New Year's Eve

I know it's already the new year for some of you, but we still have a couple of hours to go here. We decided to let the kids stay up until 9 p.m. to watch the ball drop in Times Square. 

Well. 

We tuned into the proper television station around 8:30 p.m., and it took us twenty minutes to realize they weren't making a big deal about "only 10 minutes until the ball drops!" When there were about two minutes to go, I realized, because we're on the west coast, the network was showing us what had happened at nearly 9 p.m. on the east coast, not what was CURRENTLY happening on the east coast. 

I sprinted to the computer and pulled up a live feed of Times Square, JUST IN TIME for the 10-second countdown. Whew. 

The kids are in bed now, and I'm finishing the last twenty pages of my book. I doubt we'll make it to midnight.

I hope your New Year's Eve was enjoyable, spent exactly the way you wanted to spend it!

(P.S. Why why WHY is "Auld Lang Syne" SO depressing?! Every year it makes me want to cry!)

This and That

As this year draws to a close, I'm desperately trying to finish my reading goal (I've been doing Modern Mrs. Darcy's 2018 Reading Challenge, and I still have to finish a book for the last category -- yikes!). And by "desperately" I mean that instead of reading much today I took Lorelei shoe shopping and did WHO KNOWS WHAT around the house all afternoon.

Chet has been off work since Christmas Eve, and it's been VERY enjoyable. I've used this time to take down our Christmas decorations (I still have a few things to put away, but I'm almost there), and to create the sterile home environment I always crave post-Christmas. We've also done fun things: bowling, a post-dinner trip to Michael's last night, a movie at the base theater with Sydney and Lorelei. There have been brief touches of cabin fever here and there, but nothing major.

With that said, I'm going to put my feet up and read. Pray I don't fall asleep before I turn the page...

One of Sydney's lunches this week. She claimed she couldn't find an "N."

A Special Birthday

Happy birthday to my dad/Papa John!

He visited us in California earlier this month, and we had a great time. We THOROUGHLY enjoyed having him around, cooking us delicious meals, making the kids laugh, and watching NCIS with ice cream in the evenings.

We also celebrated an early Christmas and birthday while he was here:

He's been back in TX nearly two weeks, and Ruthie is still asking where he is. I know, Ruthie, I miss him too.

We love you, PJ!

Ruthie

Ruthie, Ruthie, Ruthie. So pale. Such dark hair (not really, just compared to your siblings). Such CURLY hair. We couldn't love you more.

She wore these pajamas last night and nearly all day today (she got them for Christmas). This past fall I bought her a light blue shirt, and decided it's HER color. But after seeing her in these pajamas, I decided she looks fantastic in ALL light spring colors. I never would have guessed (which is why I'm not in the fashion industry).

Full disclosure: Ruthie does NOT look good in yellow. She was all set to wear a yellow and black dress for our family pictures (a dress Sydney wore for family pictures at the same age), but when I tried it on her...no. Just no. Teenaged Ruthie would have been mad at me had I made her wear such a color in a photograph. I mean, who looks good in yellow anyway? (Actually, Sydney does...nevermind.)

Merry Christmas!

I thought since I'm (always) the first one awake, I'd go ahead and snap some pictures before the excitement starts this morning.

Two nights ago we visited a nearby living nativity:

Last night we finished our Advent activity (including the poster on the wall behind them):

Full disclosure: This was the Advent activity I bought to complete Christmas 2017. We only finished a few nights last year, then it fell off our plate. This year we did much better, but weren't even close to perfectly executing it. It's okay though. (Also, notice our version of matching Christmas jammies [from left to right]: Power Rangers, handed-down-from-our-neighbor Elf on a Shelf, pants-less elf, and a nice spring color palette combination.)

Santa gifts on the piano bench:

 Santa doesn't bring big/expensive/exciting gifts at our house. He also doesn't stuff our stockings.

