A little bit of fun

Elementary school is really kicking my butt. I never thought it would be this hard to get my kids through the first 6 years of school. I thought they would sail through and get straight A's on their report cards, that homework would be a breeze, that they would get up every day and be excited to get ready and go to school. I thought my boys would be like I was in elementary school. But they're not. Kindergarten was great for both #1 and #2. They both did well and they were smart and caught on to concepts quickly. But then first grade came and it was a struggle for both of them. Reading is hard, writing is even harder. I rack my brain trying to come up with fun things to do at home to learn spelling words (I never have and I never will like spelling tests) or I will spend hours online trying to find games or ideas to help with reading and writing. We fight and yell and argue over homework every day. The kids get burnt out and so do I. But I keep doing it. I keep getting on them about working hard. I keep printing out writing prompts, sight words, spelling lists and work to do at home so they can get extra practice. I pray for their little minds to open up and absorb what they need so they can "get it", so the light bulb will go off and they will not struggle so much. I hide in my room and cry when it's report card time and I see on Facebook all of my friends posting about their kids getting straight A's when my kid had to work really hard for a C. They are smart boys, I know they are. They are just struggling right now and it's making life at home not so fun. So this weekend we are going to have a little fun. We're going to take a break. I cleaned the house today so no one has to do chores tomorrow and we're going to go to the movies and out to eat and we're going to play games and have a day where no one has to think about or worry about reading or writing or grades. Because right now, our little family needs a day off. 

Family Photos

Disneyland

A couple of weeks ago my parents took the boys and me to Disneyland. They really wanted the boys to see Cars Land and since we didn't get a summer vacation they wanted to do something special and fun for the boys. It was a fabulous trip and we had an amazing time. Logan had absolutely the most fun during this trip. At 4 he was the perfect age. Everything was just so fun for him, he was in awe of the rides and characters and all of the Halloween decorations. He thought everything was "real" and it was just fun seeing the look on his face. He loved all of the rides from the big ones (Thunder Railroad) to the little ones (Winnie the Pooh). The boys all had their moments (what kid does not have at least one meltdown while at the Happiest Place on Earth?) but all in all it was a memorable trip and something I look forward to doing again.

Bathroom cabinet make - over

Boys bathroom with freshly painted white cabinets
and new hardware!

My sister called me this week to tell me she was going to re-paint her kids' bathroom and paint the cabinets as well. She also painted her front door black and it came out amazing. It made me want to do something cute to my house. So I ran to Home Depot, got a small paint roller and some hardware and painted the boys' bathroom cabinets. I've been wanting to do it for a while, since I painted the downstairs bathrooms cabinets, and it came out great. I love how it looks. Now that the boys have a cute bathroom and bedrooms I want to do my own bed and bath. It's next on my list....

Gettin' in the Christmas Spirit

Last year I decided to enter a writing contest. It was the first time I ever put my writing out there for others to read and critique (well except for my college creative writing class). The contest was for Christmas short stories and the winning stories were going to be published in a collection. It was really fun thinking of an idea and writing and editing, and editing some more and letting other people read it and comment. It was fun reading the other stories and seeing how many different, fun ideas people came up with. I won one of the contest categories and now my story will be published, along with all of the other winners, in a collection that will be available to purchase on November 15. I'm so excited to see my first story in print. After this experience with this writing contest I've been trying to make writing more of a priority and take it more seriously. I recently sold a story to the Friend magazine, a magazine our church publishes for children. That story will be published in the June 2013 issue. I have also started a writers' group with a friend and we are gearing up for NaNoWriMo in November (National Novel Writing Month). By the end of November I hope to have my first draft of my first novel written. So, even though it's still a warm 85 degrees here in Vegas and it doesn't even feel like fall, start gearing up for Christmas by checking out Checkin' It Twice, available November 15 through Amazon. There's nothing better than reading a good holiday story to help you get into the Christmas Spirit.

Ninja Cooking School

A couple of weeks ago I decided that the boys needed to help out more in the kitchen. I rearranged the chore chart and added "help Mom cook" as one of the chores for the week. Logan was my first helper and when I told him he got to be the chef helper he said, "I'm not a chef helper, I'm a ninja." So that is hoe Ninja Cooking School came to be. I started with something simple: fruit salad. I showed Logan how to use the knife to cut up oranges, bananas and grapes for fruit salad. He did a really good job. When it was time for dinner. he was super excited to tell everyone he made the salad all by himself and then he proceeded to eat a lot of it. He had never liked oranges before but since he cut them up he wanted to try them. Trevor helped last week and did a great job learning how to make Baked Ziti, using a knife to cut up strawberries, making mashed potatoes and chicken in a biscuit. He told me cooking was actually kind of fun. Colin gets to help this week and I picked his favorite for the menu: spaghetti and meatballs. It's a lot of fun having them in the kitchen to help cook and then after dinner they all stay and help clean up and do the dishes. I think someday my future daughter-in-laws are going to thank me.

Dave and the boys making dessert. Love my boys in the kitchen cooking!

Halloween Yarn Wreath

I was at Michael's Craft Store last weekend with my three boys trying to get stuff to make 2 new wreaths for my doors for Halloween. I knew what I wanted and was just going to go in, get my stuff, and get out, but the boys wanted to see EVERYTHING. We were there for at least 40 minutes looking at all of the fun Halloween stuff. It is my boys' favorite holiday and the beginning of all of the holiday fun. I love getting decorations out and finding something new to decorate with, and I just love having wreaths on my doors. I have been making lots of these yarn wreaths since I made my first one last year. They are so easy and look cute and there is so much you can do with them. I am not a crafty person so for me simple is better. When I was in the store getting yarn this woman asked if I knew how to crochet. I told her my yarn was for a wreath and then explained how to make it: get any wreath you want, any size, shape, whatever. Get the yarn you want, and then start wrapping. So easy. This lady was so impressed. She said she was going to try and learn to crochet but now she was going to make door wreaths instead. She was so excited. I was happy to spread some crafty cheer to someone. So this is how my Halloween wreath turned out. I love it. Colin said it looks nice and he likes the colors. Logan said it's not scary enough and it needs spiders and webs. He said moms will like it but not kids. After I put my wreaths up they put up all of the ghosts, skulls, tombstones and the other scary decorations. All we need are some pumpkins and we're good.