Dear Mom, Our last Pinewood Derby was “Normal.”

Week of April 7 - 13

It was another blew-a-relieved-sigh-when-it-was-over week, but there were lots of happy moments, especially looking back on the photos I took. I often wonder if I was born in the wrong century – when life gets quick-paced I tend to tense up and look for ways to slow down and do ‘nothing’. It’s funny because when I’ve mentioned this to friends they say that they like things to move along at a quicker pace and get depressed if there’s not enough to do. I am Mistress Quite Contrary. :)

In the midst of the craziness that is our current daily routine here were some of the shining bits of connection to Family, i.e. the joys of my days. There were more, but I’m trying to be picky and just share the very best.

O is for Ocean.

And Organ.

Our last Cub Scout (unless there’s Cub Scouts during the Millennium! :) and his last Pinewood Derby. . . .

DC was a hero-dad setting aside a hands-wringing deadline to spend a few hours with Hummer and the hunk of wood. You can see by their faces that this actually was not a sacrifice.

Hummer admitted a Pollock influence in the paint-job. :) I like the passengers he chose. And the very Hummeresque name.

And my favorite moment of the week – the hush that marked the Palm Sunday beginning of our favorite Easter tradition, followed by loud singing of All Glory, Laud, and Honor.

Can’t wait to see you tomorrow!

Love,

Michelle

Liebe Mutti, Unsere geliebten Freunde zu Besuch kamen.

1/1/14 ~ I’ll be working over the next couple of weeks (thanks to DC’s amazing Christmas present) to catch up your Dear Mom posts on here. . . .wish me luck! Below is one I started on time but finished today. :)

Week of November 11 - 17

It was a very busy week, getting Fluffy and DC ready for a chilly campout, and also preparing for our beloved German friends the Wingens to come. We had such a wonderful time with them and feel very honored and loved that they would come just to see us! (Well, Andreas had a conference in Denver, but still they rented a car and drove up to Fort Collins. Sie sind überaus nett. :o) More to follow. . . .

Rosebud has lately loved the book Saint George and the Dragon, and has been trying out a knight persona (much to DC’s chagrin when a plastic sword blow to the head caught him off guard!) She is cracking us up!

Here she is as a Princess-Swimmer-Knight in pj’s and a sweater. (Note the plastic shield :).

 

Hummer gave a lovely FHE lesson on gratitude and spent literally hours cutting out leaves and preparing this tree. He is super awesome.

 

I’m pretty partial to these ones, too. :o)

 

 

We had a Relief Society Mother-Daughter meeting (did I tell you one of my callings is to be on the RS meeting committee?) and when we went that morning to set up Fluffy made himself the hero of the day by playing with all the littlies in the nursery room.

Rosebud was SO excited to get to come with me that evening. (And, truth be told, it had been my idea to make it a mother/daughter because all these years I have looked forward to one of these. :) Here we are with our cookie dough truffles for the cookie exchange.

Fabulous recipe here.

Doesn’t she look sweet? We had the best evening. My favorite part was making an ornament with her and it was her favorite part, too. <happy sigh>

On Friday we sent off these two brave souls to camp in the chill at Carter Lake. I am so glad DC could go with Fluffy this time! They had a great time, and even texted to reassure me they weren’t freezing like little popsicles in their tent.

Meanwhile the rest of us cleaned and organized and prepared with excitement for the Wingens to arrive, which they did Saturday morning just as DC and Fluffy got back.

They had never been to Colorado before, and we had never been to Rocky Mountain National Park, so we thought that sounded like a great plan. Due to September flooding we had to take a longer way to get there, and it was snowing once we got into the park, but we still got to see a herd of elk up close and have an impromptu snowball fight. :)

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Here’s from when we tried to drive further up. . . .we gave up and decided to play. :)

We explored some lovely shops at Estes Park, then headed home. I loved riding in the car with Andrea and Andreas and talking about Christmas traditions here and in Germany and all kinds of other things.

The next day after church we had a lovely dinner together.

Then, since we live in Fort Collins and not Estes Park (not that we’re biased). . .

. . .and it was gorgeous weather. . .

. . .we went to the park! :)

It was a great ending to a wonderful visit with them. Hope we can see them again soon!

Love,

Michelle

P.S. Hummer made this to add to the Benjamin name-collection. I love that he remembers his little brother!

How we do it - { scouting }

Here's a little post to prove that I am okay, and it is November 1st! Yay for me!

For all the moms of boys out there. . .

With so many boys in our family, you know it'll be either sink-or-swim for us when it comes to Scouting and Faith in God. For a while we really struggled with a routine for it. Poor Exacto barely finished by the skin of his teeth (ON his birthday for his Wolf!) for several of the early ranks. With them gone all day to school, and then homework and sports and music when they got home, it really was tricky. Then Fluffy became a Cub Scout, and Exacto entered Boy Scouts, and we were really floundering.

Luckily, I have a brilliant mom, who raised 5 Eagle Scouts and was a den mother herself for years and years. She suggested the following, and it has worked like a charm for us ever since.

1. Get yourself some Little Debbies, or a charming, inexpensive substitute. :)

 

2. Put them into the birdhouse that your Wolf scout made for one of his requirements with a diligent den leader (no way could WE have pulled off this good of a job!)

 

3. Require your sweet son to spend 15 minutes a day (time it!) working on either Scouts or Faith in God. Be available to help, but try to have the burden of looking in the book for what to do, etc. on HIS shoulders whenever possible.

4. When he signs off a requirement, let him choose a treat from the birdhouse!

This is working so well for us, because it has become part of the daily routine. We include it with the practicing they do. (They only have to practice on the days that they eat--ha :). Fluffy is more than halfway done with his Bear and it's only been a few months since he started it. Exacto just finished his 1st class (he turned 12 in June). And I have finally caught the vision--guess what? Scouting is FUN! Who'd have thought?

(caveat: I should mention that we have stopped all sports for now. Music is so important to us, and there really isn't time to do both that and sports AND Scouting. Scouting is the Church's program for the boys in that age group, and so we consider it necessary. But you could totally make this work with sports and Scouting, of course. :)

I'm so grateful for this idea from my mom! Just had to share for anyone out there overwhelmed with helping their boys get this done.

What can I say? In this family, SUGAR TALKS. :) It's all about routine and sugar, mmhmm.