In-house art museum.

We've been sick. You name it, we've had it. In a matter of seven days, too. My illness quota was reached last Friday, so when Anna showed signs of the flu that morning, we promptly instituted an official "sick room" at our house and shut her up for five straight days. I know, extreme. But selfishly, I was not willing to let another bug run its course through each and every family member. Besides, how bad can it be getting served every meal in bed and watching movie after movie on a portable DVD player? For five days straight? Here's the quarantine.


And here's what the rest of the girls did.







Our very own art museum, if you will. Guided tours are available.

What did I do? Well, mostly I just went crazy.

Does this picture scream "I just woke up from a nap" or what?

Last night after baths I used just a wee bit of gel to shape Eve's wisps into a mohawk. Just for a laugh - I've been cooped up for a week or so now so it's the little things that keep me going. Sue me. I neglected to take a picture then. So I snapped this one today, long after smoothing the mohawk over. Her hair was clearly unable to overcome the residual effects of hair products, I suppose.

Holiday. Celebrate.

Chinese New Year is a big deal at our house. One of my favorite memories as a child was taking the yacht my dad's company owned out on Hong Kong harbor to watch the Chinese New Year fireworks. I remember freezing my nether regions off, though I'm sure, even in the evening hours, it was probably no colder than 60 degrees.
Now I can't let a Chinese New Year pass by without at least a wee celebration. Some years we invite other couples or families over to eat delicious fare, chat and play games. This year I took the easy way out and impulsively bought dim sum and steamed buns to serve to my little family. So I didn't look like a total TV dinner loser, I threw in a pot of homemade egg drop soup (not traditionally Chinese, though, as far as I know) and we called it dinner. It was yummy.

Valentine's Day arrives with slightly less anticipation on my part. Any holiday where my kids claim ownership of dozens of treats to be inhaled at a rate unknown to man just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Anyone who doesn't believe sugar and illness have a direct correlation is in denial. Our bouts of sickness come right after Halloween and Valentine's Day every year. Every year.

Still, we had fun topping our own heart-shaped pizzas and sniffing the beautiful roses Tim brought home. Poor guy - with five girls to woo, February is going to be a stressful month every year until the end of time.

Sayonara my friend.

I lost my iPod Touch. We went to a BSU basketball game Saturday night - totally fun, and I don't even like BSU. Somewhere in between half time and reaching our parking spot a couple of blocks away, the iPod found another owner. In other words, it wasn't returned. Personally, I don't really get the whole idea behind "finders keepers". When Anna's bike was stolen from the school bike rack a couple of years ago, I had a friend try to console me by saying something to the effect of, "Well, hopefully the person REALLY needed it." Needed it or not, stealing is stealing. If someone wants to sell his/her soul over an older model iTouch with kiddie fingerprints all over the screen in a light pink case, so be it. But I'm black and white like that.

So now I'm back to using a good 'ol five dollar daily planner (thank you dear MIL!) and a pen to keep track of the events and obligations that make up my days. I will not be replacing my iTouch - but I think I'll propose to Tim that as soon as we've paid off a significant chunk of mortgage debt, I'd like an iPhone. So I can lose it at the next basketball game we attend, that is. We'll see how that goes over.

That same night my hair dryer went on the fritz. The noise it made was so deafening two of my kids started screaming over the racket. Luckily a hair dryer is much cheaper to replace. Now, if I can only get out of the house for something other than a doctor's appointment. Ah. Aren't January and February just lovely?

Look what the cat dragged in.

Er, I mean, Lily. Here's the rundown:
L: "Mom, look what I found!"
M: "What is that?"
L: "A rabbit head."
M: "Is that real?"
Then, upon seeing it for myself:
M: "Drop that thing right now! Ew. Ew. Ew. Ew! Go wash your hands! With lots of soap! Don't touch anything! Ugh, don't tuck your hair behind your ears! No - I'll open the door for you! Ew. Ew. Ew!"

Of course I had the presence of mind to go get the camera. Then after the vigorous hand-scrubbing session, we had a little chat about how it's not good to pick up dead animals, or fallen bird nests (or snake skins, while we're at it). Her response? "But Mom, why didn't you ever tell me I wasn't supposed to pick up dead animals?"

Oh, Lily, I never in my wildest dreams thought my sweet little girls would have any inclination to do such a thing. Shoulda known better.

