Seven on Sunday

Hey all.  Here's what we found good in the last week...

1. A bit of a break in the heat.  It's like we have switched places with Alberta - they took all the rain, and we are left with the dusty, brown, dry grass.  But the temperature dropped this week, and we could all sleep.
2. We managed to read our scriptures as a family 4 times this week - that's 4 times more than we have since school let out.  Yeah!
3. Clayton has gone to his primary class three weeks in a row and come home with actual knowledge of what he learned and a huge smile on his face.  They have new teachers- a young couple - and they are really taking to them.  What a relief!
4. Got together with friends this week at the park, a nice break from the complex kids.
5. Our primary beach party went off without a hitch. Our sole purpose was to let the kids play together since they really don't associate outside of church.  We wanted to build some friendships and unity.  The boys spent the whole time looking for crabs and shells and getting stuck in the mud, and the three girls made sand castles and blew giant bubbles.  Everyone, including the moms, had a lot of fun, and we received good feedback.  One quarterly activity down....
6. Dan is almost done with school for the semester.  Only two papers and a final to go.
7. Only two weeks til Dan's mom comes out to visits, and only three and a half til we head back home.  This summer is going by so fast!  We're trying to slow down and enjoy it, but it just keeps rolling by.  Looking forward to seeing everyone.  It will come soon!

Necessity is the mother of invention...

Last night I brought my kids in for some down time to watch a movie because we had been out in the sun all day.  Clayton asked his friend to come over too, but his older sister was babysitting and she told him he could play outside, but not go in our house.  So, being industrious and creative, the kids set up chairs on the patio and opened the curtains so everyone could see.  Of course, with that great big tv it wasn't too difficult...

Dan, Clay and Spencer had fun this morning.  They decided instead of a full buzz they would give each other mohawks.  Spencer thinks he's really cool and keeps looking in the mirror and flexing his muscles.  Mac refused to get his hair cut at all.  He insists he is going to grow it out long all summer.  We'll see how long it is by August.  I keep hoping the heat gets to him first...

Meanest mom in the whole world?

This past week I have earned the notorious title of Meanest Mom in the Whole World.  This award was bestowed upon me by my four seemingly lovely children, who may just earn the reciprocal joint award of Whiniest Children and Most-Hard-Done-By Under 10. 

Just how did I manage to vault myself to such a lofty position with so many other loving, well-meaning mothers who have come before me?  Well, unbeknownst to me, this does not require anything more than one simple thing: actual parenting.  Not just being around in the background while your children plan and carry out their own random acts of thoughtlessness, but actually getting up off the couch, turning off the tv, putting down the very exciting and almost finished mystery novel, and getting-down-and-dirty-in-the-trenches parenting.

Some of the steps that have helped me achieve such bleak fame? 
1. Making them not only clean their own bedrooms (and help each other with someone else's things), but giving them other chores around the house which may or may not have been a direct result of their own actions, but simply what needs to be done that day. Oh, and insisting that these chores be done BEFORE going out to play.
2. Requiring that they obtain permission before vanishing into the wide open world outside, compounded by making them stay in for one hour when said permission was not granted and the child was nowhere to be found.
3. Not allowing any of the following amongst them OR their friends (10 extra points there): hitting rocks with tennis rackets at the pool windows, climbing on the garbage dumpsters, climbing the storage shed, riding bikes without helmets, riding bikes onto roads without stopping, street skeleton on skateboards without any protective gear, dropping freezie wrappers on the playground, excluding others, name calling, swearing, truth/dare with sexual intonations, punching, kicking, biting, or any other type of physical violence, and leaving the complex without speaking to their parents.  (Is this a complex with kids 10 and under, or juvie?)
4. Enforcing quiet time for 1 hour every day with no media or friends.
5. Requiring that meals be eaten together, at the table, talking to each other, with no t.v. - and everyone stays until it's all cleaned up.  No inhaling of tiny morsels of food before returning to the chaos that is summer childhood.
6. Asking that the living room be tidy before the television is turned on.
7. Limiting computer/game time to 1/2 an hour a person per day.
8. Signing a 7 year old boy up for the library summer reading program when he had no intention of using his brain once this summer (as you can already decipher for yourself).
9. Waking up an 8 year old girl by at least 8:30 every day with no regard for her "essential beauty sleep".
10. Limiting mini-freezies to 4 per person per day and still insisting that teeth are brushed before bed.  This is also where I should mention that I refuse to take them to 7-11 for a slurpee and penny candy everyday - shock and dismay!
11. Enforcing inside curfew at 8:30 every night whether it's light, dark, hot or cold.
12. Not allowing them to fall asleep to a movie every night, even if it is easier for everyone involved.

