Building a room in the basement

The girls often try to squeeze into one bedroom - with 2 sets of bunk beds and a mattress on the floor, it is doable, but not very practical.  Anyway, we decided to build a bedroom in the basement so they will all fit (Also, a big part of the reason is so if our dream of adopting is ever realized, it gives us the needed bedroom space for that). (I have a feeling that when it is done, they might have a couple of brothers who want to join them down there so it might end up being a tight squeeze after all, lol).  Here are some pictures of the progress.

Getting the studs up.

A couple of cute helpers.

Putting the tile down in front of the door.

Wiring

Putting up drywall

Insulating 

Cutting out the doorway

Drywall Mudding

Whistle while you work (Have I ever mentioned that I love this man?)

Sanding

Helping

Mudding the ceiling?

Lots of helpers

They really were helping!

More mudding

Ready to put the primer on :)

More work (the flooring)

And more work (Ceiling tile)

Happy Anniversary!!

Our 17th anniversary was last Saturday.  After taking Charlotte out for her birthday lunch ( BEST anniversary present ever having her born on our 4th anniversary!!) we brought her back home and then went out for the rest of the afternoon/evening. (It is so nice having live in babysitters! And they do such a great job.)  We spent the afternoon shopping at Lowe's and Menards (we are building a bedroom in the basement - pictures in a later post) then went out to eat at Texas Roadhouse (yum!!) and then went to Sam's Club to walk off our supper.

We got home to a clean house, kids all in bed and cookies on the counter.  I think we should do it more often.  :)

Happy Anniversary!

Thanksgiving 2013

We had such a fun Thanksgiving weekend.  My (Tamara's) parents, sister's family and some friends (who are like family) came.  The kids spent a lot of time outside traipsing through the woods and having fun with their cousins. We all spent a fair amount of the weekend eating... Some of us ventured out to some black Friday on Thursday craziness shopping while the rest stayed home and made their own craziness.  We didn't get many pictures, but here are a few snapshots of the weekend.

A bunch of the crew

We had a lot of this happening over the weekend - singing around the piano.  It was fun to have some bass added to the mix.

Two musketeers 

Three musketeers

And there is the 4th

 

An oldie but goodie

I was transferring pictures from the camera to the computer this morning and somehow the album with this oldie showed up.  This picture cracks me up -They must have been fighting and they were obviously both mad and the looks on their faces are so funny - Abigail is mad and she doesn't care who knows it - Laura is mad but she's not going to let it show (she thinks).  

Happy 13th Birthday, Charlotte!!

We love you!!

As part of their special day, our 13 year olds go out to eat with just Dad & Mom.  This is Charlotte's fried ice cream after a Mexican meal.

Happy 5th Birthday, Garrett

We love you!!

Small town benefits

Growing up near Chicago, a person gets used to the busyness and the people, people, people.  I have lived away from there for several years now, and have gotten used to and love the slower pace and relative quietness of the country and smaller towns. Even so, it still surprises and amuses me when things like this happen...

Several of the kids Have had colds for a few days. Most of them haven't felt too badly and are pretty much over them. Heidi, however, woke up wheezing this morning and had a fever. I really, really don't like taking the kids to the doctor, but constant wheezing, blue tinged lips and unusual lethargy had me calling the doctor's office to see if I could get her in today.  Dr H gave me the choice... take her home and give her treatments every two hours all night or go to the hospital... he glanced over at Heidi as she wheezed away,  and said, never mind, you live a ways away...you'd better take her in.  So we headed over to the hospital... when we got up to pediatrics I mentioned to the nurse that it was really quiet up here.  Yep, she responded, I came over from OB to open up the pediatric floor for you...

When you can't breathe through your nose you have to wear your oxygen in your mouth

Honesty...

Last night Garrett was telling Abigail a very long, detailed, completely made up story.  When he got done, he said, "Abby, that wasn't real.  I just made it up because I thought it was a good one."

Happy 9th Birthday, Heidi!!!

We Love You!!!

A Victorian tale

I overheard Laura telling Emily tonight not to worry because nobody actually died or got hurt in "this" story.  After they went to bed, I looked to see what story she was talking about.  It was one that she typed up this evening.  I'm not sure it was really meant to be a comedy, but when I read it to Todd he laughed and laughed.  I don't really have permission to post it, but sometimes forgiveness is easier to get than permission, so here it is...