#1 reason to be grateful that Target is a lengthy 20 minute drive away.

Besides the fact that I spend far too much money there? Because I walk out with ridiculous stuff like this:

Six.

It was her year for a "friend" party.



So we invited a few over for an afternoon tea (lunch) and cake.





Think she liked the cake?



We practiced our best table manners (and our English accents), decorated hats with flowers, ribbons, and feathers, ran a sugar cube relay, played "pass the parcel" (as always), and made our very own beaded bracelets. One of my intentions in allowing my kids only one birthday party with friends every other year is to cut costs - I figure that I can afford to schedule a party somewhere where someone else does all the work since I will only do so every two years. Unlucky for me, my kids actually like parties at home - or they like having me work my tail off - one or the other - so I never really get a break. Then again, in spite of all the hard work, it was a blast!
A few tidbits about Lily at age 6:

1. She is still the pickiest eater on the planet. However, we have reached some sort of understanding so dinnertime is rarely a battle.

2. She just started reading Magic Tree House books.

3. She is uber-emotional - a trait that earns her a lot of time in her room while she kicks and screams about how I'm not her real mom and she will never love me again - only to crash for a nap, wake up later and shower me with hugs, telling me how wonderful I am and how much she loves me.

4. Everything is someone else's fault. We're working on that.

5. She has a knack for music and I've given in to her pleas to teach her piano. Her singing fills the halls - I guess all that screaming for the past 6 years is worth something after all, if only to develop her lung capacity.

6. She holds the door open every single time we get home from somewhere - until the last person enters the house.

7. She has a sparkling personality and makes friends easily.

8. Her imagination never fails her - and the knees in her pants bear the evidence of crawling around on all fours (as a dinosaur, a pony, yada yada).
Happy Birthday Lily!

New year's resolutions. In February.

I'm not sure what inspired the makers of the Gregorian calendar to place the beginning of the year in January - otherwise known as the bleak midwinter for the Northern Hemisphere. A month when many of us suffer from some sort of dip (or full-blown depression) is not the breeding ground for goal-setting or achieving. No wonder most people's resolutions don't last more than a couple of weeks. I'd be interested to see how we Northerners compare to our friends in the Southern Hemisphere with regards to goal-attainment.

Since our January kind of kicked off with a bang (broken-down car) I easily justified the fact that my goals never graduated from the "on paper" stage to the implementation stage. So all those grand ideas I had for improving 2011 over 2010 are still sitting on the piece of scratch paper on which I wrote them down during our holiday vacation. Still sitting there - but not forgotten. This year, February will be the month to put them into action. And, to be honest, I'm kind of relieved. At least then, I can tell people I stayed on the exercise bandwagon until spring without it having to be terribly painful. That's assuming I exercise regularly until spring...

Anyway, here's to New Year's resolutions! In February.

Just singin'.

Let's first make a few things clear:

1. I'm not much of a pianist.
2. I love to sing, and found little interest in learning to play the piano until I realized I could accompany myself.
3. I'm not much of a pianist.

I set a goal to improve upon the aforementioned piano skills (or lack thereof) by volunteering to accompany our ward choir more often than I had done over the past few years. I also planned to sit myself down regularly shortly after putting the kids to bed to fool around on our extremely out-of-tune upright. Because as any piano player with children knows, the kids completely ignore the fact that there's an instrument in the front room until dear old mom decides to indulge herself in a few minutes of musical enjoyment. At which point, they squeeze onto the bench, onto her lap, on the keys(!) to squelch even her best attempts at reviving an almost-lost talent.

Alas, the past eight years have seen a significant regression in my piano-playing abilities (and, consequently, my singing).
Anyway, since initiating this new practice of playing while the kids are nestled in their beds, I've noticed an increase in the kids interest in music overall, and in fiddling around on the piano in their spare time. Bonus points.

But, since, as I might have mentioned before, I'm not the world's greatest pianist, I sometimes spend most of my singing/playing time fumbling around for the right keys - which, tends to take the wind out of my sails when I'm belting out show tunes. So last week a friend of mine indulged me. She's not just my friend, she's my visiting teacher (in the Mormon community, that's a person assigned to look out for you on a regular basis). And, since it's her obligation, her being assigned and all :), she volunteered to come over one night and play song after song after song so I could revive those rusty pipes of mine. It was SO fun! And, best of all, it was nice to know that I've still got it. I'm in my living room, but I've still got it.