Summer is almost here! We've had quite the year so far with M being in 7th grade, G in 6th grade and the twins age 5. Everyone is growing up and it's a blessing and a challenge all at the same time but mostly a blessing. We've had challenges surrounding dogs in which we had to put Teddy down due to him biting too many people and not being safe to have around anyone except M and myself. And then we got this awesome, amazing puppy that we all loved so much and she died when an infection in her belly went septic. We were devastated. And yet we remain open to love and giving that love to another dog that comes our way. And for those who know us, it's not surprising to think that will be soon as we tend to move on with life fairly quickly. In other news, we all survived the winter that almost didn't end rather well. By the end (in early May), the kids were bored with their usual playthings and were getting into some of the toys and games that they haven't touched in a long time. It was fun to see their creativity blossoming. The twins became expert fort builders over the winter and we now know the location of every single blanket and pillow in our house since all were used sometime in the last couple of months. Life continues to move forward and we all continue to grow and learn. We work to see and smooth out our challenging areas and breathe more life into our areas of strength. Tim has a great balance at work that enables him to use his extensive knowledge and skills of supply chain systems and all things technology and organization and still spend plenty of time with his family. And I continue to teach several yoga classes a week and am moving toward formally offering my services as a nutritional consultant. We've spent so many years navigating the world of food allergies and healing that I've amassed a fair amount of knowledge that can be helpful for others; I look forward to watching that develop. The boys are wrapping up their school year. It's fun for me that I can now give them the complete list of what I want them to accomplish in order to be considered "done" with school for the year and they can largely work on it at their own pace. M is almost entirely self-directed and he loves that. G still likes to have some direction and support and that usually works well for all of us too. The twins are dabbling here and there with math and learning to read and simply exploring life which is the best teacher of them all. So, we'll see how soon I can eek out another post. It's nice to catch up every now and then. I think about it often but rarely actually get to logging on and posting (obviously). Just add that to the list of things I could be more consistent about. Life is nothing if not fulfilling and I'm grateful that I have so many wonderful things in my life that I can't find time for all of them. It's nice to have options. :) As always, life is good.

Wow! I've managed to go almost an entire year since my last post. That's insane! It's truly insane how fast the time goes. I won't even try to catch up on all of the things we've been doing over the past year. Suffice it to say that blogging has NOT been one of them. Quick update: M is 12.5 yrs old, G is 11 yrs old and S and C are 4.5+ years old and rapidly closing in on age 5 for which we are very excited and grateful simply because we all made it this far and I'm still married. Whew! Moving on... So every summer for the last few, I've set up a Summer Projects List for myself. I learned somewhere near the beginning of my homeschooling journey 9 1/2 years ago that I can barely scrub a toilet during the school year let alone actually get anything organized or cleaned out (including the refrigerator but I'll spare you the details of that fun job). So far this summer, I've cleaned out and organized every single one of our closets, Tim did the garage, I did all of the drawers and cupboards in the kitchen, have sorted through my closet and the twin's closet (kind of), sorted through books and toys and started planning school for next year which really shouldn't be considered a "job" because I love it to an embarrassing degree. Today, I cleaned out my scrapbooking corner. Once upon a time, I had only 1 child. He was young (less than 1 year) and I got invited to a Creative Memories party. I was immediately sucked in. I loved it and spent as much time as I could over the next 10 years scrapbooking. I even became a CM consultant for 10 years. When the twins came along, I was all caught up with journaling and my albums and vowed just to keep up with printing and sorting photos until I could get back to my addiction...well, those twins are almost 5 now and while they do both have albums, I don't think they're even born yet in those albums and I haven't done much of anything with any of it for a very long time. And I have an INSANE number of photos printed and organized (yay for that at least!). I ceased to be a consultant nearly 2 years ago and everything has been sitting in my corner taking up space and getting dusty as most things tend to do in my house. Meanwhile, I've taken up knitting but we don't talk about the knitting around the scrapbooking supplies because they're prone to jealousy and they just can't compete what with being all immobile and everything which is why I took up knitting in the first place: you can take it places and it can fit in your purse and you get to wear it. As I was putting away all of my scrapbooking supplies (just into storage for a while. I will return to it at some point...another summer project perhaps), memories aptly flooded me. Memories of all of the countless hours spent cutting, adhering, artfully planning, writing, drawing and creating my beautiful scrapbooks. All of the hours I spent with friends and family talking and making memories together as we preserved our precious memories. I got to spend lots of time with both of my grandmothers: one while she scrapbooked her own family memories and the other while we created an album of my grandfather's life together (we're still working on hers and we WILL finish it!). Those were precious, precious hours and I will cherish them forever. I remember how much having my business meant to me. I spent all of my time with my 2 young children and doing daycare and it was a huge adult outlet for me that I desperately needed. It allowed me to connect with people in a different way: To be mothers and daughters together. To create priceless gifts for people and to express things in albums that aren't always easy to say. It was an amazing time in my life and I'm so grateful for it. It seemed like it would last forever and yet, it didn't. As my children grow and life takes me hither and thither I'm reminded of how fleeting everything is. We often feel like things will always be this way. We'll always have these friends, our kids will always be here and we'll always be doing this - whatever "this" is. And yet we know that's not true. Whether things change so slowly that we hardly notice or so quickly that we can hardly keep up, change they do. And hopefully we can look back and recognize how precious those moments were and how precious these moments are now. Right here. In this moment. We are exactly where we're supposed to be doing exactly what we're supposed to be doing. Right now. And in a moment from now, it's all going to change. And I am grateful for all of it.

