centerville olympics 2016

we love the olympics!

we watched them often at home this summer while they were happening in rio.

sam watched constantly.

we were inspired by the talent.

and inspired by michael phelps,

his physical ability, all his medals, and his class and sportsmanship.

the best was watching him not come unglued while be taunted before his swim by his opponent.

my young athlete children were inspired.

and their mother was inspired to host our own olympics.

down to the wire before the start of school,

we had to pull the trigger today.

it was spontaneous,

not pinterest worthy,

but was more fun than one could ever represent on pinterest.

we called a few friends...

owen and annie smith, tucker & jenna, eli & owen,

and they all came.

long jump, sprint, relay, gymnastics floor routine, and balance beam were all well represented events.

the athletes took it all very seriously,

right down to making medals out of pringles lids, cardboard, and canning lids,

coloring a country flag,

participating in opening ceremony introductions,

choosing a relay team and where everyone should be placed.

they switched up the relay teams 3 times for 3 races,

and their enthusiasm or energy level never faded.

the upset was tucker bringing him home for his teammates maggie and sam

and then admitted he cheated,

so will's team stole 1st place right out from under them.

the sprint was an upset, too,

thanks to owen smith.

he took 3rd place right away from the other owen by making a comeback and crossing the finish line 1 stride ahead.

maggie rocked the balance beam by actually doing cartwheels on it.

annie killed the floor routine on the tramp

and almost killed herself when she went flying off the tramp into a pile of pine needles and logs.

so many wins for all.

even down to the $ store treats of pringles, cry babies, gummy bears, and root bear float popsicles.

my kids have requested olympics far more often than every 4 years...

they were hoping for twice a month.

so grateful i honored the interest inside of me to host this

and so grateful for what i learned about keeping things simple.

best olympians centerville has had to date.

summer field trip

some times we run out of food.

i take feeding my family seriously,

but it stresses me out.

i don't have a food system

or a regular grocery store day.

sometimes i plan,

and sometimes i wing it.

but when there is no plan,

or no food,

then i take the kids to breakfast at einstein's and call it a summer breakfast date.

everyone was well pleased.
sam tried something new...
hash brown bagel with plain cream cheese.
maggie and will enjoyed cinnamon sugar,
and my usual is jalapeño cheddar.
delish.
and i enforced the "everyone shares the orange juice rule".
i don't think everyone always gets to order their own everything;
i think sharing needs to happen often.
thats what we did today.
and we had a summer field trip...
one of my favorites.
bountiful culinary water treatment plant.
i love water,
i love learning about it,
and i love my kids learning about it, too.
they act like they don't like it,
but i know they actually do.
i can tell by their questions.
finished out the day with adidas cup for sam.
i hate this tournament.
traffic is such a bear;
it really blows getting there.
it's in west jordan,
but can sometimes take an hour to get there.
we lost all 3 games.
sometimes i wonder if i cause by my negative vibe at this tournament.
sam did get to play forward for the 1st time on this team.
that was exciting,
and in his words,
"he felt like he was home."
we had owen along.
he's like a brother.
and will is like a brother to him.
that's how they skate.
i love these boys.

mommy sleepover

before we moved it wasn't unusual to wake up with a child in bed with us.
sometimes 1.
sometimes 2.
sometimes 3.
for whatever reason we have lost our bed partners in the new house.
a part of me has missed the closeness with them
while the other part has not missed the kick in the side
or elbow to the throat.
last night i was delighted to have 2 little guests plan a sleepover in our bed.
i couldn't help myself last night on a photo as i crawled into bed with maggie and will.
and this morning i couldn't help myself as i crawled out of bed to a new configuration of children.
sam joined at some point in the night,
and maggie changed position.
whatever their position,
i just loved the company,
and will never grow tired of having them close.

cup caking

sam loves watching cupcake wars.

he also loves baking.

especially chocolate chip cookies.

he is rather good at it too,

and capable of doing it without help in the kitchen...

like the time he made cookies for my salon

and the time he invented the cookie cupcake.

today sam and will decided to do our own modified version of cupcake wars.

sam found a recipe in a cookbook for a gourmet chocolate cupcake with ganache.

we all started with the chocolate cupcake,

made vanilla cream cheese frosting,

and added one ingredient for everyone to share.

will...caramel sauce

sam...banana

maggie...coconut

pete...skittles

mom...strawberries

and then all were judged on presentation and taste.

sam won taste.

it was the subtle cinnamon mixed with his banana filling that launched him to the top.

will was a close 2nd with his caramel filling.

i was a competitor with my banana split.

pete was sketchy with his skittles and coconut,

and maggie struggled with too much cinnamon.

fun had by all though

and family connection that gave us all a prize.

