January

This space has been quite neglected this month as I just haven't had the bandwidth to keep up with it. But since it's the main chronicle of our family life, I want to do a broad overview so we don't look back someday and wonder, "What the heck happened to January 2018?" Here are the highlights (not including regular activities and things that were already going on before this month):

• Jan. 1--Polar Bear Dip, South Padre Island

• Jan. 2-3--San Antonio with Mimi and Grandpa

• Jan. 4--I received a life-changing tiara in the mail

• Jan. 5--I started running again; Jeff found out he passed his personal narrative essays, which is the 2nd test he had to pass in his quest to become a Foreign Service Officer (Diplomat)
• Jan. 7--Weston joined a ping-pong club
• Jan. 8--Max started his Ninja Warrior class; Clay started his martial arts class

• Jan. 9--Max and Clay built a cotton gin during History class

• Jan. 10--I started my regular Meals on Wheels route; I took my first writing day out of the house; Clay started swim lessons; I started back to yoga

• Jan. 12--Max turned 10, and we celebrated at the Lego Discovery Center and Olive Garden

• Jan. 13-15--Weston went on a surprise campout with the Boy Scouts, and they got to spend the night on board a battleship
• Jan. 14--Ruth's last IEA horse show of the season

• Jan. 15--Ruth officially became a Civil Air Patrol cadet
• Jan. 18--Ruth started track
• Jan. 19-21--Max got to spend the weekend with Nana and Papa and got to attend a monster truck show

• Jan. 20--Weston attended the Boy Scout Merit Badge College where he got to work on badge requirements with other members of his troop
• Jan. 21--I got to dance with Weston at his last Cotillion class

• Jan. 22--Clay and I got to build castles and shields with the rest of his Cub Scout den
• Jan. 27--Clay got to participate in the Cub Scouts' Pinewood Derby; Ruth completed her first CAP PT test

• Jan. 28--Brunch at Blue Mesa Grill; Hiking at Ft. Worth Nature Center and Refuge

A Perfect Ten

Dear Max,

I'm so glad you decided to join our family a decade ago! It's been a wild and exciting ride--sometimes terrifying, but mostly a lot of fun! You are such a special person, and it's truly a privilege to know you.

In the last year, I have seen so many changes in you that indicate you are truly becoming a young man. You seem to be maturing before my very eyes, and it is such a neat transformation to watch and be a part of. I see you honing your leadership skills, mastering your emotions, helping and respecting others, showing gratitude, powering through difficulties, making choices to ensure your happiness, and developing skills that serve you now and will continue to serve you in the future. I'm very proud of the young man you are becoming, and I'm thankful I have the opportunity to learn from you every day.

We spent three months this summer traveling through the western U.S. and Canada in our tiny RV, and we had a blast. You had your special platform bed in the front and would make yourself a nice little nest every night. You are such a great traveler and always have plenty of books and activities to entertain yourself. You were very proud of yourself for suggesting two of our stops (The High Desert Museum in Oregon and Old Trail Town in Wyoming), which you learned about in your Spelling book before we left. But, you seemed truly happy with all the places we visited, and you enjoyed every activity along the way. You were tickled that we visited some places that still had snow in the summer, and you loved all the hiking and outdoorsy things we did. You learned how to curl in Park City and got to see your first rodeo in Calgary. And you solidified your love of hot tea at the Celestial Seasons factory in Boulder.

In addition to our summer trip, we also had two other amazing trips this year. One was to Nashville for the total solar eclipse, which was such a spectacular thing to behold. And the other was to Washington D.C. where we saw and did so many interesting things. Your favorite things were Lincoln's Cottage, the Lincoln Memorial, and The Building Museum. The last you stayed at from the time they opened until the time they closed. No doubt you would have stayed longer if you'd have had the opportunity.

Speaking of which, you love to build and are constantly constructing structures out of whatever materials are available, but you are especially obsessed with Legos. You really love building and will happily spend hours creating masterpieces out of the little pieces. That is why we decided to give you tickets to the Legoland Discovery Center for your birthday.

