4th of July pictures

It is hard to get this many kids to hold still and smile for a picture!
I found these dresses at The Children's Place on clearance for only $5! It was such a steal. They were originally sold as easter dresses, but they look way better for the fourth of July!
I love dressing all my kids alike. With four girls close in age it is really fun to match clothes. I'd sew coordinating stuff for them if I knew how...but I don't sew, I barely bother to put buttons back on!
I bet if we had done it after church we would have had more luck. But Angel was especially tired and grumpy and didn't feel like cooperating.
With Fourth of July being celebrated on a Sunday, it was fun to feel extra-patriotic. The kids said they felt like walking flags. Believe it or not, this red dress is the one I bought for the Homecoming Dance my Sophmore year at BYU. It's exciting that I fit back into it! Most of our marriage I have been unable to zip it up.

Zonked Out

Tired Laura, snuggly Julie. How in the world did I get so many kids with such light hair? Look at that contrast!

This has been the busiest Summer ever in my living memory. I guess it's all part of being in the "Insane Years" (as my sister and I call them) of raising a young family. I know many of my peers are going through the same things, and it good to know I've got great company. But STILL, when will I ever get to rest?!?

It blows my mind now, when I think years back to when I had only 2 or 3 kids and I actually watched TELEVISION....I use to have time that I could afford to waste! Now I can hardly get a book read. When I sit down to read, I just fall asleep. It's depressing!

I've put off writing this post because the very thought of recording what's going on is too exhausting to face up to. But this is the only journal I have, and I really want to have recorded what our life is currently like. The good, the bad, and the exhausting.

The Good: We got our tile put in! Hallelujah! It is SO beautiful and we are loving it. It only got done at all because I nice friend agreed to do the work for a very good price. Otherwise, we'd still be dealing with ugly sub-flooring. Scott didn't have the time to deal with it. We've turned the area behind the couch on the tile into the kids' miniature play room. It's nice, while the big kids read on the couch, the little kids play behind it, and everyone is happily entertained in one room! The "Library"! *sigh* I get a shiver of pleasure whenever I walk in that room and see all my books spread along the walls. I don't know what we'll do when wood burning season comes again, though. I like the toys there by the stove, but I can't have the kids playing near it when it's in use. The tile looks so nice, that if I ever have another couple of hundred dollars lying around, I want to replace our wooden entryway with the same tile. I think it would look lovely there, and tie the house colors together. Someday soon, we have to replace our kitchen linoleum. Maybe someday we'll get our new siding outside our new French doors painted. The doorway molding is still in pieces, so I can't hang my nice new curtains up! :(

Next year, we hope to replace our entire patio and do some major remodeling in our backyard. I still have to finish painting my house before I can plan that, though! I have a multitude of kid drawings in my hallway, foyer, and bathroom to paint over.

The Bad: Our washer and dryer are dead. I guess it was only $50.00 for the set, and so I shouldn't feel too bad. They did last us one year. But now my washer is leaking badly, pouring water out onto my garage floor. My dryer hasn't been working properly in months. It takes 2 or 3 hours to dry just one load. To say this is a major pain is the understatement of the year. Our Electricity bill shot through the roof. And my laundry is NEVER done. It's not getting washed or dried properly. I've put off getting an appliance fix-it guy, because it costs more than I paid for the set to get it working again! And there is no guarentee that is would be successful, since I already paid once to get it fixed, and not long after it became worse than ever. I was getting close to considering putting up a clothesline in the back yard. (UGH!) I was being tortured with thoughts of having to put a new washer and dryer set on a finance plan, but the Lord really blessed us just today! We found a washer dryer set for only 75.00 that is 7 years old, but has hardly been used because they were in a home that was lived in by one man only a few months out of the year. HURRAY! I hope they work out better than the last set...

Another bad: Our van is on its last legs....I mean wheels! Things keep breaking. Now I think we have a hole in our exhaust pipe....our van sounds REALLY loud when it runs. I know that it's only a matter of months before we'll have to seriously consider a new van. I want to upgrade to a 12 passenger for a multitude of reasons, but I don't want a higher gas bill, either. If you see a good van or large suburban for sale, send the info my way! We should probably buy one before we have to deal with the monthly payments for Christopher's braces coming up soon.

