This week...

The church we've been attending has church in the evening, but we would consider it more a small group. They all meet (there's only about 40 people) at a home and sing a couple hymns, teach the kids a catachism question, then while the kids play, the adults learn a larger catachism question and then everyone eats a potluck dinner together.  Ben and I were a little hesitant to commit to a full Sunday of activity, and while it makes for a long day (we even skip Sunday school), I immediately saw fruit from one Sunday evening.  Alison and Colin sang with the group that evening!  Our kids have never sung, which always baffles me...these are Ben Shear's offspring!  But it was the sweetest sound I've ever heard.  Alison even requested a hymn in front of the group.  Eli may not have sung in the group, but the next morning, he was leading Colin in a pretend game of church.  This is a sneak peak at our music room/library.

I found this lovely selfie on my phone...

One sad thing about Arizona is we can no longer get away with an antennae getting us a few good TV channels...everything is in Spanish!!!  We tried Sling TV for a week, but found it didn't offer us anything more than Netflix does, so we are more old school right now than we ever have been.

Oh, hey look, we can actually eat dinner in the dining room now!  This view is from the music room into the dining room, very similar to our old house.

Everyone watching the KU game on Ben's computer

The boys got bunkbeds!

Eli helped Ben put them together and I'm pretty sure it made his life.

The lighting in the room is terrible, so I couldn't get a good shot...

They were SOOOO happy.  They've been dreaming about this day since we told them we were moving and it took us awhile to find what we wanted, but I think it was worth the wait.

Pros of bunkbeds:

They actually have been sleeping longer!

Gives them more room in their shared bedroom.

They use it to pretend it's their pirate ship.

Cons:

Reading in bed with Eli is no longer possible.

If Eli gets up in the middle of the night, I have no way of tossing him back in bed.  He had a bad dream one night and the only way I got him back up to bed was by bribing him with M&M's.

We finally had Ben's birthday dessert!

Strawberry rhubarb crisp...it was super delicious!

Eating dessert on the patio and playing in the backyard until the sprinklers come on has become a nightly thing.  I find it really odd that Arizona has turned us into dessert people and by the way, we are the rare people that go outside.  We think it's awesome and have been outside as much as possible, but people here think it's already too hot and stay inside.

Ben started work this week (which has gone really well) and I'm trying to figure out this whole "run with all my kiddos in tow" thing.  We've joined the Y, but the childwatch for Alison and Eli doesn't open until 5pm.  I would love to get to the place where all the kids ride bikes with me, but right now, the boys are slow as molasses.  This week, I tried Alison on her bike and the boys in the bike trailer turned into a stroller.

Pre attempt of a run

Eli insisted on going as Darth Vador.

So, we haven't used the trailer as a stroller in years and I'm sure these boys are over the weight limit, but I wanted to give it a try.  Almost 1/2 mile down the road, the front wheel broke and we had to walk back home.  I have a couple more ideas up my sleeve, but mostly they begin with Eli learning how to ride his bike at a normal speed.

I took the boys to get haircuts.  We just went to Walmart, but I think they did a great job for only $10.  They were not excited about getting it done,

but afterwards they felt like a million bucks.  Okay, Colin felt better after a bath.  He despised the spiky hair the stylist gave him and whimpered until I washed it out.  I think he would have liked it if Eli's hair had spikes too.

I will affectionately call this move "The great purge".  We got rid of half our garage worth of stuff before we moved and another truck load of stuff after our move.  As we opened boxes here, if there was anything that we thought "Why did we move this?" or "Where am I going to put this??", then it immediately went to our donations pile.  I called a local charity group this week and they brought a moving truck and picked up all our stuff...sadly I called them too early and already have another load of stuff.  But there isn't a box in our possession and we have a handful of rubbermaids for storage for things like Christmas decorations, keepsakes or hunting gear.  Anyway, the very last box that was opened this week was my old baby china (p.s. I found the gravy boat we've been living without for Thanksgiving for the last several years!).  Alison helped me unpack it and then got all fancied up and set up a tea party.  The boys were in the middle of a pretend boy game that involved them just in underwear, but when they saw the party, they asked if they could attend.  Alison told them they had to go get dressed up to attend, but somehow they sweet talked their way in without clothes on.

Fresh squeezed lemonade and granola bars were on the menu and they all had a blast.  The tea set is now stored where we can use it often and perhaps we can train these boys to get dressed properly for the next party.

We went to our first homeschool group meeting.  They meet at a park, right up the street from our house and the age groups take turns learning a sport.  Right now they're learning tennis.  While Alison was in lessons, the boys played at the park with new friends.

Arizona fact: if there is shade, find it and stay in it.  If there's not shade, make some!

We really enjoyed the group and I think we will make going part of our routine.  The coaches were legit and really great with the kids.  And considering the fact that Eli didn't even know what tennis was, I think it may be important for him to go just to be exposed to different sports and different teachers he has to obey talk to.

Another Arizona fact I've learned: always, always, always have water with you.  Every single mom I've met has giant water bottles for all of her kids with her all.the.time.  There are water stations everywhere and if you go to buy water, you can't just buy a little bottle, you have to buy a gallon.  BUT don't drink the tap water!

Another fact: don't leave anything in your car that you don't want to be part of your car.  Keeping our cars clean has become essential.  When we first pulled into Arizona, we had been driving across the country and eating in the car and living in the car, but even after everything was cleared out, I had missed something chocolate...I couldn't even tell you what it was now, but it equaled an afternoon spent scrubbing chocolate out of the van.  We've also started covering things with towels in the car so they don't burn us when we get in, especially Colin's seat.  AND it's only March!

2 weeks down and I'm just starting to feel settled.  I still have a page long list of things I need to get/do, but I've accepted that life as a mom always entails a long list and we will continue to work hard and start school on Monday!