enjoying the process » loving the journey, not just the destination

Today started out with mountain biking. Not me, of course. Just James and Eric.  I would always rather stay in bed on a Saturday- especially when it’s our first Saturday home pretty much all year.  But James is a different kind of human. He likes pain. and exercise.  Wish I had a little more of that.  But I’m going to be honest, I was very happy to stay in bed. The weather was perfect lazy day weather. Cloudy, cool, gray. Just perfect. Weird since it was 90 degrees earlier this week. 

Keagan brought me coffee in bed. He’s a keeper! Look at that sweet smile.  I love that boy!

James came home from riding and the big boys watched basketball for a little while.  Our church is having a Sports Day for dads and kids so he’s going to take all 6 kids out and let me have the house to myself.  He’s a keeper too!

Sports Day at the park.  The kids had a blast.  

I stayed in bed and watched video tutorials on InDesign. I’m thinking about doing my WITL project as a magazine. After the park, some of the kids took naps. James and Cade cleaned the garage- SO HAPPY about that!! Chloe face-timed with her friend Bella. I listened to Cat Stevens on vinyl and did some of our never-ending laundry 🙂

James did his regular bedtime routine: very loud. very fun.  The kids love it so much.  I usually shut my door because… did I mention how LOUD it is?  But tonight I documented.  

This little girl is having a hard time at night. Every night. She’s scared.  She wrote out a few verses and she sleeps with them but she’s still scared 🙁  

Then… as a pre-Mother’s Day snack, I made the teenagers watch the Goldbergs with me.  I love Beverly.  She’s the reason I call my kids “BabyMuffin” and “Schmoopy”

Bedtime.  Tonight is my Christmas Eve.  Tomorrow is gonna be AWESOME- I love Mother’s Day!

Today my husband agreed to document his day for me 🙂  He sent me all his photos but I haven’t had a chance to look through them all yet.  Here’s a look at what the rest of us were doing on Thursday (we are a family of 8).

Left: I do about 3 to 4 loads of laundry every day.  Don’t feel sorry for me though- I LOVE laundry.        Right: Canyon’s favorite pants- can’t forget to document those!

Kennedy made her hair SO cute today! It looks adorable on her. Another game of Clue before school this morning. My mom-mobile.  The ultimate carpool machine.  It hold 12- Party Bus.On Thursdays I drive carpool- it takes me about an hour and a half.  Gotta LOVE LA traffic!

After school drop-off, I stopped at Trader Joes for Coconut Milk.  I ended up spending an hour there! I ran into 2 different friends. Then I piled my cart full of healthy snacks and frozen foods… and PEONIES are here!!! My favorite!

Came home to window cleaners I didn’t know were coming.  I was a little irritated because I wanted a quiet house, but then I remembered that I have a house. and windows. and people who come to clean them. and I remember that all those things are BLESSINGS. Not annoyances.  And they finished in an hour- my windows are SO clean!

I made turkey corndogs and carrots and hummus for the little ones.  We ate in shifts tonight.  James and Cade were out mountain biking so the rest of us ate on our own.  I made roasted carrots and fingerling potatoes. James grilled chicken when he got home.

 

Kennedy’s sweet friend from across the street came over to play with her hamster (Charlie, a girl Charlie)

Chloe checking on our caterpillars. Even though we do this every year, it’s always amazing to me how fast they grow.  The literally grow in front of your eyes if you watch them long enough.  It’s amazing. 

Cade had to annotate Lord of the Flies for his English class.  I’d say he’s pretty happy to be done with that.   He liked the book, but not the close reading. 

Getting ready for a coffee date at 8pm with my good friend April. Came home to this little girl in my bed.  She’s been getting really scared at night lately 🙁   She says she’s afraid of hurricanes and tornadoes and earthquakes.  Time for bed.  Tomorrow is an easy day and I’m planning to take the weekend off for Mother’s Day.

I assigned today to my 2nd oldest son, Canyon.  He is a freshman in high school at a “middle college.”  It’s a school designed specifically for Academics.  He will (hopefully if all goes according to plan) earn his Associates Degree at the same time he earns his High School diploma.  He agreed to document his day today at school.  I’m nervous to post his photos here so I think I’ll leave them out. But here’a photo of him at 15.

