We Are Spartan - Family Style

April 26th was a long awaited date for this family.  I had given Josh the gift/challenge of entrance in the Indianapolis Sprint Spartan.  The gift was that I would train with him and run with him, the challenge was for us to train together (he is a morning man and I am not).  We fit it all in and planned an extra special day for the whole family.  My parents scheduled their annual trip out to visit us that same weekend so we could take the kids down and they could be the official photo takers.  My sister Jill joined us as well, she is going for a Trifecta of Spartans this year and we kicked off the season together.  It was my first race, Josh's second.  Our first Spartan race we signed up for in Arizona I got sick two days before so my older brother ran with Josh.  I have been jealous ever since.

It was honestly the most perfect weather or a race day.  It was not too hot, not too cold.  We certainly were not racing anywhere near Indianapolis, but if they had published the real podunck Indiana town in which we raced the whole world would have had no idea what region we were in (Midwest folks).  We raced at an ATV park, which is a perfect location for a Spartan! Plenty of hills and mud.  

 Our starting coral time was 9:45am.  We got there barely in time since we had driven down from Fort Wayne that morning.  I hate waiting for race starts anyway so I was grateful.  Jill was right to advise us to go at an early starting time so the course would not be as sloppy.  I loved it!  We started out running up and down wooded hills.  I felt like I was back home in the mountains.  As a kid our parents took us on tons of hiking trips, and like most kids, we got bored just walking so would often run the trails just to get the hike over with.  I still had the latent mountain goat skills for hopping up and down the slopes on sure footing.  We then swam through a creek and army crawled up a muddy hill under barbed wire.  Once past that obstacle course we headed over this bad boy:

 It gets a bit tricky walking on 2x4s when your shoes are sloshing, but on we went.  Around the lake until we got to this spidey thing:

After that we were in the hills for a good while running up and down creek beds and ravines, climbing over 10 feet walls, dragging cement on a chain, carrying 25lb sacks on our back, more walls, flipping over tractor tires, then back around to the main area where we tried to throw a javelin into a hay bale, which was the first obstacle I missed and had to do 30 burpees for, then hoisted 30lbs up to the top of this tower (which I thought was fun and finished before Josh and then went to help him):

Finally we ran past our kiddos, at the end of 4 miles of running and such, just to the last 3 obstacles; climbing up a rope, which I gave up on and just did the burps, then this wall, which I shamelessly cheated on by using the top of the wall and did not do burpees (using the excuse in my head that the kids were going to start their race soon).

 And lastly over this wall.  This was the only part of the race where I really just felt like crying.  Really, you want me to grip this slimly rope and walk up a slippery wall just so I can jump over fire on the other side?!  No way! I am exhausted.  I attempted once and then just waited and whined until Josh was on the other side and came to pull me over.

 Josh and I ran the whole race together which was a great push-me-pull-you collaboration.  I have much better endurance and he better strength.  I was happy to run through the middle and pushed him to run and he helped me get over big walls.  I can proudly say we did not walk any of the parts where we could run (sometimes you are bogged behind people and you can't help but walk) and we stayed together.  I think our finishing time was around 1hour 35minutes.  I set that as something to meet or beat someday but really don't care about our time, heck, we finished!

 Jill lost us back in the swamps and finished like a champ and 5th in her age division.

Not long after we finished our race, the kids were to start theirs.  I had to promise Josh that I would not talk about taking the kids to Disneyworld for a full year if he let me spend the money to enter them into this race.  I am glad I made the bargain because the kids absolutely adored this race and all the anticipation that surrounded it!  I signed them all up for the mile course, even though the official entry said only kids 7 and older could do the mile.  It was a half mile course repeated twice so I figured I would get them all starting together and if Danny and Viv wanted to opt out after the first lap, they could.

