My mom says it’s time for an update, so here we go …

1. Sports are killing me – and I’m just a spectator. Well, kinda. Cheerleading has finally wrapped (whew!) and last week all four children started soccer. We have practices on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday (until games start in a couple of weeks).

At the last minute, Darin was asked to coach in the beginners league, the 3-4 age group, and so he and our friend coach Jenna and Emma’s team. At Saturday’s practice there were a few meltdowns and once one or two start crying, it’s pretty much a wave of tears! Ha ha.

Lucky me, I’m team mom of all three teams. Gulp.

Games start in a few weeks and it looks like we’ll be spending quite a bit of time on the field, thankfully it’s pretty close.

Darin is also playing sports – basketball, softball and soccer. All at the same time. Basketball will end in April, then the men’s softball league starts. I swear he’s keeping me busier than the kids do.

One of these days I hope my family cheers me on like I do for them. That would be awesome.

2. The weather is getting more awesome by the day. The temperatures have dipped here and there, but today it was 71 degrees and beautiful. This makes practices and games more bearable, especially for the children who aren’t practicing/playing because they get to play at the playground (yay!). And that never gets old, apparently.

My allergies haven’t bothered me yet. I’m surprised by this because usually by the end of February I am entirely too miserable. I’ve been advised that taking a teaspoon of local honey (that is, honey produced within 20-30 miles of your home) can help with seasonal and nasal allergies (do you say it in the bee’s voice from the commercial like I do? lol). I’ve tried it. I don’t know if it helps, but I have yet to take my usual Claritin, Mucinex or anything else. I don’t even have any allergy medicine, come to think of it.

3. Not being miserable makes being outside tolerable. And I like tolerable. Because I can do things like playing with my new 50mm lens (used in the flower photos). The above photo was taken after I shot my first wedding of the season – and my first wedding as a pro! That was awesome. I’ve shared some of those photos over on the photog blog.

4. Jaiden is now in the gifted program at school. She’s terribly excited about it and I’m really proud of and for her. Her IQ is 119 according to the testing conducted by the school. She will now attend a special class for two hours every week (one hour per day on Tuesday and Thursday). Last week I had a meeting with her teacher and the special education staff; it was great to hear the teacher say so many great things about Jaiden and give me a little glimpse of the person she is when she is not with me. I kept thinking, “Wow, that is such an awesome person and I gave birth to her!”

5. No DNA test required, these are my children. Maybe. On Sunday it rained and the kids couldn’t play outside, so I sent them upstairs to clean their rooms instead of watching yet another episode of “Big Time Rush” (a horrible show if you ask me). While they were busy, I wasn’t feeling so hot, so I took a nap on the couch. You already know where I’m going with this, don’t you?

They woke me up, telling me that they wanted me to watch their show. This is not unusual – they’re always making up shows. But I sent them upstairs to clean, not choreograph! (My parents and Darin get so frustrated with me because I procrastinate tasks like cleaning my room – I once read the dictionary instead!) These are definitely my children, I thought.

I patiently watched the show and I’m glad I did. Jaylen’s dancing is quite hilarious (especially when you fast forward it!) and Darin and I couldn’t believe how much Jaiden stayed on beat. lol. Lo and behold, when I tucked them in at bedtime, their rooms were clean. So maybe they aren’t my children afterall. And they didn’t get their singing and dancing skills from me, either. lol.

6. All the women who are independent/Throw your hands up at me. All of my girls are struggling with wanting more independence and I’ve been struggling with giving it to them. Jaiden wants to do her own hair and choose her own clothes (she’s not the best at either) and it’s huge for me to just let go and let her do it. HUGE!

I don’t like my kids to look like ragamuffins, so I usually help them chose their clothing and do their hair. I send them back to change if they don’t match or have holes in their clothes, etc. This is natural, right? I care what my children look like when they walk out of this house because they’re a reflection of me – and I want it to be a good, accurate reflection.

Letting go has had some positive results in just a few weeks – Jaiden’s hairstyling is improving and having her friend Emily spend the night and give her a ton of hand-me-downs has helped her make better choices (read that as Emily has encouraged her to match).

