28 October 2025

 

School pictures from this year. She is wearing the same thing she wore last year. She's my only child that has carried over clothes from year to year. But she doesnt seem to be any smaller than the kids in her class. 
 

22 October 2025

Rosebud was showing me the first aid kit that she made at a church activity. There's band-aids, and clean wipes, and two pieces of candy. The candy is in case of a volcano eruption, you can suck on it to keep the ash out of your throat. 

21 October 2025

 Halloween prep!

14 October 2025

 

Rosebud and her friends have started a "book club" at school this year, to read this series together.  These are pretty long books for fourth graders, but Rosebud is plowing through them.  We get them from the library so sometimes she has to wait for the next one to come in, which makes her anxious about the other girls getting ahead of her.  She's such a fast reader that she usually catches up pretty quickly though.

11 October 2025

D & Rosebud got coupons from the library reading program to a corn maze.  The coupons were valid for the first two weeks in October, but since the first week is General Conference, our only opportunity was the second week.  Fortunately the weather was nice (cloudy but not rainy) and we had a good time.  D & Rosebud made friends last year with a brother and sister, so we invited them along as well. (Friends gave us extra coupons)

The girls ran around and did a lot of fun activities, and the boys dived into the corn maze and didn't come out til right before we were supposed to leave.  Good times for all, although B was disappointed that she didn't get to spend as much time in the maze as she wanted.

On the way home we stopped at an ice cream store and spent more coupons from the library getting free ice cream.  Winner of a day!

10 October 2025

I asked D to clean the microwave and he unplugged it, moved it off the shelf on to a stool, and then scrubbed the ceiling laying on his back.

8 October 2025

A treasure involving both my sons. I think Nut Brown drew the beholder and D added the spectator in the foreground. 

7 October 2025

Viola practice

21 September 2025

Went to the movies for Family Home Minute tonight and watched Howl's Moving Castle in Japanese, with subtitles. It was wonderful on the big screen! It was so fun to go all together and talk about it in the car afterwards. 

15 September 2025

Sometimes mornings are hard, getting back into the swing of school.

We also ended up with a very appropriate scripture to memorize for the beginning of school (totally coincidental - it was just next on the list).

11 September 2025

Because Rosebud is the youngest and we are often focused on the oldest children doing important life things, sometimes I forget that she is still so young and interested in young kid things.  She was delighted to find puppets at the library and spent time having them talk to each other and putting on a show for me.  In all our visits, I never thought to suggest this to her.

Our neighbor across the street, an elderly woman, has taken a shine to Rosebud and has begun to give her stuffed animals that used to belong to her deceased daughter.  Recently it was a puppy that Rosebud named Goldwin and has taken for walks on a leash, and made a bed for (but she will also let him sleep with her), and "discovered" that he likes to look at himself in the mirror.  Sweet to see her joy in imagining a pet for herself.  She really wants a dog, just like her sister.

8 September 2025

D's language arts teacher began the year by assigning them daily writing assignments.  He brought them to me to share, and I was so happy to see the encouragement to write.  There's a lot inside of his brain that I would love for him to be able to record and share, his own practical thoughts and also so many stories.  (So grateful for his teacher's ability to decode his handwriting.)

I wish I had one more week to finish my hobbit house that I began first day of summer.  I spent like 5 minutes on it every day, so that I had time for other things, but I didn't finish in time. The hobbit house is finished now, & then deconstructed. It was highly detailed, and very large, taking up four plates (64 x 64).  (Mom's note: a lego project)

Multifaceted - I had this same assignment in 3rd grade, and I did not know what to put down, so my parents suggested multifaceted. Multifaceted: with multiple faces/skills. I am good at a variety of different things like engineering and video games ML PvP, leaping quickly, pretending to sleep.  I wasn't super good at .... , none fit in one category, so multifaceted was perfect.

Most of them feel pretty chill. Some of them cause me to very nervous, and one of them released 1 min after the bell. We do a lot of semi/group work in all of them. It was chill in ... .

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D is growing up and cleaning out his old treasures.  His beloved third grade teacher had t-shirts made for her class, and they all signed each other's shirts.  Before the shirt moved on to its next home, I took a photo of it to commemorate what a wonderful community the teacher built for her students that year. D felt safe and happy there during his first year in public school, and I am so grateful for her careful work and attention to the class members.

7 September 2025

Yesterday driving home from church, a song came on with the lyrics, "I'm a good God, and I have a good plan". D heard, I'm a good guy, and he said, "He's not a good guy, he's THE good guy. All the goodness comes from him!"

3 September 2025

Our friend Melissa took family pictures for us while Rose Pink was home!  Here we are being cute and fun together.  

2 September 2025

First day of school, although these are second day pictures because I forgot on the first day! 

When D put on his beloved Technoblade hoodie for the first time since school ended in June, he said, "This isn't as big as I remember it."  He's growing a lot right now.

We clicked right back into the schedule and everyone got out the door on time and off to school. Both D and Rosebud came home happy with their assorted teachers and the friends in their classes. Success!

This weekend was the last before some big changes - D and Rosebud going back to school, Nut Brown starting his first job, Rose Pink going back to school, and the annual September closeout for me. The weekend was beautiful. Lovely weather and quiet time spent together enjoying each other's company. It was a gift from God before we launch into the next round of challenges and growth.

31 August 2025

 

31 August 2025

Friday night D was out for mini bro night, and none of Rosebud's friends could come over.  She and Mr. Brown had a video game session together, with her watching and advising and him playing. She and I went out for ice cream together and then went to pick D up.  

She said "See you later, Papa," as we were leaving, and told me that she got to have both mommy daughter and daddy daughter dates this evening. :)

31 August 2025

Went out on the porch after church to sit on my new couch!

Was shortly joined by my favorite people!

Who decided to eat their lunch out there with me...

And then D made lemonade, and we played a few hands of Swap together.  Lovely time together.

28 August 2025

After D walks away from the kitchen sink, leaving the water running, to check out what Nut Brown is doing in his video game:

Mr. Brown: are you just going to leave the water running!?

D (heading back to the kitchen): I earned that water by taking a four minute shower! 

28 August 2025