Another bad: More bills, and more and more bills...including $900.00 for my crown and root canal. It's always something, isn't it? So much for violin lessons for the girls this year. Maybe next year?

The Exhausting: This month we've had Holidays ( which we love but make our house dirty and the kids sleep deprived), we've had Company (which we adore but puts life on complete hold. The lawn doesn't get mowed, and the bills don't get paid) And then we were invited to participate in a yard sale the week of Dorathy's 9th birthday. This was a 3 day long ordeal: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I'm really blessed that my friend did most of the work and I just brought the kids when I could make it over. I felt bad that I couldn't help more, but Julianna really needed her nap! If it had been at my own house, I never would have been able to leave it for a minute.

I'm really very grateful for this opportunity. It helped me clean out the garage and closets, and best of all I was able to earn most of the money to pay off my $252 ticket for running through a stop sign 2 months ago. I did a ton of non-stop baking trying to earn enough extra money through a bake sale to pay off my debt. I made cookies, candy-bar-death-by-chocolate triple layer brownies, Marionberry pie, blueberry pie, and lots of cupcakes. The kids LOVED this because they got to eat all the leftovers. Julie just helped herself from the bake sale table whenever she felt like it which meant she lived off sugar for the whole 3 days. It felt good to try and produce something for sale rather than just make a fraction of a return off the total I had originally paid for stuff. Nothing like a yard sale to make you realize that we Americans have WAY too much STUFF we just don't NEED!!!

I got to park my van in the garage for ONE DAY ONLY after this clearing-out event because after the sale, the host of the yard sale sent me home with a bunch of her leftover stuff that I couldn't say no to. So I had boxes and boxes to go through. I was blessed to get lots of tween clothes for Dorathy to grow into. Nevertheless, my garage has once again been turned into Scott's workshop. He is currently building 3 more swarm boxes, because he has so much business that one is not enough. I haven't parked in my garage since March when we began purchasing house remodeling supplies.

Which leads me to the other crazy part of this month. Scott basically has 2 jobs now. I don't know how people live this way long term! During most of this month, Scott has received calls EVERY DAY about bees. Bee swarms, bee extractions, bee removals, bee emergencies. He gets paid for some of this, thank goodness. But Scott has to invest it all and then some in Bee equipment, suits, hives, and gas money. It's a great thing, and I'm so excited that Scott can do something he's so passionate about, but we're wiped out from all the extra hours of work.

This doesn't even include our neglected garden which is fast becoming a weed paradise. Every year there seems to be a tipping point where the weeds go out of control and we can't keep up, but this year that point came early. Most years, Scott works evenings 4 to midnight, so he has all days to do projects, pick produce, and do yard work. For the first time in years, however, Scott is working 8 to 4 this summer. As much as we like evening date time, we've discovered that this schedule IS NOT WORKING for our family needs. It's a lot easier to work hard labor during the day when you can see what you are doing and have the energy for it. It does NOT work out trying to fit in a second life between the hours of dinner and bedtime. The 8 to 4 schedule is better in winter when there is no garden wasting away outside.

So last Monday, in desperation to catch up, Scott and I woke up at 5 a.m. and picked all our strawberries and raspberries that were rotting off the vines. Scott had to take care of a bunny emergency where our rabbits contracted a parasitic disease that killed almost 20 baby bunnies. Then we picked blueberries for 2 hours, but made no progress because of the cold wet summer the bushes had contracted a virus and blighted the fruit. Then Scott purchased 100 lbs of delicious ripe apricots. We enjoyed them no end and processed them with freezing, jamming, syruping, and dehydrating. They taste terrific in smoothies. BUT....in the middle of this non stop work and chaos, we got a call that we had signed up to feel the missionaries at 5 p.m. I had forgotten! We didn't have any regular food in the house since I hadn't had time for a real grocery shopping trip for nearly a month. Panic attack!!! The house was a disaster, and apricots were everywhere, but I ran to the store to pick up supplies so we could BBQ some hamburgers. I thought that would be a fun, easy, no-stress dinner. I didn't think the missionaries would be keen on apricots for dinner. Everything went wrong. In the middle of grilling the burgers, Scott ran out of propane. Julianna was screaming the whole time because she hates strangers. She always thinks I'm going to abandon her to them. Scott wanted to make homemade fries, but it was taking too long. By the time we had finished cooking the burgers inside, it was time for the missionaries to run to another appointment! I feel so bad that they had to wolf their food in 3 minutes flat and go. Scott and I were so tired after all that, but the apricots were waiting and had to be finished. We were up to nearly midnight again. I still haven't finished processing and jamming all those berries we picked.

