Gone Fishin’

 

It’s been a busy summer of not being too busy.

If that makes any sense at all.

At the beginning of the summer I made a promise to myself to try and be a little more active. A little more present. A little more free this summer.

And then, I did just that.

This summer we…

…went to our church’s inaugural family camp.

…raised over 30 pounds of tomatoes, 10 pounds of squash, and a handful of beans. The okra are still coming in.

…sent Party Boy and MOTS on mission trips to Shreveport and NYC.

…celebrated my birthday.

…worked our church’s Vacation Bible School (in crafts, where else?)

…started a Bible study with 3 very good friends that continues to stretch me and make me see things differently.

…hand lettered 50 giant cardboard signs for camp

…attended church camp

…marvelled at needing a jacket and umbrella at camp. In Wichita Falls. In July.

…got two new crowns. Ugh.

…went to a Texas Rangers game (celebrating Dairy month at the Ballpark – don’t ask)

…tried a new frozen yogurt place

…rekindled my love of friendship bracelets

…attended a black light party

started color-coding my Bible

…adopted some goats for an evening

…found a hidden trail to the lake behind our house

…learned how to dehydrate cherry tomatoes in my oven

…spent afternoons at the lake beach

…ate salads from a jar

…did some scrapbooking (of course)

…got my very first fishing license

…went fishing for the first time in a long time

…tried new shakes and drinks from Sonic

…used my little lawn tractor sprinkler to (barely) keep the lawn alive

…used my big tractor to mow the lawn back down

…grilled. A lot.

…took bunches of pictures. All on my phone.

…saw one of the Perseid meteors. Very excited for that!

…discovered that I love, love, love watching Jimmy Fallon

…learned how to use Keynote like a pro.

…used Twitter a little more. Facebook a little less.

…got addicted to Candy Crush

…learned a new way to play Ultimate Frisbee

…attended a swim meet

…bought new school books for this year

…planned the 2013-2014 school year for both home school (by myself) and Bible Study (with help)

…learned to make salsa fresca

…caught up on several TV shows. Better living through re-runs

 

And that’s what I did this summer. Instead of blogging. It was a great summer, but it’s almost over. And with a new school year comes a new routine and hopefully a new routine that includes time for blogging and storytelling and reflection.

XOXO Summer. It’s been great.

 

100 Days of Summer | Days 12 + 13

My girls are friends with two girls at church, also sisters, and because I love them all, we decided to have a sleepover. Hotel style.

I called their mom, of course, to pick a date and then started looking for the hotel with the coolest pool. Because you can’t have a summer hotel sleepover party without hitting the pool, and a lap pool? Not gonna cut it!

Thankfully the coolest pool in the area is also midway between our houses, so I made reservations and we waited impatiently for the big day.

On Friday we packed up suitcases and headed out to the hotel, stopping to buy some snacks and supplies for the evening – cookies, chips, M&Ms, and nail polish stickers. Special patterns for every girl.

We got there and checked in and headed straight for the rooms. Here’s our view:

We relaxed for an hour or so before our guests arrived. I caught up on back episodes of Duck Dynasty. Have you seen this show? So hilarious!

When the girls got there we all got our swim suits on and went to the pool.

There was much actual swimming. There was a slide at the far end of the pool that got a lot of time from the girls and Captain Chaos.

There was girl talk time after Chaos left to go spend the night with his Aunt.

There was some relaxing on the sidelines too.

Party Boy stopped for pizza after dropping Chaos off and we had amazing thin crust pizza for dinner. Then we settled in to watch more Duck Dynasty and some lame movie on cable while the girls did each others nails and watched shows on Disney Channel.

I’m not sure how late the girls stayed up talking and giggling and eating snacks and doing nails. It got pretty quiet by 10:30 or so. We heard them start to move around again around 7:30 Saturday morning, so once everyone was packed up and ready to check out we went downstairs to have breakfast. Honestly, it was one of the best breakfast buffets ever.

After breakfast we headed back out to the pool, which gave Chaos a chance to come back and swim some more with his mow-honk. Heh.

All in all, it was a great sleepover. We had such a great time, and the girls were immediately begging to do it again soon! As far as summer activities go, it was a total success…

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We’re making the most of our summertime in 2012. See all 100 Days of Summer Posts here.

100 Days of Summer | Day 10

We didn’t do much besides play quietly while we all recuperated from being sick.

