You are TWELVE years old. I've said it since you were little, but one of my favorite words to describe you is delight. You are a delight to the people who surround you. Your happy countenance, desire to help, respect, diligence, and passion for your interests, attracts others to you. You are a gift to our family and your many friends.
School continues to come easily for you. You work hard, manage your time well, and pursue your educational interests. You rarely get distracted in your work and are motivated each day to finish your work in a timely manner. Your favorite subject is history and least favorite is writing.
As the oldest sibling, you like to be in charge and direct the play of your siblings and friends. You like to direct plays/concerts, football and baseball games, and the running of Kidsborough. You don't like the pushback that often comes with wanting to be in charge, especially when it comes from your siblings. It's a learning process.
You're looking forward to playing flag football again in the Fall and are pursuing guitar lessons also. You also have a desire to act in a local theater group, so we're trying to figure that out right now.
You have a passion for theme parks and roller coasters right now. Your free time is spent watching YouTube updates about your favorite theme parks, playing Planet Coaster, and reading anything you can about amusement parks. You also enjoy reading at bedtime especially if you can find an enthralling book like Keepers of the Lost Cities. You also like doing any kind of STEM kit or Lego set. You've rebuilt your Knex sets recently too. When the weather is nice, you like to play football or baseball with the neighbors, fly your RC airplane, or play in Kidsborough.
Katherine is one of your favorite people in the world. She can get you to do whatever she wants. The age gap between you too has been sweet to witness. You also like to play Minecraft with Samuel and put on shows with Elisabeth.
Your best friends have remained unchanged, and I'm grateful for the longevity and quality of your friendships. Danie, Wyatt, Caden and Caleb top your list. You don't need a lot of friends and are content to strengthen the friendships you do have.
I have seen you grow spiritually this year as you've been a part of the student ministry at church. You are happy to serve and participate in small groups. You also have a particular love of worship music and experiences at church. You have memorized scripture faithfully in AWANA and have hidden it in your heart.
Nathan, it's a joy to delight in you. We thank God always for you being in our family.
It's been a long time since I've remembered to do a day in the life, and I don't want to forget our ordinary days as the kids grow and our routines change, so I managed to capture a random Tuesday.
I got up at 5:30 and ran on the treadmill, showered, and got ready for the day. When I came out of my room around 7:00, this kid was already up working on school. This is very atypical of him. Usually, he sleeps past 8:00 and doesn't get rolling with school until around 9:00. However, he had only a few things remaining to complete the schoolyear and he wanted to finish up and start summer.
I've been trying to read my bible/devotional first thing after I get ready in the morning, so I headed into the office to do that. Matt and I are taking a parenting class at church this Spring, so I did some reading in that book.
Then I edited Nathan's last writing assignment for this school year!
Around 7:30 this Cutie got up, and being the spoiled baby of the family, she still watches a wake-up show on my bed in the mornings. We've been talking about needing to break this habit for awhile, but it hasn't happened yet, ha!
She asked for breakfast around 8:00. Lately it's been frozen waffles for her.
Nathan had finished all his math by 9:00 that morning.
Samuel and Elisabeth were slower to wake up and spent some time telling each other jokes, before getting ready for the day.
Katherine had a chiropractor appointment at 9:00, so she and I left the house at 8:45 for that, while the other kids, ate breakfast, did chores, and started on school (at least that's what I told them to do).
After her appointment, we ran by Aldi to pick up a few things and made it home around 10:00.
Elisabeth was reading an ebook in my room when I got home for part of her school.
Nathan had already finished all this school for the day (we were wrapping up school this week, so his list was shorter than usual), so he was using his 60 minutes of screen time for the day playing Civilization on the computer.
Katherine asked me to play a game with her, so we played a round of Sleeping Queens 2.
Samuel took a break from school to turn into a robot 😊
Elisabeth took a break and played some games with Katherine.
While everyone was occupied, I got to work on a few chores. I cleaned my room.
Before:
And After:
I also wrapped Nathan's birthday presents.
Then Elisabeth asked to do her spelling lesson with me, so we did that and we also read together. We just finished the first Harry Potter book. I'm so proud of how well she's reading and how confident she has grown in it.
And this little girl will be reading before we know it. She did a reading lesson on the computer while the other kids were working.
Around 11:30, we headed outside for our group time for the day. The kids played oustide while I read our read aloud and Apologetics text book. We've finished up history and science for the year, so our group time is also shorter than usual.
The kids were playing well afterwards and asked if they could eat lunch outside. I made a tray lunch for them while they played in the sunshine.
By early afternoon all the kids were finished with school and ready to play with friends. Friend time is the biggest motivator for all of them to finish their school and chores for the day.
We ended up over in Kidsboro for the afternoon. Leon and Samuel built some forts, while the other kids flew Nathan's airplane. The girls went over to the Millers for some of the afternoon also.
At 4:00 we went home to get ready for our evening activities. Katherine has dance at 4:30 on Tuesdays, so she and I went to that while Samuel and Elisabeth used their screen time.
I left her at dance around 5:00 and ran home to start dinner.
Matt picked her up at the end of her class, and we ate a quick dinner before we had to leave for Elisabeth's soccer practice that started at 6:30. Matt's taken her to practice for most of the season, but he needed to do some yard work, so I took her, and Nathan and Katherine tagged along.
Elisabeth is on a team with two of her good friends whose moms happen to be my good friends and whose siblings happen to be Nathan and Katherine's good friends, so everyone enjoyed some friend time at practice. It was a gorgeous evening, and I thoroughly enjoyed sitting and visiting with friends, while Elisabeth practiced and the other kids played.
On the way home from practice at 7:30, Elisabeth casually mentioned how good a snow cone sounded after a hard practice. Since they had worked hard all day, I told them they could take turns showering/bathing and making snow cones when we got home. That made for some happy kiddos!
After all the snow cones and showers, they played pile on Daddy instead of going to bed. They're experts in stalling at bedtime. They're just so cute, who could say no to them?!?!
We finally wrangled them to bed about 8:30. The big kids are allowed to play in their rooms until lights out at 9:00. Then they have to be in bed reading or sleeping. Matt read to Katherine in her room (they're reading The Adventures of Tumtum and Nutmeg, a book Elisabeth loved when she was younger), and she fell asleep quickly. I headed to bed shortly after the kids were all settled and read a book/watched TV for a bit before going to sleep.
I know these are the best days of our lives, and I never want to forget them!
