A Civil War Tale

We started this school year with a Unit Study on the Civil War. First off, we studied slavery and the Underground Railroad. The kids really enjoyed reading about real life heroes like Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman. They especially enjoyed reading the book "Follow the Drinking Gourd" and making their own star maps and drinking gourds (made out of some over-sized squash from the garden). On Friday, the 11th we drove for 3 hours up to the New Market Battlefield for a field trip with our history group. The girls loved Miss Stacey's (our tour guide) period dress. The first thing Miss Stacey did was to organize the troops into battle formation and make them stand at attention while she explained the rules for the museum. Notice how straight Krystal is standing.

Once in the museum, Miss Stacey organized the groups by dividing families and age groups up so that everyone was with a new family. She then sent them on a scavenger hunt to find things in the museum that would answer the questions on the sheet. The kids really enjoyed this approach to looking at a museum. Jared and Krystal ended up in the same group, but are working with another Mom.

Next, Miss Stacey talked to the kids about what equipment was needed for soldiers before they could enter into battle. Some of the kids got to try on uniforms as we discussed the different types of unifoms and their fabric.

Next we took a tour of the battlefield and the Bushong farm on which it took place. Luckily, the farmhouse and outbuildings were not damaged in the battle. However one of the rooms had been used as a hospital for the wounded. This room was set up as a replica, complete with blood splattered on the walls.

Here is Krystal in the kitchen building (separate from the house), the kids were excited to find an actual drinking gourd hanging by the hearth.

After a picnic lunch and watching the film about the battle, we made the kids pose for a picture in front of the battlefield. The Bushong farm is in the background and the "field of shoes" is just to the left. Apparently, the day of the battle was rainy and the freshly plowed wheat field turned into thick mud and many of the soldiers lost their shoes. The most touching part of this battle was that a troop of 250 cadets from the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington (about 90 miles away) got called away from their studies to come help the Confederates in battle. They fought bravely, but 10 of them lost their lives in this battle. Jared was touched by this story and as we talked about how young the cadets were, we were reminded of the story in the Book of Mormon of the 2,000 stripling warriors. Jared wrote a compare and contrast between the two and presented it for Family Night on Monday. He also wrote a verse of song about the cadets to the tune of one of the Primary songs from church and he played it for us on the piano.

This is the verse he wrote (to the tune of Book of Mormon Stories):

Once there were some young cadets who fought for slavery.

They were asked to march and fight with lots of bravery.

Rains did fall into the field which made a lot of mud.

They fought hard, lost their shoes, but they won.

After the lesson we reenacted the battle through a game of tug of war.

On the 18th, I woke up with an itch for another field trip, so we packed a lunch and drove for 15 minutes to a little spot just outside of Dublin where another Civil War battle took place. There is no museum here, just a little wayside with a sign and a single grave. A Captian Cleburne was killed in this battle and buried here.

Jared is making a crayon rubbing of the engravings on the tombstone.

This is the sign that tells a little about the battle. Apparently there is also a farmhouse and barn nearby that is privately owned, but where you can still see the bullet holes and blood on the floor. I love that our nation's history runs so rich in Virginia.

After some time talking about the events that took place, we enjoyed our lunch and some play time on the lawn. Here is Amber enjoying the day with two of her friends.

A Busy Day for Old Bluebell

Our 16 year old Suburban, named Bluebell for the cow-like sound it makes when the ABS kicks in, has seen some action in it's life. This car's favorite thing to do is to take long road trips, filled to the brim with family, animals, and luggage. Although we did not go on a road trip today, Bluebell performed grandly in the face of 12 different passengers. See if you can follow me on this mathematical adventure. The day began when I loaded up the kids into the car (1 adult + 4 kids + 3 car seats = 5 passengers and 3 carseats). Then we picked up a friend and the one year old she babysits (+1 adult + 1 child + 1 carseat = 7 passengers and 4 carseats). Then we dropped Jared and Clarissa off for piano (- 2 children = 5 passengers and 4 carseats). Next, the remaining crew went to the library for storytime (- 2 adults -3 children = 0 passengers and 4 (empty) carseats). After storytime, Krystal and I went to pick up Jared and Clarissa from piano, leaving the others at the library (+1 adult +1 child = 2 passengers and 4 carseats). We picked the kids up from piano (+ 2 children = 4 passengers and 4 carseats). We drove one street over to drop off Clarissa and Krystal for writing workshop, threw two carseats in the back to make room and picked up four more children to take them to writing workshop for the older children (-2 children + 4 children - 2 carseats = 6 passengers and 2 (empty) carseats). After dropping off all the children for workshop, I drove back to the library (- 5 children = 1 passenger and 2 (empty) carseats). I picked up my friend, the boy she babysits, and Amber (+1 adult, +2 children = 4 passengers and 2 carseats), then dropped my friend and the boy off at his house (-1 adult -1 child -1 carseat = 2 passengers and 1 carseat). Amber and I then ran errands until it was time to pick up kids from workshop, the older kids first (+5 children = 7 passengers and 1 carseat). Then, we dropped off four of the children at the younger kid's workshop and picked up Clarissa and Krystal who had to re-install their carseats and (-4 children + 2 children + 2 carseats = 5 passengers and three carseats). Next, we drove one street over to pick up Connor and Jared who were dropping off Delaney for piano (+2 children = 7 passengers and 3 carseats). Then, we crossed the street and got out of the car to go walk on a trail while we waited for Delaney to finish piano (-1 adult - 6 children = 0 passengers and 3 (empty) carseats). Once our walk was through, we got back into the car (+1 adult + 6 children = 7 passengers and 3 carseats). Then, we picked Delaney up from piano (+1 child = 8 passengers and 3 carseats). Finally, 6 hours later, we drove back to my house and unloaded the Suburban (-1 adult -7 children -3 piano books -3 grandparents day cards made at workshop -1 bin of legos -20 or so library books -1 bag of chips -2 pair of shoes = 0 passengers, 3 empty carseats, and a crust of bread from someone's pb&j sandwhich). Whew! What a day.
But, the best part is that the kitchen fairy came while we were gone (probably on his lunch break) and cleaned the kitchen (which still had dirty dishes from the night before) and dinner was already cooking in the crockpot (that one was a result of my own genius) so that's why I had time to sit down and write this post, which is a good thing because I know by tonight I wouldn't have remembered it all.

