A Night to Myself

I love having time at home by myself, but rarely find that it happens and I typically don't think to ask for it because I also love being home with my boys.  There is something about having time that is completely my own, no working around meals, bed times, etc.  Tonight Brent and Luke went to the Vikings preseason game so I got a night at home by default! 

The boys ready to head to the game!

When I do finally get time home alone, my mind runs like crazy with ideas of things to do and places to go so it's always interesting to see what I end up doing. Tonight I ended up assembling our deck furniture that came via UPS earlier this week.  Good times:)  I enjoyed the time alone focused on the project.  I was actually so focused that I was half way through the project when I realized I didn't have any music on.  Craziness!  Once I got a little country music to sing along with, the evening was even better:)  

The assembly project went well, though I was only able to assemble two of the four chairs.  Some of the chair parts came tightly held together by some brackets and I could only get two of them apart:(  I'll need to wait to use Brent's muscles tomorrow:)   Speaking of Brent, he did a wonderful job picking out the deck furniture online.  I've always been grateful and impressed for his sense of style and eye for decor so the only personal desire I gave him as he searched was that I didn't want the furniture to be brown since our house is gray (stupid little thing, I know).  Anyway, I love the furniture!  The umbrella, table set, deck railing, and house siding all go very well together.
All in all, a lovely night at home while I'm sure my boys had a great night together at the game:)

The deck furniture!

A Conversation Between My Boys

Tonight, as Brent was getting ready to leave for a run, he and Luke had the following conversation:

Luke: "How far are you going dad?"

Brent:  "Somewhere between 9 and 10 miles."

Luke: "But dad, there isn't anything between 9 and 10.  If there was, we would say another number when we count."

Brent:  "Ok, I'm going about 10."

That boy, he's always trying to decipher more about the world around him:)

Boys vs Girls

No, I'm not referring to everyday life at my house:) 

I witnessed the cutest thing last week and had no other adult to share my snickers with so I had to blog about it!

Last Thursday, Luke had two buddies over to play: his cousin, Ethan, and his friend from MOPS, Carter.  We decided a trip to the park would be fun and this is where I witnessed the game of boys vs girls. 

When we first got there, we were the only ones at the park.  The boys were busily playing for a while when they finally settled into the tube...

While in the tube, they decided the game of the day.  Turned out that the tube was a space ship and each of the boys was a super hero (no big surprise considering Luke and Ethan were involved;)).  Moments after agreeing on the game, Carter peeked out of the tunnel and said "Girls are coming."  Little did I know that an informal game of boys vs girls was about to resume.

The boys left their space ship pretending to be their respective super heroes.  Shortly after, the girls went into the tube.  This got the boys going....they started talking about their ship being taken over and decided to lay claim to another jungle gym.  The girls over heard the boys and started playing along.  When the girls left the tube, the boys came to try to reclaim it.  Back and forth they went.  It was hilarious!  The funniest part to me was that they never even talked to the girls or agreed on playing their classic game of boys vs girls:)

Their game was certainly good entertainment for this momma:)

Oh yes, and after the rousing game of boys vs girls, the boys needed a treat to re-energize;)

Carter, Ethan, and Luke enjoying their frozen juice bars. 

When I Grow Up...

We had the following conversation at our house last night:

Brent:  "What do you boys want to be when you grow up?"  (Talking to Luke and Ethan, our 5 yr old nephew)

Ethan:  "I want to be a doctor.  They make lots and lots of money."

Luke: "I want to work at Think."  (Think is the bank where Brent works)

Brent (talking to just me):  "I can't believe Luke wants to work at Think when he grows up.  At his age, he should want to be a super hero or a professional football player."

Me:  "You are a super hero in his eyes, that's why he wants to work at Think."

A Super Hero Kind of Day

Who said watching TV was a passive activity???

Luke & Ethan watching Avenger episodes on DVD...

