Lilacs

I might be weird but certain smells sometimes remind me of things from the past. The smell of lilacs reminds me of my childhood. We had a lilac bush growing up and my dad often had a vase of lilacs on the table. So, to this day i love the smell of lilacs! And now right outside my front door we have a huge lilac bush which at this time of year smells wonderful. The little kids have been bringing me little branches of lilacs, along with dandelions and some other little "flowers" they find in the yard and i have been keeping them in this little cup by my kitchen sink.

I tried disposing of some of the dead ones the other day much to one particular little girls dismay and ended up retrieving them from the trash can and putting them back in the cup. This morning i went out and got a handful of the lilacs and hopefully she will just think that hers "grew up"! We are going to go with that!

With pollen counts so high this spring i am amazed at how well my two girls have been doing with their allergies (knocking on wood!) But i am extremely happy!

Enjoy the smell of the spring lilacs or whatever your favorite flowery smell is...

PBS

Raegan's new favorite thing to do is to play on PBS kids. I lvoed how she had her blanket right there with her this day...

One more quarter of school! I am probably more excited for summer than the kids! We have been keeping busy. I took the kids to my parents over spring break last week. They played non stop with cousins and of course the week flew by!

Trey is still having a lot of knee pain. When i took him to the doctor they referred him to see a sports medicine dr so we have an appointment tomorrow. They thought they may want to do some physical therapy for him to help him be able to play some of the sports he would like to play. He started track yesterday and we are signing up for another session of basketball so he may need that physical therapy! :) He is growing like crazy which the doctor said dos not help this problem with the knees (Osgood Schlaetters) excuse that spelling, i'm quite sure it's wrong!

Waiting on our letter from the school district to find out if Avery get's approved for a transfer for middle school to go where Trey goes. If it is denied we are taking all 4 and moving them. (unless of course God opens a door for us to move into the district where they currently go)We are at peace and have prayed for God's will regarding whatever happens. The kids all know this is a strong possibility (due to a district wide problem and them getting really strict). The Two oldest have accepted it, Avery is actually excited about the possibility of a new adventure. It would be hardest on Trey because it would be his last year in middle school. Regardless of what happens i know everything will be ok. I stress much less than i used to about it!

John has been side job free for a few weeks now and it has been nice to have him around again. I am very spoiled. I went for a run yesterday late afternoon and when i got home dinner was on the table! He has been having high blood pressure again. He worries me sometimes. He has been eating right for the most part and is not a big stresser. He has been exercising too so not sure where the problem lies but i am thinking it is time for another visit to the dr. In the past he has had high blood pressure but them it was good for awhile...his allergies are bugging him a lot and it was last spring that his bp was high too. No idea if that could affect blood pressure but something i am going to check on.

I am training for a half marathon that i plan to run in April. I am shooting to get a new personal record and i have at least 3 shots at it this next 6 months so i have been training pretty hard and John has put up with it and been supportive as always. I joined a local running club and have really enjoyed running with them on the weekends.

That is just a little of what we have been up to. Hope you are having a great rainy (if you live around here) week!

George Washington

In school each day Ethan writes in what they call their journals. I always enjoy the monthly journals coming home so that i can see what he wrote about. Sometimes it is what he did the past weekend. Sometimes it is about something they learned.

I just love George's hair! I have limited much of what i save in papers that the kids bring home from school...i save occasional papers that i think they might want to look back on to see what they were learning at the time, but their journals are always a must save!

This and that

I am going to go pre-enroll my youngest child in kindergarten tomorrow... it's starting to hit me a little bit. I am going to be a wreck next August on her first day. She is more than ready, i am ready and looking forward to having a few hours to myself everyday but the reality that all the kids will be in school....there is of course a little sadness that my days of having a little one home with me all day are quickly coming to an end.

Poor Taylor Swift, Raegan was making her beautiful but ran into a little snag...

Trey just finished up playing basketball with some of his buddies from school through the Y. He is having a really hard time with his knees right now. I finally took him to the doctor and they said he has Osgood Schlatters. Ibuprofen has been his good friend lately! He will be starting track soon.

This is what our kitchen table looks like every afternoon. Avery sits at the table to do her homework. Trey has a desk in his room so his books get spread out in there. I do not often have to tell her to get on her homework. She is always on it right away. I have recently had a lot of refreshing of the memory of 5th grade math! Who knew it would be like going to school all over again once you had to start helping with homework. The kids get frustrated with us sometimes and think we should know all the answers and i say "do you guys know how long it has been since we have done this??" And besides that they do everything different now anyway!

Can you guess what we got? We recently surprised the kids with a game system so there has been a lot of hopping around going on in our living room!

Have a great weekend!