indian summer

we've had a few really cold days, but mostly they've been pleasant and warm'ish. reports are for a coooold and snoooowy winter, so I am loving this indian summer. yesterday was our day with the pre-k princesses. they are a handful, but I still managed to christmatize the house. I didn't manage to take any pictures, but i'm not a miracle worker. I met with Brenda after I dropped the princesses off, and I came home to this:

baby boy hasn't been working as much lately, and he's been so helpful. he put the Christmas tree up yesterday and the lights today. #awesome

see those three cute heads on the roof? bubba was trying to give me a heart attack. the roof antics lasted long enough for me to get a picture and then it was time to come back in.

darlaina texted that evening and asked if i'd like to go walking. always. so when matt got home at 8:30, we headed out. we don't have the best of luck walking, we 3. last time we were assaulted by a mosquito spraying truck, and this time we met with a deluge. it went from sprinkling to monsoon in about 60 seconds. Jodie ran us through several backyards (we were on the green) and we finally made it sloppy wet and cracking up to her house, where she drove us the 1/4 mile home. it also happened to be bulk trash pickup day, so Jodie scored 2 rocking chairs and we procured a small fake tree for the church. I call that an eventful evening stroll.

bubba was asked to go to an iron chef night at the nelsons. they had to use ground beef and then some items from food storage. chris made his famous beef and potato tacos and came in first place.

the boys and their entries. I heard joseph's spaghetti was a close second. raising these boys up right!

in other news:

 

*frank's has been put into a small reading group for a little extra help. I know she struggles, and mrs. g said she might put her in, and I was good with it, but when it actually happened it hurt my heart a little. of course we never want to see our kids struggle, so that's hard. but then I worry about what she thinks. does she think she's not smart? does she even know it's because she's behind? what do other kids think/say? we've been talking it up about how lucky she is to get extra reading time with ms. pepper, so she seems happy about it. i'm pretty sure she's got some add or adhd going on. I read a book once that described our brains as a complex downtown of a busy city, with one way streets, and lots of twists and turns, and that in a persons brain with executive functioning difficulties their traffic cop is asleep, so it's chaos. I see that when she reads and writes. I need to find out how to wake those lazy traffic cops awake, preferably without medication, and then figure out how to keep them awake, or at least give her coping skills to deal with it. sweet frankie froggie. 

*operation no stress December is underway. I decided a few weeks ago to make it so. it's not a surprise that Christmas is December 25. the biggest aspect of no stress December is organization and 0 procrastination. so far, so good!

*addie and I started anne of Avonlea. so good!

*that's all.