April 30, 2019

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  • Robby was up way before me this morning since someone came and took his tractor. He was also able to give them a few more items so that helped clear out his shed. Kind of funny that he started his day working on the shed and tonight at 9, he was outside moving a shelf from one shed into another one. We are Marie Kondo-ing the sheds I guess. Unfortunately, we should be spending some of that organizational energy on inside this house.
  • We did our school today and everyone did fine. One of the reasons that everyone finishing early is so nice is because once Campbell is finished with her work, she starts helping Whitman. She is good because she doesn't do his work for him but does keep him more focused. 
  • I am not sure he will ever get passed first grade, but I will tell you he is the oddest and funniest child ever. Someone asked him how his yogurt was this morning. He replied, "it is dairy good." Did he hear that some where? Did he come up with that? Strange.
  • He is the same child that on Sunday when we were on our day trip, looked up and asked, "when are we stopping for a potty stop?" Glad he asked and all, but we had stopped and half of us went to the bathroom about 3 minutes before he asked. Oblivious.
  • Back to today and school, we were all finished in enough time before lunch for me to work on cleaning our shower which definitely needed cleaning. I don't have the right cleaner though so it still needs a better cleaning. I don't know what to use or buy because what I have just doesn't get it done. Possibly I just need a jack hammer.
  • We ate our lunches, and then I had everyone work on their chores. We followed that up with some reading, working on Jr. Ranger books and I worked with the big 3 on some of their work. As soon as we had finished all of that, I loaded up anyone who wanted to go and we went to Third Realm.
  • Only Campbell, Keaton and Whitman wanted to go. The place was pretty empty, and the workers were working on cleaning out the foam pits. My kids asked if they could help so instead of jumping, they were standing at the bottom of the foam pits throwing the blocks out. They found a lizard toy that the workers gave to Whitman. Campbell found over a dollar, Keaton found around 60 cents and Whitman also found a penny. I think this was the best time that they had ever had at Third Realm.
  • From there, we went to the library. These 3 love going there and picking out books. The girls are almost skittish to get books-like they have to convince me that they will read it. And they act like they don't want to get too many books. I, on the other hand, just throw books in my basket like a mad woman. I just want them to have something to read so I don't care how many they get. 
  • I thought that us listening to The Wizard of Oz would satisfy Whitman's craving for it. However, he asked while we were there if we could read the book-just me and him this summer. Well, poop, how could I say no to that. Once I found the book, he asked me how many more days it was until summer.  I told him that we might could start a bit earlier than summer.
  • Once we came home, I walked on the treadmill for a bit. When I finished, we headed to Chick Fil A for supper. They were having 2 free kids' meals with the purchase of an adult meal. So we bought 3 adult meals and had 6 kid meals. We even ended up with fries and nuggets to bring home. Most everyone just had the kids' meals ice cream for dessert. But Keaton and Campbell spent some of their gift cards-Keaton for a cookie and Campbell for a shake.
  • We did run to Lowe's on the way home. After we left, I told Robby how much I loved that store. I said that the possibilities were just endless with what all you could do. He reminded me that yes, you could even build a house.
  • Once we came home, Robby and I worked outside for a bit-just with some week killer (that happened to explode on some of my plants-hopefully, they can overcome the half gallon on weed killer on them.) and Robby worked on his shed. The kids all played outside with the neighbors so we were outside until almost 9.
  • Then we came in for showers, lunch packing, trash emptying and just a few minutes of ipad time. My kids have gotten used to staying up until almost 10 every night-I guess they are already in summer mode.

April 29, 2019

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  • It was at 2 this morning that Campbell came in to tell me that Keaton was sick upstairs. I hurried upstairs to find Keaton sitting by her mess on the floor. Bless it. At least she made it to the bathroom. 
  • I cleaned everything up, and then brought her downstairs. I could tell that she felt fine now, and I wasn't too concerned about any more events. She slept all through the night after that. And you know who else slept all through the night? Robby. He "never heard" Campbell, or me get up or even Keaton coming in to sleep on our floor. Hmm, doesn't that sound suspicious? Actually, he was sleeping so soundly during all of this that I did check to see if he was indeed breathing-he was.
  • My last night wake up event probably caused me to be a bit frazzled this morning or maybe it was because I hit snooze just a few too many times. I know exactly what time I need to wake up to start the day smoothly and I continually see that time on my clock and hit snooze!
  • The kids all made their breakfasts, and then we read and read. Today, we finished history! I thought that this would never happen. Now we will still have to work two or three more days on our timeline, but don't with history! That is cause for celebration. (Just FYI-next year's history will be modern times so that will be more interesting to me at least.)
  • School was finished by pretty much everyone by 11. Every day someone is finishing up something. Today, Anderson tried to work with me, but I had to remind him that the only thing we have to do together right now is check his math. These are my favorite few school weeks of the year when their load is lighter, and we can relax a little bit. Now the only way that these few weeks are possible is because we have worked our rears off through out the year to get all of our things finished.
  • Reagan had an orthodontist appointment at lunchtime. Robby was able to take her. It does seem that she will get her braces off next visit-that kind of scares me. I would prefer for those braces to stay on as long as possible so we don't have to deal with retainers. 
  • When they came home, we did some more school stuff before heading to Third Realm with all of the buddies. The boys get so sweaty there-it is just nasty. You wouldn't think that they are working that hard, but I guess that they most certainly are.
  • Once at home, I joined Robby out in the yard. We stayed out there until almost 8. As we worked in the yard, I made a mental list of everything that needs to happen at our Dennie compound. Campbell and Keaton were the last ones in tonight. They came in just as supper was ready-BBQ and baked potatoes. It hit the spot since we were pretty hungry from working in the yard. 
  • Everyone had showers tonight-well, I haven't had mine yet, but that is next. Since supper was so late, we didn't have much of an evening. I was still cleaning up the kitchen at 9 so by the time I sat down it was bedtime!

April 28, 2019

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  • It was nearly impossible to wake Whitman up this morning. I guess I should start telling Anderson and Graham that they can make a little more noise in their bedrooms in the mornings. They must be pretty silent not to wake Whitman while finding their Sunday clothes and changing in the dark room.  
  • Sunday's use to be such hard work but they are really fairly easy right now. There was hair, bottles, tights, breakfasts, dress shoes-wow, things are so easy right now. If I could just teach Whitman how to button his shirt then I could sleep in another 20 minutes or so. (No, it really doesn't take me that long to button his shirt.)
  • Church was church. My Sunday school class did walk out to the rock to read our passage. They enjoyed that, and it was fun to take a field trip. I wish I could find some place to go every Sunday to make things a bit more interesting. 
  • We did leave Sunday school early so we could make it to the Guess and Co. sale this afternoon in Des Arc. This was the only day that I could possibly go during their sale so Robby volunteered for us all to go together. Or, well, something like that. 
  • We weren't sure what we were going to eat for lunch so we didn't pack anything but snacks. However, we did decide on BBQ from Nick's BBQ on the way. First we did have to run to Walmart for me to buy buns and chips. That worked out find since Robby had to get gas as well.
  • Then we picked up the BBQ, and I dished it out to everyone. I told Robby that most people would find it strange to be making barbecue sandwiches while zooming down the interstate, but I don't really at all. It is like that is what I was made to do.
  • There wasn't crazy long lines at the sale today like there was in December. So we walked right in and walked around. There were many, many pretty things but we only bought a tray and sign. The sign says Bake Shop and will go in my kitchen. Now the tray is my favorite but I have no spot at all for it. I know I will at some point so I still bought it. 
  • Once we left the sale, we headed home a different way and stopped in Jacksonville at a fried pie shop. We had a chocolate, apple and vanilla. They were delicious even though I burned my tongue.
  • Then we had to fly back to Little Rock to get Reagan to her mission trip meeting at 4. From there Candice took her to her life group later in the evening so she was gone most of the night. Back at home, Robby and I unloaded the car and then we worked outside some. We tried to work on the garage and did move things around in his little shed.
  • The kids played outside for a long while. We did eventually have to make Campbell and Keaton go inside. The neighbors were having their family Easter party and even had an Easter egg hunt. Campbell and Keaton just stared at them from our yard like sad puppies-so we sent them in.
  • Soon I fixed this crew supper and then Robby and I ran to pick up Reagan from her life group. This is the last one of the season so that makes me a bit sad. I really like her life group people. We took Noah and Alyssa home as well so we were gone for a few minutes.
  • When we did arrive back home, I passed out a snack and then soon it was bedtime for all. It has been a pretty busy weekend.

