Life As It Is.

Taste of Summer.

It seemed that we had a taste of summer this past weekend. During the winter, I tend to think of summer as relaxing, but the reality is that summer is more often hectic and packed with activity. So it was this weekend. It was full of wonderful things, celebrations of people we love; all definitely worth the exhaustion!

Got a load of mulch for the front flowerbed. Last soccer practice. Training at church. Last two soccer games of the spring season. All signed up for fall soccer season. Graduation party for Allie (who babysits and loves on Sadie & Avery). Finished making garden boxes (at least the veggie boxes; flower boxes still to come). Housewarming party at Mat's new abode. Church. Bridal shower for Hilary (while the rest of the fam waited for me at the park, picnicing and playing tennis). Birthday party for our little friend Reed. Checking out the solar eclipse. Registered the girls for bible camp.

Today we're hoping to sign up for swimming lessons. We've been taking lessons at the same pool since Sadie was two years old and now we'll be a different pool. I'm used to registering online, but this new pool does things differently, so today we go to the pool to try to get a spot (new pool is in a neighborhing city so we're not residents and so we get second pick).

I'm so ready for the school year to be over. Have I already said that? Probably so. It is taking discipline to finish the last few lessons before taking the girls biking, hiking, running, tennisplaying, etc. We're getting the work done, but we're still fitting in more than our share of outdoor fun. Bring on the summer, that's what I say.

Do Hard Things.

I drove down Ogden Canyon tonight, along the route where the Ogden Marathon will be run tomorrow. As I drove, I passed balloons with messages written in Sharpie, posterboard with encouragement scrawled in colorful lettering, huge banners from parents expressing pride in their son. I choked up as I read them. That kind of thing gets to me every time. Every time. I absolutely love watching Ironman races. I bawl my eyes out every time, even if I've seen it before. There's just something about pushing yourself to do something that you didn't think you could do....

A couple months ago, a friend asked me to do something hard (run the Ragnar Wasatch Back). Though it is something I would love to say I've done, quite honestly it scares me. I was almost relieved when I checked the date of the event and realized that it is at the same time that we're going on a trip with some friends. But at the same time, I was a little disappointed because I really want to push myself to do something like that...something hard.

When I look back at the hard things that I've done or been through in my life, it seems like most are things that weren't by my own choosing. They happened and I ponied up and got through them, but not necessarily because I wanted to, but because I needed to.

I don't know why, but this has been on my mind a lot, and when my friend asked me to do Ragnar, this idea of doing hard things really weighed on me and still is, two months later. When something comes up in my life again and again, or for an extended period of time, I always have to ask, "What lesson does God want me to learn? What message am I supposed to be getting out of this that I'm not paying attention to?" I guess that is where I'm at with this. It has been simmering for a long time, and now I need to decide what I'm going to do with it. Unfortunately, I think it means that I am going to have to do something hard, by my own choosing.

I really don't subscribe to the "you can do anything" ideology. I don't teach my children that they can do anything. I just simply don't believe it is true. I do believe "you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you," but I believe those to be two different philosophies. So what will the "hard thing" be that I choose to accomplish? I don't know. I have some thoughts based on what I seem to need to prove to myself. But that is just it. Sometimes the things that come to mind seem so vain. I don't want to get caught up in doing something just for the status of having done it. So whatever the hard thing turns out to be, the motivation needs to be rooted in "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," rather than proving myself. For His glory, not my own. That in itself is a hard thing.

So my question to you is, what hard things have you done? Why did you do it? As I continue to mull this over in my mind, I'm interested in your experiences.

 

Graduated Sugar.

Avery: "Mom, what's graduated sugar again?"

Me: "It's granulated sugar. It's just regular white sugar."

Just made me laugh. Graduated sugar.

On a sidenote, I think it would be pretty awesome if one of my kids became a nutritionist/dietician/physical trainer (something in the healthy living realm). That is probably just me projecting. They hear me talk about that stuff all the time and they've stored up a lot of information about trans fats, preservatives, why not to eat fat-free foods, organic vs. conventional, whole grain, processed vs. natural, etc. They bought themselves pedometers last week. Avery had wanted one for a long time and she finally bit the bullet and bought a cheap one (and Sadie decided to follow suit).

