You Don't See That Every Day

Spring is coming! I know its only January but I can see the daylight growing earlier and longer each day, offering hope of time outside not shivering. Our holiday break is over and we are back to the routine. Which is a good thing! The first day back to school was a lot easier for us than the second. We were up and going on time, with the only fussiness when it came time to do math. One child has a little problem with wanting to DO math. She's very good at it, and when she is in the right attitude, she can fly through it. The second day ... well, at 9am and I was just starting to eat breakfast, instead of starting school. And now that we are in week 2, well, I'm dreaming again about break time But about our break .. We packed it in this time. It felt like it to me even if the kids might not agree. The week before Christmas we took off from homeschool, although the older kids still had class at away-school. Choir concerts, singing at the Capitol, dentist and ortho appo...

It's November!!! I am so looking forward to what is in store for us these next couple of months, even though I can't tell the future -  I just feel it's going to be great. I was ready for November about the middle of October. Is it because my daughters have been playing Christmas music since September? (No!) Or maybe it's because the change in the weather and the colors of the leaves, have me enjoying the cycles of life. For Halloween we walked the neighborhood for trick-or-treating with our youngest two, and some neighbor friends. Walking with friends made it even more fun this year. And the weather cooperated wonderfully. The stash wasn't as big as it has been in years past when we had 3, 4, 5 kids collecting, but there is still plenty of sugar and chocolate to go around. Little K dressed as a 50s girl, and was quite excited to get to wear make-up. The other sister went as her Dad (although he doesn't actually have a mustache). That's what she threw toge...

The snow they teased us with never arrived. We had some flakes falling yesterday morning, making the air so beautiful and magical enough to tempt me outside on a run. I haven't run in two weeks and a few snowflakes got me back out there. But this morning we woke up to sunshine and cold temperatures. Not very enticing, but I'm still going to get myself out the door. In other adventures - we are now tree farmers. Back in December we (meaning mainly The Mr, and the Boy) planted over 300 hazelnut tree starts on the farm. We're planning for our future, but right now it looks pretty ... skinny. Swim season is over! Wow it went fast! For the past 3 months our Girl who Swims has been up before 5 am almost every day, to go swim. She didn't partake of sweets and desserts, except on Christmas and New Years, and she worked hard. All that added up to going to the State Meet this past weekend in 3 races! This is the first year she made it in an individual race - which was very ...

Saturday was the Big Day. Our Upward basketball players had their first games of the season. It was So. Much. Fun! Little K is on the 1st-2nd grade team, and we can see the difference already between last year and this year. Her dribbling skills have improved; she can actually get the ball up to the basket and even sometimes into the basket; and she seems to understand the difference between offense and defense this year. Like all my other kids, her defense is definitely a strong point. My kids seem to know how to stay on their player and make them uncomfortable. Which is the only time I can encourage this. Beyond that though, she loves to practice; she loves her team; she loves her coaches; and I think, she loves the game of basketball. She hasn't diagrammed any plays on the white board for us at home, yet, but we are just beginning. Her older sister has come out of retirement and re-entered the basketball arena after a hiatus of a few years. It took her a few practices to...

November has been busy and fun! It's one of my favorite times of year. Not just because of the upcoming break from school or the feast we are planning, but because it is basketball season! One of the girls and I spent a Sunday afternoon making Christmas cards at my sister's house. It's one of my rare crafty times. The fall leaves are coming down in torrents, but they are so beautiful that I don't mind raking them up (or watching the kids rake them)   The girls and I made a little video for our Hawaiian friend, and for our Friends in Peru  - this is the road we drove down towards the school. It is just gorgeous in the fall! The video doesn't do it justice though, And our girl, the Chef, is playing basketball! The team has lost one game so far, out of 7. She has even scored a basket, and we have seen her skills improve in just the short time she has been playing. She played a couple of years on the Upward Basketball team, but the school team is a step abo...

 Many dream of candlelight dinners and fancy chocolates for St. Valentines' Day. I've always been a little different. There was that one Valentines when my brand-new husband of 9 months took me to a shooting range for a treat. This year we had a family holiday.  We took the kids to an OSU women's basketball game. The team is nationally ranked - 7th! - and they are so fun to watch! Little K decided to stay at my sister and brother-in-laws house with my other sister; the rest of us went to see the Beavs crush the Wildcats. And it was a crush. 73-48 final score.  I'm not so good at taking selfies, but my girl is pretty cute. And we saw Abe Lincoln there - good to know he is an OSU fan.  It was a lovely day, with family; the first hot dogs and burgers of the year, along with potato salad at lunchtime. And then a 3 mile walk with my Mr (without kids!) It was a great way to 'celebrate' this holiday.

