Otis Sidekicks

I think we all need some summer vacation. I am hesitant to say that because that equals 8 kids 24/7 but I know it is true:) Towards the end of the year friendships need space, minds need downtime and bodies need to move more. Each year I try to learn from the summer prior. What activities worked well? What was difficult? Did a daily schedule help or hurt our days (help!) Did we keep up on chore charts or need a new structure? What camps were fun and how to budget for different opportunities for the kids. Using the Library Reading program is an awesome way to get a big family (or anyone on a summer budget!)  to the State Fair! Through trial and error we have found a rest time hour (when the baby is sleeping) summer work time is best for keeping up with reading and math over the summer. Most of our kids would rather climb a tree or throw a ball than sit and read (Annie & Nate are the exception) so I need to build in time for "summer school". I hit Lakeshore learnin...

Talking to the kids today we got into the importance of being a good friend when it is easier to do nothing. There was a moment where everyone was being really thoughtful and I reminded them how key it was to be kind. Those moments when it is so easy to look away, walk away or simply not help someone out. How the times when they step in and help someone else build a lifetime of character . Life is messy, people hurt. Small people, big people. Words hurt, hugs help. Loving sisters, hoping to build a culture of kindness Everyone messes up, but those times we choose to take the highroad, will come back to us. I gave an example of a kindness boomerang. It might be an entirely different person but that goodness DOES come back. It does every time.

This morning Lucy ran off with a seasoning packet. Zesty Spaghetti trail following a fast moving baby girl around the living room. Rather than loosing my cool we now have baked Ziti ready to go for tonight's dinner. Mondays kick my tush into the next week. By the time I recover I have made it through the other 6 games of the week and am ready to go again. In hopes of keeping my day straight I am going to do a short rundown. Maybe future generations will read this and buy me lunch. Before kids get home at 2:20 I need to do at least 10 loads of laundry to catch up from the weekend. Put away enough socks and unders to get all 10 of us through the week. Get Uniform shorts folded by size, 6 kids in shorts, 12 pairs in the correct drawers. Get dinner made in advance (check!) Entertain the little girls, keep Lucy out of the toilet, and spice drawer (note to self). Pack baseball bags with correct away vs home jerseys for travel, cleats sorted by child, Daisy's dance bag ready to go...

Honoring my mother is not an easy task. It has been done beautifully many a time. She has been honored by professors, psychologists, artists, writers and poets. The further I go into my own journey of motherhood, the more I look back and think about my own childhood. I can imagine her telling me not to get a Hallmark card (I personally love them!) but instead to create something, an organic ode. We may have disagreed on blue jeans, the color gray overall and aspects of theology, but the fact that it is now difficult to rattle off what we disagreed on amazes me! The gift of how close we have always been is not lost on either of us. As different as we are, we are each other's biggest champions. I may not fully grasp the mythical breakdown in a particular archetype and she might not see the need to attempt a new pantry labeling system but the support is unwavering. I admire my mother's ability to see societal expectations as merely guidelines to step fashionably out of and ...

Is not for the faint of heart. The frogs in the pockets, baseballs through the window and black eye at recess are not the part that has made me sit down. Fielding questions of identity, friendships and ability have left me wanting backup. "Mom I suck at this!" Makes me want to break into a million pieces for them. "Mom I aced it!" Makes me bake a cake. Raising good men, I was told by a seasoned mom, 3 Otis boys in, is a job this world desperately needs. Sheff is an amazing role model. His expectations of his sons may seem at times daunting. Hard work, followthrough and unwavering respect. They watch him like baby hawks, seeing how he treats me, seeing how he talks on the phone, seeing how he blows off steam (sports anyone?) They see him get up every Sunday, cabin, city, tournament or not and go to Church. Any girl remembers a boy who treated her poorly, it stinks. I want my boys to remember their sisters, their mother, their grandmother when they think abo...

Phone call from a neighbor: Neighbor: Hi there! Looks to me like one of your kids is on the roof. Me: Oh! My well I better... Neighbor: Doing some landscaping? Me: Well, yes, but I really ought to see which one it is on top of the house... Neighbor: Looked like a bigger one... I quickly hang up the phone and double stair it up as I hear John yell "Mom a ball just fell from the sky!" His voice is full of awe, I am sure he is thinking along the lines of God loves basketball. I make it to the second story bathroom and see a pair of legs and a butt sticking out of the window. I grab a belt loop, a swinging Mark looks sheepishly up at me and I see James on the roof. The upside James informs me he was simply retrieving bullets, Mark never made it out. Everyone is off the top of our home and I attempt to change laundry baby gleefully trying to climb into the dryer as Daisy appears, hand on mini hip and tells me "Mom I am not sure you have everything under control ...

Watching Nate say his prayers last night I realized we have finished up Lent, are moving into spring and did I totally fail this year? I did not read scripture every day as planned, Mickey took many a brother down (goal not to fight with his brothers), John-Luke actually managed not to eat many cookies, Annie was confused half through on what her goal was, I am quite sure Mark broke most of the commandments and James used his lawyer skills to re draft his Lenten choice so many times I can't even tell you what he started with, maybe talking back? Nate did. Of course Nate did. In the busy Otis household there are times the squeaky wheel gets the grease and Nate fends for himself. Watching him over the course of Lent I am not sure that is a bad thing. He is a very self sufficient guy. He prays at the end of his bed. Every. Single. Night. He gave up candy for Lent and literally had a little bag on his desk by his bed for the whole time. He proudly showed me on Easter when he helped...