...Kathleen could anticipate the words before they fell from Prince Matthew’s mouth.  “Kathleen, will you marry me?” She drew back scornfully and tossed her head.  “Marry you?  I should say not!”  Flushing with anger, Prince Matthew lept to his feet and drew a jeweled pistol.  Crack! Crack! Crack!  The glistening chandeliers tinkled as they fell to the stone floor, severed from the vaulted ceilings.  Matthew whipped around, aiming for the glistening windows this time.  As glass shattered and fell to the ground,  Charles and Princess Margaret rushed into the ballroom.  “What is going on?!”  Charles vaulted over an oak table and swung his fist wildly at the prince’s head.  As his fist contacted flesh,  there was a nasty crunching noise, and Prince Matthew fell, unconscious, to the ground.  Margaret screamed and sank into a dead faint,  knocking a candle off the table as she fell.  The flames tore at her hair,  and she vanished in an instant, leaving only a crumpled pile of ash to mark her final resting place.  Kathleen lept backwards, trying to avoid the hungry flames.  In her terror, she missed her mark and flew through the broken window.  Charles stood, stunned, and listened to his sister’s screams as she tumbled down from the fifth story.  Weeping in anguish, he turned to leave the room, but saw the inert body of his best friend, Prince Matthew, laying at his feet.  He gingerly knelt to check his pulse.  There was none.  Suddenly Charles’s body was wracked with unimaginable pain.  In his final moments, he recalled the family history of violent heart attacks, but was already dead before he had time to peruse that train of thought...........

Go to the next page for the next part of this riveting story.

MOM!!! Bobby’s been playing with my paper doll castle again!  AHHHHHH!  He has the matches out!!!  He burned up Princess Margaret and my ballroom is ruined!  WHAM! SLAP! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

Happy 16th Birthday Laura!!!

We Love You!!!

This Message is Approved by Emily.

Every night, those who are fated to sleep in the same room as Emily must suffer through the unimaginable torture of her jokes. Her humor is not confined to evening hours, and you can often witness an anguished victim writhing on the floor as Emily delivers her vocal poison. Today, however, an unprecedented event occured        Emily made up a good joke.

"What did the rope do when it was reading the newspaper*?"

˙dǝǝls oʇ ɟɟo (pǝppou) pǝʇʇouʞ ʇı"

*Newspaper (archaic)  [nooz-pey-per, nyooz-, noos-, nyoos-]
 Multiple sheets of paper containing news and advertisments.  Usually published on a regular basis, (daily, weekly, monthly, ect.) and delivered to towns near the publishing facility. 

Note: Newspapers have become almost obsolete, due to the rapid rise in the use of electronic versions of this category of media.

Due to the pressure from the usual postess, I have been compelled to sign this post. She apparently didn't want anyone to think she wrote this.        Laura.

Edited to post an additional joke by Emily
"There was a family of rungs.  When Mrs Rung told her little boy to clean his room, what was his response?

ɹǝppɐʃ ʇı op ʃʃ,I

Just keeping her humble...

Laura had her first CLEP test today.  She chose a subject she is very comfortable with for this first test - Analyzing and Interpreting Literature - she has spent many hours of her life reading so she is pretty familiar with a lot of books and she did well on the test.  When we walked into the house after getting home, a few of the kids ran to ask her how she did.  "I got 76 out of 80..." she told them.  One of her sisters ran to announce to the others, "Laura got four wrong!!!"

(Edited to add more to the story) - Heidi tried to console Laura - "Four wrong?  I guess it's good that you didn't get any more wrong than that" and proceeded to give Laura a sympathetic hug.  "How many questions were there?" "80?" "Oh, you got four wrong out of eighty?  I guess that's not so bad!"

Roots and wings

I was going over the schedule for the rest of the week and it hit me... The quote I've seen so often... The one I completely understand but really don't like... The one that says "The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence."


So often I wish I could just stop the clock and keep things just like they are. Keep the kids at the ages and stages they are in. Keep them in our care forever (or as long as our time on earth lasts). I know that isn't possible, but I just love having all of our kids around.


At the same time, we are constantly preparing our kids to fly, even as we are wishing we could keep them in our nest. Laura will be 16 this year. We've been taking her back and forth to drivers ed while hardly being able to take in how few years we have left with her living under our roof. I will be taking her to a nearby University this week to start on a series of CLEP (College level examination program) to begin working towards her degree.


