Porter Post

I snapped these pictures a few weeks ago during quiet time because I wanted to remember this phase. I've already changed how we do quiet time, so this phase is already gone but here they are nonetheless. About 6 months ago Jack and Ben started getting spotty with naps and then they'd keep each other awake and go crazy during nap time and end up really grumpy the rest of the day. I knew they were at the beginning of phasing out of naps, but I didn't want to deal with it at the time so instead I started laying down on the floor in their room until at least one of them (most often Jack) fell asleep. At first I only needed to lay there for 10 minutes or so, but by April I could spend 40 minutes on their floor.  At first I saw this time as annoying. It was keeping me from the 100 other things I wanted to do during nap time. Once I just accepted it as something that just needed to be done I capitalized on the daily excuse to just lay down. I would read books, listen to m...

Cameron started Kindergarten. *heart squeeze* I had been flip-flopping about what to do for Cameron's schooling this year for a while, but increasingly so after we found out where we were moving last March. Home schooling, public school, is there a charter school, what are these Christian academies like, etc. So many things to think about and all of it so new. It's the lot of the first child. The guinea pig. And may he be ever so forgiving of us when he's older. It's safe to say I was more anxious than Cameron about the first day of school, although back to school night was really comforting. Meeting his teacher and seeing how kind and competent she was, seeing a nice classroom full of opportunities for him to learn and grow, and seeing him soak it in with surprising confidence was great for me. I felt ready to send him to school. And then he woke up sick! This is how Cameron spent his first day of school. Some anxiousness returned. He's...

I was really excited for the Olympics. We bought a super basic cable package  just  so we could watch the Olympics. We've since learned that there are some ways to get select channels without paying for cable, but oh well. It will mean I can watch Once Upon A Time the week of instead of waiting a  whole week  this season. ;-) Back to the Olympics. I have some really good memories of passed Olympics. I remember one time playing (in a hotel room..?) with my sisters and Rachel would think of Olympic events and we'd all compete and I think we even made medals to award ourselves. Things like who could jump from the bed across sofa cushions the fastest. I'm pretty sure every event was Rachel-gold, Rebekah-silver, Sarah-bronze. It's cool, I'm over it. ;-) David was probably smart enough to just go read a book about a cool Olympian instead. I also remember staying up late to watch the ice skating. It was one of Mom's favorites so it got a pretty good turn out f...

Well, Harry is now apparently 36 years old. :) I was a little hesitant to throw our Harry Potter party this year because 1.) I'm still in move recovery mode in some ways, and 2.) Because nothing says, "What a creepy new move in..." like getting a balloon owl on your door step from someone you hardly know inviting you to dress like a wizard and come eat cake in honor of a fictional character's fictional birthday. But I just couldn't help myself. So glad too, because we had a lot of fun and it didn't require much effort because most of the stuff we had from last year. None of our guests had read all of the books, but they played along pretty well! The games required a little more thought this year because we made it a family party instead of just an adult party. The kids seemed to think it was great, so we'll use these again next year along with a couple additions!  They had a race to see who could "put the socks on Dobby" the fast...

We hadn't been in Georgia for a week before we left it to head to VA for a family get-together. I'm really going to enjoy being close our east coast family for the next three years. My Mom just retired from her job as an elementary school teacher after over 20 years of teaching! Her co-workers put together a huge surprise celebration for her and we were lucky we made it to the east coast in time to join the festivities. It made for a good mini family reunion. There was a surprise assembly for Mom at school. The arranged for her to be outside with another teacher and they had the whole school assemble in the gym and then they paged her to come down. So, first she was hit with a wave of shock that they were having an assembly in honor of her retirement, then they announced that they had some special guests to bring out and my siblings and all of our families came onto the stage. My mom taught all three kids in this family, so as high schoolers now they came back for th...