Noviembre

Fun fact. I speak Spanish very well. Actually I don't speak very much Spanish. BUT I can read a sentence in Spanish and pronounce it perfectly, even if I have no idea what it means. It's one of my useless talents. In case you think I've misspelled November, that's how you say it in Spanish, hence my random Spanish anecdote.

On to Noviembre things:

Dan took Winter to Hume Lake last weekend for a Father/Daughter retreat. Originally he was going to take Mya but she came down with a fever and sore throat the night before they were supposed to leave. Good thing we have more daughters! Mya was fine with it by the way. She felt pretty sick so she didn't feel like taking a road trip up to the mountains anyway. She'll go next year. Winter was more than happy to fill in.

Dan forgot his beanie but Winter was happy to loan him her extra one.

Winter painted his nails during a race of some sort.

This was her reading nook.

Her first experience with a ropes course. She went for it like she does most things in life, with no fear.

If you haven't been up to Hume Lake, you really need to add it to your places to visit.

She loved playing gaga ball? I think what's what it's called...

Midday nap.

They both had an awesome time.

And back at home:

Costco cart tetris is not my thing.

The girls wear necklaces to church. Angus throws a fit if he can’t wear his special blue mardi gras necklace too. Thanks to whoever gave that to him.

At home, we go up and down our stairs all day long. I will avoid a trip upstairs at all costs. So when Angus needs a shirt and there’s a perfectly good one down stairs, he’s wearing it for sure, even if it’s not his. He actually refused to take it off for the whole day.

I went to say good night to Addie and found her like this. 

Warning: Many words ahead...

Over the years, our parenting has become a lot more verbal than physical. A lot more mentally and emotionally tiring instead of physically exhausting like it once was. Don't get me wrong, I still fall into bed every night, but parenting my kids these days requires a lot more thought. 

And I'm not even talking about homework, which is getting pretty hard by the way. They are growing up and facing some hard things with friends and peers. The big girls come home from school every day with a story about friend drama, or something mean that a boy said to them, or a new bad word they've never heard and want to know what it means. I find myself constantly trying to find a way to encourage them and teach them something from what has happened. I never know what they are going to ask me. I never know what kind of advice they are going to need that day. It's exhausting to say the least.

One of them was told by kids that used to be her friends that they now find her annoying. One of them was told by some boys at church that she isn't very good at soccer. Sometimes they are in tears. Sometimes they are in a bad mood for the rest of the day. I remember going through things when I was around their age and just keeping them to myself. For whatever reason, I didn't want to tell anyone when I was hurt or angry. Maybe I felt that it was embarrassing or a weakness. I'm not sure.

So my thankful thing this week is that my kids are willing to tell me what's going on in their hearts and that I'm able to meet them at school every day and talk about it with them when their emotions are raw. The minute they get in that dark gray van and those doors close, they are safe. They can let those emotions out, happy or sad. I'm thankful for open lines of communication I've somehow managed to create. Sometimes I feel like my being a stay at home mom is not benefiting my kids because I'm always tired, always craving to get away, and always making them feel like they're making me crazy. BUT MAYBE my always being around makes them feel like they can talk to me. I'm going to go with that.

Every mom has a certain age where they feel comfortable. We never feel like we're totally rocking it but some of us do great with toddlers, others infants, and others are good with teenagers. I feel like I might be a good tweenage mom. I'm not bad with infants either... when they aren't mine. I just love sleep so much that it's hard for me to go on 4 or 5 hours a night. Tweenagers aren't a walk in the park because of all the explosive emotions that come out of them at random times... well girls at least. But I like that they listen to my advice. I like that they like to hang out with me. I like that I can teach them things. And I like the chores they are capable to doing if I'm being honest. But most of all, I love that they light up when I throw a few complements their way.

Sooooo, transition your brain to practical things now! Sorry, there's just no great segway here.

Since the seasons are changing, I thought I'd offer a couple of  fashion tips I have learned: 

1. The 90s style is back whether we like it or not. I have all of these normal or long shirts in my closet. I don't really want to cut them all in half so I can wear them with high waste jeans. So last year I started tying my shirts in a knot on the side. It's super cute and versatile. You can tie the knot as high or as low as you want. 

2. I also like to take a button up the front long sleeve denim shirt and put it over a sun dress and tie the bottom in a knot. That makes any dress fall appropriate, especially with boots. It also allows me to take off that long sleeved shirt around noon when it gets hot in SoCal. I have a few button up the front shirts I've found at thrift stores. They always have tons.

And now switch your brain to food:

Cheese tip: This is not ground breaking. You may already do this. I hate pre-shredded cheese you buy at the store. It tastes rubbery and dry. They actually add extra preservatives to the shredded bagged cheese FYI. So I always buy a block and shred it myself. If you have to shred cheese, do it over a paper towel. That way you can easily transfer it to a plastic bag or container. I usually store it in a plastic baggy. It's super easy to transfer it if you wrap the cheese in the paper towel like a taco, put half of it in the baggy, then slowly pull the paper towel out of the baggy. For an environmentally friendly version, use a hand towel and transfer into a storage container. 

Here's something cool I found at Costco. I've been looking everywhere for the receipt because I'm not sure on the price. But Costco is always super reasonable. If you can't tell, these are little plastic stemless wine glasses. We host a family Christmas party and our guests always get crazy out of control so these are perfect. Kidding. None of our guests have even come close to breaking a wine glass but these are so cute and festive, and people don't have to be careful with them. I grabbed them immediately with a big smile. The checkout guy scanned them and then looked at them suspiciously. I exclaimed, "Aren't they so cute?!" But he explained that he thought they were glass but they were way too light for glass so he did a double take. Whatever. They're cute.

Okay! Thanks for sticking with me to the end. Happy Friday. I hope you all have a great weekend.