Waving Good-Bye...

It's funny, but this school year has been so full of "firsts" for our kids that I almost... almost forgot about this "last".

Yeah, I was a little choked up at the Upward Awards Celebration, today.

Grace has had such a good time these past three seasons, and I would be completely remiss to not throw out a huge THANK YOU to everyone who has been involved in her Upward life... but especially to Coach Lindsay, who has done nothing but love on my spirited, crazy, wonderful daughter for every season!  It's been fun...

These Girls Were Great! 

 

L.

I Feel Great...

... after writing words that I'm not going to post, because I still have some social filters left.

Here's the part of my day I still feel inclined to share...

I feel like this day started a hundred years ago.  I’m tired.  And yet I wished for a few moments of quiet in the middle of the night to get these thoughts out, and here I sit…

Let’s start with Ian’s last Upward game for the season.  Even though his teammates gave him the ball over… and over… and over again, the kid just doesn’t shoot.  He likes to pass.  He is the king of assists.  One of the referees even lifted him up to make a basket, today, and Ian laughed hysterically and dropped the ball!  I love that kid.  He did earn an offense star for his t-shirt, today, as well as a star for Christlikeness.  Rolling his eyes, Ian said, “Another Christlikeness star?”  This led to a conversation, amidst contained laughter, about how he should want to be Christ-like all the time!  Unless Ian makes a 180 between today and next season, I don’t think he’ll play basketball again.  He really did enjoy his coaches and the other kids, and they were great, but Ian doesn’t love basketball.  What Ian loves is drinking Gatorade on Saturdays…

He did get a shot off at the end.

You can see from the angle here that it didn't go,

but it's all good.

Seth and Grace had a big day at their first District Celebrate Life!  Seth entered a drawing and received an excellent rating, so it will go on to Regionals.  Grace did a piano solo, which received a superior rating and a vocal solo, which received an excellent, so both of these events advance, as well!  In addition, they were recognized for their fourth place finish as a zone quiz team and for their individual places from two weeks ago.  As it turns out, one of the district A team members has decided to play volleyball at RCL, so Seth gets to move up, and both he and Grace will quiz on the A team at regionals! 

 Here’s the haul from today:

And oh…  Caleb who had a rough basketball season seems to be the only family member talented enough to catch flying t-shirts…  

 I think he’s going to have to grow into this one:  

L.

A Day At The Ironing Board...

... not really to iron, of course!

After searching for a birthday shirt for Miah, this year, I decided that I simply wasn't going to find anything I really loved, so I appliqued this myself!  I did order a tutu, because after last year's attempt at that I have decided I'm simply not talented in that way...

 Miah Loves the Shirt!

She calls it her Strawberry Berryfest Princess Shirt:

Caleb, recognizing a unique opportunity (oh my goodness, Mom's got the iron out for the second time in a calendar year), brought me his Upward shirt, so it is now all decked out with stars.  Ian cannot find his shirt.  In fact, no one in this house can find his shirt, even though I distinctly remember folding it and asking him to put it away...

Caleb's Stars:

At any rate, the iron is still out, and I might even take care of a shirt or two for Phil...

L.

Hitting The Wall...

Ah… life…

Yesterday Grace and I headed out for Junior Festival, where she proceeded to participate in eight events (the ninth being composition, which she didn’t have to do anything specific for, last night) and I proceeded to fill the role of “Room Chairperson”.  I must have done alright, because no one told me I was the worst room chairperson in the history of Junior Festival or anything.  I actually kind of enjoyed it.  Grace, however, had some rough spots.

In a lot of ways, I think it was a good life lesson…  That lesson that everyone has to learn at some point that goes something like this:  “You can’t always be the best at everything you do”.  This lesson comes particularly hard to perfectionists.  I am one, I know.  Grace is one, she’s learning…

At any rate, there were some tears, and then Grace picked herself back up, finished the rest of her events, and went on.  Another good life lesson learned:  “You have to go on”.

 

I may have mentioned before… ahem… that this family took on far more than we really should have this spring.  About halfway through our drive home, last night, I sighed and said, “I am so tired”.  Grace looked over at me and said, “Mom, I think that’s the fifth time you’ve said that”.  And you know what?  I really, really didn’t know I’d been uttering those words for fifteen minutes.  We laughed and made a joke out of it, and every few minutes for the rest of the ride home I proceeded to say something like, “Hey Grace!  You know what?  I am so tired!”  Right before we turned into the driveway, Grace said, “Mom… (and I waited for it)…  I’m tired!”  And she is.  And I am.  And that’s just life right now…

We got inside, changed the sheets on Seth and Grace’s beds to prepare for company, welcomed our guests, talked for awhile, and then had quiz practice…  all before 11:15pm.  Then Grace crawled into Miah’s bed (Miah was sleeping in the toddler bed, but I hear she woke up in the middle of the night and snuggled down with Grace), and set her alarm for 4:00am in order to be up in time for the quiz today.

