The forgotten week

That five days in between Christmas and New Years is just weird. Routines are off, meals are a hodge podge of leftovers, stale treats and heating up tater tots. 

It's no man's land.

We're in a holiday fog.

We managed a few things...

AJ picked up her official driver's permit!

I'm working on my paint by number. It's coming along,

The ward held their ice skating party....it was "winter raining". 

I sat in the truck. I draw the line at watching ice skating and getting soaked. I had a nice nap and Megan took pictures for me! I know I'm lame and totally no fun.

Even though I bark at her alot and tell her to "stop parenting your sisters", I am really glad that she's so good at stepping in when I am snoozing in the truck. 

We held our 3rd annual Power Hour at the gym and Mark set it up so that there was a big rowing race at the end with little boats to show who was winning. It was super cool. People suffering on the floor is a sure sign. 

I'm glad this weird week is over. Lets take down the tree and get organized. 
 

Homeschool Worries

 I sometimes worry about the kind of education that AJ is getting at home. She's independent and stubborn. 

And really smart. 

She can be totally engaged and completely aloof, all in one morning. 

But then I see this and I feel like everything is going to be okay. 

Different...but okay.

The birthday skeleton

When your wife is on crutches, your kids are all at work and at school, you are doing all the work for everyone and it's a Monday, for crying out loud....

You might have low expectations for a birthday celebration.

Because you are 47 now and so very wise. 

When she asks you what you want for your special dinner (as she lays strapped into the that leg machine for hours and hours), you say, "I've really been craving pizza from Minsky's, let's order in!"

When she worries about not being able to decorate, you say, "I don't care about streamers." 

And then you go to work and take care of business and you got to the gym and also take care of business. 

And then you come home for lunch and take your bored wife out to grab a burger and pick up your 12 ft skeleton that is kinda your birthday present because you really never could think of anything else to ask for. And you aren't mad about it, you don't silently pout or punish. Your 47 and there's no time for that. Not to mention, that skeleton is gonna be super cool.

 Megan picks up the Minsky's and Everly sets the table with the special red plate and one of the fancy glasses from the dollar store and there are all your girls. They love you and you are the man in their life and you get the best hand drawn cards in the world. 

We call up Mathew and Ethan and Kassie so we can all sing happy birthday, but despite your wife's repeated attempts to take a screenshot of everyone together, she absolutely cannot stop cutting someone's face out, turning down the volume or clicking the power button. Too many buttons!

Mathew comes to the rescue and offers to take the picture from his phone. 

Its a birthday singing, harmony finding event and then there is a clamor of "I love you!!"  "Happy Birthday Dad!' before the grown kids resume their activites.

It's cake time.  The best cake ever....made by the lady that loves you most of all. 

On crutches. Using her gardening roo pouch to fetch the eggs out of the garage fridge. 

Holy smack, we love you.  You make our world go around. 

Thank you for being our IT guy. You keep everything humming along, setting things right, fixing, automating, improving and loading the dishwasher. 

And not for nothing, that skeleton is very cool. 

We'll worry about where to store him in later. 

AJ goes to FSY

 A few fun facts about AJ's FSY week!

1. I was not at all convinced that she would ever get packed. She stayed up all night before we left. She would not open her door or let me help at all. 

2. She did, in fact, finally get packed and we made it there with just a few minutes to spare. I played it cool and pretended like I haven't dropped off all the other kids at least 3 hours early. I am currently an expert at "rollin with it", a black-belt in emotional chillness.

3. We grabbed some lunch and headed to Warrensburg. She met up with her roommate and we made the bed, unpacked the snacks and I said goodbye!

4. She asked me to come pick her up every morning. That was prime time for homesickness. I was working or busy and couldn't come right away, so by the time I was available, she was over it and chose to stay. I may or may not have made up a few reasons why I could not respond immediately. I just knew in my heart that she would be glad she stayed. 

5. She had the best time. She was learning and taking notes, making friends and having heart-shaping, testimony building experiences. 

6. I'm so glad she decided to go and found the strength to stay! It was an awesome week!

Survivors

It's been a very hard week. 

Our sweet Phoebe passed away last Tuesday and it broke our hearts. 

She brought our days delight and joy and her loss left us all grieving. Especially AJ. 

As a mom, I feel that call to fix and repair what is broken. But this isn't fixable.

It's surviving and grieving and walking through the days and talking about the stages of grief, finding ways to distract ourselves and looking for comfort in the pets of our friends. 

Today the sun came out for the first time in weeks and I found myself seeking something in the dirt. 

I never know what I will find, but it always comes with a wash of peace. 

I pulled the old growth out, clipping back the dry asparagus reeds. 

