Nat's News

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Mountain Ma'am

Summer.
Let's take a moment to reflect, shall we?

Two weeks into the school year, and I can look back oh so fondly.
Only memories of laughter and sand seem to stick :)

Well, we camped more this summer than this former city slicker ever imagined possible.

And I have to admit, I kind of liked it.

A few highlights from some of our camping trips...

We started out by going up to Pentwater for the weekend on the last day of school. A christening of summer, and hopefully the birth of a new tradition. I heart Pentwater so much.

Later in June, we camped in Ludington with friends for a week. I had my hesitations about this trip, as Ludington is big, Tim would need to go to work, I've never camped for 8 days ever, and all 5 kids have interests that take them in different directions...none of which is basking in the sun reading US Weekly leisurely on the sand.

I under-estimated my inner Mountain Ma'am.
And aside from my hobo pie "My dad doesn't make me eat black" dinner fail, and the lazy raccoon eating cheetos under our table, we mangaged quite well!

Ice cream and Beaver watching on the pier with Uncle Kevin....

yes.

Dylan spent hours in this position.

Oh, just trying to keep up with the big kids..

Made it to the lighthouse with this bunch, AND made it up. Not a small task on my own :) It was so foggy!

The weather was fairly chilly, so we had a great time geocaching and running from mosquitoes.

The kids made kites...

Played many card games..

Their geocache prize...

More ice cream...

Once again enjoyed the reptile display....

Annual Lost Lake hike with Uncle Kevin...

All in all a great trip with friends, and one that I will definately do again with greater confidence.

The next weekend was the 4th of July, so we packed up and headed to Hoffmaster State park for the long weekend. We did all of our usuals, and drove into town to watch the fireworks.

The log pic I always insist upon...

We hiked a bit...

Biked a bit...

And swam a bit..

All in all, a great weekend enjoyed together as a family.

A few weeks later we camped with dear friends at the CRCG.
The weather was gorgeous, we broke a few rules, and a made some great memories.

The craft barn..

Labor Day we once again went up to Ludington for the long weekend.

Naturally we got a flat tire on the way as we do every Labor day weekend :)

And for the record, Tim had it changed in 12 minutes. (A record to beat next year ).

We had a wonderful time. The weather turned out to be better than expected, and we enjoyed slowing down and enjoying time with friends.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Back at it

The kids are back in school.

And while one half of me is overly sensitive, sad for a variety of reasons... the other half is jumping off the couch doing cartwheels, high fiving the silent air, shortly after the big yellow bus pops over the hill and swallows them up.

Time marches on...like it or not, seemingly quicker every year.

What's that saying? "Live for today, because you'll never get yesterday back, and tommorow is not guaranteed" or something profound like that.

It seems I blinked, we camped, and summer is over. Just.like.that.

As this new school year begins, I am keenly aware of how quickly the kids are growing up. Ellery is starting pre-school, we have 2 middle schoolers, and I can count on one hand how many summers will be left with Austin before he is out of high school. Wasn't I just overwhelmed because we were juggling 3 kids not sleeping through the night?

And as soon as they head back, my sensitive side begins to over- analyze our little 8 week respite. Did I love them enough? Use the opportunity of unhurried time together to teach them life skills? Make the most of every day that I had with them? Did I yell too much and inadvertently tune them out too often? Did we have enough genuine, quality, "we'll still be talking about this in 15 years", kind of memory making fun?

Gah! We never made it to the airport viewing area, or the library, or to Chicago by train....and the structured chore charts went out the window sometime mid July. My shameful list of summer fails is a doozy.

And well, now that school is in, papers are being thrown at me faster than I can read and sign, football practices run late, mornings are early, dinner is hasty, we are rushed, and the struggle to cherish all these snappy moments is creeping back in.

Sometimes I think I put too much pressure on myself.

On the flip side...back to school is an audible exhale.

It means not breaking up fights at 10 am, because someone was chewing too loudly... or looking at somebody funny.... or making weird noises. It means not tattling all day, or running laps around my kitchen tackling each other shrieking until it ends up in tears and something broken every.singe.time. It means not trying to be/help/listen/entertain 5 unique individuals at the same time for 13 hours straight. It's a break.

And let's be honest, there's absolutely no time to be bored now.

Back to school means routine, a new beginning, brand new crayons and folders, bible study, a bedtime, a feeling like I can get on top of things by day that I've neglected since I gave up after last Spring Break. Deep down I do crave structure, and some "quieter" time. (With the big kids gone, Ellery hasn't let one single moment of silence go to waste, or opportunity to play Memory with me 4 times in a row. Love her.)

It's all so bittersweet, but move forward we must.

My prayer is that I cherish these moments. Even if that means doing homework in the van at 7:34pm on a Tuesday amidst the sounds of little girls singing along to the tv and the smell of over processed food lingering.

And grace. May I extend love and uderstanding when the kids can't handle these snappy moments either.

Enough of my ramblings, the 2014-15 back to school pic. 7th, 6th, 4th, 1st, and 1 soon to be happy little pre-schooler this year.

And if pics could speak? A much searched for Patriots t-shirt, an Elsa braid, a buzz cut and athletic shorts that both stay up, and come down to his knees, a new skirt "that's cute, and long, and matches my dog shirt" and a princess dress.

Love 'em

And hey, maybe soon I will make the time to blog about our summer :)

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

summer

We're settling into our first week of summer vacation.

We bolted out of the starting blocks last fall, and in the blink of an eye made a blurry mad dash to the finish line.

It was a busy and fruitful school year.

Austin eased into middle school, and enjoyed playing football, basketball and track. He also participated on the science Olympiad team this winter, and really loved it!
Sydney and Dylan gave 3rd and 5th grade their best, and also enjoyed sports as well.
And after a tentative, nervous start to the year, Stella flourished in kindergarten!

Since i noted the first day of school about 4 posts ago, I thought it would be good to go back and highlight a few of the focal points in our year, in no particular order.

Last Day of school pic...

Stella rocked DeeDee Deer in her end of the year kindergarten program...

Bound and determined, this one set out to master the cube and succeeded...

Last day of elementary school!

How we spent our fall and spring.

This years never-ending winter will fondly be remembered as the one with 11 snow days, and also "that one year we had an ice rink before the lawn went in"