A change of schedule...

After years of me not wanting to have the kids involved in team sports, for a myriad of reasons, the time came for us to tip-toe into the world of athletics. We began in the fall with allowing the children to take one recreational class a week. Four of the six children chose gymnastics, two decided on martial arts. I found one gym in a neighboring town that held both sports at the same time. Score for me! Yay for scheduling simplicity!

A few months into our new endeavors, three of the children were invited to try out for different levels of team gymnastics. A little voice inside my head was screaming "NO WAY! Our family time will be torn apart!" But then, I looked at the schedule. While, the team practices would lengthen the amount of time we spent at the gym, the team practices fell on days we were already there. We did add a Saturday morning practice for two of the children, but besides a birding commitment from time to time, our Saturday mornings have generally always been pretty clear.

Elliott and I prayed. We crunched the numbers to make sure we could afford it. I figured out a plan to minimize gym waiting time for the kids who weren't on team. When we told the children that we were going to give it a shot, they were giddy. We have survived the first month of our new schedule. It has actually been quite fun to spend 1-on-2 and 1-on-3 time with kids, when we are so used to 1-on-6 for every endeavor. The kids are taking their commitments very seriously, it is neat to see them take ownership of staying fit and growing in their skills.

This week, though, we needed to make a new adjustment to our daily school schedule. The twins' coach sent home a conditioning sheet with a workout for them to do at home every day between their Monday practice and Saturday practice. I have been wanting to work out, but not been able to motivate myself to squeeze it in. For the last two days, we have broken up school with the following workout:

Chicken Walks (15) - This is where you do a handstand with your feet against the wall and you lift one hand at a time off the floor. You have completed one of these after you pick up each hand once. I tried one. I have decided to only supervise this exercise in the best interest of protecting myself from a massive head injury.

Regular Push Ups (10) - These are a childhood favorite of mine. I don't remember them being so difficult, but considering the last time I regularly did push-ups I weighted about 25% less than I do now, I am trying to give myself some grace. I do have a good push-up posture thanks to the 1000's of push-ups I did as a child. My children, however, obviously need to do more push-ups as their form is a work in progress.

Push Up Hold (15 seconds) - Here you go down like you are going to do a push-up but you don't come up for 15 seconds. 15 seconds doesn't sound very long. And it isn't in the grand scheme of things, but when you are holding your push-up, you never think the 15 seconds will end. I do think I probably started counting faster near the end, tomorrow I will need to employ the stopwatch for all fairness. 

Diamond Push Ups (10) - These we do on the wall, with our hands in front of our chest and with our index fingers and thumbs in a diamond shape. They are surprisingly effective at making my arms ache.

Dips (15) - I am thankful for our dining room table benches, as two of us can do these at the same time on each bench. You place your hands with fingers facing your bottom and you dip yourself down until you form a right angle with your elbow and then you push yourself back up. Besides my arms feeling numb at this point, this exercise also starts to send a burning sensation across the top of my thigh. I am reminded of my age and out-of-shapeness by the near constant popping noise coming from my right knee. It is ridiculously humbling and I stay strangely quite as the children ask one another, "do you hear a strange cracking noise?"

Crunches (20) - Laying flat with toes pointed, and looking straight up at the ceiling, slowly crunch up until all abdominal muscles are engaged and then go back down. These seem easy until about number 13, then I think I might die or start cheating and count by 2's, but the kids are watching. Today, Micah began commenting on how red my face was at this point, he said it was scaring him.

Ab Rollers (20) - Laying down, keeping legs perfectly straight and toes pointed, you pull your legs up from the floor to a pike position, rolling up into a crunch to as if you plan to meet your nose to your knees while your feet point to the ceiling. Then, you let your legs down as you release from your crunch, but you do not allow your feet to touch the ground. I love how many different core muscles are engaged during this one exercise. Somewhere around the 10th one I thought I was going to throw up and I transitioned into a supervisory role and critiqued and corrected the children's form. Thankfully the muscle spasm that had taken hold of my abdomen lessened so I could be ready for the next exercise.

Sit Ups (10) - Here we pair off to sit on each others feet so that a full sit-up can be accomplished with no "cheating" of lifting of feet from the ground. Sit-ups were another childhood favorite (yes, I had an unusual childhood), and my doctors are all surprised that after nine major abdominal surgeries that I can still do a sit-up. Tonight I cheerfully, albeit slowly, did all 10. I was eternally grateful there was no need for an 11th.

Plank (2 x 30 seconds) - Thanks to the stop watch on my phone, no one has to count aloud during this exercise where you get in your best push-up form and hold it through all the quaking and shaking of your biceps, back and abdominal muscles that begins around 19 seconds. I have begun wondering if I will be able to lift the covers to go to sleep tonight.

