An Evening Walk

Tonight I said "screw the dishes and the laundry" and the girls and I took an evening walk down to the lighthouse. I didn't realize I needed it so badly until I was there. We've spent a fair amount of time at this park, but realistically not as much as we should be spending... I get wrapped up in my little to-do lists, and forget to just put it all down and leave. Regardless, this is my happy place here, and I'm very thankful for it.

I'm noticing a pattern--where ever we live we have one LOVELY place near our house we can retreat to quickly... a bit of nature, times when there aren't any or a lot of people. A bit of refuge for a family that thrives on being in the wilderness, and feels it dearly when the wilderness isn't an option. Pledging to notice and appreciate that place, wherever we are. This park would be that place for us in this location we live now. 

It was a magical slow sunset with many phases and colors.

Also, there were a few seals, and a few dorsal fins that went by (someone said dolphins--all I saw was dorsals so I'm not going to claim to know what they were attached to), and you could see fish jumping everywhere you looked. Sadly, the resident Bald Eagle that's usually perched in his tree wasn't there tonight, but the other wildlife made up for it a bit. 

The lighthouse here is completely underwhelming but the park is spectacular, especially at sunset.

No, I'm not letting my 2 month old's head flop about. She INSISTS that it be this way, and if you try to support it or move it in any way, she will FLIP OUT on you. Ever since she was born she's liked her head tilted back, and she sleeps that way a lot. Today was our first day with the Moby Wrap, a gift from my grandparents, and I really appreciate it. I think its going to be a huge help with my little snuggler. I actually managed to start planning for next year's school--miracle of miracles, so YAY! I have most of the curriculum planned out, I did that this last spring, but now I need to sit down and look through it all and build a schedule so we can start soon.

Skipping rocks.

On this night Brianna finally conquered skipping rocks, and pretty consistently skipped them between four and six times. I was impressed. :-)

The apex of the sunset.

Wading and singing. Always singing. :-) And always happiest in any sort of water. Love both those things about her.

The end of the sunset lit the sky pink, which reflected over Commencement Bay. It was lovely. This photo is without any filters. It really was that pink.

The old lighthouse keeper's cottage.

The original apple trees from the original orchard of the original lighthouse builder and keeper.

Completely unimpressed by it all. As of noon today she finished eating for just about thirty hours straight--at least every hour, so she did a lot of sleeping today. A huge dragonfly thing flew under her chin and flapped about in my cleavage for a few minutes. It bothered her not, but I was a dancing maniac for a few seconds there. Gladly, the dragonfly extraction happened fairly painlessly. 

The gorgeous deep blue final glow and golden water.

Trying the green apples.

And, a walk home in the dark... where Brianna didn't get off the side of the road fast enough right at a corner a car was driving around too fast (I think she thought she was off the road, but she wasn't actually) and last minute I grabbed her arm and flung her into the ditch.

Me, after the fact: Brianna, you scared 10 years off my life!!
Keira, very dryly: That's a new record!

{Beyond Belated} Father's Day Interview, 2012

Anyone who reads my blog will know why this is so belated, so I will not offer excuses. No, I will not.

However, I wasn't willing to NOT do it, so here it is, in all it's belated glory.

What is something that Daddy always says to you?
K: I love you!
B: I love you!

What makes Daddy happy?
K: Staying home with his girls.
B: Going out on Daddy dates with us!

What makes Daddy laugh?
K: Conversations with you!
B: Huge farts and burps!

How does Daddy make you laugh?
K: When he says something weird.
B: When he tickles us!

What did Daddy like to do when he was a kid?
K: Ride his bike.
B: Go to bed.

How old is Daddy?
K: 33? I think?
B: 33? I think?

How tall is Daddy?
K: 11 feet, 10 inches
B: 6 feet

What does Daddy do when you're not around?
K: Play games on the computer.
B: Goes to work.

If Daddy became famous, what would be be famous for?
K: His Barbeque!!
B: Making money for us!

What is Daddy really good at?
K: Barbecuing!
B: Teasing us!

What is Daddy NOT really good at?
K: Making beds.
B: He's good at everything!

What does Daddy do for his job?
K: He's a Senior Manager. He tells people what to do, and stuff.
B: He makes money. I don't like that question. It's too complicated.

