Odds and Ends

There really hasn't been anything big that has happened around here, but there are a couple of odds and ends that are pretty fun:

-One of the boys at church  has a crush on Claire. He told her that he "loves" her and wants her to be his girlfriend and to marry her. His father, however, is a lobbyist for the Koch Brothers, so I don't really see this going anywhere.

-Yay! For the Broncos going to the Superbowl!!! We are very excited. I am trying to convince Ben that we should host a Superbowl party, but so far it's a non-starter. He does, however, already have an opinion about the food we should eat: 7-layer dip and chips.

-Ben continues to impress his bosses at work. He really is a computer genius. Of course, I don't have a clue what he does, but he seems to like it, so I guess that is what matters!

Hmmm????What else???? Like I said, we're boring. But, I like being boring. We're at a great place right now- here's hoping it continues!

This Girl.

If there is one word that fully describes Audra, it is this: Obedient. I don't know how, but she has been blessed with the gift of obedience. She did not get this from me, though she possibly got it from Ben because he is quite the rule follower as well.

Ever since she was a child, all you had to say was, "It's a rule" and Audra would do whatever you wanted/needed her to do. She doesn't argue with rules- ever. It is quite remarkable.

But, for all the seemingly wonderful pros, there are also cons.

Yesterday I took the girls to the elementary school after hours so they could play on the playground with some friends. It was pretty chilly, but the girls were having a great time playing with friends. But, all of a sudden I see Audra fall from the playground right on her belly- she basically belly flopped off the 4 foot high play structure. Very weird. She hasn't fallen off the playground since she was about 14 months old. She was trying hard not to cry, but I had her come over and gave her a kiss and hug and sent her on her merry way.

Then, not five minutes later, she did it again! Plop-right on her stomach. This time, I could tell she was really trying very hard to hold back the tears. She came over, and I hugged her and she started sobbing in pain- she had rally hurt her knee and wrist. Bewildered, I asked her what on earth was going on and how on earth she was just walking off and falling on her face.

Come to find out they were playing a new game that the school kids came up with: Tag, with this genius catch: You can only have your eyes open if you are on the ground. If you are on the playground, you have to have your eyes closed. I have deduced that Audra was the only one who actually kept this rule and never peeked, as she was the only one who kept falling off the playground.

I asked her if she ever thought this might be a bad idea. She admitted she did. We need to funnel her obedience gene into only obeying safe, appropriate items.

Like....Rock climbing!

Our local rec center has a rock climbing wall, and Audra LOVES it. And, she's great at it! I mean, really- she has a knack for it. She just scrambles up the wall like it's nothing.

There are 5 rock walls, progressing in difficulty. She easily and quickly did the first 4 before her arms got so tired she couldn't do any more. She's pretty much a rock star (pun intended).

A very obedient rock star.

Book Recommendations

I have been reading a lot of interesting books recently and thought I would pass them along.

Lies My Teacher Told Me: As a former history teacher (albeit in world, not American, history) I found this book fascinating- and wished I could go back and re-teach history. There are so many discussion points in this book: Christopher Columbus supporting a sex slave trade with 9 year old Indian girls, Thomas Jefferson refusing to free his slaves, while at the same time writing "all men are created equal," the FBI spying on MLK. He doesn't present all of these issues to vilify, but rather to present these men as humans who faced real moral issues and struggled with how to deal with them. Very thought provoking, a must read for any student of history. I am excited for when the girls are old enough to read this book so we can have deep, meaningful discussions about real issues that have plagued our country and yet have been glossed over by publishers seeking to avoid controversy.

Salt, Sugar, Fat: A scathing indictment of the food industry and why we all need to make better choices at the grocery store by avoiding processed food, cooking from scratch, and cutting salt, sugar, and fat from our diets. I feel like I do a pretty good job of cooking from scratch, but this book has me wanting to try harder.

The Explosive Child: This book has changed our household! It describes Claire to an absolute "T", and the tips it gives for dealing with this particular temperament have greatly helped us. Although, admittedly, one other thing has also helped. I have felt inspired that I really need to work on speaking kindly to others. I have really been trying to not lose my temper or raise my voice. That, along with this book, has changed everything in our home. Claire definitely still begins to have her massive tantrums, but 99% of the time we can stop them before they explode into full on fits. In fact, she hasn't had a full tantrum in weeks. That doesn't mean it's easy, but it does mean we are FINALLY starting to make head way in how to deal with our "explosive child."

For a much lighter read, Wildflower has been quite interesting. I am not quite finished, and I wouldn't exactly call Drew a literary master, but her life is definitely intriguing. How she came out pretty normal with a stable family she created is incredible. It goes to show that even if you have totally screwed up parents, you can turn out OK (which gives my kids hope).

So, there you go- some fun book options to help in your 2016 reading resolutions!

11 Years

Yesterday Ben and I celebrated ELEVEN years of marriage. Wow- that seems like a long time, and yet so short, too.

Don't we look like babies here? As Camille would say, "Daddy has hair!"

Could there really have been a time when Ben wasn't in my life? Of course, but that seems so surreal.

I really, really love being married to Ben. I love the life that we have created. We have been very purposeful in how we spend our time- making sure we put family dinners, game nights, and our faith as the highest priority. We try hard to not just be "taxi parents"- constantly driving our kids from one activity to the other.

Overall, I feel incredibly blessed. We have a great, albeit not perfect, life. But it is pretty perfect for me.

We celebrated our anniversary by dining at The Bonefish Grill. I had never been there before. It was delicious! We will definitely be going back!

Dress Up

One of Camille's new things is to go and put on a pair of shoes and say, "I'm mom" or whosever shoes she is wearing. It's very cute, but it does make a mess of our laundry room!

Triplets!

You can't read the sign, but it says "Triplets." Our cousin Hallie made them all these super cute hedgehog pajamas, and they were so excited to be triplets.

2016 Predictions

I realize this is only fun for me, but that's OK.

Last year's predictions were pretty lame and, well, predictable, so this year I am going to try and be a little bit bolder:

1. Camille's speech will improve so much that we won't have to enroll her in kindergarten for fall of 2017

2. I don't think either the Broncos or Seahawks will make it to the Super Bowl. This leaves me incredibly sad. But, I think it will be Arizona and the Patriots, with Arizona winning it all.

3. Hillary Clinton vs. Ted Cruz in the election, with Hillary winning in a landslide (sorry, Republicans- but where are your decent candidates?)

4. A third-party candidate will enter the race and make a serious run, but fall short

5. This may just be our year for a broken bone. We have not had one yet, but we are due. It's amazing our kids haven't had some sort of crazy injury with all of their crazy antics.

6. I'll still be in Public Affairs and Ben will still be the financial clerk at church.

7. Claire will finally score a goal in soccer.

8. Audra's tooth will finally come in- without surgery.

9. I will finish a book I'm working on (It's not a very good book. It's just the idea of writing- I like writing, even if it never goes anywhere except my computer)

10. I will learn to make homemade yogurt and cheese.