I woke briefly when they were leaving and then crawled back under the covers until 7:20 at which point the face of a mischievous little six year old… ahem…  Ian… was all up in my face, ready to take on the day.  And it’s a good thing, too, because not only did we need to get up and dressed for Upward basketball, we also had forgotten it was our day for snacks, so we had to make a Kroger run!

Apparently sensing my hurry, Miah dressed herself…  shirt inside out.. pants backwards!  She was so proud!  Caleb got himself ready, also.  Ian never senses my rush or listens to my words about how quickly we need to get ready.  The kid wakes us all up and then waits for someone to do everything for him!  So, as I was combing his hair while Caleb simultaneously put Ian’s shoes on him; I was nearing the end of my patience, already…  before 9:00 in the morning…  I draw the line at brushing his teeth!  We waited… and waited… and waited for him to emerge from the bathroom.  Then we finally piled into the Nazarene Limousine to make our snack run.

Miah...  all dressed, by herself...

I forgot to mention she is also wearing a pair of Grace's socks...

We decided they made good knee highs and left those on...

She looks ready to cheer, too, doesn't she?

I started to back out of the driveway and there was suddenly this crashing, banging sound.  Of course, I pulled forward again, quickly, saying (loudly), “What was that?”  Caleb, ever practical, actually bothered to look through the back window and informed me that it was just some bricks.  No way.  Just absolutely no way.  In 5 ½ years, friends… and family… and strangers have hit the wall, but I never… ever hit the wall… ever…  I got out of the van, and sure enough that’s exactly what I had done.  I can't believe I didn't get stuck.

Oh, the metaphorical reality…

Well, you can always count on my kids for comic relief.  When I got back into the van, Miah exclaimed, “Mommy!  That was fun!” and Caleb went on, unfazed, as if nothing had happened asking, “Mom, did you know you can think of the world sort of like a pizza?”  Really?  Does no one else realize I’ve hit the wall?  Wow…

The rest of our morning was rather uneventful… except for that moment when I seriously couldn’t stand it that Ian was falling down on the basketball court every three seconds, so I screamed at him to, “Get up and stay up!”  Yeah…  I totally became that awful sideline Mom today…

We decided to come home as opposed to heading out to see whatever was left of the quiz in “Quizapolis” as Miah calls it, and at present I am finishing up a delicious bowl of tomato soup and listening to the sound of, “Bolt,” playing in the living room.  It’s an excellent afternoon for a movie.

I really wish I could hibernate for a couple of weeks.  That is highly unlikely, but I think we’re all going to take Monday off… of everything…

Then we’re on to the final Upward game of the season, District Celebrate Life for talent, the Upward awards celebration, Miah’s 3^rd b-day, my last class for the year, and Easter weekend… after which point we will turn the calendar to April… oh, beautiful April… with nothing special on the schedule…

L.        

Better Late Than Never...

Between Upward games we finally celebrated Phil's birthday today (8 days late, but who's counting... well... other than everybody who lives at this house...)

Oh yum!  Peanuts!  

Guess where we are?

This shot was just too fun to leave out:

When we got home we also enjoyed our DQ ice cream cake.  Remember?  The one I bought on half price Tuesday?  It was so good (and we still have half of it left in the freezer)!

That was a lot of candles:

We are still lacking in the birthday gft department.  Apparently this is just the birthday that keeps on giving...

Happy Birthday, Phil!  I Love You!

L.

PS  Funniest part of the day was when I went to pick up one of the boxes for leftovers and Phil said, "That one's empty".  It was really heavy, so I knew that couldn't possibly be true.  Turns out Miah had put her plate in it...hahahahaha...  Glad I checked before I walked out with it!

Oh... and Caleb wants one of those enormous bins full of peanuts for the house...  Somehow, I don't think so...

More Than I Wanted To Handle…

I have come to a realization.  I almost lied about it, but I’m not going to do that.  I almost said, “I’ve taken on more than I can handle,” in this current influx of kids’ activities and scheduling, but anyone who knows me also knows that I thrive on stress and deadlines and schedules that don’t humanly work.  I didn’t take on more than I can handle, but I did take on more than I wanted to handle, and that might be a more significant problem.