What is Daddy's favorite food?
K: Pizza.
B: Duke's Whiskey Chowder

What makes you proud of your Daddy?
K: Everything. Every day he gets up super early and goes to work and works hard to get paid so we can buy groceries and other important stuff.
B: I just love that he's my Daddy!

What makes you happy he's your Daddy?
K: He takes good care of us.
B: He's a really good snuggler.

If Daddy were an animal, what kind of animal would he be?
K: An alligator.
B: A giraffe. Or a hippo! A skinny hippo.

What do you and Daddy do together?
K: Go on Daddy dates. We also watch videos together. Once my body armor comes and dad's comfortable on his bike than we're going on motorcycle rides together all the time, that's for sure.
B: Go on Daddy dates. Go to Bullwinkle's and Red Robin. Go to the airport together. Watch Star Wars. We mow the lawn together. We change oil together.

How are you and Dad the same?
K: We have the same feet.
B: We are both good at golfing!

How are you and Dad different?
K: Well, he's a boy, and I'm a girl.
B: I look more like you, Mommy. Also, he's bald and I'm not.

How do you know Daddy loves you?
K: Well, he takes care of us.
B: Well, he says he loves me!

Where's Daddy's favorite place to go?
K: His favorite place to go is any place where we can camp.
B: He likes to go on Daddy dates with us.

What does Daddy like about Momma?
K: You gave birth to three of his sweetie pies, such as me, Brianna and Daria. And you're pretty. And you love Jesus, just like him.
B: Well, you are his wife. You'll just have to ask him that yourself. I'm sure he does like that you gave birth to us.

Five Things

In this Great Parenting Experiment (as I call it) there's any manner of things that:

1. You can hear about, and know immediately will never work for your family.

2. You can hear about, think they're great, set about implementing them, and discover that for some reason they will never work for your family.

3. You hear about or think of, try, don't like, change/tweak a little and it works for a while and then you have to change your approach, or it works perfectly forever.

4. You just do the way your mom always did. It works.

5. You do THE OPPOSITE of how your mom did. 

6. You do on a wild hair one day, and it turns out to be the best thing ever, and totally works for your family, and is implemented from there on out.

And so on and so forth. Or perhaps some variation of the above.

Thankfully, oh so thankfully, there is grace for the stuff we screw up. And, there's so much joy and memories to be made in the stuff we get right.

Also, the pics for this post are all random. In case you couldn't figure that out for yourself. Just call me Captain Obvious.

Making a snack plate before school begins. Brianna is obsessed with knives, or blades of any kind. So, we've been learning to use them safely. 

 These are just a few of the things that I've implemented this year that have made a difference in my sanity, and the peace in our home. Completely random stuff.  They cover a broad spectrum of items, and they've all been implemented from different emotions on my behalf, from pure frustration and irritation or complete silliness and goofiness with just a dash of serious.  I would like to say that making it a point to know and observe my kids and what works for them is why, but all these things have been more incidental than that.

Doing school outside on a sunny February day.

 #1. Having them clean up after each other, and us. 
Am I the only mother that gets BEYOND annoyed when I say to pick up the living room, and the only things they pick up is their stuff?! One day this winter, I was sick, exhausted, and completely beyond patience with that, and sat down on the couch with them after . Mostly just as an excuse to sit down, if I'm being completely honest. I explained that as a family, we were in this together. We live together, and we each play a part in keeping our household running. If they wanted Daddy to keep buying them food and clothes, and me to keep cooking and doing laundry for them, they were to pick up after us and each other when instructed, NO COMPLAINTS. If there was even the slightest bit of complaining, the complainer would have to pick up the whole house alone, and serve the other kid beverages and snacks while they were doing it. I told you I was mad. Somehow it worked. I've never had to implement that discipline, for the record. All I say in the evening is "We're going to straighten up the house now, everybody remember to clean everything up, regardless of if it's yours or not." I think that reminder and warning is fair enough--they are children, after all. It's been SO good for them to have that attitude about straightening up the house.

I love these pictures. Brianna helping Daddy build a new computer.

#2. Having some sort of healthy snack at the ready during school.

