Mom vs. the Dot: Making it COUNT!

Half way through summer The kids are an inch taller and several shades browner (or covered in freckles). The well-manicured fingernails and hairstyles have long since grown out. The brand-new summer clothes and swimsuits have faded from being dried in the sun many times. The kids are sun bleached, too.  Their hair is lighter, their spirits are lighter.  They are unencumbered, free! I love this part of summer. The mad rush to "fit it all in" has passed in the form of June.  Picnics and water-parks, graduation parties, vacations and VBS - all the planning and packing and mass cooking is done. Now we enjoy what I think of as summer. Endless days to "do nothing."  I think this is really what kids look forward to...and if not, it's what I look forward to ! A playdate here and there, a backyard swim party, popsicles on the porch, catching lightning bugs at night.  Flip flops, bare feet, and drippy footprints in the house from swim-suite...

A few years ago, when we had just one child, my sister-in-law asked to have her spend the night with her kids (the cousins).  I thought she was crazy.  Why add another kid to the chaos?  I thinking the cousins were ages 3, 2, and 2. When we had our second child, she asked to have them over for playdates and offered to keep them overnight.  What in the world?  It was all I could do to keep up with my two.  Did she have some superpower I knew not of? I wanted in on this action, but only if it was a sure thing .  I have recently discovered the reason why she asked for and welcomed more kids at her house: More kids make life easier...at least on a temporary basis. (Here's a picture of us with our 3 and our niece and nephew many moons ago.   At that time, I couldn't imagine having 5 kids in the house on purpose.)    What?   Now you're the crazy lady! (I'm sure that's what you're thinking) But it'...

When I saw that our local college was offering a science fair for homeschoolers, I said, "Yes!"  What could be more fun than doing a science fair project?  I love science!!  And my kids do, too.  So I signed up. What I didn't think about was the amount of work that goes into a science fair project.  In fact, a week or two ago, I shared that we were going to do the science fair to a mother of much older children and she exclaimed, "Oh!  I hated the science fair!  It was awful!"  What was she thinking?  She's nuts.  This was going to be fun! Doing the experiment was great fun, but then you have to record results, make a display board, and practice the presentation multiple times.  Most of this only occurred after repeated encouragement that we were almost done.  This all took a whopping amount of time, patience, and perseverance. I think it took us about 3 weeks to get it all ready.  My kiddo could only handle 20...

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 ,...

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 ...

For weeks, I have had gallons of energy. Buckets even.  This is not normal for me, and I love it!  Summertime with its' warm weather and outdoor activities somehow turns off the lupus machine. But today, the switch toggled over to "on" and wouldn't you know it?  My tank was on "E" for hours. So naturally, it's grocery day.  Whee!! Basically, I feel like I have to flu.  Not sickness-wise, but fatigue-wise.  Kind of like the first or third trimester of pregnancy, when all you want to do is sit on the couch and wait until normalcy returns. So the troops and I headed out to the grocery store to see what we could do about restocking our pantry.  Even if I was having a bad day, we still needed groceries. Yup, it was one of those suck-it-up-and-go kinda days.  Thankfully, my oldest daughter, Aryn, loves to take on new responsibilities.  I handed her a quarter and she went and picked out the cart (or "buggy") and met us at the door....

What happens when you tell your child, "Don't touch that!!" Uh huh.  Same with our kids. So early in March, we were soaking in some fresh air and pseudo-sunshine today in effort to beat the winter blahs.  If it's gray and slightly bright, indicating the sun is trying to shine on Western Pennsylvania, it counts.  I decided it was time to clean off my kids' old play kitchen that had been in storage.  Spring might come soon and I wanted to have the kitchen ready for play when that blessed day arrived. That meant turning on the hose (that we left out in the yard all winter - yep - we're those people) and what do you suppose happened?  Well, first hose-shaped ice shot out in 3 to 4 inch pieces, then came a blessed gush of icy cold water.  I rinsed the storage dust off the little kitchen and wiped it down with paper towels. Meanwhile, my hose-crazed 3-year-old came by to investigate.  If he hears anything interesting - a drill, a hammer, or es...

  1a.  Leave the kids at home with your spouse. If you can't leave the kids at home, 1b.  Feed Them!  Give your kids a snack and allow potty breaks before you leave the house.  I know it's a pain to stop and make a snack before you leave home, but it's worth it.  Fuller tummies means less whiny shoppers. 2.  Make a List!  Have the children make a list before they leave home.  Scribbles and pictures are fine.  Good spelling practice for older children.  Gives them something specific to look for during the trip. 3.  Make a List!  Before you leave your house, make a detailed list of what you need.  You are less likely to browse and buy items you don't need when you have a list, and you are more likely to find what you need as you pass through each aisle, instead of backtracking through aisles.  I keep my list simple: Breakfast            ...