I don't have a future as a Christmas tree photographer:

Ruthie's gifts/stocking are next to the nutcracker, Lorelei's are next to Ruthie's, and Sydney's are next to Lorelei's.

Here are Ford's:

I would also like to disclose that when I was growing up I would BEG my mom to please NOT use brown craft paper (combined with raffia ribbon) to wrap our gifts. I thought it was VERY lame. Well, well, well. Look who's talking now. (Sorry, Mama! Now I get it!)

Merry Christmas, everyone! May the hope of Jesus fill your hearts and homes this day, and every day!

Sydney

Firstborns are special. They have to be tough, because their parents have absolutely no idea how to raise children and are just winging it each and every minute of the day.

According to the website "How Does She," here are typical characteristics of firstborn children:

• Reliable
• Conscientious
• Structured
• Cautious
• Controlling (sometimes seen as bossy)
• Achievers
• Want to excel at everything
• Bask in parent's attention

Well. It's as though the author studied my life before writing this article. Which makes me EXTREMELY reliable (and boring), because I am a textbook firstborn.

Before I go on, let me say that I LOVE things like studies of birth order, personality types, the Enneagram...anything that examines and categorizes human nature in a way that (hopefully) helps us to better understand one another (and ourselves). I believe God created us as unique individuals, but also as individuals who are similar to and can identify with many other people during our time earth.

That being said, the Lord knew I needed a different kind of firstborn. One that doesn't fit perfectly into the typical firstborn "box," and who is not even close to my carbon copy (hallelujah). He gave me one who's SUPER fun (I am not), VERY creative (I am not), and who isn't concerned about life's minutiae (I am). Funny how that works out.

Sydney's a daily reminder that we are created a certain way on purpose (not according to a blueprint), and that there is always, ALWAYS room to improve and grow. Because of her I plan fun activities, buy things like pipe cleaners and glitter and craft glue on the regular, and try not to get bogged down in details such as beds that aren't perfectly made (actually, I still do that sometimes). She's my favorite, and best, firstborn.

A Luxurious Friday Morning

Good Friday morning!

Ruthie woke up coughing around 4:30 a.m., and I had trouble going back to sleep. Instead of lying there awake, mind racing, I got up, made coffee, and finished the library book that's due today. Here's the scene:

By nature I'm a morning person, but waking up even earlier than usual is one of my favorite things. I love the "extra" time, the quiet, the freedom to do something I definitely won't have time to do during the course of our normal waking hours. It's a gift.

These last few days before Christmas have been slow, which isn't a bad thing. I'm VERY glad they're not packed full, but we also have to be on guard not to drive each other crazy. A lot of our neighbors are out of town, which means most of the kids' usual playmates are gone. Tonight we are planning on driving up to Fresno to visit Christmas Tree Lane, a neighborhood that has a spectacular outdoor light display, so that will be fun and different.

Happy Friday!

The MOST Belated Happy Thanksgiving

Pro tip: It's been a little too long since your last post if you have to change your blog background from Halloween to Christmas (and only SIX DAYS before Christmas).

That being said, is it too late to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving? (Happy Thanksgiving!)

I really enjoyed these homemade turkey hands on top of our piano this year:

We were hosted this Thanksgiving by our across-the-street neighbors. (I always try to get us invited somewhere so I don't have to do a turkey.) Our friends hosted not only us, but TWENTY-SIX people total. She made three turkeys, and the only thing we contributed was a fruit and olive appetizer. I can say with certainty it was the easiest Thanksgiving (for me) to date.

I've been wanting (WANTING, not necessarily PLANNING) to get back into a regular blogging routine this year (you know, 2018...the year that's almost over). I posted the fewest amount of times in 2017 (only 21 posts! yikes!). In fact, I've been on a downward trend since 2013, and I want to change that. I like having this blog to record our small, daily memories, and I also like the writing exercise it provides for me.

