S is for Say it With Me

"not everybody likes this kind of life, 

but we do don't we?"

Good morning December 2 2025.

6:00 am

Koda sleeps on the couch. She does what she wants.

Andrew wants to be in charge of Elf on the Shelf this year. Today is the first day and I realize this is going to be soo fun. He is so creative. 

First of all: last night he was pacing and biting his fingers like he used to do when he was little and his brain was busy imagining stuff. It's been a long time since I've seen him do "the pace". His little engine is revvvvving with ideas. 

Second of all: He recently became a Cowboys fan and I love it. I don't know where it came from but he knows all the stats. I never realized the star on our tree is totally a Cowboy icon!

Every morning from 6:00-8:00 I do chores. 

It's between the time the kids are up, getting ready for seminary and off to school etc. 

by 8:00 Jim comes home from seminary and that's when I stop doing the chores.

Setting a "timer" works so well for me and chores! I just keep cleaning stuff until times up. 

By 8:00 it's like the maid came. 

We got a new vacuum with a laser light and it is so terrible and great!

It shows all the stuff on the floor. You would be surprised how much you don't see with the naked eye. 

Evan and Jim leave around 6:25

Having old kids is wild. They just get themselves up and showered and their hair done. 

So much deoderant and smelly good things applied. 

I eat cottage cheese and fruit for breakfast. 

I'm going to the temple this morning, so I cut my cleaning hours short. 

I braid Avery's hair today. 

She leaves around 6:45

7:45

Lisa picks me and Andrew up, 

we drop the kids at school.

Temple sesh at 10:00 but we get there early and get all our talking out before we go in. 

12:10

After, we are hungry. We accidently get on a bridge in Vancouver that takes us where we didn't want to go, but it was actually the best because we end up at this farm with the bessst burger.

We sit by a window to get warmed by the sun. The sun came out for a while today! 

1:40 

Back in America almost home.

There is a bald eagle in the tree, see it?

Clouds again. 

2:30

I dink around waiting for kids to get home.

Take a nap.

3:07 

Jim works on putting lights on the house,

the kids come home. 

Evan has a baskeball game later, so all three are home.

3:30

Fine, I'll exersize. 

A little full body weights.

4:19

Andrew's friends are always out hanging around. 

The moon is bright already!

Jim takes Evan to his game,

I take Koda on a walk. 

There is so much fog already. See Koda the fox in the grass?

By the time we are out of the forest, it's getting dark!

4:45

Jim has the lights up.

5:45

Game time.

We beat this team by a lot. 

Evan plays a little. His JV team is really good. So far they are undefeated, but we are still early in the season playing easy teams. 

After his game is over, we go to the big gym and watch the girls.

Evan changes and joins the band. 

He plays Seven Nation Army on the kit!

So good. 

Then bongos for a while.

We watch Varsity boys until half time and then go home. 

8:14

I "made" lasagna for dinner. 

We eat. 

I go looking for Avery. I haven't seen her all day!

She is busy working on a project for school. She has to present tomorrow. 

We drink smoothies and watch sports. 

9:00 

We do Advent and Prayers.

Around 9:45 Andrew shoos us all to bed so that he can work on his next Vincent place. 

I will post all the Vincent scenes at the end of the month. You don't want to miss it.

Today was such a normal, good day. I know what a treasure that is. 

 

January

Koda joined me for a Sunday nap. This is her way of begging me to go to the forest. 

She lay her wet nose on my neck for 10 minutes. It worked because off we went in the cold - last weekend a winter wind blew in the most frigid air. 

We took all the family to the forest as the sun set.

Andrew talked the whole time. 

Did you know that a dog sniffing for 30 minutes will wear out faster than just walking alone for 30 minutes?

Well Andrew talking non-stop for 30 minutes wears me out faster than running alone for 30 minutes. 

snot

See in the background? We were watching Nate Bargatze's new comedy special on Amazon. 

He is funnny. 

Last week a bunch of kids came to Galbraith with us. 

Me and Lisa ran from the North side to the South side. 

Topics included:

*Lord of the Rings - why couldn't anyone else help with the burden of the ring? Why couldn't Sam take turns carrying it? He just couldn't. It was Frodo's burden to bare. Like motherhood. You can't just share it with someone. All the heavy mental lifting that comes with being a mom is non-transferable. 

* Bailey starting public school for the first time

Spoons

We are planning a five night stay at Rainier this summer. 

Here we are planning our route. 

Then we went to this cool park with a zillion fairy trees.

Evan's basketball season is over. 

He has improved so much! Since he was on the C team, he was one of the best...a team leader. 

At this game he dribbled down and scored twice in a row. 

When your team only scores about 12 points total, that's a big deal. He was so stoked. 

So far this year I have only subbed for PE in the middle school. I plan on getting into Andrew and Avery's classrooms some time, but it's just not my favorite thing to do anymore. 

Tell me you have a middle schooler without telling me you have a middle schooler...

Isn't that style the silliest? The kids are funny these days. 

Today we went to Galbraith with the little boys again. 

This time I rode with them while Jim and Joe went and did their own thing.

It was so fun! 

Me bringing up the rear, Evan in the front, Cooper and Hudson in between. 

We are all at very similar levels. At this big roller coaster, they were cheering me on. I don't know if I would have done it without their peer pressure. haha. 

I feel excited to ride with them again soon. They are such fun kids when we are out doing this stuff.

There was some groaning and complaining about the uphill climb though....

Onward we march into February. The hardest part of winter...and we are almost there. 

Actually this part of our lives is nice because no one is in sports, so we have lots of down time. 

In April I am coaching middle school soccer and every single child will be in a sport, so I'm going to bask in the hibernation while I can. 

Also, the other day I said I couldn't wait for winter to be over,

and Jim said "we are too old to wish for stuff to be over." 

It's true. There is no cure for aging, there is no cure for the thief of time.