Summer 2011 in photos

M's prize carving! We're so proud of him and more importantly, he's so proud of himself!


Watching Matt pull away with the truck to begin the move to California.


We took Adrien (left), our foreign exchange student, and Sam (right) our neighbor/sitter, down to Finnridge for one of the weekends of Adrien's stay. They LOVED it. Here they are putting walnut oil on the spatulas that they made with Wayne and Mark. What a great time we all had!


C has the distinction of being the first Boos Boy with stitches. Brother M's catapult arm came up and his face got in the way. A slightly traumatizing (for both mom and boy) Urgent Care visit later and he emerged with 2 stitches on the outside and 2 on the inside. Lesson learned: always go to Children's Hospital, NOT Urgent Care.


We had an awesome girl's night and not-goodbye party for Andrea. So fun to have a silly and meaningful night with the girls.


We went with my dad on a tour of Target Field. It was really a great tour.


Brotherly Love. A semi-rare moment when no one is screaming or crying :)


M - turning into a handsome young man.


My G-man. He celebrated his 10th birthday this summer!

Summer 2011

We've had quite a summer so far! M and G finished up 5th and 4th grades respectively. We had great intentions of continuing with some school during the summer but the warm weather and sultry days have gotten the best of us and not much has happened in that department but that's what summer is about.

I do have a long list of summer projects and many of them have gotten done or are in the works. Hopefully I'll get them all finished up before the summer gets away from me!

In June, we experienced a very sad tragedy when a homeschool family in our community was in a car accident that left dad and 2 of the 4 children dead. It was a shock that went through the entire community and we're still dealing with the grief and sadness as we all will for a very long time. Although my children have experienced death several times in their short lives, this is the first time that they've known kids their own age who have died. Heartbreaking doesn't even touch on how we all feel about this. The community continues to support the family through meals and prayers and will do so for a long time to come. It was beautiful to see the outpouring of support as the family asked our co-op to provide cupcakes for the funeral service in honor of the daughter who had recently begun a cupcake making business. When they asked for 12 dozen, they got about 30 dozen - people just wanted to help and it was heart warming to see how true that was. It was the most beautiful and wretched funeral I have ever and will ever attend and the sounds and images still fill my mind and heart. There's no way to describe watching a mother and wife having to say goodbye to 2 of her children and her husband.

As part of our own healing process and those of the children in our community, many of us gathered the day before the funeral to have our own healing ceremony. We adults knew that we wanted to talk to each other and our kids had the same need and boy did we hear some amazingly profound things come from the mouths of our children. It was a priviledge to witness it.

With heavy hearts and a different outlook on life, our summer continued on.

