911 what is your emergency?

A) My daughter ran herself over with a lawnmower.

B) My daughter fell off our roof.

C) My daughter fell out of a tree.

Really, it was D) None of the above.

But Lorien did spend some time up a tree, on our roof and mowing the lawn today. She was a busy girl. Daddy was doing yard work and Lorien was his helper. She collected tree and bush trimmings for the green-waste bin, mowed the whole back yard and pulled weeds. After all of their chores were done, Daddy took the kids to the Stanford Football game. While they were sitting in the stands Lorien looked admiringly down at the field. "Wow," she began "I feel bad for whoever has to mow THAT lawn!" She really learned a lesson in hard work today.

The Witching hour...

My life falls apart at about 5:00 pm every...single...day...

By 5:00 pm I am all tuckered out: I've made at least four trips across town for school, nagged my kids about finding their shoes, putting away their lunch boxes, picking up their toys, made after-school snack, broken up a dozen arguments, been bombarded with "Mom-guilt" for not having a clean house and listened to three independent re-caps of three different school days all said in unison at varying volumes...

By 5:00 pm the kids are hungry again and I am usually standing in the kitchen with all the cupboards open trying to figure out what-in-the-heck I am going to make for dinner???

By 5:00 pm I need an aspirin and a(nother) nap.

I have found that having a weekly meal plan saves a lot of trouble at 5:00 pm. But I am so dang inconsistent when it comes to making up weekly meal plans! I've tried about 8 different methods and, so far, none have worked well enough to keep doing.

Two weeks ago a new Mom-friend at school suggested a web site called RelishRelish.com. Basically, the site gives you 15 meal options. You choose the 5 you want to make for the week and they give you the recipes and shopping list. I've stalked the web site every day for two weeks perusing all the info. I possibly could without actually signing up (and paying) for an account. I've googled reviews for RelishRelish as well as "free trial" options.

Today I took the plunge--sort of--I signed up. Actually, I registered with Twitter. I don't Twitter or Tweet or Twit or Twoot? (and I never will--who cares what I am doing right now--I don't even care.) But I found the best free trial there. If you sign up as a RelishRelish follower you get a free two week trial of the service. You can sign up instantly without your credit card information and start using the service. With meals like "Rotini with Grilled Chicken" or "Peanut Curry Flank Steak" how could I resist?

So my friends--stalk RelishRelish.com for a few weeks. See what you think. If your life falls apart every day just before dinner it might be a life saver.

I'll let you know how my two weeks go. Maybe I'll still be picking up the pieces every day at 5:25 pm--but maybe not. It is worth a free-two-week-shot.

Let the fun begin!

Sick of that birthday post yet? Yhea, me too.

Stanford Football had their first home game last night! A few weeks ago I was driving past Stanford with Clare. She noticed a large poster advertising the start of the football season and said "Ohhhhh Momma, I wish we could go to 'Go Stanford' again."

Wish granted!



Making a lot of noise on 3rd down.
Shaking our keys on kick-offs.
Family cheers for 1st downs and when the quarterback is sacked.
Cotton candy.
Dancing at half time while the spectacle that is the The Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band plays.
Touch-down treats!

Seriously, we are the coolest people to be around at a football game.

Another year older...

"Birthdays are nature's way of telling us to eat more cake."--Anonymous

I love September.

My birthday is in September--it is the best.

Will gave me a big fancy keyboard for my birthday--because you are never too old to learn how to play the piano. Wyatt and Clare bought me a set of bad-A-mom bracelets (they are made of leather with metal studs). Lorien gave me a Target gift card (she knows I like to pick my own presents). The baby gave me a thousand kicks to the ribs and heart-burn (so sweet...). I gave myself a box of my favorite cereal--it used to be Lucky Charms, but now I am a grown up and it is Raisin Nut Bran (I just lost 100 cool points--huh?).

I love September.

I love these guys. ************ Opening the bracelets. ******* The gift card, look at Lorien's face. ***Me and the keyboard, I am a Dweeb.

First Day!

And so it went: excitement, nerves, success.

Happy Labor Day!

Call me a Copy Cat, call me unoriginal but so I am.

I couldn't help myself--it was a good idea.

So, I straight-up stole an idea from a well-known LDS Mom Blog. (Can you guess who?) Since Labor Day was also the last day before school started we (directly copying here) had a Back to School Feast. We let the kids plan the menu, shop for the food, help make the food and set the table. The kids loved it! With any luck, we will be ripping-off this idea every year.

Over dinner we talked about the kids expectations for the upcoming school year. Before dessert Will gave each of the kids a Father's Blessing. The kids were so excited about their blessings. They all sat on the couch and waited patiently (and quietly!) for their turn. I kept peeking at each during their turn and they all wore the same happy grin--no surprise--it made me cry like a baby.

Good Bye Glorious Summer...

Is it over, really? Is our summer gone, or almost? The kids start school on Tuesday and that seems like the official final end of summer to me.

No more sleeping in (a skill my children did not improve upon at all this summer--the lazy bums).

No more trips to the library or park.

No more impromptu drives out to the beach.

