Sliding into our 4th Annual No-Tech July . . .

Just like some of the kids managed to slide right into the woods today off of the slip-n-slide! It's no mistake that the slip-n-slide is placed on one of the few small hills in our yard. I mean, what an added bonus to slip past the plastic barrier, into the grass and mud and fling head first into an assortment of wild foliage, some of which I'm quite certain is poison ivy since I haven't sprayed yet!! Now THAT'S fun!

So yes, tomorrow starts our 4th year of No-Tech. I've had to explain it a few times because it appears to blow people's minds but basically, no-glowing screens at the house for the month of July with the exception of checking email in the morning and at night for adults.  I love being tech-free so much that the temptation to log on for anything else is nonexistent for me. We still use radios, phones, record players (yes, we have one, great month to go get a new needle as a matter of fact), because, come on, we can see the difference in that stuff, right? (-:  Anyway, no blogs for a month and, wow, only 9% battery left now so better get going, I don't feel like plugging in my computer cord and everything...

Folks, it's an uninspiring year for gardening over here.  Not sure exactly what happened, but I was super busy in May/June and just petered out on gardening.  This year is the year of the tomato and we'll be happy with that...just, no early frosts, I'm not nearly far along enough yet.  Back deck here has two tomato plants, one started in May, one two weeks ago, lettuce and herbs.

Oh my goodness, isn't that sad??? Well, there are eight tomato plants in there, started two weeks ago, one planted itself from last year's dropped tomatoes, that bushy green plant in the middle box is a perennial bitter leaf thing that I think is good sautéed with spinach but I haven't tried it and the farthest box has one yellow squash plant.  My asparagus keeps shooting up a couple stalks every now and then and I have some morning glories skirting up the fence and back wall.  That's it.

I did read about planting one can do in July for a Fall crop, but I only have 15 minutes left of tech time. Ooo, I can email myself the info really quick, email box is fair game...trust me, you can only waste about a minute and a half staring at your email box waiting for someone to contact you, haha.

OK, that's it.  We'll see ya on the ol' blog sometime in August!

(-:

Four and a Half . . .

Yep, 4 and a 1/2 she is (even about a month or so over) and it's officially hitting me that she is definitely out of toddler/preschoolish phase and on into another chapter.  She'll start kindergarten this fall after all which is still a 50/50 conflicting feelings situation for me (check in again at the end of August, might be singin' a different tune then, ha). While she can certainly have her moments, she is overall such a bright light around here, loves to be on the go or cuddling up, hanging with the big kids or playing My Little Ponies by herself with her wide array of passed down pink palaces and always full of the funniest things to say.

The pic above shows her patiently waited the entire day and into the evening to finally leave for a weekend camping trip (no, not motionless on that ledge the entire time!!), decked out with her back pack and Daisy Duck hat passed on by her friend Julia. Quote, "Can you BELIEVE Julia actually gave me this hat??!!" (-:

Sweets and Thunder . . .

This past weekend 

My Friday night included such delights as this!

Ahhh, that was so divine and at one of my favorite desserts stops.

Such a contrast to the following night.

Staking out our claim in the middle of a high school football field on the west side of the state. I have to say, the grass was nice and plush at least.

We had no problems setting up our two little pup tents. They went up lickety split. Then...I peered to the west and saw the gray, and then the dark gray.  Yes, this night all the sweets were a distant memory as we weathered a lightening storm, in small pup tents, in the middle of a high school football field.  The contrast is almost laughable...almost!

(-:

Despite the thundery night, Liv and are were glad to be there with Lara to get her set and ready to go on her second annual week long bike trip. She'll be with her grandma, a dad and daughter from her old school and hundreds of other biking enthusiasts.  Not an easy trip, but she enjoyed it so much last year that she's back again for more.

The rest of the story . . .

Actually, I posted this Tuesday night, June 17th...but then the calendar switched two minutes after midnight and made it into a Wednesday post...

Yeah, well...I went swimming today...at 3:30p.m.! Oy vey!

Just didn't have a good sleep last night and yes, I use that as one of the excuses on the list. Not a good night's sleep, not worth it to be totally exhausted the next day by swimming at 6 a.m.  And so it goes, I'll get there. But see, this week, the youngest three have five full days of 30 minute lessons for free at the Y and I can pound out almost a mile of swimming in that time, so that's what I did.

So true.  So, so, true!

Please chuckle here!

I spent about a half hour or more scrolling through my googled attempt to find "funny swimming pictures." This is the result of that incredibly well spent use of time.  While I really do enjoy looking back on these blog entries, I have to say I can not WAIT for tech-free July!

