Family, Motherhood, Perspective, School, Summer

Endings and Beginnings

Friday was our last day of school. The year has flown by. As always, some of the days crept by so slowly but here we are 9 months later and all I can think is how quickly it’s passed. This has been a year of growth both academically and socially for the boys. It was our first year dealing with some larger issues of friendship and peer pressure in Fleet’s world. There have been many times throughout the year that I have hoped and prayed for the right words to help him find the confidence to stand on his own, to make the right choices, to do what he knows in his heart is right. And Lukers, he can read! It’s amazing to watch!

First Day of School

Last Day of School

I rarely think they look a like, but they do in this photo, don’t they?


This week has been a doozy! Lots of REAL LIFE going on  . . .

Here’s a little quote about what it’s like to be 36 weeks pregnant from thebump.com “at 36 weeks pregnant signs of labor can be tough to tell apart from regular pregnancy discomforts” . . . this should have made me cry but instead it made me laugh. Pregnancy is no joke! But I am growing a human and that’s pretty serious biz.

My hormones are cray-cray lately. The other morning, Big Luke “teased” me about getting ready early. He said something like, “Already getting ready for the day, huh?” Ya’ll, I literally curled up in a ball on the bed and cried. I’m a mess. Luke said, “I actually think you are doing pretty good.” I think he’s trying to make me feel better, either that or he’s not paying attention.

Tuesday Fleet fell out of his chair, hit a desk and busted his head open. He claims that there were no shenanigans going on but we’ve heard otherwise. We went to emergency care for stitches. He handled it like a champ – he was calm with only a few tears. While we were waiting for stitches, I got a text from a friend who was volunteering for lunch duty. She said that Fleet was the talk of the cafeteria. He didn’t understand exactly why this was. However, over the course of the day he became very proud of his injury. We had to text everyone, especially his big cousin, Malcolm. And he couldn’t wait for school the next day to show off his battle wound.


Thursday I went out to the chest freezer to get a bag of Trader Joe’s turkey meatballs (yum, by the way) and found a warm freezer. That’s right, about 5 of my freezer meals plus lots of other stuff including the strawberries we picked earlier this year were ruined. If it weren’t dinner time and there weren’t 3 people hovering around me complaining of hunger, I would have had a repeat of earlier in the day – crying in a ball on the bed. So, I’m giving up on the freezer meal situation. I have one that I haven’t posted yet but I will not be prepping anymore. Luke said, “I’ll just go to Earthfare and buy us a whole bunch of meals.” Yes, please.

I’m a little late to the game here but I wanted to post our teacher gifts because they turned out pretty cute plus they were easy and affordable. We had 5 teachers so I had to be price conscious. I feel like you can’t go wrong with gift cards. This time it was for Starbucks. I wrote each teacher a note and the kids helped package everything.

Here are the details:

  1. Gift card
  2. Cups with lids and straws – they gave them to me for free at Starbucks
  3. Confetti for inside the cups ($3.00 from Wal-mart)
  4. Plain white bags ($8.00 for ten at Wal-mart)

Since Friday was our last day of school, I wanted to do some fun things with the boys. We headed to the aquarium right after school. I’d love to say that it was fun but really, it was kind of a mess. They were tired and hungry even though I’d packed a picnic. They fussed, “Why are we only looking at stuff Fleet wants to Luke at?” and then one minute later “Why are we only looking at stuff Luke wants to look at?” I kept explaining that we had plenty of time and could look at everything but they weren’t listening to me. Sometimes it’s just like this. You plan a fun activity and it doesn’t turn out to be fun. That is how parenting goes.

The aquarium has a lot of these cool lego displays. They also had the new sea turtle rescue exhibit open where you can actually see the turtles that are in their care. I’m looking forward to going back with happier kids so that we can really explore it.


We ended the day with a picnic at the beach. They swam, paddleboarded and built a skate park in the sand (instead of a sand castle!). The evening was cool and beautiful. It was a lovely way to end the school year.

Big changes for this girl too. It was her last day of daycare. We have loved her teachers and felt so good about where she’s been.

Watching these guys play on the beach makes me crazy happy.


It’s officially summer and we have a big one coming up. Here’s what I’m looking forward to

  • sleeping in (haha)
  • not being in a rush in the mornings
  • hopefully taking a short trip to the mountains or lake once the baby is born
  • NEW BABY!
  • watching my kids with their new sibling

I think that my “What I’m worried about” list would be twice as long . . . speaking of worry . . .

I’ve been slowly reading Jen Sincero’s book “You Are A Badass” and I’ve loved it. Here is a quote from the end of the book that really struck a cord with me.

Doubt is resistance, faith is surrender. Worry is resistance, joy is surrender. Control is resistance, allowing is surrender. Ridicule is resistance, believing is surrender.

I want to stop resisting my new role and all the changes that come with it. I want to surrender.

What are you resisting in your life?