Goodbye

Summer days are long, and the nights can seem even longer when you're sleeping alone.

I said goodbye to Mr. Man a while ago so he could go be a special presenter of special research in some special places like London, England and Istanbul, Turkey. He returned food poisoned and dehydrated and super sick. But I'm mending him. And he'll be leaving me again shortly for another trip. (I still have to sort through all his pictures!)

While he was gone my sister and her family joined us for some summer fun and adventure. And this morning I said goodbye to them... and Miss J who will be spending a few days with their family until we go visit later this week. (I need all your pictures you took, sis!)



And then there is my first friend I made here, who is moving and left me TODAY. I don't know how life will go on here without her and her wonderful family. Ugh.
WAY too many goodbyes for me to handle.

Tomorrow we will be graced with the presence of friends from our last "home"... and I am so excited to share even a little bit of time with them. But am preparing for yet ANOTHER goodbye.

The Toddler coined it perfectly today as he cried with a stamp of his foot, "I don't like to say bye."
Amen.

More Sunscreen Stuff

Today we went shopping for a new rash guard for my little guy who is sporting a nice little sunburn in the section where his belly popped out between his swim suit and rash guard at the splash pad. Poor guy. What kind of mom tries to get three summers out of a 12 month size rash guard?



At any rate, we are also needing to buy some more sunscreen and before I rush out to buy my same trusted brand, I did some more research.

Remember these posts from before?
What are the odds?
Search for Sunscreen

This is typically my June 22nd obsession - but I'm a day late this year!

My sunscreen of choice is no longer. And I stand corrected. And since I know a few of you followed suit in making No-Ad your sunscreen, I want to explain why I'm changing.

Apparently more studies have been done which show increasingly harmful effects of two of the ingredients found in my sunscreen:
Vitamin A, which is found in most lotions and creams, has been found in recent studies to speed the development of cancer when combined with sun exposure. Definitely NOT something you want in your sunscreen.

Oxybenzone has been cautioned against being used on children for its ability to significantly penetrate the skin, causing allergic reactions and the potential for hormone disruption.

Again, this site is incredibly helpful. I'm heading to the store again to find a sunscreen that meets my strict UVA/UVB protection code, excludes both Vitamin A and Oxybenzone, and also doesn't have zinc oxide - since we have allergies. I also bought myself my first old lady wide-brimmed hat, and will be looking for an umbrella for us to tote around too. Less sun exposure and less need for chemicals or minerals being absorbed into our skin. Since, after reading a bunch of studies, I'm starting to feel like the sun isn't as bad as its supposed screeners.

The Ultimatum

On Saturday, I gave Mr. Man the final ultimatum.
With my sister and her kids coming, and the sun finally making its way into my frigid town, I want to be able to eat all of our meals outside - at a picnic table: my outdoor furniture of choice.

The picnic tables were on sale at Lowe's for $88 + $10 assembly fee. I told Mr. Man, who has been promising to make me a picnic table before the summer's end, that I just couldn't wait any longer and I was going to use my hard-earned babysitting money to go buy one. He took the challenge, and convinced me to let him at least price out the wood first.

$46 dollars later we had all the wood and screws needed and spent the afternoon working together building our picnic bench. Mr. Man worked well into the evening on it, assuring that it is stronger and better than the Lowe's edition. And I couldn't be happier. It's beautiful, and the fact that Mr. Man made it (with a little help from each of us) makes it that much better.

Father's Day was it's first day of use and we have eaten every meal at it since. Can I just tell you how much I love this ultimate man of mine?! I do.

{Little E taking a picture of the picnic bench - but mostly an over-tired toddler}

{The Toddler taking a picture - and I'm sure he is smiling BEHIND the camera now too!}

A Little Bit Early

The Toddler has been talking about his birthday for months now. When his two brothers had their spring birthdays, he started planning his. And the most important part of his birthday was that his best friend Jack be there. If you ask him when his birthday is, he'll tell you "My birthday is August"... and every few days he'll ask me, "Is today August?"

So when we got the perfect idea for a gift that would really be better to enjoy all through summer and not at the end of summer, combined with the sad news that best friend Jack will be moving soon, we decided to have August come early at our house.

