On having children...

I am typing this in April and cannot remember the dream.  The night before this post is dated (March 20th) I had a weird dream.  Most of the time my dreams are just the ramblings of my unconscious mind sorting out events and thoughts from the day.  They have zero meaning.  They are only there for rest and rejuvenation.   Every so often, I'll wake from a dream and feel like it was important.  Either my mind is wrestling with something, I am worried about something, or I am getting some guidance from God.  I usually know when a dream was important when I wake up.  I feel different.  Instead of feeling like: that was weird. I feel like: that was important.  I don't know how to describe it.  I just want to say it doesn't happen very often and MOST of my dreams aren't important at all.  

Anyway, I wish I could remember this dream. I woke up feeling like it was important; moreover, I felt like I needed to spend more deliberate time with my kids.  I'm with them all day...all the time...but lots of the time I am distracted.  I do chores, listen to books, and check my phone.  Man, I wish I could remember the dream now.  I woke up feeling like I need to pay attention to my kids more when I'm with them.  Nothing crazy.  I still need to do other stuff but I need to be more deliberate about putting other stuff down and focusing on them for a few minutes.  So that is what I tried to do today.  Here are some of the things I observed:

This picture is actually from Tuesday, the day before.  Colter after swim lessons at splash.

Clare had her big birthday breakfast with friends this morning.  We had 14 girls over before the 9:00am start at middle school.  They chatted and laughed and ate waffles.  Clare has been in this school district since she started school.  Many of these girls have been her classmates since she was in Kindergarten.  I loved seeing how they have grown up.  I loved listening to their conversations while I cooked in the kitchen.  I loved hearing their laughter and kindness to each other.  Clare has had really good friends while we've lived here.  There have been ups and downs but mostly ups.  I am so thankful for Clare and her friends.

I sat with Colter while he ate his lunch after Kindergarten pick up.  We talked about his day and the things he likes.  I watched him get his own glass of water.  I remembered getting millions of glasses of water for my kids over the years.  I remembered being small and having the kitchen counters reach my armpits when I reached for my own glass of water as a child.

When I picked Adell up I took her to McDonald's to grab an ice cream cone through the drive-through.  We talked about her day and her friends.  She has some friend drama, it weighs on her heavily.  She doesn't have an easy time feeling like she is always liked and included.  It is hard sometimes.  We talk a lot about being in charge of our own emotions and letting others be in charge of their emotions.  We talk about standing up for ourselves, even when we think we might get in trouble.  We talk about her teachers and how they all love her!  We talk and talk and talk.

Right after picking up Adell I got a message from Lorien saying she needed a ride home.  Little did I know, she needed a ride for herself, a friend, Wyatt and a gigantic canvas!  Little did she know, I didn't have the minivan--just Will's car.  Will had taken the van for a work road trip.  That gigantic canvas was not going to fit in the car.  We tried the trunk with the seats folded down, we tried to slide it in through the side doors...no dice.

Finally, I came up with the clever idea of putting the canvas on the roof and all of us holding on to it through the open windows.  Wyatt closed his hand in the door on the first try.  Poor kid.  We situated the canvas, opened the windows, held on and left the high school.  Thankfully, I could take the back roads all the way home sticking to 25 mph roads only.  It was scary and funny and mildly embarrassing.  We all felt like everyone was staring at us (they were not).  We all felt like we kept passing everyone we knew (we did not).  I stressed about the police catching us (they did not).  I'm not sure what law we were breaking but I thought for sure we were (we were not--I think now).  I was also supremely confident we would be the subject of a shameful nextdoor post (we were not).

After much laughter and only a couple of scary canvas-near-blow-offs we made it home.  My left hand had gone white and numb.  It was awesome.  Yankee ingenuity right there.

Lorien and her friend did a touch-up dye job on the hair of another friend.  This boy and five of his friends came over one day last week and Lorien bleached his hair.   Apparently, the bleaching process is wildly painful.  Poor kid.  He had to leave the house and walk around the block to try and distract himself from the pain.  Now he knows, beauty is pain. 