April 27, 2019

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  • Even after staying up until 11 last night, the kids jumped up this morning when I started waking them up. Everyone really does love soccer days - I think even Whitman enjoys it. Campbell met us there after spending the night with Nonna and Pops.
  • Keaton's game was first, and the team she played had a super star on it. The score was pretty bad, but Keaton played hard and had fun. Whitman was next. Robby coached his team since his coach was out of town. They did win which is surprising because there are other boys on the team and are more distracted than Whitman.
  • Anderson and Graham were next. I do think that they lost, but man their team is so fun. They are so kind to each other, say things like "Good job, York" or "It's okay, Brodie," I think that they are my favorite to watch. Campbell was last and her team tied. Campbell was the goalie for all but the last period. She hustled hard that period, and hopefully her coach saw that she can do some good out of the field and will let her play the field some which is where she really wants to be. 
  • And Reagan-she was the ref for 3 games today. Once on Robby's field, once on the big field with another ref and once by herself. Some of the coaches aren't always kind to the refs (we saw that once today and also heard about it once today) so I did make sure that Reagan was fine when she was by herself, and she was just fine. 
  • Now the soccer game part is fun for the kids, but what they really enjoy is just being outside. During every half and in between every game, the kids find someone to play soccer with. The older ref girls have been so sweet to my little girls. Whitman always seems to find people to play with as well. We spied him playing duck duck goose at one point today with a bunch of little people. 
  • The weather was pretty perfect today. We are a bit pink, but not nearly as bad as last week. I did spray everyone much better, but probably should have reapplied it. It was so pleasant outside that I think that Graham forgot to drink enough water. By the time that we made it home, he knew he was going to be sick.
  • It was probably 30 minutes later, that I had him come outside where I was. We got him a chair and put the fan on him as Robby and I worked to replace his lawn mower blades. Soon I see Graham-he indeed was sick. I would have to guess that he was dehydrated because afterwards, he was just fine and spend the rest of the afternoon playing and eating. He did go to bed a bit early, but he more than any other Dennie kids gets tired and will go to bed if they are exhausted.
  • Robby mowed most of the afternoon. I picked up some sticks, fixed a picture frame and basically just piddled outside and played with the kids when they would come outside. It was a pretty perfect and pleasant afternoon.
  • It was around 7 when Robby and I left the house to get up some Mexican food. We ate and then hurried back to Burger King to pick up the kids' food. Not surprisingly, Burger King took almost as long as our meal. The kids gobbled up their food when we finally made it home.
  • Multiple showers were needed for some of us today which really just amounts to a wonderful day.

April 26, 2019

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  • I would like to start school at 8, but somehow it keeps getting later and later each day. Today was just 8:20 so it wasn't that bad. However, it does cut down on our reading time, and I have a precise schedule that I need to follow so I can finish some of our books before the end of school.
  • The kids all blew through their school work-especially Campbell who was almost finished by the time that we began-she knew she was going places today and was ready to leave. By 11, she had text Pops and asked him to come early to pick her up. She had finished her school and chores and packed her bag. She wasted no time at all.
  • Everyone else finished early too today which was nice. That did give me a chance to pull out school for the next week. Plus I started figuring out what I wanted everyone to do during the summer. There are only going to be 3 weeks this summer that all of my people are here and one of those weeks are VBS so it looks like this is going to be a pretty busy summer for the Dennie kids.
  • This afternoon went by fairly quick. I did walk on the treadmill-I don't mind it when I have some decent tv to watch, but today I just wasn't into it and wasn't pleased with any of my tv shows. 
  • When I finished, it was time to leave for Reagan, Anderson and Graham's last EAST. Their groups had presentations which was open to the families. They all had a bit to say during the presentations, and afterwards the teacher gave awards. Reagan's award was the Helping Hand award, Anderson received the Friendliest Neighbor and Graham's award was for an Awesome Attitude. 
  • Overall, they really learned a lot in their EAST program. They did learn and do more during the first semester than in the second, but it was still a good experience for them. I could almost be convinced to sign them up to do it again...almost.
  • Afterwards, we ran to Kroger to pick up some cheese that was on sale before dropping the boys off at basketball. While they were playing, we ran home for a few minutes. Then Keaton, Robby and I went to pick them up. Cash called on our way there to tell us that they finished early so our second trip to the store was delayed until after we picked up the boys.
  • Once at home, we heated up some pizzas and settled in for a quiet rest of the night doing nothing. 

April 25, 2019

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  • Thursdays have been my favorite day for as long as I can remember. It was rainy last night when we went to bed which made my sleep wonderful. I was hoping that the rain would continue through the day and cancel our soccer practice, but the sun shone through the clouds early this morning.
  • Today Anderson finished his spelling for the year. Actually, he finished the end of our spelling curriculum-7 levels. I made Reagan go back through each of the levels and spell all of the words to me this year. Now she has a page of words that she can't spell that we review each day. I am not too sure what I will do with Anderson next year. Possibly another spelling program or possibly what I did with Reagan.
  • Whitman goes back and forth between being super focused and super distracted all day long. It kind of makes me crazy. He did enjoy reading a book to his new Minecraft stuffed animal. Everyone was finished fairly early today-early enough that Graham and I cleaned his closet and Campbell and I finished her clothes switch over all before lunch. 
  • We had lunch and I read to everyone. Then after a few minutes, I gathered everyone to read to them again. They tried to convince me that I had read enough to them, but I would have none of that and read and read! 
  • This afternoon flew by since we left around 3 for Third Realm. We know now the workers by name, and they know all of the kids by name. It poured as we were there, and I continually checked my phone to see if soccer practice was cancelled. We then drove home in the pouring rain to put on our uniforms!
  • It wasn't rainy at the soccer fields-the sun was shining and it was even a bit warm. Keaton and Whitman had their practice first. Then Whitman and I ran to Dairy Queen to pick up hamburgers for supper. Everyone else had their practices last, and we had a car full of grass on the way home. 
  • The kids all had their showers in between eating the hamburgers-it is pretty amazing that 3 Dairy Queen hamburgers can field all 8 of us. (The burgers were doubles so we turned them into singles plus two folks had leftovers.)
  • We had a few minutes of downtime before it was finally bedtime. Campbell, Keaton and I watched an RV show-we are getting ready for November!

April 24, 2019

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  • I always have lots of grand plans on Wednesday mornings. My goal is to have the dishwasher emptied, the laundry folded and the trash emptied. Now if I would get up when my alarm clock goes off in the morning, then my list would be much more easily accomplished. However, I like to wait to the last minute to do things-it just makes my Wednesday mornings more exciting.
  • Campbell and Graham were the ones most excited about going to Bible study today. They each had to bring snack. Campbell had her brownies already made with plates and forks in a zip lock bag ready to go. Graham put his oreo balls on a plate before I had even mentioned it to him. 
  • After Bible study, we ran to Walmart. Whitman had a blanket to return from his birthday. He then picked a minecraft pillow and was super excited about it. Anderson bought himself a chocoalate bunny, plus I replaced his Razorback shirt. His shirt got torn at Third Realm the other day (by his older sister.)
  • The kids enjoyed jumping again today. They must talk about it alot because one of Graham's Bible study buddies asked to meet us there tomorrow. So I guess we have a big kid playdate-that's fun. 
  • Once we came home, Reagan finished her clothes switch over. Right now, Reagan wears everything fairly big so the clothes that she was finished with will fit Campbell. I helped Campbell with her clothes, and we will finish tomorrow hopefully.
  • We did get in a little school reading before it was time for supper. I fixed some roasted carrots along with a few pieces of chicken in the freezer along with some leftovers. We gobbled up our food so we could run to the library before heading to church.
  • Once we came home from church, we had a bit of down time and watched a few RV shows while eating a snack or two!

