Stockton Lake and The Peacock Incident

Stockton Lake
Some ward members invited us to go to Stockton Lake yesterday. They have a boat and take turns pulling everyone around the lake on a big tube. She invites people every year, what a trooper to be in her boat all day dragging everyone around! We had an awesome time! I never fell off once and she was really pulling the broadies! I am very sore today however. LOL!

The kids loved it and got to spend time with other youth from our ward. Sam was the only one really without anybody to hang with. The older boys had jobs and didn't come to the lake. (Bummer for Sam!)

I forgot my camera and so I didn't get any pictures! Grrr! I rely heavily on my camera to capture all these awesome moments in our lives. Words just can't do it justice.

The Peacock Incident
After the lake, we quickly drove home, showered, and left again for the Court of Honor for Chris and Marly had a camp meeting that parents were supposed to attend. WHY the ward schedules two things where parents have to attend on the SAME night is beyond me, but it happens all the time it seems.

On the way home from the Court of Honor I decided to take some back roads to go pick-up Marly. I typically take the same route, but wanted to see more of  the countryside. We suddenly came upon a peacock walking down the middle of the road.

I told Sam, "Here! Take the camera and get a picture!"

She hopped out and started edging closer to get a picture. But, the peacock was not too thrilled about a young woman with a camera getting closer to him, so he started belting out these crazy honking sounds and took off flying. I have never seen a peacock fly before! It was more or less gliding from one place to another.

Anyway, it scared Sam half out of her wits and she started screaming and running for the van. Chris is nearly dying with laughter at this point. It was the most hilarious thing I've seen in awhile. A good laugh!

Here is the snapshot Sam took just before the peacock turned kamikaze.

Yearbook Yourself

This was just too funny to pass up...

Overwhelmed?

Have you ever felt overwhelmed? Well, I think that feeling looks something like this...

where I am the donkey and the burdensome cart is my life.

What do you do when you are in this situation?
Anybody who reads my blog knows we are a TJED family (homeschooling family using the Leadership Education model). There are so many principles in Leadership Education that can be used by anybody, in any situation, public schooled or homeschooled, kids or no kids. One is the Six Month "No". This is where I sit down and make a list of everything I have on my plate - kids, husband, household, work, church, myself, etc. I list every teeny, tiny thing - grocery shopping, hair cuts, washing the car, things I've been asked to do, cleaning, kids sports, etc. Then I ask myself the following questions:

• Do I absolutely HAVE to do this?
• Can someone else do it? (delegate to...)
  
• What are the ramifications if I don't do it?
• How will it affect my family if I don't do it?

After truly taking time to ponder each item on the list based on these questions, I find that I can mark off several things that are really NOT necessary, freeing up my schedule for the stuff that IS important. Each time I implement the Six Month "No", I find new ways to balance my life...which allows me to stop being the donkey!

What did you say?

Some interesting things said in the Batchelor Home lately:

"I'm not being selfish. I'm just doing what I want."

"I said I washed the laundry. I never said anything about folding it."

"Was that the tent that just blew over the house?"

"Look at what I just peeled off my ear!"

"You might want to pop that." - Ah, the teen years.

Mom: "Where's your flashlight?"
Child: "I think I left it in someone's car."
Mom: "No! Don't say that! That's evil!"

Soda Junkie

My family has commented how pictures of me never seem to make it into my posts. I guess that's just because I love them so much and love bragging to the world about them. So, Chris snapped this photo of me in the car with my favorite thing in the world (other than my family and the Gospel). Can you guess what it is?

Mom has ALL the answers....

• Where are my shoes?
• Why doesn't the sound work on the laptop?
• Where is the pepper?
• Can I use the computer?
• When does "Lost" post online?
• Why can't I go___________?
• What happened to the remote?
• Can I have cookies?
• Who took my Nintendo DS?
• What's for dinner?
• When are we going to eat?
• Does my hair look OK?
  

Does anybody else feel like nobody says anything to them in sentence form? I could go on and on about the questions I answer ALL DAY LONG.

Scouting Snow Trip

Mike and Chris went on a scouting snow trip this past weekend. It looks like they had a blast! Do you think Mike deserves a 10?

