"Home School is Too Easy"

This is the lament I keep hearing from my kids.

"Home school is too easy."

They don't usually complain to me that their lives are too easy, if you know what I mean.

This is what Katie told me today, followed by, "School is suppose to be hard.  It was hard at Polk.  It is suppose to be boring.  That is how I learn things."

We read together every day.  She works on coloring, writing and numbers every day.

She is five.  She knows how to read and write.  She puts spaces between her words, uses capital letters to begin sentences and understands basic punctuation.  She can count to over 100 and solve simple addition and subtraction problems.

What more does she need to know how to do right now?

I'm sorry.  I can't figure out what hard things I am suppose to be making her do.

Today, after a morning of worksheets and origami -- I love the way Katie and Isaac sit so calmly at the table for hours every morning absorbed in their work -- we headed to one of our favorite parks.  We call it the spider web park because it has huge rope webs for the kids to climb on.  Such a beautiful day in the 70s!

I loved our warm winter and spring has been a dream.  However, I am becoming alarmed by the complete lack of rain and how fast things are heating up.  Watch out for a hot, dry summer of water rationing.

Home School Week 1

I feel like I need to be ready with an answer to why we decided to home school. I don't know the most accurate response, except that it is what feels right for our family right now.

The other night, I asked Isaac, "How much do you love me?"

"A whole lot," he answered.

"Yes, but, how much if you could measure it?"

He searched his mind and said seriously, "So much that it takes up half of my whole heart.  No, more than half."

Every time I think about it, my throat gets a little squeeze of emotion.  To be loved that much?  Being a mom is so special.  I think of all the other people who have to share the space in the smaller half of his heart and it feels like an honor to hold such an important position in his world for this brief moment.

After the morning math worksheets on Thursday, we headed to the Treehouse Children's Museum where there is the most delightful Curious George exhibit until part way through May.

The kids spent a lot of time sending blocks up and watching them slide down on conveyor belts while practicing taking turns.

Kids are the best

Friday, we met friends at the park to enjoy perfect weather and play and the kids got these haircuts:

before

 after

I love the ritual Katie and I have established to watch the sunset together every night:

My plan for today (Saturday) was to clean the house and take the kids to Lagoon.  Katie had a Birthday party to attend until 3 p.m. and the park closed at 7 p.m.  The kids said they would rather have a houseful of friends.  So we did.  With pizza and rootbeer floats.

Isaac and his friend built this fort in the backyard:

From all of the recent remodel projects, we've accumulated an impressive pile of "scraps" in the back corner of our yard.  Right before Brian left for Washington again, he said, "When I get back, I'm going to rent a trailer and clean up our yard."  These past two weeks I've been counting down the days for that to happen (there are also two dead trees that blew down in a storm over the winter -- so things look pretty bad).  

I think the fort they built is really cool.  I also think the neighbors might vote us out of the neighborhood, or, at least pool their money to buy us a fence.  Yard etiquette aside, doesn't this remind you of something my generation would have done growing up?  They loved it and felt so proud.

This week has been a gift.  I don't know how long we will continue on this home school journey.  But, right now, we are loving it.

An update on Ian:

Two weeks ago, the stomach flu went through our house.  Katie, Isaac and two of the kids I babysit got it for about 24-hours each.  Ian got sick too, but he didn't get better for two weeks!  On day 5 I called his Dr. who said there was a 7-10 day bug going around.  On day 10, I took him in to have him checked out.  They drew his blood for tests and concluded that he just had a strain of the stomach flu that was hanging on.

He missed eight days of school and two weekends being sick.  He was so skinny to begin with and he lost about 5 pounds.  Now he is extremely underweight and it is now my goal to help him put on 10-pounds.

He was so tired and weak and looked like a skeleton, but as soon as he was back to school, he thought he should also be back to doing all of his sports.  

I had been told comp basketball would have two practices and one game per week and I thought outdoor soccer would have one practice and one game.  It turns out, basketball would have three 90-minute practices plus a game and soccer would also have three practices plus a game.  

I was overwhelmed.  I didn't want him to be exercising 3-hours per day right after this illness.  How am I suppose to keep him fed and help him gain weight when he is keeping that schedule?