First Steps

So our little man is starting kindergarten this fall.  We've done all of the school screenings, school visits, etc, but we made one of the first very real steps (at least in my mind) toward kindergarten this week:  buying the backpack.  Luke was excited to pick it out and wore it around the store, while Brent and I share a look of sadness at our boy growing up before our eyes.

Here's Luke trying out his new backpack today on our trip to the library:

Yep, those are superheros:)

Life on the Farm...

...Our version of farming anyway:) 

This summer has been largely focused on a plot of our yard that Brent converted to a garden.  You may remember this post from May.  Our new garden space has been busy growing this summer...

Tomatoes (above) and cauliflower (below) on July 4th

Our first harvest tonight (from left to right): jalapeno peppers, pea pods, green beans.

I'm prepared to make stir fry with the pea pods and green bean casserole this week!

For the remainder of the summer, we plan to try our hand at salsa with the tomatoes, peppers, onions, and cilantro.  Brent's also looking forward to the squash (I'm not a fan).  Our lettuce and strawberries have been growing, but we haven't beat the rabbits to them yet.  Every time Brent notices a berry turning red, it's gone by the next day (despite the owl decoy).  We're already planning for some form of barrier/fence around the garden boxes next year.

But as we wait for the rest of our harvest, I will continue to look for my husband where I know I can usually find him this summer...in the garden:)

P.S. If someone had told me 10 years ago that Brent would be into gardening, I never would have believed them:)  The garden is far more his thing that mine, but we're all enjoying watching it grow and learning along the way.

Fun at All Ages

Most of you probably know that I really enjoy babies, toddlers, and preschoolers.  Pretty much any kiddo under school age is in my favorite age range.  But, I am coming to realize there are some lovely traits about my soon to be school-ager and other kiddos around his age. 

Last Thursday, Luke and I spent the day with my niece and nephew, Annie (9) and Ethan (turning 5 next week).  We didn't have anything major planned, but we ended up having a really fun day together!  The kids got to our house around 8:30am.  I told them they could play while I took a shower.  And play they did!  They went right at the toys downstairs and created some imaginary world that kept them busy beyond my shower and getting completely ready for the day.  I finally asked them if they were ready to go to the parks by our house, even though I was hesitant to interrupt their imaginary world:)  We have two nice parks within walking distance of our house, so we hit them both which was especially fun because one is geared for older kids since it's at the elementary school.  Good times were had by all.

Once back to the house, we had lunch and the kids wanted to cool off in the house for a while (it was quite warm and humid even before lunch).  They went downstairs to play while I cleaned up lunch and before I knew it, they were back in their imaginary world.  This time I think it evolved into a game of school where Annie was the teacher and Luke and Ethan were the students.  Their school day consisted of quiet time, doing papers, and doing flash cards.  Annie set up two rooms downstairs as their school.  They entertained themselves for over an hour again!  And, again, I hesitated to interrupt them, but asked if they wanted to play in the pool and slip-n-slide in the backyard.  They agreed saying it was part of their "school day" that they got to play games:)  Once outside, their ingenuity continued and they started making soup out of the pool water with grass clippings and sand. 

After a while outside, we came in for a snack.  They decided that they should have game time for "school" inside, so they decided to play a board game.  The dreaded Mouse Trap came out.  I thought to myself...I really don't want to put this entire game together and read the instructions because it really doesn't even seem like much of a game to me.  But, before I could share my opinion out loud, Annie said she could read the instructions and help the boys set it up.  Sounded perfect to me!  They entertained themselves for over a half hour playing when they decided to play Sorry and asked if I would play too.  Of course I would:)  At this point in my life as a mommy, I feel a little incomplete without my daily game of Sorry...it's one of Luke's favorites right now.

And that rounded out our day...a lovely day with Annie, Ethan, and Luke:) 

Back to my original thoughts...I'm really enjoying the imagination that comes with the 5-10 year old range.  It is so fun to see their creativity in working together to create an imaginary world.  I'm also enjoying how incredibly well they play together.  No more needing to intervene because someone is not sharing or someone is crying or throwing a fit.  Ok, maybe not "no more" but far less often than the toddler years and they work out their issues better on their own now.  I'm also enjoying being able to share experiences with the kids.  They understand and anticipate things so much more and it's so fun to experience their excitement together. 