Lorien cannot stand the little kids to be around her and her friends when they are over.  She cannot stand the little kids at any time but she can hide out in her room.  When her friends are here they want to be in the common areas of the house...with no little children.  I don't think her friends mind the siblings so much but Lorien cannot stand them.  I managed to pull the little kids upstairs for a good long time to make collages and decorate a baking powder can for a piggy bank.  It was a great craft.  Colter and Adell ended up staying up in my room for another hour or so cutting and pasting.  Colter was all about finding pictures of multi-million dollar homes to decorate his pages.  He has a very skewed sense of real estate prices thanks to living in the Bay Area.

When I came downstairs I could hear laughter from the teenagers and Bob Ross from the TV.  All four kids (Lorien, Wyatt and Lorien's two friends) had hauled out unused canvases and decided to paint along with Bob Ross.  Their pictures were so cool!  I loved seeing what they were creating.  I was so impressed with how well they were all following Bob Ross and how well their paintings were turning out.  One of Lorien's friends had to leave before they were finished. I have the three finished paintings hanging in the family room.  I love them!

Being a parent is weird and hard and rewarding.  I remember how much I struggled when the big kids were little.  I remember how overwhelming every little thing was.  It is so nice to be a little older, a little more experienced, a little calmer now.  It is so nice to see how these kids have grown up so far.  To see how my mistakes have helped and hurt them.  To see they are growing into fantastic human beings.  It is nice to see the younger kids come along and see how my mistakes are shaping them.  Parenthood is a wild journey.  I'm glad to be on it...

Anniversary Escape...

Our nineteenth anniversary is today.  Nineteen years!  Wowzer.  We managed to slip away for a few days, down to San Diego.  It was so nice to be just the two of us.  It is nice to be just the seven of us or any combination of our family members.  I'm not saying one is better than the other, it is just nice, whatever grouping we have has its positives!  Let me tell you about the nice things about being just me and Will.  

First up, kissing.  Will is the only person in our family who lets me kiss him any time I want to.  It is awesome and we kissed a lot over the weekend.  A LOT!

Second, doing activities where you don't have to worry about anyone's personal safety but your own.  We flew down to San Diego Friday night and had dinner.  Saturday Will rented bikes and we cruised along the beach for miles and miles.  We didn't have to worry about kids getting lost, run over or too far ahead.  I've never taken a bike along the beach and always wanted to.  It seems like such a California thing to do.  It was so much fun and now I want to take the kids on a beach bike ride too!

Third, eating at nice restaurants with yummy/weird food.  Will and I love to eat out (who doesn't?).  Taking the kids is nice but costly and some of them only eat pasta or chicken nuggets.  It is a bitter pill to swallow, paying restaurant prices for nearly free food you have at home.  Anyway, we went to a couple of really lovely restaurants in San Diego and at some really fun food.  Some standouts: a crab cake and escargot.  Will was the only one who ate the snails...I had one but that was it.

Fun fact, in high school I took two years of French.  As part of the class, we learned how to make a couple of French food items, including escargot.  We were graded on whether or not we ate the escargot.  As a somewhat picky eater, I was NOT going to eat a snail.  So, while we were making the escargot, I crumbled up a bit of bread, put it in the little pot and quickly covered it with a mound of butter.  I paid attention to where I placed that particular pot on the baking tray and made sure that was my pot when we had to down a snail.  I cheated the system and got my passing grade.  By the way, escargot is just snails in a mountain of garlic butter.  Anyone who says they like escargot doesn't like snails at all, they like butter...that's it.  It's the same with lobster.  You eat lobster with a stick of butter, people don't like lobster...they like butter.  Anyway, I did eat one snail off of Will's plate...so I guess I earned my grade...just 20+ years late. 

