Maiden Voyage

Gavin taught himself to ride a two-wheeler yesterday and I didn't even see it happen.  He spend the afternoon at a friend's house, and that friend's bike didn't have training wheels. Gavin took it for a spin like he'd been doing it all his life.  My friend (the mom) shot a video to prove it.  Then, when Gavin got home, we took the training wheels off his own bike and he took off.

This was his very first two-wheeled ride on his own bike: 

This is when he showed Garry after work:

And today, despite the drenching rain pouring from the sky, Gavin rode his bike for almost an hour.

It's like Gavin has found his wings.  He loves to ride that bike!  He's fast and agile.  I'm sure he loves the wind on his face.  I just like to see his wide, wide smile.  That's pure happiness.

On my night stand

Yesterday my favorite UPS man dropped off two packages with my name on them.  Inside were two brand-new books, each released in the last week, and I can't wait to read them.

The first is Daring Greatly by Brene' Brown.  I devoured her first two books earlier this year and took her online class called Ordinary Courage in May and June.  {I'm a little obsessed.}  I am so excited to learn more about what Brown terms "wholehearted living" and embracing and sharing the real me.  I'll definitely read this one first.

Second on my list is Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin.  She also wrote The Happiness Project, which helped me a lot in my own search for happiness.  You might think that I abandoned my 2012 Happiness Project, but I didn't.  I just stopped blogging about it. Anyway, I look forward to seeing what new insights on a happy home life are available in this book.

Interestingly, Gretchen Rubin wrote an "advanced praise" accolade that was included in the front of Brene' Brown's book.  Both authors have definitely influenced my life this year, and their areas of research and expertise converge in a unique way for me.

And so I bid farewell (at least temporarily) to late night TV.  I will have better companions for a while.  But, unlike a flickering screen, they promise to keep me up long past my bed time.

'Tis a gift to be simple...

I have spent most of my day reorganizing and decluttering my kitchen cabinets.  I did not really intend to do this, but the idea grew from a mini tantrum I had last time I accessed the spices.  They were spilling out everywhere, I couldn't find what I needed (but that I was certain we had), and playing Tetris to get everything back in so I could close the cupboard door was just more than I could handle.

So, a couple of days later, Garry came home from the store with a legitimate spice organizer to replace the silly carousel we've had for 14 years.  It's a cool little system.  It's just not big enough.  So we started moving stuff around in the cabinet above the stove, and found an arrangement that seems suitable.  While Garry was working on that, I opened another cupboard--the one that has been vexing me for months (years?).  I stared at it for a good long time.  Then I went to bed.

After thrusting all my anger about messy cupboards (among other things) onto the elliptical and treadmill this morning, and after dropping Lexi at preschool, and after putting Kate down for a nap, I tackled that junky/random/crazy cupboard.  That cupboard led to the bakeware cupboard, which led to the cooking utensil drawer, which led to the regular utensil drawer, which led to the plastic food container drawer (which may deserve an entire post by itself), which led to the junk drawer, which led to the office closet.  Oh my.  The mess is currently much bigger than it was last night.

Do you know what my prevailing thought is after all of this ridiculous sorting and organizing?

WE HAVE TOO MUCH STUFF.

Who needs six boxes of paper clips?  We do, apparently, because the Apocalypse will surely bring a shortage of paper clips, and that we cannot abide.  And we also need 27 plastic baby spoons. And 16 medicine spoons from the pharmacy.  And 12 wooden spoons.  (Spoon fetish?  Maybe.)  How about 200 cookie cutters?  Yeah, we've got that. And 18 kinds of cupcake sprinkles, and four kinds of vinegar, and 11 knives we have never used once since our wedding day.  Don't get me started on the service-for-16 china and crystal that has never been opened.  We have three combination locks for gym lockers, but I have never once in my entire life used a gym locker.  We also have a lock box from when we Fake Moved.  Since I never intend to move ever again in my entire life (yes, lightning can strike me now), I'm wondering why, exactly, we have that thing.