Over Splits (2 minutes) - The twins make doing the splits look as easy as putting on Toms. I have chosen, mostly due to the full body ache and need to be able to walk and care for my family after the work out is complete, to simply time the children as they do their splits. Besides, none of the children are currently strong enough to lift me up and off the ground if something were to go wrong during my doing a split, so for their safety, I just cheer them on.

If I work out with the kids the rest of this week, I think I will have done more exercises this week than in most single months in the last 10 years. Following the inaugural workout yesterday, I was surprised with a few aches but happily was not hindered from being able to do my normal daily activities today.

The Lord has humbled me numerous times as we have traveled down this new road, the simplicity of fitting the commitment into our lives, the daily work outs I have avoided for so long, as well as answering prayers long forgotten. So many times I have lamented that I don't have a lot of contacts from outside my church or homeschool mom friends. Now I do. I am forming relationships with the moms of other kids, even a few grandmothers. God is so good. He gives us so many gifts, even ones we didn't know we needed.

And a month is gone...

How is it February already?!?!?! Is anyone else shaking their head at how the first month of 2014 is already gone?

As soon as January rolled around, school started back up, Elliott got the flu and was crazy sick for two weekends (he felt better the week in between), and then Noah broke both wrists in a swing set incident never to be forgotten (and I hope not repeated!). We have a new schedule thanks to the kids being in various activities, we are the busiest we have ever been with outside activities, but the Lord has been gracious to allow the days and times line up neatly into two evenings and one Saturday morning each week.

I have found myself wondering how moms of big broods of kids have time to blog, much less monetize their blogs. Most days I can't figure out what to make for lunch, much less figure out something witty or encouraging to publish on the blog.

And yet, as I sit down, preparing to go to bed (way too late... sigh), I have a glimpse of what God is doing in my life right now. I have been setting aside the computer lately, pulling off-line during nearly all waking hours so that my time is spent making face-to-face, real, connections with my children, my husband, my neighbors. It has been harder than I thought, days go by without my even cracking open the laptop. Emails pile up, I fight the anxious feelings of being "behind" and try to delete anything I can from my phone during short trips to the restroom.

God is teaching me about His priorities. I am studying and learning how to better love my husband, how to teach and love my children, how to reach out and share His love with my neighbors and friends. Very Titus 2 and Great Commission-y,  you might be thinking, and you would be right, for God is igniting my heart to grow in His Word and seek after His purposes. Email, Instagram and Pinterest are being relegated to quick glances during obscure moments scattered sparingly throughout the day.

So, a whole month is gone, and while I hope to capture the memories of it more regularly on here, if I disappear from the blogosphere for too long, just stop by and I will make you a coffee (or a tea) and we can catch up, for real and in person. :)

All done...

When a project comes together...

I was crazy reluctant at first. But now I am hooked. What am I referring to, you ask? Pinterest, of course. I am the first to admit that I must force myself to exercise a great deal of self control to not spend too much time pinning my day away. On the flip side, I also find great inspiration for projects and kid activities that otherwise would have never been discovered. 

Awhile back I was planning projects for Christmas and came across a few photography projects on Pinterest. I pinned them up on my Photography board and didn't think too much about them. I love photography. I take tons of pictures. Oddly enough, I rarely print them. In reality, I have limited the number of breakables in my home for the last 12 years due to the presence of short people, and lots of them. However terrified of broken glass I may be, I really love the warm and loving feel of homes with pictures of their families on the walls. We just got our family portraits done and they were so wonderful I wanted to show them off in our home. And then I remembered the project I had seen on Pinterest... DIY Photo Canvas. 

I bought the canvases and black paint. I had the portraits printed. A friend had just given me some Mod Podge, so I was ready to start. Of course, reality set in and the materials got buried under the day to day business of our lives. I would walk past the dining room table and look at my stacks of "to be done" projects and sigh. 

This afternoon while all the children found themselves something to do, I remembered the canvases and got to work... 

And now I wait for all the pictures to dry so I can finish attaching hangers to the back. These photos are finding a home going up the stairs. The children have requested I not use birth order or gender groupings in hanging the pictures. Randomness has been requested. Can't wait to see how everything looks up on the wall! 

A surprise goodbye...

Tonight, as I read Ella Enchanted to the children, Elliott went out back to let the dogs run and to go feed our backyard bunnies. We got the bunnies when I was pregnant with Micah, they are nearly five years old. Feeding the rabbits is one of Elliott's nightly "shut down" routines, and they love his nightly visits. 

Oblivious to all the goings on in the backyard, I was trying to keep straight which voice went with which character. When Caleb burst in with a shriek and exclaimed "One of the bunnies died!", I dropped our read aloud and ran out to see. My husband recounted how he had given the girls their nightly carrots but was only greeted by one cheerful rabbit. It only took moments before the children were crying, even I choked back my tears and tried to figure out where to bury our sweet bunny friend.