Fourth, getting to do whatever we want!  On our last morning, Will went for a workout and I slept in.  It was lovely.  No one needed breakfast or us to break up a fight.  We just got to relax.  It was awesome!

On our last day, we signed up for a harbor tour in kyacks.  It was a little chilly but sunny.  We saw kelp forests and caves.  It was really cool like neat...and cool like cold.  I thought the kids would have enjoyed that activity too.  Then it was back to the airport and home.  It was such a nice getaway.  Many thanks to Lorien for holding down the fort Friday night.  More thanks to Alan and Heather for holding down the fort Saturday night and Sunday. 

Happy anniversary Will.  You make me smile every day.  I am so glad we get to be together forever and get to go on adventures.  I love you!

Paving and dodge ball...

The town is repaving our street.  It's been noisy.  I wished Colter was a three year old again.  He would have LOVED these trucks.  Now Colter really loves YouTube and YouTube is never going to drive down our street.  On this afternoon, Adell managed to pull him away from YouTube for a while to watch the paving.  The hills are green and gorgeous.  They made a beautiful picture.  

Wyatt played doge ball at church tonight.  Our ward (his team) won the night!  They lost their first three games and then won every game after that...winners!

Pantry Project...

I feel like I could start all of my posts with some sort of "wow" comment.  Something like "Oh boy" or "Wowzers" or "Well, we did it".  Life is busy and when I get something finished, I am so impressed.  Waaaay back at the very beginning of February I decided to take on my problem pantry.  I've looked at every option.  I've had designs and quotes written up by two kitchen supply installers.  I've cruised IKEA and Home Depot dozens of times.  I've drawn up my own plans...and still couldn't find the perfect idea.  Sick of the open shelving with not enough space, I decided to just build a pantry to get the job done.

I reached out to my brother, Ebin, who is a builder and woodworker.  He lives in Maine but he agreed to be my consultant on the project.  I snapped some before pictures and emptied the shelves.  

February 1st

With Ebin's help, I taped out my pantry idea and waited for Ebin to send me a materials list.

February 5th

Ebin and I went back and forth.  Every couple of days I was calling or Facebook messaging him with some worry.  He was great.  Reassuring me we could figure it all out.

February 9th

Then we ran into our first major problem.  I wanted to leave enough space for a small counter and cupboard for the trash and recycling.  Problem, my trash bin was too big for the pantry space we had planned to use IKEA doors on.  Stress!  Thankfully, I found some smaller bins so I could make a smaller cupboard. 

Colter and Adell helped me get the corner painted (I'm a lucky girl).

February 16th

February 18th

Will started framing the new pantry walls for me.  I worked for days on the exact measurements for the pantry so there would be room for the trash bins AND the IKEA doors would fit.

February 23rd

After we got the pantry framed, we picked up a sheet of drywall.  You can't tell from this picture but our seats are pulled all the way up to the front with zero recline.  We are thankful for a minivan that can haul lots of stuff...even if the driver has to be sitting on the steering wheel to drive when we haul stuff.

Once the dry wall was placed, we did a little mudding.  I personally watched about 70 hours of YouTube videos to figure this out.  We also did a little dry run with the pantry doors...and they didn't fit!  I'm not even kidding around. Somehow (because I am a moron who doesn't know what she is doing) I measured about 1/2 and inch smaller than what we needed.  I wanted to cry.  I might have cried.  We figured we could cut notches at the hinge points in one side to get the 1/2 inch we were missing.  Thank heavens for family members who have jig saws.

March 2nd

I did manage to cut shelf brackets to hold our pantry shelving. 

March 8th

Will helped me install the shelf brackets one night.  I wanted to glue them to the wall and screw them in for extra strength.  He thought it would be better to just screw them in.  (Foreshadowing!)

By this point, our kitchen had been under construction for over a month.  I've swept up pounds of sawdust and wall plaster.  I was tired of having open shelving in two different places for our "pantry" and really tired of the mess.  So Will agreed to help me work late into the night getting the shelves installed. 

