weathered (p)leather

I was grateful that Avery's belt lasted the entire school year. Kind of.


But, his shoes needed to be replaced before school let out.

all ages show

an entertaining tantrum (if you are able to find such things entertaining)

a theory on why i never sucked my thumb

I remember being read this book as a child.

It included the story of the Thumb-sucker.

"Konrad!" cried his mamma dear,
"I'll go out, but you stay here,
Try how pretty you can be
Till I come again," said she.
"Docile be, and good and mild,
Pray don't suck your thumb, my child,
For if you do, the tailor'll come
And bring his shears and snip your thumb
From off your hand as clear and clean
As if paper it had been."

Before she'd turned the south,
He'd got his thumbkin in his mouth!

Bang! here goes the door ker-slam!
Whoop! the tailor lands ker-blam!
Waves his shears, the heartless grub,
and calls for Dawmen-lutscher-bub.
Claps his weapon to the thumb,
Snips it square as head of grum,
While that lad his tongue unfurled
And fired a yell heard 'round the world.

Who can tell mother's sorrow
When she saw her boy the morrow!
There he stood all steeped in shame,
And not a thumbkin to his name.

note: before anyone should judge my parents, judge me! i liked this book and i believe it's pretty classic german fare. all of us have spoken german at some point. (i am the only one in my family that has not been to germany.) i have both a german and english version of this book floating around my bookshelves.

our first thumbsucker

this was really early on. i was obsessed. back then, i hadn't noticed that she only sucks her left thumb. i'm still in love with her little habit.

he takes the mound

Just when you think baseball season is over...

...the league throws together a tournament team and your son pitches for the first time ever.

so long, old timer

This carseat brought home all four of our children from the hospital.

sniff. thanks for the memories.

wha???

i came across these and was totally baffled. my handwriting and doodling, yes, but i couldn't make sense of it. i think it has something to do with a human trafficking. but, still. would i really have taken such weird notes on such a horrifying subject? what IS that thing next to the word "spy"?



and apparently, i didn't know how to spell camouflage? what is lucrative camouflage????

carpool crew on the last day of school (which was quite awhile ago actually)

Remember this?



And what about those future scholars on the end? Class of 2025, I think...yikes.

she turned "free" in july

The other day Brent said, "Mommy loves you and Daddy loves you and..."

"My BIRTHDAY loves me!" Jillian finished.

little drummer boy?

Recent find while cleaning up:

my drug of choice

I decided yesterday that if they could encapsulate the hormone which causes nesting--that wonderfully productive urge to clean and organize your entire house 26 hours a day--I would take that pill. Indeed, I would.

thoughts on my earlier post, blogging in general and the pitfall of narcissism

Last night when I wrote about my kids, I was pretty aware that I was gushing over them. Maybe a little too much. And I realize that I gush over Brent whenever I write about him (because he's awesome...).

This morning I reflected on a brief conversation that Brent and I had about narcissism. I had read an interview with Angelina Jolie and immediately thought, narcissist. I need to admit that's not a good habit, diagnosing people you're reading about in the paper or on a blog. But it got me thinking about how our look-at-me, read-about-me, watch-my-youtube culture seems like a petri dish for narcissism.

On one hand, I don't want to be guilty of showcasing only the positive side. On the other hand, I want to be cautious as I write about my family. I should say only positive things about my kids or my husband on a blog. If they want to be vulnerable about their weaknesses, I'll let them do that.

So, if you're reading along and find yourself thinking, "Wow! Jenna's kids are the most amazing kids ever," or "Dang, Jenna, you are a deluded child-worshipper," just keep in mind that I'm trying to be respectful of them by leaving out the bad stuff.

trying to prove a point

me and phoebe



me and phoebe


me


and phoebe

it's really hard to write anymore

If I could write a brain dump, I'd tell you about...

1. How time-consuming and thought-consuming it is to have four kids home all the time. I do NOT know how homeschoolers do this. Or daycare providers. Or...anyone. It's been hard.

2. I'd tell you about how Phoebe changed in her seventh month of life. She was a quiet, immobile, toothless baby with dark, dark hair. Between seven and eight months old, she started crawling and sitting and grew two teeth. Her hair lightened up significantly. (We all knew that was going to happen, right? The blonde eyebrows at birth...) She says "da-da" and makes cute noises. And not so cute noises. Downright scary shrilling noises that make you freeze and drop your fork at dinner sometimes.

3. I'd tell you how Avery's playing little league for the first time this year. He's amazing. So coachable. So focused. When I watch my son play baseball, I'm watching a young man. And when I watch him play, I forget about mortgages and meal planning and failures. That's not why I love his games. It's just something I noticed. I don't want to miss him make a double play or a diving catch. I love watching him do things I can't. And I love watching him pat his fellow players on the back and cheer for them. I love seeing that he does indeed have a passion.

4. I'd tell you how Miles is hands-down the best soccer player I've ever seen. (I didn't watch the World Cup!) No. Really, it's amazing to watch him channel his seemingly endless supply of energy and use his usually annoying skill of weaving in and out of people to totally dominate the field. He isn't timid. He's focused and he charges the ball (and hogs it). He scores lots of goals (and he misses a lot). We encourage him to be a team player and pass, but since he doesn't read this blog, I can say he could pretty much take on the other team by himself.

5. I'd tell you a thousand things about Jillian, too, because her personality just tickles me so. I'm especially fascinated with her different relationships in the family. When she puts on a pretty dress, she announces, "I'm cute," and then immediately runs to Brent for approval. She and Miles play all the time. Avery reads her books and she loves to climb up to his bunk...and steal his gum, which really annoys him! She has about 25 nicknames for Phoebe. I love to hear her say, "Oh Phoeb!" or "Phoby" or "Phlubz".

6. I'd tell you about how I stopped using Twitter and deactivated my Facebook account so that I could think more clearly again. Too. much. information.

7. I'd tell you so many more things. But, in the meantime, I think I'll share pictures that I've just found on my camera. Until tonight, I hadn't uploaded pictures for months. It was interesting. "What I found on my camera" posts to follow...