Some of the things we've been up to this month:
1. Conference weekend. Pajamas, puzzles, 2 hour church next year. All good things.
2. Andrew sleeps in all the beds except his own.
I asked him why he doesn't want to sleep in his own bed?
"because it's too medium."
And he has a point. It is the most medium bed in our house (full size).
3. Field trip with the kindergartners.
Pumpkins as far as the eye can see.
That girl in the purple coat is allergic to bees. Mrs. Thomas handed me an epipen and said "if she gets stung, slam this into her thigh and call 911."
no pressure.
Also there were bees everywhere (buzzing all around the apples and apple trees and garbage cans).
4. Soccer season!
We weren't undefeated this time, but we were good. We only lost two games, barely.
It is so so fun to see how far they've come. I've been coaching them since 2nd grade?
We had our last game Saturday, so this week it feels like I have all the time in the world.
It feels really good.
One Saturday Jim had to work, so I had the boys with me unsupervised whiled I coached (no big deal, that happens a lot), but this time I gave Andrew my phone to play with.
He ran off with it somewhere, and came back without it.
I asked "where's my phone?"
and he said, "I dropped it politely".
Do you know what that's from? The book, "Room on the Broom". The animals "drop it politely" a couple of times.
So it was kind of funny, but also not funny. Luckily Evan came and delivered my phone to me.
But also, while we are talking about it - Andrew reads!
And his favorite book to read is "Room on the Broom".
Evan's team struggled, but by the end of the season you could see how much they learned.
Evan was an attacker and got the biggest smile on his face when he would kick the ball near the goal.
He would smile and look over at me.
5. There was a random newt at our door one morning when we were going to the bus stop. We've never seen one before!
6. I put my garden beds to bed yesterday.
That feels so good.
See you in the spring.
7. 5th grade field trip.
This corn maze was so amazing! It is in the shape of Washington, and all the "highways" run through the maze and it's marked and accurate, so you don't really get lost - you just "drive" around and see/read all the history information about the state.
8. Sick Kids
This fall has been fuuunnnn with a few bugs. You feel like such a "mom" when your kids are sick. Since August I have:
- Cleaned Evan's puke from out of the car in a parking lot using wipes on the way home from camping.
- Took Avery to the doctor for a diagnosis of strep
- Cleaned puke off the carpet of the Black's playroom floor. I had a big heaping plate of delicious Thanksgiving dinner - fresh killed/smoked moose and caribou from near the Yukon territory - potatoes and veggies...I was ready to dig in, when Evan sounded the alarm "Andrew puked!"
Dinner was never the same after a half hour of cleaning that. I came back to a cold plate of food and shame and anxiety.
- combed lice out of Avery's hair. Combed and combed and combed and treated with Listerine and tea tree oil and combed and combed and combed. The second round of lice isn't as traumatic as the first time, but it still hurts my back to sit there and comb and comb.
- took Andrew to the doctor for a diagnosis of strep. He is currently taking antibiotics and you should see how ridiculous it is. He takes the tiniest sip of pink (like it barely touches his lips), then a giant drink of water - repeat. It takes at least a half hour to get it down. He doesn't like the taste, eye roll.
9. Pumpkin carving!
The kids are insanely excited for Halloween this year. It has been a fun season, despite the "bugs".
We went classic with our pumpkin faces this year. By "classic" I mean "kind of boring".
10. I have been subbing "a lot" this year. This road up to the school is so pretty with the colorful trees.
My kids are so good at school. I am so thankful.
Sometimes they are turkeys at home, but at least in "the system" they are the cream of the crop.
They rise to the top.
11. Young Womens!
Here we are meeting with the Young Men leaders. I sent this pic to the bishop so that he would be proud of us.
So much of my brain bandwidth is spent on this new calling. I do feel like I'm "settling in" to it though. I just can't even think of what to say about it. It's all too much for now. In a good way. I love being in charge. I'm a bit of a keener when it comes to leadership.
I also love going to ward council meetings Sunday morning because I leave Jim and all the kids in pajamas. I just get myself ready and walk out the door. "See ya, suckers!"
Plus I have an awesome team.
12. Busy Saturdays.
One particular Saturday was going to be wall to wall busy, and it was especially stressful because Jim found out he was going to have to work in the morning. So I breathed deeply and this is how the day went:
8:00am meet at The Market to carpool to the youth service project (in Acme, 45 minutes away).
9:00-11:00 Do the service project: cut blackberries and plant things and cut away tree cages. Avery helped and the boys sat in the car watching a movie. Avery had such a great attitude and loved "working".
11:00 go eat lunch at Subway, change into soccer gear.
12:30 Coach Avery's soccer game.
2:00 Watch Evan's soccer game.
3:00 Meet the dads at Padden for mountain biking and playing. Change out of soccer gear. You should have seen our car. There was so many pairs of clothes and cleats and boots and gear strewn about.
We went out to eat with the Blacks as well that night as the sun went down.
It was super fun, but super busy, and Avery gets her battery DRAINED when she is "on" for that long.
At the restaurant, she said she needed a "mindful minute" (a technique of quiet and meditating her PE teacher taught her), so I sent her to the bathroom to have a moment, and she came back "better".
I love that she used that skill in real life.