I began to dig up the old basil plants and then I noticed all the dry seeds along the stems. 

The plant is gone, it won't come back in the spring...but it carried new life all the way through the winter months. 

I looked around and suddenly noticed survivors in almost every bed. 

I gathered up the basil seeds, marigolds and sweet peas and put them in some freshly turned soil. 

I'll be watching for signs of life in the coming weeks as we wait for our hearts to heal. 

Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes

 Just in case you don't know, animal cells don't have a cell wall.

Taking a step back

Things are hard. 

Really hard. 

Anxiety has come a calling. 

Knocking down Anna's door. 

I'm a mess. I can't eat. 

She's all over the place. 

I don't know how to help.

School is impossible. 

The mood swings are terrifying. 

We need to know more than we know. 

Running away. 

Tears and defiance. 

Chasing.

Pleading. 

Crying and driving. 

Price Chopper and the playhouse. 

Bare feet and concrete. 

Police. 

Remember when I thought waking up with the baby was going to break me?

I worry this will break me. 

But it won't. Because it can't. 

We are taking a step back. 

We're going to breath and hold puppies. 

And make it through another day.

Because she is our baby and she is worth all of it. 

A bit of carving

 Some years we love a good carving party. 

Some years we're lucky to snag a couple pumpkins on the way home from the gym and get them on the porch. 

But we did it, by dang.  I am not a bad mom...I am not a bad mom.. I am not....

Sweet heaven, I'm tired. 

Summer Smackdown begins.

3 weeks. 

That's how long it took before the fighting reached a fever pitch and I did, indeed, turn that car around. 

We were on our way to Science City and way too many of my daughters were going to war over loud breathing, water bottle ownership and seating arrangements. 

2 blocks from the house, I pulled a "U-ie" and proclaimed that I no longer wanted to spend any time with "you people".

We pulled into the garage at a frightening speed and I requested that they all kindly "get all their crap out of my van".

Then I went inside and finished off the first season of Severance while I patiently waited for them to knock and apologize one by one. 

It had to be done.

I let them stew for a few hours and then we set out for the Asian Market in search of unfamiliar snacks we could try. 

They were mostly not that great. But those strawberry jalapeno crisps we snagged at Trader Joes were a revelation. Everything else was about as good as one of those pink snowballs...except for the Mango and Cookies and Creme crisps. 

Yuck. 

They also chose some Taro Boba Tea to stew up later, and that was a hit. 

You win some and you lose some....we can suffer through Science City next week. 

Till then, you can find me in my closet with a box of those crisps and some cream cheese making my summer a little tastier.

Summer is here and we are sleeping in

 One of the greatest things about summer as the kids get older is they finally appreciate sleep as much as we do! Its seriously fantastic. 

So after we got up when we were good and ready, we invited some friends and headed out to Moon Marble!

Anna's friend, Lincoln thought he could duck out of the picture...clearly, he doesn't know me very well...

 It turns out that they aren't doing the glass blowing demonstrations anymore (thanks, Covid) so even though we had to make an appointment to come, it was just to be able to get in the door and shop, lol. 

Luckily, friends make everything more fun and they really enjoyed playing with the games and looking at all the old fashioned toys. 

I promised them I'd buy them each a mood ring or a top or a big bouncy ball or a cap bomb....

What do all these things have in common? They are all about 3 bucks! My generosity has a ceiling.

As always happens when it's time to leave, there is at least 2 kids experiencing covetous feelings and trying to bargain for an additional souvenir or something more expensive. Can they work it off? Can they pay me back? Can they take it out of next month's allowance? 

Mommas, listen to me. Say no and say no from the beginning or you will never hear the end of it. 

It also helps to have something fun to do after you leave...like, "Time to go get slushies! Make a decision and we're outta here!"  Its all strategery. 

 Summer 2022!

Florida Bound

Megan is off to Florida with the Falcon Regiment. 

This is the stuff you look forward to, the stuff that makes the other stuff worth it. 

And someday, if you're very very lucky....I might tell you the very very questionable, possibly morally wrong thing I did to make sure she was able to go on this trip. It will never be written and I will deny it fervently in a court of law...but I'd do it again and it's pretty freaking awesome.

Let's wrap this up

Ok, fine, I confess! 

We procrastinated the gingerbread houses this year. 

So we're doing it before all the Christmas decorations disappear. And just to make up for it, we're going OLD SCHOOL and finally making our own gingerbread dough. 

 

Mine: 

Megan's:

Laney's: 

Anna's:

Everly's (more is more):

Once the sprinkles were swept up and the countertop has been scraped with a razor blade...we settled down into gentler pursuits. 

Three puzzles in two days. 

The Christmas purge is near!