Do we really need H-shaped sticky notes?  Or 37 pairs of socks per person?  Or this gadget or that tool or this pan?  Or four large tubs of Christmas decorations?  Everything we own has a purpose, for sure, and having plenty of everything maybe makes us feel more secure in our material world.  But today, right now, I am so sick of our accumulated STUFF that I want to move to Pennsylvania and become Amish.

Who's with me?

The Littles' Big Adventures

The hardest time of day to fill with the Littles is the 90 minutes between lunch (11:30) and Kate's nap time (1:00).  The other day we hung out in the cul-de-sac for a while. Since everyone else on the street works during the day, the kids have a lot of real estate to themselves.  Gavin and Lexi took to dancing (without music--at least not any I could hear) in the street when they weren't zooming around on scooters, bikes, and Kate's push toy.  Kate wanted to wear her shoes AND Lexi's shoes, or, alternately, no shoes at all.  I captured some fun photos and video that day.

On Friday, we spent the same hours at Costco.  I promised lunch to the Littles if they followed the Two Rules of Shopping with Mom, which they mostly did.  Gavin and Lexi split a piece of pizza, and we split a smoothie three ways, so lunch was cheap that day!  

I am always glad when an outing results in community nap time, too.

Christmas in July...er, September

In June or July I bought fabric for new Christmas stockings.  I had great intentions of whipping out seven stockings during the summer when, in theory, I had more time on my hands.  For a variety of reasons (primarily The Couch Project), that didn't happen.  But I am slowly making progress.

The stockings became tedious, so I switched gears and made a tree skirt first.  (Pattern here.)

Now I have no choice but to finish up the stockings (pattern here).  All of the details require hand stitching.  

If I didn't have a deadline, I doubt I'd ever finish.  But I look forward to hanging my stockings on the chimney with care...eventually.

Snips and snails and puppy dog tails

Zach and his buddy Trace spent a couple hours this afternoon catching lizards at the neighborhood park.  In the middle of their adventure they came home to show us their Mason jar prey: two tiny reptiles.  

Just before it was time to come home, I walked over to the park to capture pictures of the hunt.  When the clock demanded the boys' return, they had trapped six lizards in all.

After a morning full of kids fighting over video games and TV, I was so happy to see the boys doing things boys should do: roaming the great outdoors and getting dirty until dinner time.

School work

I just finished scanning the first batch of school work for the 2012-13 school year.  Here are the treasures:

Lexi's self-portrait.

Included with this was a questionnaire that Lexi's teacher helped her complete.  Our funny girl's answers are in bold.

My name is: Lexi

Who named me: I don't know.

In was born: Nowhere.

I am 3 years old.

My mom's name is: I don't know.

My dad's name is: He's a boy.

I have 3 brothers and 1 sister.

Their names are: Gavin, Zach and Tyler, and Kate, and mom, and me.

I have 0 pets.

My favorite foods are: ice cream and pizza.

My favorite color is: pink, purple, blue, and white.

My favorite toy is: Betsy.

Gavin hasn't produced much in the way of art yet, but he did bring home a hand print.  

I haven't seen any of Tyler's school work yet, either.  However, he's bringing great stuff home from art class.  He drew the outline of the horse upside down and then colored it in (and added sound effects).  I took a photograph of the collection of items Tyler drew in his second piece.  I realize now that he was actually sitting to the right of the collection, so I should have taken a picture from his perspective!  I'm especially fond of his shading technique with pastels.

Zach was the first student of the week in his class.  He had to talk about himself for two minutes and didn't prepare at all, but I liked what some of the students had to say about his presentation:

"I think it's cool that you admire your dad."  --Peyton

"I think you are very cool and very kind."  --Lauren

"I hope you become a pro basketball player like you want to."  --Max

"Zach is a very funny student who is actively involved in class.  He is really smart!"  --Mr. B.

For his sharing day, Zach took his pogo stick to class and wowed them with his ability to jump on it with no hands.  He brought home this note at the end of his special week.

Now I need to find the time to add all of these scanned items (and the stories behind them) to the kids' memory books.