It's entirely likely that this won't work for everyone. But for me, I have two kids that snack, constantly. Their snacks are pretty healthy, so it's not a habit I'm concerned about, and actually would rather encourage because it's healthier for our metabolism to eat in small healthy amounts when hungry all day long. I got tired of hearing "I'M HUNGRYYYYYYY!!!" every 10 minutes when we were doing school. So, we usually work together to have some sort of fruit or vegetable with dip or peanut butter on the table during school, or maybe pretzel sticks. They are allowed to munch while they are working. It makes such a difference in their contentedness, and my peace.

 #3. Having a supply of pencils for the dropping. 
Am I the only homeschooling mom who may actually murder someone someday due to them dropping a pencil?! Holy Moley. This drives me completely rathouse crazy. Approximately 8,000 times a day the pencils would go flying. Then, the child would then, in the SLOOOOWWWWWEST fashion possible, revolve into an upside down position in their chair, arms and legs flailing about, while singing some random song, or saying some random thing that has no bearing whatsoever on the Very Important Thing I am teaching them, and as I sit there not-so-patiently, I must admit. Then that agonizing process would repeat itself in reverse. 8,000 times a day, I tell you.  So, in one of those (far and few) moments of clarity, I went to our supply basket and sharpened a handful of pencils. They have to drop ALL the pencils on the floor (usually I try to keep about 8 in rotation) before they can do their obnoxious little revolve to an upside-down position in their chair thing. Once all their pencils are on the floor, I get up, tip-toe over the pencils and go do some little other thing until they're done dreamily and singily collecting them from the floor, and we go back to Very Important Thing we were learning. Much better than a lifetime sentence for murder.

#4. Having them read each other's dictation sentences. 

This was one of those things that was born from me needing to get laundry done. I ran down the stairs one day to switch loads, and told them to read each other their dictation sentences for the day, and work together to correct any mistakes. They do it for each other, so any superiority towards each other is promptly flung back on the flip side. I usually stay out of that, other than the occasional verbal reminders for kindness, and that turnabout is fair play. Generally though, I've found that they do a good job in supporting each other, and it's been a nice introduction into learning together and working as a team. The answers are right in front of the reading one, and the prompting that happens between them is cute and fun to listen to from my perspective.

A special treat for two girls who really miss camping. A "slumber party" in the living room, complete with berry smoothies and the ever present Tintin books.

#5.  Fight Resolution
My kids get along pretty well. They have their snits here and there, but for them most part they resolve things  between the two of them. And, generally, I stay out of their way when they fight. Everyone has a different opinion on sibling warfare. Obviously it's not something I promote, but it's within one's family where one first learns how to get along with everyone else in the world, and I don't think it's my place to step between my kids and forcibly settle their differences. I definitely want daughters who work together towards compromise, who realize that everyone comes from a different point of view, and I also want daughters who are strong and confident, and stand for what is right and don't take crap off people. I WANT strong-willed children. If I left that sentences there, that might be concerning. BUT, to clarify: I want strong-willed children whose desire is towards God, who will be strong in their faith and values and confident is His love and care for them, and who will always stand STUBBORNLY and WILLFULLY with Christ and a heart for Him against the many, many, many temptations they will see in virtually every moment of their days, especially as they get older and go out into the world to college, jobs, etc. My job is to guide them in that path. And, I don't think stepping between them when they fight enables them towards being able to think for themselves, or resolve differences for themselves, or to know when they need to walk away. So, I try to keep an eye on their battles and only step in to guide them towards a resolution.

All that being said, I happened upon a verse in my devotions that spoke to me with regards to not just my kid's battles with people, but some of my own too. And, I set about memorizing it. And then one day the kids were fighting and I wanted to remind them of Whom they serve, and decided they should memorize it too. And, I was in a goofy mood. And, this Fight Resolution Process sort of came about from there.

First of all I have them quote:

Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may, with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Romans 15: 5-6


Then I have them do all, or at least a few of the following:
*Touch foreheads
*Touch Noses
*Touch chins (They're always giggling at this point. Have you ever touched chins with someone? It's weird.)
*Hug
*Do Air Kissing on each other's cheeks--usually I'll say " do air kisses pretending you're a bird, or an elephant waving his trunk, or some other random animal, and they're full on giggling together while they flap their arms and attempt proper air kissing procedure at the same time.
*Shake their booties
*Say something loving to each other or compliment each other. I change this one up every time.

