Queen Solomon

We have six kids.  They are quite messy. Fortunately they are also good at cleaning up at the end of the day. Someday they will learn to just to keep things clean and then evening pick-up time will be super quick but until that day...we have chores.   Evening chores are usually just picking up, vacuuming as needed and dishes/dinner--Saturdays are for actual cleaning--when we get to it.

The way we divvy up the evening chores depends on the time of year.  In the summer we have a job chart that we rotate every week.  It works well because everyone gets a chance to do every job.  However, the job chart doesn't work during then school year because we never have the same kids home in the evenings.  We usually just assign each child who is home a room to clean. So that's where we were last Friday night.

Dallin and Landon had been assigned the big back family room but it had already been mostly cleaned so I reassigned one of them to help me with the dishes.  Dishes are NOT the favorite assignment so they decided to let rock, paper, scissors make the determination about who had KP duty.

After a minute I heard one of them say, "Yes! I knew exactly what you were going to do! I won!"

Then they both came in to the kitchen and declared victory.
 Hmmm.
Austin and I questioned and listened and questioned and we could NOT tell who really won. We went back and forth with everyone laughing hysterically.

"Dallin you lost--I can tell by the smirk on your face!"
Laughter from Landon.
"Okay Landon it was you.  I can tell. You can't stop laughing."
Dallin bends over slapping his leg, shaking with laughter.
"Okay Dal it was you.  I'm sure this time."
I'm not actually sure. I don't know whose voice I heard.

We couldn't tell.
So I had a brilliant idea.
"Okay let's just do it again. Rock, paper scissors..."
Dallin popped right up ready to go.
Bingo.
It was Landon who won.
Dallin did the dishes.

Ho Ho Ho

So much to write about!
I have been busy with projects and kids and all kinds of good things.  Updating our activities is on my very long and ever-growing list of things to do before this month ends...

In the mean time here is the family member that is most enjoying this season!

symbiotic relationships

Beau misses the kids when they are at school.
So does Jackson.
So they help each other out.
Jackson pukes. Beau cleans it up (from floors, clothes, faces...)
Beau lays on the floor and Jackson practices standing up and slobbering.
It's awesome.
Except when Jackson has a runny nose and Beau is shedding.
That's not such a pretty sight...

Lessons of a football mom

Benson and I went straight from the Emergency Room to join the family at Dallin and Landon's last game of the season against our middle school rival.

We lost 24-28 when the other team beat all odds and made a touchdown in the last minute of the game.

It was heartbreaking.

Landon started on offense and defense (and did great!) and played the whole game with his arm like this...

Dallin had his best game of the year. He also started on offense and defense and had a safety as well as lots of great tackles and sacks.

Five years ago I was completely oblivious to local football games;  and yet, when it was time for my boys to play the other night, I worried about it all day.  I made them their lucky pancake breakfast and I made sure they had plenty to drink.  Is this a motherly thing? Suddenly caring deeply about something I was oblivious to in the not so distant past?

This year we had a  blow-out undefeated season--only one other team gave us any competition and that team had beaten Robert Stuart.  We had high hopes.

This loss was bitter.  I think I felt as bad as they did.  So many boys left the field with tear streaked faces.  My boys couldn't sleep--replaying each disappointing second over and over. I knew they would feel better and forget about it within a few days' time but I also knew there were lessons to be learned.  Lessons that needed to be learned. We talked a lot about finding peace even in disappointment and about letting time heal.

Unfortunately, losing the eighth grade end-of-year football game is preparation for a lifetime of experiences.  Football seems trivial but now those boys know that-- indeed--disappointment does fade with time and hurts that seem really important in the moment lose their sting when viewed from a distance.

Maybe when they are alone and those hard experiences come {failing an important test, being dumped by a girlfriend, losing a job, death...} they will remember long talks with their mother after middle school football and they will find peace.

I can only hope.

Don't read this post if you have a queasy stomach.

