...and the WALL came tumbling down

Our computer's been in it's death throws this week... but thanks to the skills of my bro-in-law, we've got it limping along until our new system is up. (Actually we're not technically related at all. He's married to my Russian "foster sister", Lena - which segues nicely into my post for today.)

Twenty years ago yesterday the Berlin Wall came down. I remember, as a 14 year old kid, thinking that the impossible had just happened...and it was only a matter of time before the Soviet Union dissolved. For anyone who grew up during the Cold War (who watched Red Dawn in horror as a child -- I know, it's laughable now) the fall of the Berlin Wall represented a gigantic change of paradigm.

I spent a summer in Russia not too many years after the collapse of the Soviet Union (where I met Lena) & saw some of the painful transition from a communist state. Later, in college I did my senior paper on the roll of western pop-culture in the demise of the Soviet Union/eastern bloc. It's a subject that has continued to fascinate me.

In commemoration, here are a few of my favorite books on the subject...for anyone remotely interested:

A very cool little children's book - one man's experience growing up in the Soviet bloc (and later defecting).

In my opinion, probably the best book written on the subject. I literally cried reading it.

Simple Food

My Mom's Chicken Eggs

My mother loves to keep a small brood of hens around her orchard - both for company and for the eggs. I think they have something like 6 chickens right now producing, as my Dad calculated, 15 dozen eggs a month. Subsequently, we receive a dozen here and there. I LOVE them.

Happy chickens ranging free around the orchard...the good life.

Halloween Highlights

As with any holiday in a large family, Halloween was pretty action-packed. Too much to show here on the blog (by the way, if someone could show me how to do a photo collage or slide-show in a post - that would be great). To begin with everyone was mostly over the plague which over-took us this week (in the end, everyone but Jessie, Mike and I fell victim). Tillman did an abbreviated trick-or-treat this year - just our circle - before he settled in, watching Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The other kids went full-throttle, the oldest two trying to set a record for pounds of candy accumulated in one night. As you might surmise, at the end of the evening there was a great divide between the "rich" and the "poor" (one child to the next) if you measure prosperity in candy. In the past we have let the kids eat some on Halloween night and then dumped it all into the communal candy bucket where everyone partakes equally until the candy gives out sometime around Christmas. They've complained in the past about this...but with some effort they usually see reason. This year the kids held a special emergency meeting in one of the upstairs bedrooms - and then came down with a whiteboard and note cards to lay out their "Candy Objections" (that was literally written on the white board). Each of the kids stood and read their grievances from their note card ("It should be our choice if we get a stomach ache." "We went out in the night to get our candy, we should be able to keep it." etc.) - followed by a vote: for the "Bucket" OR for the "Kids". We didn't know the kids could unionize like that. Mike and I felt a little rail-roaded...for about a minute. Then Mike started in about Democracy vs. Parent-ism, and calmly explained how parents had to be responsible for certain choices involving their children. Then he opened the floor to suggestions for compromise. In the end we resolved upon a new official

Halloween Candy Policy:

Introduction:

In order to provide for a more equal distribution of Halloween booty, and to ensure the health of each family member while protecting the rights of those members to enjoy their hard-earned holiday treats, we adopt these rules.

Article 1:

To preserve the rights of trick-or-treaters to enjoy their own candy, following the yearly acquisition of said candy each child shall choose 25 of their favorite items to be reserved in a bag for their own consumption. No trading or bartering shall be allowed after the initial selection process (also see Article 3).

Article 2:

To ensure greater equality of candy distribution, after the Favorites Selection, all remaining Halloween candy will be pooled into the Jack-o-lantern bucket to be shared equally.

Article 3:

For the protection of the health and well-being of family members all Halloween candy shall be consumed in moderation, by parental consent.

Halloween 2009

The crowd favorite at this year's Sullivan Halloween Bash: Casey, Helen & clan as Ghost Busters / ghosts (or Ghost Busters meets KKK)

Randy & Ralphie (if you don't get it, we'll have to talk)

Neighborhood kids... I especially love the sweet Optimus Prime (or as Noble called him "Awesomeness Prime")

Sully in the living room enjoying some Smarties

Psycho Sick

This says it all...

CONTAINMENT - Wii-style

We have spent much of the last week and a half coping with one ailment after another. With 5 kids, it's been a bit of a challenge to keep track of who's had what when (especially because Mike and I are operating on less than 4 hours of sleep a night for the last 3 nights). This morning I groggily sat over my calendar trying to recall and make a note of what days were missed at school over the last week by which child, and what variety of symptoms they'd experienced when. I AM PRetty Much EXHAUSTED.

Health update: Noble is recovering from a case of H1N1 - all Tamiflu-ed up. Tillman suspected to have the same thing (no Tamiflu prescribed because he has less of an asthmatic history & they're saving Tamiflu for riskier cases - the doctor told him tough luck). Grace tested negative for strep, most likely a stomach virus unrelated to flu (getting better).

