Camian Academy

Cameron’s hair has gotten pretty long and he desperately needs a haircut but we keep forgetting to have Jamie cut it. When Cameron’s hair gets long it also gets completely unruly and is rather wild.

So just before bed the other night I commented once again that Cameron really needs a haircut because he’s starting to look like a Beatle (as in the musical group) since he looks British and has that hair. To this Cameron replied:

“I’m not British! I’m Mormon!”

Ani loves to grow things. Me, not so much. But we’re putting in a garden. On Saturday Jamie and the kids made a 5′x5′ box frame and filled it with dirt. We still need some more dirt and then we need the seedlings. Hopefully Ani’s green thumb can overcome my black thumb and in a few weeks we’ll have some vegetables and herbs to harvest from our little garden.

Fritz has become obsessed with water. He is constantly asking for water. He gets excited when he sees a cup of water. He leans over and drink the water in the bathtub. When it rains, we hear a constant “Water, water, water!” from him.

This is a side effect of the Allegra he’s taking. He is afflicted with dry mouth and so water has become his favorite thing. Of course with his increased input, his output has greatly increased. At least we know he’s staying hydrated!

I’m a bit more than halfway through the Spencer W. Kimball manual. I vaguely remember him. He became the president of the church before I was born and died when I was 7. I don’t remember any of his teachings since I was too young to really listen at that point.

I missed the lessons in Relief Society when we did the Spencer W. Kimball manual since I was teaching in primary. I must say, he’s not my favorite. Harold B. Lee still holds that spot. I read Camilla Kimball’s autobiography a few years ago and I must say I’d be willing to bet they complimented each other perfectly.

President Kimball strikes me as a very serious man. Some of his quotes in the lessons are enough to make you feel like scum. The lesson on repentance (much of it was pulled from The Miracle of Forgiveness) was one of them. I was thinking back to when I was like 5 for anything I’ve done wrong while reading that one. But at the same time he gave concrete suggestions and explanations to bring us back up and encourage us. I’ve found the lessons in the manual to be quite useful.

Clutter really is an amazing thing. It seems like it just creeps up on you. You put something on a flat surface and BAM! it’s full. It’s like it breeds or something.

I was raised by two packrats. Now, there is something to be said for being a packrat. I don’t think my parents have ever had to buy something to replace something else that they got rid of a few months before (though I’d be willing to bet they have had to buy something to replace something else they just couldn’t find anymore).

I am not a packrat. I hate clutter. It makes me anxious and irritable. And yet I wage a neverending battle against clutter.

Yesterday was Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day and so Jamie took the two big ones with him to work. Fritz entertains himself well and cleaning with him around is pretty easy so I decided to take the opportunity to clean out the refrigerator and the upstairs closet. Bonus that today is trash day so we could just put those bags of junk right out yesterday evening.

The refrigerator demands to be cleaned out regularly so for the most part it was more rearranging than anything else. Of course there were things like those leftover eggs that we dyed at Easter that needed to go. Mostly, though, our refrigerator was suffering from an acute case of shopping at Costco and just throwing things in randomly after we got home. Now it is lovely, everything fits, and it is much easier to find what we are looking for.

The upstairs closet was a whole different story. It was waist deep with things the kids had dumped in there. We’ve been ignoring it for months, ever since the kids “cleaned” upstairs and caused it to suddenly be waist deep. So I went through everything and ended up with two bags of trash and one bag of sheets and things to be donated to Goodwill. There were bits and pieces of partially eaten food in there and thank goodness there was absolutely no evidence of things that had come in to eat those bits and pieces. I got everything nicely arranged and now the door actually opens and closes easily and it’s once again useful for storing our games and towels and things. There’s even a whole empty shelf in there now.

There is a very nice thing about cleaning and decluttering places like that closet. The feeling afterwards is wonderful, particularly when I look in there for something later. I also love the feeling when the bags of junk are picked up. There’s just something satisfying about it.

(Though I am now wondering what in the world I was thinking cleaning when I have sciatica. But then I also want to rearrange Ani’s room, clean our our bedroom closet, and clean the cabinets in the bathroom. I can’t help it. I’m almost 34 weeks pregnant. The baby is making me do it.)

Fritz has had more medications in his life of less than 2 years than Ani in 8 years and Cameron in 6 1/2 combined. Luckily he likes taking medicine. He’s loved all three types of antibiotics he’s had (Amoxicillin, Augmentin, and Omnicef), Benadryl in liquid or chewable form, and the liquid Allegra he’s on now. I’m very happy about this since I’ve heard horror stories about getting medications into little ones.

For Family Home Evening Monday night we talked about how sometimes people offer us things that are bad for us like cigarettes, alcohol, or illegal drugs (which of course led to a discussion about what types of drugs - prescription prescribed for us and over the counter according to the directions - are okay and which are not).

We role-played with Ani and Cameron what they would say if someone offered them something bad for them. Jamie played the part of the person offering. For cigarettes he used a pen. For alcohol he used an empty glass. For illegal drugs he got out one of Fritz’s dosing syringes. Fritz, who until this point had been kind of wandering around the living room and seeming not to be paying any attention, comes running over quite happily and opened his mouth nice and wide. Apparently he recognized his dosing syringe and thought it was time to take his medicine!

Cameron is coming along very well in learning to read. He reads a story in I Can Read It! every day. He still sounds out most of the words of course but he is starting to just recognize certain words when he comes to them.

And that is what he calls speed reading. As far as Cameron is concerned everyone who can read fluently is a speed reader. We look at a word and know what it says. He told me his goal is to become a speed reader like me and Jamie and Ani. So far he has made “is” into a speed reading word. He sees it and knows what to say. He is very proud to be on his way to being a “speed reader.”