 Faith got herself literally at the front of the pack at the starting line. There were kids up to 12 years old, but she figured since she was one of the 5 seven year olds, she should have an advantage at the front.  She didn't remember that she had been instructed to stay with her siblings.  Ah well.  Let her take the advantage!  Josh was in charge of keeping an eye on Faith around the track and I went alongside Danny and Viv.  The two were so cute at being encouraging and helping each other.  Danny was a bit hesitant with the obstacles the first time around, but was totally fine the second time around.

 These mud pits were by far the kids' favorite part!  They would not stop talking about it, and I get it, I liked playing in the mud on purpose too!

 The second time over, the mud was so sticky that Danny lost his shoe.  It did not phase him at all!  He went right on running.  Lucky I was there where he left the shoe and dug around in the mud until I found it and put it on him later in the race to prevent puncture wounds.

 Here is their last obstacle - You can see that Viv is eying the finish line but being a supportive sister and waiting for Danny to get off.  They had gone around the course twice, what no other 5 and 6 year old would do!  I was mega proud of them.

 It was a fun day for us all as a family!  The kiddos loved that they got their own medal and head band and completed their first race.  We could all talk together about the shared experience and it was AWESOME!  I might even say more fun than Disney (but I will reserve that judgement until we get to go all together in another year).

At the end, for all the racers, they have a spraying station.  Just a lot of hoses and a lot of mud coming off people.  I skipped the power wash option and went back to the calmer hoses to strip my kids to their skivvies and wash them off.  I was glad to have Josh to tag team, as I got one down to the undies he would rap them in a towel and whisk them away behind a tree to clothe them, not that anyone cared about muddy little kids on this day. 

 Here we all are, all finishers!  What a Spartan Fam!

Easter 2014

Although it was difficult to have to with until the 20th of April this year for Easter, it did give us time to get in a bit of green grass and do some home improvement to the front of the house. 

My beautiful matchy family after Easter Church services.

 Josh is now working 50-60hours a week, thus the kids and I waited until almost the last moment to get the Easter eggs wrapped and painted.  Truthfully I have had some suspicious health issues that make me cranky and unenthused about many traditions, and then having to do them alone drags them into a realm of procrastination all their own.

Nevertheless and notwithstanding the personal issues, I had been reading a fabulous chronology of the final week of Christ's life to the kids as their bedtime story (yes, it was a bit over their head, which makes it the ideal bedtime reading because they just tune it out after I give them the highlights and go to sleep) which had emphasized the symbolic reasons we do all the egg/candy/bunny stuff.  It was a perfect year to to be talking about the true meaning of Easter with the kids and they really were interested in knowing about Palm Sunday, Passover, the Last Super, Good Friday and all the rest as we incorporated them into our daily discussions.

 Grammie and Grampie sent us beautiful shrink wraps with Ukranian designs and each of the kids chose some of their dozen boiled eggs to wear the beautiful dress.  It killed me to use them because they were so beautiful and going to be destroyed so soon.  Then it was outside to the backyard for coloring the eggs.

 What a difference a year makes! This year the kids were all about coloring their eggs on their own with no input from me, and they turned out marvelously!  They stayed focused for more than 10 minutes even and I got to sit back and marvel and this lovely stage in their life.  I remember coloring eggs as a kid and being totally enthralled with each color and how deep I could set the dye.  With six kids in the family, Mom must have had at least 3 dozen eggs boiled, it strikes me that we only got 6 eggs each, which may have contributed to my intensity with each one.  My kiddos got to have a full dozen each and did a lot with them!  Yeah for spring weather too, so it could all be done outside without threat to my kitchen or carpets.  Although, they didn't spill any dye this year!  Miracles do happen each year.

 Sunday morning the Easter bunny had traded the eggs for a picture of the Risen Christ and left some Sunday lovely wear for the kiddos.  The kids were waking up before dawn to see if the Easter bunny had come to hide their eggs.  They were anticipating this Ressurection day more than they were Christmas!  I believe so much of it was because of our meaningful discussions during the week.

 We made the kiddos wait until he Sun did rise before they could hunt the eggs in the backyard.  The Easter Bunny knows now he is going to have to be a bit more cunning next year in the hiding places because the hunt was over fairly quickly.

