out on her make-believes and calling them lies. Now if she starts spouting tales about a make believe friend who is doing naughty things that she did herself, that will be another thing entirely.

Just Desserts

Courtney got her "just desserts" the other day. At the state fair, each of the kids got their own coloring book from the Dairy stand. They LOVE those books because they enjoy coloring all the different kinds of food and ice cream in them. They get them every fall, and treasure them all year long.

Angel had done something (I can't remember what) to make Courtney mad and she was out to get revenge. I came into the room to see her scribbling on a coloring book in black pen. She was going through every single page in the book, making huge ugly scribbling marks over each activity. I asked her, "Why are you scribbling in your book instead of coloring in it?"

Courtney looked up in surprise saying, "This isn't my book....it's Angel's. I'm ruining it because I'm so mad at her!"

"Oh no, it's not" I say closing the book and showing her her own name printed on the front. "You've just ruined your own coloring book."

"NOOOOOOOOOoooooooo!" Courtney screamed in despair. "It was suppose to be her book!"


"Well," I say, "Since you've done such a good job punishing yourself for your meanness, I'm not going to discipline you. Your consequence is that you have a ruined coloring book."

I let her cry herself out on my bed, and 30 minutes later we had a good conversation on what the scripture means of "digging a pit for thy neighbor" and we talked about other ways of expressing displeasure that doesn't involve destroying other people's property.

Attack of the Honey BEES

Who you goin' to call?

BEE BUSTERS!!

This has been a SERIOUSLY CrAzY week!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGHHHH!

Last Tuesday (Sept. 1st) I felt like I was trapped in a horror movie:
ATTACK OF THE KILLER BEES!~

Scott's new hobby is beekeeping, and I love that he loves it, and I love it that it gives us great raw healthy honey, but sometimes it has brought us some STICKY & Stressful situations. (haha)

Many months ago, he bought himself a hive along with a bunch of bee equipment. As he got more comfortable with handling them, he decided he wanted a few more hives. He did a lot of research and reading, and then starting posting on Craigslist that he'd remove beehives for free in return for the Bees & honey.

Earlier this spring, the kids and I got to watch him and my sister Mary Cate capture a live bee swarm. It was awesome to watch. After harvesting a bunch of honey from our first hive, and seeing how tasty it was, Scott was pining for more bees!

He has tried multiple times to catch himself a heathly hive of bees. The first time he brought home a new hive, it was too weak. Our two beehives had a battle, the more established hive won, and then Yellow Jackets attacked the weakened hive and moved into the hive body.

Then Scott started doing research on making himself a "BEEVAC". It is a Vaccuum designed to suck up bees safely for removal and establishing a new hive. Brand new they cost over $200. He figured he could download the plans, and make his very own from scraps he had laying around. Scott made it with some help from Porter Bassett, and it was a huge success!!! It looks amazing. It works brilliantly. He was SOOO excited to try it out!
Scott actually used pieces of his leaf blower to complete his BeeVac..how's that for ingenuity?

On the maiden voyage of the BeeVac, he extracted some bees from a barn up Gooseneck in Sheridan. It was a resounding success, everyone was impressed. Scott could proudly say he owns 2 healthy happy thriving hives. He just wanted ONE MORE....three hives, and that was his limit. Scott's goal was to have 3 hives on our land: making honey for us, and pollinating everyone else's gardens: a Win-Win situation!

The next find that came his way, was a BIG project. We checked it out numerous times before tackling it. In McMinnville, next door to the post office, is an older house with an established hive living in it's walls.
Just looking at this picture, you can see the moisture of the honey seeping through the wood siding. Scott was going to have to take apart THE WALL of the house in order to get the bees out!!! This was an all day deal.

We could see from the very beginning that it was going to be a huge project, we just had NO IDEA how HUGE it was going to turn out to be!!!

So Scott chose Monday (his day off) so he would have all day to work on it. However, this was the Monday that we always go to the State Fair as a family. We planned to go to the fair later in the afternoon, contingent upon how the bee capturing went. Scott just had NO CLUE how long it might take him.


First Scott followed the studs and cut with a circular saw beneath the hole where the bees were coming out.
Then Scott pulled the siding away to expose the hive. Mary Cate Bassett came as partner and helper in the enterprise.
They used the BeeVac to suck the bees off each board as it was pulled off.
After exposing the hive they vacuumed the bees off the comb, so it could be removed and placed into frames.
They had thought the hive was just that one section, but when pulling off the last board, they discovered it was only the tip of the iceberg...I mean honeycomb ;) .

Then things began going awry. In hindsight, Scott now realizes that his first mistake was not putting the removed comb in Beehive frames and storing them in a bee proof box right away. This was not needed in the first extraction he did in the barn. The barn was enclosed. This outside wall was not. Bees from different hives in the area started investigating the comb and reporting back to their home hives. Within 30 minutes huge reinforcements began arriving unnoticed during our excitement of discovering the enormous size of this incredibly monstrous HIVE!
In this picture, the center hive, or brood comb, has been removed.

The second mistake was exposing the hive all at once. The new unnoticed bee reinforcements began swarming the comb already extracted. While these bees were trying to get the honey from the extracted comb, their scouts noticed the honey in the wall hive. Then all bets were off. It was a feeding frenzy. Bees were doing serious battle. It was like war of the worlds out there! Mary Cate said later to me that at this point in the adventure she began thinking things like "This is CRAZY....I can't believe we're doing this!" She also told me that she thought Scott was as "Cool as a cucumber" during the stressful situation. This event turned into a serious crisis, because instead of finishing removing the hive, Mary Cate literally spent 2 or 3 hours just sucking up all the attacking enemy bees with the BeeVac. In her words, "It was Insane".

This decision was in fact the third mistake. They were combating this swarm by sucking them (the invading bees) into the beevac with the wall hive. There was a ongoing battle in the beevac!

At this time, Scott and Mary realized they had to call it quits. There were too many bees. There was no way to get them all. Bees were EVERYWHERE. Scott and Mary placed the removed comb in frames, quickly cut the remaining honey out of the wall, and placed it in plastic bags. Man was it heavy! It filled up two Huge garbage sacks worth. Getting all the equipment into the van without filling the car with rogue bees was extremely difficult.

**Funny Story: This took place in downtown McMinnville, so there were lots of pedestrians gawking. Every once and a while, a person would stop and say, "Cool! Look at those people. Are they bee keepers? Where are the bees?" And then they'd walk a little closer and see swarms of the little black critters flying to and fro. They'd usually run away screaming , "Aaaaah! Beeeees!"

Back at home, the saddest part was when the bees were being transferred to the bee box. We were all set up to let loose this wonderful strong hive! We were all siked up! Everyone was filled with the soaring feeling of victory. We even had the cameras rolling. Then the tragedy hit full force. As Scott opened the beevac and dumped the bees into the box, he was horrified to see that 90 percent of the bees had died. Scott was devastated. What a horrible waste!!!

He thinks it was a combination of the vacuum being 'turned up' too strong and the internal bee battle from the foreign bees and the colony from the wall. Scott had needed to turn the beevac up to full strength when removing the bees from the barn and that had worked perfectly with no noticable bee deaths. However, the vacuum motor must have made a better seal this time around and been too strong, banging the bees into the ribbing of the vacuum hose on the way to the box. This is his theory, however, we'll never really know why some 40,000 bees died. Maybe the BeeVac was just too full and they all suffocated. (This is Mary Cate's pet theory) If Scott ever does an extraction this big again, he'll probably want a few bee boxes on hand! One is just not enough.

Scott then left the remaining bees to the extracted brood comb and we went to the fair. (This part of the story to be continued in my next posting)

The next day, Scott inspected the hive to see if the remaining bees were enough to maintain the hive if requeened. (He can easily order another queen bee, but without a queen the hive is doomed) There were only about 50 to 100 of the probably 40,000 left alive. The brood comb was then added to the hive we took from the barn. Bees are quite accepting of the larvae of another bee nest while still in the comb; once bees emerge they are accepted as hive mates. That is acceptable to them. If any other already hatched bee tries to enter the hive they are fought off or killed.

On a positive note, the retreived honey was squeezed from the honey comb and it made about 4 gallons of honey! Woooohooooo! Scott is going to feed this to the barn hive to help them build up their honey stores for winter. I'm sure we'll get to eat some of it, too.

On another positive note, Mary and Scott got SO MUCH honey from their daring bee affair, that they are considering whether it might be worth it to do this again in the future. Next time, they just plan on being Speedy Gonzalez in extracting comb and tucking it away before being attacked.


Now, here's where the attack of the bees horror film comes in:

The last time we processed Honey, it was at night in the garage, and we had no problems of any kind. So we didn't anticipate any difficulty this time. We didn't take it into account that it was daytime, as well as the end of the gathering season...so the bees were mad to get honey, especially since they'd just been moved.

The honey processing turned into quite a hair-raising experience. Scott began with the windows open and at once the bees smelled the honey and swooped into the house to get some. It was a bee mad house! Luckily we had screens on the windows, but it was freaky!

Scott closed the windows, but the harm was already done. The bees circled the windows and the door (where they sould still smell the honey on the drafts of air escaping) and would not leave. Scott was picking bees off the comb like crazy, and put them into a glass quart jar to be taken outside. (He wants to rescue the bees, no killing honeybees allowed, of course)

Christopher was told to take the quart jar to the garden. At this point we still didn't know that the bees were coming and telling all their friends. A bee flew in front of Christopher's face and scared him. Chris dropped the jar, and it broke scattering glass shards and bees everywhere. Scott wanted Christopher to quickly sweep up the mess, because his hands were covered with honey. Christopher was scared, of course, and crying because he was afraid of being stung. So Scott put a jar of honey into the garden thinking that would distract the bees from the glass breakage, and give Chris a chance to get things cleaned up. Well, the break only lasted a few minutes. Christopher had been told to clean it up before he came in, and Scott was busy processing the honey. He had no clue what was going on in the backyard.

I was gone at the store shopping. When I came into the garage, I noticed the bees were flying everywhere. I jumped out of the van and ran into the house, screaming nearly in hysterics. Scott didn't believe me yet that there were a lot of bees, he just thought there was one or two. But when he went into the garage to rescue Angel from the van (whom I had abandoned in my fright) he realized that we were in serious trouble. I looked out the window to see poor Christopher pacing the back edge of the fence, crying in terror, because bee swarms were covering all our doors, and he was afraid to get near the house. (Everywhere Scott had touched with his honey dripping hands, was now covered in bees eagerly licking up every last drop) I opened a side glass door, called him to run, and our poor firstborn was saved. He was drenched with sweat and tears. (He bounced back resiliently within 5 minutes, looking out the windows and oohing and aahing at all the cool bees to be seen from the safety of the house now that he was no longer outside). I felt like we were in a giant PeopleVac....we were the captives, and the bees had us hostage!

My groceries were still in the car. And there they would stay till it was dark because I wasn't even going to open the doors an inch. I was thoroughly freaked out at this point, and even though the situation isn't as bad as my words make it sound, I'm trying to paint a picture of how I felt. I was so happy when sunset arrived and all the bees went to bed. It's a horrible horrible feeling to be trapped. I have sympathy for all those people in the horror movies, stuck in their houses with the monsters outside, ready to get them the moment their guard is down.

Scott had to go to work, leaving a sticky mess and a TON of bees outside. Scott decided to finish up after work (he got home at 12:00 am) and worked on the honey and cleaning up till 3:30 am! But oh the honey we have! Mary took about 2 gallons and we still have the other two. Even now, if you touch our counter, chairs, or cupboards, there seems to be a slight sticky residue! It's annoying me immensely.

Oh well, let all things give thee experience! Scott says he learned a lot, and so have I. I am a little worried though, Scott is still one hive short of his desired total of 3 and someone has informed him of a feral hive in a tree near their home. Oh well, what harm can one more hive cause? Whatever happens, it can't be a bad as this last time....can it?

mmm...what adventure awaits us next?

Dorathy's Baptism

Dorathy Elizabeth Dotson was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on Saturday, August 1st, 2009 at the Monmouth Chapel In the Monmouth, Oregon Stake

Dorathy was so excited, she had looked forward to this day for years! It turned out beautifully!
It was so lovely to see her all dressed in white. Lots of friends and family came!

Dorathy was thrilled that they sang her favorite primary songs. The spirit there was so peaceful and sweet. We had a talk given to the children (there were 2 girls being baptized on this day) about Baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and then we went into a different room to watch the baptism. As soon as Dorathy came up out of the water, she was shining with joy and exclaimed with fervor, "That was GREAT!" After the girls were dressed out of their wet clothes into new things, they were given the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands. Scott gave Dorathy a beautiful blessing.

Here is a picture of Dorathy and Athena Bassett, her cousin and best friend. Athena was almost as excited as Dorathy was!!! These two girls are just 2 peas in a pod. They are both artists, writers, and have terrific imaginations. They are so blessed to have each other.

Afterwards, we all went outside to take some pictures of everyone in their Sunday best.

Count your many blessings!

Grandma and Grandpa Blanchard with Dorathy

Here are all the Blanchard Cousins(minus 6). When you get this many kids, there is no way to get them all to smile!

Make New Friends, But Keep the Old!

I was so excited a few weeks ago when I got a call from a friend saying she was coming up from Idaho to visit her Oregon relatives! I hadn't seen this friend in about 6 years! She was my first visiting teaching Companion after I got married, and we were both pregnant with our first babies who were due only a few weeks apart. And since we lived in Utah at the time, of course we were neighbors!

In fact, this friend was the one who drove me to the hospital when I went into labor with Christopher! It was so fun to go visiting together, first pregnant, and later with our two little baby boys. We had some really good times. Picnics, parks, walks, church activities, New Years Eve gatherings, and Mary Kay makeover parties...oh, the memories!

Here's a picture of our boys, not so babyish anymore! It's always special to remake old acquaintances. I wish I could put some pictures up of when they were babies, but I don't know how to work my scanner.

Here the girls had a "Day sleepover" outside.

I am so grateful for email, facebook, and blogs that let us keep in contact with friends and relatives who are far away! What a blessing!

Second week of school

I am anticipating and hoping for a great homeschool year. This will be my first homeschool year ever that I'm not pregnant or nursing a baby! So I am hoping to have more time and energy in organizing our activities and lessons. Of course a lot of this depends on Julianna. Everyone who has been around our family a lot knows what a difficult child she has been for me. Whenever the doctor asks me how my baby is doing at well child check-ups , I always feel guilty for saying "fussy". But, well, that's what's she's been for most of her life!

Sometimes, however, I think I misjudge her. The first 6 months of her life it was colic, and ever since she's struggled with teething or ear infections. Maybe she's a naturally sunny child who has had to suffer through lots of pain-induced grumpiness. I'm hoping this year she'll learn to enjoy more independence.

Courtney is doing great in her Kindergarten work. She is learning to read and write. She can read Dick and Jane books and everytime we go to the library, we look for new practice books for her to read. She is doing great at all her fine motor skill: she cuts with scissors like a pro! She draws little figures, and then cuts them out. She designs clothes, beds, and houses for them all out of paper. She is just starting to get more confidence in her writing. I've waited till now to really concentrate on teaching her because before she had no interest. It will probably be slow going for quite a while, because I believe she is dyslexic like Christopher.

We love the Handwriting without Tears program. Here Courtney has written one of her first words without any help from Mom! It's so hard for her to make her o's, circles, and a's in the right direction. Christopher really struggles with that too...sometimes he still does!

I decided (in an effort to get my children to try out some new books) to invite my older two children to participate with me in a "kids book club." I picked out two books neither of them had read before and asked if they'd like to discuss them with me in the evening after the younger kids had gone to bed. They were delighted!!! They were so excited they wanted to do it RIGHT AWAY, but I explained to them we had to have enough time for all 3 of us to get through 2 books. They grudgingly gave me 48 hrs. So last Wednesday night, we had a lovely discussion over hot chocolate. It was a grand success! We read Ralph S. Mouse by Beverly Cleary, and Shadrach by Meigert De Jong. Afterwards they immediately went to our school shelves and picked out 2 new books to be read by next week. At this rate, we'll breeze through all our school books by Christmas! I'll be the person having the hardest time keeping up. I don't have the hours to read that my kids do!

Dorathy got a new school desk! It's bright blue, and she LOVES it! This means that Angel gets Dorathy's old school desk. She is so thrilled. She feels SO grown up. Angel now has all her own school books, and she feels so privileged to be a part of what the older kids are doing. This also inspires Courtney to want to sit at her desk and do some work. Courtney is my hyperactive gymnast who would rather be standing on her head, or hanging from the bunkbeds upside down. I'm so excited to get that girl into gymnastics this year!!!


Ever since Courtney lost her first tooth, all Angel can talk about is when she can get her own first loose tooth. She cried and cried when I told her she probably wouldn't loose a tooth till she was 5 or 6. Every once and a while she'll run up to me proclaiming,"I have a loose tooth, I do I do! I get money from the tooth fairy! I'm growing up! I'm bigger now!" Angel is making great progress with potty training. As long as I don't put a pull up or diaper on her, she uses her little potty and remains entirely accident-free. She actually is starting to use the big potty, too! I have great hopes of her actually finishing potty training before the holidays. She's slowly realizing that underwear is for pulling down, not for peeing in. But for now, I still prefer to just leave her in dresses bear-bottomed...it's so much easier! She's feeling really proud of her accomplishments right now!

Here's Angel's showing off her "loose" tooth she wishes she had.

Christopher, the resident man of the house at 10 yrs, remains my biggest & best helper. He is doing a great job learning how to babysit and care for all the younger kids. I think he'll be ready for "real"babysitting very soon. Chris is making WONDERFUL progress in his piano playing now that we're getting back to a schedule of practicing everyday. I love playing duets with him! He's a talented actor and singer, and he wants permission to use my video camera to make commercials and movies...I can't wait to see what he comes up with!

I'm doing lots of research on Charlotte Mason Education, and I am planning out our weeks to combine Thomas Jefferson Education with lots of Charlotte Mason ideas.

Here is my plan for our new school Year
This schedule does not include our regular schoolwork from the kids desks, nor the projects they choose to do on their own time

MONDAY -- Study Fine Arts (painting, art, & Poetry)
Field trips
Narration from fine arts


TUESDAY -- Language Arts & copywork/dictation
Spanish
Narration from history


WEDNESDAY -- Book of Centuries
Dictation
Geography
Narration from History

THURSDAY -- Language arts & copywork/dictaiton
Spanish
Narration from History

FRIDAY -- Flash cards
games, brainquest, puzzzles
Nature study, Science experiments
Narration from Science

SATURDAY--family pojects, leftover homeschool projects