Pre-teen milestone

Well, for Christmas Lily received the gift she so desperately wanted but didn't think she would receive.  Thanks to our friend Chris Henry and her Daddy, we decided it was time for her to get her own cell phone.  She was super surprised and super excited!

The look of surprise!

We adore Lily's teacher

Lily has been blessed with some amazing teachers over the years.  Ms. Mosquera (aka Ms. Hill) has been no exception!  Today she sent Lily this card in the "real mail" addressed to her personally.   My favorite lines are "Lily, I feel so lucky to be your teacher.  I love watching you each day, gracefully going about your day, respecting everyone and everyone around you. I've learned a lot by watching you!  I know you will continue to soar over the years.  I can't wait to see what you become and how you give to the world!"

Needless to say, this Mama is speechless!

Sassy and Smart

I have a new nickname for Lily Bean...."Octopus"  The reason for this nickname is that this child has no sense of personal space when it comes to her mama.  She is all over me all the time.  I am sitting on the couch with lots of space for her to sit, but she must sit right on top of me always!  Lily has been a little sassy and spicy lately.  We have to remind ourselves to take a deep breath and pray that "this too shall pass"  I guess it's a good thing she is asserting her independence, but man, sometimes.....

Lily is really a bright young lady.  She is a good problem solver and knows all kinds of do-it-yourself hacks!  For example, we were setting up the Christmas tree yesterday and I couldn't get the angel on the tree because of the new lighting we purchased.  I tried one strategy but it didn't work.  Lily took one look at the angel and made a suggestion for how we could solve the problem and wa-la problem solved.  The other day I was trying to sew using the sewing machine and she totally schooled me!  She also appears to be quite responsible at school for her schoolwork.  We are really blessed!

Yesterday after Olav and I set up the tree and I put on the lights, Lily went on to decorate the entire tree herself.  She did an amazing job as shown below!

Proud Moments

I was so proud of Lily today! About 2 weeks ago she swam her first swim meet for her new swim team YMCA. She had a really good meet!

She came in 2nd place overall for Girls 11-12 100 M Freestyle and she won the Princess Patch for her character.

The email from the coach said this:

This meets Princess is awarded to Lily Gjerde for believing in herself. Lily tried her first 200 IM. Lily listened to her coach and did a legal back turn which they had been working on the day before the Virtual Meet. Even though she DQ’d we are proud of how hard she tried.


While I was ecstatic about her achievements, she was most proud of her classmates commenting that she was the best singer in their group! I don't know why she doesn't sign up to do chorus at school!

Trick or Treat and A heart for the homeless

This girl never ever takes a bad photograph.  Here are just a few snap shots from Halloween 2017.  She was a kitty cat.

In other news, Lily has really developed a heart for the homeless she sees on the local street corners in Frederick.  She has kept asking me what we can do.  So she has inspired us to make some Blessing bags that include some basics to hand out.  Gosh, I love this girl's heart!

First day of 6th grade!

Wow, my beautiful girl is growing up!  Today was her first day of 6th grade.  She reported it was a "great day".  Praying for a fantastic year!!!!

6th grader in the house!

Contact Lenses and camping

Learning to put in new contacts

So it's no secret Lily has despised her glasses.  Getting her to wear them has been a constant battle.  We found an ophthalmologist who would fit her for contact lenses.  She has done great!  She had absolutely no problem taking them in and out and has been so proud of herself!  Plus she actually likes to wear them.  I don't think she realized how much she really couldn't see without her glasses!

Also, we just came back from one of our annual camping trips with the Guatemalan Cuties crew.  It's so hard to believe how much they have grown and changed!

Guate tweens age 11

Guate tots ages 4

Lily continues to amaze me with her maturity.  She really does have a good head on her shoulders!  Tomorrow is the first day of 6th grade!  I am so thankful that she gets to stay in the same school!  I pray that she has an amazing year, makes some new friends, and that her faith becomes more and more personal for her!

Niagara Falls

Watch out Canada here comes the Gjerde kids!

It's no secret I love adventure and new experiences.  I love taking my family on little vacations to experience something new.  This year I talked Olav into taking a road trip with our camper.  Destination, Niagara Falls!  It was a long drive up but with a little bribery for good behavior, the kids did very well.  Together we explored Niagara Falls on both the American and Canadian sides.