Charlotte will enter her teenage years this December - bringing us up to 3 teenagers in the house. Several of the kids have birthdays around this time of year, and maybe that is what made it hit me so hard this evening.


While we wish we could just stop time, on the other hand it is so fun to see them growing and developing... to see their personalities coming out... to watch them learn who they are... Really, I wouldn't want to miss these days of them growing older and growing closer to their independence, but I also just want to hold onto them, just the way they are... It is such a crazy thing. It is such an automatic progression. You keep on moving onwards even while you wish time could just stand still. It's hard to explain...

Menu for the week of 10/13/13

Sunday

• Breakfast -  Skillet Potatoes & Scrambled Eggs, Toast
• Lunch - Beef Roast, Baked Potatoes, Gravy, Green Beans, Salad
• Supper - ?

Monday

• Breakfast - Scrambled Eggs, Toast
• Snack - Goldfish
• Lunch - Beef Pot Pie
• Snack - Apples
• Supper - Baked Chicken, Rice-a-Roni, Corn

Tuesday

• Breakfast - Scrambled Eggs, Toast
• Snack - Granola Bars
• Lunch - Sandwiches, Chips & Salsa
• Snack - Apples
• Supper - Leftovers

Wednesday

• Breakfast - Baked Oatmeal, Toast
• Snack - Cheese Dip & Pretzels
• Lunch - Antipasto Salad, Pita Chips, Hummus
• Supper - Creamy Chicken & Wild Rice Soup, Crackers, Cheese

Thursday

• Breakfast - Overnight Oven Pancake or Buttermilk Pancakes, Sausage Links
• Snack - Cheese & Crackers
• Lunch - Leftovers 
• Snack - Apple Crisp & Ice Cream
• Supper - Lasagna, Sourdough Bread, Green Beans, Salad

Friday

• Breakfast - Breakfast Egg Casserole, Toast
• Snack - Celery & Peanut Butter Dip
• Lunch - Hamburgers, Buns, Toppings, Chips & Chip Dip
• Snack -  Apples & Dip
• Supper - Chicken Caesar Wraps, Popcorn,

Saturday

• Breakfast - Baked Omelet Roll, Toast 
• Lunch - Leftovers or Baked Potatoes & Toppings
• Supper - Chili & Cornbread

Much easier to remember!

One of the math programs we use is on the computer and requires the kids to sign in with a log in name and password.  I was recording the sign in information on the computer for each of the kids in case they forgot them when Laura came past me.  She saw what I was doing and picked up the piece of paper I had listed them on.  "Just a minute, I changed my password."   She grabbed a pencil and started scribbling. When she finished writing, she had crossed off her old password that the math program had generated, (APPLEKEY) and written down the password she had changed it to.  (entschlossenheit).  "I kept forgetting APPLEKEY," she said...

Shoes? Who needs shoes?

Garrett has more shoes than any of the other kids.  And the reason?

Several weeks ago, we were headed to violin lessons and he announced that he had forgotten his shoes. Now, getting out the door to violin lessons can be pretty crazy.  We spend the morning at piano lessons, get home just in time to eat a quick bite of lunch, put all of the violins and lesson books in the van and then head back out the door to drive 1/2 hour to violin lessons by 1:00. So really, I was just surprised that we had gone that long without forgetting someone's shoes.  I really didn't want him to have to go into any public restrooms, barefoot, so I picked up a pair of flip flops for $1.50 - no big deal.

Fast forward to the following lesson day.  We got out of the house and into the van.  Someone had the presence of mind to ask him if he had his shoes.  Nope, was the answer.  So a couple of us headed back into the house.  A sister, to get his shoes, and me to get something else we had forgotten.  I spied his shoes on my way in and picked them up, then mentioned to the sister who had come in that I had them and had put them on the island (thinking that she understood that I meant for her to pick them up and head back to the van).  She thought I meant I was bringing them and she headed back to the van without them.  We got to the town where violin lessons were and guess what... Garrett had no shoes... Again, I ran into Dollar General and picked up a pair of flip flops for under $3...  Again, no big deal (except for the comment Garrett made to one of his sisters... "I forgot my shoes so I could get new flip flops again!")  After the lecture he got, I figured that wouldn't be happening again.  And it hadn't... for several weeks...

