A new quoteable courtesy of The Man!

I love my "Man".  He really is The Man.  He has a super big heart.  Wants everyone to be happy. 

He has a creative, artistic streak that makes me look at the world differently and smile. 

So when I was getting ready for church and cruised through the living room, I stopped to ask him what he needed to do to be ready himself. 

He launched into an explanation about his outfit.  He is a clothing expert.  He has an opinion on colors, fabrics, textures, and designs.  Honestly, he has really good taste. 

So when he proceeded to tell me, "This is the only shirt that goes with these shorts." I was really proud of my ability to stay straight face and proceed into a normal conversation.  I honestly have to credit God with my composure.  His heart is so big, he genuinely was serious, I didn't want to hurt or frustrate him.  But I was truly in awe that he really thought these two items went together!

I explained he need to wear nice jeans or khakis...shorts or pants.  Not athletic shorts.  Pulled a pair out of the laundry not quite folded, but perfect for church.  I didn't snicker, didn't laugh and didn't try to correct him.  I did ask him if I could take his picture. 

 

Later, I would learn from Hockey Player, he only pulled his jeans on over his perfect shorts.  I definitely need to pull out the totes to help him find the perfect shirt for his perfect shorts. 

 

Little Princess makes me smile.....

Sometimes, I look through files on my phone to clean up extras no longer needed.  Pictures of register amounts for recording later.  Photos of clothes taken and texted to see if I should get or not...
You know just routine maintenance.  Then there are photos like these taken by my beloved children and I can only smile.....

You can't take the boy out of the man!

Hockey Player is 13.  He is growing up.  Just a inch or two shy of being almost or taller than dad.  Looks us in the eyes these days.  If I am barefoot and he is not, I am quickly reminded how short I am becoming.  He has tryouts coming up in a month or so.  His stick broke at the end of the season. 
He doesn't nag.  Daddy O reminds me often.  So finally I sat down with Hockey Player. 

We looked online.  He took me to Hockey Monkey and showed me the sticks he wanted.  I took a chance and went to Ebates and discovered Hockey Monkey was affiliated with them.  Joy of all joys!!  Not only did we discover his preferred sticks clearance, we scored 3% back on Ebates!!  So excited, I was quick to call and Facebook moms of his teammates. 

But that is not what this post is about.  I order online, but not a WHOLE bunch.  Though it is increasing in this season of life.  A huge package showed up at the door.  I kept hollering for Hockey Player to come.  He is entering this season of life where he can be slow to respond to mom.  He is starting to think for himself.  He tries to interpret my calls to determine if he wants to/should actually come.  It is really annoying.  So this particular day, he wouldn't come.  Not with all the cheering and cajoling of his sibs.  They even told him what they had...now guaranteed he might now have heard all the way in the depths of the basement.  But guaranteed he heard some sort of rumble and knew something was up.  Soooo, I yelled down to him, if he didn't get upstairs I was gonna stop the truck as it turned around and drove back by and send the package back with. 

He showed up! And he did this when I suggested returning his box.....

And I realized he is still my "little" guy at heart.  Especially when it comes to his "toys".  

 

He doesn't look all that happy, but that is Hockey Player.  He was posing.

Then Fun Girl got in there with him and they started measuring where they might need to cut the stick. (Aunt Shell, please note:  He is taller than Fun Girl!)

Trying to get a picture and this is what I got.  They were being silly.  However, this is a classic look.  For whatever reason, I seem to capture this expression a lot on film.  It is definitely not the one I am trying to capture!

This is what I wanted to see! 
Success!!!!!

 

 

 

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Seeing with New Eyes

Little Princess took the plunge.  Contacts for her !  She is growing up.  With my oldest girl, I have dragged my feet along the way.  Not wanting to rush things.  Plus I knew as she grew up the youngers would grow up a tad faster with all the newness being introduced along the way.  It has, also, been exciting to experience the firsts with my oldest.  I have worried back in my mind, that when it was my Little Princess' turn to do these firsts for her, my enthusiasm would be less.  It is different. It is still fun!  My experience with Fun Girl, has left me more experienced and yet excited in a new way... "I have a secret" excited!  I know what is coming, I am excited for her and can't wait to see her experience it.  Just as she is seeing the world with "new eyes", so am I.  I am so happy to be Mom to this beautiful young lady!

Easter 2013 ~

We did Easter a bit different this year. 

Hubby and I talked to the Easter Bunny and asked for something a bit different~

Baskets! 

 

Normally, there is a chocolate bunny and jelly beans on the table for each kiddo..

 

The Easter Bunny always comes while we are at church.

 

Starting when we had just one wee one,

Easter Bunny would always leave spring/summer fun behind

instead of candy.

Sidewalk chalk

Bubbles

Water balloons

Pool toys

 

He decided to fill baskets/buckets for the kids.