The view from the rainbow bridge

Family Shot on Rainbow Bridge

Horseshoe Falls, Canada

 One of my favorite things was walking across the rainbow bridge into Canada and Lily doing the splits across the countries borders!

We also went on the iconic Maid of the Midst.  Lily really enjoyed it! 

She also wanted to see the Niagara Falls movie, so we went to the one on the Canadian side that I think I may have seen when I was a young child in Niagara Falls.  We also did a little bit of hiking and tried to find a swimming beach, but because of the rising Lake Ontario swimming beaches in good condition were not to be found.  I think they enjoyed it, but honestly, I think given their druthers they would probably be content just to sit at the campsite and watch their kindles.  Hopefully one day they will appreciate all the cool experiences I give them!

At the bottom of the Niagara River Gorge

Hiking into the Niagara River Gorge

In other news, it's hard to believe that as I write my 11 year daughter is in the bathroom trying to use a tampon.  So young!  She has a swim party tomorrow night with the youth group and I know she really wants to go!  I am praying hard that she will be successful.  Maybe not having too much pre-knowledge will work in her favor!...UPDATE:  Within 3 attempts she has done it!  Yay, Lily!!!!

Also Lily has been begging for contact lenses.  She hates wearing her glasses and every day is a battle to get her to wear them!  So we have an appointment right before school starts to see if she can handle them.

She is in such a push/pull cycle with me.  Sometimes she pushes me away and wants to be independent of me and my governance and other times she is clinging to me like an octopus literally.  I guess that's adolescence for you!  Sometimes I have to restrain myself, I feel like I am literally pulling my fingers back off her little by little.  Parenting her is definitely a learning curve!

Walk around the sun

A Montessori tradition to celebrate children's birthday's they typically do a "walk around the sun".  Lily's class did something slightly different this year where each child went around the room and said something nice about Lily and Ms. Edwards, the classroom assistant,  compiled the compliments and printed out the comments on a paper for Lily.  What a special keepsake!  Lily received it at the end of the school year and I kept forgetting to post it until now!

Can I wrap her in bubble wrap please?

Last day of 5th grade

Today is Lily's last day of 5th grade!  The end of 5th grade has been a whirlwind socially for her.  Many of her girlfriends are developing "crushes" on boys, sending notes to boys, and "asking boys out".  While she is not there yet, she sure is enjoying the drama of it all!  Lily appears to have a really good head on her shoulders, she doesn't seem to give in to peer pressure.  Apparently, her fellow classmates have been goober-heads and while the teacher is disciplining the group, she silently mouths to Lily "Not you".  She is however experimenting at home with boundaries. Sometimes being disrespectful and argumentative.  While I don't want to crush her spirit,  I'll admit it is hard to know where to draw the line in the sand.  I feel like it is a big learning curve for both of us!  I just want to wrap her in bubble wrap and keep her little!

Feeling emotional

Lily is growing up so fast!  Last night we had her welcome to middle school youth ministry.  I found myself teary-eyed!  I just can't believe she will be a "middle schooler".  I am thankful that she doesn't have to change schools and in some ways, she will be "sheltered" a little longer, but the writing is on the wall,  the next 3 years are going to be huge in terms of change and what she is exposed to.  It is my prayer that she really connects with some girls whose families know and love Jesus.  I pray that she will be protected and spared some of the hard parts of middle school. 

Today her class is going on an outdoor education camping trip overnight!  Next week she has puberty education.  Again, so grown up!!!!!

Outdoor Education 2017

I think we have a young woman in the house!

Bittersweet today!  Lily thought in April she may have gotten her period, but today she was more certain that she had gotten it this morning.  We double-checked and yes it's real!  So bittersweet! I guess that explains why she was so moody within the last few days!  We will be celebrating her journey into womanhood this weekend!  She wants to go out to eat Chinese buffet:)

So proud of this girl!

Lily is such an awesome young lady.  Yesterday she got her report card and as always she knocked it out of the park.  However, the thing that impresses me even more than her academic prowess is her learning behaviors which show a maturity beyond her years!  Also, I was very excited to read one of the comments written by her Spanish teacher which stated that she shows an excellent aptitude for the language! So proud!

Flute

I forgot to mention that Lily started flute lessons this week with one of my co-workers Mrs. Grapes.  I am very excited for her!