SO. Even though there are only 12 days left in 2018, my plan is to post seven more times (not including this one!). That would make 58 blogs posts in 2018, more than 2015, 2016, and 2017. This is me, sprinting (or perhaps crawling?) to the finish line.

Happy Wednesday, friends! Thanks for sticking with me!

Happy (belated) Halloween (and the rest of October)!

I started to write this post yesterday, and I'm glad I didn't get a chance to finish it until today, the day after Halloween, because Halloween morning I was feeling a bit curmudgeonly.

I've said it here over and over, but come October 31st each year I find myself in survival mode. I LOVE October (I think it's my favorite month of the year!), but what I love is fall weather (some places) and fall decorations and pumpkins and celebrating Lorelei's birthday. What I DON'T love is the inundation of Halloween-esque events that require my children to dress in a costume and get hopped up on sugar. And since October is a long month with actual Halloween at the very tail end...let's just say there are far too many opportunities for "fun."

Not to mention that I'm burned out on my beloved candy corn by approximately October 5th (because, you know, they start selling it at the end of August, which is of course when I start buying it), and it NEVER FAILS that, in an attempt to save a few dollars by buying Halloween candy when it's on sale throughout the month...Chet and I end up opening it and snacking on it ourselves. UGH. Next year I vow to not buy any candy until HALLOWEEN DAY, no matter how much extra money it costs.

Whew. I think my rant is over. Apparently I'm still feeling curmudgeonly -- welcome, November!!!

I'm just going to go ahead and tell you about the rest of our October. Here are the fall/Halloween decorations I took pictures of:

Lorelei had a great 7th birthday, which we celebrated at home (and also by going a pumpkin patch with friends):

Lorelei received the doll she's holding in the picture below from Grammy for her birthday (Sydney received a similar doll from Grammy a couple of Christmases ago):

...and "Aunt" Ruthie LOVES to babysit the dolls when her sisters aren't around to tell her to not to:

This October we dealt with a dental issue with Ford that is thankfully resolved now. VERY long story short, he had to have a molar removed, but leading up to that there was a lot of seemingly unexplained mouth pain and SEVEN visits to the doctor/dentist in a span of twelve days.

In my ongoing attempt to make things festive in our home, I wrote these notes for the children Halloween morning:

I'm pretty sure Better Homes and Gardens is going to feature this idea in their next issue.

Coincidentally, and NOT included in the aforementioned seven dentist visits in twelve days, the kids had their regularly-scheduled dental cleaning Halloween morning. It was Ruthie's first visit:

Finally it was time to dress in their costumes. Sydney was Hermione Granger (from Harry Potter), Lorelei was Harry Potter (wearing the Quidditch robe), Ruthie was Mrs. Norris (a black cat from Harry Potter), and Ford was Draco Malfoy (from Harry Potter...a bad guy who he happens to look exactly like). I told them to line up and smile, and these were the looks they thought impersonated their characters:

HA! So serious.

That's all...thank you, November, for arriving!!!

Mid-October?!

How is your October going?!

I was sitting here wondering how it was already October 15th, then I remembered that a break week from school plus a stomach bug plus a trip out of town will do that to a person.

Every six weeks our homeschool group takes a week off. Our group meets Fridays, so we met September 28th, then not again until this past Friday, October 12th. The Wednesday of our break week Sydney woke up vomiting (sorry for the mental picture), and did so ALL DAY. Thankfully she didn't pass whatever she had to anyone else in the family, but I feel like when you have a day like that the schedule in general goes out the window.

A couple of days later, over Columbus Day weekend, we took a trip to Sequoia National Forest, and spent Saturday night in Wuksachi Lodge. We very much needed a break from our norm, and a (breathtaking) change in scenery. 

Ford took this picture...

...and this one.