 We had plenty of time before the 11am services to peel all the eggs and make them into the colorful and traditional creamed-eggs over toast.  I loved, again, how much different it was this year having the kids help and their recognition (remembering) which eggs they had painted and even lamented a bit having to peel them.  We made a lot of eggs that day.  Our fridge was full so we needed to eat all 3 dozen boiled eggs.  What we didn't eat for breakfast got added to the luncheon as Sundayed (not deviled, it didn't seem appropriate for Easter Sunday) Eggs and salad.  What a feast.  What a day.  What a reason to celebrate!

Probably the best part of this 2014 Easter Season was listening to the pure and simple faith and testimonies that my children have in the Risen Savior.  Each one, at various parts of our studies and discussion would declare unabashedly that they knew that He was the King and that He was their Savior.  He is risen and our Lord!  What a wonderful thing to learn from my Children.

Not since January???

Wowzers! that has been a hiatus.  I have returned in order to keep up my writing skills and catalogue all the mega amazing things (and some crummy) that happen in our family for our own history purposes.  So....where to start since January?

January-April we had some super cool house buddies: my favorite hair dresser and her two kiddos were hanging in our basement while some legal stuff was clearing,

It was a blast to have the Goose in the house for everyone to remember what it was like having little people around.  She learned to walk when the first moved in and was running around by the time they left.  Super fun.

Most of January was spent hanging at home and enjoying A LOT of snow days.  Josh even got snowed in from work one of the days.  Even though the snow was nothing to an Idahoan, they don't have the plow power to get the streets scrapped.  Lucky that somebody (me) had the forethought to insist that we have an all wheel drive vehicle so Josh could get to work.During the Olympics (because we watched as much of the olympics as possible thanks to the following two projects and A LOT of snow days) Josh helped me finish the mega-family tree project I had started in October with the kids.  I had the additional impetus of using this project for one of my graduate courses.

The other winter time project was a totally hand stitched quilt that I was working on with the Oak Farm middle school.  I was on the committee for the annual Gala fundraiser and volunteered to be a helper with 3 classrooms for their class made projects.  The middle school project was by far the most intensive, but all three kept me busy.  With the snow days, which were A LOT, I didn't have as many days with the students to do the stitching so I brought it home and let everybody have a go at quilting.  The pattern was up-cycled fabrics from the students that they designed in a pixeled tree in all four seasons.  I thought it was awesome and turned out beautiful! The batting was the wool form the sheep on the farm that the middle school students take care of and sheer and everything.  I really like the project, but those last few days before the Gala auction were gruesome!  Thanks to all our housemates for pitching in (we were not looking for skill since it was a 'student project' so I could coerce anyone into stitching).  It earned $750 at the auction.  The other projects I helped with/made, chess set and throw pillows, made about $1000.  I felt good about my contribution.  I certainly can't give that much money to the school, but I can give my time. 

Speaking of school: Auntie Jill came out for a weekend to do some Melaluca stuff and spent part of one day hanging with the kids in their classrooms.  She does such a fabulous job of making each one feel special.  She let Danny teach her how to add numbers to the thousands.

She let Viv teach her how to match sentences and picture illustrations.  And then she had lunch with Faith in her classroom.  The kids love bragging now that their classmates know everyone in their family; brothers, sisters, Mom, Dad and Aunt!  

 St. Patricks Day came and those sneaky leprechauns left some fun green stuff for the kiddos.  Green being Danny's favorite color, it is not surprise that he was loving his digs from the little green dudes.

 Beginning of April we got some free tickets to see our local NBA feeder basketball team, the Mad Ants.  I was super glad that we got tickets with our friends because the kiddos had their buddies there to make the game exciting.  The girls yelled "GO MAD ANTS!" in chanted rhythm for the entire 3rd quarter.  They make the games super kid friendly.  After I got over the fact that these guys are just between high school, college and real basketball players, I could settle in and enjoy the skills they had (I hated to be snooty but the last ball game I went to was Lakers vs. Jazz).

