in the month of June

June already!I really dislike the month of June.  With all the end-of-the-year activities and parties and all that, it just makes for a very busy and hectic month.  Here is a little of what we've got going on this month:
5th grade graduation "Beach Day" (Avery)End of the Year Violin Concert (Alex)End of the Year Choir Performance (Avery)End of the Year High School Choir Performance (Audriana)2012 Junior/Senior Prom (Afton & Audriana)  End of the Year Choir Awards Ceremony (Audriana)Daisy Girl Scout Bridging Ceremony (Aislynn, bridging up to Brownies)Girl Scout Junior Bridging Ceremony (Avery, bridging up to Cadettes)IMAX/Science Center Field Trip (A.J. and Aislynn, homeschooling end of the year field trip)5th grade End of the Year Picnic (Avery)End of the Year Daisy Tea (Aislynn)5th grade End of the Year Luau (Avery)5th grade Morning of Memories Assembly (Avery)High School Graduation Ceremony (Audriana) and party to follow.
Can you see why June is my least favorite month of the year?  There's too much going on!  And I have to be at all of these activities, and some of them overlap.  It's just so busy, and I can't wait until summer.  July can't come quick enough!
Speaking of July, I bought Aria her Fourth of July outfit last week and she insists on wearing it now.

And how cute are these boots?

She loves her new boots and wears them with everything no matter if they match or not.
Okay, so I've discovered "juicing".   Yep, I'm going for it.  Just drinking all my fruits & veggies from now on. 

 spinach, carrots, peaches, apricots, red bell pepper

 ends up looking like this, but I swear it tastes great!

I wake up and juice for breakfast, and I juice again for lunch. Then I eat dinner with the family.   I drink lots and lots water in between all of that,  and hopefully this will cleanse my system and allow me to lose some weight.  Because yeah I want to be healthy and all that, but really I just want to lose some weight.  Hey, if I could lose weight sitting around eating donuts all day long, believe me I would ...  but that's just not how it works.  Bummer.

I will say that since I started this juicing kick I have a ton of energy.  I'm not even making this up.  I really do!  I need to read up to see why that is.  Is it the spinach?  Because I hate spinach so I never eat it.  But when I juice it and mix it with the fruit, I don't even notice the taste, so I've been getting a lot of spinach in my system.  That, and kale.  Kale is supposed to be a healthy green, so I've been juicing that as well.  So I don't know if spinach and kale is supposed to give you energy or what, but I'm feeling it!  That's a perk, right?

Does anyone else juice?  If so, share some recipes with me.  I need more variety.  Here's a link to my Pinterest board with some of my favorite juicing recipes, and some smoothies, too:
Feeling Juicy!

What?  You're not following me on Pinterest yet?  
Well, you should be!  I have a lot of cool stuffed pinned on there.

I love to see my kids sleeping next to each other.  Here my 12 year old fell asleep curled up into my three year old.  How precious is this photo?

This same twelve year old is running for Student Body Vice President for the next school year.  The election is at the end of this school year (yet another June-thing we've got going on)


I was busy last night making posters for him to hang up at the school today.  Is it bad that I did his posters?  I just couldn't help it!  This kind of stuff is fun for me.

Our last name rhymes with roll, man and is printed right under his name on the poster (just not in this photo). My sister came up with this slogan to rhyme with his name.  I thought the photo of Snoopy would go along well with the theme of the poster.  Alex took one look at it and made a face that told me he didn't understand why that dog was on his poster.  I told him Snoopy was "cool"  and it went with the wording.

In the carpool on the way to school....
ALEX:  Yea, I guess that photo of Snoop Dog does look pretty good on this poster.ME:  Alex!  It's not Snoop Dog!  It's Snoopy!ALEX:  So? Snoop Dog, Snoopy... same thing.ME:  No, it's NOT the same thing.  Snoop Dog is a gangster rapper.  Snoopy is a cute cartoon dog.  Big difference!------- silence for three seconds -------ALEX:  So who is Snoopy, anyway?
Sigh.  I feel old.  
I think he would have liked the poster better had I put a picture of Snoop Dog on it.

How We Celebrated EARTH DAY

In our town we have designated areas where residents can tend to their own garden plots. Rich and I thought it would be fun for our family to have a plot, knowing that it would be a great experience for the kids to plant and harvest their own food.  So in early April we put ourselves down on the waiting list for a plot, and to our surprise we were assigned plot #9 on April 21st, just one day before Earth Day!  The timing couldn't have been more perfect.
So the very next day - on Earth Day - we gathered our gardening tools, grabbed a few kids, and headed off to prepare our plot of land.  

Five year old Andrew lags behind, pulling the ice chest full of cool drinks.  It was a hot day, and we would need lots of water!

Once we got to our assigned plot and the kids got a good look at it, they started in with the complaints -- just as I thought they might.  "We have to weed all of THAT?  That's going to take FOREVER!"  

 But dad wasn't going to hear any complaining.
 "If we all work together, this will be done in no time.  Everyone grab a tool and get started."

Aislynn picked up a hoe and started right in.

 Andrew got busy!

A.J. got right to work!

And Alex did as well.

Even Avery got to work, which surprised me.  I thought she would just stand around watching everyone else work. She tends to have a bit of a "Princess" mentality when it comes to any kind of hard labor.  And at first she was reluctant.

But it didn't take long before she was actually enjoying it!  In fact, all the kids were! 

Well, all except Aria...who took one look at all the work to be done and said, "This is not fun! Can we leave now?!"   

Just look at that face.  This was a girl who would much rather be at the pool.

 You want me to do WHAT?  Pull weeds?  I don't think so!

Of course Rich was a hard worker.  He always is.

