Sunday, January 08, 2012

Too Busy to Blog

I never thought I would be too busy to blog. I have so many words stored up for you all.
Bwhahahaah.( Evil laugh)
So many things have taken place since JUNE 2010. I am baffled at how fast time goes by when you are getting through life one day at a time.
I won't bore you all with the details since it has been a whole year and a half.
I will sum it up to say many wonderful blessings have come out a very heavy, life changing moments that go along with that.
The boys are all giants now. Why do they keep growing? If they must grow can they just do it a little slower?
We are now currently serving a Highschool freshman ( I use the FRESH MAN term loosly) a 6th grader ( he still lets me think I am smarter than he is ) a 4th grader (favorite saying "Yeah I know") our 2nd grader (still the cautious, organized, pleaser) and last our wee one is 3. Everyone will be turning another year older and wiser(haha) in the next few months.
I never had the fear of a teenager driver before the IDEA of having one of my own HIT HOME this year. He hasn't requested it until this month and now the plans are being made to get his permit.
I have been under some mystery health issues over the last year and am currently in the process of elimating the long line of things it IS NOT! This has taken my humor for a ride. I am not as quick with the wit and laughter. I hope that 2012 will bring this back. I have realized that I don't have a very large group of friends when I am not feeling my best, yet another reason to look forward to 2012. Change for the better.
Still at the top of my list is more knitting, journaling (so I don't forget the stuff that is going on around here while going through all this crud) and FAMILY, FRIENDS, FUN.
You don't realize how life stress can impact life until you start to come out of it a bit.
NO MORE FUN SUCKING ALLOWED. My only resolution this year is to enjoy things more and seek to have more fun.
Life is too short.
I am looking forward to blogging again. What have you all been up to? I hope that this year finds you all looking expectantly to what is to come...
Hugs,
Destiny

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Glimpse of Summer

Funny how you look forward to something (like summer) and now only officially under 2 weeks into it we are not sure what to do with our selves.. hahahah. Gotta love the endless days and the fighting banter that reminds you vividly why school was such a good idea. Here are a few pictures of the brood!



Sandlot Style Ball! Seems to be the new summer favorite. So glad we don't have picky kids when it comes to places to hang out.
Strike a pose! hahah. Alex and those blasted freckles make me wanna kiss his face. He is always soooo serious. I hope he lightens up a bit this summer. He's only six.
Drum solo Master Landon at your service. He is available for your next summer BBQ.
Austyn is practicing to be the next action stunt double. For whom we are not quite sure. But he may just reach the sky if he doesn't stop growing soon. Little brother is becoming a grand escape artist. Or at least that is is the story we are given by who ever is in charge of watching him when they all go out at once.. I am very suspicious that he isn't being watched with a very close eye.
Basketball is just a little too distracting for a group of boys.
Happy summer folks. More updates soon. I hope to have a post of the fabulous, lyric composer in our home.


Wednesday, June 09, 2010

School's Out for Summer!

Extra, Extra, Read All About It!

Our house full of boys have been off and running this year. We have been doing much of the same just one taxi driver at a time. So my free time has been limited to required work schedule and necessary bathroom maintenance for myself.
 You will be relieved to know that I get at least one shower a day! As for the necessary maintenance (shaving) that has been most often this season one leg at a time and not always on the same day. Does any other mother suffer from this? Please share. I feel I may be forming some sort of disorder.

 School is officially over at noon tomorrow! I have never looked forward to summer more than I have this year. In many waves this year I have struggled with what is motivating my parenting struggles. Most of it comes down to a lack of consistent time to regroup as a family and make sure we are all on the same page about where we are headed together on this crazy season of life. They are growing up so fast and the less control I have in their daily schedule the more I feel like we are on separate planets. I know this is a good thing for their growth as young men. But boy does it take it's toll on a mom.

 I have been so thankful that I HAVE to work at Knot Another Hat a few times a month to stay motivated and inspired to keep knitting. It has been a frenzy of knitting this last year. I did not take pictures like I should have. I am making notes in my knitting journal and keeping track of these finished projects I hope to be able to get pictures from the recipients of the gifts and post them. A few of these lovely creations are on display at the shop so be sure to stop in a take a look. "WIN" vest is my Olympics project that was finally finished up after a month of Chicken Pox and other forms of sickness.

