The inner workings of my middle children

Since we are now half way done with the school year, I thought I'd share some of Henry's writings.

Here's one from Henry's "Jax" phase.

"I Love my baby. Do you know why? I love him because I just do."

This one is from a story they read in class.

"I love when the bears were grabbing nuts."

This is a pretty accurate depiction of what our house looks like. And of course the little guy is the baby and the one with orange hair is Henry.

Check out the stream on this one.

"I love my baby boy. Once my baby peed."

"My baby is super cute. This is my car."

"School is my favorite. School is my favorite thing."

"I like my truck. My truck has turbo."

The first week of January we got slammed with snow.

When your kids can make vertical snow angels, you know you've got a lot.

We ran out of places to put it and I got nervous letting Henry play in it by himself. I felt like I needed to implement the buddy system so he wouldn't get lost or stuck.

It has mostly melted and now the inversion has settled in. I've decided to not hate January like I usually do. At least not this year. It is what it is.

This girl. The other night she asked Justin, "Are you thinking I'm so cute?" Here she is making a hideout by draping the curtains over the couch.

She's a pretty easy-going kid but she can get so obnoxious. Like last night at dinner, she would not sit down and eat. She wanted to stand on her chair and aim finger guns at Henry saying "Double shoot!" over and over again.

She's not ladylike nor is she a tomboy. She is wildly inappropriate with her potty humor (thanks to big brother). She thinks the words to the primary song are "I don't want to be a missionary now." The closest description I can come up with is the class clown though at this point she's just the family clown.

I like her; don't get me wrong. She's my buddy and keeps me laughing and wondering "where did she come from?" ("From heaven," she'll say. Or "from my nest" or "I just want you to give me a Starburst")


Yesterday Sarah made Jello jigglers to try out her new cookie cutters she got for Christmas.

Henry thought they were amazing. I did not try them so I can't comment.




****No Treats 2017 Update****

We're on day 17! The first week I found myself eating more crackers and bread for the lack of sugar. Heading into the third week, I feel like I have some sugar detox momentum going and have noticed that the less sugar I eat, the less I crave it (who knew?). If I eat jam and bread (which isn't on the no list), I'm just going to want jam and bread (or Oreos or ice cream) later. But if I don't, I won't so let's just save myself the exercise in self-control. I look forward to eating my favorite desserts again and have a mental bucket list of things I want to make when this is over but as far as intense daily cravings, not so much. Ya'll have no idea how much sugar I ate in December. I was afraid of what coming off of that would be like.

I am 100% at my exercise goal of 30 min for 5 days a week but I'm slacking on my water goal. Who knew drinking would be the hardest part?  I'm down 5 lbs but my jeans don't feel any looser so I wonder where the weight is coming from. I've started looking at fruit as my treats and saving an orange or popcorn for after the kids go to bed. We've eaten a lot of popcorn.

Other observations:
-I haven't been faced with any real temptations, like a delicious spread of desserts at a church activity or something.
-Vegetables taste better. I ate an entire sauteed zucchini.
- Oreos crumbled in a bowl with milk on top does not cereal make.
- My kids are eating healthier too. If I ain't eating it, I'm not buying it or making it either so sorry kids.