What's the saying?  Many hands make for light work?  Something like that.  In our case, it's definitely true!

We decided that the best way for Aria to be of help was to pick up all the stuff that we pull up and toss it into the waste bucket.  So we put some gloves on her and told her to get to work!

And that's exactly what she did.

I won't say that she was all that happy about it, but she did take pride in her work.  She picked everything up that we pulled, and when she was finished not one weed was left.  She turned out to be a hard worker after all.

She took time out to strike a pose for me, showing off her gardening outfit:  sunglasses, a bathing suit, a skirt and boots.  

Shoveling the manure was big hit with the kids.  Everyone wanted a turn!

 Alex shows his little brother how it's done!

A.J. takes a turn

When she thought I wasn't looking, I caught Aria "playing" in the dirt when she should have been picking up the weeds....

and I just let her to it.  After all, a three-year-old has gotta have some fun, right?

Finally, after only an hour's work, our garden plot was free of all the weeds!  Whew!!  That was some job!

 The next time we come back it will be to build a few planting boxes and to plant some seeds in the ground.

Mommy is so proud of all her little gardeners.

And I think they are kind of proud of themselves, too!

linking up today with The Bunny Hop

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The Ref

These past few weekends my 12 year old has been the referee for my 7 year old's soccer games. A few months ago, he took a couple classes and passed a certification test -- then the association gave him that uniform and a whistle and now call him a "Ref".  I'm still trying to get used to seeing him out there.

 Here he is with Aislynn during a game

I give him credit.  Being a referee is something that I'd never sign up to do.  I'm a people pleaser and don't like when people aren't pleased with me, and you know half of the calls you make out there will make half of the crowd not pleased with you.  My personality couldn't take it.  And Alex is a lot like me, so at first I worried about him.  

I stood guard at every game, just waiting for some parent to make a derogatory remark about the calls he makes....just waiting for some loud mouth to shout, "Aw, come on, Ref!  What was THAT call about?  Are you watching the same game as we are?  Come on!!!"   Because boy, if I heard that, I would march right up to that parent and say, "Dude, really?  He's a 12 year old kid doing his best.  I don't see your butt out there calling the game.  Do you volunteer your Saturdays to referee youth soccer games?  No? I didn't think so.  This isn't World Cup, Buddy, so just sit down and keep quiet."  (and I say "Dude" and "Buddy" because it's always the dads, isn't it? Always those competitive dads!)

So far I haven't had to throw my Mama Bear weight around that soccer field because Alex seems to be able to hold his own out there.  For the most part the calls he makes are right on, and when he does make a mistake I have not heard anyone make a negative comment.  Of course, I cannot be everywhere along the sidelines, so perhaps I miss a few comments here and there?   It's possible.  Maybe I should send out spies?  I have enough kids pull that off.  I'll send two on the opposite sideline and then plant two on our sideline, and they can all signal to me if someone says anything mean about my Alex.  
Because no one messes with any of my kids.  Grrrrrr!
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Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day

2012

 Me with my mom and eight of my nine kids 

Mother's Day is my favorite day of the year.  I even like Mother's Day more than my own birthday.  All I did to earn my birthday was to be born, and hey, my mom did all the work to make that happen.  But Mother's Day is entirely different.  You don't automatically get to have a Mother's Day, but instead you earn it.  

You go through a lot to earn a Mother's Day.  Some go through the morning sickness, the stretch marks, the pains of labor and birth, while others go through piles and piles of paperwork, home studies and eventually court dates to bring their babies home.   

No matter how we get them,  we all go through the sleepless nights and endless concerns and worries that goes into raising children.  We sure put in our time, don't we?  No job out there is more demanding than being a mom, because being a mom never ends.  There is no vacations, no retirement.   From the day they are born, they are ours to love, to protect,  and ours to worry about.  Do we ever stop worrying for their safety?  I don't think so.  Maybe "worry" is the wrong word.  I guess it's more like a constant concern for, something that on some level you are always thinking about in the back of your mind:  is my child safe today?  is he out of harm's way?  did she buckle her seatbelt?  Things like that.  When you become a mother, your heart lives outside of your body, just walking around out there being exposed to who knows what every single day.   If you think about it too much it can drive you crazy.  So, we somehow push it to the far back of our minds.  But it's there, nonetheless.

I'm 42 years old,  yet I'm sure my mom still worries about me from time to time

As mothers, I'm willing to bet that we all doubt ourselves along the way.  Am I doing enough?  Did I make the right decision?  I am being a good role model?  Should I have made her keep her shoes on at the fire station?

because wow, look at these feet!

Today Rich had to work, so after church we went to his station to have lunch.  I've had quite a few Mother's Days at the fire station!

The kids don't mind spending Mother's Day at the fire station...not when there's a t.v. room like this!  I think we need this kind of set up in our house!

We also attended a Mother's Day mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels ~ it was the biggest church my kids had ever been in, and they were impressed.  Here they are standing next to the baptismal font.  I love the mural on the wall.

 Is Audriana praying in this photo....or just about to sneeze?  
Inquiring minds want to know!

The Bishop gave the mass today, which was kind of cool.  Of course, I told the kids it was the Pope so that they would be good during the hour-long mass.  Was that wrong of me?  "You don't want the Pope to see you misbehaving, do you?  Sit still."   They were all like, "Ooooh, the Pope! We better be good!"   Hey, whatever works, you know?

It was such a beautiful place.  We aren't used to attending church in such a grand building.  Our church building has not been built yet so we are in portable buildings, which is a bit blah, but we love our church community and all the friends we have there, so it's all good.  But I think I will make it a point to bring the kids out to the Cathedral for mass a few times a year.  They really enjoyed it and say they want to go back.  But maybe that was only because the Pope was there.  Hmmmm.

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