Pieces of Us

The Post with all the Pictures

    This is the post where I suck you in to life around our house over the past month. I take so many pictures with my trusty phone and then forget to share them.  So take a glimpse into the more random parts of our lives.

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Morning Science Experiments: Jillian says, "Wear your safety goggles!"

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This is what my teenagers look like when they go shopping around town. Honk and wave if you see them.

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This is what the littlest sister looks like when she is trying to be just like her big sisters.

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This  is what a typical rowdy playtime looks like at our house. DOGPILE!

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This is what Jillian looked like on Christmas Eve just as guests started to arrive for our celebration.

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These are the ingredients I used to make all my Christmas goodies!

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This is the fireplace heater I got for Christmas.  It resides in my room where I can blog and be nice and toasty.

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This is the beautiful Gabriella in her shirt from Secret Santa.  Her Secret Santa was Genevieve.

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This is the fabulous Madeline in her Christmas coat and scarf/hood combination.

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This is the stack of games the kids got for Christmas this year.  Lots of fun for all!

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This is a house that Caleb built with his new Lego set from Jessica.

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These are the matching shirts that Maddy and Gabby bought at Aeropostale for $5.  Don't they look adorable?

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This is how Jilly fell asleep the other night.

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This is Jillian's hair after her first haircut.  Her hair was waist length but scraggly on the ends.  I miss her natural shaping but she needed the cut.

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This is how I have been braiding Ginny's hair.  It's a little dark but hopefully you can see the curved french braids.

Talents

    I know in my heart that each of my kids is blessed with a God-given talent.  I don't necessarily know what each talent is from the get-go.  Of course not.  But It's fun to watch them develop as each kid matures. It's nice to know that the kid who prefers to lay around with his bed comforter wrapped around his head and watch tv actually has a skill or gift tied up in his brain somewhere and eventually I will see it emerge. (Caleb)  Or the kid who-at home- is boisterous and dramatic but in public is riddled with stage fright, will one day lose her inhibitions. (Ginny) Or the kid who likes to tell us al what to do will one day find a use for this particular trait. (Jillian)

    So this morning I was reflecting on these specific gifts and contemplating on the ones I see every day so far. Maddy has an apptitude for art.  She is very skilled and although a lot of it is raw talent, much of it comes from a lot of hard work and practice in her sketch pad.  I uploaded a bunch of her work and put it into a little slideshow to share.

Madeline's Portfolio

    Gabby's talent lies in music.  She has been taking piano for about a year and a half and she really excels at it.  She enjoys practicing to the point where I have to tell her we need a break from noise for awhile.  I do love hearing her play though and it makes me happy that she has found her passion.

I'll try and get a video of her up soon.

 

The Great Pumpkin(s)

    This year we celebrated a scaled down Halloween.  It's not my favorite holiday as I have stated before and we had so much on our plates this year. I couldn't completely skip the day though and so the kids pulled together some costumes and we trick-or-treated around our own neighborhood for the first time ever.  We usually head to the hot spots in town. 

    I was madly and feverishly preparing the house for the girls birthday party and so it seemed that throwing the kids outside to carve pumpkins was ideal for getting them out of my way.  Thankfully Jess oversaw all the pumpkin carving and gut removing and so all of the kids retained 10 fingers.  I am so proud of Ginny this year carving her pumpkin by herself.  She did a great job with our rudimentary tools (steak knives and spoons). 

AJ comes to the table with eye protection and the whole nine yards.

Genevieve is not impressed with the slimy feeling in her pumpkin.

Gabby is always smiling.

Guts!  GUTS GUTS GUTS GUTS!

Day One!

The things we like to do

    Over the years we have tried many activities and I have often posted about them.  I have also posted about finding the right ones. We are back to restructuring our extracurricular activities once again.

*Swim Team-  This one is a hard pill to swallow. Despite the fact that we had many weekly practices, we all loved swim team.  Sadly the unpredictablity of the town in maintaining the pool and the rotating pool usage with the high school swim team (not on a regular schedule) just made it very hard for us to make it work. We decided not to re-up our swim team memberships for now. When 3 out of 5 practices get cancelled due to poor mainenance or some other crisis...it's just not worth our time to fit it in.

