From the "I meant to post about that files".

We went to Oregon a few months ago and hit the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art while we were there. We had a reason to do that with 4 young kids - Ainsley is crazy about China and they had a Chinese collection there. She was in heaven.

One of the guides noticed her interest and gave her a personalized tour - wish we could have gotten more photos, but, um ... we weren't even supposed to get these ones. The guide showed her how each little window in this building had a little Buddha sitting in it. She wanted to make her own. We need to do that.

Hannah was not as interested, but certain pieces piqued her interest. Don't know why this picture looks like she's touching it - she was trying to point to a pretty color at the top of the piece. She wants to do some artwork like this. Pictures on tiles.

Gray and Matt did their own thing most of the time we were in the museum - Gray was not interested at all.

One thing that the girls really liked seeing was a wedding rehearsal at a beautiful reflection pond they had there. Romantic Hannah was blissed out.

Hannah's Question of the Day

In which a conversation starts out with 'Do you believe people can see things that aren't there?' and ends with Dora and Diego. No one expects the Spanish Inquisition.

Hannah: Do you believe people can see things that aren't there?

Mother: Yes I do. (followed by an uncharacteristically lengthy anecdote about a friend and her child who both have had experiences in that area) (it would actually be uncharacteristic if it was short) (but it was a good one!)

H: What about you?

M: Yeah. I remember when my best friend died a few years ago, I got a strong feeling that I should call her. I didn't. She died two days later and I'll never be able to talk to her again. I'll always be sorry I didn't listen. And then last week. I got a feeling that I should call your aunt and chat with her about her pregnancy because she was right at the end of it. I didn't do it and she lost her baby unexpectedly. I'll never be able to go back and give her that love and support right before the unthinkable happened. I'm sorry about that too.

H: Well don't say never Mother, you never know. (in a hushed spiritual voice) You just never, never know. (Apparently 'never' is ok for her to say.)

M: No, I think in this case, 'never' is a fair word to use.

H: (in a reverent voice) Don't say never Mother. You don't know what the future holds. One day a time portal could open up in front of you and BAM! you'll have the opportunity to go back.

M: That's true. That could happen. I shouldn't write that off completely, should I?

H: No. It's a good thing you have me to help you keep your belief strong. When would you go back to if you had the choice?

M: I don't know - I can't decide if I'd go back to a good time to relive it or back to a bad time to try to change it. If you had a time portal open up in front of you, when would you go?

H: That's a hard one. There are so many times. I think I'd definitely go back to before Dora* and Diego were invented.

So that's her Question of the Day :

"If you had a time portal open up in front of you, when would you go?"

Break out of lurkdom and comment so that I can give her your answer. :)

*Dora the Explorer. Hannah calls her 'Dora the Annoyer'.

I really *am* that smart.

I was busy doing something yesterday when Hannah came up and asked me what red and yellow make. "Orange." and she ran off. I heard her tell her sister "You should go ask Mother a question. She's really smart today."

Ainsley appeared by me. What's seven and nine? "Sixteen." She ran back to Hannah. "You're right!!! She really is that smart today."

See? I really am. Today.

Hannah's 'Boutique' Restaurant

We were stuck inside for some of the afternoon today as the wind howled, so Hannah made a restaurant. 'Boutique Restaurant'. I love projects like these because they take so much energy and concentration and time as she makes menus and plans and sets up tables and makes food. Then is the actual restaurant when we get the food. Yum.

This time, she took it to a new level. She drew coloring pictures and had crayons ready in case any kids came to her restaurant. They did, and they appreciated the effort.

She also had puppets ready if coloring bored them.

Ignore his face and shirt mess. He ordered three popsicles. She was a very attentive waitress.

I want to show you her dessert menu. This is the front.

Apparently, she's warning you about what will happen should you order from it.

It wasn't an empty warning. I ordered 'a bowl of chocolate ice cream'. This is what I got.

As you can see, I then ordered a few more spoons. Then I ordered the waitress to sit down and help us finish it.

I'll be going to that restaurant again. And taking more people to share my dessert with.

How's homeschooling going?

At lunch yesterday, Ains looked at her glass and said "Milk is a liquid, right?"

Yes, it is. She's been obsessed with labeling things 'liquid', 'solid', or 'gas' lately so the question wasn't unexpected.

Then came 'Yeah, because I drink it. So it's a liquid. And I eat the pizza, so it's a solid.'

And Hannah piped up with 'But you don't fart it, so it's not a gas.'

Yeah, don't worry about us. We're doing just fine over here.

I KNOW!

"I know, I know, I KNOW!!!"

Hannah says that so often after hearing my answer to a question she asks.

Today I was already having a hard day, so when she said that I said "You know, it makes it really hard for me to want to answer questions if you already know everything."

"I don't know everything," she said. "Like, I don't know what type of unicorn I'm going to see in the future, just that I'm going to see one. If you have any insight into that, I'd be grateful."

Button Venn diagrams.