He respected my desire for just a "little" candy.

 

Each bucket had favorite snacks...

Cheez-its,
Pringles,
personal favorite sweets
Oreos,

the required Chocolate Bunny,
a couple of the kiddos received sidewalk chalk tattoos,

and they all received
Water Balloons!


 

Now I know only 4 children are pictured. 

 And if you are a very observant aunt, this might bother you...

Hockey Player was not left out.

He was working at the church nursery this Sunday while we were at home getting ready

for the big day with Hubby's family. 

We picked him up and joined the family celebration and protected his bucket till we could

present it to him.

 

Part 2 of Early Easter Fun ~ Dying the Eggs

Two days after blowing the eggs, I needed some peace and quiet.  I had the kids prep the table with newspaper.  I looked online how to dye Easter eggs, the "old-fashioned" way.  Old-fashioned in that I remembered doing it with food coloring and vinegar when I was a kid.  I don't ever remember using a kit.  I wing a lot of things, but I wanted some peace and quiet and needed to make sure it would work. 
So we made up the colors and I set them to work. 
Who knew that my younger 3 would entertain themselves for over an hour? How many eggs did they dye??  TWO EACH! 
They knew they needed 2 for each of the 2 older sibs not there at the moment.  I never know when a project will elicit the response, "But I want to do it..."  They are just at that age.  They loved blowing the egg goo out of the shelves.  They did oblige the youngers and offer their eggs up to their younger sibs to explore more creativity. 
Even though I enjoyed the quiet very much, I had to snap a couple of pictures to capture the moment. 

Fun Girl ~ Puzzle Master

On one of our weekly adventures, Fun Girl decides to take on the challenge.

 Now the picture below is the finished product.

But the instructions are just above the puzzle.

Scramble Squares

 

The Challenge:

 

So she didn't finish the puzzle in 5 minutes.
It took her 45 minutes with breaks here and there to quell the frustration building.

I joined her the last 5 minutes or so.

She had an awesome understanding of the puzzle and what needed to be accomplished to finish it off.

In that last 5 minutes, she did it! 

I have tried this puzzle and never did reach the level of understanding she had to accomplish her goal.

Awesome ~ ness !!!

 



 



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Essential oils ~ Essential reference

So I really love, love this book !



I like instructions.  I like guidelines.  I am learning to cope a little better without them.  I am growing in this area of my life.  But please, oh please, don't hand me a blank piece of paper and tell me to draw.  I want you to tell me a theme, a concept, something, anything, just so I "won't get it wrong!"  So when I entered the arena of essential oils, there are these little bottles filled with this wonderous and amazing liquid but no "instructions". This little books is great!  It has ideas.  It has research data.  It has all sorts of really awesome information.  Reflex/Vita Flex point charts.  Massage instructions.  Bible references.  Charts. Graphs.  Historical data.  I love this little book.  My older kiddos do to, especially Fun Girl.

It is an expensive book, but well worth the investment.  It is available in app form.  But as of right now, I really like having something in my hands.  It brings me joy to see my kids looking up things and showing an interest in reading and researching something on their own.  If I had the app, well they might want my phone at really inconvenient times.   




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Early Easter Fun!

Being slowed down has sometimes left me feeling like "less" than a mom.  I rest a lot and haven't been able to do all the mom things I used to do.  However, there are moments that are truly "INSPIRED" by God.  Like the Thursday before Easter.  Feeling like I kind of have let the kids down and not feeling too holiday like, I came upon some magazines that were sitting around waiting to be read.  INSPIRED.  Headed home with The Man and announced we were going to blow eggs.  He knew what I was talking about.  He was interested and excited to give it a try.

 

He was Awesome at the task!

 

He finished 2 eggs before I had one half way done. 
He had my half way egg done about the time I got part way into a new one and broke the shell blowing!

3 for my 1 broken. 

He has discovered a new talent.

 

Then the rest of the kids arrived home and
wanted to give it a try.....

 

Fun Girl had great success and did a couple.

Fun Girl worked hard like I did.
She succeeded in her mother's footsteps and blew so hard
she broke her egg too.
She tried another egg and succumbed to the lack of oxygen.

 

 

Hockey Player felt the need to share
his fashion skills with hair accessories
and his sense of humor.



 

And then he decided to prove he was as full of hot air as The Man.

 

Honestly, I don't know what happened to a picture of Dad's Bud. 

 

We ended up with enough eggs to make "Breakfast" burritos for lunch

and

enough eggs for each of the kids to dye a couple of eggs each the next day.

Dad's Bud ~ New things all the time

Dad's Bud and Daddy O are in Cub Scouts together.  His latest project was to build this plane. 

 

His aunts need to see pictures of his latest project.  He did such an awesome job.  I am so proud of his efforts to try new things and persevere through new challenges.