Coming To An End.......Very, Very Slowly

Summer is winding down, very, very slowly. We aren't letting go just yet. The kids are still in summer mode, Lex is sleeping late, Lo refuses to get dressed and I'm sleeping as much. as. possible!! Soon our days will start at 6:30am, and end at 8pm. We are not looking forward to it. What I am looking forward to is our schedules returning to normal. All this floating around, being lazy and getting nothing done is driving me a bit nuts. I'm going to enjoy the last bit of it though, soon my kids will be older and want to be with their friends more and more, and will be home less and less.

Lo starts dance class next month. Just once a week to start, but I'm pretty sure that once she gets a taste of it she will want more. I'm pretty sure I'm going to need a second job though. :) She's just so excited to dance dance dance!!!!!!! She dances around the house in her ballet outfit, dances when she should be in bed, and dances till she drives her brother crazy. Oh to be young again. :)

My middle child has grown from a little boy into a BOY. It seemed to happen overnight. All his adult teeth are growing in, he engages us in deep conversations about life, science and all things gaming. He's a very confident young man who isn't afraid to ask for help, and is quick with the pleases and thank yous. He stays up late watching videos on space, sometimes I have to remind him that he cannot stay up till 4 in the morning. He's only 8, not 15 yet. :)

Me~

Is It Time For School Yet???

This past week has been tough. The kids have been fighting a lot, not listening and refusing to do any Summer Reading. It's all wearing on me. I'm exhausted from their late nights, I'm exhausted from getting up early, I'm exhausted from working more, I'm exhausted from being exhausted. I know that I cannot let one week do me in, I need to focus and remember that these moments with my children will be gone, they will grow up and not be little anymore and I will miss it. But God it is so hard!!!! Especially when the very first thing every single morning out of my son's mouth is "Can I have the computer?" NO!!! You can't!! Go read a book, or play with the $100 worth of Legos that I bought so they WON'T ask for the computer or say that they're bored. Yes, it's been that bad of a week. This week is going to be worse because I'm working every single day except Thursday. Great for my paycheck, but tough on my nerves and body. Lifting 30+ pounds of dog food 30 times a day will wear anyone down. I think I need a vacation. Or at least 48 hours of sleep. I'll take either one at this point. When I have weeks like this past week, when I've been up early, cleaning, taking care of pets and kids, then go to work and work my butt off, then go home to my third shift, I'm a wreck. And I swear to God if I hear one more stay-at-home mom say how tough her life is, I will smack her in the face. Toots, you've got it MADE!!! I used to be a stay-at-home Mom, and yes, it was tough, but not nearly as tough as this is.

So yes, today I am looking forward to the first day of school, but that won't last. It's just another bad week and this too shall pass.

Me~

Summer = Lazy

I'm lazy, and it's all kid's fault. It's hot out, which makes everything slow, my kids sleep in, I sleep in, all they want to do is cuddle, read books, go to the lake and have movie night every night. They are not making it easy. I had plans this summer, big plans. Day trips, library trips, visiting friends and so on. Most days we aren't even up before 9am. Don't even get me started on Lex. He sleeps so late, that by time he gets up it's lunch time. He likes to stay up and watch MythBusters or Finding Bigfoot or science videos. I get a bit concerned when the first thing he asks me for when he wakes up is dry ice. My little mad scientist. This week I want to take them blueberry picking. Lex loves blueberries!! I buy a container and it's usually gone before we even get home. So I thought I'd take him to pick his own, and lug Lo with us. She is not an outdoors kinda girl. :)

I have started making them do their math work and summer reading in the evenings or first thing in the morning. Lo is doing great with her math! Lex? Not so much. He makes everything way harder than it needs to be. Just like his Mother. I have to admit, I am not looking forward to the new school year. I'm really enjoying our long nights, late mornings and carefree living. Wanna go to the lake? SURE! I want to go catch fireflies? YES!!! Wanna stay in your pjs all day? YOU BET!! I need to win the lottery so I can stay home and homeschool my kids. :D

Me~

Summer.......Finally!

