*sidenote

Posted on June 29, 2013 by francescaforsyth

I have not finished blogging about my CA trip to visit my dad and family. t’s like I am avoiding it in some small way because there is too much. Too much to explain, too much to express. It also brings up all those happy feelings of seeing pictures of and remembering what it was like to be with my sisters, their kids and my parents. At the same time, it brings up sad feelings of loss that I have no plans of visiting them in the near future. It is always too short of a visit and too long in between visits.

I will come back to this CA and family stuff in a few posts, but for now, I want all those memories to myself a while longer, to hold safe and remember later.

But right now …. it’s on to other things for a bit.

california, the morning surprise

Posted on June 25, 2013 by francescaforsyth

I went to California a week and a half ago for just 3 days, to celebrate my dad’s 60th birthday and Father’s Day. It was a surprise for Dad. He knew that Christina and Mina were coming to his house to stay and visit for a few weeks, but he had no idea I was flying in from MI and Aria was driving up from southern CA, so that we could all be there together.

It was heaven for 3 days.

First of all, Dad was totally surprised, which is amazing, since all of us girls kept slipping and mentioning “when we’re all there in June” right in front of him. We’ve been planning this for months (Bethany came up with the idea) and we’re terrible at keeping secrets. But it worked. I flew in late Wednesday night and Aria drove in the same day. We had to keep our presence a secret from Dad, even though we were staying at his house that night. Then Thursday morning we surprised him by waking up before him (we were up at 4:45 am), getting donuts (gain, Beth is awesome) and being all together downstairs waiting for him in the front room when he came down to go for his normal morning walk at 5 am. But it was nuts orchestrating it all. Beth had the hardest time finding a donut shop open at 4:45 am and found herself yelling at a gas station attendant, “But I just need some donuts!” at 5 am …. kind of embarrassing. Then Aria had to wake up all three of her kids and haul them over to Dad’s house at 5 in the morning …. then Dad decided, for once, to not go on his morning walk and to sleep in. So all of us girls were sitting in the front room, drooling over donuts (Mina ate some) and almost falling asleep waiting, until finally we called mom’s phone from downstairs to upstairs in their room and got him up. Here are the pictures from the morning. Every single one of these shots makes me want to cry and laugh out loud at the same time.

Killing time before Dad woke up:

Then he woke up ….

This picture, with Mom absolutely giddy and clutching her hands is my hands down favorite, of the whole weekend. It just describes, in one picture, what we all felt being around each other. Sheer joy. Mommy is so cute.

And the scene. ahhhhhh. This is just beautiful. Donuts. Family. Does it get better than this?

doesn’t exist

Posted on June 10, 2013 by francescaforsyth

Check out the fuzz this humid, sticky rainy day is creating all over my head.

Sticky rain doesn’t exist in California. This whole crappy thing where it’s like 70 degrees (or hotter) and it’s raining and you don’t know what to wear because if you wear a hoody you’re sweating it out, but if you wear shorts and flip flops you just get soaked…. yeah, this doesn’t exist in California. If it’s raining, it’s cold, if it’s sunny it’s hot. Straight forward. Easy to dress for. But the only reason I’m thinking of this specifically today is because …….. wait for it …….. I’m visiting CALIFORNIA ON WEDNESDAY!!!! heck yes! And right now, it’s sticky raining in Michigan. ugh. But who cares, I’m dustin’ this crappiness on Wednesday night – woo hoo!

it’s happening.

Oh man, I can’t wait. It’s gonna be awesome because I’m traveling without the boys. It’s just me. I love flying without kids. I don’t have to pack for 4 people or worry about whether or not the DVD player is charged. At the airport I can just walk through the security line without delay – I get snacks, I buy magazines, I read on the plane, I sleep on the plane, I go to the bathroom whenever I please, ahhhhhhh. It’s awesome.

But then there’s California itself. The whole reason I’m going is to surprise my dad for Father’s Day. It’s Daddy’s 60th birthday this year, in September, but this weekend is the time that all of us girls can get together, so we decided to celebrate Father’s Day with him. I come in Wednesday night and will keep my presence a surprise until Thursday morning when all of us girls will wake up early (like 5 m early) and go get donuts, then come home and when Dad wakes up and comes downstairs we will all be waiting there for him, donuts in hand and tell him, “we don’t know what happened!? We lost control of the car and ended up at the donut shop, so we decided, while we were there, that we might as well get some donuts and bring them home for you. Happy Father’s Day!” (it’s a family joke. My daddy used to do the same thing to us girls when we were little, except it was on Saturday mornings. He’d lose control of the car …. we’d get donuts … we all blame our addiction to sugar on daddy ).

I had a dream about it last night. I dreamed that I was in CA and sleeping in the piano room downstairs and Daddy accidently saw me Wednesday night. He teared up and I cried (happy cried) in the dream. I was so happy in the dream.

The other part of this California trip that is awesome, is that I will be with all my sisters and their babies. AND I will be able to help everyone else out with their kids cuz I don’t have my boys to worry about. I’m calling it now, I will stay up late and talk on the stairs at mom’s house. I will hang around Bethany’s house. We will eat and talk and play and I will feel the sun on my face. We will do a classic Damiano Beach Day on Saturday and there will be licorice. We will all get dressed up on Father’s Day and go to church. It will be a beautiful 4 day weekend for me and I am sooooooo looking forward to it.