Yesterday we celebrated with our true family style. The day was his and he enjoyed picking out every last detail. Being the youngest is really the best too, because all the siblings pretty much got that it was his day and loved being able to spoil him and help him celebrate (without any sad or jealous feelings!)

The day prior to his "birthday" we made preparations. One of which was while I was in the shower - the older three kids worked outside on the deck painting a banner for the birthday boy. Thinking painting outside would be safe, I didn't think about little feet stepping in said paint and walking up my light carpeted stairs! I spent the next hour after my shower shampooing each step. That banner will be staying up for a while.

The Toddler was so excited. Clapping his hands and thoroughly enjoying each gift as he opened them. Taking time to set up and play with all his little gifts! He would hug the gift and the giver and thank them profusely. The grand finale was a sandbox from Mom and Dad - which made the sand toys given by his sister much more meaningful. He spent the only couple of the hours of the day that it wasn't raining IN the sandbox - as did his three older siblings. And already again today, it has been a big hit! I'm glad we celebrated early so that he can get good use out of it this summer.

He chose each part of each meal, and spent the day in his regular daily attire (which doesn't look like it will change with his aging) in another pair mitch match of pjs! We played some of his favourite games, and had an indoor picnic.

After dinner the poor tired boy (who wouldn't take a nap) had his very low-key birthday party. He had picked out the plates (they had three candles on a piece of cake because he was turning three), he wanted donut cake - which meant me just buying donuts, and ice cream. He chose one party game, and was excited to bring down his bin of cars because he knows his friend Jack loves to play cars. So Jack's family and his little neighbor friend Ry Ry and her family came for a quick celebration. And really I think he had the best little birthday!

This morning I was putting away gift bags, and he caught me and said, "We didn't have my birthday!" (He's been big into lying lately, which is a whole other post.) I reminded him about his special day and he said, "I liked that birthday. Let's do it again today!"

So while today may be back to June 17th, yesterday it was "August"! And since three is my most favourite age, I luck out that I get to have a three year old for my last time for longer than a year! And what a sweet little guy he is.

If you remember his age confusion last year... this year he is older and wiser and finally "free":

Another Summer

Since I am in the zone where I apparently have control, I've decided to exercise it.

Our summer is scheduled so that we have more time for fun. That's how I roll.

{This is for Lollygirl and anyone else who cares... and for my kids to grow up and remember what our days were like (for better or for worse)!}

We still have a set time for morning devotional before Mr. Man leaves for work for the day.
The kids have a modified summer morning chart (with less piano practicing).
And we have our fun new game "Roomopoly" - to be explained later.
We are also continuing with our "Scripture Power" tradition from a past summer, but this time in the morning since we barely have a napper anymore.
We are aiming for some morning bike rides or gardening and then we have time for fun.

At lunchtime or afterwards, I am reading novels to the kids. (We've had some rainy days, where it's nice to all cuddle up on my bed and spend quite a while reading togheter.) Right now it is "Fablehaven."
Then quiet time, which consists of many wonderful choices: reading, journals, puzzles, workbooks, or "wondering" (loved the idea from this blog and totally stole it!)

This summer we also have new weekly assignments. Each week the three eldest rotate through:
1) Breakfast training (where they are learning to cook and prepare breakfasts so that next school year when I am in school too we can still eat something more than cold cereal every day)
2) Dinner helper (this is to prepare my kids to leave home someday with more cooking skills than ramen noodles)
3) Friend of the Family (this person gets to have some fun playdates - aside from the usual neighborhood constants - and when we do fun things together during the day they can invite a friend to join us -as we only have one extra seat in the van!)

Another new idea I found somewhere online (sorry whoever you are) is to have a Summer Bucket List. We usually make a list of fun things to do anyways, but this time we cut them all out, put them in a bucket and the kids can pull them in the morning or whenever they think they are bored. It's been fun!

