Monday

Today is Monday and time to get moving for the week. Today we have laundry and cleaning. This week will be spent trying to get ready for the school year. A friend of mine wanted to know what we would have to do. She figured we home schooled so we just started, nothing more. Wrong, we must purchase supplies, plan out lessons, decide on what to use for each child. A back up plan is always useful also.

This school year will also have to work around an addition being built onto the house. We will be expanding my dads bedroom and bathroom and turning it into a casita. The living room will be expanded, taking out the garage. The main level will be expanded up to include a new master bedroom and bathroom, study and sewing room. The current family room, in the lower level, will be turned into a media room classroom. The cement in the backyard will be gone, a dog area added and an enclosed patio and outdoor kitchen put in. This must start after August because August usually means monsoons for us. It will be so nice when it is done.

The rain came and went

The rain came and went. The news is now showing water running in the washes and detention basins. I can't help but watch and think "duh, that's what they are there for". I keep checking the online weather report, nothing listed but clouds. I don't think they know what it is going to do. The rain came two days earlier than predicted so now they just list cloudy.

The kids enjoyed the rain, they played in it. The two hens had a good time also. They dogs on the other hand wanted nothing to do with it. I do hope this means we will see more storms in August. You will deffinantly not hear the childrens song,"Rain, Rain Go Away" around here.

Where is the rain?

It is 9:39 at night and 96 degrees with 26% humidity. This may not seem like a high humidity rate to some but for us it is up there. This is the desert, very dry. My daughter Emma was 3 years old before she saw her first rain showers. I took her out in it and she was not sure what to make of it, the brothers knew to enjoy it while it lasted.

It hasn't always been like that here. When I was a child we would get rain every 4th of July. Not enough to spoil the fireworks just enough to make us worry it might not let up before nightfall. By the time it was dark enough for fireworks to be lit off the rain would be gone. The humidity levels would make the smoke hang lower in the valley.

By August the monsoons would come in. I loved the monsoons, still do when we get them. The thunder and the lightening can be amazing. The rain would flood some areas but those of us and our parents that had been here long enough knew to stay out of the streets and not to drive in it. All the kids in my neighborhood would run out to play in the rain. Our parents would warn us to stay out of the middle of the street in case a manhole cover was moved by the flooding. We were told we could be sucked down one and be killed.

Some storms would bring a power outage, these were the best times( well for us kids at least). We would open all the doors and windows until the rain had stopped. Then all the neighbors and kids would get together in one yard with lawn chairs and chat and have a good time. Meals were generally cold leftovers, very few houses had gas stoves. Should the power remain out until night we would all sleep outside on our lawn chairs. We would talk quietly and watch the lightening still going on in Arizona, yes you could see it from this far away. Soon the kids would fall asleep. Sometime around 4:00 A.M. our parents would wake us to go inside, the house was cool enough now and the power may be on. We would all complain wanting to stay out and chat and play. Looking back now I realize our parents had stayed awake all night and kept watch over us, usually our mothers our dads having gone inside to sleep in the hot muggy houses.

I am hoping soon my kids will get to experience the monsoons we had when I was a child. We have been in drought conditions for so many years now it seems we may never see them again. When we do get the rains in August they are not quite the same and people inevitably end up getting their cars stuck in the flooded areas. So many people move here every year from all over the country, they don't realize in the desert when it rains quickly we flood. Fast moving water going wherever it can towards the washes and then to the lake.

It is cloudy out now but I know there is no rain tonight. The air does not have that energy or smell. Soon I hope.

Sisters

My two youngest are my daughters. Emma is 7 and Kate is 5. Emma has always been very mellow and laid back, gets along well with everyone. At least she is that way until her and Kate decide to not get along. Then it is all out war. I have had to peel daughters apart. Hair pulling, screaming, kicking vicious little things. Their feuds are few and far between but when they do fight it is all out war.

Each girl has her own little dog. Emma has Pogo a fat, little, heavy min pin/ rat terrier mix. Kate has Motor, a very small rat terrier. When the girls fight each dog takes his girls side. This has led to some altercations between the dogs. When the girls get into grappling matches each dog will grab the other dogs girl and try and pull her off.

The three boys are all older but during a girl feud not the brightest. They will try and take sides or make peace. This results in the girls turning on the brothers. I can not understand why these brothers have not learned to stay clear. I have learned this quickly, I simply find a quiet place, yea right in a house with five kids, and read a book or blog. As I type away now two little girls are having yet another sister war. Caleb, the 9 year old brother, has finally gotten both to quiet down and play with him. This may work out or the girls may decide instead to get along with each other and take out the brother. He has found a box of my moms old scarfs and handkerchiefs and is going through them with the girls. Poor boy, I owe him big for making peace for tonight. I think I will go and get them to bed before another war starts over some pretty lacy scarf.

Kate

Katie is our youngest, she is 5 years of age. The photos are of her as a baby at about seven months. Katie or Kate, depending on the day and the mood, is a force all her own. She is the youngest of five children. She knows exactly what she wants and accepts nothing less. Today she sent me into a panic. She walked up and asked if she could watch the Playboy Bunny on the computer. On the outside I remained calm, as I have learned to do with five children. On the inside I was in a panic, we do have older children. Two of those older children are our 14 year old son and 12 year old son. As soon as I could find my voice I asked her where she had seen the playboy bunny, she informed me the one daddy and I had been watching. I could not help but start laughing, she in no way found this funny. I realized that the Playboy Bunny was Bugs Bunny. We had found some old Looney Toons on the computer and had watched them. She was happy at least for a while to sit and watch old Looney Toons, I was happy that it was just good ole Bugs Bunny and not the other bunny.

Plumbing is not our friend

We purchased an older home four years ago. We knew it would need work and looked forward to putting the time and work in. We were not however prepared for the plumbing. This is a tri- level, meaning one part is main floor one part underground and the other part upstairs. Our first plumbing problem was an upstairs toilet. Hubby plunged and plunged, nothing. OK, time for a trip to the hardware store. Oh so many choices so little logic, on the husbands part. He wanted to purchase an electric auger, good idea for later projects but not something you can use on a toilet. Then he spotted the C02 cartridge plunger. This takes a C02 cartridge and explodes a blast of air down the plunger and into the toilet, sink or whatever forcing the clog to go away. The ultimate guy thing. Once we got home the hubby could not resist going straight upstairs to use it. I had to follow because I just knew this was somehow going to be entertaining. Looking back I so wish I had used the video camera for this one. He skimmed the instructions, loaded the cartridge, aimed and shot. He had not read the instructions enough to get to the warning, he had also failed to get the plunger completely over the whole in the toilet. This resulted in what was in the toilet, you don't want details here remember we have five children, to blow back and all over him. I had stayed out in the hallway to watch, a good thing too. I could not stop laughing, he was not finding this funny. Trust me it was hysterical, the look on his face, the way he shuddered. The children all found this very funny too. Needless to say that plunger is no longer in this house. I kept it for a while and whenever a toilet would back up I would ask him if he wanted to use it, he would just give me a dirty look and walk away. We still have plumbing problems, one day I will post about the rubber ball dropped down a shower drain from upstairs that clogged in the lowest level pipes. That was only 16 hours of work before a child spoke up and told us what was clogging the pipes.

This is my first attempt at blogging. I have a feeling this will take me a while. I can't decide on a template or what to say. Photos, songs, videos are a whole other problem. I might get farther if I wasn't sitting in a room with three of my five children bouncing around and throwing themselves on me. I will attempt more later but the dogs have now decided to join in the circus so I must get everyone off to bed.