And that is how fast a recap of four months can go.  Wowzers.  Now as my focus shifts from graduate school assignments and keeping kids healthy and warm I will have the time to enjoy some more family moment keeping on the bloggo for everyone!

Manstinct

Josh and I alternate putting the kids to bed, mostly based on what story the kids are most interested in hearing that night.  Josh is content with reading the Magic Treehouse adventures to the kids, long enough for both he and Danny to fall asleep and then the girls just fall asleep because Daddy's sonorous tones are matched only by his sweet light snoring.  I read because I don't want to do the dished and Faith really wants to hear more of Little Women and Josh can't do the voices.  Most of the time Josh joins us as I read so he can hear the story to and get in his sweet nap on the floor of the kids' room.  

One evening he was left was the dishes and did not join us.  I read until all but Faith was asleep and then remained reading ahead in the novel as she settled down to sleep.  I stayed there longer until I heard a thumping from the floorboards.  It was morse code - S.O.S.  Either the rats had gotten really large and learned how to communicate via telegraphs or Josh was on another one of his half-though 'man-stinct' adventures.  

Sure enough, as I went into the eating area and began to yell at the carpet I was assured that Josh and fit himself in the very small crawl space under the addition of the house to see if he could put more insulation under there.  Josh has a fettish with insulation.  He had crawled through the sometimes letterbox area in order to put one strip of insulation under the kids' room.  He had not made it to the kids' room, it was impassible.  All of those additions made to the original foundation were not made accessible to each other, which also thwarted his attempts to 'sure up' the kitchen floor.  

I tried to put on my best supportive wife voice and kindly tell him "I told you so" without being impolite, he was, after all, mired in dirt and other unseemly things hauling insulation to the nether-lands of our under-house.  I tried to make his return back to sanity a little easier by shining a light back to the exit area.  And then I watched as the foundation of our house birthed my husband, breach.

It may have been alarming to hear an S.O.S signal from random parts of my home, but it is not.  On another insulation escapade, Josh wedged him in the smallest attic space possible and then pounded S.O.S on the ceiling of our front room to let me know he was slowly suffocating and would I please shove more insulation toward him so he could crawl out.  Disgruntled yet again, I bit my tounge as not to say "this is worthless, and I told you so" and pass the insulation while trying not to die myself. I have come to accept that the motivation behind so many of Josh's 'need to provide' moments are motivated by "man-stinct" not logic.

Logic says that the actual benefit of putting a roll of insulation in a small area will not actually drop our heating bill significantly enough to worry about the trouble of getting it there.  Manstinct says that if I can prove that I can do it, I am a man that provides well for my family.  I suppose if he does not have the ability to go and trap food or shoot enemies, I must give him this small expression of manhood in urban life.

On Sunday, as the Fort Wayne area began to panic because more than three inches of snow was falling and there would be sub-zero temperatures, I heard the all familiar S.O.S.  This time it came from the roof.  Josh was on the flat roof certain that if he did not shovel of the weighty snow than it would surely collapse in the coming days.  I stuck my head out of the door to check if he was in actual danger when he requested that I go over to the neighbors and as for a snow shovel.  Wha? You went onto the roof to shovel it off without the proper equipment?  In a less polite mood, I hollered back that I was sorry but I did not support his current actions and he was welcome to get himself out of his own foolish position.  I wrapped myself tighter in a quilt and scuffled off in my haughty decision, until I saw the neighbor man who undoubtedly heard us hollering to each other coming out of his house bundled up to offer a shovel to Josh on the roof.  The shared moment of manstinct was touching as they collaborated on the need to insure their family's safety.

Yes, I am grateful that my husband has the instinct to provide and protect us all.  Although I may disagree with him frequently as to the most efficacious way in which to carry out said protection and providence, I breathe deeply and remind myself to be grateful.  Josh is a good man doing his best for us all, even when it gets him into tight spots.

