Fall is in the air…

…and so is the rain.  We have been cheated this year. We had 2 good months of summer and the rest has been gray, overcast, and rainy.  Many would say this is normal here in the pacific northwest.  I disagree, after spending nearly 10 years here, I would have to say this has definitely been the shortest summer I have seen.  It rained all the way up to July, and now August is ending with the rain.  Even if the sun comes out in September, it still won’t be that blazing hot, sticky until midnight kind of heat.  No, it will cool off after dinner and if I want to sit on the front porch at night, I’ll have to wear a sweater.

We have enjoyed our summer though.  We know that it could end at any time, so we take full advantage of the sunny days.  This year we took 3 trips to the other side of the mountains where it feels a bit more like a desert.  We went to Moses lake for Memorial day, we went to Wenatchee for 4th of July and we went to Alta Lake for High school camp.  Each time, we took our boat and had a blast with the kids.  We are trying to plan a last minute getaway for this holiday weekend.  I feel like I just need one last chance to relax before all hell breaks loose with our fall schedule.  I think maybe a quiet cabin, some fishing, some reading, walks in the woods, and an opportunity to to vacation with just my family for once this year.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Home…for a second.

We had a great week at camp.  I didn’t see a whole lot of the other kids.  Kelly helped me out a bit in the mornings while I did my job making sure the canoers were safe.  As soon as she was done with that she was off to make hemp bracelets, do watercoloring, or horseback riding.  I saw the middle two at night to take them back to the rv at night. David was out on the boat all day every day with Matt.  Watching him flip the tube and dump the high schoolers in the water.  Best day; Wednesday…he dumped off 22 kids. They both had so much fun.  I only had to yell at one kid for not listening.  He insisted on taking his canoe out while Matt was bringing the boat in to the dock.  I told him to wait or the wake would roll him.  He figured he knew better and sure enough he dumped his canoe with 2 girls in it.  We sent out our lifeguard in the zodiac to help them turn it over and bring them back in.  I let him have a 2nd chance and he did it again, this time no boat wake for an excuse.  This kid has a bad reputation and I was trying to ignore all that and give each kid a clean slate, but this guy deserves the rep he has! Jackass!

I am gearing up for our last camp of the summer.  Kurt is the summer volunteer for our childrens pastor and we have a camp for 3rd-5th grade next M-TH.  I am going to cook. It will be a small group this year, just 25 kids, 9 counselors, and 7 adult cooks/nurse/crafts/emt.  Matt is letting me rent a small trailer for it, which is great because I really wasn’t looking forward to tent camping with Joe.

After camp is over, I have one other small project to wrap up..editing the church cookbook.  This project has been ongoing for over a year now.  I am looking forward to finally handing this off to the publisher.

David and Kelly have started soccer and have practice 2 different nights a week. They head back to school the first week in September. Kurt starts running start at the local community college in the end of September.  I feel like our summer is quickly coming to a close.  I am looking forward to getting back to a regular routine in the fall.

I have agreed to take on the role of moppets coordinator for our church’s mops group this fall.  I will be coordinating the childcare workers for Friday mornings and making sure that the kids are all settled so that moms can relax and enjoy their morning with a speaker, snacks, and a craft twice a month.

Still plugging away on the required reading for my doula certification, but a small part of me thinks I might like to pursue a nurse/midwife degree, then the other part of me dreads all that school.  We’ll see.

Melts my heart every time.

Joe, as you know is the baby of the family…literally.  At 18 months he is so full of life and excitement that he truly blesses each new day.

But…at 18 months I am also beginning to see signs of the tiger underneath.  When he is frustrated he hits. He especially likes to hit me and Kelly, maybe because we are with him most.  Usually he hits if we tell him no for something.  Today he was jumping on the couch between us and she told him no and sat him down. He smacked her twice in the face.  I turned him over my lap and swatted his bottom twice and sat him back down.  He immediately tried to give me kisses.  I tried to hold him back, but he was insistent and just had this face that said I’m sorry, please forgive me, and give me loves.  Kelly and I were cracking up.  He did give me several kisses while I was squealing with laughter.  Maybe 20 minutes later he hit her again.  I grabbed his hands and put them at his sides and held them there and told him no very sternly.  Again he got all puppy dog eyed and tried to get kisses.  It’s then that I realized I was being manipulated by my baby.  He wants to give me loves because then I won’t be mad anymore.  I tried to ignore his advances, but honestly he is just too darn adorable!

Campers away

David is gone for the week to Jr high camp.  Kurt opted to stay there and continue to serve this week.  Matt came home yesterday completely exhausted.  They worked so hard.  They unloaded both of the 30ft uhauls, set up the kitchen tent, the kitchen, the stage tent, the stage, and bleachers, and set up campers tents. There were about 30 people in the work party setting up camp for 120 kids, 30 counselors, and the cooking/serving crew.  The jr high is there this week and then Kurt will be a camper with the sr high next week.  Matt and I and the other 2 kids will head over there on Saturday and spend the week.  Matt will do boating activities with the Sr high group with our boat and Joe and I will be in charge of checking out the canoes to campers and making them stay safe. Kelly and David will just get to hang out with their friends whose families are also there serving.  I’m really looking forward to this trip.  I always loved church summer camp!

Construction

David and I built a planter this weekend, while Matt and Kurt were away helping to set up youth camp.