Yesterday I wrote "Ains is busy dividing her button stash into 'pretty' and 'cute' piles. She deliberates a long time over some of the buttons - one button got over three minutes of thought out (out loud) debate." on Facebook. Laura said "Sounds like a Venn diagram is in order!" That sounded too cool to pass up, so we did it.

She caught on really fast and was sorting for over an hour.

Then she found some that were neither cute nor pretty but 'awesome' and 'cool' and one was even 'stupendous'. These got their own space outside of the diagram because she didn't want me to draw her a new one.

It's amazing how closely she had to study some of them to get the classification just right.

Hannah wanted to do one, so I made her a diagram with her specifications - 'cute', 'pretty', and 'interesting'.

She's played a Venn diagram game on Zoombinis - Island Odyssey, so she was off and running as soon as I put it in front of her.

*If you want to connect on Facebook, just email me at unprocessedfamily at gmail dot com.

How's she fitting in?

It's been four months since Bella came home.

She's doing just fine.

Look at that. I mean, really. They were made for each other. One loves to dote, the other loves to be doted on. They take turns.

I'm not saying that she's happy with *everything* that goes on around here.

The cats she could do without.

I know it looks like she's hiding her face in the bag in that picture. She is. Skippy Jane Jones is a cranky kitty.

But on the whole, her life is pretty dang perfect. She has a little girl who thinks she's a princess (which is convenient, since *she* thinks she's a princess' dog), acres to chase voles in and a cocker spaniel who can dispatch of the voles she finds, a momma cat who will sometimes deign to play tag with her, another little girl who loves to rough house with her when she's in the mood, a little boy who loves to cuddle with her when he's in his car seat, a big, gruff man who pets her when he thinks noone is looking, and a woman who is secretly making plans to make her a new bag for Christmas because she not-so-secretly adores her (though that plan is not selfless, as it means that the woman won't have to look at the leopard print bag anymore).

And that, my friends, was the longest sentence I've ever written.

If you're not paying attention...

You know those days that seem like nothing got done? Yesterday was one of those days. There were chores, then play, then a birthday party at a friend's house, then play, more chores, and bed.

If you're not paying attention, it feels like nothing got done. Then I go back over the pictures and we really did get stuff - besides chores - done.

We got to meet one of the coolest dogs I've ever met.

His name's Aristotle. That just adds to his cool factor.

Gray got to play with a different tractor and wagon, which in his book is a day well spent.

Several hours were spent dressing up and rehearsing for a Cinderella play, though the director would get frustrated when her Cinderella would take 'hula breaks'.

And Hannah set up a picnic for the family in the flower garden, complete with a plate tailor made for each person - chips for daddy, peas for Gray, fruit for mother, and (since she couldn't find any chocolate bars) Nutella coated chopsticks for Ains.

We got the good stuff done.

Today's post is brought to you by blueberry bagels.

I wanted to show you what the girls made their dad for Father's Day (Gray slept through the whole project). I found this last year on maxylola. It is the cutest idea, especially for a guy like my husband who loves taking his kids fishing.

Aren't they sweet? Can you tell what they're made of? Paintbrush handles. Brilliant.

So he got breakfast in bed - first time for him - and his yearly fishing license, these fish to hang in his office, and two little girls telling him at random times throughout the day that he was 'the bestest Daddy in the whole wold' (Ains) and 'You may just be the best Father a girl has ever known. I don't know for sure that you are because there are an awful lot of fathers out there, but that's the way I see it.' (Hannah - of course).

Time with just one.

This morning looked like it was going to be rainy, so after chores were done and a few more flowers were planted in the garden, we hung out inside. I got everything ready for our trip to town, Ains worked on her 'superhero play', Grayson practiced making pancakes,

Hannah made everyone radish omelettes.

Everyone liked them but her.

Through a series of funny events, toward the end of the day, Ains and I found ourselves alone, heading back home from town.

We stopped at a scenic overlook for 'the canyon' that Ains loves so much. We haven't been able to stop there for over nine months due to weather or time constraints and this time we had none of that - and she had my undivided attention.

This is something that I always appreciate - unplanned (and planned) moments with just me and one of my children. It's always a revelation about that child and our relationship.

This time, Ainsley was openly happy about us being alone together 'expwowing the wocks'.

It reminded me how lucky I am to have this person in my life.

And the dog's pretty dang cute too.

These are things I have to say?

"Ainsley, let your brother out of the kennel."

It's been too long since a 'funny things said around here' post.

Some from Hannah.

Me:"I love you Hannah."
Hannah: "Well, that's good to know."

"I think he must have a spyglass?" Who? "Santa Claus, of course." (she was listening to "Santa Claus is Coming to Town")

This one's from a few months ago. Hannah decided she wanted some fish. We already have enough of a zoo around here, so Matt said "It's not a good time right now." She climbed on his lap and gave him a big hug and some kisses. He said "Are you trying to buy fish with hugs and kisses?"

*Blink* *Blink* "Yes."

Outdoor Challenge - Kite flying.

Lisa at 5 Orange Potatoes is doing an Outdoor Challenge this month. Here's ours for today.