December is running by me way too quickly. I have some of the Christmas cards addressed; I have a tree up in a stand, but no decorations on it; the cards we received are strung up at least. We might even do some baking tomorrow. And maybe two gifts have been attained. But time is racing away. Maybe partly due to the fact that I have been a little busy these days. In the past 6 days two of the children have had 9 basketball games between them, along with practices for their sister. Which means a lot of driving and scheduling on my part. There was one day I literally had to write down the times of games and practices (and, oh, throw in drama presentation too,) so that I would not miss someone's time for drop off or pick up. And guess what ... a child was missed. It had to happen at some point. * Flashback * When I was little, my family left me behind at a football game. The sister thought I was with the parents. The parents thought I was with the sister. I decided to just walk my l...

Fall usually means football, candles, pumpkins, wood stoves, hats, and finally a chance to wear my boots again. But it also means we are starting to get ready for basketball! I love basketball. Ever since I was a sophomore in high school and begged my mom to play on the team. Love to watch it, love to play it, and now I love to 'coach' my kids on it. No, not like one of "those" parents who coaches (ie. screams) from the sidelines. Earlier in the week, I had the girls out on the driveway practicing some drills. Tryouts are coming up soon, and they want to be ready. THEY want to be ready. (just for clarification here) So I dug back to the recesses of my playing days and drug out some drills for them to go through. Basic stuff, nothing fancy - passing, dribbling, lay-ins (oh, how I did not like those lay-in drills). And it was fun. I had fun talking them through what to do. And I think they had fun trying out what mom was saying. At least they didn't rebel or stomp...

In my corner of the world, life goes on despite the illness in the house: --the basketball team from my high school is playing against our son's high school basketball team this weekend. I really wanted to go watch, but due to health-money-travel-time-commitments, we won't be going this year. It's not like our son is playing .. if he was we would definitely be there! Maybe next year. --My husband started a new job! For years we were praying for a change, and we thought we had a chance at a job last summer, only to lose it at the last minute. Looking back, we see what a good thing that was, because this job the Mr. has now is exactly what he needs and what he wanted. It's pretty exciting when he comes home at night in a good mood, looking forward to actually going to work the next day. --Our girl Dot was in Awana Bible Quiz this past weekend. She didn't place this year, but she actually stood up and answered a question - which itself I find hard, because you ...

It's officially the start of training season for me. Which means I have 17 weeks to go until the marathon. Yikes. It wasn't so big a deal when I knew I was 19+ but now, having a week done and looking at the calendar, I am feeling a minor twinge of apprehension. Yesterday was day 3 of my 3 in a row run. And by last night I was Tired. I'll be finding a nap today at some point. So I can be ready for the long run this weekend! We're also volunteering at a local race this weekend. It will be my first time on the other side of a road race. Ive helped at cross country meets some, but this is like a real road race with grown-ups and serious runners and everything. I am pretty excited about it! In other sports news. ... basketball season is nearly at an end! How can that be?! It seems like the Boy just started! It has been fun to watch him progress and really improve on his game. I just love watching basketball whether he is in the game or not! He was named captain of the ...

Well the new year has begun, and we're back to the same old daily schedule, which is never the same because if you have kids and if you home school, no day is the same as the any other. The beginning of the week was brutal. Tired kids, tired parents, weepy kids, teeth-gritting parents. Over the break we all stayed up late nearly every night and didn't get up early. So when the first day of school came, and the 'regular' get-up-time came around, the no-sleep fog inhibited our brains. My daughter, during math class that morning, said she forgot how to do long division. Pull.My.Hair.Out. How do you forget this?! Well, when sleep-deprived I guess anything happens. Today, Thursday, I let them sleep in. Wednesday nights are pretty crazy with church activities, so we take the next morning really easy. I even went back to bed to cuddle with my youngest, and ended up snoozing some more. So far all I have heard are giggles instead of fussiness. What a beautiful sound. Two o...

It was a full week this past one - somewhere to go, do, be, each and every day. My girl started basketball this week. She hasn't played in years, so it was a little intimidating, but I am pretty excited to see her out there, trying!The Boy finished up cross country this week. He made a PR (20:13) and placed really well for JV. The weather was perfect for spectating - a little warm for running, but they managed. A couple of the kids on the team are heading to the state meet this coming weekend. Earlier - ok last week! - we helped make some necklaces and magnets for our friends. They are in the process of adopting two kids from China, and they are selling items to raise funds. Here is just one of there many creations - isn't it cute?! The have a plethora of choices for necklaces. If you want to peruse (and buy one!) check out Heinz Adoption on facebook and look at the photos!   More in the next post of the rest of the week ...

