Operation Summer Fun is Underway...

Well it's officially the first full day of summer vacation and no one could be happier than this mama! In addition to my plan to keep the chaos to a minimum and the happiness no a maximum, I also want to keep a photo journal of everything we do this summer. For the past few years there's been a trend in the digital scrapbooking community to capture a photo a day for an entire year. It's called Project 365 and sounds like a huge undertaking. But after listening to one of my favorite podcasts the other day (The Paperclipping Roundtable) I was inspired by Stacy Julian and her 180 day project she was doing for her son's Sr. year of high school. Why not take one picture a day to document our summer; that, in addition to the kids journaling will tell the entire story. I love this idea!!

Water balloon fight and jumping on the trampoline ~ last day of school

So, here's the back story...R thinks it's pure torture when K has a friend over and he doesn't; this day was no exception, but you can tell by the smile on his face that it wasn't all bad. My two have always loved water balloons and after watching them have such a great time yesterday I made a mental note to always have them on hand for the last day of school. Next year we may have to make it a big deal and invite lots of kids to join in the fun!

You've heard that little saying, "Mama knows best?" Well, this mama, just like all you mamas out there, usually do; I kid you not, not five seconds after I said, "Don't slam the door. Someone's gonna get their fingers smashed," I heard a blood curdling scream. I have never heard R scream like that before...apparently he was trying to get out of his bedroom and the girls slammed the door on his leg. Ok, I'm one of those moms who usually tells her kids to shake it off, but this looked like it really hurt. Once he calmed down and we had ice applied to the wound, he starts complaining that something like this always happens when K has a friend over. This incident brought back a great childhood memory I just couldn't help sharing with him.

When I was about R's age I used to go over to my friend Mitzi's house. She had a brother who was two years older than us and we delighted in torturing him. Thoroughly enjoying his attempts at trying to catch us to pound us in the ground. Of course he never caught us; we always seemed to make it to the bathroom just in time to lock him out. I'm sure he hated it when his little sister had a friend over, but we had so much fun! I can totally empathise with R being the oldest in my family, but I have no idea what it's like to be the older brother. I loved it that I could share this story of my past with him. I now have a whole new appreciation for Mitzi's brother, and I kinda feel bad about the way we treated him. :)

I feel like I must add ~ the girls weren't being mean to R they were just playing chase. It's funny how things happen that bring up childhood memories that haven't been brought to the surface in a long time. I love how stories of my childhood are being intertwined with those of my children. In a nutshell, I just love telling the story.

Will work for beans...



Will work for beans...jellybeans that is!

I guess you could say for about the last month I've been gearing up for summer. Trying to figure out how to keep the kids busy but not too busy, keep a routine but not too strict a routine, and still relax and enjoy our time together. I've had this thought swimming around in my head for a few weeks now and just this past Sunday I figured out how it's all gonna work. For some reason I think it's really important my two darlings learn a little responsibility and "earn" the fun stuff we do all summer, and I also want them to remember what we do so on the days they're so bored they think they're going to die we can look back and recall how great a mom I really am. :) So, here's the plan: both kiddos will have a notebook; on the top half of the page (each day) will be a list of chores that must be completed before anything gets turned on ie: t.v., computer, wii, itouch, nintendo (yes I know we have alot of electronic devices.) Anyway, for every chore they complete they earn a jellybean. You also have to understand what drives my children. I could offer to pay them a dollar for every chore and they would just stare at me...but you offer to pay with jellybeans and they are all about it. I do try to keep a tight reign on they're sugar consumption, but they get way more sugar on a daily basis than I would like. At this point, I'm just thinking we're going with whatever motivates them and right now it's Jelly Belly jellybeans.

Back to the notebook; at the end of the day and on the bottom half of the page they will write a three sentence paragraph about what we did that day. (This is the part that will remind them how great I am.) And last but not least they will write one nice thing about the other. K's already said the first thing she's going to write about R is how much she loves him.

So, this notebook will serve at least three purposes: responsibility, gratitude and appreciation for each other; then at the end of August they will both have a pretty neat documentation of their summer.

I'll post a few weeks in and report on how it's going ~ Happy Summer!!

