A new beginning

My oldest starts high school tomorrow.  I know a lot of you have already been through the whole high school thing, but this is a first for me.  I think I feel more sentimental about it than I felt about my last entering kindergarten.  It just seems that high school is so busy and it goes by so fast and I know before I can even catch my breath from it all he will be leaving and another one soon thereafter...until all my children are adults and I'm left with an empty house and heart. I guess what I'm trying to say is that high school, to me, is marking the beginning of an end and I wish I could just make time stand still.  I know I've said that before...but I'll continue to say it again and again.  I want them all to stay just like this:

Of course, I could do without the fighting:)

He is as tall as me now, you know.  My high schooler that is.

   He's getting lean and lanky and muscly...and girls are noticing him and he's definitely noticing them.  Hmmm....wish I knew how to deal with all that.  I just tell him he doesn't need to get serious with anyone yet.  Like them all.  Find out what you like best character wise, and have fun.  I think he listens...most of the time.  Sometimes I'm not so sure though...he definitely has a teenage brain right now or maybe it's a man's brain ;) At times it seems as if the only time he does listen is when I tell him there's food or girls involved. He's a tease.  He teases and teases and teases.  Sometimes a little too much but most of the time it is fun.

This one, she's complicated.  She's all alone this year for the first time EVER at school.  She's always had Jordan or Ben on one side or the other.  I hate that she's in middle school.  It's the worst time for girls.  They're mean.  I tell her don't get involved in the girl thing.  It's better not to.  She says, "I want to be around girls.  I hate my brothers," and she probably does feel that way at times.  Especially when Jordan teases her.

Of course, then again, she says she hates the dog too.  But she feeds it everyday.  She plays with it every day and at times I hear her tell him that she loves him.  She may care for Harley more than Jordan cares for Harley, especially now that the cats are gone and he's not chasing them anymore.  It's the same way with her brothers.  She can say whatever she wants about them, say she hates them, but if anyone else says the same...oh boy!!!! She will mark you as an enemy.  Trust me, she hated a girl's guts for a year just because she didn't like Jordan back when Jordan thought she was cute.  And another girl was definitely rebuked by her when she once called Ben obnoxious.  Like the dog, she loves those boys.  Hopefully, she will look back at her childhood and not mind that she was the only girl and hopefully being the only girl in a family of boys will come in handy when all the mean girl stuff starts this year. (Can you tell we watch a lot of studio C at our house?)

Ben, he's my sweetheart lately.  One day someone's going to be lucky to marry him.

Yes, he's a little cheesy.  But, do you know who opens my door for me?  Ben.  Do you know who gives up a seat for a girl?  Ben.  Do you know who my hardest worker is?  Ben.  He's sensitive.  He notices when I'm upset and he tell me he loves me.  And he's not only sensitive to me, he's sensitive to Brad too...and to Kenzie for that matter and everyone else in the family.  Really moms, he'll be a good catch one day.

And then there's his best buddy, Riley.  They are still best buddies you know.  When I put Ben in tackle football this year and not Riley, I got an earful.  He wants to do everything that Ben does.

Because of Ben, Riley has all the confidence in the world.  Riley's a natural at everything it seems.  However, he does have things come to him so quickly that if there is a challenge, he will at times easily give up.  For example, when he didn't get up on his first try waterskiing, like his brother Ben did, he was very distressed.  So much so that he didn't try again until our 4th time out in our boat.  Of course he did get up his second time.  He's SO competitive, just like his daddy.  If you're playing a board game with him his competitive side comes out so easily that you have to watch him at times, he's my cheater.  He cheats just to win.  But, then again, he's so smart that he doesn't have to cheat very often.  He's my peacemaker.  He's the one that Jake can hit over and over and he will usually not retaliate.  He's my one that will sneak in beside me just to snuggle. He's quiet and still.

Jake, he's not quiet or still.  Sitting at school will always be a challenge for him.  Staying quiet will always be a challenge for him.  Jake is the one to tell you everything about our family.  Just the other day in primary, at church, he told everyone about Kenzie's suffocated cat, Taz, and how they found it dead in the cooler.  I was there to hear it all.

  Jake's my happy child, for the most part.  He has his fits and outbursts of anger (mostly at Riley) but he's content with who he is.  He sings all the time.  His newest song he's learned is Gone, gone, gone
by Phillips Phillips from the new spiderman movie.  He also has a unique ability to quote movies that he's only seen once.  His newest favorite movie to quote is the Lego movie.  In his robot voice I will overhear him say "What do you mean you have always been a robot."

Wouldn't you want to freeze all that?  What will I do without them?

I was reading this blog the other day and came across a quote that I loved.  She said, "Mothers aren't raising children.  A child, at the moment it arrives, creates a mother."  (You can read the whole post here)

I love these children of mine and I love the opportunity they've given me to be a mother.  Here's to another year!