This has been my favorite parenting "thing" that has evolved this year--because it's equal parts serious and goofy, and reminds them that they are best friends. So far they've set about resolving their differences and figuring their fights out on their own after the above procedure.

What are some random, possibly odd, or maybe a little goofy things that you do with your kids to make your life easier, or works towards teaching them all you want to them to learn in a fun way?

Interview with Keira and Brianna, 2012

And so commences the annual interview that I usually try to do in the first quarter. Previous year's interviews can be found here: 2011, 2010, 2009. I know, they are getting a little big for this. I don't care. I'm actually really loving seeing their answers and tastes change the older they get, and what stays the same. I highly recommend annually interviewing your kids in some capacity, if you don't do it already.

The photos for this post are random--as in, literally from just snapshots here and there I stick in a folder to be blogged, should I ever need random blogging photos.

From our solitary snowstorm earlier this year.

(I have to say, their food answers crack me up a little. Rest assured, even though there is a lot of junk food in these answers, we don't eat like this, these are all major treats.)

What is your favorite cereal?
K: Honey Bunches of Oats
B:Fruit Loops

What is your favorite vegetable?
K: Do I have to say I like any vegetables? Peas, I guess.
B: Tomatoes!!! I love all vegetables, but I love tomatoes most of all!!

What is your favorite drink?
K: Pepsi
B: Orange Soda

What is your favorite toy?
K: Probably the doll I bought for myself.
B: My stuffed animals, Doggie and Moosie

What is your favorite book?
K: Calvin and Hobbes, "Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons"
B: Calvin and Hobbes, "Something Under the Bed is Drooling"

What is your favorite movie?
K: Tintin, and Puss in Boots
B: Tintin and Signs

(Yes, we had a family movie night where the kids insisted upon a scary movie, and Signs was the best one we could think of that would be reasonably appropriate for their age. To be clear, they don't scare easily, so we weren't too worried. It ended up being really fun to watch with them--opened the door for neat conversations about movie making, directing and acting, scores and how they affect the mood of what you're watching, screenplay, etc., as well as one of the primary subject matters of the movie--whether things just happen, or are part of God's design for our lives. I wouldn't recommend it for just any kid, but it worked out really well for ours in an alternating watch the movie/pause and discuss sort of fashion. They're still completely freaked out anytime we click our mouths at them though, hahahaha!)

What is your favorite show?
K: Spongebob Squarepants
B: Spongebob Squarepants

What is your favorite restaurant?
K: Red Robin
B: Red Robin

What is your favorite holiday?
K: Christmas
B: Christmas

What is your favorite animal?
K: Bobcats and Wolverines
B: Zebras and Giraffes

What is your favorite song?  
K: Celtic Thunder "Working Man"
B: Queen "We are the Champions"

What is your favorite game?
K: Candy Land
B: Candy Land and Memory

 If you could change your name, what would you change it to?
K: Christina
B: Mia

What do you love about Daddy?
K: He's goofy. I dig goofy, just so you know.
B: He's silly.

What do you love about Momma?
K: I love that you're pregnant. I suppose it's kinda rude to say I love you only because you're pregnant. I love you because you're nice too.
B: I just love you because you're pregnant.

Keira, what do you love about Brie?
K: I love that she is SO LOUD, all the time. But really I love her because she is just so much cuteness! Any time you have Brie around, you have a whole lotta cuteness, all around you!

Brie, what do you love about Keira?
B: I love her because she plays games with me all the time, and she loves me.

 Where should we vacation this year?
K: Greta and Bennie's house!
B: Greta and Bennie's house, because I want to see Vinny! (their dog.)

A lot of reading is happening around here lately... mostly Tintin and Calvin and Hobbes.  It's fun to watch them read and fall in love with the characters that we loved as kids. 

What are you looking forward to doing this year?
K: Camping, having the baby, Spring and Summer when we can wake up in the morning and put our bathing suits on, and wear them all day long.
B: Camping, having the baby, throwing water balloons at Keira, wearing my Keens all the time.

Math Drillin' {Wrap-Ups}

My beautiful girls, making palm trees out of strawberry tops. They can't resist strawberries, EVER, and I got nagged into buying them the last time we were at Costco.

