Wander and Ponder

Lately I find my mind wandering off task and pondering where I am, where I've been and where my path is going... seems it's becoming a tradition over the past few years as my birthday approaches.

I don't think I realized how wonderful this stage of life would be - how much you can still learn and achieve, how much there is to embrace and how fun it could be.

And what I love more than anything is creating my life year after year by his side:

And paving a path for these four sweet children:

A path that they will use as a foundation to create a life they can someday ponder.

I love this life of mine - spontaneous, unscripted and completely fantastic.  

Here's to my best year yet!!

Quote of the day...

This time it wasn't about the fries

I was driving by a Chick-fil-a this past Wednesday and couldn't believe the traffic, I mean chick-fil-a is a busy place but this was like a restaurant opening where humans hadn't seen food in two years.

A friend on the phone explained to me that the founder of Chick-fil-a's son was asked about his opinion on marriage and expressed that he felt marriage is between a man and a woman.  His simple opinion, nothing specific against anyone else's opinions.  Just his opinion.

A big stir was made by people that don't share that same opinion and word went around that on Thursday chick-fil-a would be boycotted.  Fine then, loyal fans of Chick-fil-a decided that Wednesday would be the day for chick-fil-a lovers to support their eatery and come out and show that love. 

So there it was Wednesday, lines down the road, police helping control traffic... and me.  I wasn't even hungry, but I I felt inspired to wait in the line too.  I admire a business owner that is willing to share his opinion, knowing it's not the "popular" opinion, even if it means risking revenue {although this was not the case, instead the stores had record breaking sales!}.  I'm a business owner and I don't remember trading in my opinion when I signed my business license. 

Even though my "please make them crispy" fries were not crispy, it didn't matter.  Because today it wasn't about the fries.

Summer lovin'

We are lovin' summer break!  I really think I could home school, although I may forget the schooling part every now and then.  Who says you can't be smart through good ol' fun!  When's the last time someone asked you to explain Newton's law, the history of the Revolutionary War or the meaning of pi... see Packer Home School may work after all.  And when you can promise your kids a restaurant for income opportunities you could even skip the college part.  Hmmm, pondering....

Mekena has been working at Mekenita a couple of days a week.  She does most tasks that the rest of the team does and she's making some good dough.  She keeps track of all her earnings on excel - pays 10% of her income to tithing, 50% to savings (not to be touched until 16+) and the rest is for her to spend how she desires.  For now she's been holding on to it for something fun.  Tomorrow we're going to set up her very own savings account at the bank. 

Kirra has been nurturing the four little kittens that have defied nature's odds and still live wild in our back yard.  I do need to find them a home, but it's hard to take them from all of the fun havoc climbing big trees and pouncing all over the place.  Not to mention Kirra's little heart may break without them, remember the bird? - still feeling a little guilt from that.

Reef and Kaia go from room to room following the big girls.  Reef loves to chase and hear the girls all scream.  It's a little loud around here.  I like it!  Kaia drags around two big teddy bears from Nana Gertie all day long, they sing and move their head back and forth, after about the 40th time I want to play hide and seek with them and forget where I hid them {the bears not the kids}. 

We've all taken on archery, the movie Brave was inspiring.  We play with the basic bow and arrow and all watch in awe as Rand uses his super cool bow and spears trees and plants from afar.  Each day is a new adventure.

Here's to the best four weeks left of summer break six Packer people could have... I think I see a last minute plan for an out of town excursion in our near future!

Time spent

I was reading a story today about the importance of spending time together and finding a good balance between an occupation and the family, I found this line of the story quite fascinating:

"I have never known of a man who looked back on his working life and said, “I just didn’t spend enough time with my job."

Many people have seen us with our troop of schnookums and mentioned that they wished they would have spent more time with their kids when they were younger.  Sad.  And how true it is that you never get the time when kids are small and dependent back; once the time has passed it's gone. 

I am so incredibly grateful that Rand has sacrificed an amazing career as a high profile chef where accolades would have come his direction every day, instead he chooses to be home with us, with me as a partner, and to be a daily influence on each of our children.  Mekena, Kirra, Reef and Kaia may not know now but they will know one day how truly fortunate they were to have a dad that's given them his best!! 

This time is so precious, so genuine - the rewards of seeing the day to day growth could never be matched by any employee of the year award, bonus, big salary or company appreciation dinner. 

Thank you Rand for being a true companion and lovin' the day to day of our crazy life side by side.

Kaia

Thank you for being the best last baby a mom and dad could wish for!



Almost...

Almost time for summer!  16 more school hours and the three month Packer Party begins.  I can't wait!  I love having all of my kids home and two days a week just isn't enough.  Last year Senorita Summer payed us a visit.  The girls think she looked a little like me, but said it was some crazy lady all dressed up - sombrero, sunglasses, flower lei, funky accent and all.  She just showed up at the door, the girls let her in and then she and the girls made a list of summer rules and planned a list of fun summer things to do.  I wasn't around to see it.  I was "resting" in the other room.  The girls wondered if she was coming again this year, not sure she'll be available, but I'll check.  Either way for this summer I want to make a SAND PAIL LIST with the kids, ya know kinda like a bucket list, but more short term. 

