Russia - Land of Endurance

School Time!

(If you have kids - you need a bell!
Unless they're more than three miles away,
there are no more excuses.)
It's grand.

But anyway, on to Russia.
Russia was first settled by the Slavs.
Here we have a traditional Slav meal, minus the mead.
The mead must be earned in timed events.
The first step to earning mead is to build a traditional Slav home
along the Dnieper, or Volga River-
(one that can withstand thirty seconds of Hydn's unasked for help.)
Or, to make Baba Yaga's home,
with her traditional mortar and pestle transportation.
Once you've accomplished that task, you must
ask the Vikings to make their long boats,
and come to your rescue.Then successfully destroy the long boats
in traditional Viking tradition,
with a funeral pyre.
If you still haven't earned enough points for the mead,
you may want to try memorizing the difference between Tundra, Taiga, and Steppe.
Still not enough?
Bummer.
And you still want mead?
Even though you didn't earn enough points?
Yes, I suppose you could earn it by running a mile on the treadmill.
Hooray!!
You did it!And even earned enough for moochers.
Meanwhile, what are the older one's doing?
Necropsies.
Tender sensibilities may want to look away...
This poor baby's placenta had a premature separation while Bert was gone.
He gave the older kids the task of finding, documenting,
and labeling the organs for him with our camera.
Jesse's really not thinking this is funny,
she's just laughing because- who knew a horse had
so many hearts?
We did our best...
Back to Russia-
It's time for a field trip.
To go see this rock.
It capped off the Viking portion of our Russian unit.
Not impressed?
But, it's a rune-stone!
Here!
In Oklahoma!
And we drove over four hours to see it; please be impressed.
(Ironically enough it's found in a town called 'Heavener' Oklahoma.
If they were going to have the word 'heaven' in the towns name;
and the town just happens to have a rune-stone in it;
wouldn't it stand to reason that they should have named it, Valhalla?
Obviously, nobody asked me.)
And all that driving wore us out.
In 980 A.D. Vladimir, the leader of Kiev/Russia chose to end
paganism and have missionaries of four major monotheistic faiths
come share their religions with him.
Out of those, he chose the Greek Orthodox faith for Russia.
So we learned all about it; icons, triptychs,
and how it feels to have somebody make such important
decisions for you.
Important decisions like- which new snack we should eat for the day.
And which we should throw away.
I played Vladimir's role,
and chose the Pork Skins -over the Caramel Bugles
and Mozzarella Sticks.
Old Vlad wasn't the most popular person that day.
Meanwhile, Jesse surprised me with a new masterpiece.
If only I could convince her to use a more permanent medium.
Back to Russia-
This is Maddie, making Borscht.

And Pal, assisting.

Finished product, with a side of Russian Rye.

On to Faberge eggs (Easter fell at a most opportune time)
and Matroyshkas.What I'd planned to take over an hour, took approximately three minutes.
Details on the order form, like size,
might be useful to look at when choosing your own Matroyshka.
Between all this Russia stuff,
we had a recital to attend.
Jesse, Maddie, and Pal each had a play, and a monologue to recite at it.
But, in order to truly appreciate them and their recital,
you had to sit through hours upon hours of little girls with stage fright;
who did their best to follow their dancing teachers pantomimes in the back.
As well as sitting through older boys and girls doing
d r a m a t i c dance routines.
The kind they hope will tear your heart out.
...and they're actually just about that painful.
But not MY kids.
MY kids are talented, and they were all fantastic!

And Maddie and Calder's photography class
had some prints up for a silent auction.
These were their tables.
(They were the only ones in their class.)

Back again,
and on to Ivan the Terrible.
Ivan commissioned two architects
to build St. Basil's Cathedral;
in order to commemorate the defeat of the Tartars
(this post is plenty long, without subjecting you to pictures of
our attempts to recreate Ghengis Khan, and a Mongolian yurt.)
Then he had the architects blinded, so that they could never
build anything so beautiful again.
Or so the legend goes- How did he defeat the Tartars when so many before him couldn't?
With the help of the Cossacks, of course.

We're much better at Cossack dancing than it may appear:

In fact,
it's hard to tell us apart from these guys:
(and really, I know I've taken up a lot of your time already,
but they're worth watching...)

Soviet Russian Soldier Jumpstyle/Cossack Dance is not a Crime!

Recess!
It's Calder's life size version of Pac-Man.

Maybe I should let you out for a recess as well.
But don't go far - remember, I have a bell.
And, we're only 1/4 of the way through-
I'm telling you, it's called 'Land of Endurance' for a reason...

Wow!