Roomopoly is a creation my parents came up with when I was a child. And the fact that I remember it fondly encouraged me to create a semblance of it. I totally copied Monopoly images and created my own board game. Basically the concept is that you roll a die, and some spaces tell you to roll again or change places with someone, and the coloured square (real estate) that you eventually land on is the ROOM you are in charge of that week. Throughout the game you collect and lose "dusters" and as you do your ROOM jobs you gain more. When you have 10 dusters you get to go out for ice cream.Watch out for being sent to TIME OUT though! The kids were enthralled! I told them we weren't going to use our regular chore chart anymore and play Roomopoly during the summer and they were beyond excited. The playing of the game was fun too and took a while! Little E is the only one who isn't impressed with the game. He's figured out it's actually MORE work than his measly little daily chore! There are cards that I created for each room which tell you what jobs have to be done to keep the room clean every day, and then there are more specific jobs for each day of the week that can be done any time before dinner. I'm excited for this. So far so good. (I'm happy to send my PDF to any of you if you want to steal the idea too!)



We are NOT having ways for the kids to earn extra money this summer. We had a system set up during the school year and the kids bought a "big" gift with their earned money right after school let out. My one son keeps asking about earning money, and I keep reminding him that I already spent all my money on his earned toy... so maybe next year we'll do things differently. They do still get their weekly allowance though, so they aren't completely deprived.

Of course some days are thrown to the wind. We have lots of camping to do, some lessons, and camps, some visitors coming, and lots of fun things to explore in our new area. But at least we have a plan for those days when there seems to be nothing to do, and hopefully the house won't be a total disaster if we get our little jobs and needs done with right away. We also have scheduled weekly hikes with a couple of friends - and I'm really excited about these! The mountains are a beautiful place to spend the summer.

Unfortunately our "schedule" doesn't include a lot of time for me. After a few days off, I'm finally insisting on taking the time to exercise... but really it is full-time all day long! And with the beautiful summer nights, we all tend to go to bed close to the same time. But I love it (most of the time!) Soon enough they'll be at their summer jobs all day, right?!

In The Zone

I've been reaching out lately. Trying to fill my cup; attempting to gather knowledge and experience from mothers with grown or older children than my own. These are the mothers who claim they miss my life. The rushed dinners, screaming toddler, sports games and practices, and multiple boys in a bath where there ends up being more water on the floor than on them. They tell me that now is the easy time. That I will never have the control I have now: the control over bedtimes, friends, knowing where my children are. And yet I feel like I have so little control. I'm approaching a decade in my mothering career (already hit it, if you count pregnancy) and these years have brought me tears, joy and much wisdom. Wisdom that enables me to look back fondly on the early years of new babies, toddlers and preschoolers. That busy time that I thought would never end, almost has. And I miss it. And so listening to the tales of teenagehood helps me to recognize this mothering time for what it is. And I think I've heard enough. I'd like to remain just a little bit naive and try my best to enjoy this zone I'm in.

Roughin' It

Two weeks prior to Memorial Day we had planned with some good friends and neighbors (who have four children that line up perfectly with our kids ages - except they have three girls and one boy) to go camping up the canyon. We drove up to pick a spot that wasn't covered with snow, and hoped it would warm up. The week preceding the long weekend it rained almost every day. We wanted the campout to work so badly, that neither one of us was willing to back down. (Even though both families admitted we probably should have, and sort of kind of wanted to, but didn't want to be the ONE to be the party pooper!) The kids were adventure enthusiasts, and so, amidst pouring rain, we set up our camp!

I didn't get a lot of pictures because it really was raining hard for a while. Things cleared up just before the night chill set in and we had some fun roasting all sorts of yummy food, puddle jumping, flashlight games, and just being together outside. It was also a nice treat after we got all the kids tucked in and somewhat asleep to just sit and chat around the fire with our friends.

In the end, we piled all twelve of us into our friend's pop-up camper. Their battery had died though, so we had no heat - except for our compiled body heat! But at least it wasn't our cold wet tent. We survived the freezing night and awoke to find that it had snowed! At this point we were running out of dry clothes for the kids, and positive attitudes for the adults. After voting the men out to start the fire, we had a hearty breakfast of cold cereal, roasted hotdogs, bagels, and marshmallows and started to pack up to go home.

That's when the paper people showed up: a reporter and photographer from The Chronicle. Apparently there was nothing newsworthy going on in our little town, and so they wanted to find out who was crazy enough to be camping in the snow. Our little crew of eight children under 9 made us entirely news worthy! The kids enjoyed being interviewed and were so excited to see the paper Sunday morning that tied our two families immortally together and made the best show and tell ever! We were a bit upset to see they didn't post a pic of ALL eight kids around that campfire (which I would have loved a copy of), but Mr. T was delighted to have his marshmallow highlighted, and Miss J was thrilled to be "quoted"! So now we are true Montanans! And have learned that you DON'T go camping on Memorial Weekend here!

