The Month of May

Every once in a while I take a picture of all our FHE drawings. On this particular Sunday we talked about how Jesus is the good shepherd. Andrew made a list:

1. Jesus loves me

2. He has faith

3. He heals us

Evan's has some good looking sheep.

Avery's was so great. Look how she illustrated the metaphor so perfectly. 

This kids got super excited at Jim's drawing:

Then it was my turn to show what I came up with. It was a bad art day for me...haha

I think I misjudged what sheep look like.

Playing at Bertheson.

It's not long before the shirts come off. 

The Elementary is painting a mural for the lunch room, and all the kids get to help. 

I breathe deep breaths when I go help. 

(because the kids are so messy and gloppy and drippy)

I love subbing in Evan's class. Greatest kids. 

This is the burial site of a baby bird and its nest.

One day after baseball practice, we were hanging around in the front yard and I noticed a nest-looking thing face down by a tree. I turned it over with the toe of my shoe...and there was something little in it moving around. It was a tiny baby bird! 

It opened its little beak wide for us to feed it something. It broke a mama's heart. 

All the kids ran around the yard looking for a worm. They dug around in my garden (and dug up some of my freshly sprouted kale). 

I tried to explain that a little baby bird needs a mama bird to chew and partially digest and then throw up the worm into the baby's mouth...but they didn't care.

Finally Jim googled it, and the best thing to do is put the nest back into the tree and do nothing else.

The next day we checked on the nest, and the baby bird was dead. (shocker)

So we buried it. 

Andrew sat in the Jim's chair and called it "The Dad 3000".

It is heated, it reclines, it has arm rests...

It's field trip season.

This was a rainy one to Birch Bay. Avery learned so much! She's been spouting marine biology facts ever since. 

I came across Andrew's writing journal the other day when I was subbing, and I love this so much. 

"This week I want a lego set but my dad said no and I said maybe next time."

Also the other day Andrew asked me "do I chews the right on my fingernails?"

(I had just got home from a bike ride) and this purple butterfly kept landing on me! 

It wouldn't leave me alone. See it there on my finger? 

Youth activity at the beach. Weenie roast.

I've been doing a bunch of feeding the youth lately and I'm so sick of them not being thankful and not cleaning up after themselves. I feel like such a monster when I have to yell "everyone pick up 5 things!" 

eye rolls and rolls and rolls. 

Guess what? It's been almost 4 years since we started, but we are almost finished reading The Book of Mormon together.

I love this picture. They are sooo sleepy. I'm positive they don't listen to a word I read, but it's still exciting to get to Moroni!

Here is the other youth activity we did recently - a campout on one of my leader's property. 

She has a forest. The girls could either make their own shelter or put up a tent. Two groups made their own homeless camp-y shelters. They are so brave. 

They cooked their own steak and veggies on camp stoves, and then they had to clean up after themselves. 

Also: I have had diarrhea for a week or two...it's super fun. I wasn't planning on camping with diarrhea, but here we are. 

I had to get up twice in the middle of the night and get on my boots and glasses and coat and walk down to Kari's house to the bathroom. 

It's important that you know this. haha

Memorial Day! 

It's the day that we pretend school is out and it's summer and we stay out too late and then have to wake up early in the morning and we are so confused how that happened. 

Look at this creature. 

Andrew is such a good reader.

You know how new readers are painful to listen to at first? He skipped that phase. He just went right into doing the voices and pausing and emphasizing in all the right places. 

Avery Spring Soccer

It has been a fun season - at this age, the 5th and 6th graders are combined. I have 17 girls on the roster, which is a lot, plus they are at such a social age, it is hard to get them to STOP TALKING and listen to me (I have SUCH important things to say).

I have been coaching most of these girls since 2nd grade and it is amazing how far we've come. They are onto learning about open space and passing down line and big crosses into the center - next level stuff - and they are doing it!

Anyway, at the beginning of the game, Avery was pumped and really wanted to score. She's never scored a goal before - she's a timid player, quick to hand the ball off to another teammate. 

So she and Bea were down near the goal, Bea had the ball. She passed it into open space perfectly for Avery to run onto and knock into the goal. 

It was such a good hit right into the back of the net. She stood there with her hands over her mouth in disbelief, then everyone screamed and surrounded her. She ran over to Jim and jumped into his arms. It was so fun to finally see her get a goal!

And it was extra special that her best friend Bea set it up for her. 

I have to tell you about Della. She is hilarious. She's EVERYONE'S friend. 

But most notable is: she only has one leg. She has a prosthetic, but it's still hard for her to run fast, yet she comes out and does soccer. 

She's also so funny about her leg. One time at a baseball game (her brother is on Evan's baseball team), some boys were bugging her, so she took off her leg and hopped after them with her leg over her head trying to HIT them with it. 

Andrew in disbelief said "she's coming apart!"

and then called to her,

"now take off your arm".

lol

My magnet board: It's the only way I can keep track of whose turn it is to come in and out. We have such a huge team this year. 

Mother's Day

I'm not particularly keen on breakfast in bed,

but I do like laying in bed until I get hungry on Mother's Day.

This year Avery gave me a foot massage in bed and it was the besssst and I hope it's a tradition we can replay every year. She isn't even afraid of my bunion. See that big toe there making a hard left?

One of my favorite traditions Jim has been doing for years is: he gathers all the children in a separate room (while I'm "sleeping") and they make a video-grahm and then they text it to me.

In kindergarten, they make these golden hands for Mother's Day. 

 I got my last kinder baby hand this year. 

The day before (a crazy typical Saturday in May 2019) We had a soccer game, a soccer game, a baseball game, and then a birthday party. I dropped Avery and Evan at the bowling alley, then me and Andrew went to Hagen and had a lovely deli lunch together. At the deli cafe area, they were making Mother's Day picture frames and polaroid pictures. We got this terrible, dark picture together and I love it. I love the memory of the little lunch together. 

We got these Mother's Day pictures from primary (Avery's last year in primary!)

My one request this year was that I didn't have to plan, prepare, or clean any meal. 

Meal planning has become the hardest part of my current life. 

So we got home from church and had a lovely dinner of grilled chicken and roasted vegetables.

Donuts for dessert. 

Later in the evening, all the kids were out jumping on the trampoline and I was prepping some fresh berries and whipped cream.

Andrew ran in to the bathroom with emergency speed and posture. 

I hear from the bathroom:

"Um...I think I need to get into the bathtub."

So I check the damage. And it is epic. Catastrophic. Monumental.

He was wearing pajama bottoms, without underwear. And he didn't make it to the toilet, so the turd(s) fell on the ground and all around and down his legs and all over the entire toilet and legs and poop EVERYWHERE.

Just to remind us that it is MOTHERS DAY.

So I put mother's day on hold, the berries and whipped cream waiting on the table.

 Because this IS A TWO PERSON job. 

"I'll clean the bathroom if you clean the child."

Then Andrew yelled out to Avery and Evan: "Sorry guys, I can't play" as he got escorted up the stairs. 

haha

So wow wow wow. Mother's day in May. I read this article and I was like YESSSS. I didn't know it was all going to be so BUSY. 

Here is the article. Pretend I wrote it because I practically did because it is all the things in my brain:

CLICK HERE