My Monthly Lunch Date

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we have a program called Visiting Teaching. In it, you are assigned a woman or two or three or four to go visit once a month. I've heard people say that you're "assigned a friend." Umm...Okay. This has annoyed many people. As for me, I love it!

Over the years, I've gotten to know so many great women, and when you live under a rock, that's a HUGE deal. The support system is awesome!

I also have Visiting Teachers that visit me. I remember one day a number of years ago when I was swimming in clean, dry, unfolded laundry. During their visit, these two women came in and offered to help me fold the massive mountain that was my reality on that particular day. It was such a kind, charitable act, and although it may seem like a small thing, when you're dealing with nine people's laundry (that was before I hollered "Uncle"), it's a HUGE deal.

I have a companion and three women to visit. I love them all. We each have common points in our lives--I have more with some than with others, but it's always entertaining to go visit with them.

With one of these women, we have decided that each month we will go to lunch together. Today is the day! The first time we visited with her, it was in her home. For the second visit, we decided to do something a bit different. We opted to meet up at my favorite Mexican restaurant. She had never been there before.

While we were munching on our chimichangas, we decided that this was such a fun thing that we'd do it every month. So far we've had Mexican food, burgers at the best burger place in town, and today, we're going to have gyros. I look forward to our outing all month.

The gyro place is great, but the gyros are HUGE. I have only eaten one muffin this morning in anticipation of overdoing the WW points during lunch.

I wish I would've taken advantage of this kind of Visiting Teaching in the past. My friend and I have decided that even when I'm not her Visiting Teacher anymore, we're still going to lunch once a month.

Gyros, here we come! Hmm....Now, where to go next month?....

Weekly Family Activities (with Lots and LOTS o' Links)

Monday night we sat down as a family and created a new and improved list of activities our family can do together. I was shocked at how many of them involved food (Ironic thing…as I went to write the last sentence, "at" came out as "eat"). One child would give an idea and another would chime in with, "Yah, and we can get ice cream!" or something like that. It was all quite comical. What can I say? We like to eat….Food is good.

Our goal was to come up with 52. Everyone moaned about this. They decided they'd each give two ideas, and we'd sit down again in a few months and do it again. Umm, no. Not going to happen. So, I forced the issue. It really wasn't that hard after we got going. We ended up with 71.


Here are the ideas we came up with:

