Magic Moments

I'm not sure why but this week has felt like it's lasted a hundred years. Today I am doing my best to tie up all the loose ends of school for the week.  I need to organize Sage's birthday, I need to clean, and I need to work on Christmas. The boys put up the Christmas tree in their room last night which Tom dug out of storage. We went to set it up and evidently the person who packed the tree in it's box last year neglected to put the tree sand in the box. I told Tom that we absolutely had to put up the tree last night so he went to town and ended up at three stores before he found a stand. The tree is pre-lit tree and of course some of the lights didn't work, so I guess I'll be restringing lights today. Putting Christmas lights on trees sucks the joy out of Christmas so I'll be so happy to get it done. Sage lost a tooth this week and the tooth fairy paid a visit. Cade is so anxious for it to be his turn to loose a tooth. Both Sage and Cade had well child che...

 My cousin, Mikelene, texted to see if we wanted to go Roller Skating last minute. And, YES! Of course  we wanted to go roller skating! It was so fun t o have plans! I asked Cade if he was interested and he said, "You mean like shoes with wheels??" The boys have actually not been roller skating before. I explained what roller rinks were, I told them all about how I used to roller skate all the time as a kid bc the roller rink was where everyone had their birthday parties. I even had my own roller skate and LOVED to wear a cute dress and skate around on the porch like a real figure skater. I filled in the boys about boy/girl skates.  I told them about how certain songs will be for couples and you have to ask a girl to skate. Aiden and Sage where absolutely horrified by this. Aiden thinks girls are still uninteresting and that's fine by us. But Cade...my little lover. He said, "Mama, do we really have to do that thing you used to do?" I said, "You mean ask a ...

 I made my Great Grandma Leader's Beef Stew for dinner tonight. Tom stuck it in the oven while the boys and I were gone this afternoon and I just walked in the house and it smells amazing. It smells exactly like when my mom used to make it and the smell instantly took me back to my childhood home. We've been spoiled with these pink sunsets lately and when I look out the window and see the orange and pink sky contrasting the lake, it feels like maybe the world will be okay after all.  Nothing exciting today except for good reports at the dentist for all three boys. Aiden isn't quite ready for braces yet, but the consultation with the orthodontist is coming soon. Cade told the dentist that he didn't know what floss was, so it was pretty obvious that I lied about how much we floss. Am I really an outlier when it comes to flossing? I mean, how many people floss religiously? We have zero cavities and I'm sheepishly admitting that I have flossed zero times this year.  Che...

 In theory bedtime should be a super peaceful time with snacks, stories, songs and prayers. I'll let you in on a little secret. I HATE bedtime. I mean, I LOVE when the kids are actually in bed, but I HATE the process of getting them there. Chaos ensues no matter what strategy Tom and I try. People (meaning Aiden, Sage, and Cade) start being wild the second we send them to the shower. For some reason, showering means all kinds of wildness. I can't really describe it better than that. Tom and I are usually in the kitchen wondering what the heck is going on in the bathroom between Sage and Cade who are in the shower together. After shower we remind them 32 times to pick up their dirty clothes and hang up their towels. Then we tell them to get a snack and brush their teeth. Then we remind them to brush their teeth another 45 times. When we tell them to get in bed they go downstairs and yell and jump and spin and flop and I don't even know what kind of shenanigans go on. When To...

 Sundays have been weird for an entire year. After we moved home we hadn't found a church yet and then Covid happened so we did online church all Summer long. Last weekend we actually went to church for the first time since coming to Minnesota. As it turned out a guy I grew up with was one of the pastors there so it was nice to see a familiar face. Aiden went to youth group last week and had an okay time. Being the new kid is the absolute worst and my heart hurt for him, but you have to start somewhere when you make friends. The pastor that I knew was also in charge of youth group so it helped me to know someone would take Aiden under their wing. Last night when I put Sage to bed he coughed a couple times because he had a tickle in his throat. And this morning on the way to church that tickle returned and Tom and I looked at each other and we both knew we wouldn't be going into church. With Covid the way it is, a cough makes people panic so we watched church in the car on Tom...

Sage: Hey Mama, listen to this song.....  "Jingle bells Batman smells, Robin laid and egg. Batmobile lost a wheel and Joker got away." He also sang the second verse which I can't remember the lyrics to. Me: Where do kids learn these alternate lyrics to Christmas Carols? I swear they must go to some underground school at nighttime. Tom: I taught him those. Me: Of course you did. I had a good laugh about that. Anyway, Grandma and Grandpa...Sage's Christmas guitar recital is the day after Christmas and it's all online so I'll send you the link so you can come. Sage is enrolled in the Childbloom Guitar School in St. Cloud. It's a bit of a different method than what he's used to so we've had to back him up a little bit, but he's learning so much and so fast. Of course this required another new guitar because he needed a classical one, but that was just fine with him. :) We're hoping we can end up living close to St. Cloud forever so he can conti...

 When I purchased curriculum for Aiden's science this year I didn't pay much attention to the specifics of what it covered. We've used the same series for four years now and I simply purchased the next one the in series. I knew it was for 7th grade, I knew it was an overview of general science, and I knew I liked the author. So, no worries. What I didn't know was the specific topics covered so I was a little surprised to find that the first 6 chapters were an introduction to Chemistry. I wasn't worried at first because how hard can an introduction be? Well, come to find out this introduction happens to be really hard. I wasn't really planning on teaching Chemistry this year, and truth be told, I'm not personally planning on teaching Chemistry ever. I've planned for Aiden to go to take Chemistry from a person that is not me with access to a lab. Thus, this six chapters have turned out to be quite long. I've had to call the owners of the curriculum sto...

 Last weekend we took the boys to the Omaha Zoo. For some reason Tom and I both have visions of the Henry Doorly Zoo being huge and amazing and the best. We did have a really fun time, but it wasn't my favorite zoo. It's possible that it wasn't as interactive and fun because of Covid or because we went late in the season and it was cold. We enjoyed all the animals and we were finished early in the afternoon. After the zoo we went to the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum. I did my best to walk the boys through the history of flight used in War but they were getting tired. We saw all the airplanes and the B-17 was the closet one we saw to the airplane my grandpa was a tail gunner in  during WWII. Henry Doorly also has a drive through safari experience we toured and of course we went to all Tom's favorites. We saw his old house, had Valentino's Pizza (the place of my parent's first date), and had ice cream at Goodrich Dairy. We shopped at the Nebraska Husk...

 I really don't love Halloween. I'm sure I've said that before. I'm kind of a Halloween scrooge and so be it. There have been years when I've told the boys to just find something in the dress up clothes to wear. This year, no one was really into any of the ideas I suggested for costumes. Even though no one liked my ideas, no one had any of their own ideas either. Last week I told them it was now or never. Figure out what they wanted to be or they weren't going trick or treating. Sage wanted to be Iron Man but he decided to late and I couldn't get an Iron Man costume. Thankfully, he was really happy about the Mandalorian costume I picked up at Costco. Aiden did not want to dress up. He thought maybe he could just go as himself. But, I told him if he wanted to go trick-or-treating he had to wear some kind of costume. Aiden was pretty motivated about getting candy so he decided to wear his soccer uniform and go as a soccer player. GREAT. Because that uniform wa...