May Tidbits

Brent woke up with a tight chest. After getting more detail about his symptoms, I told him to get dressed- we were heading to the ER. He stood up and let out a belch. He looked at me and exclaimed, "Oooh, I feel a little better!" Instead of the ER, I suggested we go for a walk instead. After two laps, he had belched and farted most of his discomfort away. Ahhhh, marital bliss!

I told Brigitta her necklace was on backwards. She said, "No it's not!" then she held it up and read, "Bri-gi-tta. See? It's right?" Made me laugh. I guess if it's right to her that's all that matters.

Liesel: Every Friday night Ireland takes the biggest slice of pizza and she won't admit that she's doing it.
Me: Go easy on her- she's growing breasts and she needs the extra calories.

Liesel: I AM TOO!!!

Me: Mmm- but are you really? *laugh* Sorry, you walked right into that one!

Liesel: I didn't walk into that one, you pushed me into that one!

Everyone's Girl Scout troop decided to hand out patches all at the same time. I decided to get that monkey off my back and just get them all sewn on. There were over 50!!! And this Cinco de Mayo one with the jagged edges drove me up the wall. What's wrong with a square patch? I ask you!

The girls and I were talking about how Brent is the favorite in his family.

Liesel: Who's the favorite in your family? I mean, I know it's not you.

Sydney: Yeah, it's definitely not you. I think it's Whitney!

Ireland: No way, it's gotta be Reagan.

Gita: It's Dakota!!!

While reading this gem for scripture study it occurred to me how cool it would be to have an angel pick your best friend for you. 

When an endless parade of girls kept interrupting me one evening, Liesel tacked up these Post-It's.

Ireland: I was walking from the family room to the kitchen and I tripped and fell. 

Me: I've seen Gita totally biff it on that little step!

Ireland: We all have.

I'm super grateful Brent and I were finally able to get the vaccine. Sitting in a room full of people getting needles jammed into them isn't my thing and so I'm so grateful I had a wonderful lady take care of mine!

Gita: I'm just gonna be like a dog *sticks head out window*

Ireland: I think that's illegal.

Gita: Being a dog is illegal?

Ireland: Nooo- sticking your head out of a car as a HUMAN is illegal!

Ireland: Did you know Sydney broke up with one of her boyfriends?

Me: Oh? Which one?

Sydney: Luke

Me: Why did you break up with him?

Sydney: Everyone did.

I started to breathe a bit easier when Liesel was vaccinated against Covid-19. Just 3 more girls to go!

*Driving by Kyoto*

Sydney: Is that where you went with Ireland on your mommy-daughter date?

Me: Yup! Too bad you don't like sushi

Sydney: Well I like pizza, so, it's ok.

I still say Sydney is missing out because that sushi was AMAZING! Crazy boy and the naruto maki roll are favorites and the spicy udon noodles with beef sauce was yummy too.

Is there anything more comforting than a bowl of miso soup? I think not.

Let's get a closer look at that naruto because it was yummy!

Liesel: Sydney, could you pick up that wrapper?

Sydney: I'm not your maid.

Liesel: It's your wrapper!

Some random selfies that showed up on my phone:

 I got a Kubb set and outlined a pitch in spray paint in the backyard. It's basically Viking bowling and was supposedly once called skulls and femurs. The girls were so excited when they knocked down their first blocks.

Ireland got to go tubing on Crystal Lake with a friend!

Remember the flowers Doug gifted me and my sisters when we were in Sarasota? Well I asked everyone if I could take the ribbons and butterflies home to my girls. Here's Sydney with one of the ribbons in her hair...

...and Gita was thrilled to find one of the butterflies matched her top perfectly!

I wake the girls up with a hug in the morning and when I went to Sarasota with my sisters, I urged Brent to do the same. Apparently, he hugged the girls while dragging them out of bed until they were on their feet. When I came home, Gita informed me, "Dad hugs us the wrong way!" I told her not to mention that to anyone outside the family because it could really be misinterpreted.

I'm only posting this video to serve as proof that now and again these two can get along- even to the point of swinging and laughing together. It happens!

Annual end-of-school backpack cleanout. This takes sooo long but at the end of it the girls have decided what they want to keep as memorabilia and what can go out with the trash. Honestly most of the time is spent going through previous years and looking at what they did back in the day.

Ireland added a moustache to this Words Their Way book. She didn't want to keep the whole book but she thought that moustache was pretty darn funny and wanted a record of it.

Liesel let Sydney play Minecraft: Education Edition and seeing the two of them curled up on her bed was pretty darn cute.

We get to pretend we have a dog whenever Whitney and Tim visit. I think Dakota is relieved when she gets to go home to the relative quiet!

