Family Duties

Tonight at Cub Scouts, Kian was asked to make a job chart for all of the members in his family. One the left side was a column listing his family members. On the right side were each family member's duties. Here are his words:

Dad: Does work, bringing home snacks duty
Mom: Baby duty, new bottles duty
Kian: Rotating chores, sitting on the baby
Abby: Rotating chores
Ella: Rotating chores
Felicity: Rotating chores
Klaus: Multipurpose universal cleaning tool

He is referring to Klaus' ability to sweep and mop with his body as he crawls around the house. Kian's language and humor sometimes cracks me up.

Concert Pianists

Last night for FHE, our wonderfully talented pianists had a recital of selections of what they have been hard at work on. Here they are sharing their talent:

Here is Kian

Here is Abby

Here is Ella (she is playing songs she is currently practicing)

Here's Felicity

What a wonderful night of success and fun. These kiddos have practiced everyday, multiple times a day to learn these songs. They bring music and joy into our house. Great Job to Kian, Abby, Ella, and Felicity!!!

A Love Triangle?

The other day, Ella whispered to me that she has a new boyfriend. "Hmmm," I thought to myself, "This sounds interesting." After a few failed guesses as to who it could be, she admitted that it was none other than----Tate.

You should remember from my last post that a certain older sister happens to have a crush on this same boy. Considering the sibling rivalry already existing between these two, I cannot imagine anything good coming from this new information!

"A love triangle at ages 6 and 7!" I thought to myself. I imagined the confrontation, the argument, the jealousy, the drama!

I advised, "Ella, you will want to ask Abby if it's okay with her to have Tate as your boyfriend." She didn't seem that was necessary. I tried to convince her that it was. (Never mind that Tate has no clue whatsoever).

She still hasn't mentioned it to Abby. I haven't brought it up, no way, not gonna do it! We'll just see who they're both in love with next week and hope that it's not the same boy.

The Crush

This is all really making us wonder... I mean, isn't she WAY TOO YOUNG for this?!?!

Abby (age 7) had two boys in her Primary class that she had crushes on. She would vacillate between marrying one and marrying the other. She would imagine and play that she was in love with one and talk about him all the time. And then she would day-dream about the other one. To us, her family, it was all very funny and we teased her mercilessly but she liked the teasing.

Then one evening at a Cub Scout activity, one of the boys (whose name is Tate) decided he liked the attention he was getting, so he started playing along, announcing to everyone, "Abby is my girlfriend!" Maybe she didn't like all the teasing and attention then, because for several weeks she emphatically did NOT like Tate anymore.

Two Sundays ago, Abby came home from Primary all dreamy, lovey-dovey over Tate again! She wrote him in an e-mail:


Dear tate i like you. You are like an {angel icon} to me. How are you doing ? I am so {crying face icon} that one of my dogs died.

{Red heart icon} Abby Musser


She wouldn't answer my questions about what changed her mind about him. But I asked her Primary teacher through e-mail what happened at church?! This was her reply:

"Tate and Abby wanted to hold hands several different times during third hour. I told them that we don't need to be holding hands and to keep our hands to ourselves. Abby also asked me if we could play church charades because she wanted to pretend she was Mary and Tate could be Joseph and they could be married. HAHA!!"

A week later, she's not lovey-dovey over him anymore. What drama! But seriously, isn't this all a little premature? Any advice/experience/opinions would be appreciated.

Studying Poetry

Every weekday morning around here at breakfast-time we read a poem or two. It's amazing how quick the kids memorize them just by hearing them repeatedly. This morning, I asked if anyone wanted to read a new poem. Abby volunteered and she stood and read in her clear and sweet childish voice, "I Had a Dove" by John Keats. It goes:

I had a dove and the sweet dove died;
And I have thought it died of grieving:
O, what could it grieve for?
Its feet were tied,
With a silken thread of my own hand's weaving;
Sweet little red feet! why should you die

Why should you leave me, sweet bird! why?
You lived alone in the forest tree,
Why, pretty thing! would you not live with me?
I kissed you oft and gave you white peas:
Why not live sweetly, as in the green trees?

Well, you can probably guess how this sweet 7-year-old girl responded to the poem. She quietly asked, "Could I read the poem again but changing a few things?" I assented.

This was her version which she copied for English later in the day:

I had a dog by Abby Musser

I had a dog and that sweet dog died
and I have thought it died of grieving
O what could it grieve for?
Its paws were tied
with a silken thread of my hands own weaving
Sweet little white paws! Why should you die?

Why should you leave me sweet dog! why?
You lived with me.
Why pretty thing! would you not live with me?
I kissed you oft and gave you dog food.
Why not live sweetly in the green grass?

A Quick Thought on Cleaning

I just agree with this statement:

"Housekeeping is like the Word of Wisdom: we master it, and then go on to more important things. Cleanliness is pleasant but order is more important, and orderly lives require that ordering a house take a minor role. The dirty dishes can never be conquered; we have them with us always. By relegating them to their own brief hour we can rise above them. Housekeeping can be put down by this final insult: Do it but don't think about it."

Don't you agree?

My Beast!

For any of you who knew Abby when she was a baby, you'll remember how CHUBBY she was! What a cutie. And Baby Felicity was so fat I could only fit her into dresses! But Klaus has them beat. He's our biggest baby weighing in at 25 pounds at 6 months old. Now, at almost 9 months, he is 28 pounds and H-E-A-V-Y!

I've had to pull box after box of baby clothes out of the garage to try to find something I can fit on him. Size 12 months, no way. Size 18 months look like they'd be big enough but nope! At a garage sale I picked up a cute Osh-Kosh onesie that said on the tag "24 months/24 1/2 - 27 pounds." So basically, Klaus is bigger than a 2-year-old! He's the happiest and cutest baby in the world too. I call him My Beast!

Here's a new video of him finally moving around. Please disregard the spitting up at the beginning!