Sneaky Selfies

We've reminded Sophie several times that she needs permission to take pictures with my phone, and yet we keep finding new pictures...

40

Bryan is really good at birthdays, especially my birthdays. I had originally wanted to do something big for this birthday, maybe something fun and social with other people. But global pandemic combined with social distancing makes that tricky, so I knew it would be just us for my birthday. Bryan went the extra mile to make up for it.

He stayed up until two in the morning putting up decorations, then got up with the kids in the morning so I could sleep in and shower.

He got the kids really excited for the birthday celebration, which included each big kid picking a board game and then me playing it with them.

He got me a gift that made me laugh at loud at its awesomeness.

And he made a very fancy, nearly sugar-free chocolate cake.

It was a great day. Thank you, Bryan!

Tomorrow

It's 11:01 on the night of June 26. This is my last hour being thirty-nine, my last hour before I turn forty.

It's weird.

I fully recognize that in the grand scheme of things forty is not a big number. But it feels kind of big. Several times today Sophie has commented on my impending birthday including the gem, "Tomorrow you'll be old!"

I've been reflecting about the changes that have happened during the last ten years. When I turned thirty I was expecting Phoebe, so I've had three additional children in my thirties. We went through the MBA adventure and zigzagged our way across the country as we moved and moved and moved and moved and moved and moved and moved. I made some very dear friends in the last ten years. I've read hundreds of books. I've made blankets. I've cooked more meals from scratch than I thought possible. I've gone through life-changing trials. But I've learned and grown and been refined by those trials.

When I turned thirty I wrote about my tenth and twentieth birthdays and I pondered about how I would spend my fortieth birthday. Never would I have guessed that I would turn forty in the middle of a global pandemic and a national racism awakening. Tomorrow there will be no parties or gatherings with friends. Bryan and I won't go out to dinner or a movie to celebrate. I'll sleep in and exercise and open gifts, many of which the kids covertly created and wrapped today. I'll (probably) gets texts and Facebook messages wishing me happy birthday and maybe even a call or two. I'll eat watermelon and sugar-free cake and snuggle with these six people that I love so very much.

What do the next ten years hold? The world is still upside-down, so I have no idea. I'd like us to buy a house at some point. Peter starts high school in the fall, though I don't know what that will look like. I'd like to send kids on missions and to college. I'd like to really learn to play the piano and the ukulele and the guitar. I'd like to work toward a Master's degree and maybe figure out what I want to be when I grow up. I'd like to be healthy and have energy to keep up with these kids as they grow.

It's 11:40 on the night of June 26. This is my last twenty minutes being thirty-nine, my last twenty minutes before I turn forty.

It's going to be fine.

What's Up, Doc?

Sophie asked for carrots for breakfast today. I showed her how to peel them and she took over. Three carrots later, plus one for Phoebe, and she was done. She kept saying how delicious they were. I'm pretty amused by her choice of morning meal.

Do As I'm Doing

Topher is very observant and often imitates what he sees the big kids do. He has play phone calls with them. He puts himself in timeout, including setting the timer, when he's feeling grumpy. And he adopts their vocal mannerisms like groaning in annoyance when he thinks they're misbehaving. Actually, he may have picked that one up from the grown ups.

This morning I walked into the library and saw Topher with one of our Chromebooks open in front of him. This conversation happened.

Me: Oh buddy, let's put this away. (I took the computer from him.)

Topher: (kind of sad and a little whiny) Hey! No! Watch Minecraft.

Yep, he's definitely been paying attention.

A Place for Everything

For the nearly five years I've had it, my desk has been the unofficial Place to Put Stuff That Doesn't Have a Home spot. I've gotten it nearly clean multiple times, but random items keep finding their way down to the basement and onto my desk. In February I decided I wanted a usable desk and I got busy sorting.

Then the world turned upside. Whatever free time I was using on my desk totally disappeared.

A few weeks ago I decided I needed to finish my desk. I took small chunks of time, sometimes only ten minute increments, to work on it every few days. Last night I saw how close I was to being done and I decided to push through.

Behold, a clean desk:

Those boxes are all organized with planned sewing projects, craft supplies, and birthday decorations. That makes it sound like this is someone else's desk, so I guess I've developed some surprising hobbies over the years.

As soon as I finished it my first thought was, "Now I can get my sewing machine out and get through some projects!"

Best Dad

We had a good, low-key Father's Day with no photo evidence at all. Well, that's not completely true. I had the kids fill out Father's Day questionnaires about Bryan and I did take pictures of those. I read them aloud to Bryan and he guessed who wrote each one. There was much laughter had by all.

Don't worry, I won't make you guys guess.

Sophie:

Phoebe:

Cooper:

Peter:

I didn't do one for Topher, but I probably should have, he has a lot to say these days.

We're so thankful for Bryan!

The More You Know

In case you were wondering, onesies are excellent for toy storage.

The Instigator

"She started it when she punched me back!" -Sophie, when questioned why she hit Phoebe instead of going to sleep at bedtime.

Around the Block

The Important Stuff

Topher has been learning to say prayers. He folds his arms and bows his head and sweetly repeats the words we say. We started with blessings on the food, then moved to personal prayers and family prayers. It makes my heart happy to hear his little voice speak to Heavenly Father.

It didn't take Topher long to realize that he can choose to say different words than those we're prompting him to say. In fact, I've discovered something that's very important to Topher while listening to him pray. This is an excerpt from his personal prayer last night:

Me: Thank Thee.

Topher: Thank Thee.

Me: For my family.

Topher: Famy.

Me: And for this day.

Topher: And food. (as I open my mouth to say something else) And FOOD.

