Remembering

We planted our garden on this beautiful Memorial Day.


Noah had a bit of a problem with his pants today.

He was also more interested in playing ball than planting the garden. He did enjoy getting into the garden AFTER it was planted. He may be the ruin of our garden this year.
The sun was shining and the kids were hot from working, so they were rewarded with some sprinkler fun.



Matt and Zach spent some one on one time fishing and then we all went to the parade in town. We came home to eat dinner and to have FHE. Matt read from Grandma Healey's history and he talked about Roger Conant, one of my ancestors who founded Salem, MA. It has been a day of remembrance as we have gone about our activities.

A true day of rest

Today was a relaxing church day, which I haven't experienced in a long time! I didn't have to teach a lesson today or be responsible for anything. It was so nice yesterday not to have a lesson to think about, and it was so nice today to sit and learn in the classes. Since it was the 5th Sunday, the Young Women and Patti took over primary, so I was able to go to Sunday School and the combined Relief Society/Priesthood meeting with Matt. :-)

Something keeps knocking our hummingbird feeder down. I had to make new hummingbird food this morning before church because our feeder was down this morning. I hate it when a hummingbird comes to our feeder for food and the feeder is not available to eat from. I love my hummingbirds! I don't want to disappoint them. I hopefully made the feeder more secure in its place when I put it back up this morning. Time will tell.

We went over to my parents' house for barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs after church today. We have had such sunny, beautiful weather lately. I love it!

Softball Fever

The championship game was today for our softball league. Emery's beat the Rosens! That is big! Rosens was expected to win, but they lost by 1 run. What a game! We had the award ceremony after the game, so I was able to give out medals to the girls on my team. We had a little pizza party after the award ceremony, which gave the girls from all 3 teams an opportunity to be together. Then some of the girls started playing together on the field. I had to drag Zoe and Emily off the field when it was time to go. I'm glad the girls from all of the teams get along well and can have fun together when the games are over.

When we got home, the softball playing continued. Zoe and Emily came into the house for a different ball because their younger siblings had taken over the ball they were using. This scene was so cute, I had to take a picture!

Then Zoe wanted me to take a picture of her pitching to Emily. Zoe now has Emily training to be her catcher.


We have been watching a bit of college softball on the internet the past few days. Zoe is so impressed with how fast the ball is pitched in these games. She wants to be able to pitch like that. Practice, practice, practice!

Here is a picture that has nothing to do with softball, but I want to start posting pictures of the artwork Emily and Eleanor brought home from school. This is Emily's sea turtle.

My dear sweet mother

Matt and I are enjoying an end of the softball season treat. My mom has all of our kids at her house this evening for a sleepover! How sweet is that? Very! Matt and I went to dinner at Pizzeria Uno. I can't even remember the last time we went there together. It has been too long! Matt wanted to stop at L.L. Bean before heading to Mardens to pick up garden gloves and seeds. We're planting our garden on Monday. :-) At L.L. Bean, I found swim shorts for Noah and flip flops for Zach, both were 50% off. I love the bargains!

Now, we are enjoying the peace and quiet. It's time to go read and relax.

Thank you, mom!

The End

We lost our game this evening. This loss wasn't as disappointing as the last one, though. Losing against a team that we have beat all season long was hard, but losing against a team we have lost to all season (except for one game) is easier to take. I have no idea what the score was. I just know it was a lot to a little. Zoe pitched, and she made a great catch! The ball looked like it was going to go right over her head, but she jumped up and caught it. :-) Emily had a chance to field the ball in the outfield and throw it to second base. I am so proud of my own girls and all of the girls on my team. I couldn't have asked for a better group of girls to coach during my first season. I also couldn't have asked for better assistant coaches. We were an all girl team. :-)

I dreaded the start of this softball season, but I will be anxious to get the season started next Spring!

Zoe loves pitching and she is a good pitcher. She has a problem, though. Her knee is starting to bother her from pitching. That is not good. She doesn't want to give up pitching and I'd like her to keep pitching, but we can't afford a knee problem. I'm sure she'll continue to pitch, but we'll have to make sure we are doing everything we can to stop her knee from getting worse...everything would be not having her pitch, right?

My mom and I took Zoe and Emily to McDonalds after the game. We had a fun time together. :-) Emily wants to keep me as a coach, but Zoe wants to fire me because I yelled at her and stressed her out tonight. The last 2 games have been pretty intense! I told her she could go play for the Rosens where the coach yells all the time. She was all for it since her friend is on the team. Traitor!

Beautifying our home

I have simplified our wall of pictures. My original idea of having a picture of each kid at every age on the wall was getting overwhelming, costly, and a pain to keep clean.

Before...