April 23, 2019

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  • I am not too sure why Robby and I keep waking up at 6:30 in the morning to go to the bathroom. Seriously, I know that is the time that we should get on out of bed and start our morning. However, it is so much more fun to curl up and sleep for another hour or so. 
  • My mornings would be a bit slower if I did go ahead and wake up, but what fun would that be. Robby headed off to Conway early today while I was herding everyone to my room to start on school.
  • Our fridge has been a bit contrary so we decided to empty it, turn it off and let everything completely defrost/unthaw out. That has made for lots of trip to the garage today. The first thing we needed outside was milk for our breakfasts. Whitman asked me a few times for another cup, but I just urged him to grab something from his mini fridge instead. The fridge is turned back on now and we are waiting on it to cool off before reloading it. Though we have talked about just bringing back things into the fridge and freezer as we need them.
  • Graham had a tough time during school today, and it took him until mid afternoon before he had calmed down and was his happy self again. Everyone did finish their school at a decent time-well, not Whitman. He can be focused or he can be not focused at all. When he did realize that everyone else was finished, I sat beside him and he finished an entire page before I realized what he had done. 
  • We had our lunch and gathered a few things from the outside fridge to eat. Then we had to take everything back outside. Campbell has snack for her Bible study class tomorrow so as soon as she was finished with her school work, she started on it. Graham also has snack so this afternoon we worked on his oreo balls. 
  • I helped work on clothes with Reagan and Campbell. We don't have too much to do in their room before I will be completely finished with the clothes changeover. I also had everyone try on bathing suits today-and Whitman wore his for most of the afternoon.
  • We met the Heltz at Third Realm this afternoon. The kids never seem tired of jumping. Once we made it home, I went to the treadmill while the kids tried to find neighbors to play with. They didn't find anyone to play with until after supper.
  • We had manicotti for supper, and it was delicious-some freezer meals are really yummy. When we do have a good freezer meal, I always want to make more things for my freezer. This evening everyone had their showers and started packing their lunches for tomorrow.

April 22, 2019

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  • Monday morning and I was up fairly early, but I did one of the things that I love-just laid in bed! It was wonderful and could have only been better if it was raining. When I realized that even Campbell was awake, I did get on up to start our morning.
  • Graham and Campbell went to town on their school work before we started school. They only had a few things to do during our official school day. I know they like finishing early, but I think that it would make for a long day and morning for them. Keaton realized this afternoon that maybe she wanted to finish early tomorrow so she started on her school work for Tuesday.
  • We did our reading and then everyone went to work on their own school work. We are finishing this week of school. Then we will only do 2 more weeks of school. 
  • Now there is a possibility I will have Reagan do some more science to come close to finishing it up. But I have been reminded that most real schools do not finish all of their textbooks so maybe I shouldn't feel that pressure.
  • I let the kids eat on their own today because I had a check up for my blood pressure meds. I have a new doctor and she was puzzled by my old medicine combo so she is changing my current meds. I don't mind changing meds but I do mind having to go back in a month for a recheck. As I get older, I am becoming less and less a fan of going to the doctor.
  • I hurried home so we would have time to read before heading the Third Realm. On the way there, I ran into Walmart to exchange Anderson's undies from yesterday (too small) and to pick up cream cheese for Graham's Bible study snack tomorrow. 
  • Then we jumped at Third Realm for an hour. The kids enjoyed jumping today. The moms enjoyed chatting until they turned up the music to a crazy level. Seriously, if OSHA had been there the workers would have to wear ear plugs. It was so loud that we were having to shout at each other. I would lean over and shout one thing to Amber and then have to lean towards Candice to shout it again so she could hear it.
  • Once at home, Campbell and Keaton went outside and there they stayed until 7 or 8ish. The boys and even Reagan played some outside this afternoon. They didn't go out as early as the girls, but they were still out long enough to need showers. 
  • We did have to clean our floors tonight because I neglected to sweep well on Sunday, and we had ants everywhere in the kitchen. Also we decided to defrost the fridge-the freezer has been getting frosty lately so hopefully that will help. However, that did entail us taking everything out of the fridge and freezer and carting it to the garage fridge and freezers.
  • We did use that opportunity to have lots and lots of leftovers for supper. Unfortunately, we didn't really clean much out. Well, Robby and I did devour a strawberry cake from the Wilson's house. 
  • It was nearly bedtime by the time that Robby finished with the floor. The kids weren't too happy about going to bed but there bedtime has been slowly creeping closer and closer towards 10 and I just don't like that at all!

April 21, 2019-Happy Easter!

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  • We were again up early this morning. Robby and I were about to climb out of bed when Whitman crawled over my head to get between us so we stayed a bit longer. Campbell, who was fully dressed, was next to come in our room. 
  • By the time that I walked through the living room, the big boys were dressed and on their ipads. I did have to wake up Keaton and Reagan. However, they did start stirring fairly quickly. We needed every extra minute this morning because we had our annual Easter pictures to take along with Easter baskets.
  • The kids all get socks and underwear in their baskets and have for a few years. They also had a bit of candy in there, but the kids seemed a bit underwhelmed with their baskets. That is fine with me though since most everyone needed new undies and I spent an ungodly amount on their undergarments. 6 packages of undies and 6 packages of socks are not cheap!
  • We had to leave a bit early because we were on parking detail at church. We did miss most of the meeting so that might be the reason that we didn't know what we were doing. We did figure it out eventually. 
  • Actually, not all of us helped on the parking lot. I sent Reagan and Whitman to put down our Bible and save us seats. They did come out briefly to check on us. At one point, Campbell asked if Robby knew everyone since as he was directing people, most of them were waving at him. And it did seem as if we did know quite a few of the folks pulling in our section. 
  • Graham and Keaton headed in next. When it was church time, I tried to get Campbell and Anderson to go on it, but they were really enjoying it so I ended up going in to church. Robby and those two stayed out until about 15 minutes after church had started.
  • It took me a few minutes to find Reagan and the seats that she had saved for us. When I walked in, everyone was standing singing-except for Whitman. I quickly rectified that and he was fine for the rest of the service. 
  • Church was great and full today. It was so full that we were in no hurry to get out of there. We waited around and took a few pictures at the photo booths before finally braving the parking lot. By the time that we left, the parking lot was cleared out pretty good.
  • At home, we got everything ready for our Easter lunch. We just had to heat up the dip, rolls and potatoes. Soon all of the family arrived, and we dug in to our Easter lunch. By the time that that the adults had started to eat, the kids had already finished their meals. I think they were pretty excited about the egg hunt.
  • Whitman did make some Easter eggs out of his dot markers for the kids to find. He was so pleased with himself. Next was the real egg hung. Now, I did have a lot less eggs this year but they still covered the yard. It didn't take very long for them to find all of the eggs that we had hidden.
  • Now, after finding the eggs each year my kids and Lilly and Cash all go inside and start opening their eggs and trading their candy. It is a like a swap meet or the stock exchange with everyone trading away. I think that this tradition might just be their most favorite part of finding eggs.
  • After the grands left, the neighbors came outside. The kids ended up playing outside until almost 8 when the neighbors had to go home. Then we loaded up and went to the Wilsons for a few minutes.
  • We took some chicken and Shannon had some yummy mac and cheese that my people devoured. We visited over there until it was absolutely bedtime for my crew. Once at home, everyone still had to have showers before bed. Everyone was kind of looking forward to doing school tomorrow since they can eat all of their candy as they work. 

April 20, 2019

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  • Another early morning for us. Today was a beautiful soccer day. All of the boys played first and were all excited. Anderson and Graham were excited about playing, but more excited about the birthday party they were going to later in the day. Whitman wasn't excited about playing at all but was excited about getting his game over with and earning his dollar.
  • Whitman did super again this week. Now when I say "super" that is a relative term. He didn't lay down on the field, cry or chase butterflies during the game. He actually ran the entire time and kicked the ball many times. I think there is a possibility that he just might score a goal by the end of the year.
  • Someone told me today that Anderson and Graham were the best players on their soccer team. They did lose by 2 today, but both played hard. I think that both of them were so close to scoring today. I didn't see a whole lot of their game because since Robby was coaching the big boys, I did stay closer to Whitman's game except when he was on the bench.
  • We then had a break between game. Keaton and Campbell stayed at Raymar while the rest of us ran an errand. All of the boys changed out of their uniforms while on the way. Now, I did leave Whitman's shoes at home so while we were at Walmart buying Anderson dress sandals, we picked up Whitman another pair of slides so he could have dry feet today. Those fields are so wet in the mornings that his shoes and both pairs of socks were soaked.
  • We then struggled to find something for lunch since it was just 10. Robby tried to get us food from a few places but we did end up with pizza. Even though it was early, we still ate our lunches when we arrived back at Raymar. 
  • Keaton's game was next which was fun. Reagan was her ref and Robby was her coach. And not surprisingly Keaton's team won their game-it helps to have a sympathetic ref. Keaton scored 2 of her team's 3 goals. She was so excited because Robby had told the kids that they would receive an additional dollar for each score that they made. 
  • After Keaton's game, I ran Anderson and Graham to a birthday party. They had a blast while there. It was a laser tag party so they came home even more hot and sweaty and sunburned! I had put sunscreen on the back of everyone's necks but neglected to think that it was a lot sunnier than last week and we needed more sunscreen. (I am glad that I did put sunscreen all over my face this morning.)
  • Campbell's game was last. I arrived in time to see most of it. She had Robby and all of her grands watching her so she was not neglected in the least. Campbell was the goalie the entire game. She is a great goalie but I don't think that she likes doing it the entire time. 
  • After the game, we did run to Kroger to find some rolls for tomorrow's lunch. Thankfully, there were a few bags left. Then it was home to unload the car and put those things away. I then worked on making the dip for tomorrow while Robby ran to pick up a trailer for some yard work.
  • He arrived home just as I was leaving to pick up the boys. I could tell by their attitudes that they were very tired after the party and soccer. But we still had hours of yard work to go. Anderson mowed and mowed outside while the rest of us raked, picked up sticks, and pulled weeds. The yard does look a lot better but we have miles and miles to go before it is all done. 
  • While Robby finished up outside, everyone had their showers and helped me decorate our Easter cookies. Then we all loaded up to go to Chickfila for a little treat. Once at home, Robby did shave off Whitman's mohawk.
  • Then I cleaned the kitchen and by the time that I sat down to do the blog, it was already bedtime for the crew. I know that they were a sleepy and sunburned bunch tonight.