On Day 10 we had an appointment at Scottish Rite. Nothing extraordinary, just a routine follow-up with her othopedist.

While this wasn’t really on our list of summer must-dos, we did try to make it a fun trip, and Scottish Rite tries very hard to make the whole hospital about the kids and about fun. They have two old cars in a hallway, a giant moving sculpture in the atrium, and aquariums all over the place. There’s toys in the waiting areas, too.

But my kids favorite is the giant stained-glass kaleidoscope:

You look in one end and a motor moves the stained glass at the other end. It really is beautiful.

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We’re making the most of our summertime in 2012. See all 100 Days of Summer Posts here.

100 Days of Summer | Days 4 + 5

You know that tickle you get in the back of your throat at the beginning of a cold? That showed up on Monday. I didn’t feel too terrible until Wednesday, when the coughing got a little worse. It was a dry cough, so I really could only increase fluids and take it easy. And I did just that. I took it easy so I could recover.

Thursday was worse when the head cold symptoms started. I stayed in bed most of the day.

The kids were champs through those two days. They played quietly together and entertained each other while I rested.

It wasn’t at all how I wanted to kick off the summer, but things happen. The best we can do is keep moving forward!

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We’re making the most of our summertime in 2012. See all 100 Days of Summer Posts here.

100 Days of Summer | Day 3

Day 3 almost turned into an unmitigated disaster. Almost.

Once we were up and about and everyone had eaten I told the kids to get their swimsuits on. They all wanted to know where we were going, but I didn’t tell them. I like to surprise them occasionally.

We jumped in the car and went first to the grocery store. They each got to pick out a Lunchable (which is a treat) for lunch. It was pretty awesome because Chaos was so confused about why we were wearing bathing suits to the grocery store. He was firing questions left and right trying to determine what the grand plan was.

We got back in the car and went up the street to the most awesome park in town. It’s awesome because it is not only a handicap accesible playground of epic proportions, but also a pretty decent sized sprayground!

I had never been there before, so I was pretty impressed with the scale and how clean and pretty everything was. As we pulled up we noticed tha there was a school group there, which wasn’t a big deal, plenty of room for everyone. We unloaded and started spraying everyone with sunscreen. We gathered up all of our bags and stuff and walked over to find a place to sit.

Just as we dropped our things on a table the water shut off. Wha?

Teh super-chipper Kindergarten teacher then announced that they were so super lucky to have had perfect timing, as they were breaking for lunch just as the city came to do maintenance on the sprayground. Y’all, I was not happy. I had specifically checked and the website and posted signs all stated that the sprayground was closed on Wednesday for maintenance, which is whay we had gone over on Tuesday!

After talking with the maintenance crew got us nowhere the kids decided to go ahead and eat lunch. We all ate while we wathced the maintenance crew work. After a bit the maintenance supervisor showed up and explained a little about what was going on. Turns out they had a clog and didn’t want it getting worse. He promised that they would work as fast as possible and get the water back on soon.

The kids voted to stay and play on the playground.

They had a good time, but it was pretty hot. At 11:30 the maintenance guys said it would be a half-hour.

At noon, it was another half-hour.

At 12:29 the water spurted on and it was met with joyous cries from Moms and kids alike!

I gave the kids 45 minutes to play in the water – less time than I had originally planned, but it added up to more time overall at the park than I had planned on too. My original thought had been to leave about noon since we had gotten there at 10:15.

By the time we left they were cooled off, soaking wet, and happy as clams. I’d say Day 3 was a roaring success as summer days go.

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We’re making the most of our summertime in 2012. See all 100 Days of Summer Posts here.

100 Days of Summer | Days 1 and 2

We started the summer out with a bang by hanging out with some good friends from church. We ate grilled burgers (delicious!) and then went out to the lake to tool around in their boat. It was great fun and the kids are dying to go tubing again. Apparently, the boat driver is “the best” because he didn’t go too fast and scare anyone, but he went fast enough to be “terrifying.” Or at least as reported by my girls.

I am pleased to report that all three kids collapsed the minute we got home Sunday night and slept late on Monday morning out of sheer fun exhaustion. 🙂

Then on Day 2 (Memorial Day) we played it cool. Party Boy and I worked out then took Hollywood and Chaos to the pool, where we ate grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch. Came home, did a few projects to help my parents out, and then headed to a local restaurant for dinner all 7 of us.