I'm sure my nomination list could go on and on and on....I know right now they think they hate me, but one day they'll thank me, right?  To all those who have gone before and survived, promise me that one day the title of Meanest Mom in the World will be removed and replaced with The Mom who Loved Me Enough to Be There, or something of the sort.  I know that's my sentiment exactly, but I guess it too me 30 years to get there.  Only 22 more to go for my own munchkins to start believing it....

The Week in Review

Not a bad start to summer holidays for the first week.  We spent a few days just lazing around, staying up late, sleeping in - then started to lose our minds and had to nail down a summer schedule.  Otherwise, we have kids who think they get to play with their friends and watch t.v. 24/7.  It's been good for all of us.  We try to get out somewhere everyday, and that keeps us sane when we are in such a small space.  This week, due to the heat, we spent a lot of time at the spray parks and went up to Belcarra (the provincial park by the ocean) to wander the low tide beach and play on the park.

I even got up the energy to ride the bike with the trailer down to Rocky Point.  It was a lot of fun.  The little boys ride in the trailer and the older two take their bikes as well.  It wasn't even too bad - until the way home.  Living on a hill is a double edged sword.  If you go out to exercise you are ensured that you get a hill climb at least once in order to just get home.  Unfortunately, when you are pulling a trailer that weighs almost 100 lbs (both kids, all their stuff, and the trailer itself) and the temperature soars to around 30 degress plus the humidity, being on a hill is a curse.  I tried so hard to ride the whole way, but I only made it a few pedals before I gave up and walked.  Of course, that's not much better.  This week we have been talking about the pioneers.  I decided since I never got to do trek this could be my way of sympathizing with those who had to pull handcarts over the mountains. 

Speaking of bikes, the other day the kids came running in to tell me that Malcolm was riding a bike - without any training wheels.  He just picked it up and away he went.  Now he's a biking machine.  He's gone with Dan and the older kids to the beach park twice, and yesterday he even rode all the way up the hill on his way home!  He loves it, and, needless to say, he wants to be outside riding all day.

 

Today is very windy so I have had a biking reprieve and managed to "encourage" everyone to help me clean the house.  We were getting a fairly good layer of grime on everything, so they each got to choose a cupboard and a wall to scrub down, as well as their rooms.  Surprisingly, no one has complained too much yet about not being out with their friends.  I guess sometime spending time with each other is fun too.  They made a "mop day" tent in the living room with Dad's help, and that kept them busy for a while.

I'm not sure you can tell, but Dan's latest garage sale find also makes a terrific corner post for a living room tent. 

Here it is in all of its gigantic glory.  Actually it's been kinda fun.  The kids think it's awesome.  He got it for $10 and it is his dream come true.  Providential in a way, because our other tv was starting to go.  Our neighbor came to help him move the thing down the stairs to our house and he joked to Dan that they have these things now called flat screens.  We know we're technologically behind, but it's the biggest screen we could ever afford right now.  I tell him we'll have to sit on the patio to watch it.  Surprisingly, no matter how big a tv is, you still can't see through kids standing in front...

Well, here's the weekly entries for you:

Seven on Sunday

1. Being home together all summer with no real obligations outside of work.  Lots of parks and swimming and movies and laughter.

2. Having kids around that love to play with our kids.

3. The drop in temperature so we can sleep at night.

4. Having a pool right here.  It's never so good as when the temperature soars and we can run over just to wash the sweat off.  Ha ha.  Dan and Clay are determined to break their record from last year of 3 times at the pool in one day.  They want to go 5.

