Fun + Run

Last Saturday, we had the exciting opportunity to compete as part of Scott's corporate team for a 5K (and 1K) they were presenting.  I say exciting because, well -- obviously -- races are always fun to run in.  But it was extra exciting due to the fact that everyone running was doing so with ZERO training beforehand!  Now doesn't that sound like a great idea???  Hahahaha.  We literally signed up a week before the big event, and the only one who has done any kind of running anytime recently was Sophie -- who did the girls running club at school back in April and May.

Regardless of this fact, our family likes to go big or go home, so EVERYONE except for me, Alex, and Isaac ran the 5K -- we walked/ran the 1K.  And for the record -- Alex was NOT happy.  He really wanted to do the 5K as well.  Nevertheless, we all ended up having a great time.  Or at least that was the consensus once all the racing was over.  Hahahaha.

Ethan (who was running for the VERY FIRST TIME since the stress fracture incident last fall) finished in a respectable 20-something minute time.  Grace, whose ankle continues to give her problems and hasn't run since she dropped out of Cross Country training last summer, finished in 33:25 and legit looked like she was going to throw up at the end.  Sophie finished 30 seconds later and seemed the least ruffled by the effort.  Probably because she's the only one who had some training under her belt.  Even if it was from a month and a half ago.

Jane was determined to do the 5K even though I tried to convince her that the 1K would be much more her jam.  Instead, she ran/walked with Scott, who ended up having to give her a piggy back ride on 3 different occasions.  Hahahaha.  But at least she raced through the finish line on her own.  ;)

Frick and Frack were both with me, and their running styles couldn't be more opposite.  You'd have to see it to know what I'm talking about, but it was hilarious and I loved watching every second of their efforts.  I'm not sure if Isaac was the absolute youngest to actually run/walk in the 1K but he sure got enough attention to make it seem like he was a novelty.  Hahahaha.  Seriously, though, he was hiLARious to watch with his little arms pumping and his crazy hair flopping all over the place.  Lots of other people must have thought so as well, because there were tons of people cheering him on and taking pictures of his cuteness as we got through our 1K route.

By the time Scott and Jane crossed the finish line, everyone was pretty exhausted and ready to go home.  Staying up until almost midnight the night before and then waking up a little after 6 to get ready to leave for the race was probably not the best call.  Haha.  After grabbing some Dunkin' Donuts on the way home, we were all happy to crash and do not much else for the rest of the day.  Can't wait for the next family fun run!  ;)

Ladies and Gentlemen, We Have a Fifteen Year Old

It's true.  Our first-born in the wilderness has hit the 1-5.  And I'd have to say that this momentous occasion could be divided up into a few highs and just one, minor little low.  (Although, if you check out the expressions on his face in almost every picture over the last couple of days, it may seem like 

there were a lot more lows than that.  Hahahaha.)

Monday morning started out bright and early with me running to get breakfast donuts for the birthday boy and then stopping at the grocery store to pick up all the necessary supplies for making this year's requested birthday cake -- a Fortnite Llama.  Yep.  A llama.  After doing a quick image search on Google the night before, I was feeling pretty confident I could make his dreams come true.  

Once I was back home and had presented Ethan with his donuts and first birthday wishes of the day, I got to work on that cake.  The rest of the day was devoted to baking, assembling, and decorating a llama -- and REALLY trying to make Ethan's birthday wishes come true by taking him to get his Driver's Permit on his big day.  Spoiler alert -- here comes the Low.

To start off, we showed up at the wrong DMV (we were supposed to go to one with a testing center).  After sitting for a few minutes and doing some googling, I realized the mistake and we drove to the correct place.  THEN, we waited in line for about 45 minutes before we finally made it to the desk, only to find out that they wouldn't accept Ethan's end-of-year report card as his proof of having a greater than 2.0 GPA because we needed an official form from the high school with an official transcript from his old school.  Since it was his birthday, and I knew this was the only thing he really wanted to have happen that day, we got back in the car and drove ALL the way over to the other side of town to try and track down these forms and transcripts so that we could drive all the way back to make it in time before the testing services closed at 4:30.  (It was already quarter to 3 at this point.) 

Well, the bad luck followed us, because when we got to the high school, we had missed the school registrar by 5 minutes and then when we tried to track down his new guidance counselor, we discovered she wasn't in for the day.  Womp womp.  We filled out some forms, left it with a secretary,  and then slouched back home in defeat.

The rest of my afternoon was devoted to finishing up that cake, ordering Ethan's birthday request of pizza for dinner, and then heading over to some new friends from church who had invited us over for Family Home Evening and a pool party.  It was just a little bonus that Ethan got a lagniappe "friend party" on a non-friend-party-year.  ;)

 None of the kids caught my "Emperor's New Groove" reference, which was slightly disappointing.  Haha.

The party continued the next day, when I took the kids to pick out Ethan's birthday presents and then took everyone to the trampoline park to jump for an hour in the afternoon.  Some more lagniappe showed up on our front porch yesterday morning when a friend of Ethan and Grace's from church biked over to come and help with some building projects I'm thinking of doing around the house.  He ended up spending the rest of the day with us and becoming an honorary member of the family while we enjoyed the rest of Ethan's birthday celebrations.  :)

All in all, I think he had a pretty good couple of days.  :)  Now, if we can just track down that transcript...