April 19, 2019

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  • It was an early morning for us-I started stirring everyone around 7:15. Most everyone popped up. They were excited about their lemonade stand but they were also excited about getting to help at the garage sale. 
  • By the time that I was dressed, everyone else was ready. I am glad that we did grab coats as we were getting in the car because it was cool and windy all day long. I was actually a bit miserable when I made it home because I was just so chilled. 
  • When we arrived at the garage sale this morning, the kids set up their lemonade/cinnamon roll/ cookie stand. Business was pretty slow at first. Whitman and Anderson worked the stand the most with Campbell in at close second. 
  • It was too chilly for lemonade, but the snickerdoodle cookies were certainly the hit. We just about sold out of them. We only had a few takers on cinnamon rolls which works out perfectly because we have plenty for breakfast tomorrow and for snack tonight. The kids ended up making 25 dollars so that was really pretty good. I think that they were all very pleased.
  • My Campbell and Keaton spent most of the morning shopping. They really wanted to help with the garage sale like Lilly and Reagan were able to so they shopped instead. They did find quite a few little treasures. 
  • Robby came around lunch time with hot dogs and wraps for everyone to eat. The kids ate like they hadn't eaten in a day or two. Once Robby left the big 3 plus Whitman headed home with him. Campbell, Keaton and I stayed a little bit longer. We eventually headed home for a few minutes.
  • While we were at home, I stuffed the rest of our Easter eggs while some the boys and little girls played outside. Then it was time to meet the Powells at Third Realm. The kids enjoyed jumping today and I enjoyed chatting with Amber. 
  • After coming home, we ate some supper then Robby cut the boys' hair. He did leave one child with a Mohawk. Whitman was so excited when Robby said that he could have his hair cut like that. 
  • While Robby was cutting hair, I had everyone else working on cleaning the house. The house is now clean and afterwards, we dyed our Easter eggs. The kids still enjoy doing that, but they do take less and less time each year. Whitman and Campbell were the last ones working tonight.
  • Campbell, Keaton, Whitman and I then went to work cutting out and baking cookies for Easter. That didn't take too long and when they was done, I sat down in my new chair. Dana was getting rid of one of her chairs so I snagged one for me. It is so much more comfy than the brown leather chair that I usually sit in at night.
  • At bedtime, we did the resurrection eggs. Everyone is big enough now to take 2 verses and read them before opening an egg. It is the sweetest thing to hear them all able to read scripture. Of course, Whitman's little baby voice is precious. He is working on memorizing the Lord's Prayer during school so he reads it every day and my heart just melts listening to him. 
  • We again stayed up way too late since we have to wake up way too early in the morning, but everyone is excited about playing their games tomorrow.

April 18, 2019

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  • Robby and I both woke up during the storm last night. It was pretty nice hearing the thunder roll. I did expect someone to come downstairs, but really I guess the only folks who might come down are Campbell, Keaton and Whitman. They all slept right through the lightening and thunder.
  • I stayed in bed a bit longer this morning because I was enjoying reading about all of the weather and roads that were closed. Apparently, Lawson was a mess this morning. Quite a few kids were out of school today, but my kids didn't get wet at all on their way to school.
  • We did our reading and then started on our last day of school for the week. We continue marking things off of our lists so people are finishing earlier each day which makes for a nice day. 
  • I was able to throw a few more things in a garage sale box. I should have taken a picture but we completely filled up the back of Robby's car. We even had to take down his seats so everything would fit. I really could probably go back through the house and fill the back of the car again.
  • We ate lunch and then did some reading for school. Now, after we read the kids made their signs for their lemonade stand. Once we finished the signs, Campbell, Keaton and I made 2 batches of snickerdoodles. The kids have always wanted to have a lemonade stand so we are doing it up big-unfortunately, when you have 5 brothers and sisters, your profit is split by 6 so they won't make too much at all. 
  • At 4, we met out buddies at Third Realm. Everyone jumped without too much drama. Then Robby brought his car which Reagan and I jumped in and headed to Dana's house. I didn't plan on the rain coming back and coming back with a vengeance while we were trying to unload the car, but it sure did.
  • We then ran to the grocery store in the messy rain. By the time we got back to the car and threw the bags in the back, we were pretty soaked. When we made it home, Robby already had waffles, sausage and strawberries ready for everyone's supper. 
  • It was a fairly quite night around the house. We finished getting ready for tomorrow, I pulled out some school for next week and even stuffed a few Easter eggs. Eventually, it was bedtime for everyone and I am even a bit sleepy tonight. 

April 17, 2019-Branson Trip 2

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We all slept pretty well in our room. Next door though, Grannymom said that Anderson coughed and coughed in the middle of the night. She did wake him up to have him drink some water and made his pillows higher and that did solve it.

The poor guy does have a pretty good cold. We had only gotten about 50 feet from the car today at Silver Dollar City when he asked if I had his breather. I ran back to get that and he took a puff from it. I should have thought about all of the pollen and given him some zyrtec. (I give some to Keaton each morning for her eczema so I will now start giving him some each morning.) 

By mid morning, Anderson's eyes kept getting redder and redder. They were soon bright red, and he couldn't stop rubbing them. Robby walked back to the car to get the eye drops for him. I was pretty thankful that we were packed up and those drops weren't back at the hotel. I now know that I need to bring them where ever I go right now. After we poured the bottle into his eyes, they did improve. It was pretty amazing how fast that medicine helped his eyes.

Unfortunately, I don't have any medicine that helped his stuffy and runny nose tonight. I would have to assume that he just has a cold or possibly it is allergies-either way, he was pretty miserable tonight when he went to bed. Hopefully, he will sleep all night long.

Back to our morning though. My room slept a bit too long and had to scurry around to get ourselves ready. We still had plenty of time to enjoy our breakfast. The breakfast was decent but there was no place to sit because they had the breakfast room filled up with a swap meet of some sort. Odd. 

Then we loaded the car and headed to Silver Dollar City. The kids saw a bus and began panicking about there being long lines. They were pleasantly surprised when we could pretty much walk right on any ride all day long. The longest they had to wait was probably about 10 minutes the first time they rode Time Traveler. The next time they rode the ride there was no wait.

We hit all of the big rides today-even the big kiddie rides. I still haven't gotten Whitman to the ropes area and on the train. We did stop at the ball place, and all the kids loved that. They have all of these loud guns and cannons that shoot balls out. However, Graham and Reagan didn't use those-they just continually pegged each other with balls over and over again. 

Grannymom and Grandpa saw a show in the morning time. Then we joined them at another saloon type show. Keaton, Campbell, Graham and Whitman were sitting on the front row. It was pretty funny so I know that they enjoyed it. Afterwards, we went to find some lunch. There weren't a lot of places open so we mainly just ate our snacks from our bag. We did however end our lunch with our cinnamon bread.

In the afternoon, Grannymom and Grandpa went to another show while we finished riding the rides. We all finished up at about the same time and then headed back to the car. The ride home wasn't too bad at all. We stopped in Marshall to pick up some pizza and potty. 