On Your Left!!

Okay, I'm feeling guilty that I haven't blogged in a while, so here's a random, pieced together, hurry and forward some photos from my phone so I have pictures to include, sort of blog post.

Dine & Dash: Seth ran in a race at work that was composed of both eating and running. Crazy if you ask me. They ran from his work to Big Jim's (a burger joint), where they ate a double cheeseburger & fries, then they ran back to work (total running was probably about a 5k). Seth said it was awful but he also said it was fun. All I know is, I would never sign myself up for a race that involved eating large quantities of food and then running. I shudder at the thought.

Birthday/Mother's Day: My birthday fell on Mother's Day this year. My family let me choose the activities of the day, so I took the opportunity to fill the day with things the girls and I love to do but Seth misses out on during the week. After church, we came home and changed clothes and headed for the tennis courts. Tennis is our latest athletic adventure. We're just playing on our own right now, but at some point, maybe we'll take some lessons.

After tennis, we loaded up for a bike ride. My birthday gift this year was a hitchmount bike rack for the car. I used to be able to cram my bike and the girls' bikes into the back of the van. Recently though, that option has become an impossibility. The girls outgrew their bikes, so they got new (bigger) bikes last month, which don't fit in the back of the Explorer, which has less space in the back then the van did. I'm loving the bike rack, though it is more difficult to load than I realized it would be. It is easy to load my bike, but the girls' bikes have to be weaved through nooks and crannies...not so easy for this short girl. Yesterday I had Seth here to supervise and I was a bit nervous as to how it would go when he wasn't there to make sure I did it correctly, but today I was on my own and it actually went well. Anyhow, now we can hit the trails again and I love it! The Denver and Rio Grande Western Rail Trail starts very near to our house and we spend a lot of time there. The trail is 23.5 miles long, so we can walk, bike and scooter to our heart's content. So, that was where we spent the remainder of Mother's Day, biking on the trail. I could ride that trail for hours and hours. My favorite is hearing Avery cry out, "On your left!!" as she speeds by someone. I rarely hear Sadie shout it because she has such a meek little voice that she has to be standing on top of you in order for you to hear her.

It was a great day, doing exactly what I love to be doing...just outside being active, doing things together as a family. And we returned home and my amazing friend, Sarah, had baked me a lemon bundt cake for my birthday! We had worked up an appetite, so the cake was a welcome surprise!

[ETA: the girls and I went back and rode the same route today...so we've done about 16 miles between yesterday and today. We were itching to go further but poor Avery could only see out of one eyeball (pollen/debris), so I decided we better head back. Maybe tomorrow we'll try to go further. The girls and I love when we make it "uncharted territory".]

Oink, Oink.

Meet Tasty, Smokey, Sir Francis...I can't remember all eight of their names. These are the pigs that we and several of our friends will be eating in the fall. We had a great time chasing them around the field yesterday. Thanks, Pete, for taking care of all of the pigs!

Skinny shirt.

Avery: "That shirt makes you look skinnier than you really are."

Me: "Ummm, thanks?"

Avery saved herself by quickly saying: "I mean, you're alrighty plenty skinny anyway, but that shirt makes you look even skinnier."

 

 

Menu Planners.

Last week as I was doing my menu planning, I asked Sadie and Avery if there was anything that sounded good to them for dinners that week. They started listing things, so I handed them the family recipe book and told them to make me a list. When they handed me the list a few minutes later, they had enough to cover two weeks of menu planning! I was actually surprised because they didn't just list their favorite things; in fact, their top picks aren't even on the list. As I looked over their list, I noticed that they had actually requested several things that don't take a lot of time or effort. They are just as content with grilled cheese sandwiches as with some complicated meal that takes all afternoon to put together. That is a good reminder to me. I always feel guilty if I make breakfast for dinner (I always end up making all kinds of stuff to go with it so that I don't feel lazy) or if I make something simple. The truth is, my kids think it is a treat to have those things, so I should do it more often.

I often ask the girls if there is anything in particular that they want to eat that week and they usually name the same few items (chicken pot pie, bbq chicken pizza, spaghetti & meatballs....), I will have to hand off the menu planning more often because they did a good job!

