"Rainy Day" Activity #2

How thrilled I am that I only got to do 3 rainy day activities with my kids this summer! That means we had BEAUTIFUL weather!!!! (View this post to see what I'm talking about)

We did...however...find a day in August to do my big "build a city" idea with random boxes. After saving all those boxes and letting them overtake one of my storage rooms...I was DETERMINED to do this project! Instead of doing a city though, my girls made Webkinz houses. Each one unique to the style of each of my daughters!

Laura's House: Complete with a picket fence, trees, and many more details. (You can't see the fish pond and detailed sidewalk very well.)


Melissa's House: Unique with hallways to separate rooms, a WELCOME mat, and car to drive around in. She also made a useable door...which enthralled Olivia who played with this house a ton!


Natasha's House: Using about 10 boxes, she built the outside walls, had numerous bedrooms, a yard to play in, and a detailed picket fence.


And just as I'd hoped...they spent all day making them, and played with them for a couple of days. Gosh I love my girls! It was great to see them be so creative...and even better when we got to take them out to recycling and I got my living room back again!

My Office Day

Okay...back to positive parenting. I apologize for my rather negative post last time...I guess we all have to lose it at some point! So, back to my attempts to be positive and deliberate in my parenting!

For anyone who knows me, you will know that I am involved in a lot of things. First and foremost are my children and the splendid activities they like to be a part of. And then for me...I have my few specialties. I currently am the President of the Parent Council at the Elementary School, a Leader for the 4-H Club, and the President of the Primary at my church (children's organization). And since I don't have enough on my plate, I've decided to start babysitting a couple of extra kids in my home. And miraculously...my husband supports all of this! What a fine man I found for myself.

Not only does Wayne support my many different activities, but he ALSO supports and occasional "Office Day" where I can get work done WITHOUT interruptions! Yesterday was that day for me. And what a great day it was! He took all 5 girls on an adventure from 10am - 10pm...which left me in my empty, quiet, peaceful, delightful house all by myself! I wouldn't say it was relaxing, but it did provide me an opportunity to organize my binders for each of these different areas of life. With uninterrupted hours I was able to create documents, research topics, print off information, create tentative schedules, and just get my head wrapped around what this year is going to look like.

Did I get everything done I really wanted to? Heck no! But I am now organized in such a way that little pockets of time will be useful and (cross my fingers) effective. This in turn has lifted a burden off my shoulders and has allowed me to relax a little more to enjoy the last couple weeks of summer. And that...my friends...makes me a better mom!

So THANKS WAYNE! For giving me an Office Day!

The Motor Home

First of all...I can't believe it's been a month since I've been on here. I wish I could say it was because we were away on a fantastic family vacation for a month. Sadly...I don't have a great excuse like that. Very simply...I have 5 kids who adore me and want all my attention during the summer. ;)

So, we have friends who purchased a motor home this summer, and they offered to let us borrow it. Wayne and I were quite thrilled as I have chickened out from camping for the last 2 summers because I didn't want to tent it with small kids. So we thought this would be the PERFECT way for us to enjoy camping together.

Yeah. Right.

I spent an entire day baking goodies and packing up the motor home. And then when Wayne got home we loaded the smaller kids in the van (motor home didn't have enough room for ALL of us) and Wayne took the older kids in the very exciting "BUS" as Olivia calls it. And we drove to a beautiful camp ground.

We got there late enough that after a snack it was time to put the two little kids down to sleep. That is when the "romance" of the vacation took it's first dive. They both cried...or shall I say SCREAMED for about 30 minutes before finally going to sleep. And then because they were asleep I wouldn't let anyone else make any noise fearing they would wake up the little kids. So after about 20 minutes of reading...we all went to bed.

I was so exhausted from previous late nights that I thought I would sleep deep the whole night. Yeah...not so much. I laid awake FOREVER and then woke up frequently throughout the night for no good reason.

So, when morning came nice and early for my two "babies"...I was NOT ready to get up. But we did. Did you know that a family of 7 is VERY crowded in a motor home made to sleep 6? Yep... it is. And for a person who gets a bit claustrophobic with LOTS of people in small spaces...it wasn't really that enjoyable. Not one of my finer moments.

We did have some nice moments...when we went on a hike...went to the playground...watched Pamela walk while holding one hand...and many other cute moments. But overall, it was very stressful for me because of the two little ones who seemed to be whining/crying due to lack of sleep a lot of the time. So...I came home early with the babies...and Wayne stayed with the older ones so they could REALLY enjoy the motor home.

I should mention though, that had we chosen a camp ground that had water where the girls could play, or had other activities to do, I believe our experience would have been different. I hope so anyway...because I really WANT to like camping...but right now I don't.