Back to School

Oh man we all were ready for today. The lack of routine over the last month did us all in. The kids left this morning for school and I forgot how much I enjoy Dexter when his big siblings aren't around to annoy him.

Piper I know this is going to be a great year for you. You have an awesome teacher and classmates. 

 Ashman I hope this is your year. Your year to gain confidence in your abilities and to really love to learn.

Piper turned 6....two months ago

I missed talking about Piper's birthday. Piper you are 6. You are my sweet girly little one. You have such a heart for others and are definitely the peacemaker of the family. You are filled with the perfect combination of spunk and kindness. The opinions you have are strong, and I love what are daredevil you have become. Kindergarten was a great fit for you last year. You did so well and grew a lot. I loved watching you with your friends. I can't wait to see you rock first grade.

To celebrate your birthday we went out to lunch with your favorite pals and went to see a movie. There was a lot of giggles and shrieks and you loved the day.

My sweet Piper, you are one of my greatest gifts.

Randomness

Thank you for all the comments and encouragement. Things have been a bit challenging lately and it really made my heart happy to read so many kind words. I mentioned yesterday that I am working quite a bit. For as long as I can remember I have always enjoyed working. I started babysitting when I was 12 and worked a lot through high school and college. In high school we read about the puritan work ethic. It's long and I don't remember most of it. What has stayed with me is this "work is a gift from God and a means to glorify him". I've had some really awesome jobs, and times where I couldn't believe I was actually getting paid to work. Other times it was hard, really really hard. In college I worked in a group home for men with developmental disabilities. I had to wash them, and take care of their most basic needs. It was tiring and so many times it seemed I was in a hopeless environment. Even there I had to remind myself that work is a gift. 

I need to remind myself right now that work is a gift. A year ago I turned my tutoring into an actual business. My mom stayed at home with us when we were little and that was something I really wanted to do. I had no idea how hard it would be. For years now when people ask me what I do, I reply that I stay at home with my kids. I am quick to also interject that I tutor. I feel like being a mother isn't enough. Pouring into my kids and molding them seems trite. It has been a hard learning process to see the value in what I am doing. Tutoring has been a perfect fit for this season of my life. I do get to be with my kids, but I also get to work with something I love. 

A few months ago while I was in San Francisco I interviewed for a job. It's a company that helps facilitate people who have solar panels getting paid for their excess energy. The position is completely at home and very flexible. It's a great job and I am really loving it. Around the same time Leah opened up a photography studio. I can barely take an in-focus picture and have no real desire to learn any more. However, I have started working with her. The studio space is incredible and we both have big big visions for what this studio can do. I've started as the party planner, and it is slowly evolving into more. Working with Leah is a gift. It is so much fun to work together.

I feel like I had a good handle on juggling it all until Nate's work schedule became crazy. He started working 12 hour days and I feel as though I'm barley surviving. It's hard to fit working 30 hours on top of taking care of the kids and the house in. I am naively optimistic that school starting will help things. 

This is a picture of Emmy at the studio. It's her favorite spot.

 We got season passes to Busch Gardens and I have a feeling it will be an annual thing. The kids love going there.

 Every kid needs a bike helmet when they are helping with yard work.

 Jada and Bennett did laser tag for their birthdays. I loved seeing Pipes with a big gun.

 Dexter and I are both excited for preschool to start soon. He misses his friends.

Back to Blogging???

So you may have noticed that I haven't blogged in a while. Yesterday Nate asked what my plan was, and I told him I was shutting it down. Thanks to the caffeine I had at dinner last night and a really odd dream I was awake around 2 am. I was thinking about my to-do list today and shutting this down.  I started it right after Piper was born as a way to document our lives (much easier than scrapbooking). This last year I stopped loving it, and it became a chore. I also felt that no one reads it, and it made me grouchy. I started working about 30 hours a week recently and this just seemed like one more thing on my endless list of things I didn't really want to do. Last night as I was thinking about it I remembered why I started it. So often I feel like I've failed at the end of the day. I remember the hard moments. This gives me a reminder that I didn't fail all the time, that my kids didn't spend the entire day fighting and crying. Even if no one reads my words, it's ok. This was for me anyway. So I think I'm going to keep it. I need to be able to look back on the good moments. This will be something I hope my kids will look back at someday.

At the beginning of the summer we went to the botanical gardens again. We all love it there. The paths and wide open spaces give the kids plenty of places to run. It's just beautiful there.

Piper really wanted a picture of us with the roses, since that is both of our middle names. 

 This guy, he is giving me a run for my money these days.

 Pipes is definitely our most fearless one.

 Little Emmy Lu. She has a nickname at the Y these days - The Tyrant. It's her way or the highway. She wants to dictate what everyone is doing. I tried to explain that she is the fourth child, and is supposed to be easy going. She didn't get the message.

 Asher is still well Asher. We started running again this week and I love the conversations we have. We hope to do two more 5ks in the fall.

 Nate adores this one. I think the feeling is mutual.

I'm going to try to be more consistent and maybe use my voice a bit more.