Fighting Boredom

Kids get bored easily... if they don't have something to do or look forward to doing, boredom creeps in. Although we are only in our second week of summer, my kids are already asking me to come up with things to do. Yesterday was too cold to enjoy water activities so we headed over to a local park and the kids played for a couple hours. To keep me from getting bored (I don't enjoy playgrounds as much as I did 20+ years ago), I brought my camera and snapped a few shots of them not being bored.


































At least for a few minutes!!!!

Cleaning Day

I have a daily schedule...it helps me keep my sanity. Certain days are laundry days, grocery days, etc. Saturday is cleaning day. After my morning run (which also happens to be scheduled), we all band together and clean our house. The older kids help with the bathrooms and vacuuming while the younger ones are in charge of picking up, straightening, and wiping smudges (kids create tons of those). I take over the kitchen, mopping, dusting, laundry, ironing and overseeing. It works well...we do have some grumbling, but the kids do tend to appreciate a clean house and they take some ownership in keeping it clean.



Recently we have made a change to our schedule. With my husband working crazy hours (11 hour days with a 3 hour commute) we have decided to make Friday our cleaning day. He usually has Saturdays off or at least partly off so that is our only play day with Dad. With our chores done on Friday we get to enjoy Saturday with Dad.



It is now 5:00 and all the chores are done...even the ironing and grocery shopping! The kids are out playing with friends and all of a sudden I am exhausted. I may have to go take a nap so I have some energy for our Saturday Play Day!!

Swim Team

Thanks to a friend's suggestion both our older boys are signed up for swim team this summer. This morning was their first practice and the first thing they both said, was "Wow, that was hard." They enjoyed it, but had no idea that they would be swimming nonstop for an hour. Practice is early so we are all waking up around 6:30 in the morning...which also means that we are heading to bed at a decent hour. They get to compete in two meets over the summer and one big one at the end of the summer. It should be an adventure for all of us!

A follow up from last post...our sick baby is feeling much better, but yesterday we discovered that our Star Wars fan also has an ear infection! When it rains, it pours!!

OUCH!

We just found out today that our cute baby has two ear infections. Thankfully, he is now on antibiotics, but I have earned a few gray hairs before reaching this happy ending. I took him into our local instacare clinic yesterday. The first thing the nurse did is take his vitals which includes measuring his blood oxygen saturation levels. They do this with a little clip-on finger monitor. Our little guy thought it was cool at first, but would not hold his little finger still and they couldn't get any reading. So they clipped it to his ear lobe...no reading, next his other ear lobe...still no reading. They finally tried one of his toes and got a reading of 87-88%, which is not good. So bad, in fact that they immediately sent me to the Emergency Room. I hurried to the hospital a little unnerved because I was expecting an ear infection (he had been complaining that his ear hurt) not pneumonia! The trauma nurse whisked us right in and hooked him up to her monitor, a much nicer monitor, by the way. She quickly calmed our fears with two very normal readings and said that he was just fine. Of course, by this time the clinic was closed and I didn't want to pay hundreds of dollars for an E.R. doctor to prescribe antibiotics for an ear infection. She sent us home with advice to treat his fever overnight and take him in again in the morning. Again today, the doctor had to try for 15 minutes to get a normal reading...but finally did and sent us home victorious with a prescription! Poor guy had infections in both ears, but seems to be feeling better already...he is very funny and a little loopy when he is feverish, but we will be happy to have him back to his normal self!

Gyozas

We worked up quite an appetite today! After vacuuming, washing, and waxing our two vehicles (and a family water fight, of course) we were all starving. Our Dad treated us to a special dinner tonight...one of his Japanese specialties: gyoza and rice. He got out his old chop sticks that he brought back from his mission to Japan and taught the kids how to use them. They were thrilled and felt pretty authentic! A couple phrases I overheard them say were just too funny!

"I'm getting really good at using these pork chops, huh Dad?"

"Yogas are my favorite!"

We had a delicious, entertaining dinner and we are all full.

School's Out!

Today was the last day of school. I sat on the porch with our youngest two boys waiting to welcome our oldest trio home and see how their last day went. While we were waiting one neighborhood boy came running/screaming down the road yelling, "School's out!!" He shouted it over and over with true summer-time excitement. I just can't believe that this school year is over already. It has gone by so quickly. It seems like it was just the other day that we were out in the front yard taking pictures on the first day of school...



We have some fun summer activities planned. However, one thing I do know...if the school year went by quickly, summer will fly by even faster!!

Spring Cleaning

I have been doing some cleaning. You know how it hits you all of a sudden that you are surrounded by stuff....and some of that stuff needs to go??? I have spent the last two days sorting through our stuff and I have a fairly significant pile to take to D. I. (goodwill). I think I am finally done! Wheww!! It has been a lot of work, but it definitely has been worth it.

While going through a box in the garage, I found a collection of squirt guns. My two youngest spent an hour this morning in the tub having the mother of all water fights. They had so much fun and came out all wrinkly... I don't know how they didn't get any water on the floor, but with the shower curtain closed somehow the water was contained!!