In July, we went to Finnridge for our annual trip and spent several days there rejuvenating and it was awesome. We had a family reunion with my mom's family soon after and that same day, welcomed our French foreign exchange student who was with us for 3 weeks. What an awesome experience that was. He fit completely into our family and we had a wonderful time with him. Saying goodbye was very hard.

Then came August 1 - the day I had to say goodbye to my sister. Angella got her pre-doctoral internship at San Jose State University...that's in California...not Minnesota. I had known for a long time that it was coming but it didn't make it any easier to bring her and my niece T to the airport to say goodbye. It was a tough day and a tough week that kind of caught me by surprise. I knew I would be sad but I didn't expect to have a dark cloud surrounding me the entire week which culminated with my birthday and lots of tears. I know it will get easier and I know that it's most likely just 1 year but I miss her dearly. G and I are planning a trip out to visit for a week in October and I'm really looking forward to that. They're already getting settled and having a great time exploring their new territory and I'm really excited for them. I've always been the one who leaves and that's hard enough but I guess it was time that I experienced the other side as she has done several times before. This is harder.

Throughout all of this, I've been working to finish up my reading, mentorship, Karma yoga project and tech sessions to complete my 230 hour yoga teacher certification. Sunday, I graduate! I'm really excited. I've learned so much over the past year and yet I know that it's barely the tip of the iceberg. My head swims sometimes when I think about all of the things I've been introduced to and I hardly know where to begin to delve deeper as there are so many things calling to me but it's awesome to know that I have time to explore it all in my own time and in my own way. This is the path I've been looking for for so many years. It's awesome. I've already started to teach some regular gigs and more are presenting themselves all the time. I think I could be very busy if I want to be! I love it that this doesn't feel like a job. It's more like "I GET to go teach a class today". What a gift. I can't wait to see where it takes me. After graduating on Sunday, I'll be studying with Seane Corn all week next week and I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!

M and G have worked on their 4H projects throughout the year and now it's fair time. M submitted his 2 projects last Saturday: a board of his cartoons and a carved wooden village scene. He was so proud to have earned a blue ribbon for each project and ended up winning a Champion ribbon for the carving project. He's over the moon with excitement. Looking into the eyes of my child who is so proud of himself because he worked so hard on something and he accomplished what he wanted to accomplish is amazing. I'm so proud of him. (pictures in the next post)

G decided to do a guitar piece for his project and despite being really afraid of getting up on stage, he overcame his fears and put on a great performance which also won him a blue ribbon. The judges were really impressed that he's only been playing for 9 months. He did such a great job and I'm so proud of him!

We have a few weeks of summer left and we're making the most of them. The weather is gorgeous after weeks of swealtering heat and humidity that largely kept us either inside or in the water. We've now thrown the windows open and are basking in the fresh, sunny air. This is my kind of weather indeed! We haven't gotten to do any camping yet this summer for various reasons but hopefully this weather will stick around and we'll be able to take a trip or two yet this summer and fall.

The next posts will contain some photos of our summer fun :)

The Great Getaway

Tim and I have recently returned from our first vacation without the kids in many years. We went with another couple who hadn't been away in even longer than us and we all needed the break desperately! It took a few days for all of us to come down a bit but the relaxation set in and it was fantastic. We all came back refreshed with our cups full and running over ready to take on our worlds once again. We went to Puerto Vallarta which is just paradise on earth and we loved every minute of it. I ran and did yoga nearly every day, sipped fun drinks, had lots of fun adventures and bought a timeshare that we happen to be very excited about :). We're excited to hopefully go back with the kids next year along with a sitter to have an extra set of hands and eyes and give mom and dad a bit of a vacation too. Here are a few key shots from the trip.

New Haircut

This is my 2nd attempt at posting these photos and hopefully they'll work this time! S, at almost 3 1/2, got his 1st haircut. He was enthralled with the process and, as with the other boys, we watched him move from baby to little boy with every snip of the scissors. The new do really suits him and makes him look even more identical to big brother M at that age!

Seriously? It's March already?