*Irish Dance- We're still loving Irish dance.  It too has it's issues with scheduling but it's inexpensive and fun.  The girls had a couple performances this month and we loved seeing them dance.  Ginny even had a solo.

* Karate- Same as Dance.  We like it, it's cheap (absurdly cheap) and also at the same time and location as Dance. I am hopinh next year Caleb can also begin.

*Acting Workshop- Sadly we had to stop this as well.  The kids acting coach was not able to come to our town to teach and we cannot afford (nor do we have the time) to drive out of town.  Mike and I both are very firm that the kids act in live theater and not tv so it became less of a priority.

*Keepers of the Faith-  This is fun and only twice a month so we are still doing it. :)

*4h- We dropped 4h this year as well.  Not officially because I believe we are still enrolled until the end of the year. 4h is a great oganization but we just don't have the time or wherewithall to get to all the meetings. We truly did love gardening group and miss those people a lot!

*Piano-  Gabby is excelling in piano and loving it.  Genevieve will be starting piano next month and she is very excited. I love that their piano teacher comes to our home and is flexible.  Plus all the practicing is done at home too so no driving!

*Guitar-  We have missed some guitar due to illness but we are still fitting in AJ's guitar lessons when we can.  He really wants to improve and we will continue to help facilitate that for him.

*Violin- This is something new for us.  We are looking into violin lessons for Maddy.  She has expressed interest in violin since she was very little. There is now a place in town where she can take lessons and once again...practice is at home!

*Sespe Players-  We love commuity theater and have no plans to give it up.  The kids have learned so much from being a part of this group.  We have a performance opening April 1 and this is a hysterical one.  Totally Rad! An 80's Musical. Send me a note or call me if you want tickets.

 

We decided early on last year that we would take a year off of team sports and re-evaluate later.  With as cold as this spring has been I am SO glad we did! Caleb may try T-Ball next year.  He is certainly our most athletic kid.  I just wish we didn't have to deal with all the politics of youth sports.

 

Herding Cats

 Evidencing of the herding cats analogy can be found here.  This post could also be called the 'bad ones' edition.  But for some reason I love the outtakes as much as the good photos.  Ok, some of these aren't bad they are just FUNNY.

 

This is how Caleb truly plays

 

 

See how he has already perfected his general infantry snarl? Semper Fi!

 

 

 

Don't worry, he is a bundle of silliness behind his warface

 

 

And his brother doesn't help matters

 

 

Really, he is just as goofy

 

 

She rolls mad deep yo! Really, she is not so tough as she looks.

 

 

This one is cute, I have no idea how it ended up in outtakes.

 

 

So back to herding cats, taking a group picture is an exercise in futility. I don't know why I try, other than to get a good laugh at the outtakes. Inevitably someone is going to be rubbing their nose.

 

 

And someone will get sleepy.

 

 

 

A random kid will bust out in all kinds of silly faces.

 

 

 

And then of course they all will.

 

 

And then, of course, in the dangerous realm of close proximity...someone will have body odor.

 

 

I think I will just stick to the single shots. 

 

The Good Ones

  Taking pictures of kids is like herding cats.  It's just not easy!  I had fun taking some pictures of the kids the other day.  This is the 'good ones' edition.

 

The lovely Gabriella

 

 

The Amazing Madeline

 

 

The fabulous A.J. and Caleb

 

 

 

They are Bros for life!

 

 

Genevieve, so rawther cute.

 

 

 

And she loves her brother

 

 

And then there is Jill the Pill...but oh we love her.

 

This is me...then.

    A long time ago I remember watching a late night interview (probably during one of my many middle of the night nursing sessions) where the singer/actress Jennifer Lopez was talking about her new album entitled, This was me...then.  She explained that she named her album this because someday she would be able to look back at the songs she had written and it would be sort of a musical scrapbook page of where she was in her life at that time. I was recently reading my friend Christina's wonderful blog about each of her adorable eight children. I loved the post and wanted to make one of my own... a sort of "This was me...then" of each of my kids for the start of 2011.