I was also overwhelmed because I looked at the calendar right before outdoor soccer started this week and realized Brian will be gone for the ENTIRE season.  All of those soccer Saturdays 100% by myself.

The recent illness was concerning me.  The logistics of driving Ian to six practices and two games (in addition to all of the other things he and the other three kids have) for the next 10-weeks seemed like too much.  I frequently take the kids to all of their things myself.  But, at least when Brian is in town I feel hope that he will be there to step in if I need him to.

I decided that Ian had to choose soccer or basketball and he chose soccer.  It was hard for both of us to let comp basketball go.  But, he said he felt relieved about it, and I think it was the right thing.  If each sport had been one practice and one game per week it would have been fine.  But, this was too much.

This morning began with three soccer games (Isaac had both his final indoor game and his first outdoor game).  I know I am maybe suppose to hate waking up early on Saturday and sitting on the sidelines for hours, but I love watching them play.  In fact, even though I know we made the right decision about basketball, I am still sad I won't see Ian play any more basketball games for awhile.

Brian will be home when we wake up Tuesday morning for a few days until he leaves again.  We are all excited.

Home School Days 2 & 3

Isaac and I were reading science books we checked out from the library by 7 a.m. yesterday.  We explored the properties of water and bubbles -- both are pretty cool.

In a book about friction we found a snippet on black holes which got us thinking about time travel and the speed of light.  That led us to talking about how massive our whole universe is and Isaac was excited about figuring out some math pertaining to it all.

I guess I once knew that if someone shined a light on the nearest star to earth, we wouldn't see it until more than 4 years later.  It was still mind boggling to re-visit that fact.  I love watching how Isaac's mind works.  He has always been a fascinating guy.  I was trying to impress him with how far away the stars are from earth and he was like, "Um, of course they are.  Otherwise they would burn the earth up."

He is so funny.  His mind is chock full of interesting facts.

Katie and I read lots of books.  She is not as good of a reader as I thought.  In fact, I think she is reading about the same as she was when she started Kindergarten.  Most of what she has read to me during the year has been from books she brought home from the classroom.  What I am finding is that she is an excellent memorizer and that makes her look like a great reader the second time through.

She can read fine.  I am surprised at how much time it still takes her to sound out each word though.

Yesterday, I had to accomplish some of my own things like writing a story and buying milk and researching how to home school (this is why I wanted to wait two weeks).  The kids had lots of free time to play.  I think play is very healthy for young kids so I wasn't too worried about it.

At bedtime, Isaac said, "Mom, when are you going to start teaching me?  I thought this was home school."

I explained to him that there are lots of ways to learn besides sitting at a desk while someone talks or doing worksheets.  I told him I wanted him to give me input about what he would like home school to look like.

Worksheets.

That's right.  Here I am a free-wheeling, hands-on kind of home school mom and my son wants worksheets.

That's O.K.  It is one thing to say, "Kids learn through experiences.  Kids are curious.  Kids are natural seekers of knowledge." And, so on.  But, it is an entirely different feeling when you un-enroll your kids from school and realize that everything rests squarely on your shoulders.

What if I forget to teach them something they need to know?

This morning, I printed off division worksheets that double as color by numbers and Isaac ate them up.  He and Katie sat happily at the table for two hours working together.

Now we are headed to the Treehouse Children's Museum for a fun afternoon.

I hope I can live up to their expectations.  I'm really enjoying the extra time with these two.

March 24 -- Home School Adventure Day 1

Katie is my child who has never been a morning person.  I am a firm believer that children need their sleep.  It was a relief to let her sleep until 8:05 and wake up on her own.  Normally we need to leave the house by 8:10 because the first bell rings at 8:15.

She awoke and took a relaxing bath.

I'll be honest, we are usually so rushed that most of the time I have her get dressed the night before (she wears leggings so her clothes are soft).  It saves a lot of morning drama when you are pressed for time and your 5-year-old is a clothes diva.

Our nights are hurried too with lessons, practices, games, homework and playing outside until after dark when we are home.  A bath without me urging her to hurry, much less a morning bath, felt like a luxury.

When I washed her hair I unintentionally rubbed her back while trying to get the tangles out.  "That feels so good," she said.  So, I gave her a massage while getting her dressed.  Something I haven't done since she was a baby.  I loved massaging my infants.

