My favorite kind of day

Today started off ordinarily, driving kids to swim team and at 10 am I dropped Julianne off with friends to go to six flags.  On the way home from swim team I started to realize that no one needed to go anywhere for at least the next 6 hours.  That is exceptionally rare in my world.

I was so excited to get home from swim team and find Catherine feeling a little bit better.  She still has a bad cough but for the first time in a week, she was out and about in the house.  We all had lunch and then I put up all the umbrellas.  Everyone got in their swim suits.  I got a good book to read.  And we were outside from noon to 4.

It was super hot and super bright and sunny but it was really fun.  And snow cones make everything cooler. I got out the underwater camera and let the kids take pictures.  Trent is still in Mexico City so we had cereal for dinner, followed by ice cream cones and then we played sequence on the back patio.  So far this summer nines and sequence have been the favorite games by everyone in the family.




Also, since I had the camera out, I figured I'd document this year's tomato plants. I don't want to jinx anything, but this year has been my best ever!!!! They are all super healthy and producing tons of tomatoes.

For my brother, Tyler . . . with love

I am going to return to routine blogging.  My brother has just left for 2 years.  He will be a missionary in the Czech-Slovakia mission.  I just know I will suck at letter writing.  My days fly by one after the other and it's all I can do to concentrate on the next few hours so that no child is left behind or forgotten at pick up.  And yet, things do happen.  We do "stuff."  I am sure of it . . .  it's just that once the moment passes, I will likely not remember any of the good parts worth sharing.

Today was another swim meet.  All five kids should have been there.  Catherine missed it though.  She has been quite ill.  She has been running a fever for 6 days and coughing.  She is sick of being sick and she is tired of being tired.  So it was just the other four there swimming away.

Owen had his first meet EVER last week and loved his ribbon in freestyle so much that he worked extra hard on his backstroke so that I could enter him in both.  That would mean 2 ribbons.  When we got to the meet a member of the 6 and under relay was not there, so Owen got moved into a relay (that means THREE ribbons).  He was so excited.  He jumped in and proceeded to only kick.  No arms at all were used in his relay leg.  Who knows what he was thinking, but everytime he came up for a breath he was smiling!

Then he did freestyle.  This time his arms did their job and he kicked well and made quite good time.  That is until he got to the finish.  He treaded water right by the edge talking to Julianne without touching the wall for a good solid 15 seconds.  Everyone was yelling "TOUCH THE WALL".  He just smiled.

Backstroke was his best event.  He looked great and did great.  Officially he'll be disqualified for rolling past vertical to see how far he was from the wall, but, really, what 4 year old has counted their strokes to the finish???

He came back after each race and sat in his chair, pulled his iphone out of its ziplock bag and sucked on his ring pop.  He is so often MUCH, MUCH older than 4.

The rest of the kids swam great.  I love swimming because you can track your own individual progress so well.  While the changes day by day are subtle, over time the change is significant. Julianne's 50 freestyle in 2013 was 35.72.  Today it was 29.91.  Madelyn's 25 free was 26.00 in 2013.  Today she was 18.03.  Adam's 25 free was 40.68 in 2013 and today it was 25.89.  Catherine's 50 free was 46.97.  Last week it was 34.11.  And Owen???  well his first recorded 25 free was 1:06:23.

I had my first guitar lesson

The thing about writing down your goals publicly is that you do indeed feel accountable to them.  Even if no one reads my blog.  So this past Saturday, the coach of the opposing team at Adam's basketball game was carrying a guitar out to his car following the game.  We chatted about the guitar and it turns out he teaches lessons.  Well, that is one easy way to find a guitar teacher.  I figured if I am gonna really do this I should just do it.  So I said, "I want to take guitar lessons!"

He called me back and today was my first lesson.  I really liked it.  I took my guitar in to get it re-strung and then even had to borrow a guitar from a friend so I could practice.  I almost bought a new guitar too at the guitar shop . . .  but then I figured I better make sure I stick to this for more than 2 months before buying another guitar.

So, facetime me for a rather unspectacular version of Horse with no name.

Wanted -- warm sunny day

I am all for a little cool weather for the holidays -- thanksgiving to Christmas.  But, it is now practically the middle of January, and I am officially done with cold weather.  Especially on a Sunday when we are done with church at noon.

So here are the indoor things we did . . .  piano, just dance, coloring, laundry, eating, Madelyn made fudge, we played rook, we watched football, the boys played some xbox, we watched some of the golden globes, had ice cream, watched downton abbey, and more . . .

Sunday afternoons are long -- maybe next week we will want to be outside.

Catherine is a teenager!

[Think of all cliches about time flying and add them here]

Because, just like that Catherine is now a beautiful, talented, fun-loving teenager who I love being with.

Just a few things

From 8:30 - 12:30 the AT&T tech is supposed to come.
From 9-2 the home alarm tech is to come
Sometime this morning the wood floor is supposed to be delivered (for a small section we are removing the carpet and putting in wood floor)
The outside Christmas tree lights are supposed to be taken down.

I need to get the oil changed in the van.
I called and have a clock repairman coming to check on the grandfather clock.
There are a lot of lightbulbs I need to buy.

Keeping a house going is really time consuming.  I tried to get it all scheduled in one day . . .  but

The At&t tech couldn't fix the problem.
The wood floor company ordered the wrong size planks.
The weather kept the Christmas light company from coming.

so I suspect I have many more days of "just wait around" ahead.

I did get the oil changed -- my only small victory.

ARD

I spoke with the speech therapist yesterday afternoon confirming that I had gotten all the documents and would be at the school for the ARD for Madelyn's speech at 8 am today.  I had it on my calendar, I had a plan.  I got up in the morning and got ready for it and at 7:30, Madelyn started complaining that her throat hurt and she wanted to stay home from school.  I was trying to decide if this was real or just slight exaggeration.  In the meantime, Catherine jumped on the bandwagon saying her throat hurt a little too and she should stay home.  Now, they had both been up already for a while (we have piano lessons from 6 am - 7:30 am) and there had been no complaining before.  I certainly don't want sick kids to go to school, but I also don't want well kids to miss school and have to make up all the work.

I suggested that they could both stay home, relax on the couch and help fold the 10 loads of laundry that needed to be done.  Before I could say anything Madelyn was curled up on the couch folding laundry.  Catherine, though, was sprinting through the house frantically trying to get ready for school.  She missed the bus at 8:00 and so I quickly got Owen dressed and we got in the van about 8:15 to take Catherine to school.

My cell phone rang at 8:20.  It was the speech therapist. I had missed the ARD.

It's amazing how a slight change of plans has the ability to derail the whole schedule.

Catherine was perfectly fine all day.  Madelyn rested and seems fine.  There has not been a single complaint about sore throats since this morning.