    I hauled out the camera and attempted to get a good picture to accompany each section of this post. We all actually had a lot of fun with the shoot and I am happy with some of the pictures.  I think they really capture who the kids are right now at this moment.

 

 

 

 

Madeline- age 12- 7th Grade Although she is a twin Madeline fits the role of eldest child to a T. She is responsible, nurturing and completely trustworthy. Her younger siblings look up to her and come to her for advice, cuddles and glasses of milk. She is a complex bundle of innocence, silliness, maturity and emotions. It warms my heart how she is often moved by music to the point of tears, she is sensitive but not shy. Her loves are reading, writing, swimming and acting and she can still be found most times with her nose in a book (or her nook as the case may be). Her favorite genre is fantasy but she will read most anything. Some of her other favorites are classics such as Sherlock Holmes mysteries and Little Women. She also loves to cook and will often volunteer to make lunch or dinner, lunches are often inspired by her new hobby, Bento. This year she challenged herself to write a novel and met her goal in the month of November. She is always writing and creating fantastical tales and I foresee a future for her in the area of writing. Maddy is a strong and independent girl with a wonderful soft side and we love her for it.

Gabriella- age 12- 7th grade While also being one of our eldest children Gabby has a distinctly different personality than Maddy. She is our merry prankster with a wry wit and occasionally biting sarcasm. She is crafty and fun and really lives to enjoy life. Gabby loves to read, act, swim and chat with her friends on the internet. She would really love a cell phone but we are those mean kind of parents who say no. She has really been enjoying her youth group activities as she is a people person and loves her friends. This year she took on Piano and Irish dance and is very dedicated to practice. I have never had to ask her to practice piano, in fact I have had to ask her to stop practicing as she plays constantly. When Gabby is happy all the world knows it, she wears her emotions on her sleeve for all to see. Of all of our children Gabby has the deepest affection for animals. She has recently become interested in doing her hair and choosing her outfits with care and she seems to have a knack for creating cute ensembles. She also loves to babysit the littler kids and create fun activities for them to do to pass the time.

A.J.- age 9- 4th grade A.J. has come into his own this year. His mild dyslexia made school a challenge for many years but this year something inside him clicked and he is making huge progressions. We are so excited for him and for the world that opened up to him when things started to make sense to his brain. He can almost always be found at his desk in his room creating things from Legos. He loves machines, Legos, scouting and his electric guitar. He is a vivacious and active boy who wears his heart on his sleeve and has a deeply emotional side. He cares very deeply about people and when others hurt he hurts too. He loves to help others and has formed a deep bond with his Great Grandmother G.G., spending nights at her house and helping her with things around her apartment. He began guitar lessons this year and he really loves it always having had a musical ear. He is also one of the funniest boys you will ever come across, always trading barbs or telling a funny joke. We love his Happy-Go-Lucky nature and general good attitude. He is a Webelo Cub Scout and this is his third year in scouting, he never really cared about sports even though he played baseball for a couple years, scouting is really his 'thing'. He is very much an outdoorsman. I could see him working in a field such as Forestry Service or surveying land to build great bridges. There is something about his personality that endears people to him and people are always commenting about A.J. with a smile.

 

Genevieve-age 7- 2nd grade Genevieve is the kid who always keeps us in suspense. We never cease to be surprised by her. She can be the girly girl who seems to flit around like Fancy Nancy or Eloise but then she softens into a sweet, caring little sister. She likes nail polish and almost exclusively wears dresses even when it's cold outside. We used to joke that Ginny would never have children, she would have 'purse dogs'. Once she informed us that she did not have to learn to drive because she would have a driver and a zebra striped limousine. But of course in one of her surprising turns she has developed a complete love for...math! Of all things. It's so exciting to me to have a kid who loves math so much. Girls are often dismissed in the field of mathematics which is so disheartening to me. The other day she was working on her math and she got very excited and said to me, "OH! I love these! They are like little stories and you have to figure them out and see what happened!" She was talking about word problems! All my life I hear people say, "UGH, I always hated word problems!" and yet here is Ginny getting so excited about them. Like I said, surprises. Right now Ginny shares a big giant bed with Jillian, this is not ideal in the least because Ginny loves to sleep and Jilly loves to NOT sleep. The night owl is always kicking the early bird in the back. Ginny cannot wait until the girls move to their new room and she can move up to the upper bunks. Ginny also loves anything Celtic. She took up Irish Dance last year and truly enjoys the music, dancing and the culture. he also says she wants to go to Mexico because she loves Mexican food. It has been a great joy to her to have a little sister. They play dolls and build-a-bear and create fantastic little scenarios. It's very fun to watch. She is a merry little prankster and has a bit of a gravelly voice, she loves to tease and play jokes on people and make the silliest of faces like a little mini Lucille Ball. She can also almost always be found drawing something. That girl loves to draw!

