Obnoxious back to school pictures... again

She wants to be Shirley Temple for Halloween, can you tell?

Kitty is in 2nd grade this year.

John is in 5th grade

Chickie is 13 months

Not walking...yet

The trendy instagram filter.

Boredom

This is going to sound lame but I found myself fighting boredom all weekend. It wasn't for a lack of things to do, there was plenty. I just didn't feel like it. It was awful and I couldn't tell you what I would rather have been doing.

Sometimes I get what Jared and I call "paralyzed" which is another word for overwhelmed.  School starts this week (hooray) and I spent the last week full on stressing about my kids' placement. We necessitated a transfer which I will probably go into in another post sometime, and I'm pretty sure the district forgot about us until I started calling and freaking out.  Anyway, I was stressed and then I just crashed and stopped worrying about everything.

And then I got bored.

 I like to start fresh every school year with goals that involve healthy homemade lunches, homemade dinner every night followed by homework, scripture study, family prayer, preparing for the morning and an early bedtime. I convinced myself that in order to achieve this perfection I needed a "drop zone" for backpacks, shoes, and school clutter. Long story short I spent most of my day on Saturday rearranging things that didn't need rearranging only to decide my whole house is a "drop zone" and there was nothing I could do about it. Pretty much I started with a bookshelf and it snowballed into organizing a closet, a portion of the garage, the winter gear, and the tools.

Now I sit here looking around feeling antsy and bored because I'm paralyzed from the disorder of my reality.

Plus I still don't know where the backpack crap is going to go.

Another Priest Lake summer post

We spent another week at the lake this summer. We had a good time, but by the end everyone was ready to go home.  John put it this way, "For the first four days it's paradise, but then it fades." Reality is hard to swallow as you get older.

The pictures aren't great, I left my memory card at home so I had to use my phone.



Chickie hated her life jacket



Cold kids after a swim in the middle of the lake



You can't see it, but Quinton and John are both reading magazines.  I thought it was funny.



Chickie ate the entire tootsie pop.  She loved to sit in that chair and hang out.

 

Kitty's favorite pose.  She loves Baby Brent from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.



Me and my bike

This is old news, but I got a bike for my birthday. I didn't want to invest in a hard core bike that had shocks and fancy pedal clips. At least I know myself better than that. I will never be a die hard mountain bike rider with tight shorts and impressive calf muscles. So I went to WalMart and picked a cheap Schwinn that looks a little like PeeWee Herman's bike.

I like the vintage look and the fact that there are gears. I don't like the image of my goofy self riding it. The bottom line is that I am not cool enough to pull of the trendy bike. I need a scarf on my head, red lipstick and rosy cheeks. Oh well.

Here's the thing though. I've been riding around on mostly flat tires. I checked the pressure before a ride with John yesterday and discovered that my squeeze of the tire was not even remotely accurate. I just thought I was too heavy and thats why the tires bulged when I got on. But guess what? It is way easier to pull chickie in her trailer when your tires are properly inflated. Who knew?

I'll still be walking it up the hill to get home though.

Happy birthday Chickie!

Ice cream cake... mmm.

Guess who is one?



Believe it or not, Kitty wears sunscreen.





Penn picked out her favorite new baby.




Getting the baby ready for a ride.



She got mad that the lid wouldn't close all the way on her baby.

This Kid.

This kid turned 9 last week.
And FYI, his hat is just like the one his nemesis, Ace, was wearing the day they got in a fight. Let that be a lesson in jealousy, when someone (John) makes fun of your hat it is probably because he likes it.

This kid is not easy.

I have described him as rigid, explosive, and intense a lot lately. I realize that complaining about my favorite son can get boring and repetative so today I choose to focus on something else about him-- his irritatingly picky palate.

He has had issues with foods and textures forever. Now it's unbearable. It has become the mother of all power struggles.

Every night the conversation goes like this:

"What's for dinner?"

"X."

"I hate X! Why can't you make anything that actually tastes good for once?"

"You can go to your room."

"Fine, but I'm not eating any of that nasty glop you call dinner!"

Unless X = Pancakes, cereal, grilled cheese, quesadillas, or meatballs.

I've tried everything from letting him starve to letting him have cereal every night. It has reached critical mass. 

Here's the thing though.  I think I know the solution.  We need to eat at the table more often.  I grew up eating at the table and remember being shocked when a friend of mine never ate with her family.  Now here I am being that mom who finds it easier to feed my kids at their stools.  My justification is this: Jared.  He has either worked nights or, like now, he doesn't get home until around 8 pm. Then when he is home he doesn't like to sit at the table because of his ultra-sonic mouth noise radar. Dumb, right? Plus when my kids were younger it was easier to feed them what they liked first and then make dinner for Jared and myself later.

Anyway, my new goal is to eat at the table as much as possible, regardless of Jared's presence. It is going to require some planning and preparation, but we will see if John is more willing to try new (healthy) options at dinner.

Be honest, do you eat at the table most nights? How do you make it work?

Girls Camp

We just got back from four days of camp in Rye, Colorado.  Between the bear visits (three times in one day), the food poisoning that wiped out about a third of the girls and leaders, Jeremiah, the mysterious lone male who soaked up all the positive teenage girl attention until his wife and two kids showed up, and a little dose of teen drama, I think it was fun?






Some of the girls slept under the stars the last night.