The pizza was delicious or we were very hungry. We pretty much devoured two huge pizzas. We ate in the car and everyone continued asking for seconds. The ride was a bit long up until Marshal but after everyone had supper and a drink in their hands, the ride seemed to fly by. 

In Conway, Grannymom and Grandpa climbed in Robby's car and rode home with them. The rest of us hurried home so we could unload the car before Robby made it home. We had the car mostly unloaded when he came. Then we put everything away and then loaded up Robby's car with our garage sale stuff to drop off tomorrow.

The kids had showers while Robby and I worked on some cinnamon rolls. There is just not enough hours in the day. The dough is rising now, then we have to roll it out and let it rise for another hour before baking it! It might just be a late night.

April 16, 2019-Branson Trip 2

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The tooth fairy didn't come until early this morning. I actually heard movement upstairs and was about to hurry up there, but couldn't find my cash stash. The fairy had already put everything exactly where it should go. 

Keaton was pleased with her 2 dollars from the tooth fairy. No one else seemed to complain even though the tooth fairy hasn't given that much money for a tooth in years. I guess they realized that teeth that are pulled are worth more money. We soon began on our school work. Everyone seemed to fly through their school today. Anderson was the last one finished, but he was finished way before noon though. Nonna stopped by to bring everyone a Sonic drink this morning. They were delighted to see her and delighted to see her drinks. 

Before lunch, we worked on a few chores around the house. The biggest chore we had to do was to bring all of my garage sale stuff down from the attic. My pile looked huge in the attic, but once it was stacked neatly in the garage it didn't look so big after all.

I sat down for a few minutes and then had to scurry around for us to leave. Anderson had some medicine ready at Sams so we ran to pick that up and then picked up Grannymom and Grandpa.

I drove us all to Conway where we met Robby. Then from there we zoomed to Branson. It didn't take us long at all to get up here. We had a few snacks-Robby did make our traveling rice krispy treats last night. 

We did stop for a potty break just once on the way. The kids were pretty quiet during the trip since they were busy playing on their ipads. Once in Branson, we drove right to Danna's BBQ. We beat the crowds because by the time that we left the place, all of the tables were full.

The food was delicious. Robby had a bbq baked potato which was very good. Campbell and I split bbq nachos and everyone else had bbq sandwiches. More than one Dennie said that they wanted to come back and eat there again.

From there, it was just a short hop to our motel. The rooms are decent, and we hung out for a few minutes before going out for our next adventure. We headed out to The Landing. We walked around a bit and went into a few stores.

Campbell and Keaton enjoyed playing on the large chair while the boys played the bean bag game. We were nearby when the fountains did their show so we all watched that. We walked through a few stores. Graham enjoyed the sports store full of sportsy logos. He said that he could live in that store.

We didn't need Hurts or Andy's so we opted for ice cream sundaes from McDonalds. From there, it was a short drive back to the hotel. We vegged out for a little bit before finally bedding down in our hotel rooms. The big boys are sleeping in Grannymom and Grandpa's room and the rest of us are in our little room. It is pretty cozy in here!




















April 15, 2019

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  • I told Robby last night that if I woke up before 7, then I would walk on the treadmill before school time. I then also encouraged him that if he had to go to the bathroom before 7 to please be very, very quiet. Thankfully, I slept soundly until my alarm clock went off. Honestly, mornings would be the ideal treadmill time, but that just doesn't work for lazy me. Now, I was able to walk this afternoon.
  • We started on our school work and most folks flew through it quickly. We are steadily marking things off making school days a bit easier which is nice. Everyone finished fairly early and went to work on their chores.
  • On Friday, Keaton had mentioned that her tooth hurt. I looked at it, and it looked brownish but her gums didn't look swollen. I looked and saw that our dentist was closed on Fridays so this morning, I asked if her tooth was still hurting. She said that it was a tiny, tiny bit.
  • I wasn't really sure what to do, but did call and make an appointment. Robby took her there at noon, and around 12:20 he text to tell me that they were about to pull her tooth. Apparently, her tooth was abscessed. Her permanent tooth is about to grow there so no need to worry about the space. Dr. Jolley said that she did super great and has already text to see how she was doing.
  • When she did come home, her little face was puffy and she had cotton in her mouth. Bless, she looked pitiful. Campbell went into nurse mode and made sure that she was okay. We had been in the middle of working on shoes so Campbell helped Keaton try on and pick what shoes she wanted. 
  • I had put applesauce in the fridge for her, but she said that she didn't like applesauce. I scanned the fridge for something soft since she hadn't had lunch. Robby had bought her a Sonic drink, but her mouth was too numb to drink it. Thankfully, I did find her some marshmallows. (She gobbled down chicken spaghetti for supper and popcorn for snack tonight didn't seem to bother her.)
  • Soon we headed the Third Realm to meet our buddies. I wasn't too sure that Keaton would jump-she wanted to go but had said she wasn't going to jump-but jump she did. Everyone had lots of fun jumping and were incredible sweaty when we came home.
  • The girls and Whitman played outside and actually only came in to eat supper for a little bit tonight. Then everyone but Whitman headed back outside. He was in the middle of a Wizard of Oz cartoon. 
  • We were going to have everyone come in at 8, but they all floated in minutes before. They took their showers, and we all settled in the living room to watch the Wizard of Oz. Whitman had been begging to watch it for weeks so tonight was finally his night. 
  • Robby made two batches of popcorn for us to eat. Most everyone liked the movie but they were not as interested in it as Whitman. He loved every single minute of it! Now he is just waiting on the book on tape that is coming from the library soon. 

April 14, 2019

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  • Everyone seemed to stir fairly quickly this morning. A little bit of that was because Camryn had spent the night so my little girls wanted to be ready to hang out with the big girls as much as they could. And a little bit of it was because we did have leftover doughnuts for breakfast.
  • We were able to see the grands before we sat down for big church. Campbell and Whitman tried really hard to sit on the front row. I made them move back but we did tell Campbell that she could sit on the front row. We reminded her that her daddy always did growing up, but she did not want to sit by herself.
  • In Sunday school, we barely had enough time to do our craft and eat our snack which does make the time go by quickly. Then we headed on to Grannymom's house for lunch. After everyone ate, Keaton went with Dana to see her puppies. Then we picked her up and headed to Third Realm with Cash.
  • The kids enjoyed jumping for an hour. I think that they were pretty tired today because they did keep sitting by us. Now, Anderson has been having some problems with his asthma so that was his reason. Hopefully tomorrow I can pick up a refill for some of his better medicine to help out a bit. (Don't worry though, he still has medicine here and was fine tonight.) 
  • Also tomorrow, Keaton has been complaining of a tooth that hurts. It looks dark-ish to me so that will need a dentist call and visit. Now, she acted like it didn't hurt tonight but better safe than sorry. But that is tomorrow, back to today. I started working on my to do list there on my blog, didn't I?
  • We dropped Cash off and then rushed home to take a little snooze. Before too long, it was time to head back to church. Robby and I wanted to see The Kingdom again so the little 3 came with us. Campbell and Keaton were convinced to come because we said that we would sit in the balcony. Whitman didn't think that he wanted to come, but he was so wide eyed the first time we saw it, that I knew he would enjoy it again.
  • The line to get into the church house stretched all the way across the parking lot. It was something to see. The place was packed tonight with over 200 in the overflow. We enjoyed it so much again.
  • It was already late when it was over but we had a few errands to run. Robby dropped me off at Kroger where I did some speed shopping. Then he ran with the kids to Dairy Queen to pick up our burgers-not for tonight, but for tomorrow's lunch. He also picked up the little drinks at McDonalds.
  • I really did some speed shopping. I had to stop shopping when my buggy was full-completely full. So I checked out and had to wait a good 10 minutes on Robby to finish running his errands. If you remember the show Supermarket Sweep, I would be a good contestant on there.
  • Once at home, it was quickly bedtime for the kids and time to unload the groceries, do laundry and dishes for Robby and me!