Character Building

If someone where to ask me or Chris if we like to camp, we would answer with a resounding "Yes." However, we realized the other day that ever since Krystal was born, the one Mattson who was born minus the over-sized adventure bone that the rest of us posses, we have not gone camping. That's right, it's been over 5 years since we've gone camping as a family which means that the youngest two girls have never been! We decided that Labor Day weekend would be a good time to break them in and build some character. As usual, we waited until the last minute to make our plans, so Friday morning I got on the phone to find a campground nearby that wasn't already booked. Then, the kids and I dusted the cobwebs off of the camping equipment, bought some food and packed up. Once Chris got home, we rolled out headed for the Deer Trail Campground in Wytheville, VA. So far so good.
The first order of operation was making foil dinners. The kids had no idea what foil dinners where, but loved the idea of making their individual packets.

While the dinners cooked we headed over to the playground for some fun.

Dinner was fabulous, in fact, we've decided that foil dinners are the best food ever!

That is, after S'mores of course. Amber really enjoyed getting all marshmallowy.

After S'mores the kids were begging to go to bed (I think they were just excited to get into the tents). But, as all good parents should do, we told them No and made them stay up. We sang some campfire songs and I told them a story about the Man in the Moon, but the fun couldn't last forever and we finally tucked them into their sleeping bags. This is where things start to go from all fun to character building. First of all, we don't actually have sleeping bags for everyone so some people had to share. After playing a game of musical tents during the middle of the night, some people finally got some sleep, the rest of us froze. Those that were sleeping were then awakened by an earth shattering sound also known as, a Rooster. (By the way, roosters do not only crow when the sun comes up, they also do it all through the night.)

So, cold, tired, and dirty we drug ourselves out of bed and started a fire to keep warm and cook breakfast. Pretty soon the sense of warm bacon and eggs in our bellies had us lulled into thinking we were ready for more adventure. In our sleep deprived state we made the decision to go hiking. We do love to hike so we headed for a trail called "The Seven Sisters," named such because it takes you over the top of seven mountain ranges. At the trailhead the sign read 4.8 miles and we were like, "Well, we'll just go a little ways and then come back."

Things started out okay, there were lots of neat things to see, especially the cool fungi.

The weather was perfect, not to hot, not to cold, so we kept going up and up.

Amber fell asleep, but that was okay because she was just being carried anyway. We stopped for a snack and decided to keep going. There were orange blazes on the trees to mark the trail, but no markers to tell us how far we'd gone, so we kept going. We climbed one of the "sisters" that we named Killer because it was about a 45 degree angle up, then stopped for lunch (and a nap for me). By this time everyone was pretty tired, but we had gone far enough that we figured we were about half-way done and might as well go the rest of the way to the top to see the view and down the other side (this was not a unanimous decision, but an executive one). Krystal started to get really tired so we tried to distract her with comedy acts that will forever remind us of this trip ("What's he doing? He's eatin' a bush, that's what he's doing").

Finally after a couple more "sisters" we made it to this sign. It reads, "Highest point on trail 3310 ft." and showed that there were still 2 more miles if we kept going in the direction we were headed and 3 miles if we went back the way we came. We were proud to know we had ascended about 800 ft., but disappointed to find that there was no view, it being blocked by trees all around and this hike was taking a lot longer than we had anticipated. This was the point when tears were shed and we learned a great lesson - once you get to the top of a mountain, there's only one way to get off, keep going. So that's what we did. Needless to say, we made it. We sang songs, we gave piggyback rides, we had some scraped up knees, but all in all, we are in tact and can live with the satisfaction of knowing that we conquered "The Seven Sisters." We talked about all the things we learned about ourselves on this hike, about how we learned to persevere, to rely on our family, that things were easier when we kept a good attitude, and that we could do anything we set our minds to. I hope that once all our sore muscles have healed we can look back on this experience and be happy for the character that we've built and that those traits will help us with the challenges that we will face in this life.

Anyone want to go camping next weekend?

Modest is hottest

Recently Grandma Mattson sent the girls some new Barbie clothes. The girls are always dressing up their Barbies and then saying things like, "This dress is so pretty, but it's not modest." The new clothes they received prompted Krystal to design some new fashions. Every time I see her Barbies, they are now layered in very creative combinations of clothes. This is Krystal's solution for a strapless dress and a belly shirt. Wouldn't it be great if in the future we would hear coming from the catwalk in Paris, "And here is Pinky Pie (Barbie's name) sporting the latest fashion of modesty from famous designer, Krystal Rose. She starts this combination with a long sleeve shirt with small stripes of olive green and hot pink, followed by a turquiose tafeta dress which is then covered with a wide-striped belly shirt that breaks all the rules in matching colors. To top off the outfit Pinkie Pie is wearing her knee length riding boots, lest her evening dress catch a breeze and show a little skin." Well, maybe these designs won't ever hit the runways, but I think it's adorable and wouldn't mind at all if my girls decided to express themselves by donning such outfits as teens rather than the scanty styles that are so prevalent today.