I am also grateful that in the midst of their maturing personalities and ever growing statures, that these sweet kids are still willing and even want to hold my hand while we walk to the park:) 

Check out some pictures from our fun day together...

Ethan doing his favorite thing at the park: monkey bars

Annie found her favorite thing too, it's like a mini merry-go-round

The boys checking out some pictures under the climbing wall at the park

Playing with the hose while we filled up the pool.  And yes, they are shooting the hose down each others trunks.  They thought it was hilarious and took turns shooting each other and shrieking from the cold:)

Playing Mouse Trap together sans adults:)

Bieber Fever

I just remembered this video I took last month and had to share...

Luke & Ethan were jamming to "Luke's Dance List" that we created with music Luke likes on Rhapsody.  I was able to catch them singing along to Justin Bieber's Baby.  I think it's hilarious how they only know the chorus and chime right in when it starts:) 

Like Troy said, this may be a great video to pull out at their high school graduation;)

MOPS through Luke's Eyes

Luke's been coming to MOPS with me for four years now.  The way a MOPS morning works, is that moms drop their kiddos off at MOPPETS, the childcare program that MOPS offers so moms can have a break for two hours during the MOPS meeting.  So, all in all, Luke doesn't get much time with the MOPS moms except for before and after meetings when I'm setting up and cleaning up.  Yesterday I got a taste of how Luke sees MOPS:

After his school bus class yesterday, I was asking him if the bus driver was a man or a woman.  His response was "It was a big, strong lady like from MOPS."  This took me off guard so I asked if the bus driver looked like someone he knows from MOPS.  His response:  "No, she was just big and strong like a lady from MOPS."

Little did I know that MOPS was teaching Luke women's lib;)

My Favorites

Is so blessed to come home to my favorites, who apparently fell asleep together watching baseball tonight:)

Now the question is: Do I wake them to move to bed???

A Discussion with Luke

As we were driving home tonight, we had the following conversation with Luke...

Me: "Luke, can you run a mile?"
Luke: "No way!"

Pause...

Luke: "But I can run a mile in a half."

Pause...

Luke: "How long is a mile and a half?"

Man I love this kid:)

Painting in Progress

So we're finally doing it...painting pretty much our entire first floor (entry, stairwell, living room, dining/kitchen, hallway).  We haven't tackled this much painting since we moved in seven years ago and that was before we actually moved in so it was less to work around.  But, the time has come for the living room and dining/kitchen for sure as the paint is looking worn and needs some refreshing. 

This paint job has been on my radar for the past couple of years, but I knew that when I brought it up that Brent would want to change the color, which I happen to love.  Long story short, it's time to paint and we almost have the final paint colors solidified (I'm the one dragging my feet).  We got the input of a designer to help in color choice, contemplated the colors ourselves, put paint samples on the walls to see them in different lights...after all of this, I'm thinking the actual act of painting may not be so bad:) 

I personally find the paint selection to be very stressful.  That probably sounds dumb, but I know painting is  a lot of work so I don't want to do it again anytime soon.  Plus, I have to live with the color e-v-e-r-y-d-a-y.  That is quite the commitment!

I thought I'd give a sneak peak into our house in disarray as we prep walls and make the final decision on colors. 

 The disarray we call our living room

 Luke finds the new arrangement the prime location for obstacle courses and gymnastics

 After painting a sample on the large wall, we considered not painting and leaving this (which we call "Moon Over the Storm") as a art/talking piece:)

 Comparing colors

Getting Luke's input

Hopefully we'll have our living room back together before long and will be able to share the "after" pictures!