Since we're about five months into school (1st grade) I figured it was about time to do a review on a few of our favorite things so far. This year has been a real learning experience for all of us for a few different reasons.
1. We've gone from having sounder-outers to voracious readers. (YAY!!!!)
2. Moving made school at first a bit challenging. Homeschooling also made moving easier, however, so I'm thankful for that!! I'd say we skipped about 6 weeks total over the first 2.5 months of school, if that makes sense. We just fit it in on days that we could, and sometimes we had to stop halfway through because things would come up. It was somewhat hit and miss there for a while. So, we've had a bit of catching up to do, for my standards. The girls have worked really really hard, and we're now on track to finish about the middle of June. Thankfully they're still working pretty hard, so I'm thinking/hoping we might actually finish 1st grade around the middle of May, even with a few weeks of vacation thrown in there.
3. I've been making a solid attempt at getting them used to working independently. This has been slow going at times, but seems to be coming along really well. I certainly am there for them always, but I want them to be able to work without me nagging them through it.

 So, these math drills came with the curriculum that we bought this year. And, I am SO glad they did. At first they really presented a challenge, because even though I was in love with them, the kids didn't care for them that much (As time goes by, I am realizing that my kids are NOT kinesthetic learners.) so it's taken me a little bit to figure out how to get them to use them to the best advantage, and happily. I think we've finally figured it out, and I'm so glad.

Originally when we started using them, since the kids hated them, it ended up being more of a discipline thing... and I HATED that I felt compelled to do this because I NEVER EVER EVER EVER want math to be used as a discipline. EVER!!!! I hated math as a kid, and my number one goal for homeschooling is to create kids that aren't intimidated by math, are comfortable with it, and even just maybe, love it. I'm somewhat slowly realizing that love can only come with a solid foundation of knowing, without hesitation, their addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts, off the top of their heads. So my primary math goal this year is to have two kids that can, without hesitation or effort, add and subtract 1-10 quickly and easily.

So, their math curriculum last year was Horizon Math... and they got a good intro to addition and subtraction skills out of it... excellent, actually. BUT, they hate-hate-hated doing math. This year when I ordered Timberdoodle's Core Curriculum they changed the math program to be three workbooks and the wrap-ups--yes, THREE WORKBOOKS!!! (Even for my workbook lovin' self, that's a bit excessive.) They were:

1. Jump At Home Math (A really cool concept, just hasn't worked for my kids.-I wish I'd gotten them the second grade book instead of the first, I think that would have helped a lot. The first grade book would be great for Kindergarten.)
2. Mathematical Reasoning (A great intro to math facts, and also using math in real life, as well as algebra, geometry, logic, deductive reasoning, etc. A really fun book, if a bit expensive. I recommend. I would say it's a supplement though, not a core math book.)
3. Daily Word Problems (a great concept, and reasonable good book as a supplement.)
and,
4. Drilling addition and subtraction with wrap-ups. (They also have about a bajillion other ones, including fractions, multiplication and division.)

When we started this it seemed a little excessive, but as time went by, and their little shoulders deflated every time I pulled math out, I realized this was NOT going to work. I was failing in my attempt to help them enjoy it, and the huge stack of books was sucking the fun right out of it. So, we had to re-evaluate. And we talked about it, and reformatted our days. They LOVE the Mathematical Reasoning book, and can easily go through 6 pages a day. Brianna begs to do it. The Jump Math book was way too easy for them, and seemed to be when they would deflate the most, so that one had to go. And, I think that the Daily word problems are useful, so I wanted them to keep doing those. Except it was killing their spirits to have this big old stack of books in front of them every day, even though with the Daily Word Problems they were only doing one relatively easy problem in the book, it was mentally overwhelming to have that stack.

So, I changed it up so they do between 4 and 6 pages of the Mathematical Reasoning four days a week, and then one day we do The Daily Word Problems book. Except we usually do about two weeks worth of work when we do it... 10 word problems is not that hard. And, I have them fit the wrap ups in while I'm working with the other kid on reading or whatever, and about two to three days a week we sit down with the wrap-ups as our sole focus together and drill with the timer... and they try to beat their own times, NOT each other's, as competition between them is a recipe for disaster around here.