Yesterday Todd & Garrett were taking a nap and I didn't have the heart to wake them up, they were both snoring so beautifully, I mean, sleeping so well.  So I let them sleep until we had five minutes left to get out the door in order to make it to gospel meeting in time.  So, you can imagine the rush of the 9 of us getting out the door (the rush isn't all that uncommon).  We got down the road a little ways, and, yep, you guessed it - no shoes in the van for Garrett (This time it wasn't intentional.  He went from being in a deep sleep to sitting in the van in about 5 minutes)...  All we could scrounge up in the van was one lone sandal in Lincoln's size.  So... do we let him go to meeting barefoot? Or do we try to find a pair of shoes?  There was an Alco right next door to where the meeting was, and we had about 8 minutes to spare, so I ran in to see what I could find.  No $1.50 flip flops there!  He didn't really need shoes, so $49, $39, $29 and even $19 shoes seemed a little extravagant for the shoe forgetting little boy.  Finally I spied a pair of gym shoes in his size for $10 on clearance.  We walked into meeting with about 1 minute to spare!

Lincoln was pretty happy with the whole thing. We also got a package of boy socks out of the deal. (See this post for details)

Happy 14th Birthday, Abigail!!!

We love you!!!

Random thought

We sold a calf yesterday and her mom has been wandering around the pasture ever since calling and calling and calling for her baby... 

Of all the things that farm life has introduced me to, I think that is about the hardest thing for me to handle.  I've been splattered with all sorts of animal stuff, kicked, chased by a rooster, run at by a bull, had my feet stepped on, been out in the middle of the night getting escapees back in the pasture, been out in the middle of the night in the rain during calving, and all kinds of other things - all of those things, to me, just go with the wonderful privilege of living in the country.  But hearing the desperation in the calling of the mamas when their babies are missing is almost more than I can take.

If you are the youngest...

... in a family with 7 kids, the bottom of your feet might look like this!

As in a lot of families, laundry is a huge part of keeping up the house here.  Socks have always been hard to keep up with.  Several years ago, I started putting a dot on all of the kids clothing according to where they fell in the line up.  As they grew out of something and it was handed down to the next child in line, I just added a dot.  I haven't really had to dot the boys clothes - because they don't particularly like to wear their sisters' hand me downs... but I buy the same socks for them as I do for their sisters (shhhhh... don't tell them, but the boys socks in their size that they carry at our local store are really thick and make their shoes too tight, so I've just kept buying socks for them from the section that I buy their sisters' socks from)... So, Garrett gets 7 dots on his socks. (And no, his socks don't look like this all of the time - these happen to be a brand new, just out of the package pair... most of his white socks are a grubby shade of brown after they've been on his feet for a few minutes)  (Lincoln was reading over my shoulder while I was typing this and his comment was... "You COULD just buy us bigger shoes!!")

It's birthday season around here again. Happy 11th Birthday, Emily

Happy Birthday to our Emily Jane.  We love you!!!

Believe it or not! A menu - for the week of 9/22/13

Sunday

• Breakfast -  Scrambled Egg Skillet, Bagels & Cream Cheese
• Lunch - Mashed Potatoes & Hamburger Gravy, Corn, Salad
• Supper - Chicken Packets, Chips & Salsa, Brownies

Monday

• Breakfast - Egg "McMuffins"
• Snack - Peanut Butter & Bananas on Graham Crackers
• Lunch - Spaghetti & Meat Sauce, Garlic Bagels, Green Beans, Salad
• Snack - Chips & Salsa
• Supper - Leftovers

Tuesday

• Breakfast - Baked Egg Casserole, English Muffins
• Snack - Pretzel sticks & cheese cubes
• Lunch - Chicken & Rice Vegetable Soup, Bread Sticks, Cheese
• Snack - Apples & Peanut Butter
• Supper - Tater Tot Casserole, Salad, Peas

Wednesday

• Breakfast - Breakfast Burrito Casserole
• Snack - Granola Bars
• Lunch - Sandwiches
• Snack - Ice Cream Cones
• Supper - Taco Pasta Bake, Corn

Thursday

• Breakfast - Steel Cut Oats, Toast
• Snack - Cheese & Crackers
• Lunch -  Chicken Wings, Garlic Buttered Noodles, California Medley
• Snack - Cereal
• Supper - White Chicken Chili

Friday

• Breakfast - Fried Eggs, Bacon, Toast
• Snack - Pretzels & Juice
• Lunch - Leftovers
• Snack - Graham Crackers & Peanut Butter
• Supper - Cookout at W's

Saturday

• Breakfast - Overnight Blueberry Buttermilk Oven Pancake
• Lunch - Hamburgers & Toppings, French Fries
• Supper - Pizza

Flowers for Mommy

This morning, the youngest three had their piano lessons.  While Heidi was at her lesson,  I took the two boys to a thrift store to drop off some things, and while we were there we looked around to see what they had.