April 13, 2019

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  • We found out last night that there would not be soccer this morning, so we planned to sleep as late as we could. Obviously, we knew we would be up fairly early because after all we did have 6 kids.
  • Whitman was the one who came in our room first this morning. We did get him to lay by us for a few minutes, but after hearing his stomach growl and him asking for breakfast, I did get up. He asked for me to get him breakfast and breakfast for his bear because they were going on a picnic.
  • Now, when Reagan was little, I would have gotten Reagan her breakfast and then just handed her an empty plate and cup for her bear. I think that I am a little bit more of a relaxed mom these days-I made Whitman a full breakfast and I also made his bear a full breakfast. 
  • A bit later, Robby came through and reported that Whitman had eaten all of his breakfast and bear had eaten over half of his. Bear did eventually finish off his meal but neither of them asked for more.
  • We ran to Pennys at 10 to pick up a coupon. Campbell and I tried to find her an Easter something in just a few minutes, but we weren't able to. We knew that would happen so Robby and I had brought two cars so Campbell and I could return to Pennys after we met our buddies at Third Realm. 
  • After jumping, we ran back to the store in the pouring rain. It was messy outside and pretty crowded in the store. It took a while, but we did finally find Campbell an Easter shirt and some pants to wear to church. She is a hard one to fit. We had even found another shirt which I thought would be buy one get one free. However, it was not on sale so we didn't get it. Thankfully, that was just an extra shirt and not the one that she really wanted but still-urgh!
  • We then hurried home-well, we didn't hurry because it was raining cats and dogs. I jumped in the shower while Campbell ate and then we switched places. Everyone else had already eaten and dressed and were waiting on us. 
  • We then went to the matinee of The Kingdom. It had been 4 years since the choir had done it, and it was wonderful. Better than I remember. There were a few changes and it was just so good. We are even planning on going back tomorrow night.
  • Then we brought Camryn home with us and picked up pizza on the way. After we got the kids settled, Robby and I left to eat supper with the McGuires. We ate at The Pantry. It was pretty good though I wasn't crazy about what I ordered. I usually always have order envy and wish I had ordered what someone else had. Robby's meat was covered in blueberries which was pretty delicious (even he liked it.)
  • We did pick up donuts for the kids snack and for Sunday school tomorrow on the way home. The kids were all playing a game in the living room when we arrived. We passed out donuts and then let them play our shocking hot potato game. That was fun. And I did capture a picture of Whitman that perfectly shows the hot potato game.
  • Then it was almost bedtime for the crew. Reagan did tell me late tonight that Whitman saw her and Camryn editing photos. Whitman said, "oh, so you are making a montage." Poor Reagan didn't even know what that meant, but her 6 year old brother did and used the word correctly. 

April 12, 2019

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  • After waking everyone up, we started on our school work. I enjoy school when it is our 4th school day of the week. Things are a bit easier for me-not for Anderson though because he always saves his hardest items for the last day.
  • School was uneventful enough that I had time to make grilled cheese sandwiches for everyone's lunches. I took specific orders-some with turkey, some with regular cheese, some with mustard. It was pretty complicated but everyone did receive the right orders.
  • Whitman made a scavenger hunt for Anderson which Anderson graciously did with him. Of course I was the one who actually had to make the scavenger hunt to Anderson. Whitman still had school work to finish so I made sure that he worked on that before grabbing his ipad after he finished with Anderson.
  • Now, I eventually decided that I better help the poor distracted boy out or he would never finish his school work. I do think that if he was in a real classroom he would definitely have to be on some meds for attention. I sat down and did the writing while he told me the answers to help him finish his work.
  • Around 3, I jumped in the car with the bigs to take them to East. This is their next to last class and I think that are looking forward to being done with it. They have learned a lot yet they have also wasted a lot of time. 
  • Robby worked in the yard and then took the littles to Third Realm for some jumping. Then they ran to Walmart and to eat while I dropped off the big boys at basketball. Reagan and I then did some shopping and picked up food for the 3 big kids. 
  • Once at home, everyone finished eating, showered and then Keaton and Robby made some cookie dough and cookies for us to enjoy before bedtime.

April 11, 2019

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  • Only Anderson and Graham were awake this morning while no one else in the house was stirring at all. I think that my girls could sleep in their dark and cozy room for hours. 
  • Usually Keaton is a bit difficult to wake up, but this morning she was one of the first ones to grab her breakfast. After everyone had their breakfast, we started on our morning reading. That led to everyone's individual work. Today we finished Campbell's spelling up which made me super happy. 
  • My last one to finish school today was Whitman. I am not too sure what in the world he did all morning long. Seriously, that child. Keaton would finish her school work in 30 minutes to an hour, but it takes Whitman forever. Not because the school work is hard for him, but because he rolls on the floor, talks to everyone, plays with everything and even probably hides a bit!
  • We had our lunch and did some work on our chores. Then Keaton and I finished work on her clothes. Robby came in the closet at once and just uttered, "oh my." It was indeed a mess.
  • Then we did some more reading before the kids had some down time. Then we loaded everyone up and headed to Third Realm. After a bit of jumping it was time to head to the next event.
  • Of course the next event, was getting gas for my car. I was down to 7 miles before empty. Then it was to Chick Fil A for free nuggets for everyone. The place was quickly filling up with church folks as we gobbled down our food to head to practice.
  • The kids all had soccer practice tonight. This was my first time so my main duty was to keep Whitman out of the creek. I did pretty well until almost the end. He at least didn't get his feet wet, but he did manage to take Graham's hat and scoop water up with it. Bless that child, I'm just not sure if he will make it!
  • Once we came home, everyone had to shower-we probably should have taken two showers to get all of the pollen off of us. Then we had popcorn and watched some tv before it was bedtime.

April 10, 2019

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  • After hauling Whitman down the stairs and putting him on my bed, he still snoozed during my shower and even while I was getting ready. I had to finally wake him up so he would have time to eat before we left for Bible study.
  • Robby did jump up a hair before me this morning and made the monkey bread for Anderson's Bible study snack. When the monkey bread was in the oven, Anderson asked if we were going to make the monkey bread. I told him that it was in the oven, and he seemed a bit disappointed that he didn't get to help.
  • He was pretty pleased though to take his monkey bread into his class today. I was actually pretty pleased to munch on it all afternoon long. I ate some before the treadmill and even had some after the treadmill. Not so sure why I even got on the treadmill at all this afternoon.
  • After Bible study, we ran to Grannymom and Grandpa's house for a few minutes. We sat around and chatted for a bit. Then my crew met their buddies at Third Realm. Campbell hurt her ankle, Graham was a bit too yell-y during the kids' game and Whitman was a little toot stealing the big kids' ball during their game over and over again.
  • When we left Third Realm, I dropped the boys off at Nonna and Pops' house, and they helped with mowing for a little bit. The rest of us came home, and Keaton and I went to work on her clothes. We just have a little bit of work tomorrow, and we will be finished with her stuff.
  • Pops and Nonna brought the boys home. They had a few minutes of down time. Meanwhile, Campbell and Keaton went outside to play with the neighbors. 
  • Robby and I went to work on supper-quesadillas which always seem to make everyone happy. We had to scarf down our supper before heading to church. I ran into the library with Campbell for a minute. I had to pick up the movie The Wizard in the Oz. Whitman is pretty obsessed with that movie right now-even though he hasn't seen it so that will part of our weekend plans.
  • We did the church thing tonight. I was outside on the playground all night and left stuffier than I was before church started. The pollen is every where!
  • Once at home, folks took showers and had some leftover cake. We once again let the kids stay up a wee bit too late so tomorrow might be difficult for Whitman!...and possibly me!

April 9, 2019

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  • Another day of school here. I'm feeling better today but still stuffy. Reagan is the pretty much the same. However, after letting everyone stay up until almost 11 last night, it was pretty hard to wake everyone up. 
  • Anderson and Graham were already awake, but the others dragged themselves down the stairs. Well, Whitman did have me carry him down the stairs, and I agreed. I laid him on the couch, and he asked me for a "surprise breakfast." 
  • I wasn't really to stir up a surprise breakfast for the boy so he just received cheese and crackers along with some fruit loops. He told me that he didn't like the fruit loops so I munched on them as I read and read and read this morning.
  • Things went fairly well with school this morning. Graham did have a melt down with his writing, but he did pull it together and finished well. He gets easily overwhelmed. His writing curriculum has him write a paragraph (this week 2) but then he has to add a whole list of dress ups and sentence openers to make the paragraph a bit fancier. Nothing about his writing curriculum is easy and it just gets harder each year.
  • We finished in time to eat lunch and do just a few chores. The girls and I had to leave around 1:40, so we had to do our afternoon reading pretty fast. 
  • Today, Keaton and Campbell cashed in their Christmas gifts. They had each received tickets to take their friends to the movies. The girls decided that Dumbo was a good movie to see and indeed it was pretty cute.
  • Three of our friends were sickly so it was just 5 friends. We did get to pick up Laynie from school so that was fun. I had brought candy for everyone and then bought plenty of popcorn and had cups to split a few drinks for them. I felt like a waitress at the end of the movie-passing out candy, scooping up popcorn and refilling drinks. I made about 3 trips to the concession stand plus 2 trips to the bathroom during the movie so I really don't know if the movie was good or not since I didn't see half of it.
  • After taking everyone home, we met up with the boys at Nonna and Pops' house. They had a big afternoon-the went to Nothing but Bundt Cakes to receive a free cake. Whitman was pretty excited that he got a cake just for him. He also thought the name of the store was pretty funny since he really couldn't see "bundt" and it came out more like "butt."
  • Nonna and Pops had supper for us since we missed Sunday lunch at their house. They had hamburgers and all of the fixings. After we ate, Nonna also had one last birthday cake for Whitman. He had pretty much already forgotten about his birthday so was happy to blow out one more set of candles. 
  • Once we came home, the kids had their showers while I prepared Anderson's monkey bread to make for his Bible study snack. Plus everyone had to pack their lunches for tomorrow. I hope that I reminded everyone to pack their lunch! We shall see tomorrow at lunch time.