I have to tell you, that in 11 years of parenting I haven't seen anything like this. For starters just the sheer variety of symptoms (bouts of vomiting, days later: cough and extreme fever) multiplied by 4 kids (Sully is so far unscathed - knock on wood). Plus, stuff that I have NEVER seen before like the past two nights - Noble has had constant hallucinations with his fever.

THAT is freaking scary.

He's telling me: "Mom, where are all the people that were with me? They keep disappearing when I get up to go to them. They're carrying musical instruments. Mom, my arm is tingling!!! I keep trying to wash it off! It's smaller than the other one!!" This, was how he explained running up and down the stairs ALL NIGHT LONG. I kept thinking, "He's totally having bad dreams." But then he was completely cogent and interactive. And he remembers all of it... says that the people (the same ones came the second night) weren't scaring him, just keeping him awake, he could hear voices.

I know, it was completely psycho... it scared me to death. I was so close to rushing him to the emergency room at 2 AM. Mike finally gave him a blessing & he slept after that.

YIKES. Seriously, Jessie's habit of sleep walking is enough to weird me out - but this was nuts.

Snap-shots from the week

Mitch gets a hair cut (Grace took this picture - not bad for a 7 year old)

A moment of irony living with an economist - a capitalist lulled to sleep by a communist

Carving pumpkins @ Sullivans'- Grandma helped / cranked CCR over her new intercom while Grandpa made cookies (furniture conveniently cleared away, their floor recently refinished)

Most recent project: a spot to show off the kids' art & school stuff. Holly left instructions for this one. (Of course. You didn't think I would attempt this unaided? I actually got last minute instructions from her over the phone as I went out to buy the stuff.) A 4x8 piece of sound-proofing board cut in half, glued, backed with masonite, covered in fabric. We found the fabric at IKEA. (I really like it. Thanks Mike for picking it out!) The friendly folks at The Home Depot hooked us up with everything else.

I finished putting it together while Mike watched BYU get squashed by TCU.

I like it.

Simple Food

Simple Food - something I love. I've already posted a few times about my food-philosophy. But it's something I think about...so I've decided to make a "Simple Food" contribution regularly. Not so much the Martha Stewart cooking magazine variety...the minimally altered, you know where it came from kind.

Today's installment: making juice from carrots and apples.

Before my Grandma Sampson died she bequeathed her old juicer to me (she was the original health food nut in the family). It's been awesome & I have made all sorts of juices with it... although I don't as often as I would like (lazy). Today I pulled it out to make juice of the remaining apples from the tree and the multitude of carrots that are ready in the garden (the cabbages are done too...hmmm... maybe next time).

Plus the shredded waste is great for the composter:

From here...

to here...

to here...

Days of Disappointment

LSAT scores came in this weekend - Mike didn't score as well as he wanted. At first we were pretty bummed about it. I'm not going to lie to you, we both had a day or two of shaken confidence and grasping around for what to do next. (Should we just let it go?) But at the same time I thought, "That's not too bad for having studied for less than a month - and not seriously until the last week."(Only Mike would dare to do something like that.)

We've been doing a lot of talking and praying. This weekend we happened to have an area conference for church and Mike went downtown for a priesthood leadership meeting on Saturday. There he heard President Monson say something that gave him the answer he needed.

He's decided to take the LSAT again in December, with more preparation.

As we've had some time to digest the situation, it seems more and more clear to me that this is the best possible outcome for a few reasons.

1. There are things to be learned from disappointment: Patience. Determination. Humility.

2. We've had to re-examine our motives, our feelings, our weaknesses, and our principles... things (important things) become more clear and real in disappointment.

The net result of this experience (so far):

Peace. Confidence. Direction. Closeness.

Not bad.

A More Sincere Pumpkin Patch

We ventured out for our annual visit to the pumpkin patch last night. This is something we've been doing every year for the past 10 - always the same pumpkin patch (except for one year that I can remember). But the thing is, either the idea is catching on... or THAT many more people have moved into the area because it was packed ...on a Thursday night. When we first started going it was a pretty simple operation: a field of pumpkins, bring your own wagon/wheel barrow, and find a pumpkin. But now.... They've recently expanded the parking area to accommodate twice as many cars. They have a fleet of wheel barrows on hand, an industrial size truck scale, photo-op hay stacks, etc. I don't have anything against progress - or making the pumpkin patch experience available to more people. I don't have anything against the pumpkin people making bank on their pumpkin patch...or folks bringing their kids in pumpkin knit beanies and orange tutus. But ...it all seems more contrived than before. Still none of the magic was lost on the kids...they had a blast as usual seeking in the most distant corners of the pumpkin patch for their perfect pumpkin. The sunset was beautiful, the mountains capped with snow, crisp air... a good time was had by all.