Then, I rubbed lotion on Isaac too.  He has large patches of eczema and I am suppose to lotion him twice a day.  We forget to do it a lot.  Today, we took our time and enjoyed our morning.

The kids were so happy to be with me.  I was happy to be with them.

We were out the door by 10 a.m., headed to the library.  I told them to pick out books before they could take a turn on the computer (the games there are educational).  They filled their bags with books and started playing with toys and puzzles.  Before we knew it, it was time to go.  They had a great time and didn't complain about not getting on the computers.

I was filled with joy being with them today, hearing Katie read to me, watching Isaac concentrate on one task at a time giving it his full attention, and seeing their ear to ear smiles as we hugged and laughed together.

I know every day of home school can't be like this.  I hope when it gets really hard, I will remember how I felt today and it will help me carry on.

I've ordered some books online and am in the process of developing our curriculum.  I think a few more days like today will be the perfect transition in the meantime.  Maybe I should be really scared.  Mostly I feel at peace and excited.

Home School Mom

I have a story about becoming a home school mom.

The idea of home school caught my attention ten years ago when Sophie was four.  I read.  I researched.  I talked to lots of moms who home schooled.  I liked the idea a lot.

I home schooled Sophie for most of her Kindergarten year while we lived in China.

We had a great time, but she was so excited to start school -- what a big milestone in a young child's life! -- that she enrolled in the last few months of Kindergarten when we moved home.

She loved school.  Ian started Kindergarten a few years later and he loved school too.

I mean -- they LOVED school.  They would get angry when Brian and I suggested taking them out for a day to go out of town.  They cried when they were sick and had to stay home.  They turned down an offer to go to Disneyland because it would mean missing a whole week of school, opting to go in a summer month instead.

Every once in awhile, I brought up the idea of home schooling and all of the kids said, "No thanks."

That was fine.  I was glad they were happy and it was one less thing for me to worry about.

Then, I got busy earning money.  So busy.

As I mentioned in a previous post, this past fall the newspaper blindsided me by cutting the majority of my work from my load.

I have maintained my weekly restaurant feature.  It's pretty easy to write one story.

Now, they want me to write more stories again.  They are publishing a monthly magazine and the editor has had me write a couple of pieces.  Every time, I feel like the compensation is unequal to the amount of work.

There was a time when I would have been so excited for someone to pay me any amount for writing.  They paid me so little when I first started nearly sixteen years ago.  It was roughly $20 per story.  I was stoked!

Money for writing?  I loved to write.  I loved to see my words published and my byline in ink.  The money was gravy.

That was before my time was so precious.

That was before my life was so expensive too.  Not to mention that $20 went a lot farther then.

That was before I had sixteen years of newspaper writing experience.

And, it was before they increased my pay over the years, raising my expectations.

So, now they want to pay me less.  Luckily more than $20.  But, when I look at the time I spend on each story, the amount they are offering is not that much.  I have very little free time these days.  I don't want to give it to the newspaper unless the money is good.

Back in September when I got the surprising news about being cut back, I didn't realize a door that was opening in my life.

Home school.

How that happened is --

Two weeks ago I went to get my hair cut by a friend who is home schooling, and she told me a story that inspired me and made me want to re-visit the idea.  I have lots of friends who home school and we talk about it all the time.  This conversation landed inside me in a different way.

I went home and checked in with my kids and guess what?  All four of them hate school.

Sophie hates it and would rather be home schooled -- except she is really excited to be a 9th grader next year (the oldest grade in the school).  She also avoids change of pretty much any kind.

Ian hates school because he is bored and would rather be home schooled -- except he is really excited to be in 7th grade next year and discover what junior high is like.  He is also hoping the classes will be more challenging so he will like school again.

Isaac hates school.  I did not realized how deep his unhappiness ran in regards to going to school this year until now.  He immediately asked to be home schooled, even though his best friend is in his class.  Even after I told him he couldn't play any electronics during school hours.  Even when I told him he would have extra chores.

Katie hates school.  Say what?  How can you hate Kindergarten?  Isn't it one of the best years? I love her teacher.  She and Katie really connect.  She has lots of friends in her class and she is only there for a few hours.

I was shocked.

This was such a turnaround.

I blame the unrelenting focus on raising test scores at the cost of all that is exciting and fun in the world of a child.