christening of the ears

maggie has wanted her ears pierced.
she wanted it last year too but the asking went away quickly.
it has come back up again
and hasn't died.
i knew i never wanted to pierce my infant's ears,
and i knew i didn't want to tell her when it was time to have her ears pierced.
and i no longer thought about making her wait until she was 8 until the age of accountability
because i don't believe in that anymore.
instead the only rule i had was that i wanted to do it when she was ready,
and she was ready.
she wanted to start 1st grade with earrings.
maggie has an impressive trait of knowing what she wants
and her wants have always come from inside
not from other people's expectations.
(oh! to keep that trait inside her forever!!)
the only person that wasn't ready was me.
i was afraid it would change her,
not make her young and innocent.
i wanted her to look little for a long time,
maybe forever.
i felt guilty about modifying her body before an age that she could really understand.
i was afraid she would love it so much,
and to see her love something so deeply would make me afraid.
thankfully i felt these feelings,
understood that they really stemmed from my own fears of loving deeply
and allowing myself to feel pleasure,
and let them go.
we made a special sunday afternoon trip out of it.
a special day where she wore the skirt she wanted
and wore the braid that she believed would keep her hair off her ears the best.
she welcomed a few ear pinchings just to prep what it would feel like.
she wasn't really afraid,
just excited.
that's just how she was in the chair too.
didn't want a teddy bear to hold
and didn't want to be called baby or princess.
she just wanted to have the experience as it was.
she was brave.
she didn't cry.
and she was happy.
happy she did it.
many smiles.
smiles from me and her.
i smiled because she was still just a 6 year old little girl,
and the earrings didn't take away from her innocence
or her childlike look.
if anything it enhanced it because it was her childhood desire.
it felt good to love something
and experience the uninhibited pleasure of loving it.
i like that she feels more connected to me, too,
because we are both girls with earrings.
and i love that she allows me to clean her ears without fighting me;
it's something she looks forward to.
she lets me in
and doesn't push me away.
i hope she always remembers this day,
just as i remember going to the jewelry store with my grandma, mom, and sisters for my ears.
i was brave too,
so brave i got to go first to be the example.
i remember it being special,
a rite of passage.
and for maggie,
i hope she remembers this day,
sitting in the chair at claire's,
having her whole family there to support her.
having her own rite of passage.
and remember how it feels to love something
and allow it to be special.

fragmented

fragmented,
an accurate way to describe our summer days.
i have had high hopes of
scheduled
being the word that would better describe them.
try as i might,
there has been so much unscheduled fighting,
tv watching,
late nights,
lounging in robes together creating concoctions and memories while there should have been sleep happening.
unscheduled night scooter rides,
mud pie birthday cakes,
soccer trips to the park,
games in the living room floor
driving practices in the church parking lot.
while daily jobs and reading time may not have happened in the order i was hoping for,
i can see the memories were really made in all the fragmented moments.
perhaps even in the fighting.

a peanut is a legume

i heard a story today.
jennifer finlayson-fife shared it at the strengthening your relationship conference pete and i attended.
it was about her autistic son.
he memorized all fruits and vegetables when he was young,
and he loved identifying them all at the grocery store.
by age 7 he was focused on naming all the nuts,
even peanuts.
his mother kindly explained that while a peanut looks like a nut and sounds like a nut,
it's actually a legume.
he freaked.
"NO! it has to be a nut!"
that was the only reality he had known,
and it was terrifying to him to have that reality shaken.
even though he resisted the new idea,
it didn't change that a peanut is still a legume.
after some wailing,
he began self-soothing by repeating
"a peanut is a legume. a peanut is a legume."
he accepted that fact as a new reality.
that happened to me today.
my relationship reality has been something that simply isn't a true reality.
my reality has said that the only way to be successful was to give up yourself,
all your desires, interests, plans, and goals.
this reality has hurt me,
has not made my relationship successful
or made me happy.
but it was my reality.
relationships demanded that you lose yourself.
there must be something wrong with me.
i never questioned that it was my reality.
how could that be so?
it was in fact an incorrect reality.
a healthy relationship requires you to be the best version of you,
holding everything that is fundamentally important to you in your relationship space.
holding it there without the expectation that your partner will embrace it and give you everything you dream of.
it's acting out of a place of integrity for those wishes.
and when your spouse doesn't reciprocate,
you still hold onto your sense of self without punishing
or resenting
or
withdrawing.
you still honor yourself.
you still always have the choice to do that.
and as one partner does that
it gives the space to the other to do the same.
there has been self-soothing on my part today.
"what i want does matter."
"what i want will make my relationship stronger."
it will.
it will.
part of me has always known this,
and i've had one moment where i've lived it.
i don't want to question if a peanut is a nut ever again.