Clue again.Morning Kitchen Mess … before it gets really messy.This is Carson. This is how he likes to watch tv.I was so tired all morning and just needed to get out of the house. So I took the kids to the Mall- The Disney Store and Menchies. They kept saying, “thank you so much, mommy!” Below:  Carson just told me he learned how to tie his own shoes. I had no idea!!   Keagan told me he was the one to teach him .  I love being their mommy.Carson has been obsessed with these peas from the Disney Store! He’s been looking them up online over and over again and talking about them non stop.   I was so excited to make his dream come true.  When we got home from the mall,Berkeley had been sick in his crate 🙁  . SO…. we gave him a bath in the backyard and did a deep clean of the crate and the playroom.  Poor baby.All Fortnite. All the time. for the teen boys right now.  They just released a new Marvel version where Thanos is part of the game- they were both pretty excited about it. I asked James if we could go out for dinner tonight and immediately said yes!  I was SO happy- it’s been so long since we’ve all had dinner out together. It was such a sweet blessing. We had to stop by Marshalls to get a new puppy bed for Berkeley. Chloe helped me pick one out. The drive home was so pretty. Ready to read. Our current Read Aloud : Where the Red Fern GrowsI was so thankful James snapped this photo of me while I was reading to the kids.  Reading aloud is one of my very favorite things I do as mommy.
After reading I send the kids off to bed and I fall asleep almost immediately 🙂

This is new.  This year Cade (our oldest) is 16 and able to drive himself and his brother (15) to school.  It’s scary and hard and out of my comfort zone but all I can do is pray. The freeways are all under construction right now so I make him take the side-streets. It adds to his driving time but it makes me more comfortable.  I also make him text me as soon as he gets there.  He does it faithfully.back inside… the littles have been playing Clue every chance they get.  We’ve taken a break from e-time for the month of May.  E-time is what we call anything electronic- cell phones, iPads, video games. Movies are still okay.  We take a break about 2 months out of every year and it is beautiful. They play, they get creative, they jump on the trampoline, they read more… it’s all wonderful.Can’t forget about our sweet puppy, Berkeley.  He’s about 6 months now and already 75 pounds.  James says he’s like Clifford.  He’s getting so much love from all 8 of us that he just keeps growing 🙂 my morning espresso.  I’ve cut creamer out of my diet so espresso is the yummiest way for me to get my caffeine now.  And these mugs from Cost Plus World Market are my VERY favorite. The kids make their own breakfasts most mornings but I made hard boiled eggs today and everybody wanted one. Chloe needed a little help peeling hers.
This is Carson “making his bed”  This boy is all about the FUN. After breakfast we all do our chores.  Kennedy and Keagan like to goof around while doing the dishes and cleaning up the island.  Those two are such sweet friends. She told me yesterday that he is her best friend.  Sigh.  I just love them. After chores we start school (we homeschool our youngest 4).  Carson is doing a program right now called All About Reading Level 3.  He doesn’t love to read as much as my other 5 kids did.  I’m hoping that will change soon. We are definitely a book-loving family.
Remnants of long race weekend. Last weekend was the last race of the season.  The boxes are all of our school books ready to be returned- ready for the end of the school year. Thankful it’s winding down.
It was 90degrees today and I was feeling really grumpy most of the morning so I needed to turn the day around! We had the whole pool to ourselves from noon- 2pm. *Perks of homeschooling* Every day I try to take an afternoon nap.  Some days I just need 15 minutes. Today I needed an hour.  The kids played Clue again.
James came home after my nap 🙂  He wakes up every morning at 4am. But that means he’s home by 2 or 3pm everyday.  Business has been crazy lately so he’s working a little late in his home office today while I make dinner. Kennedy is setting the table for dinner tonight.  We forgot to pull out the chicken earlier so spaghetti and meatballs it is! This is our “go-to” easy meal that we always have on hand.Always prayer before dinner.  So much to be thankul for!  Kennedy was thankful for “such a fun day with 2 hours at the pool!”The teenage boys have to eat fast and then get ready for Youth Group (which I got NO photos of- grrrr.)This is me working on #WITL in my very messy office.  Tomorrow is my day off so maybe I’ll try to tidy up a bit? My hair is still wet from the pool and I’m still in my suit and cover up.  But I want to remember that I was grumpy and I CHOSE to be happy and Cannonball into the pool.  The kids loved that. James took the 3 littles and Berkeley on a walk to the pool/ park.  He let the kids hop in the pool and Berkeley decided to jump in too!  Oops.  Apparently he’s a great swimmer. Now we know!Tomorrow all the kids have classes at our Resource Center. They pack their own lunches.  This week is State Testing for 3rd grade and up.  After lunches are packed, teeth are brushed and chores are done we gather on my bed and read- Where the Red Fern Grows is our current Read-Aloud. Tonight I only read about 2 pages because we were all. so. tired.  Goodnight.