And We're Off...

One of my goals this summer was to get back to blogging.

So far, I've been about as successful with it as I have with the goal of deep cleaning my house.

Negative on both.

But what better reason to get back online than to document family vacation?

Today we set out on a 9 day trek to the east coast. Three years ago we went west. We planned that trip for 18 months. Yes, we are that family.

Only this time we decided just a couple of months ago to throw together another "big" vacation. We were offered some tickets to a couple of Orlando destinations, and figured the kids were at a pretty good age to head to Florida.

Day #1 didn't start until 5:00 p.m. Such a mix of emotions today. This morning, we attended a funeral of a wonderful man, who's kids are friends of ours. I didn't know him extremely well personally, but the memories shared couldn't help but inspire a person to live for Jesus, encourage others, laugh often, and love freely. It is so hard to watch someone lose one they loved so dearly.

With a mix of inspiration and sadness, we finished traveling preparations, picked up daddy from work, and headed out to knock about 4 hours off of the first leg of the trip.

There were moments when I regretted that decision. Those same moments, my husband may have wanted to kick me out of the car.

It rained. A lot.

It was hard to see, and I may have suggested a time or two that we were traveling at a higher rate of speed than I would have selected.

He handled it well (both the rain and me) and we arrived safely at our first hotel.

Travel Tip #1: When leaving for vacation, do not wait 4 hours into the trip to check to see if both kids were wearing shoes when they left home.

One guess as to which child arrived with no shoes.

Funny...I was so proud of him at home that he put his pillow in the car and was waiting so patiently (for 10 minutes!) for the rest of us to finish loading up. It never even crossed my mind that he might jump in with no shoes on his feet.

Oh well, it's not the worst thing that could happen.

I'm really hoping to avoid needing the Blog Title: "The Worst Things That Can Happen on Vacation".

Different As Night and Day

These two.

I love 'em.

But sometimes...sometimes it takes every ounce of patience I can muster up to navigate their conflicting ways of thinking.

Their personalities are oh, so different.

Take the picture for example. One of my boys loves sports of almost any kind. He loves strategy and watched every play of the game. The other one split his time watching the cheerleaders, the jumbo-tron, and asking when the game would be over.

One loves spiders, snakes, and everything with six or eight legs. The other one despises them.

One loves math and thinks everything in life would just be better if it could be solved with a math problem. The other one? Math is his least favorite subject. He loves history and science.

One asks me to play games with him. The other asks me to do craft projects with him.

One asks his dad to play basketball with him. The other asks his dad to go hunting with him.

One loves legos, the other doesn't. One loves puzzles, the other doesn't. One will try almost any kind of food. The other gets pickier every day.

One, for the most part, is an avid rule-follower. The other, in a matter of one hour on Tuesday, tried to pick a lock into a classroom at school, breaking the paper clip he was using and jamming up the lock for the better part of the day. He quickly followed this up by showing some older boys how he could reach up into the snack machine and extract snacks without paying (about which he promised me he always put them back and never ate any, because "that would be stealing, mom!").

One is grounded for life. The other isn't.

One falls asleep quickly and wakes up early. Always.  The other takes forever to fall asleep and wakes up late. Always.

This week I found myself thinking this could be a really difficult summer (the lock-picking and snack-grabbing incidents may have had something to do with that...).

The list of differences is so easy to come up with, so I tried to flip to the positive and think of some common interests they have.

Turns out there are several.

Jet skiing and tubing -- even when the waves are high and it is so cold you wear sweatshirts under your life jackets. 

Boat time with grandpa and grandma.

Dirt-biking.

Rollerblading.

Traveling.
Long trips, short trips, hotel stays, or visiting family...they love it all.  This is a good thing since we will be logging well over 3,900 miles this summer.

Camping. Our home away from home.

 

Swimming.

Okay, so these things are probably favorites of just about any kid. But at least one doesn't hate water or being at the lake.

They may be opposites, but I am incredibly thankful they have each other. One makes the other be a little more of a risk taker.  The other one helps rein in a  little bit of craziness.