I'm blown away.
My husband's post, and everybody's kinds words were totally unexpected.
Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

What a great Mother's Day! I'll never forget it (because I'll probably read everything over, and over, and over again.) It was just so nice of everybody!

I'm reveling for a moment....

Ok, but now I must quit.
Because, it would appear that Bert has forgotten that I received two scholarships. One from the drama department.... for acting. Apparently I deserved it. It would seem that I've bamboozled the whole lot of you! But again, thank you all. Very, very much.

Mother of the Century - at least in her husband's opinion

Rachel and her brood in Louisiana

This blog has been hacked by Rachel's husband. Due to Mother's Day and Rachel's 40th birthday coming up on Friday the 13th, I've taken over her site and submitted by own blog. hint - I've even changed her blog so you can leave comments. You better get after it though because it will only take her about a week to guess the new password.





A few years ago a friend in Tehachapi talked the kids into submitting Rachel for Mother of the Year to the local newspaper's annual contest. I was already enjoying our prize figuring she would win on sheer volume alone. However, Rachel didn't have a shot, the eventual winner had shaven her head to make wigs for cancer kids and adopted war torn orphans from some distant country. Knowing Rachel would never part with her hair and adopting was out of the question, we decided to give up on glory and riches from The Tehachapi News ( her fondness for other people's children has always reminded me of the cows were you have to skin the hide of the dead calf to get her to take a new calf, definitely not the Holstein nurse cow raising four calves at a time)

In my probably biased but humble opinion, Rachel epitomizes the word Mother. She has devoted her whole life to being the best Mother she could be. When young she played being a mother, watched shows and read books that would help her be a good mother. Her favorite was Little House on the Prairie. She studied her Sisters and those around her on what and what not to do and how to best raise children. As a young women she never tried to hide or be ashamed of her ambitions. She went to BYU and majored in Animal Science thinking that would be the best place to find a suitable husband (although she did get her scholarship from animal science, so she says she had to major in that, but one fellow animal science major knows the real reason). She accomplished her goal in less than a year and then took child development classes or other classes that interested her the following year. I try to tease her about getting her Mrs degree but she has never let it rile her. After we were married she told me she knew how many children we would have. I don't know if this would have been a deal breaker if she had told me before. Lately she told me she even knew it would be 5 boys and 2 girls. One could be cynical but it wouldn't surprise me in the least that she had some revelation on her future. She has always approached her role with a purpose and a plan.

teaching the young uns about Russia and icons

As a mother she has given her all to her children but I think always in a healthy way. She has always made me feel like our marriage is the most important thing to her. She is constantly gathering me in and helping me be a partner in parenting. My children have always been well mannered, well learned and a joy to be around and I know its through her efforts this is so. So at least in my newspaper you will always be the Mother of the Century!

Rachel and Justin looking at his mission call

Taking the kids to the Ft. Worth Zoo

Teaching the kids how to work

Fancying up Jesse for the Prom

Reenacting the Battle of Vicksburg with Hy

Rachel in Europe
the place Rachel someday may blog about



Hy in the Tub

Hydn in the Tub was the inspiration for this post. A few months back Rachel told me, if I die you will need to do something for me. Do you see this plastic spider in the shower? Yes, I said, I've noticed it everyday for a few months now. She said, When Hy was younger and he could bathe on his own but still needed somebody to watch over him, I would take a shower next to the tub so I could watch him but still be somewhat productive. He started throwing this spider over the wall and I would pretend I was scared. He would giggle and it would take him 10 or so throws to get it over, so it keep him occupied. As he got older and was able to throw it over every time, I figured it was time to stop showering in front of him. But, when I would get in the shower in the morning the spider would always be there on the floor. I throw it back over everyday and the next day its there on the shower floor. If I'm gone, you'll will need to throw that spider back over everyday.

Here's to hoping I never have that job. Happy Mothers Day and Happy 40th Birthday.

School House Rock always said 'Three was the Magic Number'

And as of last month,
I'm a believer!

I only had three children at home for a bit.
Three!
Do you know what you can do
with only three children?!
You can go to the zoo,
and find each child's favorite animal,
and then spend as much time as they want looking at it!

There's no need to take your own stroller;
the one that only seats one,
with the broken wheel,
that you have to stoop over.
You can rent!
Ones that can even seat the mom!!
-if she wanted to that is-
I wouldn't know.
You can get each one their very own pop-
their very own fish food,

and their very own hamburger!

With plenty left over for a churro.

You finally get a ride on the Merry Go Round!
No need to search the opposite field for the mythical unicorn
when you pass by...

You can even end the day in one of those
malfunctioning photo booths,
that your kids have always wanted to try;
and not even care if it wasted your money
by smudging out Maddie.

Yup.
Three's definitely a magic number.