Today was rough.  Part of our family went in one direction for the Sterling Invitational and the rest of us stayed home to participate in Upward.  And this is probably going to be harder to explain than I thought, because the problem wasn’t really that we were separated.  We’re a family of seven.  We do a lot of things in “groups”.  It’s not a separation anxiety thing, either.  Although I love being with my whole family, the best; I actually enjoy being away from them on occasion, as well.  When I can get away for an entire weekend, alone; I do it.  When Phil and I can get away, just the two of us; we treasure that time.  Grace and I went to Florida, by ourselves, for a week once.  And I’ve always been really big on having special “date nights” with each of the kids so they can have my undivided attention at least some of the time.  So…  it wasn’t that we weren’t together.  It was that I wanted to be where I wasn’t…

Hmmm…  I’m almost tempted to write an analogy… almost, but not quite…

I’m not exactly sure what this means for us in the upcoming years.  We’re not going to be able to limit the kids to activities that never conflict with one another.  But I think we are going to have to limit them to things they’re good at… things they love… and (most importantly) things they legitimately should be doing…  uh… things that have purpose?  Sounds just awful, right?

I don’t ever again want to find myself in the midst of one of my children’s activities thinking, “I really wish I wasn’t here right now”.  There’s something wrong about that.  I’m not saying that you can go through life doing only the things you want to do, either, but I do think there comes a point when you have to choose what is best.  We’re at that point.

L. 

PS  Despite how I felt about this day, Ian is awfully cute:

Strange Day...

... all around.

It's Phil's birthday.  We are not, however, going to celebrate today, because he, Seth, and Grace are headed to Sterling for the quiz this weekend.  I am staying home with Miah, Ian, and Caleb in order to run the boys to their Upward games tomorrow.

I used to be creative when it came to spending time with my kids...  stage shows... trips to the zoo... or the science center... or the children's museum... or even just the park.  Lately it's more like, "Hey!  Who wants to have movie night?"  Sort of pathetic, but I don't expect it to be this way forever...

So tonight Caleb, Ian, Miah and I watched "Tangled" (Miah's current "fraverit"), while we consumed an entire bag of Hershey's Nuggets...

Then I put Miah to bed and Caleb, Ian, and I watched "Day of the Diesals" (Ian's choice), while we (and by "we" I mostly mean "they") taste tested several different varieties of popcorn (kettle, caramel, movie theater butter)...

Then Caleb and I tricked Ian into going to bed and proceeded to order a pizza and bread bites, which we consumed while watching "Jump In", after playing a couple of levels of "Peggle".  At some point, Caleb turned to me and whispered, "Mommy, I hope nobody finds out we did this.  We are up really late eating pizza and watching movies!"  I honestly think he thought it bordered on illegal activity, because when there was a siren he jumped and asked, "Was that real or in the movie?"  I guess I just blew our cover...

Caleb went to bed shortly after midnight, telling me, "Good morning," since technically, it was.

I never sleep well when Phil is away, so I finally drifted off a little before 2:00am...  When the alarm is set for 6:00am on Saturday, that's not so good...

L.

Rivaling Tuesday…

Wow… what a Friday!

On the way out the door for Ian’s music class, I suddenly remembered that I had volunteered to bring my clarinet… My 20+ year old clarinet that thankfully had some cork grease and a whole box of new reeds stuffed in the case.  Upon quickly reviewing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” part of “If I were a Rich Man,” and half a chromatic scale… we got in the van.  By the time we got to class I could only remember “Twinkle, Twinkle”.  Part of “The Overture of 1812” came back to me later in the day.  I should probably actually purchase some music and play again…

 Ian was the only one of the kids who could actually produce a real note...

Just ignore the hand position...

When we arrived home, I instructed the kids to play and not make a mess.  Why I ever issue such instructions is completely beyond me.  You cannot both play and not make a mess!  I threw a variety of frozen foods into the over and deep fryer and proceeded to create the Upward flyer for this week… and to go over the Upward cheerleading devotional for practice later in the day.

And then it was playdate time…

One of these weeks, the kids’ BFFs are going to be the picture of the day for Friday, but it sure wasn’t this week, and it won’t be next week, either!

Dropped the boys and Miah off at home and headed to cheerleading with Grace, who was just a little bit irritated with me, because she apparently thought ice cream for dinner on Friday nights was going to become a tradition…

Got a phone call from Phil on the way home.  Turns out no one had eaten dinner, so he ordered pizza and Grace and I picked it up… along with some ice cream, after all, and then we proceeded to eat and watch “Bambi”.

 Mmmm...  Pizza Time:

None of the kids had ever seen “Bambi”.  It was a Christmas present for someone (I think Ian), two Christmases ago…  Miah was way too into it, and I was second guessing myself because I didn’t think she was going to handle Bambi’s mother’s demise too well.  Thankfully, she fell asleep before the gun shot… even in the midst of my spilling a whole cup of Wild Cherry Pepsi on the futon, soaking both myself and Phil…

Our weekends are so hectic right now, so I’m glad we had the chance to have some family time tonight… even if we are going to be tired in the morning…

L.