How I Love These Girls

How I love my girls.

They are my extra pairs of hands, 

my listening ears,

a good laugh when I need one. 

They always forgive me for my imperfections, 

and remind me often what my attitude looks like by displaying it back to me.

They add so much joy to my life, and I know they don't hear that enough.

I am so proud of the beautiful individuals they are, certainly on the outside, 

but on the inside they positively shine.

We get out for girl time just the 3 of us on occasion, and I always enjoy the way it allows me to step back and appreciate things from the refreshing perspective of their youth.

It's already October. I don't post much these days. Slacker.

It has been the most beautiful summer I can remember. I tallied the sunny days, August had 29, September had 28. 

In August we had a Frostad sibling reunion, which turned out to be a blast. The 17th Melissa/Jared, Emily/Bryce, Steven, Ty and us met at our house early, hit the store for gas and chicken, then headed to Lake Pend Orielle and rented a boat for the day. We got a deck boat, plus skis, wakeboard, and tube. Such. Fun.

My favorite part was riding the tube with Steven. He screamed the whole time, and I was laughing at him so hard I could barely hold on. At one point he almost fell off because he was holding both hands on one handle. I was like, "Dude, there's another handle on my side...." Then laughed harder as I realized I had an extra handle between the two I was holding.

August 28th the girls and I started school. Bri and Lexx at Charter, and me at NIC. I just finished week 6, which shows how busy life has been since.
I'm taking five classes. I have enjoyed a lot of what I've learned, though I am a walking dead person most of the time these days. I put every spare minute I have into homework. After Isaac and Levi head to the bus in the mornings I pour cereal for Deacon and Braden, then sit and get some homework done while the boys watch PBS, until it's time to take Deacon to the bus for Kindergarten (which he loves loves). Braden and I drop him off, then we come home, I make him lunch, then head back to homework. He usually watches some PBS while he eats, then he curls up by me and takes a nap. That is my favorite time of day. I push to get as much done as possible in the 3-4 hours before it's time to hop back in the van and pick up kids from all over, then some evenings we need to drop off for CYT, or grab some quick items at the store for dinner, then it's home to make dinner, clean the house.

My Literature class teacher thinks we all live for her class. She just piles on the reading and writing. I'm hanging in there... Just a total mental case most of the time...

Tonight I "took a break" (ha. ha.) from homework and did some deep cleaning, trying to get the house ready for the cold weather, and because I don't have time to scrape ice and snow off my windshield. So I'm trying to empty the garage, and use its massive space to park in instead of just store junk. You know, like it's meant for...

Well, I just wanted to catch up a little real quick. It's 1 a.m., and I have reading and discussion posts still to do tonight if I can hold my eyes open long enough....
Hopefully I live to write another post.

All day today the radio has been interrupted with the beep...beep...beeeep emergency broadcast system warnings for severe thunderstorms passing through our area.
The kids get pretty freaked out when that happens, they've seen too many tornado shows.
So, I turned the music up in the kitchen and baked cookies for 3 hours. Big oatmeal chocolate chip, and big chewy gingersnaps. Yum. (I confess I ate 2 of the ginger ones. I tried so hard to resist. What a weakling I am...)

Today we went to the lake with a picnic dinner of fried chicken from Fred Meyer, fresh cherries, doritos, and lots of water. On the way to the lake, Braden says to Deacon, "Dee-don, don't get yous butt wet. Keep yous pants on, okay?" To which Deacon says, "Braaay-don! Why would I take off my pants you gwosso!" Oh Buggy. Love him so much.

The weather has been hot lately, up in the 90's. Today was partly cloudy and really windy the first half of the day, which cooled things down just slightly. At one point Deacon came up with the science goggles on, telling us about his idea for a new game he wanted to invent. I couldn't resist asking him if when he's 15 if he'll please still put on goggles and come talk to me. I will miss the cute antics of these boys that they will only do while they're little....

The sun came back out this evening, and it felt really good to go play in the water.
We went to our usual spot, up Coeur d'Alene Lake Drive. There was a big log washed on shore that was a perfect "boat" for Braden and Deacon. They'd sit on it, and one of the girls would hold it steady and push them around. They loved it. 

It's July!
I will turn 32 in a few weeks, which sounds so much older than I feel. At least, in most ways...