 My little Alex has graduated from kindergarten. I am going to miss his teacher so much she has been so awesome. He LOVES TO READ! Yes, finally one of my boys can't stop reading. I almost cried the day he said mom can I stay up and finish this book...
Way to go buddy! You have had an exciting year of learning. I am so proud of you.
Keep up the good work. I know you will continue to wow our socks off. My mom is here visiting for a couple weeks and she helped me whip up 20 or so yarn lei's for this years graduation extravaganza. We had some big girls graduate high school this year too.

Not much more to report right now. This post has been long over due. I plan to post more often and then get stuck in busy-ness of life and don't seem to get it done. So for now I leave you with this update.


Thursday, January 07, 2010

Welcome 2010

Hello All,
  We have been in the throws of growing children at Whitaker Central. We are fast approaching having 2 kids in the the double digits thankfully not both TEENAGERS but double digits bring on a whole new world. hahaha. The rest (except the little man) are in school all day.
  I hope all of you had a fabulous holiday and spent time enjoying family and friends, doing the things that make you feel wonderfully connected and ready for the New Year/Decade.
  In my attempt to bring in the New Year right. I have been going through one room at a time and getting rid of anything that does not bring me GREAT JOY. At times my husband has wondered if he and the kids will be the next to go.. I assured him that they all bring me great joy! (giggle).
  My 2009 has been filled with lots of trying moments that have led to trying circumstances. There have been many things that I won't be able to share with you here. But for those of you who have been there for us and come along side to support us with your friendship, prayers, extra hands, and encouragement. We are extremely greatful and want to thank you for all you done.
  During this I have discovered I have not been the BEST friend I could be to some of you and I apologize for that. But my being a better wife and mother this year has forced my focus to be a little more one sided for now. Please know that I so appreciate your friendship and hope you all understand that life has gotten in the way of my free time for now but I am getting back out there and hope to spend lots of time with you all this coming year. Forgive me if you feel displaced or ignored by us this last year.

  If I had sent out the standard Christmas Letter to all of you this Holiday Season it would have read something like this.....

 Dear Friends,
   Reflecting back on our year filled with bull and other non pleasant things. We have decided to postpone the holidays until I feel more like celebrating.
   Austyn is in full mode of teenger-dom. He is busy filling his day with things that revolve around him, planning what he will fill his never full belly and legs. I swear feeding a teenager will take another job. 
  He has been filling the remaining free time he enjoys each day doing odd jobs for bits of money to entertain himself and slave labor for us to keep the peace. The ever constant tapping of the ball bouncing off the bedroom wall is his calling card.
 Rick and I are going to enroll ourselves in a brand new language program this winter. The add reads..
---Parents do you want to understand your teen ?Join us in this fascinating 2-3 year program that will change your life. Do you find yourself asking them to speak up? Texting in code words and letters that you don't understand? Do you wonder what they said even when you can hear them? Join us in a loud/ music filled room once a week to explore this fascinating langauge designed to help you BOND with your teen.----
  I hope you know I am kidding but this is something we think will be coming soon. He is respectful and is growing at least a foot a week. We can't keep up with him. Eeeeeeek.
  We continue to discover we have average kids doing exceptionally well at being average. They challenge us daily with questions and non stop talking that make us long for the grunts and one word responses of their teenage brother.. ahhaha..
 The thing I discovered I miss most about homeschooling is the paitence I had with my kids. I am continually amazed at the lack of paitence I have with them when I only have a few hours with them each day.
 Austyn is in the 7th grade and skates by doing as little as he can but seems to be squeaking out a GPA that keeps him on the honor roll and the current sports line up and that makes everyone happy. He has discovered girls, or they have discovered him. I don't know exactly what order it happend but I am not looking forward to this venture..
 Makoa is in 4th grade and is being misunderstood. His rough and aggressive playground/sports actions makes most people view him that way. But he is a gentle spirit that cares about people and he see's and hear's WAY more than we care for him to take in.. hahaha. He continues to remind us that we are not treating eachother nicely or we need to make up.
 For Cole 2nd grade is bringing on a serious dislike of all things educational. He just wants to play. If anyone has a great carrer option for him that requires no schooling and he can make a good living please email me. At this point he has made HUGE progress in getting over his bad attitude about everything that doesn't go his way and we look forward to another year.
 Alex the ever present Lawyer of the bunch. He is a rapid fire kindergartener. Everything Mrs. Kingrey says and does is amazing and creative so he feels compelled to share his growing knowledge with us. I am shocked at all he is learning this year. It is fun to see him reading everything he sees. But I will be sending out a bulk email to every grocery store in America to remove the magazines from the check out lines. Having my 5 year old sound out words like BETTER SEX ALL YEAR, while you are loading you groceries is enough to send any mother into a red faced shock. What do you say?  Great job reading Alex. At those moments we have the slowest checker in the history of the store working, ANNND it is a stock up shopping trip with a two basket minimum.
 Landon, Landon, Landon. I can't really put all the things we are learning about him this year. It would bore everyone to tears and some would send you to the Personal Care isle for some Depends undergarments. His new best friend is the refridgerator. All the items in there make a huge mess and fantastic noises when you drop them on the ground in large quantities. Eggs,I have discovered crack with amazing ease in the hands of an almost 2 year old. The laughter that wells up in him when he get 10 plus on the ground at once is a priceless sound. Have you seen how much eggs cost these days?
 Anything we tell him not to do HE MUST DO. So I am working on a stratagie to tackle that. Nothing makes my heart happier than seeing my little guy walking around the house in underware and cowboy boots. That is his favorite outfit of all time.
 Hope your holiday is filled with the joy the season brings to your house. Happy New Year!
  Merry Christmas,
  Rick and Destiny and our Housefullofboys.