• movie night at a theater (most likely this one)
• restaurant - this is my favorite at the moment, but who knows, this one's close to home and there's something for everyone--plus, there's pie! I guess it will depend on the night when we do it.
• zoo - this, for our family will require a membership, but it's such a deal compared with regular admission.
• OMSI - again, membership
• -children's museum - for this one, there is a free night once a month. It's surprising how much fun we all have here.
• Portland art museum - they have a free night too.
• picnic
• hot chocolate - in our family's opinion, this is the BEST hot cocoa, especially when prepared with milk.
• swimming - we buy a membership to this one too. It's a GREAT deal for a large family.
• Gilbert House - One of our favorites, and yes, you guessed it…membership. Only, the OMSI and Gilbert House memberships can be used for each other, so you only have to have a membership for one or the other. With the Gilbert House membership, you also have free access to the Children's Museum. Plus, the Gilbert House membership is a bit less expensive.
• park - we particularly like this one.
• water fountain - there are a few around our area, but I think we like this one best.
• basketball at the school
• Krispy Kreme - no explanation required.
• water fight
• temple - you don't have to be LDS to visit the temple grounds. It's a very peaceful place--a good place to go when you need to collect your thoughts. We will visit the visitor's center while we're there. The kids really enjoy the things they have there.
• the Columbia River Gorge - my favorite place in the world!
• pizza movie night
• barbecue
• Ikea - #6's favorite place in the world (and the kid's been to Disneyland?!) It's all because of the meatballs.
• marshmallow construction
• cookies - it'll be these without the M&Ms.
• chubby bunny - not being enormous fans of marshmallows, the hubs and I might just sit this one out and cheer the others on, but who knows.
• Waffle Window - What?! Food?
• Saturday Market 
• hot dog eating contest - I don't know, this might rank right down there with marshmallows. But for the sake of good ol' family fun and competition, I might be able to choke down one or two.
• Goodwill scavenger hunt - something was said also about everyone looking for the most hideous outfit. The winner buys it and the losers take turns wearing it. 
• basketball game - this is the kids' favorite family activity.
• tie dye
• soccer game - we usually buy a pizza, sit of the field and eat, and then go kick the ball around for a bit.
• make pizzas
• make wrapping paper
• make Christmas ornaments
• hike Council Crest
• family pics - this, believe it or not, was one of the kids' ideas.
• hide and seek
• frisbee
• capture the flag
• library cultural passes
• Powell's Books
• candy bar game - we did this last night, and I, very joyfully, ended up with my three favorites. Here's a very brief overview (our friends, the Boswells, taught us this game)….You get a bunch of candy bars (more than the number of people playing), two or more dice, and a small bowl for the dice to be shaken in. Everyone sits in a circle. The candy bars are placed in the center. Various people are given a bowl and a die. Those people roll the die one time. If they roll a six or a one, they get to grab a candy bar from the pile. They pass the bowl to the next person. Any time a six or a one shows up, the person who rolled it gets a candy bar. When all the candy bars are taken, a timer is set (we set ours for five minutes last night), and the play continues, only you grab the candy bars from each other. At the end of the game, some will have quite a few bars, some will have none. In our family, those who have lots share with those who have few. You get to eat what you win….Imagine that…Food.
• drive-in movie - we only have one of these left in our area that I'm aware of.
• game night - this is the new game we got for Christmas. The kids love it.
• Sauvie Island
• Skate World
• Candy Basket
• Voodoo Donuts
• TCBY
• ice skating
• froyo - #1 worked here before her mission. Of the places we've tried, it's our favorite.
• Simon says
• sardines - this is one of our most favorite games. It always surprises me how creative our kids can be.
• coloring night
• heart attack
• fork
• make blankets
• KFC - I wonder whose idea this was…..Hmm…I don't know….
• movie marathon - Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter, Mr. Bean (the series, not the movies), and others have been done in our house, but the BEST by FAR was this marathon which we did one New Year's Eve.
• Donut Day - better than Krispy Kreme, in our opinion. Plus, the owner's kids used to go to the school where my husband was principal, so we like to give them our business….a lot.
• go to a school play
• Pita Pit
• Rocket Fizz
• geocache
• frozen chocolate, die, clothing, fork and knife game - instructions for this game came from my dear Aussie friend Leanne. Her daughter's serving in the same mission with #1. You have a frozen bar or block of chocolate, a dice, gloves and other pieces of clothing, and a knife and fork. You decide which number a person has to roll before they can dive into the chocolate. When you roll that number, you jump up and start putting on the gloves and other clothing items. After all clothing items are on, you grab the knife and fork and attempt to cut into the chocolate. You get to eat any piece that you cut off. When someone else rolls the number, you're done. You put down the knife and fork and remove the clothing. That person puts them on and it starts all over again. (Leanne, I hope I got this right. If not, please correct me. Thanks!)
• Spoons card game
• Uno
• Apples to Apples
• root beer floats
• minute to win it games
• Farmer's Market
• Taffy pull

If you didn't catch the link earlier, here's how and why this all started. I hope this somehow helps your family as well.

Enjoy!

Shout Out: Julia Shinkle

This is one of those posts that has sat in the background WAY too long. As I attached the new family photo at the top of this blog this evening, I remembered writing this unfinished post and decided that I'd better get it done. So, here you go....


Two mission buddies (who ended up marrying) sent their oldest son to the Missionary Training Center today. Wow! It's just blowing my mind that I met them both when we weren't much older than our oldest children are now.

They have a beautiful family. It's so fun to see where life has taken them in the past number of years. I got to looking at the photos they recently had taken before their son left for the MTC and got to thinking about how before #1 leaves, we HAVE to have some family pictures taken, which is the cause for today's shout out.


When I think of family pictures, I automatically think of my friend Julia. She does AMAZING work. She's creative and fun. She takes the simple things and turns them into works of art.  I have to share a couple of our experiences with Julia....

The first time she ever photographed our family, #7 had just been born. Julia called me and asked if she could come take photos of #7 for her portfolio (she was just starting her business). When she came, things were easy and relaxed. She used items we had around the house--baby blankets, a drawer, wooden blocks, etc. It was clear that Julia wasn't just a photographer. She was an artist. Her approach was beyond creative.

In 2011, after receiving my nomination as Oregon's Young Mother of the Year, which later turned into a Mother of the Year nomination (long story having everything to do with the age of my oldest child and nothing to do with my expertness of being a mother--as if I even had to explain that to you), I was informed that one thing I would have to do is turn in some family photos and photos of myself. I immediately thought of Julia, but going from one child to photograph, who pretty much slept the entire time, to a big ol' family of nine? Ugh! How would that go? Would she even be able to get one click with all of us behaving ourselves?....Yah, good luck on that one.

Here are some of the images from that session.....

I love this spontaneous, unstaged catch.

One child climbed on and Julia told everyone else to gather 'round. This was the result.

This was my absolute favorite:

Julia asked me if I'd brought any kinds of snacks. I told her that I had a bag of Cheerios in a bag in my purse. She asked if I would get them. I did. Next thing I knew, she had us all standing shoulder to shoulder in a random, however we placed ourselves, order and sat #7 in front of us on the ground. You can't see them, but there are Cheerios all around her. That's why her hand is to her mouth--she's eating a Cheerio.