You decided to try baseball in the spring, and you did a great job and had a lot of fun. But by the time fall came around, you were ready to try something new. Inspired by our visit to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado over the summer, you chose a gymnastics class and a tumbling and trampoline class. You have really enjoyed these classes and are clearly becoming stronger and more flexible as you learn to make very controlled movements with your body. You are sticking with the TNT class this semester, but you have traded in the gymnastics class for a Ninja Warrior class, which is a fun new challenge. I never cease to be amazed at your astounding athletic abilities and the overwhelming need you have to move your body. You often do sit-ups and push-ups just for fun, and you have some crazy big muscles for someone your age.

A few days after school started, I tore my ACL after convincing you and Weston to teach me how to ride the Ripstik. I ended up having to have surgery, and the recovery took quite a long time. From the moment I got hurt, you showed the utmost care and concern for me. You hardly let a moment pass without asking me how I was doing or if I needed anything, and you helped out with so many things while I was incapacitated. You have such a kind, compassionate heart. You are also incredibly sweet with Clay and with your younger cousins and, really, any younger kid. You are such a good guy!

You love to learn new things, and you usually take your school work seriously. You love to gather new facts and then share them with the rest of us, and you eagerly embrace new challenges. You are especially excited at the moment to be studying Spanish and feel that it will help you while we are traveling in South America this coming summer. This is your first year to be enrolled in CC's Essentials class, and you are loving it and are doing well.

Some of your favorite foods include pizza, pickles, and pistachios. You are also crazy about sushi, and you are very proud of your chopstick skills. Your love of cooking continues, and you have been perfecting your scrambled eggs this year. It's so cool that you enjoy a wide variety of foods and that you are becoming self-sufficient in the kitchen.

Max, you are such an amazing 10-year-old! You make me proud every day, and you are constantly teaching me important life lessons. You are clever and sweet and full of passion. You have an adventurous spirit and a curious mind. You are a delightful person to know and do life with. I love you more every single day. Happy birthday, and welcome to the double digits!

Love,
Mom

Family Fun

We were blessed to finish out 2017 and begin 2018 surrounded by family. We got to spend a few days with my side of the family before Christmas and then headed down to South Padre Island on Christmas Day to spend a week with Jeff's side of the family. We had so much fun and made so many wonderful memories!

Crazy Cousins

So thankful to have these two beautiful ladies in my life!

Shooting lessons and target practice with an expert

Cousins and best friends

South Padre House

We played lots of Trivial Pursuit

These crazies thought it was warm enough to get in the water!

So much beach fun!

This little lady loved the beach and
wanted to be out with the big kids!

It really doesn't get any better than this!

Max and Slade really bonded!

Celebrating Mimi and Grandpa's anniversary at Dirty Al's

The breakfast chefs at our house were amazing!

Victoria and Clay were so proud of their pancakes,
which they made with their very own pancake makers.

It was necessary to sit in the hot tub after a cold day at the beach.

A cold beach picnic

Uncle Alan was a good sport and let the kids bury him in the sand.

New Year's Eve on the beach commemorated in shells

New Year's Head Gear

Playing Mexican Train while waiting on midnight

Ready for the countdown

New Year's Day breakfast at Yummies Bistro

The Polar Bear Club

The Buckhorn Museum in San Antonio

Grandpa bought everyone a round of root beer at the Buckhorn,
since it claims to be the place that pioneered the idea during Prohibition.

Making me crazy and saving my sanity

Y'all. I am not even kidding when I tell you I actually did a Google search today for boarding schools FAR, FAR AWAY. Because it was that kind of day. The kind of day where I wondered what on earth had ever prompted me to homeschool my children. Or bring them into this world in the first place. The Google search actually seemed like the most rational thing I had done all day, and frankly, I felt better just knowing there were some options out there.

To combat the feelings of ick lingering over the house, I transformed the whiteboard in our school room into a thankfulness board. I put up a note that no one was allowed to write anything on the board that didn't have something to do with gratitude. One of the kids looked at me cock-eyed and confused and asked if this was supposed to be the grammar lesson. It wasn't. When the actual grammar lesson was dispensed, I stood at the board for a long time and could think of nothing to write. I walked away. I came back. Still nothing. Finally the fog lifted (Literally. It was a ridiculously foggy morning.), and I rushed to the board and wrote "sunshine." No one else came within ten feet of the board. But I felt my focus shift and with it my day.

