We can't seem to take a "good" picture.

So last night I was playing around on my computer looking at pictures from recent events. We don't have one single "good" picture of the whole family. To be fair, there are a lot of us! Trying to get seven people to look at a camera and smile is difficult let alone five of them kids though they weren't the only issue. I looked at picture after picture. We don't even have that many "good" pictures of Ryan and I.

Okay, not let me clarify something here. I keep putting "good" in quotations for a good reason. It really depends what your definition of "good" is as to whether or not we actually have "good" pictures. If you wanted a picture that has all seven of us looking at the camera and nicely smiling in a posed picture, we don't have one of those. However, I think we have lots and lots of great pictures.

As I scan through the wedding photos, which there were around 400, I didn't find one single picture that had all seven of us smiling nicely, eyes open, and facing the camera. There are a few with Megan biting (yes I said biting) her bouquet. There are a few of Dean "torturing" Haley (she of course is laughing hysterically). There are several with Cassidy giving the others "the look" (you know the one where she looks mystified at their behavior, almost a mommy look). I have a whole series of Alex squinting or looking the "wrong" direction. Then there are one where Ryan is probably "mouthing off" and I'm looking at him like he has two heads!

The wedding isn't the only time we have had this happen. As I looked through all of my pictures I can point to one or more of us in every picture doing something "off." I have kids posing like super models or Ryan taking a bite out of a pumpkin or kids looking at each other or off in space. There are pictures of kids holding suckers upside down or Ryan making faces or even me looking at Ryan making faces and not at the camera.

I would like to announce right now that I LOVE that we have no "good" pictures...that's right, zero, zip, zilch, nada, and all the other words that mean none. You know what I see when I look at these pictures: a happy family. We are all comfortable just being us even if it's captured for life that we're doing some "dorky" pose. You can tell we're laughing in these pictures and having fun. It's not just one of us off doing something different...through the years there is always a different one of us "ruining" the picture. We all take turns.

I know a lot of people that would hit delete on some of these types of pictures. I mean...who would keep two dozen pictures in a row from our wedding with not one of them having all seven of us looking at the camera. Many of our family favorite pictures we have at least one kid doing something weird (and sometimes a parent) but then that's the Morrison Clan for you. Don't take us seriously...we don't take ourselves seriously. We're a blended, goofy bunch and we're okay with that.

So here's a little look at all our "good" pictures from different events through the year. They are in no particular order. There are many, many more....these are just a few....enjoy ;)

After Cassidy's play...gotta have the peace signs.

Halloween a few years ago...Megan looks like a deer in headlights & Cassidy's mouth is wide open.

On Vacation going to MN last year...Megan's mouth is wide open this time.

Dad jumped in last minute...

And then was attacked by kids.

Skiing this past spring...Haley is "posing"

Family hike...Haley "posing" again & Cassidy is "thinking"

Easter this year...seriously like I want your eggs on your head!

I think we have a million pics with Haley making this face.

Haley "loves" to help make a great picture.

Is anyone looking at the camera?

Haley was done smiling!

Alex...I didn't say use your hands to make yourself smile!

Dad can't just stand there with them!

Pony tail mustaches & upside down kids!

Here we go...there were about 2 dozen tries...here's just a few

No posed wedding day photos for us

Why is Megan pouting?

Alex...really?

Here's Megan biting the bouquet

Last fall...Ryan biting a pumpkin...REALLY?

More silliness

Yes...that's me choking him while I kiss him.

Girl Power

This morning I took my 5th graders to school and we were a little early. I decided to walk them to the play ground being I had a meeting at the school after school started. We found a bench by the playground and just sat and watched kids play. Normally I would shoo them away and make them play but today we just sat. It was a nice morning, Haley was a bit tired and after my "bad day" yesterday, I needed to just sit as well.

We were watching this sweet little girl (Haley guessed 1st grade but I said maybe she was a small 3rd grader like Haley was). She had a purple basketball and was shoot hoops and I was pleasantly surprised how many baskets she made in a row. She seemed to be giving it her all. Then she walked up to a group of "big" boys (probably 5th-6th graders) and asked if they would play with her. My guess is that she has a big brother in the bunch (though that was never made clear).

To my surprise, all the boys said yes and found another ball to start playing "Knock Out" (Haley informed me what it was called). For all those who don't know what that is, two people shoot at the basket and the first one to get a basket "Knocks Out" the other and the next two people shoot. Here was this sweet little girl (much smaller than Haley for comparison) playing with about eight "big" boys. Let me just say, she made my day.