I hope and pray that someday down the road they will be best of friends.

For now, I will just put on my referee shirt and spend a lot of time at the lake.

Back To It

I've missed this little virtual space on the internet.

This past school year I stepped into a role that took a little extra time from our already busy lives. A few things had to be set aside for awhile.

Like this blog.

And cleaning the house.

And cooking.

And dieting.

Which you would think would actually work out well together.

Not the case.

My family didn't die from eating a few more processed foods, the house is still standing, and if I quickly reintroduce myself to exercising, there may still be hope of fitting into some summer clothes.

Actually, the thing that is bothering me the most has nothing to do with how crazy busy life was over the past year.

My current problem: I cannot find my wedding ring.

It disappeared shortly before Christmas.  I know this because I remember spending parts of Christmas break going through drawers and rooms in an attempt to find it.  I have always had issues with my rings in the winter.  My hands are like ice cubes, causing the opposite result of swelling fingers in the hot summer. My theory is that as I was putting clothes away, or taking gloves off or on, or something of the like, my ring slipped off.

However, my theory has not led me to find my ring.

The summer ring pursuit has begun. Yesterday I tackled two drawers in the kitchen. You know, those drawers that hold the pencils, tape, paperclips, and anything else four busy people decide to throw in there. No ring.

Last weekend I cleaned out the pantry. No luck there either, although I did find one long-lost shoe (my son's), monopoly money, and a blank field trip form from April. I'm thinking if I can find shoes and field trip forms in the food pantry, my ring could be just about anywhere.

Next up - going through every piece of clothing in my boys' rooms. That will be loads of fun.

In a bit of irony, our 18th wedding anniversary is today. No girl should be ringless on her anniversary. Which means...I either find my ring today, or I start working on convincing my husband to go shopping!

And Then There Were Three

Someone must have decided that I need to spend a little more time praying.

A few years ago, we started this madness with the simple purchase of a small dirt bike.

 

And then there were two.

And after a short 5 hour father-son trip yesterday....now there are three.

 

I go back and forth between wondering what kind of mother would freely give her blessing for this.........and wondering when I can get one of my own so I can ride with them.

Ten-and-a-half years ago, my husband and I decided it was time to move. I thought I was more of a city girl.  Scratch that.  The biggest "city" I have ever lived in had a population of 14,000 people.  I was more of a town girl.  You know...neighbors, paved roads, sidewalks...somewhere you could have your windows open without having to dust every day.

My husband grew up in the country.  He really wanted his kids to grow up in the country. When a family member offered us a few acres of land for an extremely low price, we couldn't pass it up.

Sometimes, it drives me a little bit crazy. However, most of the time, I am very, very thankful. 

 

 

 

As long as they all come home in one piece.

All In A Days Work

The weather is gorgeous here. It's hard to believe that just last weekend it was freezing cold and snowing.

With warmer weather comes open windows, fresh air, playing outside.....and creatures.  Lots of nature's creatures at their finest.

This afternoon my husband and youngest son were outside and were nowhere to be found.  They were gone for hours. I should have known it had something to do with insects, spiders, amphibians, or reptiles. 

My son spotted a turtle.  Every time he moved, the turtle would go back into the water.  

What's a kid to do?

Become a ninja spy, of course.

He started at the top of the hill. It took him 30 minutes to slither down to this spot.

 

Another ten minutes later, and he was at the edge of the water.  His target -- the turtle in the red circle.

 

He faced a new quandary when he hit the edge of the water. It's hard to see in the picture, but the only way to the turtle was to venture out on the 15 foot log where the turtle sat.

 Inch by inch...

 Foot by foot...

Until he looked like he was literally lying on top of the water.

It was about this time that his dad was 99.9% sure that this would end in disaster.

Sadness.

Tears.

Huge meltdown.

And a turtle swimming away as quickly as turtles can.

But, no, the ninja spy outwitted the turtle.  He was inches away at this point.

As soon as he saw the little turtle legs start to peak out, he grabbed the turtle in victory.

No picture to show for it, but said turtle is resting happily (or not...) in his new turtle home.

