Picnic At The Park

I had 10 minutes to get to Rob's work, I double checked that I had everything: check for him to sign, house plans that needed to be taken to the city, wallet, keys, and phone. I yelled down the stairs to my three kids, who were sitting on the couch playing Lego Batman 2, that I just had to run to Dad's office and then down to give the city the last few things they needed for the building permit.

"Yeah, yeah" Samantha yelled back.

Two words stopped me dead in my tracks and I couldn't get it out of my head the entire time I ran my errands. I realized this had happened every day this week, despite my best efforts, I was drowning in everything I had to do. Every day I had yelled down to my kids that I would be right back after I ran a few errands, and every time they had been understanding and didn't complain.

I really did owe them.

After I had stopped by Rob's office and dropped everything off at the city office, I called my kiddos and told them to meet me out front with their shoes on. I loaded them in the car, grabbed McDonald's, and we headed to the park for a picnic.

It was just what we all needed. I can't guarantee the daily surprise errands will stop, in fact I know they won't, but I am grateful for how patient my kids have been so far with this entire house building process.

I will just remember more often that we need a break from it all, even if it is just a simple trip to the park.

End of the School Year Activities

I am slowly trying to catch up and maybe be a little better about blogging. We were so busy the end of the school year and these are just a few snipits of our activities.

Samantha had to do a County report, she chose Beaver county, and then she had to make a float. This would not have gotten done without her Dad. I tried to help her with it many times, but it took Rob cracking the whip one night and they had it done in an hour.

I also spent a few afternoons helping in her class wood burning the covers of their Utah history books.

Samantha also had Hershey Track, one of her favorite events of the year.

She also had her Odyssey of the Mind presentation. They had to design a vehicle and come up with a way to power it. Samantha's team designed a sail boat and powered it with a fan. It worked during the practice round but during the actual competition it would get stuck in the tunnel, we are not sure why. But of all the vehicles theirs was definitely the most creative.

Hunter had an Author's Night, they sang songs about some of their favorite books and then we went back to his classroom so he could read us some of the stories he wrote. When school was done Hunter told me he would miss writing the most which inspired our Summer journals.

It was a busy last few weeks, and I hope I remembered everything. Here's to another school year in the books!!

Summer Goals and Chore Charts

This was the first week of Summer freedom, at least that is what it felt like to me, technically the kids have been out of school for almost three weeks, but I have spent the majority of that time jumping through hoops trying to get our lot in place.

We don't have many plans for the summer, we are trying to save as much money as possible so we are keeping everything pretty simple. Trips to the library, different splash pads, trying out some new treat recipes, a few craft projects, and maybe a couple trips to the pool.

One thing I wanted to do was have the kids make summer goals we could work on when kids were "bored". We all picked out three goals, wrote them on posters, and then decorated the posters for Family Home Evening.

Samantha couldn't narrow it down to just three so she ended up with four, love my little over achiever.

I also knew we needed an update on our chore system so our house would not look like a war zone all Summer.

Dirty House = VERY Cranky Mom.

I found a template online awhile ago that I had downloaded and then filled in what I wanted each line to be. My Mom let me print them out on her nice printer and use her laminator while we were in St. George so they could be marked, erased, and then reused.*

I am pretty sure nice printer and laminator jumped to the top of my wish list that day.

I wrote in a few extra things to help them remember that on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday they need to vacuum their room and also take a shower. Dishes need to be rinsed and loaded after breakfast and lunch, and a reminder that teeth need to be brushed, and prayers said in the morning and at night.

Everyday the kids also have a "Pet Responsibility", "Room Responsibility", and "Dinner Responsibility".** Each day it changes so that is where the "A", "B" and "C" come in.

Let me just tell you now, A is everyone's least favorite day.

Everything has magnets on the back so it can be moved around and so far so good, unless you count Hannah trying to claim on her "A" day that she doesn't know what it says.

Now I just need to find a way to regulate screen time and we will be golden.



*I don't remember where I downloaded the chore chart I used from, but I pinned this one and it is similiar.
**I am a horrible speller, and without spell check things get spelled very wrong, and for the life of me I thought this was spelled correctly. Too late to fix it now.

The Lot

The last two weeks have been rough, honestly life was pretty stressful and full of many ups and downs as we tried to nail down a lot to build our future home on, but the last two weeks can be chalked up as the worst so far in this entire process.

I was completely useless for most of the last two weeks, I tried to go about my normal day and accomplish items on my "to do" list, but it was really hard and my motivation was gone. I would wait most of the day for people to return my calls, hopefully with good news, but usually they were calling with more hoops we would have to jump through to make it happen.

There were moments when I thought we would loose the lot, and a bunch of money we have already invested, and in order to deal with the stress my body and mind seemed to shut down and only do what was necessary.

Part of me is grateful when I deal with stress this way because the alternative ulcer flareup is very painful, but the guilt of my behavior is terrible and I can't help but feel like maybe if I was a little better I would be able to deal with the stress and still be at the top of my game.

In the end it took a week longer than our contract gave us, but we finally signed the papers on Friday and we have a lot to start building on.

I am so grateful to have this part of the process behind us, I can't wait to see the house start to go up, but I know that there will still be many challenges ahead. I only pray I can deal with them a little better than I did these last two weeks.

It is summer break after all and I would love to enjoy it!!

Today

You know those days when you just want to cry "Uncle" and crawl back in bed, today is one of those days.

We had such a fun Memorial day weekend, we drove to St. George and the weather was beautiful. We hiked, went swimming, spent time with family and relaxed. It was AMAZING!!

And then today when I tried to return to normal life, life decided to reach out and sucker punch me.

Anything and everything that could go wrong has. I have been snappy, my kids are tired and cranky, tasks seem to take forever, and everything seems to be breaking, or choosing not to work properly.

So yes, I am ready to put this miserable day behind me and it is only 4:30.

It is also raining, but right now that seems to be a bright spot in my rough day because ball games will be canceled, which means I will be able to find the time to go get a new phone, because mine is dead and I have realized just how much I rely on that stupid thing.

I have shed many frustrated tears today but I have also been reminded of something I read in a really great book:

"Resistance, a kind of feeling that comes against you when you point toward a distant horizon, is a sure sign that you are supposed to do the thing in the first place. The harder the resistance, the more important the task must be." - Donald Miller (A Million Miles in a Thousand Years)

So through all the resistance life is giving me today I am trying to keep going, because stopping now would just be a waste of how hard I have worked to get this far.

Here's to Wednesday, may it be a lot easier than Tuesday was.

Kindergarten Graduation

On Friday my baby graduated from Kindergarten, how did this all happen so quickly? We had her assessment and we have a couple things to work on but she is ready for the 1st grade. I will miss having her around in the afternoon, I won't have my buddy to run errands with or to bat her eyes at her daddy asking to go somewhere for lunch, I am now on my own.

We are so proud of how far she has come this year. I sure do love that girl of mine!!

P.S. Her part in the program was to hold up the letter G, the video is a bit shaky, but it is cute anyway.