This week has been a little bit busy and hard. I need to remember that when taking care of a family as large as mine, nothing ever goes as planned, and someone is usually out of kilter. This can throw the whole family off to a large degree, and usually does.
We had an extremely busy schedule on Saturdee. We were in charge of taking care of Ryan's Grandma, Ryan had scheduled us to clean a bunch of ditches with the scouts, Wams informed me that she had a parade that she needed to be in as well. Anyhow...Carol was also taking care of Hannah's six girls because little Nephi had been up in Salt Lake getting his surgery. Because of that, Wazz was at the ranch, and we had Emma. Well, Jerusha caught wind of the ditch digging program. I guess I need to explain the ditch digging story. Ryan has leased several large fields of farm ground from a nice family in Mesquite. They used to own a large dairy, and haven't used these fields in quite some time. Anyhow, we have a market for melons this year. Last year, we had tons of melons and no market. This year, Whole Foods in Vegas wants melons and is begging us to grow some. So, this year, so far, we have a market and no melons. We leased this ground because Cliven has already put most of his fields into hay. Because these fields we have leased haven't been used, sand has filled a lot of the ditches, and bushes are growing out of them. I noticed that the scouts in the ward had been asking for ways to earn money for scout camp. They were eager to clean ditches for wages. Anyhow, Rooshkie volunteered loudly and insistently upon taking care of Grandma Great. I have no doubt that she wants to spend time with Grandma. I also have no doubt that my Rooshkie is smart and knows that if she is at Grandma's, then she won't be digging ditches. Grandma requires a lot of care these days, and I just did not think she and Emma could handle it, but I left them with the understanding that they should call me if they had any problems whatsoever with Grandma. With that in mind, I took the rest of the kids and met Ryan and the scouts at the shrsh.
We only had three scouts show up. One of them is a relative, and I had no doubt that he could probably keep up with Ryan's grueling work habits. The other two, were younger, and I was a little worried. Ryan and I had put scouts to work in Cedar before, working on our garden....they didn't last five minutes before they were whining for breaks and water. Well, this is way hotter, and way more involved than a dinky row of peas on a quarter acre lot. Thankfully.. Arden had grudgingly decided to come with a few of his football buddies too. The digging was actually quite easy and enjoyable. I was impressed with all of our workers. The scouts, were great help, and never complained...Arden and his buddies, didn't stay long, but were powerhouses while they were with us. Loose sand came out easily, and everyone was in pretty good spirits in spite of the sizzling day. Of course, I just got working when Rooshkie called. I guess Grandma had woken up and wanted a big person there to take care of her. She was also complaining to Rooshkie about her aching legs. I told Jerusha to give her some morning meds in hopes that it would help with the aches. Mo was also having issues right off the bat. He had somehow peed his pants, and his shirt. He does pretty good when we are at home, but anytime we leave, he has issues with his potty training. I went and got Mo situated in a pair of clean underclothes, and tried to assess the problems Rooshkie was having with Grandma. Needless to say, that I had to leave the ditch digging party to go and take care of Grandma.
I must say, that taking care of Grandma is difficult, but a blessing. She is very confused these days, and forgets everyone and everything every five minutes or so. There are some advantages to this though. I learned that I can tell her the same story over and over, and she never gets tired of hearing it. I also learned that she is a great listener, and if I ever need to share secrets about anything...she is the one to tell. She still gives great advice, and she will forget the whole secret in a few minutes anyway. There is much to be learned about taking care of Grandma, but I always walk away feeling better about myself, and I always examine the way I am living, and realize that our lives are short, and very important. I am usually reminded of the importance of treating people with kindness and respect. This is what I learn from Bodel Bundy. She forgets every 5 to 10 minutes that her spouse is gone, and when she is reminded she cries and cries. I have struggled with this, because I cannot imagine how it would feel to lose your spouse over and over again over a days time. Apparently, Ryan's Grandpa, used to work out of town a lot, and would only return on Friday's for the weekend. Davey coached me into telling her that it was Tuesday. This would seem to settle her down into thinking that he was just away at work for the week. That way, she wouldn't inquire about him all day, and wonder when he was coming home. I felt guilty for lying to her, but at least I didn't have to feel bad about her crying and mourning him all day. Maybe next time I hang with Grandma, it will be Tuesday, and I won't have to lie. Thanks for the tip Dave! It did make our day happier.