The past three years have been rough watching all of the changes and feeling like they system was snuffing out the love of learning I had strived to foster in my little ones.

Kindergarten is completely different now than it was when the other three started school.  I will save my stories on that for later.

It was settled.  Katie and Isaac would begin home schooling in the fall.  That felt far enough away.  When I envision the way things will be in the future I always have more energy and more organization and my house is finally clean.

Maybe that will happen someday.

I considered that they might even change their minds by then.  We would wait and see.

Sunday night they asked, "Can't we just start homeschooling now?"

I decided that would be O.K.  Why wait?  By "now" I meant, "we can start in two weeks when spring break begins."

Instead "now" actually meant "now."

Isaac missed school Monday because he wasn't feeling well.  By the time I picked up Katie at 11 a.m. I had already informed the principal and her teacher of our decision to make it the last day of school.

So sudden, it felt like my head was spinning.

I woke up today and couldn't believe it was only Tuesday.  It felt like we lived a week in one day.

So, there you go.  The newspaper can find someone else.  I'm sure there are plenty of people who love to write who will be tickled with the offer.  Meanwhile, I only give my time away to a few people and these two are at the top of my list.  They melt my heart.  I'm so blessed to be their mom.

I Think I've Always Wanted a Red Couch

Last night I curled up on our red couch and watched a magnificent, stormy sunset.  It had deep purples under black clouds.  Katie and I had watched the ball of orange sinking lower and lower in the sky a half hour earlier.

Ian played the most exquisite songs on the piano.  Listening to him play is so beautiful to my ears because he is my child (and, because he is talented).

As a child I dreamed of playing the piano like that but I didn't take lessons.  When I had my own children, I hoped they would play heart-stirring music someday.  Because of Ian's hard work, the vision is realized.

Katie pranced into the room on her dancing legs every few minutes to show me a new design she had created out of easy cheese on a cracker.

I said to myself, "If I had had a glimpse of this twenty years ago, I would have said this was a dream life."

Many moments in life feel like, "How did I get here?"  So, I soaked the feeling in for as long as I could and paused to thank God for my life, my blessings, and for the moment.

My Darling Daughter

My Sophie turned fourteen.  For her birthday, she asked me to take her and a friend to see Cinderella on opening night.  What a gorgeous, feel-good show.

Since opening night was the week after her birthday, she asked for my mom and me to take her shopping at Station Park.  I felt so blessed and flattered that her idea of the perfect birthday was spending time with me.  And, a sweet pork burrito at Costa Vida - of course.  I love this girl.

It's Sugar

Since the day after her birthday was a Friday, she asked to have a group of friends over to watch movies.  I made one of her favorite dinners (French dip sandwiches) for them and showered them with movie snacks.

Since Brian was out of town on her Birthday, she says he owes her a night out at a favorite restaurant.

This girl knows how to milk a birthday.

An increasingly favorite pastime -- selfies.

I've always preferred rice crispy treats to birthday cake.  Sophie prefers donuts.  I picked these up at Beyond the Glaze -- maple with bacon, s'mores, cookies and cream and chocolate strawberry.  Yum!

"Happy Birthday to you"

A pair of Big Joe's under the loft bed

What a lovely girl.  I am blessed to be her mom.

Filling the Hole

It was important to Brian to widen the driveway.  I had less expensive ideas about how to do it, but Brian really wanted it to be done right. Once the giant hole was created, there wasn't much we could do but press forward until it was filled.

Cement trucks arrived this morning at 6 a.m.

Cold storage room inside the house was poured today.

This is the part of the basement that we previously had poured about a month ago.  Today, we poured a vertical wall that will separate it from the dirt crawlspace.

Here is a view taken from the window looking toward the opening to the cold storage.

The driveway.  Oh, the driveway.

I hope someday soon we will buy something more exciting than cement.  We have now had FIVE giant trucks full of cement delivered to our house (two last year when we poured a large patio out back and three for this project).  Can we please be done with cement?

Jordan and Isaac had the time of their lives watching it all happen.

Brian keeps saying how happy he is to have the driveway in --  his dream since we bought the house apparently.  Maybe the driveway is to me what the new bed was to him a few years ago.  I wanted a really expensive bed that was super comfortable and he was like, "Meh.  I can sleep anywhere."  I got the bed, he gets the driveway.