Can't wait!!

Kaia's Furry Find

Kaia found an amazing discovery this past week... under the slide lay four baby kitties all curled up.  I immediately thought about finding the perfect little bed for their new nest as we mothered them into successful kittenhood.  I called the Humane Society to grab a few tricks for kitten rearing.  Feed every two hours, keep warm, keep safe... done that four times with my own crew and according to my baby delivery schedule I'd be due for another baby about now anyhow. 

But where could the real mama be??   I was certain it couldn't be the skinny little feral kitten that we had been feeding, she was only a few months old herself, there was no room in her itty bitty body to hold babies.  Hmmm, maybe the mouse we saw skinny kitty carrying a few days prior wasn't actually a mouse.  What if skinny kitty was the mama... I couldn't imagine taking her babies away.  Yet I knew if the baby kittens were left alone and didn't have a mama they were sure to be a midnight kitty cookie for the crazy raccoons.

The kids wanted to bring them in, they too feared they wouldn't make it through the night.  So we prayed, prayed to feel guided on how to best handle our new furry friends.  We came to the conclusion that we needed to leave them, after all they had made it without intervention the first few days of their little lives.  And we had to trust nature to do what nature does.  Soon after our group decision I saw skinny kitty laying down with her babies.  We all felt better. 

So each day we check on the kittens, I'm solo on the night watch.  I take the flash light out a couple times in the wee hours and make sure mama is with the babies.  It's been four days since Kaia's find and they seem to be doing great.  Along with skinny kitty, we co-parent Cub, Midnight, Shadow and Kailana {of course we had to name them}, and help her where we can.  Once they are ready to leave mama's side we'll find them homes.  Until then we are enjoying this sneak peek into nature.

Sleepover!

And he's never frozen my bra or put marshmallows in my nose while I was sleeping. 

LOVE H.I.M.

 

8 is GREAT!

HAPPY birthday M.E.K.E.N.A!!!

And you actually get to celebrate your birthday on your birthday!  Happy Leap Year Birthday!!!

Oh, you have grown so quickly!! 

You are magnificent and brilliant!! 

I love to just sit and talk with you, your depth of understanding has always been amazing to me.

You are a deep soul with so many capabilities. 

I'm excited for you to be a young lady!

Give me a c... C Give me a h...H Give me an e... E Give me another e... E Give me a r... R

What's that spell??  Yup, CHEER.  And that's our new favorite activity, I should say sport.  Here's the story - two years ago Mekena and Kirra went to a cheer camp for a week during summer.  I figured it would be fun, give them a little outing and that would be it.  They LOVED it, learned more in a few days than they had after taking two years of dance and begged to join the competitive team.  I was about to have a baby and the commitment was just not something I was willing to sign up for.  They continued to talk about it over the year following.  So last June I decided that if the idea of competitive cheerleading was still on their mind almost an entire year later than we should check it out.  Fast forward 9 months and you will not see a day go by without stunts and tumbling and dancing - if the girls aren't at practice they are cheerin' it up at home.  Who knew you would hand a kid a burrito and up it would go in a stunt, that you couldn't go anywhere without asking them to not do cartwheels and back walkovers, that you'd look outside to see they've rounded up the neighbors to help toss them up and that every piece of furniture would turn into a trampoline - even though there's one in the backyard.  The baby has caught the spirit and does somersaults wherever she can and there is so much counting going on around here that little Reef has forgotten that after you count to 8 you should say 9, 10 but instead starts over and counts to 8 again (dance counts end at 8 and start over and over and over again).  It's really quite cute and fun to see their passion, not to mention they are buffed and can do some serious push ups.  Competitive cheer is not for the meek and fragile.  These kids don't mess around. 

Three competitions down, two to go!  Kirra's team is truly unbelievable, these tiny tiny little things getting on stage in front of thousands and they perform almost perfectly - huge smiles and incredible execution of a complicated routine.  They've taken first twice and second once (lost first by .34 of a point).  Mekena's team is young in experience for her category but they are improving quickly.  They've taken second, fourth and then second again with their best performance ever last weekend... against some pretty tough competition I should add.

Most important they really like it!  It took Mekena some time, I don't think she expected it to be so hard but she plans to do it again next season.  Took me some time too... getting use to the short tops and make up, oh my! 

A quote I love...

"Everyday of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children"

I do think of this quote often, I have it up in my home, a daily reminder that I have four little sets of eyes watching me, learning all of the good and all of the not so good that I put out there without even knowing.  And then like an unfond mirror image I see myself acted out by a 5 year old and think "oops".  Children watch everything!  I guess I've made a few "withdrawals" instead of deposits.   

Sometimes I envision my life without children, itty bitty young children at that... I see a very clean house, incredible organization, serious muscle tone, pressed clothes... maybe even a quiet moment reading.  Sounds very nice.  Truth of it is I wouldn't be complete.  I wouldn't be me.  I am a wife and I am a mom.  And there is nothing more important than those two incredible opportunities.  I can't imagine a more magnificent responsibility and reward.  Every day is not easy, but every day is worth it!!