homeschool history

me: where did the ottoman turks come from?

baird: that's no body's business but the turks.

(then they all sang the rest of it. i had to laugh.)

in september

church bathroom + sunday clothes = disaster

first strawberry

back to school feast

shultute

a stop at the skate park

shenanigans

duck pond

best friend

it was a long sunday for dad

first soccer game - goal in first minute!

 'our' team

 dance festival rehearsals (this is the swing dance)

when brother is at soccer, we swing

always entering Lego competitions

dad is getting older (there are eyeballs all over his cake)

these are not in order at all but because it took me 4 days to get this far, i'm calling it good!

the taming of the shrew

i've been waiting to post these but i'm just going to go ahead even though i don't have all the pictures i took and i can't remember their names (bad mom).  i was so proud of them and enjoyed it so much. s especially had many many lines to remember and delivered them so well.

oh what a night

it's 11pm and i just ate dinner.
someday i won't remember WHY

we had friends here - while i made dinner the boys played legos and the girls sang and danced around in the front room while baby sat in the walker and yelled at them.
6:30 dinner is ready - but baby wants mom after being ignored (benignly) for 45 minutes. so after making sure b doesn't take all the meat (he can't help it) i took the baby to lay down and nurse. the kids are busy eating so it's quiet for a little while. but we have things to do.
i come back out at 10 to 7 - the dinner is all over the table. i have to put the food away (and grumble to my kids about not cleaning up after themselves). we have to pick up some more friends before YW starts at 7. i have to take some car seats out (we have 3 right now) so i can fit all these youth. and i have to give directions to the 11 year old babysitter too.  i put the baby in the car, load up the kids, and go.
i get back from taking the kids to church. i put the carseats back in. i call the boys (who forgot to clean up the legos) and hurry them up, and load them in. we drive to a different church building. i drop them off and turn around to go back home.
now it's almost 8. the two little boys are late for bed. i dress them, wash them, read to them, brush teeth. baby sits on my lap and crows while whacking me with her toy. i tuck the boys in and sing to them. i get baby dressed in her jammies. i put her in her car seat and wait for the litigator to get home.
dad pulls up outside with the boys from scouts. i wave hello dear as i jump in the car and go get the kids from YW. (both done at 8:30 - so the boys leave early and the girls get picked up late. there is no good solution to this problem). i pick up the girls, go back home and pick up one boy. he doesn't belong to me. i drive him and his sisters home. my girls hug their friends and moan about how it will be another 12 hours till they see each other again. we drive home.
the girls clean. it's after 9. (that's a long story, but in a nutshell - those who dance in the morning must clean at night). i nurse baby. and again. and put some little boys back to bed. and nurse baby again. and finally she's asleep.
then the litigator has a question about a bill and i have to check my email. 10 minutes later and my gnawing stomach reminds me of something. what am i doing here on the computer?! i haven't eaten dinner yet!
i go in the kitchen and see all the dishes waiting and load the dishwasher. i wipe down the table and tidy the room.
finally i can eat. i made a leftover/ fajita deliciousness. wow, it's really good.

this might be the most boring post ever but i KNOW i will be glad i wrote it all down. cause this is my life with teenagers and babies and everything in between. and that was just a small part of the day!

in april

building the new backyard swing set

after the first 8 hours

(with lots of help from the under 12s)

bad photo - but after 19 years of marriage -

we finally figured out how to make pot roast the right way

2 silver and 1 gold arrow point - and now he's a bear!

(something's wrong with my camera)

a new peony on the side of the house

five year old flip

always underfoot (and dirty from rolling in the yard)

homemade pitas

backyard roses - this was the litigators choice

9 on a saturday

- 1 to ballet
- 1 to a birthday party
- 1 to drive them
- 1 to tag along
- 1 on a horseback riding date


and

1 sick boy
1 sleepy toddler
1 slobbery baby
1 mom appreciating the golden afternoon

in february

this is my youngest daughter. she likes to shove most of her hand in her mouth.

here is my son. he is making pancakes

(aunt jen's recipe)

 here are my feet. this pedicure is 3 weeks old. if i hadn't kicked a chair it would have lasted longer. i discovered a miracle top coat here.

here is my oldest daughter. she is straightening her hair. thankfully she does it rarely.

here is my other girl. she's taking the little ones on a horsey ride.

 this is lego class.

this is a lego class challenge - to battle til something breaks apart

this is my little guy. he's just a darling.

 these are my children. we took a walk by the river.

these are my boys. 

they earned $62 with the recycling we collected. 

 this is my suburban. it was stuffed.

 this is my old freezer

and this is my new (to me) one.

it is quite glorious.