Once produce season begins, the work just never stops. It's important to our family, though, so we trudge on. This Saturday is more cherry picking, and we need to get some boysenberries! We need to get enough blueberries to fill at least 12 gallon sized bags, and make pie filling. Peaches will be coming on soon, and that's weeks of sticky hot work. All the trouble is so worth it, however, when you see all those beautiful bottles on your shelves! My favorite part is year-round smoothies with fresh picked and frozen fruit. If you live in Oregon, you've got to take advantage of all the produce! It's what makes the rain worth enduring!

If poor tired Scott ever catches up on his current work, he still needs to spend hours and hours cutting 2 or 3 cords of wood for our family's needs this winter. It's always a huge production, takes weeks of time, and the whole family's effort is involved. But once again, it's a real blessing to be able to go out and harvest and work for free energy. It is living a more natural cycle than turning up the thermostat, and I'm glad my kids get the opportunity to work and be a part of it. From stacking wood, to loading it in the house, to cleaning up the wood pile, it's great to let the kids participate. Maybe someday they'll be able to chop it, too, and Scott can get a break! Unfortunately, his chain saw is broken and he really needs to purchase a new one, which will pinch us about $400.

Of course the triathlon training goes on. I had several warts burnt off my foot courtesy of my father-in-law. The recovery has been painful and long, so I've been unable to run. But I can still swim and ride bikes. I've finally gotten to the point were bike riding 12 miles feels like a cinch. I'm really proud of that since I've never rode that far on a bike in my life. I've been putting of swimming and am really slow because I don't like putting my face in the water. After those migraines, I'm finding I still have an aversion to swimming. I need to overcome that soon if I'm going to stick with the Triathlon Training.

Oh, and one more thing thrown into all this insanity. We moved Julianna from her crib to her bed. A few days ago she fell out of her crib. I heard a big BONK, and then a "knock knock" at the door. When I opened the door, Julie said, "Ouch, hurt! Fall Down! OUCH! Kiss all better?" So that was it! I rearranged a bunch of stuff and now she is sleeping on her crib mattress on the floor. Maybe eventually Angel and Julianna will get bunk beds, but I want to save up for a nice piece of furniture. A mattress on the floor is a good beginning, except she keeps rolling off of it and sleeps on the floor.

She did pretty good at first, but she is still adjusting. The second night she was in her bed, I came home at midnight from a cousin get together to find Julianna standing in the middle of the Kitchen. "Good Morning!" She squealed, "Time for Breakfast!" No no no no...I finally got her back to sleep. Tonight she was getting out of bed and hitting Angel on the face. Last night Angel woke up crying with leg pains all night long, and so Julianna woke up at 4 a.m for the day. We got up and found she had crawled up the ladder into Courtney's top bunk and was sitting on her. So we just shut her and Angel in their room with books and went back to bed for 2 hours. We were so zonked out!

Scott and I are a ready for a BREAK!

Homeschool Graduation Day

At the end of our school year, we had a little last-minute family celebration.

It was early June, we were going on vacation the next week, and I knew we needed to close up our current studies so we could have a small summer break. I wanted my kids to know that they had progressed and they were ready to move it up a notch.

Our homeschooling is very relaxed, and low-key. We believed in child-led learning, rather than a set of nationalized standards to check off. Every year we swing towards unschooling a little more. Even though I don't put any stress on what "grade" my child is in, having an "ending" to our school year was important. It was a small simple ceremony, but it meant to world to my kids! We celebrated what each of my children had accomplished this year. And as I took each kids' picture, I rehearsed out loud many of the goals they had set and achieved.