Isaac's birthday was pretty good, it turned out to be a rainy day. I took Bri to her latin class that morning, we had to run to the store first for flash cards and got Isaac a pack of grasshopper cookies. He really likes chocolate and mint. After I picked Bri back up, we went and got balloons and streamers, triple chocolate cake mix, and decorations for the cupcakes.

At home Bri helped me make cupcakes, the girls hung up blue and yellow streamers and balloons, Levi drew a bunch of stars which we cut out and hung from the streamers too. Isaac licked the beaters and bowls, and helped decorate his cupcakes with the edible star glitter we got, and planet/spaceships on toothpicks. They turned out pretty cool.

His birthday decor was themed around his main gift, a "galileo-scope", a telescope designed by astronomers, that is simple enough for amateurs, and which is supposed to be powerful enough to see the moons around Jupiter, as well as the rings around Saturn. It took a bit of time to figure out, and we couldn't use it that night because it was so cloudy, but we did get it out a few nights later. We were able to get a good look at the moon, but it was too bright out to really focus in well on a planet. We'll try again soon. I think Isaac likes it though.

Braden has been potty training the last week and a half or so, and is doing fabulous. For his potty rewards chart I made a bubble gum machine out of paper and laminated it. He gets to put on circle stickers that look like gumballs, or stars too if he wants. The older kids have been bribed to help (think $$), so he gets tons of extra encouraging. We're officially out of diapers, after 13 straight years…

Tomorrow is Isaac's 9th birthday. Wow.
He is quite a kid. Gentle, intelligent, inquisitive, caring, compassionate, sensitive, forgiving, creative, curious, funny.... these are just a few words that accurately describe Isaac. He is my deep thinker, is a total sweetheart, and is such a good brother. He has a great laugh, and when he thinks something is seriously funny, he really laughs.

Isaac is easy to be with, he is super easy to please. He's one of those kids who never throws a fit, and nearly always goes along with a "sure, no problem, whatever" kind of attitude. I think the rest of us in this house could learn a thing or two from him really.

I dropped off the girls, then went over to Riverstone Park and the boys ran around, splashed on the shore, gathered every cool rock they found (which is basically every rock), and tried to sneak up on and pet the baby ducks.

I have more speech prep to do, plus paperwork to turn in for Braden for preschool (what?). Books to pick up at the library. Concert reviews to watch and write for my really dumb music class. A neglected house to clean. And most importantly, a Birthday Boy to make happy.

What a crazy week.
Yesterday was the first day of summer, and appropriately it was sunny, though only the 5th day of sunshine we've had in June.
I've been trying to keep up with school, and trying to keep up with kids.

It is like it takes energy just to remember to breathe...

Lexxi has been keeping a spider in a jar in her room as a "pet". She and Isaac have been catching it flies...

Isaac's birthday is next Tuesday, he is going to be nine, which I can hardly believe. 

When I was 9, my mom made me a homemade swimsuit and a 3-layer cake....

I took the kids to the library on Monday. It was rainy and we just needed out of the house. Levi was completely enthralled with a nearby baseball game which he wandered over and watched. Isaac sat and watched a group of teenage boys throw a frisbee around, which fascinated him. Braden got a kicksout of swinging in the baby swing, he was squealing and giggling and making all sorts of noise, which made me laugh. Deacon climbed up and down the slides.

Deacon especially loves to make cards. He has such a big heart, and is such a sweet little boy.
Today he asked me why there isn't a "kids' day", like there is a mother's day and father's day. I think that would be a good idea.
Deacon also rearranged his and Braden's room yesterday. He moved things around, and set up the beanbag game bookshelf in his closet with "decorations" on it. He loves things like that, and is always asking me if he can have nice things to decorate with. He is my child for sure. 

Levi has been reading "Fablehaven". I brought the series home thinking Isaac and Lexxi would enjoy them, but Levi adamently insisted that he would like to read them even though they are chapter books. He's been reading around an hour a day, both because he likes the book, and also because when we were at the library he saw the reading rewards drawer. He brought home a chart, and for every so many hours of reading he does, he gets to go in and get a prize.

Briah's been reading a ton too, like a book a day since we hit the library. Lexx has been playing a lot outside with the boys, on the water slide and having water fights. I like it when she plays with them, she's got just the kind of energy they need. She can be a bit bossy too sometimes, but I sure appreciate her playing and motherly ways with her little brothers.

I'm going to get the kids out to Skate Plaza next week, and try to come up with other fun things to do... They mean more to me than anything else, in spite of all the busy all the time....