You Don't See That Every Day

A day without children. This is not a sentence I can attest to in my household very often. For 16 years I have had a child at home, most of the time. There were the rare occasions when I had a couple of hours alone, but they are far and few between. And I am not complaining! I love being Mom to my five minions. As the oldest gets closer to leaving home, I am cherishing time spent with my kids even more. But today, I was alone in the house for hours without children and the Mr. And I didn't know what to do with the freedom. Because who wants to clean at these times?! All this to say, I started thinking about what is going to happen when, say, in 10 years, my children are gone all day? My youngest will be in high school, and most likely at 'away-school' by then. (Even 5 years from now, the kids will be 9, 14, 16, 19, and 21, and I will have Time.To.Do.Things.) The Mr. and I even got to go out for a dinner date tonight, and I brought up this question. He nodded and enc...

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...

This time of year there is a lot of talk about turkeys, and oh, yeah being thankful for all we have. I have read numerous articles on how to help your children, or yourself, be thankful! But it really hit home for me this week. But first, a little of the back-story: two weeks ago I went in to the doctor for my first ever exam-for-women-who-are-over-40. You who are over 40 know what I'm talking about! That lovely machine that tries to squish parts of you into pancakes. The lady running the machine - mammographer I believe is her title - was super nice and relaxed, and just made it comfortable as possible. I left thinking, phew, done for a year. My week was cruising along nicely; I had vague plans as to what we would eat for Thanksgiving, along with thoughts about my son's upcoming birthday, crowding around the daily feed-them, get-them-where-they-need-to-be routine that fills my life. A week after I had my exam, the clinic called and asked to schedule another exam. My thou...

I've never been graceful. My arms and legs have never had the fluid movement of a ballerina. But there are some days when it's worse than ever. Sunday was one of those days. I dropped the keys. I dropped my pear from dinner, then promptly dropped more dinner food in my lap. Earlier I dropped a library book at the library. It was so bad that my husband suggested I not pickup the 4 year old. That evening I met up with a friend for some 'girl time' and on the way out of the restaurant, I dropped my half of the delicious chocolate cake that I had not finished. Getting ready for bed, I dropped the my face soap. And then, I pull up the Book of Face and see a post about my niece (who is infamous for dropping things also) having dropped her ice cream. I'm glad to know it's genetic.

It took weeks of planning, numerous emails and phone calls, a bit of decision making ... But we pulled it off. We surprised my parents, which isn't always easy to do. So earlier in the summer we had a gathering to celebrate my parents 60th Anniversary. It was intended for extended family and friends to come to during nice weather. But my sister and I wanted to do a little something more. So we planned a special dinner with all of 10 of the siblings to come to for my parents, closer to the real anniversary date. And somehow we were able to keep it a secret for mom and dad. The look on mom's face when she walked into the restaurant was priceless. She thought it was going to be a dinner with just my sister, who drove them. Then she saw my siblings from out of state and I think that's when it hit her, this wasn't just a little dinner. It was a fun, noisy, yummy time, visiting with family we don't get to see often, catching up on what's happening in other fami...

I can't believe I missed it! Writing about my second born turning 14 was one of the moments I was looking forward to - and it happened Three weeks ago!!    My baby girl, my first daughter, my 2nd child, the one who I gave birth to without any epidural (the only one!) the one who stole her daddy's heart and her brother's toys-- she is now a young woman turning heads and not realizing it. At 14 I was awkward and strange with big glasses and frizzy hair. Amend yet I met some great friends who liked me for me, and who will still talk to me this day, if I badger them enough. I was a pest sometimes and yet I made it through those days alive. My daughter goes through the emotions just like I did, ups and downs; the fears of the future and the hopes of here future wreaking havoc on her mental state. Just like when I was her age. So we celebrated her birthday a number of times. Oh the cake we had that week! One day with friends from church, another day with the immediate ...

Today with social media, staying in touch with friends is easier than ever. Without the Book of Face, I probably would not be connected to a number of people. But still, nothing can beat actual face to face time with friends (or family). Last night we had friends over for the evening - some good dinner, some delicious dessert, made by my daughter, and some great conversation. I enjoyed just sitting and talking about different experiences and ideas, and sharing our perspectives on life, kids, culture, Africa, etc. So why don't we do this more often? Why is it months in between gatherings? Football games, basketball games, church events, date nights - they all have a place in our lives, but finding the balance is what I am after. I enjoy people, and visiting with them, not just watching from the outside. There was an article going around online about introverts and how to understand them. I still don't know if I am an introvert or extrovert. I think I am both. An introverted ...

