Friday

It's Friday.  How did I celebrate the end of the week?  I actually got up this am at 5, donned my swimsuit, parka and bright orange crocs.  I then nuked some water for tea, kissed my husband grudgingly goodbye, laughed at my littlest crashed on the crib mattress at the foot of our bed and blury-eyed headed out the door.  I climbed into the truck and blinked-the temp read 32 degrees!  What on earth was I doing leaving my warm very comfy bed behind?  

The workout went well about 28oo yards.  Coach complimented me on my kick and critiqued my head position in freestyle.  I really need to move up to the masters group but honestly that group is hard core and rather intimidating!  

Tonight I get to coach the final practice of Bible Quiz for AWANA.  Dine on pizza and root beer floats like I was 10 years old again.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Eleven

Happy Birthday to my sweet Hannah.  Little sister, big sister, Girl Scout, animal lover.

Please Pray

John's sister Lauren is pregnant with quadruplets.  Baby A's sac ruptured a few days ago.  Everyone is stable but we are asking for prayers for Lauren and Josh and Babies ABCD.  She is on permanent hospital bedrest until delivery, which we are praying doesn't happen for a least 2 months.  A link to her blog is in the sidebar.

Thanks

Date Night

Last night we had some awesome friends offer to watch our brood while we headed out for a date night.  Since John was plunking down some change for a nice night out I got gussied up including makeup and curling my hair!  He took me to Fogo de Chao.  It was fabulous!  We should have skipped the salad bar.  The gauchos just kept bringing meat and more meat and more meat!  The service was impeccable  and we had a wonderful time. Plus they serve a wonderful creme brulee, y favorite.  We were home around 8 and scooped the kids up and came home.

He is READING officially

reading signs in Shenendoah National Park

Mean Mom and a new routine

My two oldest girls have a semi standing playdate every Wednesday with another homeschooler.  I call it semi standing because my girls have fallen into the category of expecting recreation without putting in school time.  In the past I have caved so as not to disappoint the friend.  Not so anymore I cancelled it today.  I think just maybe my girls got it.  You see they worked very diligently today.  However they had not the past two days so there was some ground to be made up.  I didn't budge.  Work wasn't done by 4 no playdate.  Now before you go saying I am wrecking my children's social outlet they had kids here tonight for a weekly gathering (otherwise known as babysitting).

I am hoping this is a turning point for the kids to see that I was serious and actually followed through.

Our new evening routine is working out well.  After spending 4 weeks leading up to Christmas reading Jotham's Journey every night before bed (kids called it Jammies for Jotham), John and I decided to keep it up.  We are currently reading The Witch of Blackbird Pond, a read-aloud that we fell behind on in Ian's American History Core.  The girls have heard it before and the littles could care less but it is family time.  The kids willingly get jammies on.  Tonight they sorted socks while I read :)  For us it is good ole fashioned family time.  All 7 of us in one room for about 20 minutes with the only technology being the light bulbs.  Our next book will be another American History favorite Johnny Tremain.  I love that they love to listen and want to still be read to.  We even get the occasional good natured fighting over who gets to sit next to mom or dad.

6 more months

I forgot I hadn't updated here on blogger about Avery's orthopedic appointment.  She had x-rays taken of her right leg (two different shots) and then a standing x-ray from the hips down.  All x-rays showed no significant change in tumor size, limb length discrepency, or leg angulation.  All of this is great news.  And all it really means is we will go back in 6 months for another knee x-ray.  The standing x-ray will be done once a year or as needed.  Avery of course charmed the x-ray tech out of 2 stickers which she put on the back of her MHE journal I made, she also finagled a sucker on her way out.  She then acted like an only child with both John and I's complete attention as we walked over to Starbucks.  She then proudly ordered a tall vanilla cream (after her daddy tried to explain economics to her, with your $5 gift card you could either get 4 hot cocoas or 2 vanilla creams) and used her gift card.  She earned a free tall drink on her receipt by just having her mom fill out an online survery.  So she managed to get 3 vanilla creams out of that card as opposed to 4 hot cocoas!  She wouldn't share with either of us.

So in 6 months we will return.  Until then we forget and live life :)