First Day of Spring!

Welcome Spring!
We've been waiting for you!

A grown up decision

Last week before school one day, Ivan asked me if it would be okay for him to quit the swim team. My knee jerk reaction when one of my kids wants to quit an activity is "no", but I didn't say that this time, I just listened to his reason.
He told me that he feels like he has too much going on and he would like to stop doing something so that his Tuesdays and Thursdays aren't completely filled from morning to night.
Not in those words exactly, but pretty darn close.

This year has been a busy one for Ivan.
He seems to have more homework and book reports and classroom projects in his 4th grade class than even Hannah in 6th grade.
On top of that, he has swim team, karate and trombone...plus drama over the winter.

I love active kids, but it was beginning to be a bit much and Ivan is definitely the kind of guy that needs some unstructured time for his brain to fly free.

He enjoyed swim team...but he didn't love it.
He became a great swimmer and challenged himself at meets and practices.
All good stuff.

I told him OK.
I'm proud of his thoughtful decision and right away he felt the relief when he didn't have to shuffle from school to swim team...get dressed in 5 minutes and get to karate...only to be faced with dinner, homework and bed when he got home.

Now there's a bit more free time for him to use his imagination...and enter Lego design contests.
These are the important things in life as well you know...
...especially when your dream career is to be a designer for Lego!

He can get some fresh ideas soon when we take our trip!!

Running

In the past week, I've run a mile for 6 out of the 7 days.
This is new for me.
I'm a walker.

I love my BodyPump classes.
They are definitely aerobic and provide an awesome workout, but I wanted to add something that will burn a bit more fat.
The older I get the more it hangs on in the weirdest of places.
Uh...back fat?
Why?

I'm going for a mile a day for about a month.

Then I'll see about adding some more distance.

I'll have to say, the only thing I like about it so far is the part when its over.
I'm waiting for the endorphin high to kick in and the vomit feeling to go away.

Good luck to me.

Be still my heart!

I'm going somewhere soon...

...and I can hardly wait to get there!

Score at Walgreens!

Although I'm still saving lots of money on groceries these days, its been a while since I've had one of those shopping trips that makes me want to brag!

But my trip to Walgreens yesterday was one of those trips!!

Here's my loot!

I got all of that for a total of $16.48!
Actually, you could say $12.48 because I got $4.00 in Register Rewards to use on my next shopping trip.
The really cool part is that I saved $35.46!!
Cha Ching!

White Pass Winter Carnival

Every year our local ski resort has a winter carnival.

Not sure why we haven't gone before, but with not much going on locally, and a great need to get out of the house, I decided to take the kids this year.
The roads were bare and dry and we headed out after 3pm so as to get there when the day skiers were heading home.
Without Donald along, I chose not to bring skis, but once we got there of course, we wished we had them for some night skiing.

Even without skis we had a fun time.
They build an amazing snow castle each year that kids can walk through, climb on and slide down.
They did all of that.

They had cool (and odd) snow sculptures to see too.

It was a good evening.
It ended with fireworks but my hands were way too cold outside of my gloves to keep taking pictures, so you'll have to imagine it.

Once the fireworks were over, we made a mad dash to the car in order to stay ahead of the crowd...had an uneventful (safe!) drive home in the dark...and started making plans to return...with skis!!

Don't you just wonder...

...what happened?
I sure do.
I wish I'd kept some notes with these pictures!
And my other question...
Is it wrong to use your camera at a time like this?

August 2006
Pre-remodel

Lent

Remember the phrase "practice random acts of kindness"?

That's our plan for the Lenten Season this year.

Rather than give up a tangible "thing" (only to greedily snatch it back again in 40 days), we are going to give up our time.

Each day we will report back to each other...describing the moment in our day where we did something or said something that was unexpected...and kind. 

And maybe one moment leads to two or three...

Kids and Cameras

You never know what you'll find when you let your kids use the camera!
I'll call this "Perspective of a Cowboy Killer"

I'm assuming the thumbs up means "mission accomplished"!

In the future, I'll post more "kid pictures"...they are quite interesting to say the least!

Letting Go

Sounds so dramatic doesn't it?
Its just a simple 5 minute walk up the street, across a road, and into a neighborhood school playground with a friend.
It is something that I did at least 3-4 years earlier than her when I was a kid...every day...all over the neighborhood...and without a cell phone!!

For me, this is a moment of some fear...for her, its a moment of pure sweet freedom.

I'm torn between knowing that she needs this...opportunities to be with her friends - outside the confines of home, family, school and the ever roving eye of MOTHER!  I'm torn between that and the fears I have of "what if".
The "what ifs" need not be named.
They are the same fears shared by all the parents that I know.

In fact, this is a ongoing discussion.

Is it really worse "out there" than when we were kids?

I don't know...

What I do know is that at some point we need to let our kids out of the house!

What are the costs of holding her too close?
When will she learn how to handle herself in situations where we're not around?
There's always going to be a boogeyman out there somewhere - there always has been.

We all take that step when we are ready...

Jenelle

Love comes so easy with her.