First when she would "knock out" the boys, the other boys would playfully chant "You got knocked out by a girl." As a mama of several girls, my heart jumped hoping these boys would be nice and to my surprise and joy, they were. Not only did they take it in stride to get "knocked out" by a girl but they cheered her on. Every time she got a "knock out" they would cheer. One of the tutors on the playground gave her a high 5 one time. A small little crowd stopped to watch. Time after time, this "little bit" got the basket ball and shot over and over till she got a basket and then waited her turn again. I watched as the "big" boys ran around her doing tricks and throwing it over their heads. Never once did they trample her or play unfair. Some of them even seemed to let her take a shot just to see if she could get them out.

She's in the middle of the crowd with her purple basketball.

This whole time, not one single adult managed this, set rules, intervened or disrupted this innocent play. All I have to say is I love that my kids go to a Charter School. These kids seem to "get" it. They are innocent but fair. They are loving and cooperative. I saw all the character traits this school is "trying" to teach in full action this morning. By the end, my girls and I would let out a little cheer every basket this girl made. All I can say is...more power to you girl! Play with the "big" boys. When our boys are being raised to become men of valor, our girls get to apart of it all with grace, dignity and a few "knock outs."

End to a really bad day

So have you ever had those days that by the end of the day you wish you could just hit delete. That was today. The great thing about these types of days is that they do end. Today...is almost over. Tomorrow is a brand new day. The bad thing about bad days is that sometimes they carry over. Sometimes there are things that happen on very bad days that will forever change the days ahead. That was the kind of bad day I had today. I know I'm not the only one here. I have many friends around me journeying through this very type of "bad day carry over."

I have just been informed by "the powers that be" that my opinion, my time and my resources regarding my life do not matter (regarding certain issues). I'm not being a hissy-fit throwing crabby mouthed complainer who (like my pre-teen daughters) is being overly dramatic. I'm actually serious. Today I was informed I cannot make certain decisions that directly affect my life AND because I cannot make these decision, others will with no regard to me, my time, my energy, my schedule, or my resources. It was a hard day. It was a long day. It was a day that definitely had the makings to defeat me.

BUT...I will not be defeated. What does Romans 8:31 say about this? "What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?" I will claim victory though it may look as though there is none here. This is a battle that was lost...but the war is not over. I will continue to pray for God's intervention in this matter. I will pray for God's justice over this matter. I will claim His promises to me in this matter. AND...if God asks me to submit, I will. I will do what is asked of me. I will comply. I will not bad mouth my enemy AND I will pray for God's will to be done in their lives. I will pray for these people as if they were family and not my enemies.

My life for the next year looks very difficult. There is not a reasonable way out. My family is walking into battle (forced is more like it). Though we have God on our side, it can be very difficult to walk into battle and not know what the game plan is. It seems recently, God has not been "cluing" me into His plan. Which, I hate to admit, is probably a great plan because if I knew the plan...I would wreck it! I know He is in this. I know He has a plan. For now...that is all I can focus on.

I know this is vague and somewhat goes against "my life is transparent" policy. The thing is there are matter I cannot explain at this time. When I can...I will. Until then, keep us in your prayers please. Continue to pray for: guidance, strength, wisdom, a soft tongue & heart, love, peace that surpasses all understanding, financial strength (to continue in our battle), wisdom for those who are advising us and spiritual protection over our family and our wise advisers.

Thanks for the prayers that you have already poured out over us. We felt loved today and though we "lost" a battle, we feel confident that God is our protector and our guide. I know I can only remember that today because people are praying over me (& our family) and His protection is keeping a bay all that could bring us down. Today may have seemed like a loss but I claim everyday as a victory!

Thank you so much for being my support, for listening to me ramble and for being there. I didn't know why God called me to blogging last year, at that time, but I see it clearly now!

Prayer please

Our family has been going through a few trails recently and though I cannot go into detail explaining much, I will say that we need prayer. Many people are involved making major decisions that will directly affect our family for quite some time. It is very hard to be in a position where we have all the responsibility and must be accountable to others and yet have no true authority.

Please pray for:
-Guidance for all involve
-For truth to provail
-The best interest of the parties involved will be protected
-God will provide justice
-We will be able to see the times when we need to hold strong & when we need to extend grace
-And above all for protection over our family.

