My inspiration for this record of my days:

“The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make. . . . I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less” -Anna Quindlen

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

New Roommates

Caleb and Josh have been roommates for about 11 years now.  They have had their ups and downs for sure, but they have mostly learned to get along.

Jonah and Simon have only been together for 4 1/2 years so far, and they are great friends.

Jeff and I have gone back and forth with the pros and cons of rearranging the bedroom situation.  I really want the boys to have a chance to bond with a variety of brothers!

Jonah has long looked up to Caleb, and I thought how fun it would be for him to get to share a room with his idol.  (Although within the first 10 minutes we heard Caleb trying to con Jonah out of a dollar!)  Josh and Simon seem to have similar personalities, both very thoughtful.  I think that they could be great friends.

The biggest deterrent has been the bedtime issue.  The older boys go to bed at 9:00, and the youngers are still at 8:00.  That hour has been some really fun playtime for Jonah and Simon.

This weekend Caleb and Josh got in a bit of a fight, each complaining about the other.  So Jeff took the leap and announced that, starting that very minute, we would be switching room assignments.

Josh moved in with Simon, and Jonah went to join Caleb.

It took all 6 of us about an hour, but we got the job done!  Most of the time was spent sorting through Jonah's piles and stacks of "important stuff."  Lets just say that this was a much needed de-junking session!

All of a sudden, Caleb and Josh are very worried about the younger boys not living up to their high standards of cleanliness.  HUH???????  Maybe some unexpected good will come of this switch!

One of the first items of business in Josh and Simon's room was to come up with a list of rules to post on the wall:


I think they're off to a good start!

Monday, October 7, 2013

Life according to my iPhone. Because I have one.

I finally joined civilization and got an iPhone.  Now I can get directions any time I need them, participate in group texts with my family, and snap a picture any time I want!

Here is what I have captured this week:

The girls had their first choir concert of the year.  Becca is in the top choir, and scored for herself the BEST solo!  She did great!  Savannah is in the show choir, which was super fun to watch!  She danced and sang and looked just darling.



I took Eli shoe shopping for some new sandals.  He REALLY wanted the silver flower ones, but they were a little too big.  I can't blame him, though.  They were a lot more fun than the boy shoes!

20 hamburgers devoured in about 90 seconds


Caleb and his friends crack me up right now.  They are growing like crazy, and hungry all the time!  On Sunday Becca was telling me that her friends always say "Your mom is so pretty!" (Which is such a nice compliment, but not the point of this story.)  Caleb, who was listening, said "Really?  My friends always say 'I want food!' "  Pretty funny because it is so true!  I really need to step up my food game around here.  We are going to be in the hungry boys phase for many years!


Family home evening activity.  Jonah has been obsessed with doing Halloween crafts, so we all decided to join him.

The finished product.
 Three cheers for my iPhone!

Friday, October 4, 2013

What my kids do for fun

I have these pictures on my computer by the hundreds.  Literally, hundreds!





Please tell me that someday they will be valuable?