Life Gets Busier

Sometimes I wonder how the people I am surrounded by influence my decisions and shape my world view.

When it comes to extracurricular activities for the kids, I've always believed in moderation.  When my kids were very small, I wanted them to experience many things so that they could figure out what they like.  As they have grown up, I've been a little more reserved about starting Katie and Isaac into sports or lessons as early as I started Sophie and Ian because I've started to figure out that it takes a lot of time and effort to get everyone where they need to be.

What can I say?  When I was new at being a mom I was excited to experience it all -- the Saturday soccer games, the dance recitals, piano lessons . . . Now, I know my kids have plenty of time to do all of these things without starting when they are three.

I allowed them to experience many things, but not all at the same time.  One of my closest friends ran her kids around to a minimum of five extra curricular activities each (times three kids -- they had more than twenty activities going at one time when the oldest was eight years old).   To me, that seemed extreme and I knew I did not want to keep up that kind of schedule for me or my kids.  Although, for the record, I see her kids growing into extremely talented, lovely individuals, so maybe running kids to every activity you can think of is the right way.  I don't know.

Moderation is what feels right to me.  I want my kids to have opportunities.  But, I don't want to be so wrapped up in shuttling them from one place to another that we no longer have any down time.  I feel like down time is important for kids and for families.

Soccer is a big deal for a lot of the families I know.  When Sophie turned four, I did what felt natural in my environment and signed her up for AYSO.  The next year, when she was five and Ian was four, I signed them both up.  But, they cried and protested until I got my money back and decided to bag it that year.

We tried other things.  There was baseball and basketball and gymnastics and ice-skating lessons.  Sophie tried many forms of dance until she figured out hip-hop is her favorite (ballet is her least favorite).  There were piano lessons and hikes and book club meetings with other young friends.  We explored kid friendly destinations and festivals from one end of Ogden to the other.

As the kids got older, scouts and activity days and young men and young women activities naturally became a part of their lives.

Dance and drama have stuck for Sophie.  Piano stuck right away for Ian.  He has kept at basketball because he says he feels like he should (because he is tall).  A year and a half ago, we came full circle back to AYSO when I signed up Ian and Isaac for their first season.

I joked that my procrastination had paid off because Ian, starting so late in life at the ripe age of almost eleven, was pretty good.  He had spent many recesses learning moves from his soccer playing friends who joined comp teams long ago.

Both of my boys played on AYSO teams last year, and this past fall, they began a second season.  The seven weeks of practices and Saturday games ended when October ended and for the first time in our lives we were introduced to indoor soccer.  I signed them both up for a seven week session.  When it ended, we were invited to sign up for another, which we did.  I guess we've had about 20 straight weeks of soccer and counting.

The second session of indoor soccer overlapped with Jr. Jazz (Ogden city) basketball.  Ian's coach was pretty serious and had them practicing 5-6 hours per week.  Suddenly, he has practices for two hours, three nights a week, plus a piano lesson (and one hour per day of practicing), plus a soccer game and a basketball game every Saturday.  He also turned twelve and moved up from cub scouts to regular scouts and young men's.  Suddenly, it's crazy!

Jr. Jazz ended, but his coach invited him to play comp.  I agreed because all of the games are in Ogden, but the rigorous practice schedule will continue.  Indoor soccer is winding down, but the AYSO spring season is just about to start.

In the midst of all this, he wants to try out for comp soccer (his first love when it comes to sports) to begin in the fall so he can improve more rapidly.  I hear all of these stories of moms driving their kids to Logan and Provo on any given Saturday for comp soccer games or even St. George or Nevada for tournaments.  So many families I know spend Thanksgiving at a restaurant every year so their kids can play in a St. George soccer tournament over the break.

This feels a extreme to me.  But, it also feels like everyone is doing it -- so, what is my problem!  I'm not talking about the one crazy mom who enrolls her three kids in twenty different activities at one time (crazy, but I love her).  When I talked this over with Brian, he agreed.  He also feels like everyone we know enrolls their kids in comp soccer.

Switching gears, I would like to tell a story of a fellow in-home licensed child care provider who I met with last week.  She is an amazing individual full of patience and peace.  She has six kids of her own, similar in ages to my kids.  She watches five more kids every day before and after school.  The money is really good and it got me thinking, "Maybe I should do something like that."