 

Caleb-age 5- Pre-K Caleb has had a bit of a transitional year. 2010 really marked a time when he left behind the baby-ness and grew into a young boy. This transition is always hard on kids in my opinion. They have loads of emotions that they are not sure how to deal with. Struggling with, 'Am I the baby or am I one of the big kids?" By the end of the year Caleb had softened into a very loving, cuddly and affectionate boy. He enjoys his two days a week that he spends with his Papa doing 'boyish things' as he calls them. He is very much into gender differences and there are distinct "boyish" and "girlish" things. He has never really been much of a 'toy' kid. He spends much of his time digging in dirt or breaking bricks. He likes the outdoors and he is an honorary Tiger scout since he is not officially old enough to be in scouts yet. He loves to take walks to the gas station to buy treats. We love that he still likes to crawl into our laps and cuddle but we also enjoy his independence and his ability to question everything. He also has a sensitive side and will burst into tears when his tyrant of a baby sister rejects his hugs. He says, 'I don't like people yelling at me." and who can blame him? His favorite times are before bed when A.J. climbs into bed with him and reads him stories. Soon he will be allowed his own bedside reading light as he is beginning to read. Yesterday he read his very first book all on his own. Being caught in that awkward December birth month he has not yet began Kindergarten in an official sense but is doing so well in his mock-schooling that he may be reading independently by fall. If he succeeds in that we may just start him in first grade in the fall.

Jillian- almost 3 Oh our Jillian! What can I say? She loves her babydolls, loves to nurture them and cart them everywhere. She is a tyrant at times as all 2 year olds can be. She is distinctly opinionated and has a dry sense of humor understanding irony already which is a bit appalling at times. She intimidates us all. She is a great cuddler and loves to climb into my lap. Sometimes she will run at me and tackle me in a hug and if I gasp when taken by surprise she will indignantly say, "I was JUST loving you!" She loves her animals and her grandparents and talks about them a lot. Speaking of talking, her vocabulary astounds me at times, we can tell that she hangs on every word she hears and then inserts them into her own speech. Jillian loves coloring, drawing, baby dolls, animals and lip gloss. Lip gloss is a necessity to her and with the size of her cute squishy lips, it probably really is a necessity! She also likes to play piano and Gabby has been teaching her and Ginny using a the Pianimals curriculum. Jillian is just so funny! She always makes us laugh with the little things she says. She loves spicy foods and sauces still and has since she was tiny. She hates to sleep. Recently she gave up naps and she has been potty trained for over a year already. She still struggles with keeping her toddler emotions in check and clashes with her siblings and her parents on a daily basis. Thankfully she is easy to dissuade. Jilly loves to sing and I think nothing on earth warms my heart more than to hear toddlers sing. She picks up some of the songs she hears in church and I will hear her singing to herself with gusto and it is just the sweetest sound to hear. She is so fiercely independent which at times is wonderful and other times is so bittersweet. She is determined to choose her own clothes and dress herself and usually I do not see her in the morning until she is fully dressed- a welcome change after Caleb who still asks me to help dress him. I will admit that I am touched when she finds that there are still some things that she needs me for.

 

Well there they are! All my crazy troops. I tried to get a good picture of all of them which is not so easy to do!

'Tis the Season

    Jillian and Caleb have been role playing a lot today.  I was able to be a fly on the wall for one of their games and I could not stop laughing.

Jillian: Caleb, you know you can ask Santa for a present for Christmas and you will get it!

Caleb: "Yeah, like a Baby Sister, a brand new one!"

Jillian: "Yeah, Put it on your list, put it on your list!!"