She grew up on the side of the road...

K's favorite song right now is Lady A's American Honey. More times than not when we get in the car she's asking to listen to that song. I love that she knows all the words and we can sing together. This, on the other hand, drives R crazy (he's really sick of this song.) I love that the song reminds me of my childhood and it describes K's perfectly.

Last night while she was in the shower and I was brushing my teeth she busts out singing her favorite song ~ it was beautiful. When she finished, she said, "Mommy, I thought of a song but I'm embarassed to sing it." I told her not to be embarassed and that I would love to hear it. What happened next was magical. She started singing the most beautiful song I've ever heard in the sweetest little voice. I quickly ran and grabbed my journal and started scribbling the words as fast as I could (trying to remember.) I asked her to sing it again so she did, pretty much the same as the first time.

He Died on the Cross

He died on the cross

He died on the cross

For us...for us

He died for our sins

He died for our hearts

He doesn't like it when people be mean

He cries...

He  died  on  the  cross

I love this so much ~ it makes my heart sing to know that out of all the things she could have thought of to sing about, she chose our Saviour. I love you so much sweet girl and I pray you always have a song in your heart.

Cat on a Hot Tahoe Roof

This is Socks. He's had a very full and exciting life. Well, he's provided our family with much love and laughs over the last four years. I'm not sure it's been all fun and games for him, but aside from having worms via the fleas off the birds he kills (did I mention he's a brutal killing machine?) I think he's had it pretty good.

This post is a result of an exciting experience the kids and I had while on our way to R's basketball game the other day. I had packed their bags for a sleepover with Nana and Pappy and as usual K had packed her bag full of stuffed animals. So when I heard a faint meow as I was driving 50 mph down the road, the first thing I thought was she had packed her Furreal kitty. Once the faint meow turned into an all out meow scream I got worried. The first thing I imagined was Socks hanging on for dear life under the Tahoe. I pulled over and R opened the sunroof then K reached up and grabbed Socks off the roof. Poor Socks looked as if all 9 lives had flashed before his eyes. K held her sweet cat just like a baby all the way back to the house. She giggled all the way to the school while R and I reminisced about things that have happened in Socks' short life that has brought us joy. To my complete surprise the kids had no recollection of the most important story of all. I spent the next few minutes telling them the story and a few more making a mental note to blog about it...

One day a couple of years ago Big R called and told me to take the kids and pick out a new kitten. He went on to explain that Socks had been ran over and he had just buried him. When I told the kids, they cried and cried all the way home. Well, we pulled in the drive and were completely shocked when Socks came walking into the carport. We were so surprised and excited ~ we couldn't believe he was alive...we loved on that cat like crazy. He probably wondered what was going on. :) We decided to hide him in K's room and surprise Big R when he came home. The look on his face was priceless when Socks came strolling in the kitchen. He couldn't believe he had buried the wrong cat! It was hilarious ~ it's one of those things that I'll never forget, but the kids had already forgotten. It's stories like these that must be preserved...it's stories like these that make our family ~ our family.

It worked ~ It worked :)

I've said it before and I will say it again ~ I love it when things work! What's even better is I'm usually learning something in the process. It's funny, but I find myself thinking more and more the closer I get to 40 that if I had had the desire to learn twenty years ago that I do now there's no telling what I could have been. Don't get me wrong, I'm perfectly happy with who I've become and what I do with my days, but the amount of info out there on whatever topic of interest you may have is overwhelming.

I'm so happy with the blog header I created in Photoshop. I've been playing around with photoshop for about  5 years and what's so fun about it is I do learn something new everytime I sit down to mess with it. I am so thankful for the Clover Lane blog for posting the intructions on how to find the Minima Stretch blog template. My blog kinda fell by the wayside when I couldn't figure out how to utilize that template. The other day I decided to give it another shot and found the intructions ~ I was so happy!

I have several blog topics swimming around in my head and while some people might think it's silly to spend time writing something that might never be read, to me it's therapy for my soul. So, if you read it fine ~ if you don't fine. This blog is strictly to satisfy my selfish need to get my words out. I hope somewhere in the middle of it all you can find a little enjoyment ~