Up Moro Rock

Down Moro Rock

Sydney

General Sherman Tree

Saturday in Sequoia was overcast (is it weird that I prefer it that way?!), and we climbed Moro Rock in, essentially, a cloud. The overcast weather turned to rain, then to freezing rain. Sunday morning dawned bright and beautiful, with what looked like a blanket of snow on the ground (but was actually not-yet-melted frozen rain pellets). I hope to post a few more pictures from the trip, but I feel like I can't make any promises.

Chet didn't work Columbus Day, so last week was a short week, another surefire way to make a wife and mother feel off kilter, schedule-wise. We had a great Week 7 at our homeschool group Friday, and now it's Monday again. Ruthie will go to the CDC this morning until noon, and the three older kids and I will hopefully fit in a trip to the library to return and renew some books. 

Oh, and there's a very special birthday this week! Lorelei turns seven Wednesday. We're going on a field trip to a pumpkin patch that morning, which will hopefully eclipse the fact we're not throwing her a birthday party. #sorrylorelei

Happy Monday, friends!

Hi, September. Bye, September.

Well, September's come and nearly gone. I'm not going to question how that is, because I think that's just September's nature. School starts and everyone has their head down, working hard at new tasks and getting into academic routines. We've had a great September, and are looking forward to the very best of all the months: October.

This will be short and random, because it's a school day for us (normally I'm running around getting ready, but this past week I developed a detailed schedule of what needs to happen each day on MY end in order to prepare for our Friday community day, and it worked surprisingly well...so here I am, blogging on a school morning). I noticed our dining/school area was EXTREMELY clean the other day, so I snapped a picture:

I'm not sure why an orderly room was such a surprise to me, since I was definitely the one who put it in order. It's just that there are normally a few school books and papers (and ALWAYS at least ten pencils) strewn across the table, as well as ENOUGH CRAFTING SUPPLIES TO FILL A MICHAEL'S STORE. I'm really glad Sydney and Lorelei are crafty, because I'm not, but the popsicle sticks, glue, markers, scissors, tiny bits of cut paper, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, cotton balls, ribbon, velcro, DUCT TAPE, regular tape, white out...the list goes on...get to a person after a while. So I suppose that's why I was surprised and snapped a picture.

Sydney and Lorelei love tea. Probably because it's really just a cup of warm, creamy, sugary water, with only a splash of tea. But they always want a cup while we read in the afternoons. This is one of my favorite parts of the day, because Ruthie is napping, Ford is contained in his bedroom, and I have a quiet, coloring audience:

Happy Friday, my friends!

Reflections

How has it already been 17 years since September 11, 2001? I think it will always feel like "yesterday" to those of us who were old enough to remember the attacks. Right now it's the end of a long day, and I probably won't be able to share anything more profound than I did last year (not that what I shared last year was profound). Here's the link to last year's 9/11 post.

For the past couple of days I've been reflecting on life in general. How busy it is, and how wrapped up we are in our "first world problems." We're fully immersed in our school and activity schedule, and it just feels so darned hectic, despite Chet's and my best efforts to maintain calm. These reflections led us to a decision, which I'm still a little nervous about, but I think we're going to CUT OUT ALL EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES. (Except piano, because Sydney and Lorelei ride their bikes to their weekly piano lesson while I stay home and fold laundry or wash dishes.)

It seems silly to even classify this as a "big decision." The Ingalls family didn't didn't worry about such things. They were too busy fending off bears and making sure Ma had enough thread to darn everyone's socks for the winter. Pa and Ma Ingalls may have had fewer extracurricular activities to enroll Mary and Laura in, but there was no doubt they knew what was important: God and family (and school and apparently piano).

That's where I'll leave you, on this anniversary where we all hug our loved ones tighter and thank the Lord for this day that He's given us.

God bless America.

Conversations with Ruthie

This evening, while changing Ruthie's diaper before bed, we had this conversation:

Ruthie: "I mail something."

Me: "You mailed something?"

Ruthie: "No, I MAIL something."

Me: "You smell something?"

Ruthie: "Yeah."

Me: "You smell baby powder."