So, it’s easy to see past this crappy, sweaty, rainy day in Michigan because I have California in my sights. This day doesn’t exist. It will pass. I will make it pass by trying not to look out my windows and by doing laundry and playing with Liam and Ray inside.

California, here I come!!!!!!

summer readiness

Posted on June 8, 2013 by francescaforsyth

Yes, you have to prepare for summer. With my little boys, they thrive on schedules and routine. Whenever I leave things up to them or allow them to just wing it and do whatever they want, they just fight, get angry, watch more TV, whine, ask to play more video games …. in short – it’s a mess. So, I have spent the better part of the day and a little of yesterday gathering ideas and plans and making a summer chart.

The chart just has their daily tasks on there and then there will be things we do once a week. Those are the small squares. I will laminate the charts, then laminate the squares and use sticky tack to attach the squares on different days of the week, depending on the activities for the week. I also made a list (which will also be laminated) of physical activities for the boys to pick from. All of their daily tasks will be things they can do on their own, things they know how to do and where to go to do them, except for the physical activities, hence the idea list.

I’ve also compiled a summer reading log/chart and collected a TON of ideas for science and art experiments to do all summer on one of my pinterest boards here. I had to post this because …. I spent all day on it and I feel like I have nothing to really show for it, unless I show it to someone. So there. Summer fun, done. Got it covered

christmas in june

Posted on June 5, 2013 by francescaforsyth

It was a crazy morning. It’s not always like that around here, but the before school rush can be a bear and this morning it was. It finished with me waiting and yelling from the car for Liam to get in the car so we wouldn’t be late to his last day of preschool and him running out of the house saying, “Mommy! I have a surprise for you!” As a mom, you have to always be excited about their surprises and in my mind, I thought, “This will turn things around this morning.” Then Liam held out the above pictured dirty sock wrapped in crumpled paper and started laughing hysterically. I told him to get in the car and off we went.

Man, I love my little boys, but sometimes they drive me crazy. And the end of the school year is such wild time. I was talking to Les about this. The end of the year feels like Christmas time. Too much to do. In December there are gifts and parties and the calendar is packed, we’re usually packing to go visit someone …. it’s nuts and hard to enjoy “the season”. The end of the year, in June, is crazy too! There are presents for teachers – and not just anything, you want to give a heartfelt, meaningful, timeless gift that’s not food, but tells the teacher how much they have meant in your child’s life …. then there’s end of the year parties and helping in the classroom, making treats, turning the house upside down for the lost library books Noah will have to pay for now, Field Day, End of the year Picnics to attend, graduation parties. Oh geez, it’s stressing me out just writing it all.

Yesterday it took me all day to blog about Ray and his birthday, but I wanted to have it documented, or it doesn’t happen. I still have so much to blog about: Noah’s choir concert at school and Gammie came to visit! But last night, as I was desperately trying to finish up the post about Ray, I was kind of putting off dinner and making any decisions about it. I think I was secretly hoping that if I didn’t do anything about it, maybe something would magically appear on the table, or maybe Daniel would just take over. No such luck. I ended up doing it all – making salmon, rice and salad and finishing the cupcakes for Ray’s birthday and doing it all form scratch. I made the dressing for the salad, frosting for the cupcakes and sauce for the salmon all from scratch because I didn’t have anything else or anyone else to pick up the slack. Stuff had to get done, people had to eat and I had to do it.

I woke up this morning with the same feeling – just wishing that all responsibilities would somehow dissipate if I slowed down or didn’t step in to do it. Sadly, motherhood doesn’t work that way, it just makes things worse. Kids are late to school, stuff doesn’t get cleaned and people don’t eat food. I guess it will be lazy summer days soon enough and it’s all about endurance, but man, I wish it would slow down.

I’ve got 45 minutes before I need to pick up Liam, then it’s off to the races again – playdate at my house after preschool, the boys’ laundry (it’s getting bad, no socks – thank heavens they can wear flip flops now), sweeping the kitchen floor, Ray’s afternoon nap, cleaning the bathroom, food shopping, preparing for the Activity Day Girls’ party tomorrow, MY laundry …. sigh. I will not get a shower, I haven’t eaten breakfast and working out? haha, that’s not happening. I’m drowning in housework, end of the year work and forget about all those OTHER plans I have for “spare time”, like preparing a summer routine for the boys complete with learning activities and outings and playdates – or finishing the “organize your house” plan I came up with after the Relief Society lesson I went to last week – or going through and purging stuff in the boys’ closet and under my bed and in the basement. I have lofty goals and plans, but it seems like I’ll never get it done.

I guess I need to focus. One day, one activity at a time and enjoy it. For instance, I am going to post this, then walk into the kitchen and eat breakfast, then get in the car and watch Liam graduate from preschool and I will feel proud of myself for getting the gifts done for Liam’s teachers already. I have to say, it was beautiful to see Liam walking down the hallway of his preschool with a jar of roses in each hand. That reminds me, I wanted to write a special note to Mrs. Yessler …. here it goes …

The roses and cards in my center console on the way to preschool.