Well. We worked hard. And, when it came recital time, you can't really hear it. But we did. And it was good for us. And now we know what to prepare for. Nervousness=no counting for Ben. And that doesn't work in a duet. But we had a good time working on our songs.
I didn't get around to a Mother's Day post on Mother's Day. I was busy being pampered by my family. They made me pancakes. Derek and I went for a walk. We enjoyed church and a great meal at Clark & Maren's. (Oh yeah, and I had a migraine...) But I didn't want to miss a chance to say how much I love being a mom.
One of my co-workers was recently telling me that she doesn't want to have kids because she loves her life. I totally get it. I felt the same way. But there is no way to describe how rich, wide, and deep your life becomes when you are a mother. The highs are higher. The lows are lower. And the sacrifice is real. But I feel like it is worth it. So so worth it.
Watching my kids grow up and participating in the process of helping them learn and grow is amazing.
I hired a designer to help with my home decor and she said I have too many family pics everywhere. But to me, those pics represent the ART of the life that I love.
Some of my favorite recent kid pics...gotta love it!
Being Ben's mom is s fun. He's helpful, friendly, loving, kind, quick to obey, follows through (most of the time), and is just plain sweet. You can't help loving that he's also a little shy and has some stage fright. He teaches me about what it means to love. He is growing like a weed! I swear he is taller every day. My favorite recent Ben interaction:
Ben (opening the garbage can to throw something away) "EWW!! That garbage smells AWFUL!"
Me: "Okay, well you can take it out."
Ben: (tentatively opening the can again) "Well, actually it isn't THAT bad..."
Me: 😑
Sarah makes me smile. Sarah is smart, but humble about it. She was nervous about the state testing, but I'm sure she did fine. She loves to read, play with her siblings (most of the time), give great hugs, eat yummy food, and is willing to help out--although it keeps some nudging to keep her going. She is diligent in waking up early to get her time on the treadmill. I rarely have to make sure she's up--even though her wake up time is 6 am! She's very even keeled. One thing I have been especially impressed with this year is how she has handled some tough things. She wasn't elected as the class rep for her class (her best friend was). She didn't get a solo in the choir concert (and Libby has another one coming up). Sarah handled it with such grace. I love her so much. I decided to have Sarah make a video of her weather poems that she brought home this week. Love them.
I love Libby. She is the child that is least like me in almost every way. She is a Rebel, like Derek. She doesn't care about what people want her to do. She is going to do what she is going to do. Unless she gets distracted by a screen. Especially a chance to take a selfie! She is an adventurer. She has found a new way to get home from school faster by climbing over the fence from the park. She loves to stay up late and sleep in. She still wants a snack every night at bedtime. No matter when we ate last. She forgets her homework. Every day. She forgets to bring her instrument to school often. She is generous and loves to give gifts. She loves to spend her allowance. She suffers sometimes from buyer's remorse. Even though she makes me crazy sometimes, I love her fiercely. Guiding her (without pushing, because it is hard to push Libby), has been and will continue to be a challenge that helps me to grow. She's a cartwheeling (constantly), singing (beautifully), loving blessing to our family and me.
This week I decided I needed to hug Libby more. This was after taking away her allowance for 2 days in a row. (Different reasons both days.) I was thinking about advise I read in an amazing blog post about hugging and letting your kid let go first. So I hugged Libby until she said, "Can I go now?" Then a few minutes later I went in to say goodnight and she hugged me until I had to say, "Can I go now?" It's a fun little joke between us now. I love hugging my Libster.
I am also so thankful for the moms in my life. The moms who also took that leap. They gave up the soft, comfy life of adulting without kids in exchange for the messy, busy complicated life with kids. I hope that I honor their sacrifice in the way I live and raise my kids.
It was a busy week for the Nortons. And it was full of science! At our school all 5th graders do science projects for the science fair. Then the weekend after our school science fair, is a Shoreline STEM festival where they can present their projects again.
I sort of picked Libby's project and micromanaged her the whole time. But she did the actual planting, the watering, the recording of data (she missed like 10 days in a row...), and wrote the text for her board. I helped with the cutting and organizing for both Libby's board and Sarah's board. (I can't see them go to all this work and have a terrible board...)
It was really busy on the day and night of the school science fair, and I didn't have pockets. So I never got a picture of Libby's board.
But here are her plants...She was comparing organic fertilizer, Miracle Grow, and a plant with no fertilizer. They are all pea plants. A surprise to both of us, the control did better than the other two. Significantly better. This is good news, since we just did a big unit on how we need to keep chemicals out of our water supply--and fertilizers are a big problem. Of course there could be other factors involved here. But it was a fun project. I transplanted the peas to the yard yesterday. We will see how they do outside.
After our school science fair in the evening, we had a STEM event put on by the district. I manned one of the stations. It was diving board dominos. So fun! You had to stack dominos and see how far out you could suspend them. Derek got really into it. He stayed until he beat the record. He made it 17.5 cm out!
So the Shoreline STEM festival required an advanced application. Sarah and her friend Malene wanted to do it. Of course I said yes. Malene's mom helped them with the application and then Derek and I helped with the experiment and the board. It was kind of gross to have cups of stinky liquids and egg shells in our kitchen, but we survived. But I forgot to have Libby submit an application. So she missed out on the chance to present. (Which she was really sad about, since she had to stay home and do LOTS of yard work for the morning. We got there close to the end.)
Meridian Park got a participation award, so I got to help receive it. Fun times!