Ruthie: "A baby spider?!?!"

Hopefully your Sunday was also entertaining.

Sunday Evening Choir

On Sunday evenings Sydney goes to youth choir at our church. Grades Kindergarten through 6th will meet every week (yesterday was the 2nd meeting) to practice for a Christmas show that they'll perform in December.

At first Chet and I weren't sure we wanted to add something to our schedule, even though we're not normally busy Sunday evenings. So we decided to ask Sydney and Lorelei if it sounded like fun, and to make our decision based on their reactions. Well, Sydney was ALL IN. But Lorelei looked as if we'd asked her to eat slugs. Since our church is only about a 15-minute drive from our house, and we're allowed to drop her off each week for the 2-hour practice, we decided it would be fine for just Sydney to attend choir each Sunday evening.

Anyway, there are periodic spirit competitions at choir practice, and yesterday was crazy hair/hat day. Sydney's hair is pretty short, so she made a crazy hat for herself. (True or False: I LOVE spirit competitions and am eager to help my children come up with outfits or creations that will "wow" anyone in their vicinity. If you answered "True," you're VERY wrong, and we clearly need to get to know one another better. That being said, Sydney was totally on her own in making her own crazy hat. Thankfully, she's used to this, and is LOADS more creative than I'll ever be, so it wasn't even an issue.)

I dropped Sydney off last night at 5:30 p.m., and she begged me to bring Lorelei with me when I picked her up so that we could continue listening to "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" on our drive home. (I HIGHLY recommend the HP audiobooks read by Jim Dale -- even if you've read all the books before!) Our audiobook rental (?) from the library expires in a couple of days, and she wants us to finish it so that she doesn't have to listen to me read the actual book in voices MUCH less exciting than Jim Dale's.

I had to snap a picture of Lorelei in her new pink shirt before walking into the church to get Sydney. She's been in a tomboy phase for about year now, so any time she expresses interest in something more feminine I buy it for her right away (HA!).

She paired the pink shirt with her green soccer shorts and camouflage Crocs in order to maintain a balanced look.

We went into the church to pick up Sydney, and lo and behold, her homemade hat won the spirit competition. She definitely would have lost if I'd helped her.

Hope your weekend was as fashionable as Sydney's and Lorelei's!

First Day of School!

We had a GREAT first day of school yesterday.

Backing up a little, Thursday night we had our First Annual Back to School Feast. Now, if you're thinking this means I roasted a turkey and cut vegetables and fruit into school-themed shapes, then you must not know me at all. In this case, "feast" meant that Chet and I had leftovers, and everyone else was served something they really like to eat. Sydney: shrimp cocktail; Lorelei: chicken noodle soup; Ford: pizza Lunchable (insert eye roll). (I can't remember what Ruthie ate.) For dessert we had mini cupcakes that I bought from the grocery store bakery.

Why am I telling you this? Lately (for the past year, at least) I've felt like we (I) needed to be better about celebrating life in general. Celebrating doesn't come naturally to me; I'm happy to let events roll on by without any fuss. I forget that it doesn't take much to make things memorable for children, and I want our children to have fond memories of their childhood. Hence the Back to School Feast. We probably won't have the same menu every year (ha!); I may decide to get fancier in the future than I did this year, but nonetheless it will be something for us to look forward to and back on.

In addition to dinner and dessert, we wrote a short note (two sentences) to Sydney, Lorelei, and Ford, along the lines of "Welcome to 3rd grade! You're going to do great!" We bought each of them an inexpensive book that I wrapped (including a bow -- I almost forewent the bow, but dug deep and decided the tiny bit of extra effort was worth it!), and you would have thought it was Christmas Day.

(Check out Sydney's overalls.)

Like I said, the first day of school yesterday was a success. One of the moms in our group is a photographer, which is great for me, because I didn't have to try to get a good picture of everyone before leaving the house:

Happy weekend, friends!