This girl is double one's

Can't believe this girl is eleven!!!!  Make time stop!

Building Confidence

As a parent, it is our natural instinct to want to protect our children, especially when they are crying out in grief, anxiety, or sadness.  But I am learning an important lesson.  If we try to protect our children from every negative emotion we are also depriving them of the opportunity to build confidence in their abilities!

For example, Lily finally did a swim meet yesterday, after a full season practice.  She was supposed to do another one earlier in the season, but she panicked and refused to do it!  So with the help of her coach, she said she would try again.  Yesterday was the MSC B Championships and Lily signed up to participate at the urging of her coach!

She was very anxious.  Especially when she learned that she would have to wait with her team separate from us.  She spent a good part of the morning working herself up and crying.  Of course, my natural instinct was to just bag it.  Why fight the battle.  But I heard this little voice saying to me, that she needed to do this for herself.  And so we went.

She had a spectacular meet.  She did the backstroke and the breaststroke.  She shaved over 10 seconds off her backstroke time and came in 1st place in her heat. She shaved over 18 seconds off her breaststroke and came in 2nd place in her heat.  You could tell she was SO proud of herself!!!!  A real confidence builder!  Score for everyone!

I am so glad we made her go!  It was a good lesson for all!

February Blur

February has been one big blur!  Unfortunately, Olav's sister, Lily's Tante Britt died expectantly.  So we had nearly 3 weeks without Daddy!  During Daddy's absence, both Lily and Ashton had the stomach bug two times!  Poor things!

Lily did not make the honors chorus, but we are super proud of her for trying.  She is the understudy in case one of the two girls can't fulfill their commitment.

Lily continues to well in school showing progress in all areas!  The area I am most proud of is all her learning behaviors!  She is mature beyond her years!  Such an amazing young lady!

Lily is a voracious reader!  She can down an entire book in just a few sittings!  She also loves to write historical fiction!  While Daddy was gone she was working on a book taking place in the 1930's with westward expansion!

Lily continues to be an old soul.  She is all about fairness, justice, and righteousness!  She has strong convictions about what is right and just.  Unfortunately, she is learning the hard way that life is full of unfairness.

She also has a strong mothering soul.  Sometimes she can mother to death! We constantly remind her she doesn't have to "be the mama".  I am sure her little brother can attest, however she is an amazing babysitter, for sure to be the richest teen on the block!

So proud!

So proud of our Lily bean!  Last week or so she had mentioned that she wanted to try out for the 5th grade honors chorus!  This is huge for her!  She rarely does anything that stretches her outside her comfort zone when it comes to her talents, so her daddy and I were super proud to hear that she decided to try for it!  However, yesterday she was having second thoughts because she was feeling "forced" to do it by us.  Of course, we were not forcing her, but we were very excited when she mentioned she was going to try!  Well, today she came home and announced that not only did she try out, but she also tried out solo as opposed to the comfort of a partner!  We of course told her we were so proud of her regardless if she makes it or not (they only pick 2 students in 5th grade), but I won't lie if I secretly hope she makes it.  She does have quite a nice voice and it would be so great if she would be rewarded for taking this step of faith!  I guess we'll see!

2016 comes to a close

Another year has flown by.  I know I say this all the time, but man time needs to slow down.  We had a fun-filled Christmas and Hanukah time.

For Christmas Lily really wanted this fur real friend's horse.  Of course, I told her no way.....figuring first it was expensive and 2nd I know she will outgrown it in no time flat.  Of course, she said to me, "then I'll ask Santa!"

Well why I do believe she has her serious doubts about Santa and I think for the most part she knows it's us....we have had lots of jokes about when you stop believing you get socks and underwear.

Well even though Santa didn't deliver what she wanted, Jesus certainly did, it was really cool!  One day I was on Facebook and I saw a friend of ours had listed on FREECYCLE a pony-sized fur real horse to give away for FREE!!!!!  I messaged her immediately and amazingly we got it!  For Christmas Lily was ecstatic!  Now granted I have this huge monstrosity of a computerized horse in my house, but Lily loves it!

Lily even went to horseback riding camp one day this week! She loved it!

Lily has begun to act a little "preteen" lately, much to her daddy and my dislike.  Moody, disrespectful, and acting entitled to everything!  Hopefully, it will be short lived and we will see more of our sweet and kind Lily in 2017!