I know this sounds like a lot without knowing many of the details but unfortunately we do not have the freedom to share. We covet your prayers and if/when I can share, I will.

Thanks for listening.

Laundry Soap and other Mundane Mommy things.

OK, it's Tuesday morning in the first full week all of the kids going back to school. My "to do" list out does my "to done" list everyday in the summer. Kids really aren't helpful in making life a little easier. They want to go the pool, have sleepovers, go to camps or VBS and make all kinds of useless (but beautiful of course) crafts! Somehow, mommy becomes the chauffeur to the events, a life guard (who also has money for ice cream treats), an event planner, an event director, and a craft extraordinaire AND all on a budget the size of a sneeze. COME ON NOW! I'm exhausted!

Last day at the pool before school started.

But here's the thing I love to hear from mother of babies/toddlers...at least they go back to school after a couple of months! I just want to say BLAH at that. All I want to say to them is at least they're only babies and toddlers for a couple of years! I've got this school aged mommy thing going on for the next...oh I don't know, decade and a half! And here's my thing, I may complain about the busy summers, but there's no homework to be checked, bed time is fluid, we usually don't have to get up and leave the house at any certain time and there's a lot of fun stuff to be done! Sorry moms of little ones, I'll take your life any day.

Today, like any other day, we were up and moving around six. Kids had to be reminded to eat breakfast, brush teeth, comb hair, put on socks and shoes (getting dressed may be the one they all do just fine), get backpack, get lunch out of the fridge and put the ice pack in the lunch, get water bottle, and then a long list of individual things each kids needed. Oh, and by no means did I say these things once. I said them to each kid (some more than once). I am officially the "back to school broken record."

This morning was typical and will be followed by a typical afternoon of me being in the car for an hour because my Jr. High kiddo has the worst carpool line ever! After that there will be a whole new list of broken record sayings after school to include (but of course not limit): get a snack, do your homework, where's your planner, read please, make your lunch, pack a snack, rinse your snack dishes, pick up your dirty socks, put your cup in the sink, put your backpack in the closet, put your planner in your backpack, oh yeah...put your backpack back in the closet and ahhhhhh, don't make me repeat myself! In the midst of this, I am trying to get dinner finished, following kids around to repeat all of the above to each of them and somewhere in there not loose my mind.

So, am I happy the kids are back in school so I can have a moments peace? Not really, because that just means I get to doing all the things I put off all summer long when we were having "fun." Today, I started to make laundry detergent. It has to sit over night and by tomorrow I'll have 20 gallons of homemade laundry detergent, that cost us about $10 to make. For our family, this saves us around $175 a year. Tomorrow I'll be pouring into gallon jugs and of course working on washing "Laundry Mountain" in the basement. The fact that I have a mountain again is just irritating. I got ALL the laundry caught up before school, and like I said, today is day TWO of the first full week of school. I think I'm going to staple the clothes to the kids so they can't change anymore.

Laundry Soap

Well, I better run, because even though I only wrote about laundry soap...I have a million things to get done today before 2:30 in the afternoon. BTW...just another reason having school aged kids is hard, the list has to be done before they return because it never gets done after they infest the house!

Saturday Errands...never knew they could be so fun!

So Saturday morning I was up and going first thing. There was a list a mile long that needed to be done. Some of it was very crucial and had been put off for way too long and others had just been waiting for payday. Never the less, I had a long list and three little girls that had to journey with me. Oh and I thought I would just let you know that there was only one thing that didn't get done, and not for lack of trying.

So the evening before (Friday night) the Morrison house was FULL of little girls. The girls had a back to school sleep over with another family that just so happens to have 3 girls, 2-5th graders & 1-7th grader AND they live walking distance. When your kids go to a charter school in this town, it's very likely that your kid's best friends will live all over town. It's hard because they don't know the neighborhood kids (maybe the ones on the street but not much more than that). They don't walk to school and meet kids. In fact there have been friends that have lived 30-40 minutes away. So when we find girls, that live close, and have the same number of girls and ages as ours, we get pretty excited, but enough of that. I just shared all that to say that we started Saturday morning getting the friends up to be picked up early and all three of my girls looked as though they had hardly slept at all (which can make for a long miserable day of errand running).

