The Life of the Holstein's.....

This past week we have taken a hard look at our life, we have a great life.....I know that. But we reevaluated what we can do to make it an even better one. I am not talking about going to Disney, or the sit down restaurants that we have been taking the kids to once a month, or making the holidays awesome. I am talking about the day to day.... mundane....you get up, make breakfast, get dressed kind of days. Eddie and I have decided that we are going to get a little stricter on the schedules, and plan days for certain things...we have had pizza night on Friday's for years, but now Thursday will be family meeting night with craft afterwords, and Wednesday will be something...you get the idea.

I am always reminded that you should live every day as if it is your last....but I feel like I don't do that....Everyday at 12:30 I watch The Young and The Restless, if I die tonight would I be thankful that I watched that....or would I regret not teaching my daughters how to make my infamous dressing (which is Paula Deen's recipe, don't tell them ) or having a tickle fight with Tobey or cheese touch with Edwin? I try so hard not to take things for granted, but fail every time....OK, enough of that.....on to the kids!

Lena is back from camp and I believe that she has recovered from her week of fun. She has a new strength in her for God, and I love seeing that!!! Is she perfect? NO!!!! But, they don't brainwash teenagers to be perfect, if they did they would be world renowned. I am loving having talks with her about God and pray that she stays on this path. She said that she wants to watch The Passion of the Christ now and promises not to go on and on about how hot the guy who played Jesus is.

Alison is enjoying all that summer has to offer now that she is not running a temperature. She is attempting a world record of how many days she can wear her swimsuit. I have washed that stupid suit nightly for like a month straight!!! If we have to leave the house she just puts her clothes over it....is this a battle worth fighting? No, I am curious though how long she will maintain this and I guess that I am happy that she has a goal.

Edwin, oooh Edwin. This boy will be the end of me!!! He can be the most infuriating boy at times and the sweetest the next. Today I am in hopes of the sweet one.....Last night I had the honor of seeing his "dance" and loves every minute of it and then the next minute he is threatening to blow me up. Sometimes I think my life would be boring without Autism, even with 7 kids.

Last night Olivia seen a moth in her bedroom and I thought that she was going to die! This girl who loves princesses and pink and all that is girly in the world, also loves to play with worms and frogs and all that kind of dirty nature stuff. In my mind the closest I ever plan on getting to nature is watching Cody Lundin.....Thankfully, I have back issues which give me the perfect excuse to stay the heck away from that stuff...Anyway, to calm Olivia down I explained that the moth is a friend to the lightening bugs that she begs me to keep as a pet and the kid was happy and named him "Bob". Unfortunately she may flunk science down the road with all the info her mother gave her!

Tobey, well the boy wore pink crocs to school yesterday....he simply didn't want to wear boys shoes and this is the first time that he has shown an interest in his attire, so I called his teacher to give her the warning, and probably time to find her camera and set him on to school. Will this make him a cross dresser? Maybe, will I love him in a dress? Absolutely!!

Emily, who loves with all her heart has spent this entire week trying to get Edwin to love her. She has helped him clean off the table, given him drinks, kissed him....I asked her yesterday if she thinks Edwin loves her yet....She said "No, Edwin still hates me, but I Love him!". She will not give up and I think that is one of the things that I love best about her.

Melody, she is quickly becoming the oddest, quirkiest child out of the bunch. Somehow she has developed almost a Swedish accent, and with her already lower voice it is hard to keep a straight face when talking to her. She stripped down to her diaper and Dora shoes at Save A Lot last week, Eddie and I joked she must have thought she was at Wal-Mart where there is not a real strict dress code. She is currently putting on Tobey's leash and trying to get Emily to pull her around the living room....She is just not right but yet fits in beautifully, weird how that works!

Well, that is all for today in the Holstein's home!!! Have a good one.