The Reason I've Been Absent

There are as many reasons as there are pictures in this post. I have missed blogging so terribly, but have had absolutely NO TIME!

Here is proof.

We tore out a retaining wall for an old patio in our backyard that was causing drainage problems. The kids call the spot the "dirt pit" now. They ask permission to go play in it every single day. I had a dirt pit growing up. We were always filthy, but we had a great time and used our imaginations and worked together on building swimming pools and such.
Our dirt pit might be here to stay.
No blogging, Reason #1: Daily baths for all five children.

No blogging, Reason #2: My cling-on and exquisite pink cream puff of a nine month old.

We got this flyer in the mail the other day. It is real. Sarah said, "WOW! People have maids? I thought those were only fiction!"
No blogging, Reason #3: I don't have a maid....(p.s. it must be really nice to have a maid to complain about!)

No blogging, Reason #4: I've been working really hard with this guy. We have been trying hard to improve eye contact and to kick negative self-talk to the curb.
He is happier these days.

No blogging, Reason #5: I'm too busy writing lists. Lists of things to be done on the house. Lists of clothes to buy for these ever-growing children. Grocery lists. Schoolwork lists. I need a list to remember all the lists I need to make for the day.
It's true. I'm not kidding.
Sarah has inherited my disturbing dependence fascination with lists.

No blogging, Reason #6: Holy Moly! That is a lot of children!

No blogging, Reason #7: When I am not staring at Thomas 24/7, he draws tattoos on his body to be like Uncle Mike.
"And I'm not sorry. And if I have a chance, I will do it again."
No remorse.

No bliggity-bloggity, Reason #8: I'm taking pictures of everything.

Found this on my desk in the schoolroom. Sarah must have noticed I was having a hard day. I hung it on the fridge, and it is one of our two family mantras now.
No blogging, Reason #9:  God is helping me get other things accomplished.

This is one of Joseph's English assignments. Check out the link:  Sarah did it last year.
No blogging, Reason #10: Finishing up first and second grade with the olders.
Side Note: the answer to "What he likes" made me cry. We work so hard with Joseph to help him understand how dearly he is loved. This was a moment of reassurance for me. It's getting through. The message isn't getting lost.

Yes, this is my laptop that I do all my blogging on.
No blogging, Reason #11: Broken Lappy.

No blogging, Reason #12: When I leave Nate alone, things like this happen.

I am constantly finding Lego guys set up in the funniest ways throughout the day. Some of them, I cannot even post on the blog. We call this one "Vader with a jackhammer".
No blogging, Reason #13: I'm taking pictures of Legos.



No blogging, Reason #14: I've been doing some serious bonding with my first born.

No blogging, Reason #15: This is the playroom. The boys are holding crowbars. Enough said.

No blogging, Reason #16: These moments totally paralyze me...in a good way.

The second of our family mantras is Never Give Up. Joseph started it a while back and it kind of stuck for all of us.
The reason I am getting back into blogging: I Never Give Up.



The shirt was a gift from my Dad to Joseph. Before Papa ran his most recent marathon, he and Joseph had a lot of talks about never giving up. Joseph would tell Papa about his tricky math pages and Papa would tell Joseph about how hard it was getting to train for his race. They use one another as inspiration and sing this song. Before the marathon, they went out to the store and bought matching shirts and had Never Give Up printed on them. Joseph picked the color and the text. Papa had Joseph sign his shirt and he wore it to his marathon. He said people at the marathon cheered him on using the text from his shirt, calling him Never Give Up. He finished in under 4 hours.

Sarah and the missing tooth mystery.

Thomas has been learning to tell time. He carries this clock around with him and refuses to throw away the box. After he is done using the clock, he packages it back up very carefully. He sleeps with the clock at night.
Disturbing or Sweet?

Helping Dad with the playroom.

Esther is wearing a sundress that Sarah wore when she was small.
It is the sweetest little thing with matching bloomers. Call me a sap for loving on baby clothes.

Not one of my proudest moments: Pancakes for dinner and cucmbers for a vegetable.
My brother Matt says that Nate's face says it all.

You know you have a large family when a family membership for a year costs less than buying individual tickets for a day.

Memorial Day Parade.
Joseph kept yelling aloud (because he has almost no control over the volume of his voice): "Hey Mom! There are soldiers with blaster rifles!"
When I corrected him and told him that it was the colorguard and the rifles were pretend, he yelled aloud, "Hey Mom! There are the pretend soldiers with the broken blaster rifles!"

This is a daily occurence in our home. Nate will cross someone. They will tell him no. He will come to me and tell me that they are "BAAAAAAAAAD". And then I hear the real story.