Rick didn't approve this letter but I wanted to post it anyway. We are looking forward to a better year in 2010.




 

Friday, September 18, 2009

A Test of the Emergency Broadcast System

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! WHAAAAAAAAAA!!!
This is a test, only a test of the emergency whining out loud system. If this becomes an actual emergency you will all be notified by my husband or other family member (because they will have knocked me out and hidden my body). Hahah. We all know it would be difficult to actually HIDE my body but I think that my husband may be putting a lock on the outside of our bedroom door to keep me in there for my whiny timeout.

It is once again Family Camp weekend. The faithful few blog lurkers know well my distaste for this event.I just can't get excited about it.  I promised I would not whine in front of the kids this year so HERE I GO!! (they are at school right now).

The packing and gathering of all the necessary items is never my favorite project. I am so tired from the night before of cleaning and washing load after load of laundry, I am just too tired to pack and get it all in the car with the tired, whiny kids the school sends home to me at the end of a long week of school. Hygiene is most important on a weekend like this because we are in a dorm style cabin with 5 boys and 1 man with me as the only girl. I don't want to have the scent o' smelly feet as my camp perfume.

Note: We really should have this camp in the summer or at the END of the school year. Then it doesn't seem like we are cramming all this activity into the first full week of school. Oh well. Wah, wah, wah. It was just so much more fun when I packed my own things as a teenager and went with my family then. The other end of it is just too much work.

Okay so now that we have that out of the way. I will leave you with the promise to TRY to ENJOY the experience. I just hope to have less mud, sand, dirt, soggy clothes, shoes, scraps, smelly treasures and mounds of clothes they can't wear the rest of the weekend because they have gone through the entire contents of the suitcase the first day (because they were wet mom)... 

I am taking my knitting no matter the protest from my spouse and am secretly charging the Zen so I can listen to audio books while I knit. (hahah. He said no books either.) and smuggling in the portable DVD player to watch movies. Yeah, I said it. I am going to watch movies and play with Landon in the cabin and hide out while the BIG boys explore the great outdoors.

I look forward to Sunday and my own bed. Whoo hoo.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

No Cure for the Summer Time Blues

Here are the end of summer photos for all to enjoy. The top two pictures are the day of the broken leg discovery for Wee Whitaker. He was most tramatized by the rectal themometor than the actual splint.  I too would be a little SURPRISED by that if I was 18 months old.

He was not slowed down at all and brought many folks laughter when he hobbled around. Don't think he didn't get his share of "Aw, poor things too." Overall he was a trooper.