We started on it Saturday morning. We worked all afternoon, leveling the ground, placing the stones, filling it with good quality soil, then planting .

It consists of 47 stones, 3-25 lb bags of tree and shrub soil, 10-15 lb bags of potting soil, 4 blue hydrangeas, 1 pink hydrangea, and 72 small flowering ground cover plants.

Here is a pic of the finished work.

Summer break

Parents of older kids know that summer isn’t always about time off.  We try to keep them busy so that we don’t hear ‘I’m bored”  but we also try to keep them engaged so that it isn’t a huge shock to their system when school starts back up.

I have been playing card and math games with Kelly while Joe is napping.  She has no interest in aforementioned MMORPG’s.  We have been playing rummy, skip-bo, phase 10, countdown, blink, and kings in the corners.  I think it’s good to keep her engaged and her mind working at sorting numbers and patterns.  She would just as easily sit in front of the tv all day, but I feel like I have to keep that from happening.  The challenge is doing it in a way that she has no idea that’s what I’m doing.  Each day around 11 I feed Joe lunch, put him down for a nap and then offer her lunch and an hours worth of games.  So far it is just a fun time with mom.

The boys are a completely different story.  They don’t want to engage at all.  Well David will sometimes, but usually not.  Kurt…forget it.  He just wants to be on the computer.  I guess that’s better than just staring at the tv.  At least they are solving puzzles and working out strategies.

Joe is another story right now.  He is teething in some molars and they are leaving him tired and craaanky. On top of that he seems to have come down with a cold this week. He is leaking from his eyes, nose, and mouth.  It really is quite disgusting.  The kids and I feel bad when he wants to give us loves, because we don’t want to kiss his face and share his germs.  

Last night David and Kelly had a jr high event with the church.  Normally Kurt would just drive them, but I needed to get out of this house.  I felt a little bad about making him stay home with the sick baby, but truly it was best for all involved.  I just needed some space and some quiet.  I dropped the kids off and met up with 2 girlfriends who were also dropping off kids and we went and sat at Starbucks and just chatted about the kids, and the newest thing to enter our lives…dating.  Yep that’s right Kurt went on his first date last Sunday afternoon.  He took a girl to a matinee movie.  She is a sweet girl, but a bit..well…blonde!!  He paid for her movie and drinks, and snacks.  There was some problem with the movie and they ended up giving everyone a free ticket.  He was annoyed that she kept hers.  When I asked him how it went he just said it was fine, when I asked if they would go out again, he said probably not.  When I asked why he said well she couldn’t really have a decent conversation, because she only ever talked and never listened, and well because she kept the free pass.  This is new territory for me and I’m slightly worried.  I want to protect him, but I also know the only way for him to learn this one is by experience.

MMORPG

Anyone know what that means?  Massive Multiplayer online role playing game.  Kurt and David spend all their “*available” time and money on one of these games.  We have parental controls on their laptops so that we can control how long they are on the computer.  As soon as their time is clear they are hibernating in “**the lair” and playing this game for hours.  They are sorely disappointed when their computers are close to shutting down when their time is up.  

I wonder sometimes if this obsession is harmful or actually a good thing.  Yes they do get outside and interact with live people, but I also see them working together to complete a task.  I see them being kind to each other, but most of all I see them bonding with each other.  The boys haven’t always gotten along and Kurt would usually lose patience with David pretty quickly when they used to play games together. Now they are laughing and spending a lot of time together.

The boys interests are generally opposite of each other.  Kurt is very musical, he has taught himself to play the guitar and he is very good at it.  His first week in piano class he was playing the songs at the back of the book, much to the teachers dismay.  David is very athletic.  He has been playing sports since the 3rd grade.

This one thing they have in common has brought them to each other.  I worried that they would never have a relationship, that they wouldn’t be close.  As a mom I envisioned them grown with spouses and children getting together and playing in the yard.  Now I envision them locking themselves away in the basement and leaving the kids to their wives.

In general I try to be tolerant of this game that they play.  The only time I come close to losing it is when they put off my requests because they are in the middle of playing.  I asked them to pause it a few times, but was informed that you really can’t do that, and other people are counting on you to complete a task and you can’t let them down. That is when I draw the line and remind them that I live in the real world as do they and that they really don’t want to deal with my anger in the flesh. They usually get the message and get to the chores within 5 minutes or so.

 

*available time and money is relative here.  I work them pretty hard and keep them pretty busy.

**The lair, is new the entertainment room.  The boys opted to move in together and one of them give up their bedroom so that they could have a room for all their games and computers as well as the mini fridge.

It’s a new day

Life here is never boring.  Anyone with 4 kids can attest to that fact. We have a unique dynamic here in our house.  We have 3 teens and 1 toddler.  

Kurt is 16 and just got his license.  That has caused an untold number of gray hairs to sprout on my head. David is 13 and just entering that difficult, rebellious stage of adolescence. Thankfully nothing too serious yet, but I see the storm brewing in the distance. Kelly is 11 and she is in that space between innocent child and preteen. She crosses back and forth multiple times a day.  Joe is 18 months and is just beginning to assert his will.  The tantrums are coming more frequently and he will definitely let you know when he’s unhappy. 

 

Matt and I have been married 17 years and it has been a tough, yet fulfilling journey.  I have been a stay at home mom for 16 years and I love my job.  We are very actively involved in our local church.  We encourage each of the kids to serve and be involved too.