But, then I started thinking about the crazy time we have trying to get our four kids out the door for school each morning.  I tried to envision what our mornings would look like trying to feed eleven kids breakfast and get them out the door.  Can you imagine?  My hat is off to her for sure.

She keeps them until 6 p.m. every night.  I said, "How do you do that?  Right when the kids I watch go home at 4:30, I hit the ground running to shuttle everyone to their practices and games."  She said, "We have never enrolled our kids in sports or lessons."

That statement has been simmering in the back of my mind ever since.  It was like a weird wake up call that said, "Not everyone enrolls their kids in multiple extra curricular activities."  My belief system up until that moment was that this is the way things are in 2015.  Times are different from when we were kids.  The new generation wears helmets and seatbelts and braces and, by golly, they can't roam the neighborhood until the sun sets, so they are enrolled in activities to make up for it.

I started to imagine that all of my friends were like this friend.  What if I were surrounded by people who did not enroll their children in extra curricular activities?

I think for me, who I am in my core, I would have still enrolled them in piano and tried a bunch of different sports and activities.  I was truly excited to watch them try all of these things and I have enjoyed the journey for the most part.  But, I don't think I would be feeling pressured, like I do right now, to take everything up a notch and put Ian on comp teams that travel, practice multiple times each week and cost lots of money.

I think it feels right to me to keep things how they are and not add any more crazy to our lives.

Then, I was talking to another friend.  Two of her four are almost completely grown.  She said, "Just do comp soccer and enjoy it.  I'm already starting to see how much I'm going to miss it."

Really?

You will miss all the driving and all of the hours?

Yes, really, she said.  She talked about the friendships she has formed with other parents and the joy her kids have gotten from participating.

Maybe it is like some aspects of parenting where it is easier to quantify the challenges than to describe the joys.

I don't know.

Maybe we just keep doing it until we start to hate it and then we stop.

Little Helpers

Brian and his dad worked on getting the driveway ready all day yesterday.  It was ironic because this is one job we decided to hire out.  When the job gets bigger than anyone expected and time is a premium, what are you going to do?

In the afternoon, the contractors who are working on it showed up to keep at it until after 9 p.m.

I had to take Sophie to dance class and Ian to his piano lesson.  When I drove up our street at about 6 p.m., I saw a flurry of activity and thought it was Brian, his dad and the two contractors.  But, when I got closer, I saw it was this:

All of these tiny little helpers were working their hearts out.  Is that the cutest thing you ever saw?  Katie had a pink sandbox shovel and was working away with the boys.  This is how we roll here at our house!

The Driveway

Brian got home yesterday, one day ahead of schedule.  We are so happy to have him back home!  Here is what I thought he might be doing this morning after three weeks of non-stop work:

Some of the crossword puzzles I saved from the newspapers while he was gone.

Instead, he is outside doing this:

Trying to get our driveway ready to be re-poured with the help of his dad.

I think he likes his work better anytime he gets to use a giant digger like this one.  

Here is the story of our driveway.  Brian has never cared for driveways that start as a single driveway at the road and widen to a double wide driveway at the garage.  That is the way our driveway was when we bought the house.  It turns out that widening the approach is more complicated than other jobs, since it is city property.

Now that we are pouring cement in the basement, he figured it was the perfect time to go ahead and widen the approach to the driveway at the same time.  We found a contractor who is licensed with the city to do the work.  He showed up Saturday to tear out the approach.  He made a cut into what he assumed was a standard 4" thick driveway and began to pull.  But, the whole lower slab of our driveway cracked and came out and we discovered we have been living with a sweet 7" thick driveway all this time.  Who knew?

Here is the impressive pile of cement we ended up with when all was said and done.

Here is the massive dirt pit where we are preparing to pour a new driveway.

This is another view from the garage.  It was suppose to be a smallish strip -- you can see the width from the old driveway over to where Katie is sitting -- and a new approach.  Now it's going to be a little bit more.

The weather is nice, my husband is home, the kids are happy about that, and we are getting ready to re-pour the driveway.  Honestly, I wish we were using all that money to go to Disneyland.  But, I suppose it will be nice when it is finished.

Seventeen Days

It has been seventeen days since Brian left.  Rumor has it that he will come home for a visit in eight more days.  We miss him terribly.  But, here are some of the adventures we have had since he's been gone:

Last night, my mom and I took the kids to see a lovely performance of The Addams Family at Weber High School after having dinner at Pizza Pie Cafe.

Friday night, I took the kids ice skating at the South Davis Recreation Center.  All of the kids are good at and enjoy ice skating.  I can't believe what a natural Katie is!  It's nice to find things the whole family can enjoy.

Isaac posing on his ice-skates.

Ian, of course, loved speed and perfecting his form.

I barely got him to stand still for this picture.

I didn't get a picture of Sophie on ice-skates (just video).  Here is a photo of her in a beautiful dress we picked out together on a shopping excursion recently.  She will be fourteen this week!  My beautiful grown-up daughter. 

Here is a selfie she took while we enjoyed a dessert at Cobbler Cove in Station Park -- one of her favorite places!  I love spending one on one time with my girl.

I don't usually take selfies.  With Brian gone, I've taken a couple so he doesn't forget what I look like.  This was me the night we went ice-skating.

This was me on a day when it snowed recently.  The humidity made my hair voluminous and curly.  I didn't do anything to it!  I don't like to smile in selfies because the camera malfunctions and makes my face look old and wrinkly.  It's weird and inexplicable.

This cute girl and I had a date at the Treehouse last week.  I love 1/2 day Kindergarten.  I wish she didn't have to go to all day school next year.  Time passes too quickly.

She made this love note for me.

And, here we are enjoying each others company.  She makes a lot of drawings of us smiling together like this.  It melts my heart.

My mom brought this cute pony shirt back from San Diego.  The pony has sparkly hair that matches Katie's sparkly shoes.  This daughter loves fashion.

We went shopping together and found this outfit that matches her leopard print shoes.  But, really, those shoes go with everything - I do mean everything!  (See the above photo taken at The Treehouse for reference).  She made me take this picture of her posing by a dragon statue when we picked up Chinese take-out one night.

This guy is so tall!  He is approaching 5'9".  These are the new church clothes I bought him from the men's department.  All of his shoes are men's size 11 now.  Except for his new basketball shoes . . . they are men's size 12 (gasp!).

We have had a couple of days of snow.  None of it has stuck around requiring shoveling.  On this day, it snowed, hailed, showered ice.  It didn't stick too much but did accumulate enough on our trampoline to provide hours of fun.

Some mornings, I wake up to this without Brian here to back me up.  Oh boy!

In other news, my mom's best friend is having health problems and I feel sad and helpless about this.  They have been inseparable BFFs since we moved to Utah thirty years ago.  In situations like that, you wish there was something you could do, but usually there isn't.  My mom's best friend frequently cares for her three year old granddaughter and this is more difficult with her health issues.  So, I said, bring that cute girl to me.  And, they did.  We had a great weekend entertaining Skyleigh.  Katie cried when she had to go home.  She loved pretending to be a big sister.  They looked adorable with their matching blonde hair and blue eyes paling around together.  I hope my mom's friend recovers soon.  In the meantime, maybe we will get more Skyleigh time.

It turns out that there were several awesome basketball teams in Ian's age bracket for Junior Jazz this year.  His team has played so awesome.  Because they are so good, his coach has set up three practices per week instead of one to help them realize their full potential.  They lost one game a few weeks ago to a team that was clearly a challenge to beat.

Yesterday was another difficult loss.  They were missing one of their best players and the other team had a player that scored NINE three-pointers!?  What?  What kind of twelve-year-old makes nine out of eleven shots from that distance?  All of the parents were talking about how impressive it was.  If those had only been regular shots instead of three-pointers, they would have only lost by two points instead of eleven.  I still think they could take this team in the play-offs.

Ian woke up early to play a 6:30 a.m. indoor soccer game.  They won!  They have been on a winning streak!  The basketball game was immediately after at 8 a.m.  He took the loss pretty hard.  But, then I bought him the brightest orange basketball shoes I've ever seen and I think it helped cheer him up.  

Life is busy and life is good.  We will all be happy when Brian is back home.  He won't be done with the job for a few more months.  When he is, we will all be grateful for the extra money to keep working on our basement.  Looking forward to a theater room and a new storage room!