Now four, both Emma and Jenna have exerted an increasing need for their own independence. Jenna is more forceful about it than anyone else right now, though. Well, she’s more aggressive than the other three, period. She now wants to do everything on her own, from buckling her own seatbelt (she’s now in a booster seat) to making her own sandwiches or pouring her own juice. I don’t ‘let go’ as much with her as I do with Jaiden simply because a four-year-old has no business pouring juice. lol.

“Nooooo, Jaylen!!!!! I WANT TO DO IT MYSELF!!!!”

This is totally priming us for the teenage years. I think it’s going to be one decade of alcoholism for me.

7. I made a cake wreck that was actually quite tasty. It was our turn to host coffee hour at church this past weekend, so I made a strawberry cake. And used icing instead of frosting. Because it’s made with powdered sugar and butter, icing doesn’t typically hold its shape; it was a mess by the time we got to church. But! It tasted pretty good. The Jewish priest (yes!) that was visiting our church said he wanted to take me home and that I deserved extra blessings! Ha.

It was pretty easy to make, too. I say that even though I had three little ones helping me make it. Check out the recipe over at our food blog, daylicious.

8. Speaking of being daylicious, we’re taking over. Kinda. Last week, Dara accepted the position of head librarian of Munford’s library! I’m so excited for her! Around here, everyone’s related and now I am finally related to someone that a lot of people will know (the rest of my family is pretty low-key). Very cool, right?

Our poor library is still stuck in the dark ages – physical card catalog still in use and the library is not computerized at all. Dara hopes to come in and change that! And the library committee has confidence in her.

Dara Gonzales: Change we can believe in!

(We’ll wait while you finish barfing over that last statement, Dara.)

She finishes her masters in May and will start here in June. She and Isaac are, of course, relocating. It will be great to have them close, but I know they are really going to miss Texas. Beach, barbeque and, most importantly, their friends and family down there. Hell, I miss their friends; they rock.

9. I am rocking this Lent thing. I gave up chocolate. Wednesday (tomorrow) will make 35 days since I’ve had any chocolate whatsoever. No Thin Mints. No brownies. No sweet, heavenly bite-sized Milky Way Midnights. No Twix. And did I mention no Thin Mints? No chocolate ice cream. No chocolate milkshakes. Not one chocolate chip cookie.

It’s been a struggle, no doubt. But it’s getting easier. I just sigh, poke my lip out and continue on my merry way. I can’t cheat on Jesus, dude. He died for me, I can go without chocolate for a few weeks.

I think my dad is torturing me, though. He knows I gave up chocolate. He likes to bring me cakes at work (YES!); sometimes I come back and find he’s left one on my desk. (What can I say? I think he gets bored when my mom’s out of town.) Yesterday I came back after lunch and a horrible accident/breaking story to find the cake carrier sitting on my desk. Inside? A yellow cake! Covered in milk chocolate frosting. Sniff. Darin is enjoying it, though. (Dad makes great cakes.)

Next weekend, though, I will get some chocolate! The end is nigh, my friends. (PS – I’m pretty proud of myself for sticking to it and learning to resist temptation, which is what this is really about.)

I’ve also been fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays, eating fish or vegetarian instead of red meat. I go for at least two meals without red meat, but I do sometimes give in and have beef. I’m sorry, Jesus. Please forgive me (and see the previous four paragraphs about my much bigger sacrifice and how GREAT! I’ve been doing at resisting temptation!).

10. Better than crack and totally legal. I recently tried the spinach and artichoke cream cheese and I am IN LOVE. It is delicious! I find excuses to eat toast or bagels. Mmm.

11. It’s just a number. I know I always freak out over turning 30 this year, but my sweet Grannie has quite a few decades on me and I have never heard her complain. Tomorrow (Wednesday) is her birthday!

The number would make you think she’s an old, old lady, but she’s not; she gets around better than some people 20-30 years younger than she. She’s probably older than some of her “old ladies” she took care of when we were kids, but you wouldn’t know it.

Anyway, we all love her like crazy and feel so blessed to have her in our lives!

Grannie, you’re the best grandmother ever! We hope you have a great birthday!

Related posts:

1. Tidbits & To-Do Lists More and more I’m finding it difficult to quiet the...
2. Hola. I really hate taking breaks from blogging because when I...
3. The BEST Mexican EVER (I’m cross-posting this from our food blog, Daylicious, because I...