April 8, 2019

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  • I do believe that Robby is the only one in this house who is not sickly or has not recently recovered. Reagan and I have been the last two to fall victims to our little cold that we are all passing around. 
  • I could have actually stayed in bed a lot longer this morning, but school was calling my name. It was a bit later than usual, but we still knocked out our working together. Soon I started working with everyone individually. I used to save Whitman to the end to work with, but he now wants to work with me earlier in the morning. That is fine because he sits in my lap while I read him a book and he reads me one, so I enjoy a bit of cuddle time.
  • I had time to work on some of my garage sale stuff this morning before we had lunch. Even Anderson was finished with his work before it was noon. Everyone ate while I read some this afternoon. 
  • The kids worked on a few chores-the girls' closet has become pretty trashed lately. I did have them pick it up some but I do know that in a few days, it will be time to switch over to summer clothes. 
  • We actually started working on Keaton's clothes today. I didn't find an Easter dress for her in the boxes her size so I went to a larger size box. Thankfully, the very first box that I opened had the perfect and cutest dress ever laying on the top. This made me so dreadfully happy.
  • Reagan had a quick meeting at church this afternoon. Afterwards is when I did go to work on Keaton's clothes. I am not sure if we can do anything else tomorrow, but hopefully we can on Wednesday.
  • I had bunko tonight so I left a bit early to pick up movie tickets for tomorrow. Then I went to have Anderson's name on his Bible. They were no longer doing that at Lifeway so I went to Mardels. It was perfect because I had just enough time before my bunko.
  • Meanwhile, at the house the girls and Whitman stayed outside for a good while. The girls stayed out until Robby had one of the boys call them in. I think that they enjoyed being outside for a bit this afternoon. 
  • The game was still on and the boys were watching it so we did let everyone stay up for a bit longer to see the end of the game-though Graham was the only one who was watching or really the only one who remotely cared. 

April 7, 2019

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  • Anderson was the only one awake this morning. I had to climb over Graham, Alyssa and Reagan to open the blinds so people would start stirring around here. I did carry Whitman down the stairs to snuggle with him a bit in the bed before he put on his clothes and left me.
  • For some very strange reason, we were all ready early this morning-actually we were ready early enough that even Robby and I sat down for a few minutes before rushing out the door.
  • Robby took Campbell and Keaton to church first since they had to sing on the stage during worship. The rest of us left about 5 minutes behind them. We made our rounds to see the grands and then settled in our row for church.
  • We are already a bit smushed on our row and that was even before Campbell and Keaton came to join us after they sang. Many of us have a little bit of a cold but Campbell and Graham are the current cough-ers. 
  • After Graham had coughed enough, I pointed for him to leave the place. He walked out and lo and behold Campbell realized what had just happened and started coughing herself. I guess her little mind thought that coughing was her ticket out of there. She did cough enough that the lady beside her handed her a pack of life savers. 
  • We survived the rest of church without anyone having to leave or being given more candy. then it was Sunday school time for a few minutes before we headed out to work Feed the Need. We had a few minutes to eat lunch which Robby had picked up for us.
  • Then we joined the masses of folks working at the Kroger. There were tons of people there, but quite a few of the kids ended up in the truck sorting bags of food with me. I thought that this was a perfect spot for us-we didn't have to talk to people and it would be dry with the rain coming.
  • Unfortunately, not only was it going to rain but it was going to storm so we had to leave the truck. I then joined Robby on the other side of the building passing out cards to people as the came in the store. Now, it is kind of funny to watch because talking to people just kills Reagan. She tried her hardest not to say a thing to anyone at all. On the other hand, Whitman tried his hardest to memorize what he was going to say. He handed the card to one person, said "we are collecting...oh, I forgot my script!" and walked off. 
  • The rain came and the storms came so we headed inside the store to do some shopping for Feed the Need and some shopping for Feed the Dennies. Many of the kids stayed with all of the workers-I think that they really enjoyed the afternoon.
  • We then came home for a little bit, long enough to have a short nap, before we had to head back to church. Tonight, Anderson's received his 6th grade Bible. After church, they had cupcakes and lemonade so the kids certainly enjoyed that. 7 of us here have received first grade Bibles and now two Dennies have gotten 6th grade Bibles so we are racking up the Bibles from church.
  • When we came home from church, we pulled out the leftovers for supper. Then we opened up a game that Robby had bought. It is like hot potato except that when the music stops you get shocked-like really shocked. 
  • Reagan read the reviews while they were working on the batteries and she sure wasn't going to play. We did convince her finally. We first played the version with just music and no shock. After that we played the shock version with music. Eeek! It was a pretty good shock but the most fun part was watching the kids expressions when they were shocked. And lastly, we played the silent version with only a shock at the end. That was the most stressful game I think that I have ever played. My heart even might still be racing-hope that isn't from the shock! (just kidding Mom, don't worry.)

April 6, 2019

(click here for today's pictures)

  • We should have woken up earlier than we did this morning, but Robby still had time to make biscuits and cinnamon toast for my soccer stars. He did have a hard time finding Whitman this morning-he was in Anderson's bed. Then Robby couldn't even wake the boy up!
  • We did leave a few minutes later than we should have today, but we did make it to Whitman's game on time. He doesn't really want to play soccer, but Robby offered him a dollar for playing hard so the boy did so much better than last year.
  • Listen, last year Whitman kicked the ball about 10 times total. This time, he was near the ball the entire time. He kicked the ball a few times and thankfully, never rolled around in the grass. During halftime, he looked at me and asked, "what do I have to do to get that dollar?" I told him to keep running and playing hard. And he did!
  • He was so happy when his game was over-well probably because his game was over but also because he was given a dollar to spend at the snack shack. The boy was so pleased with his skittles and some other gooey candy.
  • We then had a break during the next game and stayed in our spots to watch the Heltz littles play their game. Next up was Keaton's game. Last year, Keaton was a power house but this year she is one of the youngest on her team which makes a big difference.
  • She did 4 cart wheels coming out of the tunnel which probably made her more happy than anything that happened during the game. Her team lost but they did really well. Robby is Keaton's coach and spent the first half of her game, yelling and coaching with his ear buds in his ears listening to a funeral.
  • Now during Keaton's game, Reagan was on another field being a referee. She gets to ref this year to make some money for her camp. That will be a really great thing for her since she has to pay for her second camp. She reffed two games today. I did watch her and she really did good. She was in charge of the field-used her whistle and told everyone what they needed to do. I did hear of a few coaches fussing at the refs today (nor Reagan) so I might better keep a closer eye on her.  
  • Anderson, Graham and Campbell all played the last game. Robby is Anderson and Graham's coach. They did really well. They do have one player who really just stands there. They just lost by 1 point but I think both boys had fun. Last year, Anderson's team just weren't any good at all. This year at least they have a chance.
  • Campbell missed her first practice and her second and extra practices were both rained out so she didn't know her coach or team today. She played goalie for a while, and at one point the ref was talking to her. The ref was a girl that Robby coached in Upward Soccer when she was probably 4. Now she plays soccer all the time and was giving pointers to Campbell. I thought that was really neat. 
  • Campbell's team did lose, but they had fun. She did tell me that her coach told her that he needed her to score a goal because she was the best player on the team. I am not sure if that was really said or if he said that to everyone (like I tell all the kids they are my favorite.)
  • We made it home right before the rain started. I pulled out school for tomorrow and made some brownies while Reagan showered. Soon Robby and Reagan headed to Bryant to take her to a middle school party. They were having a crawfish boil during the basketball games tonight. 
  • Robby picked up pizza for our supper and made it home just as it was raining pretty hard. The rest of us huddled up in the living room to watch the games.  
  • We tried to watch the games but all we could hear were sounds of people coughing. Cough, cough went Graham. Cough, cough went Campbell. Cough, cough went Keaton. Aaagh! It could kind of make a person crazy. I gave them all a big dose of cough medicine that didn't help a lick. 
  • When the second game was almost over, we sent the little 3 to bed. Robby was heading out then as well to pick up Reagan and Alyssa along with Noah and Kennedy. He dropped the LR people off and then came home with Alyssa and Reagan. She spent the night over here. Robby listened intently on the way home to glean as much information as he could!
  • We have to wake up early tomorrow because Keaton and Campbell sing in big church. Hopefully, we can manage with all of our little sunburned faces. Well, I am not sunburned but everyone else is a bit pink. I did spray the backs of the boys' and Robby's necks but neglected to do Reagan's so she is pretty red.