In the meantime, there's Julia laying on the ground across from us snapping pictures of our legs and little Cheerio-munching #7. Love it!

Next, it came time for #1's senior portraits. For this one, we went out to Julia's property. Again, easy, relaxed. Here are some of my favorites:

I'm looking forward to #2 having this experience this coming year.

I decided that with #1 leaving for college, we needed to have a family session to capture us all as we were before our first flew the nest.

I have often posted the photo on the right, but I haven't shared how that photo came to be. It actually started out with the experience on the left. I was just sitting there. Actually, I think Julia was taking my photo. I was sitting alone. Along came two children. They started hugging on me and then Julia, observing this, called the whole crew over. Thus, the photo on the right.

I love that Julia can take a random event and turn it into something worth keeping and cherishing. I love that she can take a squirrely family like ours and find those moments when we all look just a little bit sane....

but then, there are those moments when we don't all get that memo.....

Thank you, Julia! I simply ADORE you!!!

Me Mosaic Update

I'm missing the good old blogging days. Blogging used to be fun--total frivolous entertainment. Why have I let it get away from that? In an effort to bring a bit of that back, I turned to the early days of the Madhouse--what now exists as "The Annex." There were some serious times there too, but there were just more fun-just-to-have-fun times.

Here's one. I decided to update it here (I think if you click on it, it'll make it bigger)....

Here's the credit for the images:
1. Un petit tour en ballon..., 2. Crab People!, 3. IMG_4316, 4. Pink!, 5. Robert S. Leonard, 6. Ice Cream in Hot Chocolate, 7. Disneyland, CA, 8. Eclair, 9. Actresses Three, 10. Family outing, Paris, 11. Busy Bee, 12. Jolie


Each photo stands for something about me....
1. My first name.
2. My favorite food.
3. The high school I went to.
4. My favorite color.
5. My celebrity crush.
6. My favorite drink.
7. My dream vacation.
8. My favorite dessert.
9. What I wanted to be when I grew up.
10. What I love most in life.
11. One word that describes me.
12. My nickname.


Originally, I found this on my friend's blog. I still read her blog, she's on my sidebar, but here's a link for you anyway.

To make the mosiac, go to Flickr search and type the answer to the above 12 points into the search bar one at a time. The rule is you can only take an image from the first page. You choose your favorite, get the URL, and paste it into the provided spaces on Big Huge Lab's Mosaic Maker.

And there you have it!

Single Mom in the Summer

February 2011

#2's been gone on a scout high adventure for the past week. I've missed him. He's a TOTAL crack up, and I miss his joking around. He's also a huge help around here. Watching him interact with the younger kids is one of my favorite things. He has a special bond with them.

The Warden went to join him on Thursday. I don't sleep well when he's gone, but I think I've finally gotten the single mom thing down to a science. I can do it for a few days, but I can't imagine doing it long term. My hat is off to women who do.

We took a little drive into Tigard yesterday. The Festival of Balloons is on, and I was so hopeful that a few of the balloons had taken off. Sadly, they hadn't. To console us, we drove into Sherwood and stopped in at Sweet Story. I sent #s 3 and 4 in with some money with the instructions to bring back something breakfast worthy....I had woken them and told them to get dressed and hop in the car. They didn't know where we were going. Thus the great disappointment over the lack of balloons.

We got the house cleaned up. #1 made dinner--veggie burgers (not my fave, but I kept reassuring myself that I was becoming more "healthy." We sent the younger kids to bed and watched a movie.

Today they return. I think tonight will be date night. I have a thing for old, greasy spoon, burger joints. I have found THE BEST in the area, and maybe, the best I've ever had. The Warden hasn't been there. I haven't told him anything about it. Maybe it's time.

On our way home from decorating Rose Festival Floats, we stopped in (#2, a friend, and me) just to try it out. We've passed it SO many times. My curiosity finally got to me. The burgers were AMAZING, and we bought an "Elvis"--a vanilla milkshake with bananas, peanut butter and....get this...bacon. My curiosity, again, overcame me. It was SO GOOD! Really. It was. The only disconcerting thing was spooning the bacon out of the remains of milkshake at the bottom of the cup after the shake was all drunk.

Yup. I think the Warden will love the Canyon Grill!

New Found Time. Darn It!

Do I have a blog for you!

I woke at 4am with my heart beating fast. This doesn't happen very often any more, but in an attempt to figure out just what's causing the adrenaline rush, I get up and check all areas of the house. I check the doors, windows, and each child. I swear that I must have become aware of something in the conscious world while in my unconscious state, but that rarely, if ever, ends up being true. I climb back into bed afterward still wondering why I'm awake, and I try to fall back asleep. In all reality, my heart's still going so fast, there's no way sleep is going to happen, but I do give it a sporting chance. I really do.