• Fettucine Alfredo w/ Chicken and Broccoli. Spinach Salad w/ strawberries, mango, avocado & walnuts.
• Garlic Pot Roast w/ carrots, onions and red potatoes. Asparagus Plait.
• Chicken Parmesan. Green Beans. Autumn Salad.
• Lasagna. Romaine salad of some sort.
• Grilled Tomato & Cheese Sandwiches. Roasted Red Pepper Tomato Soup.
• Challah French Toast. Fruit.
• Rocco's Macaroni & Cheese. Spinach w/ bacon & onions & hard-boiled egg.
• Chile Verde. Papas Fritas.
• 7-Layer Dip.
• Apple Cinnamon Pancakes.
• Steak & Charred Veggie Tacos.
• Dijon/Maple Chicken. Potato Salad. Fresh pineapple. Veggie.

sidenote: I added a few things like the asparagus plait.

So, if you are one of those people that hate deciding what's for dinner, I know a couple gals that can help you out!

Spring happenings.

Random happenings in our lives....

We added a member to our family with the addition of Macey, our newest chinchilla. Macey is about six months old, so hopefully she will be with us longer than Rosey & Pepper, who were getting on in years. Macey will welcome a little sister in a couple weeks, hopefully. Little sister is only around 6 weeks old, so she is still being weaned.

Spring soccer season is in full swing. Both girls love playing soccer, so we endure the two practices + two games each week. It is really fun to watch them play, but it does add a lot to the schedule.

The girls and I are eager for spring to stick around for good, but in typical Utah fashion, we get spring days followed by snow days. You're never quite sure what you're going to get. But we take advantage of every nice day we get, heading out to the pathway, or even just walking or biking around the neighborhood. We've done some kite flying (I'd forgotten how much fun it is to fly a kite!). The girls have been painting rocks the last several days (we've just left a table set up in the garage so they can go out and paint when they get their work done). Yesterday I returned from a bridal shower in SLC to find the girls and their friends scootering around the neighborhood...too funny to see a little gang of girls zipping around the neighborhood on their Razors.

We're trying to get back on track with our sprinkler/yard/garden project. Nothing got done for about two weeks while I was recovering from the car accident, but yesterday we got going again (Seth gave in to my pleas; I'm itching to plant my garden!). Well, on that note, I need to head outside and start burying the sprinkler lines.

The Damage.

Just an update on the Kappes household. Seems like the past couple weeks have been a blur of recovering/regrouping from the car accident. We said goodbye to our van which was totalled. We've had the van since the summer of 2004. We purchased it right before we took a roadtrip to Minnesota/Iowa to visit Seth's grandma. That van served us well.

Attractive photo, yes? My face is all healed up now. Had some rough days last week, but I'm feeling like myself again. I was doing physical therapy, but both my knee and my back are feeling much better so I asked the physical therapist if I could stop coming. He said I don't have to keep my next appointment if I'm still feeling good.

Driving has been difficult, but it is getting better (I had a meltdown the first time I had to drive with the kids in the car). We went car shopping last weekend and Seth insisted that I be the one that test drive the vehicles. Nothing like adding to my anxiety by putting me behind the wheel of a 2013 fully-loaded SUV and making me drive around town. We debated between a 2013 Ford Explorer Limited and a 2012 Ford Explorer XLT; we chose the 2012. I love it! Lots of fun stuff to play with...SYNC and My Touch technology, rear camera/back-up sensor, navigation, etc. Seth hasn't even driven it yet...I think he prefers to ride shotgun so that he can play with the touchscreen while I drive. He (and the kids) also loves the dual moonroof. We had hoped to drive our van for a couple more years since it was all paid off, but I'm very thankful for our new car.

So, yes, it has been a long couple of weeks, but thankfully, God has provided for us through everything. We are just grateful that Avery and I are safe. The end.

 

Die for the Truth.

"It's better to die for the truth than to live for a lie." Those were Avery's words this afternoon as we were talking about standing up for what you know is right. I have no idea where she heard that from, but I thought it was a very insightful addition to our discussion.