I don't have a clue what I'm talking about.

I'm a big fan of language. Proper English and spelling are requirements in my home school. Last week Liberty's English had her studying possessive nouns and pronouns and I drove a point home. "Possessive pronouns never have apostrophes. Never. Ever. Ever. Do not ever, ever put an apostrophe in hers, his, ours, its... The contractions have an apostrophe but never if they are possessive."

At this point, the poor girl's eyes were glazed as she nodded, hoping that I'd quit driving the point home. She doesn't realize I'm saving her from some really important, grievous error. You know, an improper usage of "it's" in a Facebook post or some such thing. Grievous.

Two days later, as Liberty handed her report on a Missouri state park to me to be proofread, I said, "You spelled "its" without an apostrophe, Honey. It's possessive."

She looked at me in confusion. "Yes..."

"It needs an... oh good grief. Who lets me teach you these things?!"

(Just for the record, I had to fix four English grammar mistakes in proofreading this post. Two were apostrophe errors. I doubt I even caught them all at this point. I'm not cut out for this, it would seem. Or I need a nap. Or both.)

Weary travelers and a cold, frustrated momma.

You know you've been up for a long time when Ruby asks for lunch at 9:19 am.

We're in South Dakota. The drive took 10.5 hours and we stopped twice. It doesn't get much better than that with six kids. No one peed their pants and there was minimal crying - and none of it came from Pierce. They are growing up, my friends. Fast.

We were well over halfway to South Dakota and I'd been freezing the whole way because the kids were hot and sweaty and I couldn't figure out why they weren't getting the cold air that was blasting at me, when Pierce's cheeks were redder than any boy ever ought to have and I asked Liberty to adjust his vent. The poor sleeping boy looked like he was wearing an obscene amount of rouge, and his hair was wet with sweat. She opened the vent. Really?! It's 19 degrees outside, I all but have the A/C running trying to cool the back of the van for them, I'm freezing and they have the vents closed and the windows open?! Oh. my. HELLO! Liberty asked Eden about the vent further back, to which Eden replied, "Oh, I closed those because I was cold." She didn't mention that to me, who is shivering in the front, still blasting the cold air for all it was worth.

My children are no longer allowed to adjust the vents without permission.

Pierce was up in the night, trying to find me. He was in a sleeping bag with all the kids and I was in the next room over. I found him in the bathroom, feeling around on the sink and hollering for me. Talk about confusion. I thought him in a sleeping bag might be interesting. He fell asleep without fuss about 25 seconds after I laid him down. Yep, they are growing up.

A little road trip in the planning…

We’re planning a trip to South Dakota. My parents have a little sheep farm there, and this week they start lambing.

Can anyone say what a good life experience this is for my kids? It’s a homeschool field trip on steroids!

So, we pack. We’ll head up for a week and a half, the kids will get to experience real winter (Because the 70 degrees we experienced here last week was most definitely not winter-like.) and lambing and Grandma and Grandpa and snow. Likely, lots of snow will be available to be experienced.

It’s home. I love it. I’m a bit of a baby these days after living south of South Dakota, but I’m looking forward to it. I dug out snowpants and boots and hats and gloves and we’re off, headed to freeze our behinds. Our travel has been moved up a day, with one little girl showing classic cold symptoms, making her unfit for co-op. With any luck, she’ll sleep the day away. I’m hoping.

Just for the record, I hate packing. I cannot be organized, because no matter how hard I try, it all falls apart anyhow. I gave up. I gave each kid their backpack, told them to pack four shirts, four undies, six pairs of socks, two pairs of pants, church clothes, and let them have at it. The only ones I know for sure have what they need are Charlie and Pierce and me. Everyone else I’ve deemed old enough. We’ll see when we get there exactly what was packed. This could be interesting. Their bags are full though – either with what they were told or bricks – that remains to be seen. I’ve already stated I will not be purchasing anything that they were told to pack and forget. I may regret that statement.

Dial Complete Foaming Hand Wash

Purex sent me Dial Complete Foaming Hand Wash a few weeks ago to try out. It’s been a fun thing to try! As a bar soap die hard (becoming such after computing how much we were spending on liquid hand soap with 16 hands being washed numerous times each day) I rather looked forward to the pump. Amazingly, it lasted a lot longer than the liquid we’d used in the past. Foaming is the way to go, it would seem. If your kids are more easily trained to use one pump and not six, you might be able to make it last a really long time. Mine cannot get it through their heads that less is more.

While I’m not certain I’ll switch over from my own hand made bar soaps that I’m having fun with, I really appreciated Dial’s scents and the fact that it lasted several weeks. That’s a lot longer than anything we’d used in the past!

No giveaway with this one. Bummer. But keep an eye out. Borax is up for grabs soon – and that white box and I are good friends in the laundry room!

Diets, physicals, and being stared back at.

Sterling and Ruby had their yearly physicals yesterday. Sterling was one inch taller and 2/10 of one pound heavier than Ruby. He didn’t care how much; he just wanted to know he was still bigger. I think Ruby passing him up is his worst fear. The look on his face when the doctor told him that she would eventually pass him up, for a season, confirmed my suspicions. It’s hard to be a little guy. Both got shots. Sterling didn’t even flinch and was oh so proud of himself for that. Ruby sang what we commonly refer to as “the owie song” around here. It was a strange moment, watching my two middles acting so big.

I’ve gone on a no-carb no-sugar diet. Once I got past the first few days of not having a clue what to eat and choosing nothing as a good option (effective in the weight loss category, but it makes for one very crabby me) I’m finally figuring this out. So far, so good. I’d have a hard time eating like this long term, but it’s fun to watch the scale drop. Having never really attempted anything like this before, I’m seeing why people don’t stick to it. It’s just not that fun.

Our new fridge is in the garage. It is, at the moment, full of vegetables. Full. I look all healthy or something.

The girls all got owl necklaces for Christmas. Ruby’s owl promptly broke in half, just below the eyes. She still wears it. There’s something eerie about two bright blue jewel eyes staring back at me from my daughter’s chest.

Discovery Center

We went to the Discovery Center in town on Friday. We…

wore the kids out on a giant gerbil wheel,

played with a bit of static electricity,



played doctor,



used the blood pressure cuff as a doll diaper changing pad,



and attempted to anchor the evening news.



It was a fun day. The kids were really tired. Really, really tired.

Pierce: 15 months

One dear boy, fresh into the world of walking

practices his steps every chance he gets

hauls toys around to prove brute strength

and busts a bronc or two in his spare time.

It’s a hard life.