I can safely say that Summer is here. The kids are out of school and we are in full "staycation" mode. Lots of lake trips, lego playing, movie nights, grilling, and lots of relaxing. Luckily my kids are at that age where they can play by themselves and don't need constant attention. I bought some Legos for them and that seems to be all they are into lately. Hours at a time. Lex and I built a treehouse together. I was nervous at first because I have mild dyslexia and was afraid I'd screw it up. I didn't. :)

I have to confess that I only built the base, and Lex finished the rest. It still amazes me how smart he is. It took me over an hour just to do the base and he finished the rest in 15 minutes. :) The problem with Legos is that you need a place for all those tiny pieces. Lex, the hoarder, has junk drawers arts & crafts drawers that I decided to use for the Legos, the problem with that? Getting him to clean them out. Not an easy task. I honestly thought it would wake all summer. It didn't. He emptied them out and organized them with his Legos. Lovely. :)

I'm looking forward to a long summer with my littles. It's started out great so far, and I'm hoping it keeps going on that path.

Mom~

Ok, I Lied....I am SO Not Ready For Winter

I'm cold. My house is cold. My kids are cold. My pets are cold. And I refuse to turn the heat on. Do you know how many times a day I say "Put a sweater on!"? A lot! My poor kids are sleeping with three blankets because I am too cheap to turn the heat on. Well, not cheap, just frugal. Winter is coming and what little oil we have I need to save save save till I can afford to buy more. I wash all my clothes in cold water, I limit showers, I make sure everyone does the dishes the right way (my way is the only right way, if you're not doing it my way, you're doing it wrong and I will make sure you know it!) and I am not turning the heat on till November. I flat out refuse. But damn I'm cold!

Me~

Summer....Va...Cation....Now I Panic

Now that school is out, what do I do with these kids??? My teenager is easy.....she's going to work and will most likely be out with friends all the time. Lex is such a sleepy head lately, I doubt I'll be able to get him up and going any time before 10am. Lola, well Lola doesn't like to move much. I've been wracking my brain thinking of things to do this Summer. Here's what I have so far.......

• Beach.....and lots of it
• Summer studying on Tuesdays and Wednesdays since I work those days anyways
• The Children's Museum in Boston
• Davis' Farmland
• Zoo
• Going to different lakes
• Spending a weekend at a hotel somewhere (Lex loves that)
• Lots of movie nights
• Catch some fireflies :)
• Lots of playdates

That's all I have so far. Lex has lots of Summer school work to do, so our Tuesdays and Wednesdays are full. I'm thinking any rainy days will be movie days. I'd like to do a kids cooking day with them, I bet they'd love that. My teenager will be babysitting the kids from 8am-1pm on Tuesdays and Fridays, which will give her some spending money. I'm hoping to get her in to help out at a shelter near where I work. The place is so full and the woman works herself to the bone keeping the place clean and taking care of the animals. It'll be good for Raven. That's all I can think of right now. I'm not good with this planning crap. So yeah, feel free to chime in and give me some ideas!!

Me~

What We've Been Doing All Summer......

Playing........

Having fun.....

Smiling.......

Meeting Henry The Octopus.......

And refusing to leave Henry!!!......

As you can see, there are no pictures of our teenager. She's too cool to hang with her family at Six Flags.

Hello Summer....Where HAVE You Been?!?!

There was a time when I wasn't a friend of Summer. I used to hate the heat and I loved the cold. But that all changed last year after we had a crappy Summer and a harsh Winter. I read this article yesterday about the Sun and solar flares and the end of the world and all that craziness, and they explained why last Winter was so harsh, it's because the Sun has been less active. Great, just great. So the Sun is now less active. I don't know which is worse....more activity or less activity. They're saying that more activity could actually damage the Earth, but less activity could cause harsher, longer Winters. Ugh. Why do I read stuff like that?!?! Anyway. Now I appreciate the heat. I embrace it. I love it. If it's going to be a hot day, I get my cleaning done early, get all the outdoor toys/pools cleaned, pack the kids up and we head outside. Gotta get it while we can. So this is what we've been doing..............

Doesn't get much better than that. :)

Water Babies.....

All my kids are water babies. I could sit them in a pool of water and they'd stay there all day if I let them. I think ALL kids love to play in the water, but Lola is kinda ridiculous. When we took them to CoCo Key I just sat her in the water and let her play with a few toys. At one point I HAD to go to the bathroom so I picked her up to take her to Kevin. You would have thought I'd tried to kill her. She threw the biggest fit!!!! Shaking her entire body, tensing up and TRYING to get down!! Hilarious. For some reason, we think Lola's fits are cute. :D Anyway. So the past few days have been so beautiful!!! We've been outside all day everyday playing in the water. It's been really nice. I can't wait to get to the beach!!!! There is no time to go this week, but hopefully we'll get there this weekend. I'm hoping Lola has a better experience t his time. Last time we took her she was NOT a happy camper. LOL!!

And as promised, the new Briar Claire hat I bought for Lola.....