Today is a celebration. My parents have been married 60 years. Yowzers! 60 years, 10 kids, 2sons-in-law, 7 daughters in-law 22 (+1) grand kids, 5 (+1) great-grandkids, a dozen different homes, pets, and schools, And they are still smiling.

The annual knock on doors and ask for candy routine went down tonight.   Sadly, we are down 2 of our players though. The remaining 3 rallied for a good finish, but the older two members of the team were missed.  Tonight's team consisted of a cute little puppy (easy to make, and easy to keep warm!!), a snow queen, alias Elsa. (Strangely enough, we saw a lot of these Elsa characters tonight) and an unknown movie starlet. The head coaches managed to get a good mile out of the 3 players, who did not complain until the final stretch. And then it was only the youngest saying, "my legs are tired." We were fortunate to not have rain! Hurrah! And thankfully the administration knew to bundle up. It's one of the prerequisites of the night's uniform. Now that the team has headed to the bunks, it's time to "sort" the night's winnings.

School in the fall includes costumes and shaving cream

Back in the nicer days of fall (before the rain!), I took a bike ride with some of my girls, my sisters, niece, and brother-in-law. Since I was hauling an extra 30+ pounds on my bicycle (Little K is at leas t 35 lbs) I was in the back most of the time. So I gave the 4 yr old the camera, with instructions on how not to drop it. Seems like she understood that one fine. After the ride I checked out her photography skills. My girl was pretty good at taking selfies:

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...

Remember these? I came upstairs the other day to find a 'playground' that the girls had made. I love that they are playing with the exact toys I used to play with. We also have Lincoln Logs, and the square blocks that Avon used to sell back in the day when my mom bought things from them.

My girl had a birthday last month.  I am just now getting around to writing about it. (I haven't had a lot of energy or motivation lately.) She wanted a horse themed birthday party. So a day or two before the party, we threw some ideas together, sent out some invitations, whipped up a cake, and came up with games. I am so thankful I have older girls to help me with these kinds of things! The games were held outside - they including horse races (on stick horses), roping a barrel, barrel racing, and tug-of-war. Unfortunately we didn't have any horse shoes, 'cause that would have been a fun one to play too. Overall, it looked like all the girls were having a great time.  Later in the evening, her grandparents came over, and got to see her open her family presents. I was able to score an A.G. doll for half price earlier in the year, and saved it until the big day. I think she likes it ;) How did she get to be 9? Seems like just last week she was walking around with ...

99 jars of pears on the wall, 99 jars of pears. Take one down pass it around, .... Ok you get the gist. On Saturday my sister and my niece and I canned up 99 jars of pears. We had one jar beak so actually we only 98 jars, but still.... It was a long day. I did learn some things about my family though. My parents showed up in the middle of the day. They were on the way to the coast. Mom offered a few tidbits of advice, since she has been canning since she was a teen. It was interesting to hear how all four of us had different ways of doing things. I learned some new things, and I kept some of my own ways of doing it. Off my parents went to enjoy the cool ocean breezes while we slaved away in a very warm kitchen. Thankfully we did the actually cooking outside. Just as we were figuring out when to wrap it all up and if we were going to church that night, my parents show up again. They didn't make it to the coast because of a bad traffic jam. So they came back to our place. ...

Back to school days for us around here. The older two are off to the bus each morning now. They barely stood still long enough this morning for me to catch them on their way out.  Doesn't the Boy look happy? He was running late and didn't want to stop for me. Oh and notice the new door?? Yes! We got that installed last month (forgot ot mention it in the previous post)  I wasn't going to start homeschool with the younger three this week, but they were constantly asking, and our previously planned week had gone awry, so we had a half day at home today.  The rest of the day - we played. It was wonderful. Thankfully the day flew by and before I knew it, my older two were home again.

Where did the summer go? Let me revel in it once more by going over our August adventures: I was part of the Family reunion committee. I don't know that I did much, but it was still something I had to deal with. It was a beautiful hot day at the park getting to see my dad's side of the family. The kids played on the equipment, played baseball with the cousins, and played the games my sister organized.  The Mr worked feverishly to get the upstairs bathroom shower ready before our company came, but alas, the shower company was not on our time schedule! So the tile looks great, but there is no glass on the shower yet. We - well, the girls - spent plenty of time in the water. Here is Little K's pool. The others would use it too, along with sprinklers, to keep cool this hot month. And then company came. The Mr's brother and his family came from Montana to visit. What fun! We had a beach day, in which they attempted to relocate a little river and stem the tide. I...