5. Everyone else's blogs.  I love to see your pictures and hear about your lives!

6. The fact that the lower mainland has embraced spray parks.  There's one in almost every park so we never get bored.

7. Kids who are at the age to play on the park pretty much without assistance.  Dan and I find a nice quiet spot and talk or read and they just run around and wear off energy...Ah! So sweet.

Dan's Funny for the Week

Maybe this is funny because we live by the ocean (not that we've ever found a conch shell), or maybe because we've had to take our toilet off countless times after boys have flushed just about everything, or maybe because almost all of our kids have put the plunger on their head as a hat at one point in time.  Who knows?  Anyway, Madi couldn't stop laughing...

July 1st and Seven on Sunday to kick off Summer Holidays

Another July 1st has come and gone, and we managed to have a pretty good time.  We slept in and enjoyed our morning, then headed down to Rocky Point to check out Golden Spike Days, which is Port Moody's big annual celebration.  They fence off an area in the park and have stands and activities and a stage going on for three days.  There wasn't too much for the kids to do this year, much less than in the past according to others, but we were able to entertain ourselves for long enough.  I think the overcast, rainy weather may have had something to do with the small numbers and dissatisfaction.  Still, here are some pics of us enjoying ourselves....

Lining up for helium balloons, which ended up tied to the umbrella stroller so we always knew where Mom was.

The petting zoo is always a big hit.  Here are a few pics of the kids holding rabbits...

...and chicks.

But the biggest hit of the days was the area where the kids got to use scrap wood, 2x4 bases, nails, hammers, and string to build their very own boats.  We spent a good hour here and no one got bored. 

Then someone found a hand drill and got the idea to make them Canada Day boats...

They've been playing with them all week.  For anyone looking for a really cheap and great family reunion idea, there ya go...

So that was our big holiday.  I worked quite a bit this past week, and Dan picked up two night shifts last night and he's about to head out again tonight.  That's 12 midnight to 8 a.m.  It's a bit of a crazy thing trying to change your sleep pattern like that.  He stayed home from church to sleep today and slept well into the afternoon, but got woken up too many times, so he went back to bed with the kids tonight and just got up again.  He says he won't do that very often again, but we'll see. 

To help keep the house quiet, after we came home from church and had lunch we headed out to Queen's Park in New West.  They have a petting zoo as well as a good park, but we lucked out today because their summer activity workers were there painting faces and making crafts and putting out toys to play in the water park.  Turned out to be a really fun afternoon.  I took pictures on my phone, but of course I have no idea yet how to download them.  I need to find my cord...  Madison got a butterfly on her face, and Spencer was made a pirate. 

And here are my seven for this week:

1. School's out for summer.  Thank goodness!

2. We finally got all of our primary callings filled.  Now things are running a little more smoothly and less skeleton crew.

3. Everyone is healthy again.  No more ulcers.

4. We are forecasted to have 28 degree weather and full sun all week.  Yippee!  Here comes the sun!

5. Dan was getting frustrated with the number of bottles and cans left in the recycle, so he decided to collect them himself.  He even made a route that he does every night.  This week he made $50!  He says it's the summer trip fund now.

6. Clayton bought a $2 nylon kite at V.V. and it is now the hit of the complex.  There hasn't been a lick of wind since, but he and his friends take turns running as fast as they can around the baseball field and passing it to each other like a relay.  It's hilarious to watch, and it wears them all out.

7. As of this week, when I was offered 6 more work days, I now have enough work to get through the summer comfortably even if I don't get anything else.  Thank you to everyone who thought of us, and most especially to the Lord who knows the end of all things.  Thanks goodness, because I'm pretty sure I'd really mess things up on my own.

And here's a new weekly addition from Dan - The Weekly Funny section.  Enjoy.  The kids have been laughing at it all week. It's a bad copy, but I'll try to find a better one for next week.  In case you can't tell, it's two golfers on the course and the one has the other's underwear in hand...