It is with some sadness that we say goodbye. Goodbye to star ceremonies and late practices. Goodbye to the basketball season 3 of the 5 of our children played basketball this season, and now, finally, we are done with that. Well, mostly. There is one more huge award ceremony, but practices and games and days of spectating are done for one more year. And it was a *good* season. I love basketball,but even I was ready to have a weekend off. Although I seriously told my husband I am thinking of coaching one of my girls next year. The Boy ended his season with a fun little party. The coach put together a dunk contest, along with a skills and shooting contest amongst the 7th and 8th graders. It was a lot of fun to watch them have fun. And, yes, my Boy won one of the contests. Although he is just a little taller than I am now, and nowhere near his dad's height ... the boy can jump! He won the dunk contest. It was pretty cool (she said modestly). Of course there are/were pizza par...

In my corner of the world this past week I did ... our taxes. Just the preliminary figuring. I wrote down the numbers, researched the numbers, added the numbers. It was kind of, sort of, fun. Almost like solving a puzzle. I ran ... and ran! I made it up to 5 miles today! My first mile was alone, kind of a warm up. Then I snagged our dog and ran with her 2 miles. She is such a good pace-setter. And getting better at not chasing the squirrels. Or else they are hiding when we go by. The last 2 miles I exchanged the canine pacer for a minion-pacer.  My daughter and her bicycle helped me finish up. Oh, it feels good to go this distance one again! I baked ... heart sugar cookies last week. Most of them went to my son's basketball team for snacks, but the girls and G got some too. We didn't do a big Valentines Day celebration, because, really every day is a Love-ly day with my family. (But we did watch the Charlie Brown special!) I watched ... plenty of basketball. I love the game...

Oh what a night ... So the Boy had another basketball game last night. They played hard, but ultimately lost the match. It was a little frustrating; well a lot actually. A tough team, a large team - in numbers and size. I was even frustrated and I was trying hard to sit without clenching my hands and jaw. Thankfully the refs were fair and good. I sure didn't know how to talk to the Boy about it afterwards. He had given up in his mind before the game had even begun. There's no way to teach not to do that. After the game I went to a State of the School meeting at my son's school. It was actually fairly interesting. They updated us on costs, security, and other items that affect the school and students. New this year was a special prayer time and I think it was the best part! One person in particular had a very moving prayer; But another parent said something in her prayer that really struck me. She prayed that the children in the school would be a blessing to others . And...

A few things have been going on around here. Namely basketball. Which I love. The boy had another great game on Thursday night. All of the pictures I got were blurry, because the boy is just always in motion. Yeah, that's it. Not because I have lame camera. Right. We also had a birthday celebration Friday night. My sister's birthday was in the middle of the week, and well, because it is basketball season, we couldn't exactly celebrate it on her actual birthday. But cake is cake on any day! Here's the good cake. The second one I made. The first one ... well it sounded good in the recipe, but it flopped when I made it. It stuck to the pan, and didn't look like it had mixed up right. Although when the people clamored for a taste anyway, they said it tasted good. It just looked terrible. The younger girl had a game this morning, and she is improving every week. The new skill I saw this week was keeping her hands up and ready. She is good at this on d...

Basketball has started. I've had a few bad-mom moments because of it. Most of them involve forgetting the camera for the game. oops. At least we're just at the beginning of the season, and there are plenty more games to watch. We've got the Boy playing in the evenings on different days of the week. And two of our girls play on Saturdays. And then there are practices (along with Swimmer Girl's practices). So the Boy's first game was a loss according to the scoreboard. But we were so proud of how well he did. The boy can jump! His rebounding and defensive skills have grown in leaps and bounds (pun intended :)) He has become a much better player than last year. Granted, it's a different team - and coach - than he had last year. But he has grown too, and filled out in the muscles a bit. Yes, it continues to surprise me to see a young man in my house instead of a boy. The girl's games have been fun to watch also. My girls seem to have my non-aggressive way of p...

There are elves in our house! We got many of the Christmas decorations out this week, and even put some up around the house. The Nativity scenes are set out in various places. I'm up to 7 of them now. My girls absconded with the tree skirt shortly after it was brought out. The theme for Awanas last Wednesday was wacky tacky, and so my younger girl wore the tree skirt as as ... well, as a skirt. It was very cute actually, not really tacky, but a little wacky. So it has been in use the rest of the week. Two of the girls started basketball practice this week also. I am so thankful, beyond words thankful, that they both practice on the same day, at the same time, at the same place. Amen! Little sister wanted to come along with me to practice. She actually had a fun time playing on the bleachers. Here she is looking out to the courts from one of the walkways. And I have been attempting to come up with our family Christmas letter this week. I went through the photos of...