Fall Time

Applesauce

Mashing apples into the strainer for applesauce

The garden is dying back as the temperatures drop...as they have (suddenly) this week. But the apples are ready. Once again, just like with the the peaches, we are beneficiaries of the generosity of cool back-door neighbors who own a prolific apple tree. This week I got to work making applesauce. I tried to accomplish this one day while the kids were in school, Tillman helping out when he got home from kindergarten. Unfortunately, it took me ALL DAY and into the night. (...and we only ended up with 12 quarts!) Now I remember why I always buy cases of applesauce when there's a case-lot sale at the grocery store: applesauce is a ton of work - well, at least it's long work. But homemade applesauce is about 10 times better than the stuff you buy at the store. So I try to produce enough to at least have some on hand when I feel like the good stuff.

Tillman sorting apples into the sink

Totally unrelated...

Here's a shot of Sully cuddling up with a dirty diaper. He has this hilarious habit of finding his dirty diapers before they make it outside to the trash and snuggling them (and sometimes stashing them in out-of-the-way places where we later discover them... by smell). It's hard to get a good picture of him in the act since he's always on the move.

Rattle Snake Gulch to Pipeline - 10/10/09
We managed to make it up to the mountains this weekend for a fall hike. It was a debate whether Albion Basin would be passable after all the snow of last week...and temperatures have not warmed much. But early Saturday morning we were still undecided. Then my brother Casey called out of the blue to see if we wanted to go hiking. He thought Solitude Lake - but the snowfall was an issue there as well. Finally he suggested Rattle Snake Gulch to Pipeline - a trail up Millcreek Canyon (Casey's years of rock climbing and Salt Lake County Search and Rescue pay off with unlimited ideas for hikes up his sleeve - many that we've never heard of). It was a beautiful 3 mile round trip, complete with an actual rattle snake sighting.

Jess, Helen, Hal, & Grace



Kids, Mike and Casey - Casey has a sweet barrel/pack for his rock-climbing gear which is also suitable for packing children - Soph's main ride.




Not such a great shot cross-canyon because of the morning haze. The colors were amazing in real life.



Are you kidding me!? Two rattle snakes coiled up in their den at the side of the trail. (Noble was SO stoked.)



Beautiful lichens



These kids love to hike (Grace, T and a friend)



I love Utah mountains - specifically Fall in the mountains.

Parent Teacher Conferences = Fall is HERE

Winners from last year's Sullivan Halloween party

Grace has been on my case to put up the Halloween decorations for about 2 weeks solid. I kept putting her off with, "as soon as October is here." This past Thursday night she reminded me that October had arrived. I was kind of tired after parent teacher conferences (see below) & I had a cold, but the kids insisted.

Fall is my #1 favorite time of the year. I had really wanted to get up to Cecret Lake with the kids this weekend to see the leaves, but the weather didn't cooperate.

Grace at Cecret Lake last summer

Wednesday temps were in the 90 degree range, the rest of the week it's been 40-50-ish, snowing in the mountains, raining in town. Oh well...we've got a ghost hanging next to the front door. A fire in the fireplace. Fall is here.

Among a bunch of other stuff that we did on Thursday, Mike and I made it over to the school for parent teacher conferences. Two of them gave me cause to worry. For the first time ever we had a teacher have a serious talk with us about a child's behavior in class, and another teacher shock us with the news that one of our children had a couple of very low grades (we were under the impression this child was doing well). By this time of the day, because of my cold, I had reached the limits of my stamina and was like..."What are we talking about?" The main thing I got from p/t conferences: I need to be in the classroom more so I know what the heck is going on.

News on the school-front is not all bad, and I'm not completely out of that loop: Tillman is making fast progress with his reading, and impressing his Kindergarten teacher. Grace is thoroughly enjoying herself at school, writing pages and pages of stories, and proudly tells us that she is very good at math. Noble has A's in every subject and continues to bring in "supplemental" material from home to contribute to whatever topic his class may be studying. Jess will be playing Hermia in her class production of A Mid-Summer Night's Dream in November. She is super excited and has related the entire plot-line to anyone who will listen.

Also, this weekend we watched LDS General Conference - our twice-yearly tradition. My kids have gotten pretty good at sitting through most of the four 2-hour sessions over two days. They actually kind of look forward to it... of course that might have something to do with activity packets, candy, and an open buffet of munchies in the kitchen. But talking with them tonight they actually absorbed one or two things from the sermons. I was rapt, as much as one can be with 5 kids squirming around. I was struck by Elder David Bednar's counsel to remove hypocrisy from our lives, by Elder Jeffrey Holland's testimony of the Book of Mormon, and many other moments. I love Conference time.