raising optimists

The kids are so ready for wintertime. It's pretty awesome to see how fully Minnesotan they are. I, on the other hand, feel just fine with these mild days. I think it was back in March that I decided to regroup my seasons to help me psychologically. I now have grouped April, May and June as Springtime. July, August and September are my new summer. Because September is always glorious. Fall doesn't begin until October when the leaves begin to change and includes November AND December. Which leaves winter in January, February and March. That last month was the real zinger. Because every children's book out there would lead you to believe spring begins in March. And in Minnesota that is a flat out lie. 

Anyway, I like this new system. I think of it often. And since it's December, it's still fall for me. 

But my kids are ready for the snow! And Christmas. I got out only the unbreakable decorations this year, and the kids promptly decorated the living room into "Christmas Land!" It is a lovely place that removes every decoration from around the house, way more fun to set up than to clean up. And you can only go into Christmas Land if you are wearing a christmas tree headband. (And those are our new grey walls! I LOVE them! We went with a different grey in the end because the one we started out with was too beige. So we started over, again, and love the feel in there...)

We had a really wonderful Thanksgiving, eating lunch with the Groves at 1:00 and dinner with the Harrington's at 4:00. The rest of the weekend was incredibly relaxed. Hardly went anywhere and I started and finished a book in two days. The best! And then Sunday night Elsie got a terrible bout of the flu and we've been passing it around every since. But as Elsie said, "at least I got to eat my toast in my bed! so that's fun!" And I realized I am raising some awesome optimists. It old her that even when things feel hard, if she can always find the thing that she is thankful for, like toast in bed while she recovers from the flu, she'll have a very, very wonderful life.

happy thanksgiving!

I just watched this video that was posted on Ann Voskamp's blog and it moved me so much. It is a beautiful telling of the power of prayer and the power of love. Watch it to the very end. It's a story of bright light permeating the darkness: the gospel story...and we are all so desperate for that story!

imitation is the highest form of flattery

I made this little picture on the right for Rory while the kids made birthday cards for him back in October. Ivar liked it so much, he made his own copy to give to Rory too. My card was mediocre, but Ivar's version is darling. I love it so much.

gym teacher

A few months ago while sitting in at my computer in what must have been some happy and generous mood, I got an email looking for gym teachers for Friday's during the winter for area home school families. And I happily replied, "I'm in!"

I haven't quite figured out what I was thinking in that moment because on the whole, for what I would consider the entirety of my life, I hated gym. I was a pansy at the flexed arm hang. I never learned how to do a cart wheel. I scheduled band lessons right in the middle of swimming days so it "wouldn't make sense for me to get in the water..." I skipped nearly three weeks of first hour during the basketball unit in 9th grade claiming I had monthly cramps. Monthly, as in three-fourths of the month-ly.

To be fair, there were some high points to gym though. Like every halloween when our elementary gym was turned into a big maze made out of tumbling mats standing on their ends. That was epic. Or when I got first place in the frisbee throw in our 3rd grade olympics. Or when I won the entire bracket of foosball with the future varsity soccer captain as my partner. Or when we had free time in swimming and I made up synchronized swim routines with my friend Jenny. That basically sums up my athletic life story.

Anyway, the email came, I signed my pregnant self up, with one-year-old in tow, and Friday was our first day. And I realized my goal was to make sure this was an awesome experience for kids, and to pull from my incredible repertoire of camp games. And to get to use my new parachute.

So we showed up on Friday, and it was a blast. I have the little kids, and it's awesome. After about 45 minutes of organized activities a little girl asked if we could play princesses and a boy said he wanted to play skywalkers and so we ran all over the field and played princesses finding safety in the soccer nets from the shooting skywalkers.

That's my kind of gym class.

cute kids