You'd think that in an area like ours, with the winds we get, that kite flying would be a common thing. It hasn't been for two reasons. 1) It's *too* windy. If the kids wanted to fly something in most of our winds, I'd have to tie a rope to my kids and end up flying them while they flew their kites. and 2) When the winds are just right, which isn't often, our kites are all torn up from trying to fly them in high winds or dragging them across the ground in no winds.

Yesterday, for the first time in three years, we hit it just. right. Perfect wind, intact kites.

After a little trouble finding the right spot - Ains got her parrot stuck on the one power line -

we hit wind gold when we moved to the goat field.

The hawk kite did well, but the ladybug kite - that one was designed perfectly for the wind we had.

We ended up getting it all the way to the end of the rope. It was exhilarating!

When we were ready to come back in, we pulled the kites down and Hannah's baby goat got curious.

He actually got brave enough to touch it, but never got brave enough to go nose to nose with Bella.

You noticed that, did you?

I'm so used to her now that when I posted the Easter basket picture, I didn't even think about her being in it, but lots of you noticed it.

Meet Bella.

Well, that's not Bella - that's the picture of Hannah's dream chihuahua that's been taped to her dresser for the last year as she's been saving money.

This is Bella.

My little girl has been saving money for a long time. At the rate she was saving, she was going to be at her target amount by the end of the summer and I was happy with that timeline. Then I saw an ad for a chihuahua looking for a new home because the owner had decided she liked Hawaii better than Utah and couldn't take the dog with her. The chihuahua was nearly a doppelganger for Hannah's dream dog (a bit longer and skinnier), 6 months old (so not quite a puppy, not yet an adult - I was very happy with that), perfectly house-trained, raised with a 6-year-old girl. Perfect.

We went to go meet the pup and see if she would be a good fit for Hannah. We didn't stand a chance once they set eyes on each other.

A match made in heaven.

So Hannah stood there, with her little can of money that she'd saved, prouder than I've ever seen her. She counted it all out for the owner, then told her that she was paying Mother and Father back for the rest, which I handed her.

By the time we got back to our house, Bella had decided that Hannah was her very own human and hasn't seemed to suffer from any detachment issues from her first family (which had been in flux for a few months as the owner decided where she wanted to live and had had various friends caring for her puppy while she had gone on her trips). If Hannah leaves the room, Bella's right there with her.

I wasn't sure how this would turn out. I've never liked chihuahuas much. When I thought of chihuahuas, I always thought of short, chubby things like this...

or barky, yippy, snappy things like this...

and I've always had the idea that they're not too clever. I like clever dogs and, well, not to denigrate Cygnus because he's a lovely, loyal, loving lump of a dog that I adore, but he's not that clever.

This dog's gotten under my skin, though. She's got longer legs than I pictured chihuahuas with, the sweetest personality, and a steel trap mind. And she's yippy. But we're working on that. We've already fixed a possessiveness issue she had and we've been working on the 'perfectly house-trained' part of her. Not as perfect as we'd been led to believe.

She came with a kennel, a dog bed, a jacket, a purse (leopard print even), and a bag full of fancy shampoo, conditioner, and ... wait for it ... doggie body spritz. I kid you not. And then she moved here. To a farm. And we've had snowy, wintery weather since two days after we brought her home.

I think she's been wishing that her ancestors had never been brought this far north.

To be an artist.

"He,
who works with his hands,
is a workman.

He,
who works with his hands and his head,
is a craftsman.

He,
who works with his hands and his head and his heart,
is an artist."

Francis of Assisi

Hannah has decided that she wants to be an artist when she grows up.

Painting, drawing, stitching, crafting, any type of 'art' will work. In talking about it, trying to find out what I could help her with, she mentioned that she wants to do "the art that needs eye goggles". Mkay.

So, this is a call for help.

What the heck is she talking about? Can you think of any art that requires eye goggles? Art that a six-year old can do?

Matt asked her if she was thinking of science experiments that used eye goggles and she said "Well, Father, I haven't ruled out being a scientist when I grow up, but mostly I want to be an artist. So I could do experiments, but it would be more like a hobby."

These posts are emotionally exhausting.

Two birthdays in three days. Yesterday I lived through two years of pictures. Today I relived six years of life with another one of the most amazing humans I know.

She's so proud of being six. It comes with some big accomplishments in her mind - a few more inches in height, two front teeth lost, a cartwheel almost perfected, a chihuahua fund being filled up (she told us that we didn't have to get her a cake if we just wanted to get her a chihuahua instead). It's hard to remember when she was a brand new life and her main goal was to eat as much and as frequently as possible.


It struck me when I was selecting these pictures how much they captured the essence of this child.

She has always had a mothering nature.

and an appreciation that borders on worship for the natural world.


She cannot contain her utter joy in dancing.

She is a mischievous little trouble-maker

with an unapologetic joie de vivre.

She is a protective, loving sibling,

who has an imagination that takes over all of our lives at times.

And she is my friend. What mother could ask for more?

Happy Birthday my precocious little girl. I so love being your mother.