Mom vs. the Dot: Making it COUNT!

Twas the day before school started and all through the homestead people were sluggish and filled with dread Then what to my wondering eyes should appear but our Idlewild passes! "Wanna go, dear?" So off in our minivan we flew like a flash to blitz Idlewild once more  in an end-of-summer dash! The night before school began, we took one last trip to our favorite children's amusement park, Idlewild! After riding the train, climbing around in Jumpin' Jungle, and riding all the rides in Raccoon Lagoon, we decided to try something new.  THE SPIDER! Our newly-minted 4-year-old said this was the one ride he wanted to go on before summer ended.  He knew the way there. Lead us right to it. We took great pains to talk our daughters (ages 8 and 5) into trying it.  How bad could it be? Loading took a while, but once we got going, my 8-year-old buried her head like an ostrich in the sand.  I began with "Wheee-ee" and "Woooo's ,...

Sigh.  There they are again.  The dishes. Somehow, if I don't do the dishes for a few days, they pile up. Do you believe that? And if I have run out of paper plates, as I sometimes do, the dirty dishes are piled everywhere! In the sink, on the counters surrounding the sink, on the stove, all over the countertop and the kitchen table. Once we've run out of usable space in the kitchen, I know it's time. Now, I am not usually a person who procrastinates. But sometimes we are BUSY doing other things.  More enjoyable things.  Traveling, having a picnic, going to an amusement park, or enjoying the warm weather (because we know our good weather is limited). This week, my lupus kicked up and drained my battery down to almost nil.  That means I did even less in the housekeeping department than usual.  And so, this afternoon, when my energy returned, I did it.  I knuckled down and spent an hour and a half cleaning up the kitchen. Wh...

Just for fun, I put up the tent last week.  My original idea was to occupy the girls so I could get a few things done around the yard.  Within 2 minutes of entering the tent, they launched into making plans for tonight's awesome campout . It snowballed from there. All I could think of was being uncomfortable, cramped together with my girls in sweaty sleeping bags, getting no sleep. What's wrong with me?  As a teenager, I voluntarily, HAPPILY went with my dad on wilderness camping trips in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness of Minnesota/Canada. We would load all our stuff into canoes, then head out for a week straight of wilderness living.  We paddled across entire lakes, and between lakes we could choose to heft packs that weighed 50 lbs. or more over rough terrain or carry canoes on our heads.   We did this over and over again until we reached our campsite.  Sometimes we base-camped for the week, but one year I begged my dad ...

While working in the yard today, I noticed one of our giant bushes looked a little peaked.  In fact, the entire top half of the thing was dead.  Brown.  Beyond help. What happened? I knew there were some viney plants at the base of the bush all summer, but didn't think much of them.  A few leaves, a few feet of vine...nothing to worry about.  Besides, this vine had beautiful red berries and delicate purple and yellow blossoms - it was a thing of beauty! I hadn't paid any attention until the bush was half dead. So I put on some gloves, reached into bush, and pulled back a few branches to discover the vine was killing the bush!  Now, it may seem silly to you that we hadn't noticed this, but the vine grew invisibly, stealthily, wrapping itself around and around the trunk and branches of the bush until it choked off its life-source. And why in the world am I telling you about this? Why would you have any interest in a vine choking a bush in m...

We have spent time on firsts for everyone this summer: Pumping themselves on the swings Trying gymnastics Learning to swim Learning to ride a bike without training wheels Trying the fireman's pole at the park First time on a roller coaster First sleepout in a tent ...yesterday's first was going down the "big" fireman's pole at the park.  A big accomplishment for our child who is scared of heights.  She watched her 5-year-old sister slip down the pole, and then a 6-year-old boy sped down it a few times.  Enough was enough - she was much older than those two and should be able to do this, too!  So down she went. Today's first was riding her bike at the park.  We practiced all week, up and down the driveway until my back ached.  We had told her "No video games until you learn to ride your bike!"  It was time.  8 years old is plenty old enough to ride her bike.  But she was afraid, so it required action. And she was so plea...