Spring Break: A Photo Journey

This week was Spring Break.

That means my kids were all home from school for a week.

Lots of people around here go on trips or take their kids to do fun things.

Not around our house.

Who needs a va-cation? We spent the week at home on stay-cation.

We (minus Allen, who still has to work this week) all slept in until at least 9:00 a.m. every day.

I worked for a few hours this week, which is seriously fun for me.


Coolister went to physical therapy, a 'breakfast party thing' and made plans for prom. He also studied for the ACT all week because tomorrow is The Big Day.


ElemenoB bought a new dress and painted her bedroom. She's having friends over on Saturday. She also went running.


Thumbelina went shopping and spent some time with a friend. She wore her pajamas more than anything and watched her collection of Barbie movies a few times each. (I wish I was kidding.)


All-a-Boy played Lego Star Wars on the Wii almost everyday. The one day that I banned the Wii he had some adventures with a friend. He also worked on creating a unique Pinewood Derby car all on his own which allowed for plenty of feeling-sorry-for-himself (we are all fairly certain that he secretly enjoys this).


Cowgirl locked herself in the bathroom and cut her own bangs. Good news: They're almost straight. Bad news: She kind of looks like Spock. Good news: I'm taking her to the salon on Saturday.


Princess got to have a friend over one day. But the real treat for her was the sleeping in every morning and running around in the backyard without shoes once the snow went away and the sun came to visit.


For Hubba, Curly and Little O, it was business as usual - but with bigger friends around to make it more exciting.

Life is good.

Happy Spring Break.

Scout Camp

Coolister just got back from a week of scout camp. I had agreed to drive up to Scofield and help shuttle the boys back home this morning, and it was totally worth it - for 2 reasons.

First, the story of the Canoe Swamping Contest. In short, Coolister's team was doomed. But just before the main contenders were able to swamp Coolister's canoe, the struggle to swamp each other was brought to a halt. The scoutmaster watched from the shore and realized that Coolister had pulled out his negotiating skills to avoid defeat - and the other team was going for it. Coolister was telling them, "Look, guys - it's obvious we're the two best groups out here. So why don't we work together to eliminate all of the other teams and then battle it out at the end?" And it worked. They backed off, both teams swamped every other canoe, and in the end Coolister's team emerged triumphant.

I love that kid. He can talk his way out of anything. (Which is not always a good thing.)

Second, there is nothing in this world that can match the irony of a suburban full of smelly boys riding home from a week of camping as they sing along to Taylor Swift's song, Love Story. (Which THEY chose to listen to, by the way.) Seriously "....you be the prince and I'll be the princess..." they sang every. single. word. Loudly. It was awesome.

Service (With a Smile): Monday

I realized something today. It's not so easy to do service for others when you don't leave the house. Sure, mothers are serving their families all the time, but I figured that would be sort of like cheating with what I was trying to achieve this week. So, maybe I'll get out tomorrow and find a way to serve someone, but for today it all happened within the walls of my home.

I am a merit badge counselor for the scouting program in our neighborhood - specifically for the Citizenship in the Community merit badge. I guess I could count that in and of itself as a service, but I won't. Part of the badge is to perform some significant community service (go figure!) so I helped the boys today to prepare a flier that we will deliver around our neighborhood tomorrow:
We will collect the food on Thursday morning. But I'm only counting the fliers/posting/collecting for today's service.

But wait, there's more!

I tried to think of what else I could do from home. I came up with some great ideas, but the one I decided to follow through on was a family D.I. drive. We came up with quite a bit of stuff:
I told the kids that I wanted them to go through their clothes, toys, books, and other things with the idea that someone in need could use what they had, not just to get rid of things they didn't want. And away we went. Some items ended up in the trash but we found some great, quality items to donate as well.

So, there's my report for Monday! I have a plan for tomorrow. We'll see if it comes to fruition.

Theme Week: Squirmy Sunday

Just a quick thought (based on personal experience at a meeting today) :

Have you ever noticed that when men are having a "discussion" they can yell and be frustrated and angry and voice their opinions, then slap each other on the back afterwards and all is well?

If women were to have the same discussion, they would hold it against each other for the rest of their lives, or wonder why so-and-so had to be so mad and hostile.

I don't like being present for such conversations.

They make me feel squirmy.