(I took this picture when I was making room for new pictures...pictures that never made it up on the wall)

After...

It is so nice to have the most recent pictures up on the wall now. It looks so much better and it will be so much easier to keep clean. I may have to keep Noah's 1 year picture up forever, though because it is just so cute!

We had a softball practice this afternoon. It was so nice to see the girls smiling and happy again. I am more optimistic now that we will all be giving it our best to beat the Rosens tomorrow night! This was the first practice that I've had to bring the younger kids with me and they did really well.

After practice, Matt and I took Emily and Eleanor to portfolio night at their school. My mom watched the other kids for us. Now I need to go through all the artwork and papers that came home. I'll take pictures of the artwork at some point and post them. All of our girls are still doing great in school. 12.5 school days left until summer vacation.

Gearing up for Thursday

So, we lost our game this evening, which means we have to win Thursday to make it to the championship game on Saturday. I made some coaching decisions tonight that I'm not sure were the best, but I'm not sure that I would change them if we had the chance to play the game over again. I'm torn between being super competitive and making decisions that would guarantee a win and remembering that I am coaching at a recreational level, which means making decisions that will allow all of the girls to gain experience, learn, improve, and to have fun. Losing isn't fun, though. It's not fun when you know things could have gone better and you could have won.

I am definitely learning a lot this season, and I have gained experience and wisdom just from this evening. We play a tough team on Thursday. The girls are expecting to lose. It's going to take a lot of positive talking and rallying to convince them otherwise. Hopefully, I'll be able to get them excited about Thursday's game tomorrow at practice. I need to work on myself first, though.

Last week of softball

It's Championship week for softball! If we win our game this evening, then we are in the championship game on Saturday. If we lose tonight, then we get a second chance on Thursday to make the championship game on Saturday. I hope the girls are ready to win tonight! I hope I am feeling better to lead them to victory. My stomach is upset and I feel like crawling back into bed and sleeping all day. This day that is supposed to hit 91 degrees! Did someone sneak me out of Maine without me knowing? My softball girls do not deal well with heat. I'm hoping that the clouds will come in for our game, but that the possible thunder storms hold off until after the game. That would help us!

I hope you had a nice birthday yesterday, Janet! We thought about you all day long!

Eleanor is 7!

Eleanor said she had a wonderful birthday!

She was anxious to open some presents when she woke up, so we let her open her card from Jerry & Judy, which also included a ballerina sticker book in it. She also opened her gift from us, which was a set of fine markers and some coloring books that she wanted. She was content to play with her stickers and to color until she could open more presents.

She was also content because she got to spend the rest of the morning and some of the afternoon with my parents at their house. Zach joined her. Zoe, Emily, & I had 2 softball games, so my parents brought Eleanor and Zach over to the field for our afternoon game. We lost our first game against the Rosens, but we won our second game against Emerys.

My parents came over after the game for Eleanor's party.








Eleanor went home with my parents after her party to spend the night. She loved the time she was able to spend with her grandparents on her birthday! We love you, Eleanor!

Noah

Can he get any cuter?

Picnics

A picnic is just not a picnic without Cheetos.

I took the kids to the Children's Museum last Thursday and then we stopped at the park by Matt's work to play and eat.


Eleanor received a tea set today from her friend, Anna and her family. We had a quick tea party before leaving for our game. The kids were outside long enough to get settled and to take a picture. The black flies forced the kids back inside.

Eleanor received raspberry lemonade and animal crackers with her tea set. She had a great time pouring lemonade for everyone and the girls enjoyed drinking from the tea cups. The boys were on their own for cups.

VICTORY

I am on a victory high right now! We had a softball game tonight and WE BEAT THE "UNBEATABLE" ROSENS! They are no longer undefeated because of us! :-) Zoe pitched a great game and all the girls did great up to bat whether it was getting a good hit or being patient and waiting for the walk. WOOHOO!

We finally have some pictures of a game, thanks to Matt. Here is Zoe pitching.


Here is Emily at bat. She walked twice.

Here is Emily on 3rd.

Here is Zoe at bat. Zoe walked once and struck out once. She struck out the final batter for the win, so she made up for her own strike out. :-)

Victory lap! That is me in the red shirt. Yes, I am wearing Rosen's color. Why? Because if I wore their color, then some of their luck would come to our team...and it did!


Matt watched the game with the younger kids. He had some excitement of his own. When he was helping Kate go potty, Kate's sunglasses fell into the port-a-potty toilet. Kate expected to get her glasses back, but of course that was not going to happen. Matt expected Kate to go to the bathroom after the sunglasses fell into the toilet, but Kate said, "I can't pee on my glasses!" She did finally pee on them, but she still needed to poop. "I can't poop on my glasses!" When she was done, she noted the fact that her glasses were all wet and Matt agreed. Goodbye glasses.