I knew we were in trouble when I pulled up to the curb and found Benson standing with the principal and the school police officer.

I had just finished taking some padding to Landon so he could play in the final football game of the season with a cast on his arm.  On my way to get Jen and Ben a friend called and said to tell me she had picked up Jenna but couldn't find Benson because he had injured his finger.

I don't know what I expected,  but what I found was this--

 A seriously mangled pinky.
Yeowch.
This picture really doesn't do justice to the contorted appearance of the little finger  but most of my phone pictures didn't turn out well.  The underside of the finger was worse.

Benson got the honor of being the first Hatch child in Idaho to get an actual room in the Emergency Room.

Our new hospital is beautiful.  Benson was quite proud of being the first of his siblings in the new center.

The bone in his pinky was fine but the tissue was pulled off and to the side (de-gloved) and some of the skin had to be trimmed off.

It took quite a few stitches to re-attach the tip in its proper place...

Benson was a trooper.  He sat completely still (with Rustin by his side) for all the numbing shots and he watched all the stitches go in with comments like "it looks like you're stabbing my finger", and "that doesn't even hurt at all--it's a zero (on the pain scale)."

We packed up and went over to Dallin and Landon's football game which turned out to be more painful than Benson's finger.  More on that later...

Third time's the charm.

This is Landon.

He broke his thumb playing football last Tuesday. (cracked through the first knuckle but not displaced)  He'll have a cast for three weeks but he will be able to play in the all important game against the city rival tomorrow.

For the record, that puts Landon up three casts to Dallin's two.  We hope Dallin will just let him get away with the win in this department.

This injury happened when boys' football team was playing the only other undefeated team in the district on Tuesday so the stakes were high. They were tied 0-0 at halftime which made this the first competitive game to watch this season.  Landon and Dallin both had a great game and they won 22-6.  Landon broke his thumb playing defense in the fourth quarter.  He came out of the game for two plays and had his thumb/hand wrapped and went back in the rest of the game. Trooper.


Tonight Landon taught the Family Home Evening lesson.  He got the idea from a young men lesson.

He started with a beautiful scoop of ice cream--a  "Sundae."
Then he added things to make the sundae 'better':

The other children watched in horror.

Rustin tried to pay them to eat the ice cream.  No takers.

We then talked about how we add things in our house to our "Sundays" that ruin the day.  The six children and I are usually alone most of the day and I am sad to say sometimes our day is less than holy.  We are working on it.

The kids came up with a list of things that ruin the day:  waking up late, playing too rough, tv/video games (we don't do either one), waking up mom when she wants to take a nap (!!-they said it...) and not being able to find clothes in the morning.

Of course tonight I had to physically separate Austin and Benson and I had to instruct Dallin not to talk to anyone in order to keep everyone from bickering during the lesson.  I think the point was well taken though.  Now I'll be able to say "who is pouring hot sauce on my ice cream?" when they are misbehaving on the Sabbath.

I think we all have a pretty good mental image of what a ruined Sunday looks like. Thanks Landon.

Fashion Handicapp

Rustin has laid down an ultimateum: buy a new coat or he will buy one for me.  Rustin buying me clothes means a trip to the mall where I will be forced to look at my post-baby (can we just say softly maternal?) figure  in a three-way-mirror.  I can barely stand the thought... So I am taking matters into my own hands.

I was inspired by this girl...

so I looked up some coats on-line.
Overstock.com had some good suggestions that are far less than Kate's $1000 Burberry trench. Did you know after Kate wore this coat in Ireland Burberry sold out of it in one day?  How's that for advertisement?!

Are they cute? I can not have a wool coat.  Wool and Golden retrievers are not friends. Cotton blend is the way to go.
Double or single?

The double has a hood.  My curls don't like to get wet so that might be good but is a double breasted coat formal looking?  I'm not really formal.  I like the flared fit of the single.  hmmm.
Someone give me a second opinion before my husband drags me to the mall.