April 5, 2019

(click here for today's pictures)

  • No school today for the Dennie's. Around nine, we loaded the car and headed to LR Christian. They had a play today which they offered to homeschoolers. We jumped on that along with all of our buddies. 
  • The play was Meet Me in St. Louis, and it was really neat. It has been years since I have been to a high school play so I was very impressed. The kids all seemed to enjoy the play, but Whitman was the one who was singing the songs still when we made it home.
  • We arrived home just as our homeschool buddies all arrived as well. Robby had our lunch ready when we came home. He had frozen pizza, and one was slightly burned which we devoured. I guess we all like super crisp pizza.
  • After everyone else ate, we stared on our tasks. Our first order of business was to stuff almost a thousand eggs for The Shack. They have an Easter egg hung for kiddos that live nearby so this is our 4th-ish year to do eggs for them. 
  • It didn't take long at all to stuff all of the eggs. We had a few less this year than last year, but the kids are all a year older so they were able to work much better. Once the eggs were finished, we moved on to the next task-finishing the pinatas we started last time.
  • Nitzia had done all of the work cutting streamers for the kids. So it didn't take them long at all to glue and finish their pinatas. Whitman helped a tiny bit but then snuck off to the playground to play some. Everyone really enjoyed working on their pinatas, but they really enjoyed what came next.
  • Nitzia had brought a huge pinata-larger than anyone I had ever seen. The big girls stuffed it completely full of candy. Robby was able to help us hang it from Keaton's swing. Everyone took turns hitting the pinata starting from the youngest to the oldest. Candice was the one who finally cracked the pinata which means that all of the kids had a chance to hit the pinata and even the adults started hitting it. 
  • Everyone left with lots of candy, and my folks began munching on it this afternoon. The kids are great about helping clean when all of our friends leave. When we came back in the room from seeing everyone off, Campbell was already vacuuming the kitchen. Soon everything was vacuumed, swept, straightened and back to normal in the house.
  • This evening Robby and I had to run to a visitation at church. The line was long so we had to run to our plan B grocery store and plan B Chinese. We payed an ungodly amount for gratorades at the store, but did come home with some pretty good Chinese food.
  • Once at home, everyone ate-again we bought too much food. That is a good thing though because there will be plenty left for us tomorrow. Then we let the kids stay up way too late because tomorrow is our first soccer day!

April 4, 2019

(click here for today's pictures)

  • Oh the rain was wonderful this morning. It could have only been better if I didn't have to wake up and go to the bathroom. I could have stayed in bed for another hour or so. I guess though my small bladder is a good thing because we did need to start our school.
  • Now, Graham was awake but no one else was too ready to wake up and enjoy the rainy weather. Whitman was standing in the middle of his room having just crawled out of his bed when I opened his door. The girls were a bit more difficult to wake up than the boys.
  • We did our school work and things went fairly well. There wasn't too much drama during the day. Everyone finished in a decent amount of time, and soon we were working on our lunches.
  • After lunch, the kids helped me with some chores. We have the homeschool buddies coming over tomorrow so their was a bit of housework to be done. Whitman did have to put up all of his presents-I had to clear a spot in the pantry for all of his drinks and mini fridge supplies.
  • We worked together again in the afternoon. Then we had a few minutes of downtime before heading to Third Realm. The plan had been to skip our jumping today, but because our soccer practice was cancelled, I decided that we should have a little bit of activity in our day.
  • While we were at Third Realm, the two worker men came towards me laughing. They said that they had figured out how much money I had saved. He said that we have been there like 23 times so that would be around 1500 dollars. I grabbed my phone and opened my spreadsheet. I explained that we had been there over 30 times and my average cost per jump was around 1.40 something. Robby said that I was the reason that they will not have the 6 month jump pass again. 
  • On our way home, we ran to Walmart. Each year the kids all have socks and underwear in their Easter baskets. It is a bit more difficult to buy underwear and socks for the big kids now. They know exactly what they want so I just decided to let them help me. Today I took Reagan and Campbell into the store to pick out their socks and underwear. Campbell was all into it but Reagan didn't want to have anything to do with it. 
  • I am not sure if she doesn't really have an opinion or was embarrassed about buying undies with her mom. This made me enjoy the shopping trip all the more. I held up and asked about every single thing. Do you like this one? Or this one? I probably shouldn't take so much joy in embarrassing my child. 
  • Afterwards, we came home for a little bit. Robby and I debated about what to have for supper. We decided on quesadillas until we saw we didn't have enough tortillas. Then we opted for frozen pizza except during this time I remembered that I left my empty bag that we put our shoes in at Third Realm.
  • It just had some socks and our passes in it, but we did go up there to retrieve it. On the way home, we did stop buy Burger King to buy supper for the crew. We bought a bit too much but it can be lunch tomorrow. Campbell and Keaton are both a bit sickly so maybe that is why they didn't eat as much as normal.
  • After we cleaned up the kitchen, Anderson and I went to work on making funnel cakes. He had said that he wanted to make funnel cakes when we were at Silver Dollar City so I found a recipe. Now the recipe was for baked funnel cakes and not fried so that probably accounts for some of the taste. It was kind of like eating a waffle and an egg at the same time. Now, it was doused in powdered sugar so that did make them taste a lot better. 
  • Shannon and Brett came over for a bit and had some of our dessert with us. When they headed home, the kids had a few minutes before it was time for everyone to head towards the bed. 

April 3, 2019

(click here for today's pictures)

  • Whitman was the first one to wake up this morning. He came in our room to tell us that none of his brothers or sisters were up yet to pour him some milk, so he was going to need us to do it. Robby took one for the team and came back reporting that Whitman had turned on every light in the living room. I guess he isn't use to being alone and wanted to make sure that it was plenty light.
  • Reagan had snack this morning so she was pretty pleased about carrying in her snack. It is funny how excited the kids get about their snack. They do not want to miss their snack day at all. I am glad that a pan of brownies can make them so happy. 
  • After Bible study, we drove slowly on the way to Third Realm. We and the Heltz were the only ones there today. Whitman asked if they would turn off the lights and the lady agreed. The kids think that it is the neatest thing ever. Anderson was able to jump a little bit more today, so that is good. Today was actually our 13th (I think) time to go in a row. We probably won't go tomorrow since their is soccer practice, however, it looks like that practice might be cancelled due to weather so we just might go one more time.
  • Once we came home, I worked on the boys' clothes for a little bit. Then it was time for Keaton and I to leave. We headed to a doctor's appointment just to check her little arms. We did leave we a pretty good plan for her ezcema plus two new prescriptions. I also left very encouraged because Martin said that sun and chlorine were good for ezcema, and Keaton is about to get lots of that.
  • We picked up her new medicine and hurried home. Then we loaded up the car with the Dennies, Robby, Alyssa and Kennedy. Robby came with us to go to a meeting tonight at church. Reagan and Alyssa had a referee meeting before their activities started tonight. So everyone headed off to lots of places after we ate our supper.
  • There was lots to talk about on the way home-Reagan's meeting, Anderson went to the youth tonight, Campbell's group went shopping and Whitman's group went to the children's department tonight. It was quite a noisy ride home. 
  • Once at home, a few folks had showers but everyone had a snack. Then the kids had a few minutes of downtime before it was time for bed.