HAVE I MENTIONED THAT WE WON OUR GAME? The girls were so cute after the game. They just could not believe that they had just won. We are so proud of them!

Where is my pitching post?

Here it is Zoe.

I took some pictures of Zoe warming up before our last game on Thursday. This was her second game pitching and she did a great job, again! We came from behind and won the game by 1 run. :-)





We have 2 games today and Zoe will pitch the second game. After the games, we will celebrate Eleanor's 7th birthday!

The Sabbath Day

I am no longer the Adult Sunday School teacher as of yesterday. The release came at a perfect time since I was not looking forward to preparing a Sunday School lesson AND a Sharing Time lesson for the kids this week.

I started something new yesterday. I am having one on one time with each child on Sunday to read from the Friend magazine or work on the Faith in God program, or to just talk and be together. Noah wasn't a big fan of having mommy shut in her room without him, but I think the other children enjoyed the one on one time. It was a productive time for the older girls (Zoe completed a goal, Emily wrote a thank you card and worked on a goal, and Eleanor planned her FHE lesson). I think this one on one time will help the time at home on Sundays go by faster and it will strengthen our relationships. :-)

Caught in the rain

This is the first evening this week that the kids have made it into their room on time at 7pm to settle in for the night. They don't have to go to sleep right off, but they have to stay in their room. Matt just left to go fishing. I am debating whether to stay on the computer after I blog, count boxtops, or get settled into my room and read. I could do a little of all 3.

It was a rainy day today, but it started to clear up right before the younger kids and I left to get the girls from school. I grabbed a towel and decided that we would stop at the park before coming home. Just seconds after I wiped off some slides and swings for the kids to use, it started to POUR! Noah was at the top of a slide and he burst into tears as he got drenched. Zoe rescued Noah as I got Kate into the Yukon.

Zoe and Emily didn't mind the rain at all. Eleanor, Zach, and Kate joined Zoe and Emily again after the rain let up. Noah was content to play in the Yukon.

We came home and changed into our warm, comfy pajamas. What a difference! When you spend time in super soaked clothes, you appreciate the dry, comfy clothes so much more than usual.

I took Zach to his Kindergarten screening yesterday. He loved every minute of it. He is so ready for school! He would have started the day after he turned 5 if we had let him.


I am having so much fun coaching softball! I have really lucked out with great girls and great assistant coaches. Before we started the season, I had my doubts about coaching and I wondered how I was ever going to make it through the season. I figured that when June came around, I would be so happy to be done with the month of May and softball. That is not going to be the case at all. I have softball fever! I hate it when we have 2 days in between games! Now I fear that this month is going to fly by and then I'll have to wait a whole nother year before softball starts again. *sigh*

Emily is 9!

Emily had a fun birthday! It was a busy day filled with school, a softball game (which we won!), and the birthday celebration. Emily opened Judy and Jerry's card before school. She received a little bird themed coloring book of stained glass pages. Zoe and Emily spent some time coloring in their books before leaving for school.

After school was a bit crazy as we got ready for the softball game and ate dinner before we left. Emily did manage to try out her new bike that we bought her and she opened her presents from her friend, Daisy. She received a Leapfrog Crammer and another game that hooks up to the computer. Fun! We need to lower her seat on her bike and then I think she'll enjoy riding it more.

Emily and her good friend, Tessa both have the same birthday and they both play on the same softball team! We had fun singing Happy Birthday to each of them as they were up to bat during the game. It was so much fun! Emily got hit with the ball in the foot, so she went to first base. She was able to score a run for our team. :-) Matt and the younger kids came to the game, as well as my parents and Victoria. I must say that the games are much more fun to be at as a coach than as a spectator. They tend to drag on, and we only play 3 innings!

After the game, we all came home to watch Emily open her presents. She was all smiles at this point. :-)

Matching outfits!
Emily has started a new tradition for herself. Ice cream cake!



We enjoyed celebrating your birthday with you, Emily! Enjoy being 9...your last year in the single digits!

My goal for May

To the Mothers in Zion
President Ezra Taft Benson Fireside for Parents
22 February 1987

Third, mothers, take time to read to your children. Starting from the cradle, read to your sons and daughters. Remember what the poet said, "You may have tangible wealth untold; Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold. Richer than I you can never be--I had a mother who read to me" (Strickland Gillilan, "The Reading Mother"). You will plant a love for good literature and a real love for the scriptures if you will read to your children regularly.

I love one on one reading time with my children. I'm excited to focus on reading with my children this month. It doesn't happen as often as it should!