Saturday was so crazy with kids scattered everywhere, and me at Grandma's. Ryan did come to take my place to sleep at Grandma's so that I wouldn't have to juggle a baby and Grandma. Sometimes she struggles to sleep too. Anyhow, I kept thinking it would be fine because at least Sunday, we would all be together. I love Sunday's for this reason. Dave and Marylynn were also blessing their baby, and I looked forward to seeing all the family. Oak got up at four am throwing up...yep, all my plans of family togetherness on Sunday...gone. Also, no one showed up to take care of Grandma, so I ended up taking care of Oak and Grandma, and Salem. Everyone else went to the blessing. I felt bad that I missed it. Nothing ever goes as I plan. Ever.
According to Sagger, Mo was awful at shrsh. At one point, Ryan grabbed him by the tie to try to catch his attention...it is a clip on, and just came off easily in his hand. According to Sage, he then placed the tie over Mo's lips in an attempt to stifle his noise. Apparently it didn't stifle the noise much.
So, the rest of this week, we have been juggling the yucky virus Oak introduced to the family, and all of the normal crazy stuff that we normally deal with. Sags has been coming up with some outlandish requests lately. She wants me to take her to Bora Bora, and she wants a pet Narwhal...really simple requests. I was a little taken by her pet request. She just really thinks Narwhals are cool, and that we should purchase a big tank to accommodate one. Ummmm...not going to happen, but a creative thought anyway.
We had a brief power outage on Monday night. Those are rare, but kinda cozy. Chlo and Mo were quite scared at first, but once we broke the candles out, they were quite happy about the situation. They have been so excited about the situation, that they have drug those dumb candles around all week. They have played in two boxes with the candles...they have asked, but have not been allowed any matches with their play. I gave them a empty lighter so that they can pretend to light their candles. They have also made some interesting play out of a toilet paper keeper. This is a long cylinder tube that holds probably four spare rolls. It also comes with a nice lid. Well, Chlo has been hobbling around with the tube on her leg, and Mo has been wearing the lid like a cap.
Another thing that they have been doing is candy towers. They found some salt water taffee in a box and constructed some interesting twisted towers with them. This was a sticky and yucky mess because Chlo tried to soften the candy by wetting it. It turned into a situation that required me to toss their towers when they weren't looking.
We have had more drama coming from the Rooshkie and Wazz corner. Rooshkie has been choreographing a dance. This requires my phone for the music, and Wazzerz camera. zxwz23...sorry that was Salem's contribution...anyhow, the removal of the phone from Mo or Chlo causes a lot of bawling and howling. I wish I could say that I never let my kids watch devices, but at night, Mo and Chlo insist on watching Little Einsteins, Curious George, or Scooby Doo on my phone. When Rooshkie takes it away they are way upset. What Rooshkie is doing is developing her talent, and so I tell them to pipe down about their inability to watch their cartoons. Wazz isn't usually really thrilled about her borrowing the camera either. Well, last night Rooshkie was on a roll...music was on, and the camera was set. Wazz, for whatever reason, just couldn't resist coming in an doing a quick donkey kick on the couch during the performance. This messed up the whole recording. Jerusha was way mad and let Wazz have it. Of course, Wazz forfeighted her camera from the whole choreography operation. They had quite the loud fight over this. It went on and on as I tried to settle little Salem down for the night. Finally they had some kind of a truce worked out when Oak came strutting across the camera with the baby's Bumbo seat on his head during her next recorded attempt. Poor Rooshkie...she is just trying to improve on her dancing abilities.
Mo, is also causing troubles. This afternoon he took a whole bottle of bubble bath, and dumped it into the bathtub that had not been drained from his last bath. Of course it was hard to warm things up and make things pleasurable for him. I hate the dumping phase....Chlo was a child who dumped a ton of products down the drain...now it starts with Mo...I will have to lock everything up.
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