Six years

our bouncing...screaming crying, hungry, I-don't-do-schedules...little boy was born.... six years ago...

 our big blue eyes heart breaker

got my big sister wrapped around my little finger...

so cute they'll forget that I don't sleep...

eating machine...

threw all of our concepts of parenting out the window...

little boy...

 He's our lover and our fighter...

sisters playmate....

 Mom's cuddlier...

Dad's buddy...

God knew I fell in love with his daddy so he gave me another JUST like him

summer check list

done
family reunion....check
crater lake visit with snow in June...check
2 weeks of swim lessons for girl child...check
4 weeks of swim lessons for boy child...check
taking kids to oldest cemetery in shasta...check
boy child scaring girl child at cemetery...check
hike to whiskeytown falls with the family...check
VBS...check
volleyball 'camp' for girl child...check
6th birthday party for boy child...yes...6th birthday!!!...check

in process
girl child off to 'math camp' aka week at Aunt & Uncle's....check
boy child off to baseball camp with grandpa...check
grown up boy and girl...um that's us...finishing packing up the old house....

to do
six flags with family and friends
kids week at grandparents
one week of relaxation before school starts!!!

maybe's
kayak whiskeytown lake
kayak sacramento river
hike a few more falls
boy child riding sans training wheels followed by a family bike ride

it's Summer

and I'm NOT on vacation...

it's the opposite of vacation
I'm the resident cruise director...
...or at least that's what I feel like some days...

but it's summer...
and it's still nice to not have an alarm wake me up every morning...
well, with the exception of this week...VBS...Vacation Bible School...at church...
I have been waking without an alarm for 6 days of the week...
love waking up on my own..
.even if it's early, because I'm an early bird, I still like that my body is in control of the wake up time and not an alarm...

I love letting my kids stay up late without a bed time...
letting the girl child read until she falls asleep...
letting them stay in their jammies...
aka undies...
until noon....

but because it's summer...
and I'm NOT on vacation...
it's almost the opposite of vacation...
because...
well, going blog public...I'm that mean mom...
the mom with math sheets that she got from the teacher on the last day of school...
the mom that MAKES her kids journal about stuff during the summer...
the mom that insists on piano practicing...
swim lessons...
drawing time...
quiet time...
reading time
the mom that makes her kids sort their dirty laundry, fold and put away their clean laundry...
the mom that makes her kids clean toilets and dust the living room
make their beds in the morning
fill and empty the dishwasher...
and limited...VERY limited screen time...

well, because I am that mean mom...I have limited screen time myself...
and having limited screen time is a good thing for myself...
a good thing for my kids...
and GREAT thing for my family...
but it means that my blog IS on vacation...

I will pop in a few times...but don't be sad for me not being on vacation...
I really do love summer with my kids...
I love making having them do things that they wouldn't choose to do...
having them get creative...
forcing encouraging them to play together...

I am truely blessed by my children...don't get me wrong...they drive me crazy just like any other self respecting mother...
but I am blessed...
our kids are almost 5 years apart and different genders (hence the girl child/boy child thing)...
this was something that really bothered me when we had boy child...I thought they were going to be too far apart and by being different genders they would NEVER get along...have nothing in common...and just not be friends...
this is not the case, my kids love the same things, laugh at the same things...annoy us the same way...
they get along amazingly well for the age and gender difference...

wow, sorry tangent over...
and I'm out...
because it's summer...and I'm NOT on vacation!
the monsters kids are asking for food!

True Independence Day

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

I am an all American Girl that loves a good 4th of July parade, BBQ and fireworks show...

I get teary when I hear the Star Spangle Banner and will actually cry if I happen to see a service man or woman in uniform when I hear the National Anthem.

I am proud to be an American...

but I am teary on this Independence Day for another reason

today I am celebrating a different freedom...

today our 5 year old son accepted Jesus into his heart...

"Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," these are words that wars have been fought over...and today, because of those wars, our children have the opportunity to grow up in a country that allows them to worship God and live a life that God has called them to.

'for freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.' Galatians 5:1

how to strip with a chair

and make money...
okay, maybe not MAKE money, but don't spend money...

I had this chair on our front porch at the money pit house for over 2 years...I got it for FREE at yard sale...
my goal when we moved was
1. to NOT have it sit in our entry for another 2 years and look shabby...and it was shabby, NOT shabby chic!
2. re-do it without spending any money...use only what I had on hand...

step 1...take pictures of free chair that's been sitting on your front porch for 2+ years

step 2...strip all the paint off*...this is harder than it looks, especially since the paint seemed to be just falling right off...basically this chair was a tease!

step 3...take pictures of your cute toes

step 4...strip some more

step 5...spray paint black....

step 6...realize that one can of black spray paint isn't enough...and since the goal is to do this for FREE and you only had one can...find another color of paint that you like...and have...and start brushing away...

step 7...glue all back together and take cute pictures in your back yard with yellow flowers...that may or may not need to be mowed away!

step 8...put in entry all finished and FREE with other FREE decorations...

'Chambers' sign...I just made a few weeks ago...really enjoying it...

jazz playing ant plant holder...from friends as a house warming gift

black rocks from our side yard...

and not that I didn't have many perfect weather days to do this project...
I love the fact that I choose today when it was 197 degrees outside...
okay, so it's only 101...but still genius me...choosing to strip on a very hot day!

*I would like to thank all the people that helped in the stripping process...
my good friend Rayna and her husband Robert started the stripping with me a little over a week ago...
my kids both spent some time helping...
and last but not least, I could not have done with stripping without the help of my husband!
He appreciates when I put my heart into stripping!

I'm linking up with

campout FAIL

yep, lame-O mom...

campout with the kids in the back yard...

tent set up...check

sleeping bags and pillows...check

game of Uno by lantern....Check


all crash and sleep amazing...check...until 11:30

11:30 crazy wind wakes up crazy paranoid mom...check

crazy paranoid mom lays in tent for an hour listening to crazy wind and imagining crazy drugged out teenagers sneaking through our backyard to steal pot from our neighbors garden...

note...I have no idea if our neighbors are growing pot...but last night at midnight I was totally 100% positive that they had a legit pot garden growing, minus electric fence and man-eating dogs...making it possible for the crazy drugged out teenagers to sneak through OUR backyard hop the fence and steal all their pot...

yeah...so crazy paranoid mom, wakes up kids at midnight-thirty and packs them into the safety of their own beds...oh, and lays in bed hearing the police chopper hovering over our backyard capturing the crazy drugged out teenagers....

crazy paranoid moms finally falls asleep and wakes up to a totally undisturbed tent site in our backyard...
yeah, imagine that...
not one crazy drugged out teenager...
no pot garden in our neighbors backyard....
no police helicopter raid in our backyard....

hmmmm.... example 1007 why I don't watch scary movies...

...and just so you know...kids know nothing about how crazy and paranoid their mom is...

I told them the wind was too much and keeping me awake...