This morning, I finally figured this whole pattern out. The insomnia I've been experiencing is nothing more than a spazzy heart that won't calm down. Well, it does, but by then it's time for the kids to get up, so sleep is no longer an option.

Shortly after I climbed back into bed this morning and pondered on my reality, I surrendered to that reality. I decided I'd probably better do something with this new found time. Time that I really wanted to spend unconsciously dreaming about happy things--butterflies and rainbows, stuff like that.

So, instead I read Jacob 5 and got about 15 verses in as I tried to decipher all of the symbols and meanings behind things and what they meant to me personally. This took me half an hour. That should have put me sleep, right?  Nope.

I finished reading the last talk from this past General Conference (well the last one on the list at the church website), which I had started reading the other night. Gotta make sure my daughter rereads this one sometime soon. Still no sleep.

Better yet, as I studied these things, I picked my life apart. If you weren't aware, I do this on a regular basis. Crazy? Maybe. Perfectionist? Maybe. Trying to be better than I was yesterday? Definitely. But, I think a little sleep would be a really great step in the right direction if I'm going to be any good at all today. Ah well. Get over it, right? It ain't gonna happen.

I decided months and months and months ago that I need to simplify my life in order to get more out of it. Not to mention, I figure, a little less stress might just help my sleep patterns. I'm doing pretty good with this desire toward simplicity. While I searched for more clues as to what to continue and where to move next on this quest, I ran across this article from this blog. I've been to this blog before when I was trying to figure the whole minimalist experiment out, but I particularly like the article I read today.

There are 72 ideas. I'm excited about taking these a piece at a time. I'm looking forward to reading the links from the post. I have time without children this morning, so once I wake from my nap (yah, right), I'm diving in. First, I'll have to finish reading the list. I'm only up to #46.

My eyelids are heavy, and I'm ready to roll back over and go to sleep. The Warden's gone off to play basketball, so I have the whole bed to myself. It'd be the perfect chance, but it's 6:20 and I just heard #7 down the hall, in her bedroom, yawning. 

Time to get up.  **Sigh**

Liebster Award

I was so surprised to find that my dear, dear friend (he..hem...and author) Lia London Gubelin (Yes, this woman I'm strangling right here)....

...has nominated me for an award!

The idea of the Liebster Award is to promote the “best kept secret” blogs out there on the web–those with fewer than 200 followers.

Lia is the author of  The Circle of Law.  I haven't read it yet, but it's going to be one of our spring break reads.  I always read a book to my kids over the break--usually on the way to the beach and back.

Needless to say, I think Lia is fabulous and to be recognized with an award from her....now, that's a huge honor!  Thank you, Lia!

Part of receiving this award is that I get to nominate five other blogs that I feel are worthy of your time and attention.  And away we go.....


On the Literary Rebound - This is a new blog written by two wonderful friends of mine.  They are both authors waiting to be published.  They're encouraging and sweet and funny.   When you get a minute, go by and see what they've got to say.

It's Good to Be Gold - I HAVE to have Tonya on my list.  She's the one that really got me interested in blogging, and I just LOVE her to pieces.  If you know her, I'm sure you do too.  If you don't know her, you should, so drop by her blog.  You'll love it!

Silver Lining - Brooke doesn't know this, but I go to her blog whenever I want an uplift or whenever I have run out of things to blog about.  Just her manner, her way of writing, inspires.  I think she's a remarkable young woman.  I want to be like her when I grow up.

The Unmistakeable Allens - Sara, like Brooke, doesn't know that I lurk.  From time to time I'll leave a comment, but honestly, not as often as I should.  Just love this girl's zest for life.  So much fun to be learned from the young.

Stay Beautiful - This nomination is out of pure nepotism.  Yes, she's my daughter, and yes, I think she's one of the seven most fabulous things out there.  I'm giving her this award in hopes that she'll feel encouraged to write more.  She started this blog for her sisters, but I have learned something every time I've read it.  Hope you do too.


The other part of the deal with all of this is that, in order to receive the Liebster Award, one must do a few simple things (designed to further the cause of bringing great blogs out of anonymity).

1. On your own blog, thank the person nominating you and link back to his/her blog.
2. Nominate up to five more great blogs that should have more followers.
3. Notify those people on their blog.
4. Post the Award (that little graphic at the top) on your page.

Yes, it feels a little like a chain letter…except that there is a very real chance you’ll find a new-to-you blog that you absolutely love.

If you know of another blog that you think deserves more attention than it’s getting, please nominate them by following the steps above (even if you haven’t received the award yourself…just skip step 1).

ENJOY!!!