The boys got in some official swim lessons this summer and did beautifully. Alex has come such a long way the last couple of years, but this season he was swimming (on purpose) not just splashing around  half drowning. It was marvelous. The other kids now swim with a bit more "form" I am pretty sure the life guards never knew for sure if they were drowning or playing. But now they look like they know what they are doing. Whoo hoo! Landon absolutely loved every minute in the water and when his lessons ended he was more than a little upset. Can't wait to get them back in the water soon.

As you can see he is not afraid to pose for the camera. Thanks to Auntie Shari he is a professional CHEESER.
The sprinkler pictures don't do justice to the amount of laughter we all had watching Landon chase after the big boys with no hesitation or lack of coordination. Jumping into a fan of moving water is as easy as he makes it look. hahaha.

Last but not least my cousin's adorable daughter modeling her summer knit by Auntie DD. It was so fun to knit for her. She has been well trainded in the art of receiving gifts. I was well complimented all week long. She is a great little model too.

I will post the first day of school photos soon.

Saturday, September 05, 2009

End of the Summer Knits Pictures

This summer has not been completely unproductive. I have unfortunately not taken photos of all the items knit up since school dismissed:(

My goal this coming year is to catalog and journal more diligently in several areas of life but top priority is to get my yarn stash and multi project piles under control and get some of my patterns written up and maybe sell them. Yeah!

Then maybe I will start that book I joke about all the time. Hahahha. Well I need to at least get these stories written down for scrapbook purposes. Time is going by so fast and I really need to get Alex's album started. He keeps asking if I remembered he was born. Did you take pictures mom? Well, yes I did and still do but can't seem to get them printed from the Land of Digital. Uggh.


Getting ready for school next week is proving more challenging every year. I am amazed at the amount of THINGS that are considered SUPPLIES these days. I don't remember ever having to buy post it notes, expo markers, and highlighters for kindergarten or fourth grade when I was in school.

Does anyone have fantastic sack lunch ideas? Our school has not been able to complete the cafeteria yet so that means days and days of mom made lunches. Last year sandwiches were making me gag. I can't imagine how bored the kids were. So if you have any suggestions post a comment, I would love to hear them.


Along those lines any fabulous work from home ideas to generate some extra income would be great too!


I thought I would share with you how good Alex has become at communication this summer. We have been diligently working on a way to cut down on the amount of tattling and angry outburst going on around here. One thing we implemented was a talk to the person your upset with FIRST, resolve it if you can forgive each other and play on! Well, that hasn't exactly been working for A man. So he has come up with an opening phrase before pleading his case.


“Uh mom I have something to tell you. I'm not tattling I'm telling you the truth." It is hard to argue with him on that but it still isn't accomplishing our goal.


In my attempt to lead by example, I too have had an angry outburst here and there this summer (not a proud mommy moment, but I think all moms’ can extend a bit of grace and maybe even relate). The outburst part is not the example point. hehehe. After a more trying day with schedules and a lack of cooperation from the troops I felt myself getting upset. Fast forwarding through the less interesting events of the day. We still had not finished our chores for the day. I would love to say that I laughed and played with my boys and relished in the smell of dirty socks and shoes strewn about the house and ingnored the piles of unfolded laundry waiting to be put away. First we  needed to FIND the floor to walk into each room. Blah, blah, blah.... Enter my ANGRY OUTBURST. I will spare you the exact words used during this time, but immediately following my monologue was the silence of my kids, their stunned glazes and then laughter. My third born angel looks and me and says “Mom, your face got so red it looks like you have a sunburn.” I was not finding the humor in it. So I left the room to sign each one up for military school.


The “quiet time” that followed scared them more than my many words flying about in loud volumes. They cleaned ever square inch of their bedrooms and wanted to make my lunch, a snack, get me a drink, anything that would get a response. I just shook my head and continued on with my day (I was thinking the entire time what a horrible person I was to have been so mad), after all the chores had been done. I sat them all down and apologized for what I said and how I behaved and asked them to forgive me. Here is what happened.


“Mom, you don’t need to say sorry to us. You just need to be nice and stop being angry.” (ALEX)


So now mom is working on this and they are storing up more events in the “Therapy Vault” for a future day. Ughhhh.


Sorting through the mountain of school supplies is not exactly how I imagined spending our Labor Day weekend.  But I am working on not being ANGRY.. hahahaha.


Happy Back to School Week.