July

Augh!!  Summer is flying by.  I love summer so much.  After about the second week I start having anxiety thinking 'there's only 10 more weeks,' and so on until the summer is over.  I try to just enjoy it, but I still always have this nagging stress that summer will be over way too soon.

Things are going well.  Huz and BoyOne went on a 'high adventure' scout trip two weeks ago.  They went river rafting in Durango, CO.  Huz was in charge of this 'adventure.'  BoyOne was pretty scared about going.  He thought he was going to die.  He is a very good swimmer, and of course had a life jacket on.  I'm not really sure what he had going on in his mind, but it was obvious that there was something.  Sooooo, I pulled up a clip of a class 5 rapid off of the internet to show him.  He about passed out.  Then I told him not to worry, that he would not be going on anything like that.  Then I pulled up a class 3.  He was so relieved.  You see, you have to start really big.  If I had shown him the class 3 first, that would've been scary because he has nothing to compare it to.  So, by showing him the class 5, I could come way down to the class 3 and it looked like the creek in our backyard compared to that 5, so he was able to relax.  Does that make sense?  It's late so I'm not sure that it does.  Anyhow, nobody died, everyone had fun, and there was very little stress involved (other than the few mothers who were concerned that their sons were rafting in dangerous waters... Which they were not.  We've rafted the same river before at a family reunion with 5 year olds on the raft, so really pretty safe).

I'm in charge of girls' camp for our church next week.  We are going an hour away to a small reservoir on the other side of the mountain from here.  I am having serious issues with the very obvious polar-ly opposite planning that takes place and the requirements involved with Scout camps vs YW camps.  I'll leave it at that.  I'd go into more detail but I'm busy sewing decorations and experimenting with recipes and making scrap books and t-shirts and handouts...

BoyOne is now at a different scout camp this week.  We're trying to help him get his Eagle.  He isn't super concerned about it, but is happy to go along on all the campouts and activities to get all of his merit badges.  It's kind of lonely here with him gone.  He's been working his butt off doing math lessons and english lessons and writing lessons with me.  He clocks on average 3-4 hours of homework each day.  Fractions are killing him.  As are all the homophones we have in the english language.  

Our a/c has been out for a month.  It's a dang good thing that we live in the mountains where it's 15 degrees cooler than down in town.  Today it was 80 inside the house.  gag.  Luckily we have a ceiling fan in the family room to circulate the air a little.  Also, we have a separate a/c unit for the upstairs that is working (thank heavens!!!) and we keep it at 78 so there is a little relief if we go upstairs.  I've been sleeping at the foot of the girls bed on nights when it just doesn't cool down enough.  

One started teaching a 'junior dance class' to earn money to pay for her dance solo that she likes to do.  She also has a little more to earn in order to fix Two's doll's hair that she cut.  She has also been collecting and selling golf balls.  Our back yard backs the golf course and she generally does pretty well.  This summer is a bit slow though.

One, Two, Three, Four and BoyTwo have all started taking a tumbling class this summer.  We get a sweet deal because we have so many kids taking.  haha.  Two, Three, and BoyTwo all go on the same night at the same time, but are each in their own class.  This is great.  One goes on a different night because they didn't have a class available for her on the night that the others go.  Four has to go on yet a different day in the morning because she is five and they don't take five year olds in the evening classes.  Lame.  Whatever.  They are all loving it and having a great time.  The girls all used to do gymnastics when they were little before we moved up here.  They are tough little girls with great muscle tone and I'm grateful that they have had that opportunity.  

I really debated putting BoyTwo in a class for many reasons.  In the end, I did it and I'm glad.  The child has zero muscle.  ZERO.  Now, for those of you who know him, and those of you who do not, let me explain.  He is skinny, scrawny, wiry and very rigid.  His muscles are always tensed.  When you look at him, it looks like he has muscle because his muscles are always tense.  This is not the case.  If you will recall from a previous post, all of his sisters can beat him at arm wrestling.  Also, he is very much out of shape.  When he first got here, he could not run around the house even one time.  (This is different from when he is raging, which is not happening so often anymore.  Knock on wood.  When he is not regulated and he is in fight or flight mode, he can run like the wind.)  Now, he is up to running around the house four times.  There were lots of things that were easy to notice that he needed help with as far as small and large motor skills and stuff like that.  However, I'm learning that there are lots of things that aren't so noticeable that he needs help with also.  Tumbling has shown me a few of these things and, in turn, opened my mind to others.

BoyTwo cannot raise both hands above his head.  Do it.  Right now lift both of your arms high above your head and straighten them.  You probably do it all the time when you stretch without even realizing it.  He cannot do this.  In the beginning he couldn't raise them over his head period.  Now we're working on holding them straight when they are above his head.  He's close now.  It tires him to practice.  When he does it, he pulls that face you pull when you're trying to lift your SUV off the ground with one hand.  Yeah, it's that hard for him to do this.  He also cannot hold his head up straight.  I am always telling him to pull his head in, or touching his chin to remind him to hold it up.  Now do this: hunch your shoulders forward and slump over as if you are more exhausted than you've ever been.  Stick your head as far out as you possibly can, like a turtle.  This is BoyTwo's normal posture.  When we first started working on sitting straight with spine aligned, he could only do it for a few seconds.  Now we're to the point where we are working on sitting up straight and holding his head in as often as I am with him.  He thought I was crazy at first until I took him into the bathroom and showed him in the mirror how he looked.  He had no idea he was all hunched over.  His neck muscles are getting stronger and he doesn't tire so easily anymore.  Who would've ever thought.  He also cannot sit on the floor with his legs straight in front of him.  This is one of the things I noticed from tumbling.  Now I'm not talking about reaching forward and touching toes or anything like that.  BoyTwo cannot sit on his bottom with his legs straight out in front of him, legs together.  He loses his balance and tips over.  His core is very weak.  It's getting better.  I think sometimes people think I'm crazy.  Honestly, sometimes I feel like I'm crazy.  When I make him sit on the floor with his legs straight out in front of himself and try to balance, he gets mad.  He doesn't like using his muscles that haven't been used for so long.  When I touch his chin 400 times during church to remind him to hold his head up, I wonder if people think I'm super anal.  Maybe I am.    But, I'm pretty sure it's not normal for an 8 year old to not be able to sit on the floor with his legs straight out in front of him without losing his balance.  

So that's where we're at.  We've been hiking and running through the sprinklers, or the sprinkles, as BoyTwo calls them:)  We had a great 4th of July with my sister and her family.  We are busy and life is good.  It'll be better in a couple of weeks when we are all through with our camp outs and under the same roof again.  It stresses me out to not have all my little chickies with me.  

Did I mention that the place I booked for girls' camp has rattlesnakes?!  niiiiice.  I'm taking a flat nosed shovel in case I have to kill any.  The nice elderly couple that 'host' the campground showed me the rattle off of the snake they killed from my campsite just the day before.  I wonder if it's too late to cancel and make a new reservation at a hotel...