Today

A Day in the Life of:

I am in quite the blogging slump so this may be totally boring to you, but I might find it interesting in a few years. :)

We all got up at 7 this morning. (Dustin was off to work at six--poor guy--always feel bad for the men who work in the summer.  I was up with him too.) I just keep doing my Mommy job in the summer time which started at 7 today.

8:00 I went to cub scout day camp with my son Ben.
He was so excited and had three great buddies right there in the den with him.  I stayed around helping everyone get settled and organized. I am the Primary President and felt a need to make sure our kids were in the right place and leaders felt comfortable.  I drove out the driveway and down the street and couldn't shake the feeling that I needed to go back and check on things and talk to Trudy.  She is an expert scouter who works with our boys.  I asked her how she feels the cub scout program is running.  Learned some new valuable pieces of info. And then drove off to head back home.

Returned home at 9. 
Fed the children who had not yet had breakfast. My older girls are such a blessing to me.  They were home watching everyone else while I dropped Ben at camp.  And then I started to clean up the kitchen a bit at which time I remembered that my friend was taking me out to lunch because tomorrow is my birthday. SO nice. :) I got in the shower and actually round brushed my hair and got ready.

12:00 Lunch with a friend.
We went to Brio. It was REALLY tasty. And the conversation was wonderful.  We laughed and cried.  And I felt very close to the Lord as we were talking about some of her life's decisions she feels good about. It was a great lunch. 

2:00 Then the girls had friends over.
Audrey went to play at Gracie's.  I left to pick up Ben and two friends at camp. James came over to swim.  I cleaned the kitchen floors and counters and did the dishes (finally, it was from breakfast and lunch now too) THEN the wonderful lawn crew showed up to trim our bushes. We are having a work dinner over here on Saturday night and it all needed to be trimmed.  Last week Dustin and I tried to do it ourselves like usual and died of heat and almost got swarmed by wasps so we gave up.  :) It was one of those moments when it was easy to convince Dustin to pay for someone else to do it. They did a great job!!

4:00 I made spaghetti and brocolli for dinner. Some of the children cheered and some cried. :)
Then I asked them to all do their power hour.  We do it every day where they spend some time learning.  So they are all quietly sitting and working.  It is a happy moment.  Noah is a bit bored though and when I sat down to blog, he pulled my hands away and tried to get my attention.  So I have been interrupted two or three times to run races in our front room with Noah, then to feed him some more yogurt in his chair, then to wash him up from that. Then he wanted to go outside, then I had to get up to check on him out there because he is alone. The yard is fenced but still he needs supervision afterall.  And then Dustin got home from work and I helped him bring up the garbage cans. whew! And now we are up to the present moment.

7:00 Tonight we will have a lesson together as a family and pray and read the scriptures. And then we will go to bed.

Not a super busy day, almost just right.
And I almost forgot it was FLAG DAY!!!!!

Glimpses

Mandi and Tia 

The kids looking for Ducks 

Waiting to ride the train

Cub Scouts!!!

Cub Scouts rock!!!
What was that? Yes, totally rock. I never understood the mystery that is scouting until here I am, forced to learn all about it because of my calling at church. Cub scouts is seriously the BEST thing for 8-10 year old boys!! They pound things, build things, create things, collect things, play hard, learn responsibility, learn leadership, have some serious character development, and MOST OF ALL, provide all kinds of opportunities for parents to interact with their boys in productive ways. Cubs creates good scouts who create fantastic men.

SO, I am all about it!!! I got my shirt, my badges; I am getting trained. I even learned a couple cheers and SKITS!!! Day Camp here I come!
http://www.scouting.org

Choose the Right

Do you remember Indiana Jones? Remember that part where he drinks from the wrong cup and totally gruesomely explodes in your face and then that old guy says, "He chose poorly" Wow. Yucky visual image. But you know, it is all about our choices. And more than ever, I think the most important choices are those little ones we THINK don't really matter, the kinds of choices that mark us as borderline or rock solid. I don't really have an opinion about what these might be, but it is helpful for me to analyze my life and pay attention to where I stand.
That's it.

Locker space???

Wow! All this paperwork happenned in just a few minutes!!
What on earth! Is that a plunger!!!????? Unused but can I ever use that counter again???
The kids emptied lockers and desks into their bags at school and when they got home, they couldn't stand their bags so messy......
I am kind of amused by it all. I wonder what they thought.....

Summer, Summer, Summer Summer!!!!

Yay for Summer!!!
Let the fun begin!!! I LOVE having all my kids home! I LOVE being in charge of our family schedule once more!!!! I LOVE deciding at 9 AM that we all feel like going to the aquarium, so we do it!!! I LOVE that we can go to bed when we want to. I LOVE that we can wake up when we want to!!! I LOVE to be with these kids. and I really really really LOVE teaching them myself!! :)

We usually have some kind of summer learning motivating program. This year, it is more typically education based. I have field trips and extra fun, but they have a few work books to complete this summer before we are all through....

Don't worry for my kids. I am seriously more fun than work. So we will get our fair share. And the rewards make them super excited. I have tried all kinds of things. And given the age difference of my kids, I am going to do a couple different rewards systems. Mandi, Sarah, and maybe Ben will all get to pick a big reward for the end of the summer. If they complete the workbooks and other tasks, they will get their prize. Andrew and Audrey will have a big prize box that they can pick out of as we go along when they reach certain milestones. Very fun. I might get some candy for the big kids too to keep them motivated here and there. :) But I LOVE this! And I love it that the kids do too! :)
Mandi already has her prize all picked out...
VERA BRADLEY

All work, no play for Uncle Scott

We were so so HAPPY to see Uncle Scott this weekend! Dustin's brother is a one of a kind soul who fits right in and makes everyone happy. He and Dustin are really close. Scott's wife Kristy and I really enjoy them and enjoy being together. It is just great all round. Poor Scott came out here to go to a workshop and then have some good ol Texas fun!!! Did we give it to him? Oh yeah!!!!
First, he played Wii with the kids. We had him groovin' to Just Dance to Eye of the Tiger, Girls just wanna have fun, who let the dogs out.... (sorry no pictures)

Then, he fixed our computer until 2:00 AM with Dustin.

Then, he worked all day from our house.

Then, we went to Cheesecake factory, yeah some fun finally.

Then, we didn't take him to see the Grascals (a Blue Grass band)

Then, he worked on the computer some MORE

Then, he woke up and did chores with us, went to Mandi's horse riding lesson, went to an electronics store, fixed the computer some more, did yard work in extreme humidity.

Then, he went to get good hand mixed shakes with us...

Then, he fixed the computer some more

Then he went to bed.

Woke up, fixed the computer some more, and went to the airport.....

Poor Uncle Scott. We love you and hope you still come back again to play and bring Kristy too!!!

Love, Dustin and Jen and the kids