September Stories

September was stressful. One reason was that we had twenty-one doctor's appointments within the month! To me that means at least twenty-one phone calls to receptionists, dozens of calls to babysitters, several notes to teachers, and hours of worry. Half of it was to check up on Max's condition through the spina bifida clinic here. He's doing okay. The other visits were check-ups for the boys and for Zachary's kidney monitoring. And one visit was for Eric, who walked into a clinic complaining of chest pain and was taken by ambulance to the hospital (which, comically, was next door). He was not having a heart attack--he is a stress case from work, and his body is fighting back! Work is the other reason that September was stressful. Eric has pulled ahead full-throttle into his studying. Any time he's sitting down, he's reading; any time he's standing up, he's listening to his audio study guides. (He uses an earpiece in one ear--I keep thinking of the seashells in Fahrenheit 451.) I'm proud of him for his diligence, but I'm also trying to manage my larger workload.

With that (long) caveat, let me also report that September was beautiful. As I was scanning through our photos, I longed for these special moments with my boys. They and Eric are my fuel! Here's what we've been doing this month:

Michael is busy each week attending his co-op preschools and a music class. They have show-and-tell every day in preschool, and they sit on these placemats that we made. It's adorable.

One day the ice cream truck came down our street and so we splurged and bought each boy a popsicle, because ice cream trucks never, ever come down our street! Encouraged by his success, the ice cream man came back the very next day. The boys dumped their banks and bought popsicles all in coins. When the truck came again, however, the market had run dry. The kids didn't feel like they had that kind of money to spare, and so they quit buying and he quit coming. The end. 

One night for home evening we wanted to go roast s'mores, but we kept striking out on parks--why did none of them have a fire pit?! Finally we pulled over in this muddy creek bed and made a fire. I kept saying, "This is a memory, guys!" and Eric kept saying, "Aren't you guys having fun?" I think that we were trying to convince ourselves--the kids are always having fun.

One week I taught preschool three times, all on birds. Check out our packing paper bird nest and awesome beaks! We had seven kids decked out in beaks.

Later on Michael had a friend over and we made "bird pudding." I don't know why I was so into birds that week!

All my kids love kitchen crafts--I think that even Adam could fend for himself for weeks, he's so independent. Here he's made himself a six-decker peanut-butter sandwich, without a lick of help (or permission) from his mother. Gourmet!

There were some perfect days, crystallizing days when we felt as if autumn could just linger here indefinitely. A beautiful farm near our house had perfectly ripe raspberries for $2.75/pint, and so we went and picked some.

This picture is Wisconsin to me: the farms are picture-book beautiful.

Here's a different farm, with a delightful little market. 

I bought the boys bottles to feed the baby goats. They finished the bottles and then went after our jackets, naughty kids!

One evening we went on a 4-mile bike ride through a trail in the woods. Zachary was a real champ, finishing up as the youngest biker--he probably had to complete about twice as many rotations as the rest of us!

I always squish the little boys all into the Burley even though it's made for only two kids. Is that horrible? They look cozy enough.

Two funny backpack findings:
1. I gave the kids corn on the cob in their lunchboxes one day. Both boys ate the corn, wrapped the cob back up in foil, and then put it back in the lunch bag. I laughed when I opened them. Why did both boys think that they should return the cob to me?

2. The other day I found that Jacob had revised an item on his spelling homework. Look at number 10:

Yes, he crossed out the "three" and wrote "ten." When I saw it, I laughed aloud again. That it just the theme of my life: why do something easy when you could easily make it harder? Sheesh. What am I teaching my children?

Three fun field trips:

1. I went along with Jacob's class to a nature center, where they spent a morning catching bugs and pond creatures. It's the sort of thing I did every single day of my childhood--I felt seven years old, too, with my hands in the pond mud. 

2. I also got to go to Zachary's field trip to a farm. We fed dried corn to the goats and Zachary giggled and whispered to me. I was glad that I could just be his mom for a day. 

3. The little'uns and I have been trying to navigate our way downtown with the free campus bus. One day we went to the university's dairy; another day we went to the geology museum. But seriously, the field trip is the bus ride!

For Michael's birthday, we bought a bouquet of helium balloons, and they've stayed up for almost two weeks now! They remind me of upbeat, darling Michael, now four! 

We decided to camp for his birthday present--we went back to a spot that Michael had chosen earlier in the year. It's since become a favorite place.

 In our family, we teach s'mores in infancy! Roast, Maxey-baby, Roast!

 And hallelujah--here's Eric, earpiece-free, documented relaxing for a moment!

 The next day we climbed up this 60-foot-tall tower to see beautiful Blue Mounds area--check out my self-timer magic.

We topped off the month with a visit to Minneapolis, where Eric's sister and family have recently moved. We got there late and transferred the kids into their beds. We heard squeals of joy at 6:30 the next morning, when the cousins woke up and discovered each other! They played non-stop the entire weekend.

I caught the five-year-olds enjoying some "conference popcorn," our tradition for the past few General Conference weekends. I don't know why I didn't line up all the boys together--between our two families, we have nine boys! It sure made for an energy-packed visit!

On the way home, we stopped by "Spoonbridge and Cherry" in Minneapolis's Sculpture Garden. Apparently Eric did a report on Minnesota in third grade and has been wanting to see this sculpture ever since then. Check! The kids got a kick out of it.

Oh, and doesn't this picture of me look like a candid celebrity mom shot? Eric teases me incessantly about these glasses.

Well, it is way past my bedtime now! But how could I not record such precious times? Every time I feel like my plate is too full and that I can't do this, I think, "but I am doing it." I'm doing it and loving it.