However, I was able to get one through the shower before having to get going on the day and everyone dressed as well as fed breakfast then out the door we went. We went off to Walgreens then checked out the Couture Bakery in my neighborhood. The bakery didn't have anything we wanted so we went to go return something at Big Lots. Then we went to Meeker Music and got Megan a clarinet (and that will be another blog post). After getting the clarinet we need to head to the mall to get Cassidy uniforms. Somehow, over the years Megan kind of skipped the size Cassidy wears and I only had few items for her to wear. She tried on a million pieces and only a few things worked (some are better than none).

Next we needed dog food. I headed to the pet supply store and realized I wanted to look for something at Michael's. As we approached the door, there were a few ladies that greeted us and informed us it was a birthday party at Michael's and invited the girls to get tattoos and do some crafts inside. Three tattoos later we went in and the girls did three different crafts then ended in the party room for a goodie bag...all free by the way. I wasn't able to find the item for which I was looking but the girls had a blast.

Making the first craft.

Craft in process.

Three happy girls with crafts & goodie bags!

Then we headed to the pet supply store and got the dog food. We were all pretty hungry at this point and my goal was to get us home quickly so as to not eat out (a luxury that is not in the budget right now). We needed milk (because having 6 girls in the house the next before wiped out a gallon of milk). We went to Sam's Club and to our delight there were LOTS of samples. We wandered the store trying everything then went and got a pretzel to split and a soda. After spending a total of $5 (including the milk) our bellies were full. As we drove home, I heard the girls say they never thought running errand could be so fun.

It started out as a mundane list of chores and ended up being free crafts, goodie bags and free samples. By the time we got home we were all pretty tired. I am always amazed at how little it takes to make a great day. So here's a shout out to Michael's and Sam's Club, thanks for making errands fun! It was a good day.

First day of 5th grade times 2!

This year I have two fifth grade girls at TCA Central! Sisters in two different classes in the same grade. They are a stellar duo for sure. This will be their first year at school together. I'm excited to see what new adventures that will bring.

Now for the first time ever, my three girls get to go to the same school (though Megan is at a different campus for Jr. High). Haley gets to introduce all her friends to her sister Cassidy. I'm super excited that they get to have this together. I think as a blended family, anytime we can bond the family together is beneficial to us as a family unit. It's so hard when some kids have two home and some stay with us all the time to keep us bonded together as a family. Unity as school will help our home greatly.

The bonus for our duo is they have different teachers. They couldn't be any more different but yet they are super close. Even their uniform choices differ. Haley want to wear shorts all year (that is if I'll let her) and Cassidy doesn't want a single pair of shorts but wants to wear the plaid skirts all year. Haley likes the polo shirts and Cassidy wants button ups. Haley is petite and one of the shortest in her class whereas Cassidy is one of the tallest but not the tallest (about which she is really happy). Haley would read all day if we let her and punishments have included not being able to read. Cassidy would listen to music all day if we let her and her taste in music is quite eclectic. They like different colors, different clothes and even different foods.

In fact, they hardly have a thing in common. But there last night before school started after we put them to bed, Dad had to go remind them it was bed time and time to be quiet...twice! They giggle and laugh after lights out nearly every night. They make up silly games that I couldn't begin to understand but they know all the rules. They share secrets and though they occasionally ask when they are going to get their own room, I don't think they would actually like being separated.

So the first day of fifth grade times two is off to a great start. One of the best things they discovered is that Haley's best friend Aulora has a sister that is coming to TCA for the first time too & she is also in 5th grade & is in Haley's class. So tonight...we already have our first sleep over of the year (and they brought their older sister as well who is Megan's age). So yes, week one is over (or at least the first day & a half) and we have six giggling girls, 4-5th graders & 2-7th graders. I hope this is the beginning a some beautiful friendships. My favorite part is they only live a half mile away!

As for this year, I pray over all my kiddos. I pray they enjoy their teachers. I pray they make great friends this years. I pray for their safety on the school grounds. I pray they excel in all they can at school. I pray they have a healthy year. Most of all, I pray Haley & Cassidy enjoy being together...yet separate and I pray this unites them and bonds them together as members of our family.

Cassidy's First day of School

Haley's First day of School

Even though it wasn't Megan's 1st day...had to get the 3 girls under the tree

Outside their classroom anxiously waiting to go inside.

Haley with her wonderful teach Ms. Holcomb (Megan had her in 3rd grade)

Cassidy with her teach Ms. Beach...they're both new to TCA this year!

Dad with Cassidy!

Dad with Haley...holding her up to make her a bit taller.