Chris said he didn't need his coat because he had thermal underwear on. I think he is crazy! Thermal underwear or not, I would have my coat on.

2008 in Review

I copied this from another friend. She always has great ideas on her blog.

The Year in Review Questionnaire:

A Great Adventure - This year I am the president of not one, but TWO homeschool groups. I'm not sure why I did that. It has been a lesson learned in leadership and taking on too many things. Not too long after I took on the 2nd group, I became Relief Society secretary and started a job. *sigh* So, check out my attempts at organizing the homeschooling community in Arizona and the Southeast Valley. Here is a picture of us at one of the fieldtrips I organized.

A Happy Event - Christian turned 12 and became a deacon this year. He passed the sacrament for the first time and spoke in church for the first time on the same day. He loves serving in the church by collecting Fast Offerings (while the other boys groan) and serving in his scout troop.

A Sad Event - The day Sam moved out "officially" to live with her dad the majority of the time. The house is a little less full and happy without her.


Looking Forward To - The end of court...I won't go into it here...but I can't wait for all this mess to be over.

Something for the Books - This year we somehow ended up in the local paper. I responded to a request for reasons why people homeschool and before I know it we are being featured in the article and a photographer is sent out to photograph us homeschooling. This was a little difficult because we are not very exciting when we homeschool. LOL! We mostly read and focus on individual needs and lessons. Here is the article we were in.


Don't Remind Me! - I'm so sick of people saying they like my current hair style. I really hate it! I cannot identify myself as a short-haired person. I look too much like a man. I need my long hair back!


New Interest or Hobby - (Foreign language alert!) This year I took some classes in CSS and learned PHP. I started some websites using Drupal. See azldshsa.org and thesolarcook.com.

Car Story - We survived teaching Sam how to drive! Both the van and truck are still in one piece. No damages have been reported. All pedestrians are still alive, although they may be running for their lives still. My hair is a little grayer and my nails are growing back, although the grip marks can still be seen in the seat I was sitting in. :-)

Kid Story - Chickens! We raised chickens this year and then the kids sold them for a profit. Our neighbors were not happy about the noise. Now the kids want to raise rabbits. We loved our chickens and will miss the eggs, but not the poop!


Miracle - It is a huge miracle that we still have a job! With all the layoffs in the construction market, Mike is currently still employed at TaylorMorrison Homes. We'll see if that lasts, but we are extremely grateful to our Father in Heaven for allowing Mike to still have a job.

Hilary Weeks "My Favorite Things"

I copied Katie May on this once...she has it on her blog too.

Too bad my kids are too old for naps anymore! It used to be one of my favorite things too....

Memories

Here are the directions:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty cool (and funny) to see the responses.

(I'm a little nervous about posting this one.)

The Princess and the Pea

I have to explain this picture a little bit. Anybody who reads my blog knows I have a bad back. Hotel beds practically kill me as they are always rock hard, so I always pack an inflatable mattress. This is the closest I can get to my Sleep Number bed at home. This past weekend I went to Payson & Pine for a Provident Living conference. A friend and I stayed at the Super 8 in Payson. My very helpful husband packed my air mattress for me...but he sent the wrong one! He packed the double thick one he likes to sleep on.

Well, there was not much room in this hotel so I put the tall inflatable mattress on top of the queen sized hotel bed. My friend laughed and started calling me "The Princess and the Pea". We could not pass up the photo op. So here I am on top of my incredibly high bed. I had to climb up into it. It made me feel like a little kid again.

The conference was very interesting. I took away some information how to make cheese using powdered milk from my food storage. I found out that you can use milk that is past the date for cheese. Darn! I just threw out some expired powdered milk. They had samples and the cheese actually tasted pretty good. I also got some recipes on making dry-packed jar meals using my Food Saver and dehydrating my own vegetables. I already seal jars for items, so this list of recipes was very helpful. I have the appliances to do pretty much all the things I learned about.

"The Homeschool Family" video

I love this video made by Tim Hawkins. His website has some other funny clips of his comedy act so check those out too.

"The Homeschool Family" video