When you acquire a new pet, you don't often think about the "one day" when your furry friend's 5-7 year life span will have spun itself out. Questions about life and death from the children start rolling off the tongue as tears roll down cheeks. Some wrote notes, drew pictures.  Others just cried. Noah has been reciting what could be written on Dot's tombstone (they've already picked it out and have the Sharpie at the ready once the wording is agreed upon) until we finally had to ask him to wait until tomorrow. 

Our evening ended with a little more reading from Ella and a lot of hugs of consolation. Evening prayers were whispered through sniffling. Children reluctantly drifted off to sleep. I am praying that this reminder of the briefness of life will inspire us to not only to grieve what we've lost, but to propel us towards rejoicing in all we have, being filled with thanksgiving to our Creator. 

Tough evening for the kids, but thankful for this opportunity to love them through their trials of sorrow and be able to point them to Jesus, our greatest comfort. 

These photos were taken a few weeks ago when we brought the bunnies in during a freeze. Micah is holding Spot, Caleb has Dot. 

Some days you only get one...

This morning was our Young Birder's Club meeting for January. Hannah and I were excited as we woke early and made the trek over to Guadalupe River State Park to help our club learn about bird banding. We love being bird banding assistants. And the sun greeted us first thing...

Once everyone gathered it was time for some instructions...

And a closer look at the bands...

We walked the hill country grassland across 10 acres to check six nets in hopes of finding some native song birds to band. It was a slow day, the sun shining brightly making the nets easy to see, but we finally got one little bird...

This little Grasshopper Sparrow was the exciting first catch of the day. Back to the tables we went so he could be banded and recorded...

Then we l gathered around for a closer look. I never get tired of marveling at the gifts of the Lord, especially these little feathered friends...

We made round after round checking the nets. Nada. The wind started picking up so we made a final round to pull the nets. Then we saw this Savannah Sparrow in a tree right by the nets. He stayed in the tree. I think he was laughing at us...

It was a fun morning out, even with only one bird caught. I so enjoy being in nature and learning about the magnificent world God created for us to enjoy. 

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Psalm 19:1

Real life New Years...

My head hit the bed a little after 1am when the fireworks from New Year's Eve finally ceased and the children were all happily dozing. Sleep didn't last long, my alarm woke me cheerfully before 7am, my brother and family needing a ride to the airport to head home. They rolled their eyes as I drove through the line at Starbucks for my morning coffee, but I got them to the airport safe and sound thanks to my little triple venti latte wake-up call.

Elliott was up and cooking when I made it back home, omelets and other goodies awaited my return. Just the sustenance I needed to prepare for the day of work ahead. Due to a surprise contagious illness acquired the last two days of 2013, the first day of 2014 was filled with laundering, cleaning, vacuuming and sterilizing. It may be another day or two before we actually have all the laundry finished. Every time I think I have finished cleaning some pile here or there I find out a child wandered off with something not yet cleaned and I have to chase it down again. I have been vividly reminded why I do not wash clothes and linens on the same day. :)

Kids rode bikes while we put away Christmas in the garage. I cleaned out the indoor (garage) rabbit cage, now it's ready for the next freeze when the bunnies get brought in for refuge. Both cars were cleaned out and vacuumed. The garage was swept. Every time I do this I realize it is a futile effort, but it feels rewarding at the time, albeit short lived.

Somewhere along the way we skipped the official time for lunch and opted for a snack as the the Lego Winter Village sets were brought out and kids toiled away at making repairs to sets bumped and bruised in storage. The rest of the week they will tinker with putting together the pieces for this year's set. I escaped for a short round of errands and Elliott made homemade pizza to the great delight of the children.

I read some blogs between loads of laundry, other folks had some much more intentional and purposeful ways to ring in the New Year. Maybe that can be a resolution for me, to be more intentional to mark holidays and milestones in the coming year... I tend to just be happy to escape the holidays without a trip to the ER. One blogger buys everyone in her family rainbow colored socks and they all wear them on the 1st day of the year - I chuckle at the thought of finding a pair of rainbow colored socks in Elliott's size 16, but the imagery of remembering God's mighty promises is inspiring.

I will be honest, though, I have to guard my heart not to be discontent with the normalcy of my life compared to the blogworthiness of others. I am not sure I will even begin to contemplate goals or resolutions for another week. Our schedule and life is about to change, new activities and the first glimpse of older kids with busier schedules has my mind spinning. We have spent so much time guarding our family time over the years, we are looking to continue to strive for a balance that also allows for children to thrive within their giftings and interests even as that begins to take shape in seeking outside opportunities for them.

No matter how 2014 unfolds, through the normal real life moments, or the notable blogworthy ones, I know this, God's Word is true, and His mercy is new every morning, He is faithful and mighty. Do you know Him?