Richie has been mildly obsessed with the brand "Duluth" for a few years now, ordering as much from their catalog as our budget would allow. Imagine his child-like excitement when we were driving on I-15 a few months back, and he sees a Duluth store under construction! He was literally counting down the days until it opened. We made visiting the store a family event. :)
Normally Richie chops all of our wood by hand. However, time is in short supply this year, so we broke down and rented a log splitter. Best $100 we've spent in a while. Besides being unbelievably cool and mesmerizing, it did in 5 hours what would have taken him days. Worth it!
Reason # 52 why I love our neighbors tree that is nearly on our property. It drops 10% of it's leaves on our neighbors lawn, and 90% on ours. :) Perfect garden food, and perfect amount of leaves for jumping into. We spent a good hour outside the other Saturday jumping in the leaves and recording their jumps in slow-mo on my phone, and then watching the slow-mo videos on repeat.
Richie and I have become fairly adept at creating a "Come Follow Me" lesson for the kids on the spot. Like I said earlier...we're short on time. Some hurried ideas are better than others. This one seemed to work well. I labeled dress up clothes with "Good Works", which they got to choose, and then they put on a "clothed in righteousness and good works" fashion show. :)
At this point, we should just sent Richie's paycheck directly to Home Depot, right? It's feeling pretty homey these days. When I just had Benson and Davy tagging along the other day, I had one of those moments where I was struck with gratitude for this life I'm living. One of those moments that I know I'll miss when they're grown. My two, small, toe-headed boys- side by side in the car cart, oohing and aahhhing over things at the store. Most memorably, taking deep breaths of the cinnamon pine cones out for purchase for the Christmas season.
Gwen and lindy- They like to fight. They also like to be best friends and take millions of selfies on my phone.
Homeschool co-op day to learn about seasonal foods. We headed to Peterson Farm and checked out their market, their animals, and play on their swings and in their corn pit. A morning well spent.
This was Miles's LAST pinewood derby! Can you believe it?? Honestly, Richie and I aren't super big fans of these events. It always seems like the parents take control of the cars, spend oodles of money on them-leaving the kids who actually do it themselves way behind in the dust with a mediocre car. We had our neighbor, Gil, help Miles cut out his car this year. Miles painted it himself and did everything else himself. I was proud of his efforts. But come game-time, I was just praying that he wouldn't come in dead last in every race, like the past 2 years. He actually came in 2nd on two of his races this year, but wasn't even in the top 10. And once again, I could not have cared any less about the race outcome, but was overwhelmingly proud of Miles's attitude about the whole thing. This year he seemed to be the most into wanting to win, but he didn't, and still he cheered enthusiastically for his friends who did, and had a fun the whole time. He never whined or complained, even in the privacy of our car, just commented on how he would have liked to win a race, but "Oh well, at least I had fun!" Love that kid.
We got discounted tickets to see "Winnie the Pooh" at the Hale Center in Orem, through Canyon Grove. I bravely (stupidly)took all 5 kids. Benson was done before the play even started (luckily he warmed up to it) and Davy had to be coaxed into quietness the entire show. Whew! Good thing the older 3 all loved it!! You're welcome kids.
None of my other kids have ever caused me so much worry as a small child. If you don't have a constant eye on Benson, be prepared to clean up a huge mess when you find him. And it doesn't take long. I promise. The other day, about 30 seconds after I heard the back door close, I realized it was Benson and no one was out with him. I ran outside and he was happy chopping wood with his "tiny axe" as he calls it. Yeeesh. He's also been known to chase his sisters around the backyard with it. No biggie.
Benson's First Dentist Appointment! He's been dying to actually participate in one of these and not just watch his siblings. He was so excited! :)
Home Remodel-This is the bulk of what's going on in our lives right now. I could write lots about this, but I'm tired and need to order groceries, and pack lunches, and fold laundry and nurse Davy. So... We're putting in new flooring, baseboards, wall paint, ceiling paint, light fixtures and re-doing basically all of our kitchen. Yikes!! We would have done it sooner, since our house really needs it, but you know...Money. Now that we're preparing to move, we decided to bite the financial bullet in order to boost our resale value considerably. So as of now, our house is in total chaos. It's draining. But we're very, very grateful for all the help we've received from family and friends. I had no idea how hard this would be! It will be worth it in the end though. (Edit to add: A specific memory I don't want to forget was Richie and his Dad laying the flooring in the TV room and singing along to Jackson Browne and James Taylor. Two of their favorites!)
No comments:
Post a Comment