The other night I was speaking with my child about her words. What was of particular concern to me was the way she said things. I told her she needed to apologize for something and she said “sorry” in that voice that didn’t sound at all like she was sorry. I told her she didn’t sound sorry. I told her that she needs to be mindful not just of what she says but HOW she says it.

For as long as I can remember, I have loved my birthday. Seriously, I count down the days starting at least 6 weeks out. Now, that I am a mom, I find I love their birthdays pretty much as much as I love my own. And I try my best to make their day as special as I can. This week my son turned 11. I already wrote about his party earlier, but I just can’t stop reflecting on it.

Today we celebrated my oldest son’s 11th birthday. How is it that I have been a mom for 11 years now? I have no idea…. but today isn’t about me. It is all about him. He wanted a nerf gun party. I was so thankful for picture perfect weather on party day. It was a ton of fun to watch them all racing around the yard shooting each other.

The kids and I spend a good amount of time in the van. And sometime last year I felt like maybe I was gonna pull my hair out as we fought over everything from whose turn it was to ride in the middle row, to whether or not we wanted the air blowing from the vents or not. Someone would inevitably kick someones seat, someone else would break out into an annoying song and before long ALL of us were grumbling and complaining.

It was 3 years ago this month that we accidentally stumbled across our house. And we fell in love with it. There are many things I appreciate about our house, but it was the backyard that captured my heart. And truthfully still holds my heart 3 years later. When Scott looks back there, he often is just overwhelmed with the work that needs to be done…. but I guess since those chores don’t typically fall on my plate, I honestly never see them.

Our oldest son has been a Cub Scout since first grade. I remember attending his first Blue and Gold banquet that year and watching the Webelos 2 crossing over and thinking, “Wow, those boys look so big.” Then I blinked… And before I knew it my boy was one of the big boys crossing over. Not sure how that happened so fast. He was blessed with two amazing den leaders.

We’ve been wishing for a snow that would cover the grass blades and last night we got just that… a little over 4 inches of powdery snow fell last night and Daddy took an extended lunch break to go sledding with us and enjoy it while we could. These two were my dare devils, trying to come up with whatever creative way they could to get the two of them down the hill the fastest.

The kids and I escaped down to VA for just shy of 24 hours to spend some time with my SIL and her family. I adore Scott’s sister so a visit to her house was a bright spot in our week. We arrived in the early afternoon with time for me to take the 4 boys to the park while Aunt Karen took the girls to run a few errands.

It’s hard to believe that my youngest will be school age next year. Seriously, how did that happen? Sometimes when we drop the big kids off at their tutorial on “school at the building days” he will pause outside the Kindergarten room and tell me, “That’s where I go next year Momma and then you will be all alone and so sad.” And my heart kinda breaks a little. Because he is right.

It really has been fun watching our youngest play soccer this fall. And he truly has been so excited to have a sport of his own to go to for practices and games. He’s lived up having his turn with the celebration plate. And besides the first game (in which he was very cold and a little under weather), pretty much every other game he has looked like this Smiley and happy….