At the back of the store, there is a shelf of glassware.  Lincoln stopped to look, and stood there for a long time just staring at the shelves.  Finally he asked me, "Mommy, do they have any little vases?"  I pointed out a couple and he asked me which one I liked better.  Then he picked one of them up and Garrett picked up the other one and asked if they could buy them for me to put the flowers in them that they bring me from outside.

An elderly lady was at the front desk, and when she learned what the vases were for, she looked at the boys and told them that any little boys buying a vase for their mommy to put flowers in could just have them for free.  I think they made her day.  I know they made mine!

Modern day calendar

We were driving along and I heard this conversation in the seat behind me.

Lincoln, "Did you know that we use the Gregorian calendar?"

Unnamed sister, "No we don't! We use Google calendar!"

Enjoying the simple things

The temperature wasn't exactly perfect to sit around a fire tonight (notice how far away from the fire the chairs are...), but the little people around here have been scrounging up wood for a couple of days and asking if we could have a bonfire.  This morning, the first thing Garrett wanted to do was to have Todd go out and help get more wood...

Summer is over - Another year of School begins

We haven't posted much this summer- we've been too busy!  And a great summer it was!
Tamara spent her Labor Day in the traditional Erickson way - fine tuning the school schedule for the official start of our new homeschool year tomorrow.
If you've ever wondered how we schedule 7 different grades of school each day, feel free to take a look at our schedule here: Erickson Home School Schedule
This schedule is for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.  On Wednesday the oldest four have piano lessons in the morning and all of the girls have violin lessons in the afternoon, so we have a separate schedule for Wednesdays.  The three younger children have their piano lessons on Tuesday morning.  Garrett has his first lesson tomorrow so now all seven are taking Piano.
Tamara starts out with a blank schedule in 15 minute increments.  Then she fits in piano and violin practice and the subjects where two or three children are taking the same class.  She arranges classes for the younger children so she can be available to work with them.  In some cases we team up an older child with a younger one.  This year Heidi is going to be doing First Language Lessons with Garrett.  This program is very scripted so it will be easy for her to read the parent part and prompt Garrett for his part.
In addition to this daily schedule, we enter the daily assignments for each child and subject for the semester into a Program called Homeschool Tracker.  As the children finish their assignments, they check them off.  This helps everyone if they are ahead or behind in each subject.
And if you are curious about the Children's chores here is a link to that schedule: Erickson Chore Schedule  These jobs change each week.

Little Red Car

Since we've been married, we've been a one car family.  We've always lived close enough to Todd's work to make it possible for me to drop him off if I needed the van, and it has worked out well.  A few months ago, I was chatting with one of the ladies at our insurance company while I was there for some reason and told her our oldest daughter was going to be 16 in November.  She said we would be better off insuring her on a little beater car than on our family van, so we've been keeping our eyes open for one.  One of Todd's co-workers mentioned that he was selling his little 1998 VW Golf (stick shift, no air, non automatic windows...) the other day, so now for the first time in 16 1/2 years we are a 2 vehicle family.

Todd brought the car home on Monday and drove it to work yesterday and this morning.  6 of our kids had piano lessons this morning, so after I had dropped a few of them off so the rest of us could squeeze into the Golf, we picked it up to run errands in (did I mention that it gets at least twice the gas mileage as our big 15 passenger van?).  One of the errands was to go to the Driver Services office and get new license plates.  The next - to the vet to pick up medicine to treat pink eye in our cattle herd.  I left 3 kids in the car since I was going to be in there for about a minute or less... and while I was in there I heard - thud!!! squeal!!!  Yep, a pick up truck backed right into the side of our little bitty bright red car... and shoved it over a foot or so - about 5 minutes after we transferred the title to our name...  We had a couple of pretty scared little girls and a nice little dent and broken tail light on the car.  When I stopped by to show Todd, all he could do was laugh at the craziness of it.