Everyday Moments

The title of this post is somewhat deceiving.  "Everyday Moments" makes it sound like the events in the photos in this post  happened in a slow meandering fashion, while I sat back and savored them.  Unfortunately, life around here has been anything but slow and meandering.  A more accurate title would have been "Everyday Chaos". To say that things have been super duper busy for us sounds so cliche.  I realize that super duper busy is a relative term (well, not the super duper part) and that compared to other people's crazy life, mine is nothing to write home about.  However, for someone who is a self proclaimed home body, this is pretty darn busy.  Matt and I made a decision when we first started this parenting job that we would not be those parents who had their kids involved in everything. We wanted family time to come first. And quite frankly, we also wanted time for ourselves to be a priority, as well.   Because of this, we severely limited the girls activities when they were young.  Usually we tried to have them involved in things that we could do together as a family; 4H was great for this as was all the community theater they did.  Most of the time that meant saying no to individual events for any one child that were considered too time consuming or involved too much time spent driving around.  Our decision to limit activities was also financially motivated because making the choice to be a one income family means being careful with our budget.  It is no secret how expensive it is to culturally/academically/physical fitness-ly enrich our children.  We decided we would spend our money on travel which we felt benefited the whole family and that we would focus on simple things. Besides, watching Little House and the Prairie (and acting out numerous plays in the 3 Sisters Theater) gave them cultural enrichment, playing board games was academically enriching and we hiked more than enough mountains to count as physical fitness-ly enriching.   Before you go comparing our family model to a small communist country or accuse us of isolationism, it is important to note that we were always careful to weigh the benefit of the proposed activity to the cost.....we never just unequivocally said no. (except to ballet, after a particularly odd conversation with the potential teacher in which she tried to force us to have Rachel wear makeup because people liked to watch "pretty" girls perform...did I mention that Rachel was 4 at the time? uh, no thanks and good bye to that idea) So my main point is that we were pretty low key as parents with the girls and their activities.  We always felt that if we kept them bored or doing simple things, that later in life, everything would seem like a fantastic adventure instead of just ho-hum.  We did lots of hiking, reading, needlepoint (just kidding) and other things while also just hanging around the house.  Life was grand..I am not trying to say that the girls were always happy with the arrangement but who cared about that we really felt like it was a good thing for them in the long run. The girls learned to never underestimate how good it can feel to do simple things. In addition to that, Matt and I were relaxed and happy which made us way better parents.   Now fast forward to this year and life is presenting a whole new reality to us. Rachel and Hannah are in high school now so that means after school sports...which are free and actually quite good for them so who could say no to that? And Matt absolutely loves to watch the sunrise at 5:30 am while getting them to their meets.  And then there are the 14 thousand clubs that Rachel belongs to (who knew she was a closeted Future Farmer of America?) and we certainly cannot deprive her of her desire to be civic-ly involved, can we?   And then there is Theater and Music...I mean, poor Hannah with that fantastic voice we have forced her to keep hidden until now.  Only allowing her to perform in the shower...we can't deny her the standing ovations and accolades, can we? Ah Emma...she needs to be doing something active or she is driving herself and us crazy because of it.  And I mean, really? how can we keep that kid from soccer and running when she is so fast I can barely keep up with her? And Emma has also decided that Theater is her passion as well so off we go each week to 2 different rehearsals.  So, it would seem that our best and most relaxing days are behind us.  I spend so much time in my car now that I feel like I should have a desk in there.  Schedule juggling is hilarious with all 3 girls going in different directions, but somehow we get them where they need to go pretty much on time. We still make family time a priority, which means some pretty late family dinners but it is important so we try to be flexible even when we are hungry and Hannah's play practice goes late and we have to wait until god knows when to eat.  Life is still grand it is just a little more Grande, which means I have to try extra hard to stop and appreciate the everyday moments.  Here are a few that have happened over the last few weeks.

dumb optimism

Once again, we got all excited and pumped up to watch the Chargers lose and not make it to the championship. :( 

Now that is an interesting way to complete your work......

Hello, May I take your order?

Emma continues to work so very hard on her homeschooling throughout the day....I am enjoying my last foray into the middle school years with her at home. 

Practicing lines while gettin purty.

Official FFA dress

Rachel competed in her 1st event as an FFA member.  She won first place in our city for the Job Interview Competition.  Her public speaking skills were really put to the test...as were her "how to make a resume sound interesting and relevant without much experience" skills.  The competition required her to compete for a job as if it were real with application, references, resume and job interview.  We were so excited for her and talk about helpful for her future...way more helpful than the horse judging contest....