Being a single parent this evening, I had all the taxiing duty to myself. So, after dropping a kid off and picking a kid up, and doing the in between errands, I arrived back at the house prepared to open a can of beans and call it dinner. But as I walked in the back door, I found two of the children WORKING TOGETHER in the end stages of dinner prep. And, they had not been asked, cajoled, or begged to do this. There were no tears and no ugly words. And the child I had just picked up immediately jumped into the fray and started helping. Again, without being asked. And, one of the other children demanded from the third that he thank his sister for the help. I almost fell over from shock! And gratitude swelled in my heart.

And, as I rounded the corner, I saw several items written on the board, and one of the children declared that making a gratitude board had been a wonderful idea.

I don't know what magic was present in our house tonight. I only know that these people that I brought into the world are both my madness and my sanity. And I know there is power in gratitude.

Winter Breakfast 2017

Winter Breakfast has become one of the most talked about and anticipated events in our household. We haven't yet gotten it to work out on the morning of the Winter Solstice, but we get as close as we can. Only the snowman pancakes and the white hot chocolate have been present at all our Winter Breakfast celebrations. The rest of the items change, depending on my creativity, motivation, and available time. This year the menu included snowman pancakes, white hot chocolate in snowman mugs, snowman bagels, hard boiled egg snowmen, grape penguins, and polar bear yogurt. As always, we had a blast!

Plate of Peguins

Egg Snowmen

Snowman pancakes

Snowman bagels

Polar bear yogurt

White hot chocolate

Winter Breakfast is our favorite!

We gave the kids some little surprises, and when Ruth saw these two items,
she declared it to be, "The best day of her life!"

Bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy. Fun, fun, fun, fun fun!

We've had a wild but very fun weekend. The boys worked really hard to get all their school work done early this past week so we could play on Friday afternoon. We met up with some friends at a trampoline park in Grapevine, and the boys had a blast. I did not participate, as I'm only cleared for activities on "predictable surfaces" at the moment. The lady who checked us in did ask if I wanted to jump, and Weston's face registered pure horror as he thought about the possibility of me hurting my knee again, and he pleaded, "Mom, please don't!" Of course, I wasn't going to anyway, but it was sweet how concerned he was for me.

There were only action shots at the trampoline park.
They are all blurry, but that's how you know it was fun!

Bouncy, bouncy basketball

Yesterday morning, Weston had his first basketball game, and yesterday afternoon he had his second. By the second one, he had kind of gotten the hang of it and scored nine out of his team's fifteen points.

The big man making a big grab in game one

Number 29, with the rebound

Between the games, Jeff went to pick up Ruth from the airport. She was returning from a week of working with her aunt at a vet clinic in Houston. She had a wonderful time and so many great experiences, but we sure did miss her and are glad to have her back!

Spleen surgery

Max and Clay and I left the first basketball game early, so we could make it to the Christmas party for Clay's Cub Scout den. It was another opportunity for climbing and bouncing at an indoor playground called Going Bonkers, and the boys loved it. (They were not still enough or close enough for me to get any pictures!)

Later in the day, Max got to participate in show-off meets for both his gymnastics class and his tumbling/trampoline class. I can really tell his skills and flexibility have improved since he started in September, and he thoroughly enjoys the classes.

He flies through the air with the greatest of ease

The rings are all about strength and control

Stellar straddle jump during the trampoline routine

So proud of this kid!

Meanwhile, Jeff took Ruth over to Farmersville for a Christmas party with the homeschool honor society she's a part of. He took advantage of his waiting time by visiting the Landon Winery in Greenville. He was lucky enough to get a private tasting with the owner, Bob Landon. He enjoyed the wine and the experience tremendously. (I have to admit, I was a little jealous, but I'm hoping he'll take me there for a date sometime!)

When all the boys' activities were finished, they settled in for movies and pizza, and I started working on some of the things for Winter Breakfast, which was on the agenda for this morning. (There will be a separate post about that.) This is a tradition my kids love, even though we haven't yet actually gotten it to work out for the morning of the Winter Solstice.

Weston had another basketball game this afternoon (because through a series of odd events, he is actually playing in two leagues). And, then we headed to the theater to see The Last Jedi. It was a crazy, whirlwind, super fun weekend!

Taking (and making) a free throw

Ready to see The Last Jedi