A Day in the Life...

 Micah swiped my letterboard from my old office.  She arranged a bunch of things that I typically tell her: And then a day or so later, she rearranged it and put the only thing she could think of.  Seems about right. This is to document that Dakota knows how to read.  It definitely takes the right book.  Otherwise, she just likes to talk and talk and talk... These two, powered by Kota, swipe by phone to take selfies.  Usually 50 at a time... We took Cameron and Wyatt for a weekend during Ty/Amber's anniversary and went to the movies and saw Jungle Cruise.  We loved it, and loved being back in theaters!

 Seventh grade for this sweet gal!  They had her grade start a day earlier than the rest to get them used to the school and different classes.  All of the sudden, she's definitely not a kid.  Such a sweet, loving, beautiful, smart, kind, and incredible young woman.  She had a great first day and had no trouble navigating all the changes. I about cried dropping her off because dozens of elementary school teachers (including her fifth and sixth grade teachers) lined the entrance to the school to cheer all the junior high newbies on.  So fun! I was sooo happy to hear her finally say how worried she was the first day.  Copper doesn't always share those things and typically just has an easy going attitude.  I love that about her, and I want to know any of those scary or unsure feelings she has because.... I don't know.  I like to know how she feels.  :)  The first day of school for the twins happed the next day.  They were excited a...

 Micah and Dakota also had back to school night last week, the afternoon before school started. I put them in the same class this year with our favorite teacher Ms. Howard, who is also my good friend's mom and the clown we had at the girls' birthday party SEVEN years ago.  Times flies.   Two fifth graders- can you believe it? Micah was a nervous wreck before school.  She told me about her "friend" from last year who wrote her notes all school year that included things like, "I don't like you and don't want to be your friend," and "I hope you leave," and other nasty crap.  I wish I would have known last year... Girls are mean sometimes and Micah is sometimes easier to step on because she is so loving and so forgiving.  Those are some pretty incredible strengths to have and we're working on getting a bit stronger on our own two feet. Still, and rightly so, she was nervous because this friend from last year is in her class this year.  We h...

Back to school night at the junior high for copper! She doesn't want happy in this picture but she's pretty dang excited for school. We can't believe she's in 7th grade this year! We spent some time trying to figure out her locker, and found all of her classes. We realized they put her in boys PE, so I spent forever in line to see the school counselor to get it changed. It messed up the rest of her classes so we had to start over in finding where they were at. We found out a couple of days ago she made it into the gifted / advanced learning for the science program. She's pretty stoked. Dakota and I tried a dragon fruit. We were more than amazed at the beauty and less than impressed at the taste.  It was just her and I, because the other kids were too lazy to get their butts out of bed! I grew my own edible Chia pet! Put the whole thing in my smoothie, which is I think is a dang good amount of fiber and protein. Also, I took this entire week off to spend time with th...

 I have this new hobby- sprouting.  I tried sunflower sprouting maybe five years ago, but I couldn't get them to grow.  Then I found a guy who knows what he's talking about, so now I jar sprout.  These are sunflower sprouts and pea sprouts.  Takes less than a week, a glass jar, sunflower and pea seeds (organic), and rinsing with water.  Pretty tasty and really healthy, so I'm happy.  Plus, it's kind of fun.  I have a bunch of ideas for sprouting other seeds.  Deep routed motivation: to fill up our kitchen with so much jars and stuff that Tim will either 1) buy a new house with a great big kitchen; or 2) expand our kitchen about 12 feet into the backyard.  😁  Just kidding, though I'd never say no to a bigger kitchen.

We've been wanting to camp at our new property and finally had the chance this weekend.  We invited Shandee and Ty's families and had a pretty good time!  We had blistering heat, thunder/lightning/downpours, and overcast skies.  So we sweated, got drenched, then got cold.  :)  Well, I did at least.  At least we were in our trailer- Ty and Shandee both tent camped. Tom came up Saturday to see the place, and my parents came to see it for a few hours, so at one point we had four dogs running around all over.  It's SO nice to have a place that we don't have to worry about where the dogs are, or what the kids are doing.  They built forts, tore them down and built new forts, caught lizards, ran around like crazy, danced and sang and laughed until way past dark, rode Ty's four wheelers, kayaked and swam at the reservoir, and more. We're hoping to do one little project every time we go there.  First up is getting Tim's machine up there to level out a...