Me: Please help me.

Topher: Pease hep me.

Me: To sleep.

Topher: To seep.

Me: And be safe.

Topher: Food. Stomach.

I promise he ate a big dinner, so he wasn't hungry...

More Than a Trim

Sophie has been asking me to cut her hair for several weeks. I've trimmed the girls' hair and I feel confident doing that, but she wanted several inches removed. I wasn't really comfortable with that idea and was genuinely concerned that I would do a hack job on her hair. I know, hair grows back, but my kids have long memories and would not let me forget if something like that happened.

So I stalled. We couldn't cut her hair until after her dance recital, that was a legit reason for me to not play salon. Then I pointed out that I didn't really know how to cut her hair and would need time to learn. She asked everyday of the week after her recital if I had learned how yet.

I took my lack of education to YouTube University. After watching a handful of videos, I was hesitantly willing. On Saturday afternoon I got to work.

She is, thankfully, a happy customer.

Dancing Queens (UDATED)

This week marked the virtual dance recital for the girls. It took place during their regular dance class hour and all the dancers were in full hair, costume, and makeup. We filmed our little dancers and the teacher recorded the Zoom call in order to capture the entire class dancing. I'm not going to embed the Zoom calls, it's too many small squares to keep track of, but if you want to see it send me a message and I'll get those videos to you.

Edit: For some reason (that I haven't been able to solve yet) Blogger is reading the girls' embedded dances as nothing more than code instead of the YouTube videos they should be. That means we have two options for viewing the dances. I will upload them directly to blogger, which won't be great quality. I'll also include the link to the unsearchable YouTube video for each dance. I hope at least one of these methods works!

Monday was Sophie's dance (YouTube link):

Wednesday was Phoebe's (YouTube link):

Sophie had more energy, personality, and bounce than anyone else in her class. Phoebe danced with grace and poise. I'm glad that they both kept going to their dance classes and I'm very happy to be done for the time being.

It's Too Darn Hot

It got hot enough yesterday that Topher only wore lightweight shorts and Sophie never changed out of her warm weather pajamas at all.

It got hot enough yesterday that I texted my friend and said yes, we would take them up on their offer to borrow some box fans.

It got hot enough yesterday that I could spike Topher's hair with nothing but sweat.

It got hot enough yesterday that our house was still eighty-four degrees on the main floor and eighty-five in the basement at nearly eleven o'clock at night.

It got hot enough yesterday that we're actually talking about having someone come in and fix the AC.

Homebodies

The stay at home order in our area has moved from red to yellow. Many people think that means that the possibility of catching the virus is gone. What it actually means is that we've flattened the curve enough that the hospitals won't be overwhelmed by the new cases that pop up. Our family has decided to continue on as if we were still in quarantine.

That might seem bonkers. Why, after being stuck at home for twelve weeks, would we keep doing that now that we have the option of going out?

We have a few reasons. I have asthma. It's not super horrible asthma, but it's enough that several times each day I have to stop what I'm doing and focus on taking a deep breath, and then it might take multiple attempts to get that sought after deep breath, and then I might need to grab my inhaler for some extra help. Having asthma puts me in the "underlying condition" category. And that feels weird, since I don't think of myself as ill. And I'm really not ill, I just don't always breathe very well.

Another reason is Topher. Remember his hospital stay more than a year ago? The doctors told us that because of the RSV and pneumonia he would be extra susceptible to respiratory illnesses in the future. That has proven to be true. I realize that COVID-19 doesn't appear to impact kids in the same way as adults, but they can still get sick.

We've already had some awkwardness of being invited to activities by people at church and doing our best to politely decline. I have a feeling that's only going to get worse as more and more things open up.

It's cool, I've got a lifetime of being the weird kid and not following the crowd to help me out here.

Culinary Training

Photo credit on both pictures: Phoebe

Quarantine Week Twelve (The Final Official Week): The Pictures

Love Your Neighbor

My heart has been heavy for the last two weeks as I've taken a hard look at the racial inequality in my country. Seeing so many people, so many children of God, treated like they're not even human because of the color of their skin is horrendous. Bryan and I have stayed up much too late several nights talking about the protests and the riots and the underlying causes. And I've asked myself over and over, "What can I do? How can I help?"

Tonight as a family we watched Remember the Titans. I got the idea from a friend who did the same with her boys. We paused the film several times to explain and discuss the racism that was portrayed. We connected that back to what's happening now and how we can make better choices than some of the characters in the movie did.

We have always taught our children to be inclusive and kind, but being direct and talking about these hard things tonight was important. It was a good beginning.

The Many Faces of Sophie

I wasn't kidding, she takes my phone all the time. Also, is she practicing to be a teenager with some of these poses?

Age Before Beauty

Sophie was sent to timeout on Monday for picking up Topher by his legs and nearly bending him in half backwards. At the conclusion of her six minute sojourn to the bottom step, I welcomed her to where I was sitting on the couch to review what had happened.

Me: Sophie, why did I put you in timeout?

Sophie: (reaching out and touching my forehead) Because you have crinkles. So many right crinkles, right here. You do! They're beautiful crinkles, so smooth. (in a complimentary tone) You look like an old princess.

Closing Time

We made it to the end of the school year.

Cue my audible sigh of relief.

I thought about taking our last day of school picture in pajamas as a nod to doing school at home, but the reality is that we got dressed in daytime clothes almost everyday, so I figured a pj picture would be inauthentic. And since the snake may still be living in the bush by our front door (though we didn't see it yesterday!), I decided to move our traditional front porch pose down the sidewalk a bit.

Quarantine Week Eleven: The Pictures