    Jillian began mimicing Santa in her own Santa voice.

    "Ho Ho Ho, You want a baby sister? Ok!"

    Caleb decided he should be Santa.

    "Jillian, I'll be Santa and you can sit on my yap ok?"

    Jillian sat on his lap and asked for a Baby Sister. Then she decided to bring in all of her baby dolls to make the same plea.

    "Twila wants a baby sister and so does Twinkle."

    (On a side note, I know I am biased but I think it's a little bit advanced that my 2.5 year old names her babies TWinkle and TWila because they are TWins.)

    Watching the two youngest play is always entertaining.  Although just now as I am typing this I heard Jillian yelling at her pony, "Stupid horse! Get in the stroller."  I tried to tell her not to call him stupid but she maintained that he was.

    "He IS a stupid horse, I named him Flower Power."

    KIDS!

 

To Draw a Line in the Sand

    It's funny that when I typed the title of this post I mistyped it so it read, To Draw a Line in the Sane. Funny because I need boundaries to keep me sane and this post is about boundaries.  I was reading a blog post by Susan Wise Bauer author of The Well Trained Mind on this topic today and it gave me a lot to think about. Giving yourself- or myself as the case may be- permission to say no is often so hard to do. I like to help out, be involved and most of all learn new things and it often, if not always, leads to myself and my family being stretched too thin.  I have blogged on this subject many times before proving that setting boundaries for myself is not my strong point.

    Not long ago I blogged about reading.  I wrote about how I wanted to take the time to read the Great books and to waste less time on pursuits that lack meaning. I am happy to say that I am meeting this goal, t.v. is far more rare and in fact I leave it off most nights of the week now.  I am also getting to bed at a decent hour which really has an effect on me the following day. I truly think that this has greatly improved my general mood.  I am striving to improve my bedtime even more, although I am not watching tv I tend to stay up watching teaching webinars.  Which while very beneficial, not quite so beneficial to do when I am tired.

    The idea of a 'boundary stone', an object that serves as a reminder to say no may at first sound silly but the more I thought about it the more it appealed to me. Mike and I sat down recently and discussed our problem of over-scheduling and over-committing.  We came to the decision that next season we would not put the any of the kids in team sports. Swim team not included, it's a team but it's an individual sport. I cannot even express what a relief this is to me!  To lay it down and place the boundary stone on top.  

    Earlier this year I had  a small breakdown of sorts over the myriad of sports practices, games etc...that we had to  plan around.  I found myself praying a lot for a solution that would make it feasible for us to give our all to what we liked to do best.  The Lord came through for me in an odd way when the very next day Gabby broke her wrist and we had to abandon softball. It was hard on Gabby but at least the choice was made for her and thus easier to deal with.  It seems I have raised children- and more specifically daughters- who are just like me.  They want to try everything, experience everything, learn everything.  The problem is by taking on so much we become just okay at a lot of things but never really good at anything.  I would love it if the kids could find one thing to devote all their extracurricular time to and become great.  AJ has come the closest to that by focusing almost solely on Cub Scouts.  And it's proving fruitful as he really excels in scouts.

    As for now, we continue to participate in a broad range of activities but on a much more limited basis.  Swim Team is the only activity that takes up more than one time slot per week so I am ok with that. The time the girls have put into Swim has really been showing and they are improving greatly. I am also trying to stick with my rule that kids under 5 do not participate in activities.  It gives them something to look forward to. This brings the schedule to this:

Mondays:  NOTHING!  

Tuesdays: Swim Team (M/G)

            Acting (M/G/A)

Wednesday: Piano (G)

                   Swim Team (M/G)

   Cub Scouts (A/C)

Thursday:  Guitar (A)

Swim Team (M/G)

Friday:  Play Rehearsal Until 10/31...Then NOTHING!

Saturday: Irish Dance (M/G/G)

Sunday: Church

    I am so happy to have two days of nothing each week!  I didn't include 4H on the list.  We are still members but it's one of the things we decided needed to take a backseat for awhile. So, I am off to find my boundary stone and commit to saying No a little more often.

*My zany girls like to wear crazy socks while practicing Irish Dance.