(Side Note: I LOVE workbooks. Nothing makes me happier than a workbook. This year the curriculum was super heavy on the workbooks... and I'll talk more about this later as I do a few more school posts. But, I've realized that while my children don't mind workbooks, this curriculum has been too workbook heavy for them. So, I've had to do a lot of adjusting as the year has gone by to make sure they're getting all the important pieces without feeling overwhelmed by workbooks. I am SO SO thankful for Timberdoodle's Core Curriculum choices, and all I've learned from them, but next year I'm putting together my own curriculum... Eeek! Anyway, I would highly recommend their packages, especially to new homeschooling moms. They are well laid out, all-inclusive, and the charting is done for you so you immediately know what needs to get done every week to accomplish a year in 36 weeks.)

They were being particularly goofy on this day. It's always nice to have happy kids when we're doing school.

 So, the wrap-ups are a stack of 10 plastic pieces with one number on one side, and then each piece is a PLUS 1-10, or SUBTRACT 1-10 piece. The possible answers are on the other side. So, the child takes the string, starts on the left, subtracts or adds the number, and wraps the string to the answer on the right.

Thinking...

 When they are done, they can check their work with the raised plastic "lines" on the back of the wrap up.

 Success!

 Fist PUMP-YEAH!

I keep track of each kid's time per wrap-ups, and we usually focus on four at a time, or so. Since we haven't been doing it this way this long, right now we're keeping track of their times for +1, +2, +3, -1, -2, -3, and we're independently working on +/-4, +/-5, +/-6 without timers.  They are pretty fast at +/-1, both around 25 seconds a piece. I think after they get to the point of 20 seconds per number we'll move them up a digit and time them for 2, 3, 4, and keep at it like that.

Their favorite part is after they are done then I go through them all 1-10 for them, and THEY time ME! They haven't beat me yet on any numbers, but I hope they do soon. That will be a proud day. :-)

These would be great not just for home schooled kids, but also for drilling math facts for ANY kid. They're a piece of cake to use in the car also. Additionally, an added bonus has been how it has helped them with their fine motor skills as well. I have one child who's a little more challenged by that, and one that is really good at all fine-motor things, and my challenged one had a hard time with this at first. Her fine motor skills  have significantly improved as we have used these.

Stay tuned for just a few more school-stuff reviews!

2011 Portraits and...

 A few days back we awoke to a fog horn blasting our ears off, so the girls and I did school and housework as quickly as possible and headed down to the lighthouse to squeeze some foggy portraits into our busy day.

 It was 37 degrees out, so pretty cold for pictures. Keira refused to wear a jacket as usual, because it's really just too warm here you know, and Brie had on a sweatshirt over her darling portrait shirt, and refused to take it off. So, it was an "annual portraits in less than 10 minutes" sort of situation.

Their momma has been so busy the past few months and didn't have time to get our usual Autumn-colors-in-Wenatchee-Sunshine portraits done before the move took place. So instead we have Cold and Foggy Puget Sound portraits. They turned out well enough for a quick picture situation, and I'm just glad we have some sort of portraits at this point. 

 I'm crashing. And when I say I'm crashing, what I mean is that I. AM. CRASHING. from running on adrenaline since about the beginning of August. CRASHING. HARD.

 And I have all these post ideas swimming around in my head, and all these projects that I need to do, and laundry is coming out my ears, and all I can think is that I want to curl up on my couch with a blanket and sleep. And I can't seem to catch up on any of it, or figure out my rhythm for any of my daily work. I know it'll come, and I just need to be patient with myself in the meantime, but it's driving me a little crazy right now.

So, instead I'm trying to cut the to-do list WAY back, and focus on the absolute essentials like schoolwork and eating, and just be thankful to have a somewhat straightened house at the end of the day. 

  I am so thankful for these children of mine. They're growing by leaps and bounds. These pictures crack me up because between the two of them they've lost enough teeth to outfit a whole mouth. Brie actually lost another tooth after we took these pictures.

  And, they're in that awkward stage where their limbs are growing so quickly they don't realize how long their arms and legs are, and they're knocking things over with alarming regularity.

Which is no big deal the first few times, frustrating the second few times, and just plain ridiculous and borderline funny the next few times. 

They are such a huge blessing to me, and I am so thankful for them.

I'm going to pat myself on the back for actually getting a blog post done now, and see if I can continue my winning streak with some laundry and kitchen cleaning. Yeehaw!