How to Furniture Shop

Amidst our camping trip, we also made time to go furniture shopping this past weekend - hoping to sucker out some good Memorial day sales. In the end, we made out like bandits, and I'd like to share our tale.

Step one: Call all the furniture stores in town (not many here) and find out what deals they are offering (so you can finagle them lower or else let them know what others are offering).

Step two: Bribe your children with bubble gum. If they are well behaved in the first store, they get gum.

Step three: Bring the old laptop and a favourite DVD. The next few stores you go into, sit your kids on the comfiest couch, turn on the movie and roam worry-free.

Step four: Argue about furniture with your spouse. Ask about protection plans and post-furniture-shopping marriage therapy sessions.

Step five: Hand out more gum. Carry sleeping toddler to next store, put on movie from where you paused it. Have furniture consultants compliment your parenting and children.

Step six: Tell everyone you'll be back on Monday. Have them ask what it will take to get a deal made today. Tell them you're in no rush and will be back Monday.

Step seven: Move your current furniture together and after going crazy for a day, decide you DON'T want a sectional in your family room.

Step eight: Research material, stores, protection plans online.

Step nine: Return on Monday. Bring a second movie, more gum, and lots of information (enough to stump even the managers with). Listen through yet another detailed description of how leather goes from cow to couch.

Step ten: Find the perfect furniture for your family right now. Say you'll be back after lunch. Surprise the guy you're working with that you brought four children with you because they were so quiet and good that he hadn't even noticed them sitting on the couch in the front vegging out.

Step eleven: Find the couches you like the most on the internet for a grand cheaper and with quicker arrival dates. Pay through bing.com and get a percentage cash back AND a great Memorial day discount too.

Step twelve: Wait patiently for furniture to arrive... regret not taking any pictures of four kids on a couch being the best furniture shoppers EVER!

***for the record, the picture above is NOT the furniture we ended up purchasing

May I?

I feel like I have neglected this blog. It doesn't bother me so much as the fact that I have in turn neglected any writing or journaling at all. Sitting down at the computer to write is almost like a drug for me... and usually I am addicted. Lately life has gotten in the way. And that's a wonderful addiction in and of itself. It's remarkable to me to see that in the month of May I only had six posts! I'm not much for bullet posts, but as to keep my family and myself in the know, here's a brief synopsis of our month... so that I can fill my habit and continue onwards.

-my third child turned six and I still have to write his special birthday letter
-another pirate party under my belt - but our first time to have a pinata (per request of the birthday boy!)
-mothers day (how could I NOT have written about this special day?)
-my sister had a baby (her third child and second son!)
-we went to the opening ceremonies for our state's special Olympics
-we've been gardening, landscaping, weeding and even shoveling snow in all of our spare time
-we had a sick sick boy for almost 2 weeks, and even spent a day in the hospital having an IV and multiple tests including a spinal tap... not a fun time (he's better now by the way)
-I was called as Primary President again :)
-my childhood best friend and husband came for a spontaneous but very fun visit
-tball tball tball
-I had a small health issue that has caused for some unexpected pain and inability to exercise for a week - which makes me tired and a little crabby
-we went camping for our first time in our new state and woke up to snow... I promise to REALLY blog about this one!!! (pictures and newspaper article included...are you curious?!)
-school performances, field trips, projects, etc.
-we are finishing up homeschooling, and public school lets out next week
-starting to plan out our summer: the more organized I am, the more fun we will have!

And... because the Grandma's like pictures, no matter how random:

{my little waterer - with a net in his back, that looks like angel wings to me}

{hours and hours have been spent on the trampoline: rain or shine}

{the pinata - we told everyone to take one hit... after many turns each, we let Mr. Man loose on it}

{mud pie for my little guy}

{lots of lego building and playing}

{sidewalk paint and chalk fun}

{creating and playing four square}

{he THINKS he's stopped napping}

{Miss J and my childhood best friend}

And because I realized I have taken very few pictures of Mr. T lately, enjoy this lovely song: