Georgetown

No school equals exploring with Mom.  We definitely knocked one of the bucket list when we went to Georgetown and ate at DC cupcakes.  The best part was...NO LINE!!!

Zach was a fan

Really we were all fans.

We walked and explored Georgetown for a while and then went down to the river and had a lot of fun just playing around.

There was a really neat Zen and relaxation maze.  Not so Zen for us, the kids had fun running it and timing to see who could get the fastest time.

I even got in on the fun...and yes, some of my children did get a faster time then I did.  

There was a really neat notebook attached to one of the benches that was full of signatures.  They each added their own.

I love this picture because it captures McKenn'a extremely unique way of holding her pencil.  We tried and tried when she was younger to change her grip on a pencil to no avail.  I have no idea how she can write like this.

A weekend of 10

We doubled the size of our family for three days going from 5 kids to 10!  Some friends of ours were going on a trip out west and asked if we'd watch their kids.  Knowing Bret, the master of entertainment, was going to be around to help it was an easy yes.  Not to mention these are really great kids and made the whole thing so easy.  I was in charge of food, and he was in charge of all the fun.  We did a couple of movie nights, played all the arcade games at Chucky Cheese, and went and had a fun picnic at Great Falls.  

October Recap

Just a few little things from October...

Abby captured a moment from a rare weekday evening with no practices or lessons...we all loved the chance to relax and read a good book.

Have I mentioned that I have the most amazing sunrises out my kitchen window.  I love that as we're hustling and bustling on busy school mornings someone will ooh and aah and we'll all drop everything to enjoy the majestic beauty before us.  Grateful I have kids were notice and appreciate such beauty.

Abby got braces.

Before...

During...

After...

I couldn't send her back to school without taking her to lunch.  Man alive I am so grateful for this amazing daughter of mine.  

Gavin loves doing extra chores to earn money for a family trip we are saving for, he's got a pretty good little helper/sidekick there too.

McKenna made a pretty amazing layers of the earth project

I love watching this big boy of mine sleep.  Notice he is a three binky sleeper...one for mouth and one for each hand.

McKenna ran for student body president.  She made it past her class level and ran again 6 other students for a school wide election.  She even had to record a little speech that was shown to the entire school where she changed some of the words to a Taylor Swift song and sang it.  She is so AWESOME!  She didn't win, but I couldn't be more proud of her.  (It's hard to compete against a boy that promises kids can bring their electronics to school so they can play mine craft during lunch and recess.)

Family movie nights usually look like this for me.  The fact that Bret captured this makes me happy.  I love snuggling with my little boys.

Gavin was student of the week and was pleased as punch about his poster.

Abby's school volleyball season came to an end.

Gavin's soccer season ended and he sure loved his medal!

We met the Evans one morning for breakfast in Culpepper.  These are horrible blurry iPhone pictures but the two of these guys together again just makes me happy!

Gratitude Experiment: The Results

No, my house did not turn into one of those hoarder households (although it did feel as if it came close).

No, my house did not burn down.

I went into our finial day really wondering what the results of this little experiment were really going to be.  Were we going to see the results that we were hoping to?  We these kids just fine with living with such mess and filth?

When Abby got home from school we gathered everyone together and had a family meeting.  Bret had all the kids close their eyes and imagine a world without their mother.  He asked questions like, "What would you miss?  What would be different?  What would things look like?"  Everyone started laughing at that one and Bret said, "Oh wait, you don't have to imagine that one, look around!"

We had a great family discussion about the week and how everyone was feeling.  We talked about how the spirit in our home was affected.  We talked about how it had come to the point where no one even wanted to be inside anymore.  The kids would come home from school and either go to their rooms or go outside.   We talked about how everyone really missed family dinner and sitting around the table together.

He told the kids that we had been seeing a real lack of gratitude in our home and that my "vacation" was really a gratitude experiment.  Bret expressed to them how lucky they are to have the mother that they do and that 99% of the children in the world don't have a mother that does for them all that their mother does.  (I wouldn't go that far, but he did.)    It meant to much to me to hear him express these things to the kids.

After about 20 minutes of talking and discussing the week, we all rolled up our sleeves and got to work.  An hour and half later we sat down around the dinner table in a clean kitchen and enjoyed a wonderful warm delicious meal together.  Everyone was saying how wonderful things felt, how nice it was to eat good food, how great it was to be together.

The real test was going to be in the weeks that followed.  Where we going to be able to notice a difference?

I am so happy to report that there indeed has been a stark difference.  I feel as if they have grateful hearts.  They are quick to help out.  They are quick to show appreciation in the words that they say and the deeds that they do.

I know this will be a lesson that they will never forget, partly because they want to make sure it never happens again! :)

Gratitude Experiment: Day 3

Day three has completely and utterly put me over the top.

So much so that this morning I left to go to Costco just so I didn't need to stay home.  During Grayson's nap I stayed in my nice clean bedroom, changed the sheets, worked on my primary lesson and read.  All was wonderful as long as I didn't have to go down stairs!

Nothing super noteworthy happened today.  The girls remembered to set their morning alarm, I even got to sleep in till 7:30 and everyone was up happy when I walked them to the bus stop.  Gavin keeps asking what I'm making for dinner.  The kids came home and either stayed outside and played or read on our deck or were up in their bedrooms.  I guess they don't like being around the mess either!  However, still not one person who lifted a finger to clean anything.  (Remember that we are giving Abby a pass this week.  She was in on the experiment and it was driving her just as crazy as it was driving me, but I wouldn't let her do anything.)

Zachary again made dinner, German pancakes, one of his very favorites.

Fruit flies are swarming, the smell is really gross, and I feel like I live in one of those hoarder households.  It's disgusting.  Tomorrow afternoon can't come soon enough!  If we didn't have such a busy night tonight I would have ended my so called vacation today.  What is really mind boggling to me is that my kids really do know how to clean, and they clean well.  They have daily chores they always do (except this week obviously) and a huge list of Saturday chores that they do really well without complaint.  They know how to clean.  They know how to work.  I don't know what is going through their heads.

I am really swallowing my pride when I post these pictures.

 Let me just do a little inventory of what's on my kitchen table: plate and silverware, syrup, homework, the lid to the flour container which happens to be on the island, coloring pages, markers, pencils, toothpaste that is broken along the seam and has toothpaste oozing out of it (I have no idea why that is even downstairs to begin with), a backpack, lunchbox, school papers, a game, a pair of scissors, and a brush (hidden behind the lunch box).  SERIOUSLY?

 Notice the celery STILL on the island!  Now it has been joined by peanut butter, jam, bread, flour and who knows what else under all that.