No more playing in the back yard, on the trampoline, on scooters, on the grass or in the trees all...day...long.

No more swimming?

Really?

Now I know we will keep doing all of those fabulous things even with school in session--but summer will be over. Like every year, I am sad to see summer go. Growing up in Maine I can remember seeing the first peeps of red or orange on the trees and feeling a sudden sorrow for the end of summer.

Oddly, summer is only my second favorite season--fall is my all time favorite so it is weird to feel sad about the end of summer when the best season of all is coming next. Weird. Anyway, we have one more day to make the most of our summer. I don't know what we will do yet. (If I were a betting woman I'd put my money on: Sleep until 11:00 and play out in the yard for the rest of the day.) Some how, we'll send summer off in style. For now, here is a little of what we've been doing in order to keep summer captured while preparing for the arrival of autumn:

Completely unstructured and unsupervised play time with siblings: Every morning the kids spring out of bed at about 6:30. Lorien sloshes cereal and milk into bowls and they watch a cartoon or two (or six or seven or twelve, I am still dead to the world and not counting). Then they head outside to play. The games usually involve the kids pretending they are orphaned babies, who are masters of karate, escaping from blood-thirsty-ninja-robot-pirates. These games also involve a whole lot of yelling. We've only received one note of complaint from our neighbors, it was a Sunday morning and the kids had skipped breakfast and cartoons heading straight outside for a screaming-ninja-pirate-butt-kicking-fest.

A side note here: these pictures are from this morning. The kids had already dressed for church when I got the camera out to capture their play. Most mornings they are only wearing underwear--less constrictive for maximum karate kicking power.

PROJECTS! For the last several months I've been sewing for a woman who sells antique linen decor. (Check it out at: www.ludwigaslinen.com/) But I took some time off this summer and got to work on projects of my own. Here is a pict. of the latest, I think they are awesome!

Dealing with Momma's basket-case emotions: I cry about nothing and everything these days. Music is the worst. I've removed all of the Disney music CD's from our car along with the primary practice CD. The songs make me burst into tears too easily--dangerous when you are driving a van load of children to the beach. A few days ago we were listening to a song called (really, I am not making this up) "The Happiest Song I Know" and I started crying like a loved-one passed away: blubbering, sobbing, snot falling out of my nose, hiccoughing, breathing in those short, shallow breaths that get you no where--CRAZY! It is the pregnancy--it had better be.

One more afternoon of swimming: (or if your are me and Clare: One more day of running around the edge of the pool and not getting wet at all.)

Will spent some time swimming with the kids. By "swimming" I mean "throwing the kids in the water to see how well their floaties work". But Will was not the only one tossing his kids around the pool. Uncle David spent a fair amount of time chucking Evan into the water too, and his antics made Will's look down-right-tame.

Let me just tell you what is happening in the photos below: David stands out of the pool with Evan hoisted somewhere about his shoulders. Then David catapults his first-born-child into the air over the water like he is throwing shot-put in the Olympics.

PS Evan seems to LOVE it...

That is it for now! Stay tuned for how we spend our Labor Day--unless we watch TV all day--I will not be blogging about that...

Lorien's Day...

We need school to start. Well, Lorien needs school to start. She misses her friends and has had enough of her siblings. As a result I spend a lot of my day saying things like: "Lorien, say it in a friendly way." or "Lorien, your are the oldest, you know better." or "Lorien, give that back to him/her...I don't care who had it first." or "Lorien, go to your room."



Poor kid.


Anyway, Will and I both noticed Lorien getting the short end of the stick over the last two weeks and decided she needed a little one-on-one time with Mom and Dad.

I decided to take Lorien for her first professional hair cut this morning. The woman who cut her hair (Kate, a friend from church) was so nice. I am sure Lorien enjoyed having someone ask "Oh are you OK, I am sorry I pulled your hair." or "How long do you want your bangs?" instead of hearing her Mother say "Hold still! This snarl is really big." or "I don't care if you want your hair down, it is going up!"

Kate did a beautiful job:




Before ***************************** After






Could this girl get any more beautiful? Even with her seriously jack-o-lanterned smile? She is stunning, I cry about it every other night.

I got a hair cut too, Before and After:



I know it is kind of hard to tell what my hair looked like in the "before" shot but that is the point--it did not matter what my hair looked like--I always wore it in a pony tail.





Daddy decided to take Lorien out on a special date. Lorien needed a couple pairs of pants for school and Will volunteered to take her shopping and out to dinner.


Going shopping is a monumental feat for Will. Remember when I told you he took all three kids camping one weekend while I stayed at home? Well, that was a piece of cake for him compared to shopping. He hates (HATES) shopping. I was worried but it was his choice.

If you cannot tell from the picture, they had a great time. (Also, if you cannot tell, she gets all her good looks from her Dad.) A super-gentleman, Will let Lorien choose the restaurant, the dessert place and her own clothes. Lorien wanted dinner from Fresh Choice and ice cream from Marble Slab. Lorien was all smiles and good-cheer when they got back.

I am pretty sure she had a really, really good day.