Discussions of a Daddy and Son

I was told the following story when I woke up this morning:

Luke and Brent went downstairs so Luke could watch cartoons while Brent took a shower.  They noticed that they had left their snack out from the night before (while I was gone for Bible study) and Brent mentioned that they forgot to pick it up.  Luke's response was "That's because Mommy is a keep-it-clean-kind-of-girl and Daddy is a don't-care-daddy"

So...I guess our son knows us better than we realize:) 

Like Mother Like Son

So last night we had two examples within just a few minutes that Luke is definitely my child:)

1. Brent was looking for Luke's fleece so they could run to the store. I told him I had just put it in the washing machine. Luke pipes in with "Is that the shrinking kind?" Brent thought it was hilarious that our five year old would think of something like that when Brent would never think of such a thing:) I told him that Luke likes helping me with laundry. For those who know me well, you know that I actually like doing laundry and don't even consider it a chore:)


2. Brent was trying to get Luke out the door so they could run to the store (again, just within minutes of the conversation above), but Luke kept running back to the kitchen to grab a handful of peanuts that I was snacking on. (For those who know we well, you know that a salty snack like peanuts will distract me too and keep me coming back for more! Luke has followed suit:)

Brent would argue that the last example also shows Luke's similarity to me in that I always find one more thing to do before I leave the house:) I'll leave that to your interpretation;)

Like mother like son...

The Game of Life

We were playing the Game of Life tonight with Luke, one of his current favorites, whenI landed on a space that sparked a conversation. I landed on the Adopt Twins space about half way through the board. I can't remember any of us landing on it before and Luke was intrigued. He asked what does adopt twins mean? He knows what twins are, so I knew he was asking about the adoption part. I explained that adoption happens when kids don't have parents for whatever reason, and I gave him some examples, and another family brings them into their family. His face showed that he was processing the information, then he said, "So you're taking someone else's kids?" It made us chuckle:) He was just so matter-of-fact about. But it also sounded kind of like kidnapping:)

Oh the lessons of life...or should I say the Game of Life?

Welcomed Interruption

Yesterday was a typical Tuesday. Brent and I both worked all day and checked in with each other via email before we left work about our plans for the night. The plan: After a quick dinner, I would drop Luke off at Awana and I would head to the gym for a work out while Brent stayed home to work on some homework.

But, as life goes, our evening was interrupted. Luke and I had just walked into the house when Brent called to say his car wouldn't start in the parking lot after work and he needed a ride home. Immediately I went into "flexible" mode. I didn't know what would transpire with the car which would in turn impact Luke getting to Awana and me getting to the gym.

The early evening breezed by as we picked up jumper cables from friends, got gas in our other car (the gas light turned on on my way home from work...we really didn't need two cars that wouldn't start:)), tried jumping the car that wouldn't start which was unsuccessful, called the tow truck, and headed home. All of this wrapped up a bit too late to drop Luke at Awana, so that plan didn't happen for the night. Once we got home, Luke and I realized we were quite tired so we hit the couch for some movie time before he went to bed. Yeah, that was the end of me. No trip to the gym last night:)

All in all, I welcomed the interrupted night. Sure it was a little inconvenient that our car didn't start for Brent at work. But, I got an hour on the couch last night snuggling with my Lukey that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. I also headed to bed at the same time as Luke last night, read for just a bit (all my eyes could handle) and was sleeping by 9pm. If you ask me, that was a great night! I definitely welcomed the Tuesday night interruption:)

In case you're wondering, our car that wouldn't start was towed to our go-to mechanic. They replaced the battery and an air filter that needed replacing. As of tonight, we're up and running with two vehicles again!

Thursday Nights

Where have the Pickers been Thursday nights all winter? Here's your hint...

You guessed it, watching Daddy play basketball at RCTC:)

I love watching Luke watch Brent play. It depends on the day what "watching" the game looks like to Luke. Sometimes it's playing with the other kids at the game, sometimes it's working on his own basketball skills, and sometimes it's asking lots and lots of questions about basketball. Last week, when I took these pics, he was pretty enthralled with the game. But, even when he's interested in the game, he's busy.