A Spoonful of Sugar

This week I decided that it's now or never for laying down the law!  Haha.  But seriously -- if I wait until everything is unpacked and in order before getting back to a regular routine and schedule, it's never going to happen.  So on Monday, I created a new chore chart for the new house, along with a daily schedule for the rest of our summer, and you know what?  It went down MUCH better than I was expecting!  I guess we all do better with structure.  :)

And since a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, I have also officially reinstated the possibility of earning allowance.  Grace in particular is thrilled.  ;)  In order to earn said allowance, however, they have to complete a weekly chart of responsibilities.  We've done this concept for several years now, but we've been a bit lax for the last little bit.  The chart of responsibilities has slowly been whittled down to just doing their chores every day {which they don't always do anyway} and I was getting frustrated with the sense of entitlement that was creeping into all of their attitudes.

So, for our Summer Schedule of 2018, we've gone back to basics and they have the following items to check off on their charts every day:

• Morning ✓ -- being awake to participate in Scripture Time (which we've now set to 9 AM); making bed; and helping with a morning tidy up of the family room and kitchen.
• Zone -- the house has been divided into 5 zones that Ethan through Alex are assigned to clean for the week (Family Room, Piano Room, Bonus Room, Upstairs Hall, and Downstairs Hall).
• Assignment -- we discovered YEARS ago that no one will clean the kitchen as a zone if it's assigned to them (it's just too overwhelming), so we split up kitchen jobs into "assignments" and that has helped to do the trick.  Additionally, this summer I decided to do an experiment and see if we will have better luck in having someone besides me or Scott do the dishes if we split it up into loading and unloading the dishwasher, and so far it's been working pretty good!  But then again Ethan is on unloading duty and Sophie is on loading duty, and they were the only two kids who ever did the dishwasher even when the assignment was to do both, so who knows?  (Current assignments for the summer -- Morning Dishes (unload dishwasher), Evening Dishes (load dishwasher), Kitchen Counters, Kitchen Table, and Sweep the Kitchen).
• Quiet Reading Time -- this one is a MUST.  I have to have at least an hour of relative peace and quiet during the day if I'm going to stay sane and live through the summer.  12:30-1:30 has officially been declared "Quiet Reading Time" and it gives me a chance to read my scriptures with minimal interruptions and it also allows Isaac a chance to potentially fall asleep in his room for nap time.
• Evening ✓ -- brush teeth; go to bed on time (and for Alex and Jane -- go to bed and to sleep without having me or Scott need to stay with them until that happens).

(These post-it notes have been the perfect way to keep track of their checklists!  In order to get full allowance, they have to get at least 22 out of the possible 25 checks for the week.  Half allowance goes for 18-21 checks.)

We're only 3 days in, but already I'm feeling much less stressed and that's a good thing!  Screens are still going on more than I'd like, but the changes we've made this week are a good baby step to what I'd ultimately like to have happen in an ideal summer.  The younger three are up before anyone else, so I've decided to stop fighting it and let them have screens until everyone else is awake.  As I said before, Scripture Time (our scripture for the month, plus a song, and prayer) is at 9 AM and then the kids help with the tidy up and go make their beds.  

 I don't know why I always forget to take Before pictures of yard projects, but with the kids occupied with a morning routine now, I've been able to tackle some more projects!

Pictures don't do justice to how much pruning the crepe myrtle and hydrangea bushes underwent.

The other addition to the Summer Schedule this week is my own version of "summer school."  Hahahaha.  Ethan and Grace are refusing to participate, but I've been surprised to see how willingly Sophie, Jane and sometimes Alex have been.  Each day I've given them a couple of ELA assignments (a journal entry and one other thing -- the last couple of days it's been vocabulary work and I'm loving it) and a math assignment and then once they're done they can have Free Time (including screens) until Lunch which is at 12.  Quiet Reading Time is from 12:30-1:30 and then from 1:30-3:30 is "Play Time."  Which basically means Free Time without any screens.  Hahaha.  So, game, puzzles, hanging out, playing with toys together, etc. are all fair game.  It's also a good time of the day to head out on any fun expeditions.

 Some new friends at church invited us to go bowling with them yesterday afternoon -- it lined up perfectly with yesterday afternoon's Play Time.  ;)

Chores (zone + assignment) need to be done at 4 PM and then it's just play some more until Scott gets home and then we can eat dinner, do Book of Mormon, and once the younger three are down for bed, the older 3 have their own free time with screens (if they want) until they head up for bed.  Nothing ever goes PERFECTLY smoothly, but this week has been so much better than the last few that I'm not complaining!  

Anyway, I'm sure this post is completely dry and unexciting to anyone else, but that's what's happening around these parts, so there you go.  ;)  The only really exciting thing of the past week is that we finally got that trampoline that we promised the kids for finishing last year's Book of Mormon challenge!  The previous owners had left their trampoline here, but there were several springs missing and we thought we'd want one that was slightly bigger anyway, so Sam's Club made all their dreams come true yesterday as Ethan (with Jane and Scott's help) put together our brand new trampoline!

(Ethan was in his element.)

And that's a wrap!  Fingers crossed that this Summer Schedule continues to make my life a little bit easier.  :)

 (Unrelated, but Scott and I were able to attend a "Garden Party" Fundraiser on Saturday night for work.  It was lovely-- even if I did feel super out of place! 😉)

 Seriously so lovely!

Until next time!