Love the glasses but over my dead body is she going to get a nose ring!

I bought a Giant Jenga and Tim quickly established himself as Grand Master.

If I'd known how much the girls would love that set of blocks, I would have purchased it a long time ago! Sydney loved using them as building blocks, they used them like Dominos and they loved making different patterns with them. Money well spent, for sure!

Now that Liesel is old enough to babysit, Brent and I are making our way back into the dating world. We went on a double date with Tim and Whitney and walked around Woodstock a bit.

It's nice to get dressed up and go out on the town now and again.

Dakota has a subtle way of asking for table scraps. Suddenly my legs feel very warm...

We played games and took a stroll while Tim and Whitney were in town.

Liesel looked like the perfect balance of a girl and a young woman on that bike.

She took my breath away in that moment.

It was a lovely walk as the sun sank lower and lower in the sky and the air cooled a bit. I really love living in the midwest- it's so pretty!

And that's a wrap for May!

Courage, Dear Heart

Ireland's Girl Scout troop is disbanding. It's not uncommon for girls to leave scouting as they enter middle school and her troop leader had a hard time seeing a reason to keep going when her own daughter was just done with it. A few girls will join a new troop but first they had their very last activity which was ziplining in Geneva, WI. This is a beautiful resort town and I was really excited for her. 

She chose "Scotland" for her nickname- rather clever.

She looked so cute all geared up and I was excited to head back to town and do some window shopping.

I was dismayed to get a call from the troop leader 20 min later telling me that Ireland was terrified, crying and didn't want to continue. I asked to speak to her but they'd already let her down from the zipline so I headed back to get her. They were supposed to have pizza, s'mores and games afterwards but I told her no, jump in the car and let's go. If she wasn't going to do this then she wasn't going to do any of it. A kind worker I'd spoken to on my way over told me there was a final zipline where she could rejoin the group and try the final run. With tears streaming down her face, Ireland told me she would do it. Turns out another girl backed down and was likewise sobbing until her mother picked her up. After a while, it was time and Ireland braved it again. 

She came back all smiles and ended up having a really wonderful time with the rest of her troop. They played Giant Jenga which immediately made me determined to get our own set.

They took a moment to reminisce over all the fun activities and experiences they'd had together as a troop. The s'mores were mixed in with (of course) Girl Scout cookies and it was a really beautiful send off for this incredible troop!

When I saw how terrified Ireland was of that zipline- the shaking and sobbing- I decided right then and there she needed to overcome this. While she went back for that final run, I headed into the office and scheduled another one- this time for me, Liesel and Ireland. I didn't want this experience to defeat her and I truly believe you will never regret overcoming a fear. Ireland was going to do that entire zipline course come hell or high water. 

We returned just a couple of weeks later for try #2. 

I brought Liesel so Ireland could see someone closer to her age and size do it and man- Liesel took to ziplining like a fish to water. She LOVED it start to finish!

Dauntless, that one!

Then it was Ireland's turn and I was a mean mom telling her she was GOING to do this. She started shaking and crying again. "20 seconds of insane courage" I told her. There was no going back, only forward.

And then she was off.

With each line she gained more and more confidence.

I was even having a blast and I'm not terribly fond of heights either!

We had so much fun!

There's one zipline that's particularly long so you can pose for a while before preparing to land on the next platform. Without a thought, Liesel flipped upside down.

I tried it (although not nearly as gracefully).

Ireland let go of some inhibitions and kicked her legs a bit and seemed to be smiling the whole way.

Super proud of her for all this.

Liesel and I also tried the "Dead Man's Hang" which was a lot of fun.

Finally it came time for the racing zipline. This is the one Ireland was able to rejoin with her troop so she had already done it and was excited to race Liesel. We had Batman handles to hold onto and a gorgeous view on the way down.

Spoiler alert: Ireland won

I raced one of the guides and even though I ran off that platform and even though he gave me a head start and even though I pointed my toes and made myself as aerodynamic as possible, somehow he still won! Makes me want to go back just to figure out what the secret sauce is on that last run.

After a successful ziplining adventure, we headed into town for some Kilwin's ice cream. We fell in love with this brand on a trip to Petoskey, MI. 

We also did a little shopping (each girl got a cute top from this sweet little boutique) and it was just an all-around great day. Here are some selfies we took while waiting to gear up for ziplining:

I'm such a big believer in facing your fears and I'm so glad Ireland took on the challenge to face this one. Now we have some incredible memories from it and I don't know that she'll be so terrified of a zipline in the future. Even if she is, I hope she digs deep for that 20 seconds of insane courage...