The Mergenthaler Family

We have had a lot of conversations with the kids about not only choosing the right, but also standing for the right even when it may not seem the popular choice. A couple of weeks ago, Andrew showed me that some of our teaching has sunk in. He had gone to play at a friend's house, and when I went to pick him up, his mom said she had a funny story about Andrew:  The boys were gathered in the kitchen eating a snack. Andrew's friend asked Andrew if he had ever tried the hot Cheezits. Andrew hadn't, so they pulled out the box and each boy got some. The other boys began eating their crackers, but  Andrew noticed some writing on the box that disturbed him. He quickly told the friend's mom, "I don't eat tobacco, so I can't eat these crackers."  The mom was a little taken back until she realized that Andrew was misreading the box which said, "Made with TOBASCO!"  She said, "We don't eat tobacco either, and I'm glad you let me know, but t...

Sean started preschool in the afternoons. He really likes it and I do too. The only tricky part it Brooklyn's nap. Sometimes she crashes at 11:30 and I have to wake her up at noon to drive Sean to preschool. She won't nap again after that and that makes the rest of the day--especially the evening very hard.  He is enjoying doing crafts and projects--especially painting. He likes a few of his classmates, but is annoyed by others (the screamers). We have a lot of talks about being kind. We also talk about how to clearly communicate that something is not OK with you--like being licked or screamed at. Brooklyn is liking school too. She loves to walk the older boys to school each morning.  Of course, for her, accessories are important. She loves shoes and bags. Our house addition is moving right along. I will be honest--it's stressful. I didn't want to move to a new house because of the stress associated with it, but this is comparable.  I also feel wasteful and overly extra...

Summer is hard with all the kids home. The house is suddenly very loud, and it takes everybody awhile to get used to being together so much.  Keeping the family happy and busy doing good things is tricky no matter what, but our age spread makes it more difficult. The teenagers want to hang out with friends, walk to the local frozen yogurt place, go on long bike rides, swim at the public pool, stay up late, and watch TV. The little ones want to do all those things too, but aren't always invited or allowed to. Just when I feel like we are getting a system down, it's time to buy school supplies and pick first day outfits.  Makayla is entering 7th grade. This is her first year at junior high. She has been excited and nervous.  Emily is a sophomore this year. She was probably the most excited about school starting up again (her and Andrew).  Emily's early morning seminary class doesn't start until next week, so the girls are able to walk to the bus stop together in the mo...

You know already that Ricky is our early riser. Lately, he has been trying to get Andrew to wake up early with him. Sometimes it works, but usually it doesn't. This morning at breakfast Andrew and Ricky were talking about why Andrew didn't get up early. Andrew said, "I wanted to wake up early, but I was having the best dream. I was a scientist!  It was awesome!  Also, I was a stick figure. That was cool too."  The dreamy look on Andrew's smiley face told me that he was reliving the best sciencey dream ever as he talked to Ricky. I just laughed to myself because it was such an Andrew-thing to say. While some boys are dreaming of super heroes, Andrew is a stick figure scientist. (I'm sure he has his share of super hero dreams too.) Andrew truly is inquisitive. He remembers facts about all kinds of things. He actually likes to read non-fiction books because he finds them interesting.   We are having some work done on the house and he's always right there aski...

In the boys' birthday post, I told you a little bit about the 83 different Herky statues all over town. Since then, I have learned a little more about them, and we have visited a lot more. If you are curious about these artistic-looking man-birds, you can visit herkyonparade2.com for more information.  Basically, this is only the 2nd time this community-wide art project has been on display.  The last time it happened was 2004 (before we lived here).  Now, in 2014, they are doing it again with even more statues and extended the display to include Coralville and North Liberty in addition to Iowa City.  If I understand it correctly, artists sponsor a bunch of fiberglass statues.  Different people/groups of people make designs and the statues are created.  They are on display from June through August.  In August, the statues will be auctioned off as a fundraiser for the United Way and Johnson County.   For our family, it is simply a fun dive...

The Saturday after the last day of school, Ricky woke up at 6:00 am and and jubilantly declared, "Happy summer everybody!!" And that is how our summer began about two weeks ago. Ricky now has one week of Cub Scout camp behind him and one week of an all-day basketball camp run by the University of Iowa basketball team. Both camps were awesome for Ricky. Most kids would be exhausted after an all-day long camp in the hot summer sun or playing basketball in a stuffy basketball gym with 300 other boys, but Ricky came home each evening excitedly describing the days' events to us and eagerly awaiting the next morning when the fun would begin again. Today, Ricky won the free throw contest at basketball camp for his division. This is a big deal. He had some very talented friends at this camp and there were a lot of kids there!  My picture isn't great of him claiming his award because he didn't know he won and I wasn't expecting his name to be called.  I caught him runn...

Brooklyn is quite the chatterbox lately. She is learning a lot of new words and practices during every waking hour.  She speaks with such expression that it's a shame we can't understand most of what she says. Yesterday, as Brooklyn was chattering away to herself as she drew on her legs with a ball point pen, Sean exclaimed, "Hey, how did Brooklyn learn how to speak Spanish?" Kids are just cute--especially little Mergenthalers. Their smiles and hugs brighten my days, but I especially love how they can make me laugh. Each one of them has a pretty good sense of humor, and the little ones are funny without even trying.