And we are still trying to get the pond scum out of his clothes.

Oh.My.Word

My youngest son's teacher asked him to work on his multiplication facts over Christmas break.  I can totally see why.  This is taking every ounce of patience I have, and I typically have a fairly strong reserve of it!

This child can ace every history and science test he has.  He remembers details about state, local, and national government, the electoral college, and our founding fathers (on a 3rd grade level, of course).  Information about conservation of matter, atoms, solutions, and chemical changes? No problem.

But math details....they just don't stick right now. 

Our practice session is sounding something like this...

Me: Okay, let's practice our 3's again.

Him: Okay.

Me: 3 x 6

Him: Was there a hot air balloon flight before the Wright Brothers had their first flight? Which came first?

Me: {Blank stare.} I think the hot air balloon.  Look at this one. What is 3 x 6?

Him: Do you think chickens glide?

Me: What??

Him: Do you think chickens glide?

Me: What are you talking about?

Him: I just wondered, if you threw a chicken up in the air, would it glide? You know, like a sugar glider. Would it glide like a sugar glider?

Me: What in the world is a sugar glider?

Him: It looks like a flying squirrel. You know, its legs and arms are connected with skin.

Me: Ok, of course.  What is 3 x 6?

Him: I don't know!!! 


I don't understand why not.  I mean, he's working so hard on studying these facts. Ha!

We've tried everything. Games, flashcards, visual, auditory, and kinesthetic activities, you name it, we've tried it. Except jumping on a trampoline.  That may be our next attempt - memorizing while jumping on a trampoline. Don't knock it.  I once had a student who couldn't pass a spelling test unless she was jumping up and down.

To his credit, tonight we learned that the first hot air balloon flight was in 1783 and the Wright Brother's flight was in 1903 (okay, I learned that one; he already knew the 1903 date).

We also learned about the differences between a sugar glider and a flying squirrel.

What we did NOT learn: 3 x 6.

There's always tomorrow.

Uh Oh.

It's 2015.

Back in high school, that date seemed so far away, so futuristic, so...impossible.

Yet, here we are.

We are not traveling around like the Jetsons just yet, but I will be the first to admit that I wouldn't have guessed that we would be texting, Skyping, tweeting, messaging, and the myriad of other "ings" we can now do with technology.

Usually at this time of year I get serious about New Year's Resolutions. I contemplate the typical resolutions (all of which need to happen) and brainstorm some new and original ones that I might want to focus on. I evaluate how much I can take on at this point in my life (yikes!) and how doable my choices might be.

Then it hit me.

I turn 40 this year.

Ouch.

I have been bravely hanging onto the 30's for years now.  And, honestly, I like the 30's.  A lot.

40?  I'm just not feelin' it.

I have friends who tell me the 40's are the best years.  We'll see about that.

As I was processing this little issue, I realized that I have bigger problems than simply choosing a New Year's Resolution. You see, back in 2010, I made this little list. It's called my "40 Before 40". At that time, I was working part-time. Now I work full-time, plus. I may have been a bit overzealous in my planning.

I revisited my 40 Before 40 to get a scope of what I have not yet accomplished.

Well....in order for me to achieve all 40, the first 6 months (my birthday is in June) of 2015 will need to look something like this:

• Read 1 classic per month.
• Landscape the front yard.
• Visit the Mall of America, Niagra Falls, the Grand Canyon, and go on a Missions trip.
• Exercise for about 2 hours a day to achieve that single-digit closet full of clothes.
• Write an adoption book for my son.
• Make a family recipe book.
• Relearn to play the piano well.
• Buy new living room furniture.
• Go water skiing.
• Try more foods that end with "ese"...Chinese, Japanese....
• Spend about 1,000 hours scrapbooking to try to catch up.
• Repaint all the walls in my house.
• Volunteer more.

No problem.

I'll just need to make a few adjustments...like quit my job, send the kids to live with grandma, and decrease my sleep to about 2 hours a night.

And possibly win the lottery to fund it all.

Happy 2015!