That was the remnants of dessert – a large pizza sized cookie with 6-7 scoops of ice cream. We devastated that thing too. It was a delicious way to end the holiday weekend…

Bring it summer, we’re ready!

100 Days of Summer

I counted them out. We have 100 days to celebrate summer. I want to make the best of every one of them!

* We have a very loose schedule –

Early Mornings – Gym and Swim practice

Mornings – Activity

Lunch

Feet on Bed (this is an hour of restful activity or nap as needed – can be watching TV, playing on iPod, reading)

Afternoon – Swim or video games or self-directed play

Evening – Dinner and occasional activities

Bedtime!

* We have a summer list and manifesto.

* We have plenty of time and energy to make great memories!

I’ll be back soon with a wrap-up of days 1 and 2.

You may notice (if you pay attention to that sort of thing) and shift in blog schedule as I post about our summer adventures. Hope nobody minds.

Ready, set, summer!

Summer Manifesto

I don’t know that we’ll do all of what is on this list, but we’ll sure give it a try.

It will take effort. It will take time. But if I’ve learned anything in this life it’s that some of the best memories are created when effort and time come together.

Summer starts this weekend – what are your plans?

Summer Fun Ideas

Summer vacation is fast approaching. I decided to get a jump on summer by making a list of 50 things to do with the kids during these hottest months of the year. There’s lots of ideas out there, but I culled them down to the activities that I thought we’d actually do. And FYI, lots of these are pinned on my Summer Sanity Savers Pinterest board.

1. Make popsicle stick bracelets

2. Rainbow Popsicles

3. Alphabet Photo Walk

4. $1 summer movies

5. Play Jacks

6. Leaf rubbings (identify trees)

7. Go Star-gazing

8. Make pet rocks

9. Make paper dolls

10. Make sidewalk chalk paint

11. Magic Playdoh mix

12. Pom-pom wars!

13. Bubble Snakes

14. Glow in the Dark drinks

15. Make Ice Cream in a bag

16. Feed the ducks

17. Movie Bingo

18. Summer Smash Book

19. Make pinwheels

20. Independence Day lanterns

21. Sun prints

22. Make Cloud Dough

23. Play cards

24. Make S’mores

25. Jolly Rancher suckers

26. Paper Rockets

27. Fizzle Paint

28. Tie-dye T-shirts

29. Friendship bracelets

30. Glow stick lanterns

31. Make yarn bracelets

32. Fireworks Floats

33. Make a Lego movie

34. Homemade slurpees

35. Library – summer reading program

36. Fruit kebabs

37. Make a hovercraft

38. Pick Your Own Fruit

39. Visit a sprinkler park

40. Go bowling

41. Go to a concert

42. Watch fireworks

43. Go Camping (probably indoors)

44. Get snow cones

45. Make glow-in-the-dark slime

46. Bubble blowing contest

47. Museum trip

48. Hiking

49. Swimming

50. Happy Hour at Sonic

What are you doing to stay cool and entertained this summer?

Homecoming Parade

Every year my very good friend, Mrs. S, alerts me to the date of the local homecoming parade. We love the Homecoming Parade. We get more candy at the homecoming parade than we do at Halloween. Not kidding. We filled up a big, red, reusable Target bag halfway on parade candy.

This year we got there early because Party Boy was travelling and I don’t feel so comfortable parallel parking in crowded streets, so I wanted a good parking spot. We lucked out and got one a last few. We went over and staked out our usual spots.

I remembered to bring our picnic blanket and a folding chair this year since I knew we’d be waiting a little longer than last year.

MOTS remembered to bring a book. Hollywood and Captain Chaos just colored in a notebook and talked about the candy they hoped to gather.

Mrs. S showed up about 30 minutes before the parade was due to start and we had a chance to catch up before the festivities got under way. Then, it was go time!

First came the band

Then the drill team

The kids were not impressed because neither of these groups threw any candy.

Luckily every other float and group did!

I didn;t get many pics after the candy throwing started because I had to supervise Captain Chaos collecting candy. I didn’t want him running out into the parade!

We had a great time watching the parade and then we were able to hear a little bit of the pep rally at City Hall too! Our team lost the game, but that’s okay…we’ll get ’em next time.

And hey! If you are interested in digital scrapbooking I am guest blogging over at the Trixie Scraps blog today with a little tutorial on alignment. Love to have you stop by…