This was Courtney's first year of "official" homeschooling, although she has been picking up on things for years. She was very excited to get to participate in our graduation ceremony for the first time. I've never done this before, but I had a few school books that I'd purchased the month before. I decided to wrap them up and let the kids each unwrap one for our family library. Fun Fun Fun! What kid doesn't like presents? And books are our favorite kind! :)

Courtney got her very own copy of James Audubon's birds of North America. Courtney has always loved birds, and several times this year we studied the life and Paintings of James Audubon. Courtney would carefully study the pictures and then copy them herself. I cannot tell you how amazed I am at the progress my daughter has made in her artistic skills! I neverknew that a six year old could draw with such detail, passion, and love. She has a flair for all things that uses her hands. Courtney fell in love with this copy of the book at the library. (It was a BIG one!) And so I bought her one off half.com for a few bucks. I was disappointed that it was so small, but Courtney was charmed with it. She keeps it in her bed and studies the pictures every night.

Dorathy got to open 2 books. One was a FHE lesson planning book & cook book which she was very excited about! The other book was a Math story book. Dorathy is in love with the very idea of food and has been studying and reading cookbooks since she was three. She loves food, loves cooking it, but most of all loves eating it! (Especially sweets, of course, and this cookbook is all desserts) My eight year old always wants food to look PRETTY . She is an artist, and all those years of cookbook pictures has rubbed off on her. She is always adding garnishes, making menus, putting flags in peoples glasses, and doing other endearing things to make our meal times fun. She wants to open her own restaurant someday...and be a famous writer to boot! If anyone can do it, she can! She even mentioned the possibility of a literary restaurant that has books everywhere, reading spots, and all the menu items are called after famous book characters.

Fun, huh?

Christopher got to open a science and history book. It had the history of the world's best mistakes that turned into the most famous inventions. Christopher adores science, but he is also passionate about the stories BEHIND the science. He likes reading about the people themselves and has all kinds of interesting facts running around in his head about everything from ice cream to silly putty. His heroes are the arch-enemies Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla.

Our extra fun book that everyone opened together is "Tales From Shakespeare" by Mary and Charles Lamb. It has all of Shakespeares plays written in story form that is easier for kids to understand. It makes for great read alouds. My kids saw their first Shakespeare play this year and were very impressed. Ever since then, they've been fascinated with learning more. It was so cute when Dorathy opened this book she was jumping up and down and shouting "Shakespeare, Shakespeare....I LOVE Shakespeare!"

I hope that as a family we'll have many opportunities to read and watch many more of his plays.

We had balloons, and cake afterwards. It was one very fun afternoon! It was so successful, maybe I'll make it into a yearly tradition.

Perhaps next year Angel will want to participate.

Ivy Turns 7

MAKE A WISH!

Ivy turned 7 years old on June 11th! She got an Eevee on her cake. (Eevee is a Pokemon!) Our kids are SO lucky to have a talented Mom or Aunt who can make any cake their heart desires! It adds such a magical quality to the event of a birthday. The kids plan what they want on their cake sometimes a whole year in advance! What fun memories they make. It's worth it, even if the cake is consumed and all the artwork is destroyed minutes after its final debut! Hurray for pictures that preserve these fun times.

HYRUM & ANGEL

Ivy and the other Bassetts have very unique birthday presents.....Their Dad makes ALL their toys!!! He is quite an artisan and is talented with woodworking. He makes puzzles, games, treasure boxes, and little villages. Some of his art is based on sketches that Mary Cate does for him. Their talents really complement one another.

Aunt Nita

The Dotson Family plans a Family Reunion every two years. They are always a struggle for everyone to attend because with 18 children spread across the U.S., travel, scheduling, and finances can be a difficult obstacles to overcome. This year we had a tie in the votes about whether we'd meet in Texas or in Oregon. Oregon won out, and Scott and I were very excited to share our beloved home with everyone.

Complications arise, however, as they sometimes do. Life just happens, right? Well, this was definitely a series of "Unfortunate Events!" One sibling got in a car crash and had to purchase a new van, Another has children with special needs and cannot travel far from home. One had a mountain of Dental bills, another got married, and another sibling had a baby. The parents Moved from Texas to South Dakota, and had to travel to England to help care for an aging Grandma. For some who lived in the East, Oregon was just too far to travel. (The last reunion was too far for us to make it to, so we know how that one goes!) One sibling was going on a mission with the Peace Corp and had their Departure date moved up. Believe it or not, ALL these events coincided in close proximity to our reunion date and made it impossible for our plans to be realized.

We totally understood everyone's predicament, having been there ourselves, but still it was sad to give up our dream of sharing Oregon with everyone.

Happily, we got one member of Scott's family who was able to make it for a visit! Lynita, Chad, and Madison were able to come for part of the weekend. It was a special treat having them. Their baby, Madison, was not only incredibly adorable, she was also such a GOOD baby! I don't think we heard her cry once! After having Julianna for 2 years, Scott and I were in shock. We kept on looking at Madison, and then at each other and saying, "Madison is such a happy baby!" It was great to learn more about Chad and Nita's current life in Vermilion, South Dakota where they both teach at a University there.

They had only one full day in town. I'm sad we didn't get more pictures, but we were too busy having fun! In the morning we rode on the Salem Carousel and walked on the bridge across the Willamette River. Then we had lunch at our house and let Julianna take a nap. Scott got to share his rabbits, garden, and bees with Nita. Nita was VERY brave and got close to Scott's hive.

Then we packed up and played at the Lincoln City "D" River Beach. We ate dinner out at Mo's and enjoyed some good seafood. Then back at my Parent's house we watched an uplifting movie called "The Ultimate Gift".

The next morning, it was time to say goodbye. It was so good to see some family, and it helped us realize the importance of continuing to get together.

Even if we can't ever have a BIG reunion where everyone can come, we can keep planning, keep trying, and meet up with one another more often. Good things will always result, even if the Reunion is 2 families instead of 20.

So for 2012...the family is thinking of planning a cruise to Mexico. Who knows? Maybe we'll all get to be there!

I'm already excited and looking forward to it!

Vacation day 4: John Day Fossil Beds

On our last day of vacation, we went on a long drive to the John Day Fossil Beds in Central/Eastern Oregon. We went to the Painted Hills Unit first.

The colors were so unreal. It was majestic. I wish that we had left earlier in the day so that we had more time to hike. *Warning* they do have Rattler Snakes in this area.

There were wild flowers everywhere. We could identify several, but some were kinds that none of us had seen before. We were up high in the mountains, and obviously spring had just come here.

John Day Fossil Beds is a unique area because of the number and variety of fossils that are continually being found. We saw several geologists at work digging at cordoned-off areas. I guess that this place is a cache of treasures for learning about the time of Mammals. They say new species are discovered all the time. We enjoyed most learning about how Oregon use to be in a Tropical Zone! The kids were fascinated by how many climate changes our one little area had experienced.

Beautiful Girl in the Beautiful Hills

Embrace Life! Love it, Live it!

I want to fly when I grow up!

It was hot---finally! About 90 degrees. We were dressed WAY too hot on this day! Christopher didn't want to get out of the shade. I had to convince him to just take his jacket off!

Christmas postcard pictures...which one do you like best? :)

Julianna wanted to run right off the cliff. It makes me think, perhaps we DON'T want to visit the Grand Canyon in September! I had to chase her out of the parking lot as well. I can't take my eyes off her for a SECOND!

This place was so amazing, that we all voted to drive an additional hour to get to the next fossil area. They had a huge fossil museum that was pretty neat. We only had an hour before they closed to see it all. If we are ever in this area again, we'll leave more time open to go exploring.

We met a fellow who has biking cross country for raising awareness about Prostate Cancer. He had an interesting story to tell. I'm sure he'll have an amazing journey. Here's his blog if you want to find out what he's doing:

www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/LemonadeMagnate

By the time we were done at the Fossil Beds, it was 5 p.m, and it was a 3 hr drive back to camp. There was no way we would be cooking dinner at camp tonight, and we were all sick of sandwiches, so we decided to go out to eat.

