The One With No Pictures

June 8-10, 2018

You can sure tell it is summer around here.  Things are much more toned down.  Calm.  Peaceful  This weekend was especially slow since there were no sports for anyone to attend.

Lara came off a week of Nanny duty for 2 of her 3 kids she watches, and starts this week off with only 1.  Their summer schedules got a little off, and So she ends up working 3 weeks in a row, but never with the same mix of kiddos.  She was sad she missed out on the Nature Camp end of week picnic with her brothers last Friday - this is the first one in 10 years she has missed!  The rest of the weekend was slow and calm.  She and I spend some time together watching last last few episodes of Season 2 of "13 Reasons Why" on Netflix.  That show is deep.  And intense.  And powerful.  Beyond that, we worked around the house - still getting settled in.  Sunday morning she had to go out to the home of the family she babysits for - their 2 dogs got out!  Church, dinner out, and a relaxing evening at home rounded out her weekend.  Monday morning - back to the Nanny gig!

Emma is living the Kay County life!  I know she fished some this weekend.  And pet some dogs.  There is evidence of this on her Instagram account.  She is tan, and busy.  Other than that, I don't know much about her weekends!  I know she is working hard, meeting new people, and making memories!

Next weekend is Father's Day.  Sounds like they will be spending it with their father.  We will miss them!

The One With Five More Minutes

March 2-5, 2018
For the first time in a long time – and for another long time to come, this past weekend was calm.  Not a ton of stuff going on – just a few things to keep us entertained.  And the sun was out, cool, early spring temperatures, and lots of time to just “be.”  It was very relaxing, and very welcomed!

Emma came to Stillwater Friday evening to spend the weekend with us.  She got to town after we had gone out to grab some Chick-fil-A before taking Jake on an adventure with his friends.  She spent the evening playing with Finn – her biggest fan – and signing in to her family’s Netflix account so we could ALL binge our favorite shows on our favorite devices.  She got to surprise Jake by going with dad to pick him up from “Open Gym” at Youth Fitness Zone later in the evening.

Saturday was an easy morning.  Lara drove herself (well, chauffeured me, technically – but I went right back home) to Couch Park for the Pioneer Baseball team’s home opener about 11:00am, and the rest of us joined her for the first pitch at noon.  It was kind of windy, and that kept us pretty cool.  Emma enjoyed talking to friends she saw around the ballpark, and Lara worked from the dugout for the 7 inning game.  Our Pioneers came up ONE RUN short, but it was a beautiful day of sunshine and home opener baseball.

Sunshine and Baseball (Jake was at a friend's birthday party)

The rest of the afternoon was more just resting and relaxing.  Lara left for a couple hours to go walk the 3 mile trail around Boomer Lake with Colby, while the rest of just took advantage of a last day.

Sunday, was much the same.  Catching up, watching TV, playing games.  We went to church at Life.Church at 4:00pm - where I forced them to take a picture!  If they are all 4 in one place, I try to capture it!  I know the days of them being together are getting fewer and farther between!  After church, we took Emma back to Orlando so she could start her week.  And, in the spirit of tradition – and keeping the big family going forward – we had our usual Sunday Night Family Meeting in the car on the way home.  Went over the calendar for next week, checked everyone’s grades, and talked about out highlights of the week gone by.  Prepared for the week to come – even though SOMETHING always changes last minute!

It was Windy.  And Finn is 6.

This laid back, put your feet up weekend reminded me, it’s still going so very fast – even if we have time to enjoy it more.  We weren’t rushing from here to there and eating in the car and hoping everyone got homework and laundry done!  But, we were wishing the weekend away in other ways.  Just waiting for the next thing.  When the next thing is still coming WAY TOO SOON!  And as if the turning of the calendar pages isn’t enough, the song “Five More Minutes” by Scotty McCreedy is on REPEAT on the country radio stations around here.  It has a line that says:

Time rolls by the clock don't stop

I wish I had a few more drops

Of the good stuff, the good times 

Oh but they just keep on flying

Even on slow, lazy weekends like this past one, I still wish I had 5 more minutes.  To hug them.  To soak it all in.  To really LISTEN to that rambling story about friends I don’t really know and inside jokes form class that I’ll never get.  A few more drops of watching them with their brothers.  With each other (I hear you talking in that room after you “go to bed”).  With us.  It is still going WAY too fast!  And this blog is still my feeble attempt to write it all down.  To try and hold on for Five More Minutes…

The one with wins and losses

November 10 - 13, 2017
Hard to believe another weekend is already in the books!  There were a lot of sports contests, and some wins, and some losses.  Both girls seemed to have some illnesses along the way this weekend as well.  The weather was dreary and dark and a little bit more winter-y than we have had yet this year.  The seasons are truly changing - in so many ways!

Friday was a divide and conquer kind of night.  Lara and the Stillwater Pioneer football team were headed to Bixby for their first round playoff game.  Emma and the Lady Panthers were off to Carney for their first basketball contest of the season.  Since Finn has been struggling with his coughing and breathing a bit this week, he was off to Carney with Nana and Grandpa to see Emma and her team; while Jake, Dad and I went to Bixby for the football game.

It was a cool night, and a long drive over to Bixby.  The game was very one-sided right from the beginning, and after a lot of hard work, grit, and FIGHT, the Pioneers came up short, and *just like that* the football season was over.  So surreal.

Meanwhile, in Carney, the Mulhall-Orlando Lady Panthers were ready to open their season.  Although our Emma girl didn't get to see any court time, her team came out victorious after a close and hard fought game.  She got to hang out with Finn and and her grandparents and stayed in the gym to watch the M-O boys team play, but they did not come out with the win.  A late night for ALL involved!

Saturday, we all divided and conquered some more...  Nana had a meeting in Perry; Emma was home resting in Orlando, Lara was home in Stillwater with a friend over to binge watch TV, and we took Jake to basketball in Edmond - Grandpa and Finn met us there.  We got home after the OSU Cowboy game was already over (THEY WON!), so we watched the replay of that game and just hung out the rest of the day.  Emma was going to come to Stillwater with us for the rest of the weekend, but she had either some food poisoning or a virus, so she stayed home to keep the rest of us "well."  Lara's friend Erika was here for the whole day and well in to the evening.  She "taught" Lara to play chess, and the two of them had a fun time irritating Finn.

Sunday everyone slept in.  Finn had a rough night with his coughing, and Lara was starting the cold the rest of us had already passed around.  So Sunday was spent watching TV and resting.  We threw it back OLD SCHOOL and watched High School Musical and High School Musical 2 on Netflix.  Lara watched Camp Rock, too!  Thanks, Disney Movies!

This afternoon it was church, dinner, family meeting, errands, homework, showers, and bed!  SO thankful for these restful Sundays! Now, if everyone could just get well around here!