March 12th

Guess what.  We couldn't get the shelves in with all of the brackets already in place!  We had to remove the top set of brackets to put the shelves in.  We also discovered that the kid who cut our shelves at Home Depot cut them to be 42 and 1/8 inches wide instead of just 42 inches.  So even when we removed the brackets we couldn't get the shelves to fit!  We had to saw off the extra 1/8 an inch ourselves...at 11:00 pm...in the kitchen.  More sawdust.

But we got all the shelves in!  I spent a good part of the day loading the shelves with all of our pantry items.  It looks awesome!

March 15th

Tonight, Will agreed to finishing the pantry for our date night.  I didn't make dinner...we just let the kids veg out in front of the TV and got to work.  Guess what, our measurements still weren't right!?  Will had to cave out a few more places to get the doors to fit.  UGH.  This project has taken too long and required too much swearing.  We also had to shave off a bit of one of the shelves so the hinges would fit in one place.  Grrrr.

We did it! It is done, well almost, I need to get some handles.  I love it so much!  Many thanks to Ebin for helping me get this started and talking me off several mental ledges.  Many more thanks to my darling husband for indulging my ideas and building everything I dreamed up...but really for being so patient with ALL of my measuring mistakes. 

I also have to build the cupboard for the trash and recycling.  For now, I am so happy with this pantry!  Happy it is done.  Happy all my food and them some fits inside.  Happy my idea worked out (mostly).

Jack-o-lantern face...

Oh boy, Colter lost his first top tooth a week or more ago.  The second (which was the far looser tooth) has been turning sideways and looking gnarly.  I keep offering him all kinds of bribes to let me tie floss to his tooth and shoot it out with a nerf gun.  I started with 10 Cadbury chocolate eggs (the mini ones).  I moved up to unlimited iPad time.  No, no, no.  He wasn't having any of it.  This past week everyone got sick and missed school.  Colter got it first over the weekend, then Adell, then Clare and Wyatt.  I think Wyatt was faking but oh well.  It was a little easier to have kids miss school the week of daylight savings reentry.  

This morning, Colter was healthy enough to go back to school.  For one last swing, I offered to let him skip school today if he let me shoot his tooth out with a nerf dart.  He agreed and Will tied his tooth to one end of a nerf dart and sat Colter on a stool.  Suddenly Colter got cold feet.  He wanted to go to school.  As Will was trying to untie the floss, the gun slipped off Colter's lap and yanked his tooth out!  I was trying to video it but I stopped when he decided he wanted to go to school instead.

Colter was so mad!  He didn't want his tooth to come out today!  He wanted to go to school!  I offered to still take him to school but he decided he'd take the reward for loosing his tooth.  He looks so darn cute.

He also got a good, deep bubble bath for an extra treat.

Spies like Us

The little kids were banned from electronics for a while this morning.  They made an obstacle course in the family room.  They called it their spy training.  Their final bit of training was a laser beam avoidance test.  Adell taped yarn over the stair way and they crawled their way through it.  Thank goodness they still have some creativity!  

Here we talent show again...

You know Adell was in the talent show again this year.  I think we've been doing the talent show every. single. year. for. seven. years?  I'll have to do the actual math, since Clare was in the first grade, so yes, seven years.  

The theme was Disney this year.  Adell and her friends sang and danced to a High School Musical medley.  It was awesome and original.  They were our highlight of the show!

Gina, Emily, Adell, Violet and Charlotte

Lorien did Adell's stage makeup for the show.  Apparently, while back stage, Adell poked her eye and got a wet paper towel to sooth it...and rubbed all the makeup off that eye.  She looked a little lopsided but still super adorable. 

Missing the lake...

My sister-in-law, Heather, sent me these pictures today.  We haven't been up to the lake in ages.  I guess we are going to have to figure out a way up there again.  It was a good time...or maybe I just needed this much time to pass before I started missing it and thinking it was a good time?