Posting it is!

Funny story.  Last month I finally made a post, wondering if my blogging days were behind me.  I posted.  I then went about my regular routine.  Dishes, vacuuming, sweeping, blah, blah, blah.  I have a habit of listening to Conference on my phone while I work.  I plug my headphones in, pick a session, and listen to the talks.  I love doing that.  It is actually my favorite part about my smart phone.  So there I am cleaning away, listening to a session and all the sudden the speaker (can't remember which), says, 'a mother that tells her children stories about her life is doing Family History.'  And that's when I knew what I was supposed to do.  This blog is my ONLY family history work that I do.  I do not try to find ancestors, I haven't done indexing in a long time, and I barely even journal myself.  But this blog is my family history.  (And turns out that my friend Katie left a comment with the exact same idea!!  She's so smart).  Now, when I think of my blog I have a different mindset.  I am no longer doing this hoping for comments, wanting to show cute pictures, or even to make my life seems all roses (believe me, there are a lot of dead flowers and occasionally dead rats around here).  Instead my reason in blogging is so that my kids will see these stories and I will have helped to further the work of the Lord by strengthening family bonds.  I love how conference always has the answer for your problems.  

SO...

Back to blogging.  

Sadly, these are from the first day of school.  We are what? 10 weeks into the school year?  Oh well.  

Heidi is in 5th grade.  Next year she moves onto the middle school.  She has been such a blessing as the oldest.  She is just good and so helpful.  I never have to worry about her getting her work done or slacking off.  She is always on the ball.  She ran for student council again this year.  Last year it was heartbreaking when she lost.  This year we had a pretty good ad campaign and slogan.  "Vote for Heidi-she's a SMARTIE!" and then we decorated with smartie candies.  She won :)

Kaylee is going into the third grade.  Like her outfit?  It is HEIDI'S OLD CLOTHES!!!  Yes, she wore hand-me-downs for her first day of school.  Never mind that I bought her a few new outfits.  She wore an old one.  I am going to remember this in years to come when she throws a fit over clothing.  She was really excited to wear that dress with her boots and pigtails.  Kaylee is doing the common core math.  I do not like it.  I know, I am old fashioned and should accept new things but I like doing multiple problems over and over and memorizing instead of this weird array and tape diagram stuff.

Daisy is entering the 1st grade.  She is still in that hard age for me.  I still never know if she is smart-playing-dumb as a form of manipulation/excuse to get out of things or if she really doesn't get it and I need to lower my expectations.  But, she is very friendly and her teacher said that she is doing much better about talking.  She is not academically driven to excel.  She doesn't seem to really care.  She likes when she does learn but isn't going to put her own effort into learning if there is another option like playing dolls.  We've had a few things where I've had to talk to the teacher, a few lies to uncover from Daisy, but overall she does well in school.  I mean, she must be super cool because she had to buy 4 BFF necklaces with her own money to hand out.  

And here is Dodge on the first day of school.  Not fully dressed but happy to be walking.  After the girls leave for school it is me and the boys.  Blake is on a candy land kick and he has been reading sight words from Daisy's kindergarten work.  He will be ready for school next year.

This is the last year that the girls will all go to school together.  I'm so happy I had three girls to start with.  

Next post: Halloween and why you shouldn't put Tonic water in your pond.