Summer

Posted on August 27, 2008 by Momzoo

Now that the kids are back in school I have been reflecting on this past summer. I seems to, in my mind, be divided into two distinct time periods. There is the “before the vacation” and “after the vacation”.

Before the vacation was from June until about mid July. It was wonderful. The kids were relatively well behaved, the house was kept relatively clean, chores and school work were done by 11:00 and the afternoon was free time. I really felt like I had it all together.

After the vacation was a different story. We were lazy, very unproductive, the house was messy and nobody cracked open a book. The kids were irritable and I was down right ornery. Nothing seemed to work, the days were long, tiring and tedious.

I have been mulling this over the last couple of weeks, wondering what changed. Were we just getting bored? Were we craving the structure that school created?….Structure….

…Sturcture….ah-ha

The first part of the summer I had a daily schedule. We were up at 7 and there was a plan for the morning, it included chores and some school work. Everyone (including me) knew each day what was expected. The afternoon were free times where the kids could do pretty much as they pleased (within reason). They played in the wading pool, with the bunnies, with friends. Sometime they watched movies or played on the computer. I taught them how to stitch and garden, we picked sweet peas and made daisy chains.

After the vacation it all fell apart. Part of the problem is that I can home really sick and it took me a good week of rest to get feeling better (ha, as much rest as you can get with 5 little ones around). I stopped making up a schedule for the day, there was no structure. The kids didn’t know what was expected, I would just give orders as I thought of them, it would be noon and the house wasn’t picked up and the breakfast dishes still on the table. They weren’t dressed and had been sitting in front of cartoons all morning. Everybody was bored, tired and irritable.

Conclusion: I am a better mother /homemaker /wife /person when I have a schedule. It keeps me on track, I am notorious for being easily distracted. I also think it helps the kids to know what to expect and what is coming next. When I do a schedule it is very detailed, sometimes down 10 minute increments of time. Also, I think that it is a good thing for everyone to have unscheduled time.

Now that the school year has started I have started up my scheduling again. So far (I know I am only a week and a half into it, but you have to start somewhere right) everyday the kids have gotten off to school on time and un-rushed. Beds have been made, house picked up and animals taken care of. I am optimistic that this will be a good foundation for a good year. I have started to schedule the evening too (after school is free time, the kids need a good couple of hours of hard-core play time!) and so far it is working, kids are to bed on time (for the most part, punk #1 is exerting some independence on this point) dishes done, homework finished and house picked up. I has worked so well so far that I pray it will continue, it makes such a difference in our home as was illustrated to me this summer.

Punk #4

Posted on August 22, 2008 by Momzoo

I promise this will be my last portrait post for a while, I just got all three of them done and I had to share!

Punk #3

Posted on August 21, 2008 by Momzoo

Father and Son

Posted on August 13, 2008 by Momzoo

I think the best way to teach children the basic skills of life is to have them work right along side you. I try to keep the girls next to me when I am cooking and cleaning. I haven’t been super great at that the last little while, but recently I had a great reminder.

I am very grateful to Dadzoo’s grandpa, he learned many basic skills from watching him. When things would break around the house grandpa would come to help fix them. From his grandpa Dadzoo learned the basics of machinery and construction. Dadzoo is a wonderful handyman, I don’t think there is anything he can’t do. He has fixed washing machines and dryers and my dishwasher more than once. He can do basic automotive repairs (he doesn’t like to work on cars and would rather pay someone else to do it, but I like the fact that he could if he wanted to) he can do electrical work and some pluming. He finished two rooms in our basement and had built me rabbit hutches, chicken coops and shutters for the house. If there is anything he doesn’t know how to do, he finds out and tackles it.

About a week ago Dadzoo’s car died on us. He couldn’t drive to work so he did a “work from home” day. The nice thing about that is in between projects and problems he can putter around the house and do odd jobs and such. My dishwasher had been having a slight problem so he needed to take the door apart to figure stuff out.

Baby Boy punk couldn’t stay away. The second the tool box was brought out he was right there investigating what was going on. Dadzoo was wonderful and patient, I really enjoyed watching Father and Son bond over a tool box!

When the investigation was over and Dadzoo went to put the door back together he gave Baby Boy punk a tool to “help” with. You can see that he got right to work on those screws, just like his Daddy.

He did notice really quickly that his tool wasn’t exactly the same as Dad’s.

And turned to the tool box to find the “proper” tool.

He came back with this: a screwdriver, just like his Dad was using. (Smart kid!)

Then promptly got to work helping his Dad screw in those screws.

My Boys

Posted on August 5, 2008 by Momzoo

These two handsome guys are my boys! We have Dadzoo (he is the big one) and Punk #5. This picture was taken on day 4 of our vacation we were taking a walk around Big Springs in Island Park.

Aren’t they cute, a father and his son, enjoying the beautiful world around them.