Mom's Taxi

Today is our first full-throttle, all-the-kids-in-school day.  Here's the timeline of our basic Thursday from here 'til May.  Since the boys just quit swim team (Mama's not happy), the afternoon isn't quite as hectic.

5:00: Heidi's alarm rings.

5:15: Heidi stumbles into the gym for an hour of cardio.

6:30: Heidi returns home.

6:35: Garry's alarm rings.  He starts waking up Zach (it's a process; we have arrived).

6:45: The family congregates for breakfast and scripture study mischief, mayhem, and milk spilling.

7:00: Heidi makes lunches.  Garry takes a shower.  Boys dress for school.

7:30: Heidi takes Zach to the middle school for his math class.  Sometimes the girls ride along so Garry can hustle Tyler and Gavin more easily.

7:45: Heidi returns home.

7:55: Garry leaves with Tyler and Gavin.

8:00: Garry drops Tyler at the school curb.  Kate jumps in the bathroom doorway while Heidi showers.

8:10: Garry walks Gavin into school, signs him in, and then goes to work.

8:20: Heidi is ready for the day.  She fixes Lexi's hair and makes sure her backpack is ready.  Breakfast dishes might also be done if there is enough time.

8:48: Heidi picks up Zach at the middle school.

8:55: Heidi drops Lexi at preschool.

9:05: Heidi drops Zach at the elementary school.

9:15: Heidi puts a sleepy Kate in bed for her morning nap.

9:30: Heidi hosts an Isaiah study group at the house.

11:00: Heidi and Kate pick up Lexi.

11:25: An angel friend knocks on the door.  She brings Gavin home from preschool every day.

11:30: Lunch mischief and mayhem at the kitchen table.

11:45: Play time.

1:00: Kate takes another nap.

1:00-3:00: Heidi referees more mischief and mayhem.  She maybe takes a cat nap on the couch, or does some laundry, or works on the computer, or eats bon-bons...or whatever moms do all day.

3:00: Heidi turns the kids loose in the front yard to wait for brothers.  She maybe thinks about dinner for the first time.

3:35: Zach and Tyler return home on their scooters (which they carried to school in the morning).

3:40: Heidi takes Tyler to art class.

4:00: Heidi monitors homework completion.

4:45: Heidi picks Tyler up from art class.

5:30-ish: Dad comes home.  Hooray.

6:00: Dinner.

7:30: Bedtime for the children.

8:30: Lights out for the big children.

9:00: Heidi goes to bed (haha...wishful thinking, most nights)

5:00: Heidi's alarm rings...

Helping hands

As part of a stake service project, Garry joined an army of Colorado Springs volunteers on Saturday and helped protected some of the city's fire-damaged areas from flooding. Volunteers moved 150 tons of sand that day.  Officials later said that because of the large LDS presence at the community event, all of the sand bags were filled by 9:30 a.m. instead of noon.  Garry spent two afternoon hours moving the sand bags from the filling ground to the areas most in need.  The Waldo Canyon fire burned 350 homes to the ground, and the surrounding property is at great risk for flooding during heavy rain. Hopefully the sand bags will protect the areas from further damage.

It is sobering to see the scorched mountains and skeleton trees in the burn zone.  We feel so blessed to have escaped this tragedy, but are glad for every opportunity to serve those affected by the fire.

Root, root, root for the home team

While I was playing with my friends at a wedding reception, Garry was playing at Coors Stadium in Denver.  He took Zach and Tyler to see their very first Major League Baseball game.  The BYU Alumni Association sponsored "Mormon Night at the Rockies" and offered cheap tickets.  It was a fun opportunity.

The Rockies won 9-1 and got a grand slam in the bottom of the eighth inning.  The boys thought the entire experience was awesome.

Garry and I both returned home after 11:00.  I feel compelled to brag about our super-awesome babysitter, who left the house spotless and ironed Garry's shirts.  I'm not going to let her go to college next year.  Sorry, Holly.  You're my babysitter for life.