2013? It was awesome

I don't know how I got away with neglecting our family's version of keeping track of what we have done (and sometimes just what I am thinking), but here it is, into a new year and I have neglected some of the finest finishes on 2013.  I will, of course blame it on the end of semester stresses and the flu, which caught us all off guard.  Yet, without dwelling too much on the missed opportunity of the past, here are some of the awesome photo-captured remaining moments of 2013:

A fantastically organized and generous classmate of the kids invited us all over to do a  gingerbread creation entry into the annual gingerbread festival.  Not only was it mega fun to see the kids playing together outside of school and working somewhat on the creation, it motivated us to go to the Gingerbread Festival downtown this year.  I understand it is a fundraiser so I will forgive the entrance fee to see candy piled in one giant room.  Pretty impressive, and the kids won 3rd place in their category for their interpretation of the historical impact of Interstates bypassing Fort Wayne rather than going straight through.

Since the children have recess in a lovely forest with amazing fall colors, like little squirrels they started to bring home their natural spoils.  We determined to put them to good use in one flourish of craftiness (which comes bi-annually for me).  The kids prepared gratitude trees for their classrooms made from the pieces of their very own woods.  It is amazing what some scrap wood and metallic spray paint can do.  I was most excited about the effect of focusing on what we are grateful for had on myself as well as the kids.  It was a good year to remember we are blessed.

Thanksgiving was a much slighter crowd than I prefer, which did not stop me from creating the regular smorgasbord of foods.  Thanksgiving is one of those days in the year when I enjoy making a lot of laborious foods to share with others.  The kids were my favorite companions through all the preparations and their enthusiasm and anticipation made the holiday so much sweeter than my sour attitude may have turned it.  And, low and behold, this year was a fantastic pie year!  Many thanks go to my amazing friend Naomi who has master the art of pie crusts and shared her recipe with me.

The Sunday after Thanksgiving started off our Christmas season with Advent.  I can't say enough how cool it is to have kids in this stage that makes everything magical again.  The kids were enthralled with setting a formal table and all the preparations.  Our dinner guests were hit-and-miss again this year (a very disappointing aspect of sharing a tradition with a modern society), but as Josh says, we have better company with our kids sometimes than if we were to invite others to join us.  Four Sundays of our favorite foods and we are fine either way!

Christmas Eve my darling husband ushered the kids through as many traditions as possible as I lay slave to a porcelain god. The stomach flu which the girls has overcome the week before waited for Christmas Eve to hit Danny and I.  Danny was a better patient than I and pulled out of the pukes within 6 hours.  My aging body was relentless in holding on to some severe inflammation for a few days but hey, I am learning to love and respect my body and its crazy anti-immune disease.  I particularly love this picture because it is a replay of a Christmas picture nearly 3 years old.  Oh they are still just as cute.

Josh's birthday came like clockwork the day after Christmas.  The kids were no less excited about gift opening, even if it were all for Daddy.  We open first thing in the morning so birthdays are like Christmas.  As any old-fogie would, Josh's gifts were practical work clothes and a challenge for a Spartan race in the spring. ;) we won't succumb to age gracefully.

On New Year's Eve, at 8:30pm, when everyone was asleep but myself, I opened up my early birthday present to myself and cuddled up with a kitten to usher in the New Year. As we say, the New Year will come whether  you are awake or not, so we may as well sleep!  I was cozy, and still wearing the pajamas on the 2nd as my birthday rolled around (I changed out of them for the day of New Years but got back in for the sleeping, oh so cozy).  

We had thought the last of our holiday vacation days had come by the end of today, but hooray for snow!  The 'severe weather' storm of the winter hit today, which reminded me of many a day sitting at the cabin in my childhood, lightly falling snow most of the day accumulating nicely up to 12 inches.  Church was cancelled.  Pretty much everything in Fort Wayne is cancelled for the next two days.  I suppose their snow plows are extra clunky? Knowing it was a wet snow the kids and Josh went out to smash as much of it together as possible in cute forms.  Supposedly it will be very cold the next few days after today.  Who cares, we still have more vacation together tomorrow!