Sitting with the new basketball he got for his birthday from Papa & Gramma.

Off the bleachers onto the floor to sit on his ball...

Back on the bleachers, this time sitting on the foot rest and using the seat as his table...

Moved to another spot on the bleachers closer to Papa who was able to make it to the game...

Sitting behind Daddy while he's subbed out of the game for a few minutes...

And, in case you were wondering, he wasn't the only kiddo there. One of the other player's elementary aged daughters was there too and both daddys happened to be on the bench at the same time. So cute:)

His last seat of the game, behind the bench where the players sit while Daddy played the last few minutes.

And, finally, we head home for the night.

(P.S. All pics taken with my phone, so not great quality.)

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The funny thing is that the game only lasts a little less than an hour. Amazing how much he moves around in that short time:)

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Brent played in two leagues this winter, one was done last week and the other is starting playoffs this week. Luke and I were able to make it to most of the games and enjoyed watching Daddy and I got a kick out of watching Luke and all of his busy-ness and answering many of this basketball questions.

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Who knew I'd be watching Brent play basketball with my son 15 years after we met? Watching him play has been one of my greatest joys through the years...high school, summer ball, college, and now city league:) I wonder if I'll have years ahead of watching play Luke too???

A Glimpse of Luke's Heart

I have so much fun watching Luke and seeing his personality come through at each age in a slightly different way. One thing I particularly enjoy about his current age is his sensitive and nurturing nature and I've gotten to witness it a few times in the past week.

Last weekend, we celebrated his birthday with his friends. (Check out pics from February on Kodak Gallery.) I was surprised last month when we were planning the party that he wanted to invite even the "babies" from daycare. (Babies to him are actually a 1-1.5 years, I guess I see them as toddlers:)) As we were shopping for his birthday getting supplies and goodies for his friends, he was always thinking of the babies that were coming. He's say things like "I can help Zoe with this since she's little". The day of his party, we hid dragon eggs in the basement for the kids to find and he was very intentional about hiding some eggs in easy to reach places so the babies would find them. When the egg hunt began, he took one of the little girl's hands and led her in downstairs to find an egg. I just love his thoughtful, sensitive heart:)

We've also had Audrey with us a couple afternoons in the past week and Luke just loves having her over. (Audrey, nearly two, is a friend's daughter we watch once in a while when her mom and dad's work schedules overlap.) He'll talk about things throughout the day before she comes like what toys we can't have out when Audrey comes because they aren't safe for babies, etc. Last week, we discovered Audrey's love for the "Zacchaeus" song, so today Luke wanted to turn it on for her all by himself. He is also very in tune to Audrey's needs and desires. Today we were all reading together and she wanted her bunny which she had left in Luke's room. I pointed and directed her, but she was confused. Luke asked me to stop reading the book, hopped off the couch, and said he was going to show Audrey where her bunny was. Such a helper:) I also got a kick out of his reaction when he heard Audrey crying when she woke up today. We could hear her in the monitor and Luke immediately asked if he could go check on her. I told him to give her a minute because I thought she might fall back to sleep, but he couldn't stop watching the monitor every time he heard a peep from her:)

A sweet video of Luke and Audrey together:

I consider myself blessed to have both a son and husband with such sensitive and loving spirits.

Quotes of the Day

I've been really enjoying Luke thoughts today so I thought I'd share a few quotes:

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"I love hot pants" (After I gave him some pants to wear right after they came out of the dryer.)

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Luke: "Mom, I'm doing a great job making my bed."

Me: "Awesome" (from the other room)

Luke: "Mom, you should come in here when I'm done to see how awesome it is"

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Luke and I were chatting about something from Brent's basketball game and he started walking away toward the bathroom while we were still talking. He then said, from the bathroom, "Mommy, we'll discuss it later." Pause. "That means we'll talk about it later. I need to go to the bathroom now."

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I realize this isn't a quote, but I also caught him dancing all over his room to a Taylor Swift song on the radio. He loves Miss Taylor Swift:)

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These are the days:)