This was the night that we were originally going to spend at the Planetarium observatory 1 hr East of Bend. But there was no way we were going to make it this night because

1. everyone was exhausted, and going to the observatory meant being up till Midnight.

2. It was slightly cloudy, and what was the point of going if we didn't have a clear view? I was very disappointed to give up the dream of attending, however. I sure hope my sister gets to go when she's in town later this month.

We stopped at a Shari's in Bend. I ate a delicious strawberry spinach salad, and then had a strawberry milkshake for dessert. (The younger set had Chocolate). After the big meal, however, I began feeling VERY ill. I thought it was just from eating bad all week, and then suddenly having a bunch of vegetables.

I woke up in the middle of the night feeling seriously bad. By 4 a.m., I knew all hope of sleep was gone. I was going to have to throw up. I spent the next two hours living in the bathroom, cramped inside and out with vomiting and diarrhea. It felt like one of the worst cases of food poisoning I have ever had. When you hurt that bad, you just want to DIE!

Later that morning, Scott and Christopher both said they felt nauseous. They didn't feel like eating at all. From this, I concluded that we must have gotten some kind of food-borne illness from Shari's. The only thing we three ate that nobody else did was the strawberries. I resolved to call Shari's later and complain.

This made it extremely difficult to pack up for home. I was too ill to do anything but clutch my stomach. I was so shaky, I couldn't help Julianna at all. This meant that Scott had to do all the packing solo while the kids fended for themselves.

The drive home was SO miserable!!! Gut-ripping diarrhea and nausea is a recipe for disaster when you're in the car for a long drive.

At home I stumbled into bed and slept for 3 blessed hours. Poor Scott dumped everything out of the cars and trailer while Christopher babysat the kids. The kids were all so happy to be home, that they just played happily.

Scott stayed up till 2 a.m. making Strawberry jam for me. (We had a bucket of 30 lbs of strawberries delivered to our door which needed immediate processing, and I was in no condition to handle food, let alone stand up.)

I went to bed at 6 p.m. and slept for 12 hours. I felt almost normal the next morning....Hallelujah!

The next day was Father's Day. It wasn't the easiest for me to do things for Scott because I was so weakened and recovering from my illness. I think stomach upset is the worst kind of sickness out there!

I was feeling particularly grateful for Scott that day as the Father of our household. He does a terrific job in taking care of all of us!

Thank-you, Dear Scott!

Vacation Day 3

By the third day of vacation, Scott was wiped out. I was, too. We were doing so many things on so little sleep, that the family voted to cancel our day for spending at Crater Lake. Instead, we would just stay at camp for one whole day just hanging out together as a family.

It was a terrific decision. It was a day of relaxation that we all needed.

Early in the morning, Scott took Christopher fishing. So the girls and I hung out at camp. I got a lot of reading done! :)

Julianna played in the car. (With my supervision, of course.)

Angel had a big dance party, rocking it out to some preschool songs.

Dorathy and Courtney had a big drawing fest. They go through withdrawal if they don't get to draw every day.

After lunch, Scott taught the kids how to play Risk. It got pretty intense.

After two hours, however, the kids got bored. We called it a tie and pulled out the jump ropes. I have some giant 2-person jump ropes. The kids got a kick out of watching Mom and Dad jump rope. Everyone got a chance to jump or turn the rope.

Late in the afternoon, it hit about 65 degrees. After all the weather in the 30's the kids declared they were burning up. They all wanted to swim in the river.

The river water was FREEZING, of course!

The kids had a terrific time getting dirty, cold, and wet. None of them could stand going in too deep (to my relief!). They played some silly games in the water, though! I got a kick out of watching them. Julianna put her swimsuit on, but after dipping one toe in the water, she never even got close to it again!

Look at that Handsome Boy! I can't believe how big he's gotten!

We had a big dutch oven dinner, BBQ chicken and bacon fried potatoes with a peach cobbler for dessert. Camp-food is fun to eat, but WAY too high in calories!