I started this year of 2011 feeling behind. We came out of our Holiday season having celebrated 5 Christmases and still having one to go which didn't happen until January 8th and while it was very enjoyable, the whole timing of it left me feeling very behind. I know that this seems to be my mantra "I'm so behind". Hmmm, must meditate on that one...but when you honestly can't remember the last time your toilets were scrubbed and your kids are making comments about them...you're behind. The toilets finally got cleaned (not even 2 weeks ago - I said it was bad!) and with that, I finally felt "caught up" for the first time all year. I'm totally feeling the effects of being gone at my yoga teacher training all day every Sunday and not having that day at home. Apparently, I used to do a lot of productive things on Sunday that I didn't really notice until I wasn't around to do them anymore. Whooda thunk?

Some really great things have happened this year so far:

- S is officially POTTY TRAINED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No more diapers. Ever. Never ever again. Wahoo!!!!!
- The twins are officially done nursing. That was slightly bittersweet but we were all ready. I said I wanted to nurse them until between ages 2 and 3 and they were 3 years, 2 months when they stopped. It was such a lovely experience nursing them for so long and I have wonderful memories of it. And I'm glad that we're done and moving on.
- M turned 11! It seems to get more "real" every year. 11, wow! He had a fun couple of parties and we honored him just right.
- Tim and I booked a vacation...alone...just us...no kids. Awesome.
- My sister "matched" for her doctoral internship which is a REALLY big deal. We're so happy for her and kind of selfishly sad that it will take her to California but they're going to have a great time...and then move back in a year. For real.
- I've started running again and I actually like it quite a bit. I never thought I'd say that.
- As part of my yoga teacher training, I've done a meditation series and a practice development series (both of which were really wonderful) and I'm signed up to study with Seane Corn for a week in August about which I'm totally stoked. I'm learning so much through this process not only about yoga, but about myself. And things are coming up for me and I'm working through them which kind of suck sometimes but it's all part of the journey and it will be worth it in the end. I truly love this teacher training process. I've been doing some practice teaching here and there which is helping me become more comfortable with things as well (like figuring out which arm is your left and which one is the right without having to look at my own hands or do the posture myself); it's not always as easy as it looks! It's very cool that I get to decide what kind of a teacher I want to be and what I want to put out there. It's also kind of intimidating for the same reasons. Again, all good stuff.
- We officially finished the Harry Potter series! We flew through the 7th book in record time (for us) and then suffered the inevitable Potter Void symptoms as we floated around the house trying in vain to find something to fill it. We did finally settle on some good ol' Raold Dahl books but we're still suffering some of the lingering effects of Potter Void. At least we have one more movie to look forward to :)

We've had tons of snow and despite the general feeling of dismay on Facebook, I love it. It's been beautiful watching it come down; so peaceful. We're just hoping for a slow thaw to minimize the inevitable flooding.

For some reason, I caught the school planning bug really early this year and have been having way too much fun planning what we're going to do next year. The boys have finally figured out that once they get done with the stuff that I have planned for them, they have plenty of time to study the stuff that they want to study. The cool questions are starting to flow more freely now and it's getting really fun. There's truly nothing more satisfying than having your child say "I just read something about the Tropic of Cancer and I don't know what that is. Can we look it up?" Music to my ears!! Even the little ones are getting in on it and asking to "do school" which pretty much involves looking at their letters, making sounds, identifying the colors of every truck we see, counting the number of cookies the neighbor lady gave us and roaming around the house pretending to be cows. Good times. It really is fun to have some older ones (we're starting Middle School next year - wow!) and some younger ones to stay in balance.

I have to say that when the twins were little I had so very many parents of multiples offer "when they turn 3, it gets way better". They were so right. 3 year olds are awesome and times 2 is just super cool...most of the time. Of course right now they're having World War III but it all goes along with the territory. Most of the time, they play together incredibly well and the way that they're participating in co-operative play is heartwarming. We delight in watching them.

So, life goes on as usual in our household. Our thoughts begin to turn to warmer weather and activities that go along with it: camping, summer fun, swimming, go to the beach, hiking, riding bikes, playing outside, etc. The twins are finally going to be old enough this year where we can really get out and do lots of things that we've had on hold for the past 3 1/2 years. It was worth the break but we're going to be really grateful to have some freedom this summer that we've not had in several years. BRING IT ON!