Maybe then, when I'm not viewing all sorts of dogs in goggles, giraffes in wading pools and sopping wet kittens well into the night, maybe then I'll manage to GET UP AND GO SWIMMING!!!

(-:

22 Days Ago . ..

Hahaha...Yep, 22 days ago, and I'm about to blog it now.  Thus the life of a mom with bigger kids now.  Wowza, bizee, and Ti.Red by the end of the day (well, plus the, "there's no easy way to just shoot my picture over to blogger" business).  So, 22 days ago, I got myself up at the crack of dawn for my first summer morning outdoor swim.  This business is a HUGE mind game for me folks, the weather, the time of morning, what I want to do the night before, the whole thing, it all plays in to whether or not I will GET UP and do this.  And for 21 days I have NOT DONE IT! Ugh!  But, I will say, I have had a work out/coached dealy at the Y during the same time, twice a week at 10:30A.M., not as many yards (well meters in my outdoor pool) as the super early morning swim but certainly nothing to scoff at (2,000yards, about 55 minutes of swimming)...and COME ON, 10:30A.M.???!!! that is PEFECT FOR ME!

Anyhoo...

22 days ago, this was my mind game on the way to the pool...

Are you serious???

Can it possibly go any lower???

 Yup!

Oy!

Well, it redeemed itself a bit, but still!

And yes, I was late, and I don't care.

I will never, ever, ever strive to be there for the 5:45a.m. start time.

Never!

(-:

 This, my friends, is why it's worth it.

Ahhhh, just look at that sunrise and beautiful outdoor sky.

 Here they come!

I'll tell ya though, these people really are serious swimmers. I mean for me to hop out mid-set to grab my phone and take some pics, unheard of. It is hard core swimming from the minute you jump in till the minute you hop out.  And yeah...well...ya gotta have energy to do that and this 43 year old mom of five is a little low on that right now! (-:

Wasn't any better post shower, but by then the blood was pumping and all was right with the world...well, until about 2p.m., heehee!

So, why this post today?

Yep, you guessed it.

Swim bag is packed, suit is laid out, alarm is set (for 5:45, yes, other people's arrive time) and I am GETTIN UP AND GOING SWIMMING TOMORROW!

Whoo-Hoo!

Chasing a Dragonfly . . .

He never did catch that guy, but boy did he have fun!

And so did Lara and I watching him.

Funny how I managed to catch him in frames with no one else, the lake was actually packed late this afternoon/early evening.  For some reason, even though it's allegedly summer break, I've still been running full throttle around here lately and the kids have been left sitting at home a bit the last few days.  So, late this afternoon I felt they really needed to blow off some energy but SP really wanted to have a nice dinner.  So his father's day treat, which he looked forward to, was hitting the store alone for ingredients to make a garlic/shrimp/pasta dish in a quiet house while we blew off some steam at the lake.  Worked out pretty slick!

After bedtime books . . .

The little gal pictured way below and I have songs and then she says, "sleep with me a little bit," and I lay in her still toddler sized bed (fits her still and we're out of room!) for a few minutes. I'd easily probably fall asleep in there most nights if I wasn't in the fetal position with a dresser at my feet.  Maybe this summer we'll work on getting her some more space for a full size bed.

So, tonight, after "sleep with me a little bit," we had this whispered exchange:

Liv: "I want to go to the North Pole." 

Me: "Wow, that would be super exciting."

Liv: "Yeah."

Four year olds are awesome!

Speaking of bedtime songs, I figure I've sung "Jesus Loves Me" for over 15 years straight missing maybe 10-20 days each year.  That's a LOT of "Jesus Loves Me." I like that, someday I'll tally that estimate.  Lara had about six songs that I'd do ("Jesus Loves Me," "Sleep, Lara, Sleep," "Jesus Loves the Little Children," "I am so glad that Jesus Loves Me," "Oh how I love Jesus," "Hush Little Baby don't say a Word," Ben had four - six (same mix), then, with three boys, Ben would get the first two (Jesus Loves Me and Sleep Ben, Sleep), while Harrison would get the middle three (Jesus Loves the Little Children, I am so glad..., Oh How I love Jesus) and William would get the last two (Hush little baby and a new one, Sleep Little Dream Prince of Mine...Plus Jesus Loves Me cycled back in to him).  Lara got songs until she was probably 13 even, if I put the boys to bed I still sing with William and Harrison and will sit by Ben and give him one...there are always back rubs or back tickles during songs. Livia gets two songs every night, "Jesus Loves Me" and "Sleep, Livia, Sleep" but every now and again, when I feel like she's missed out and I have energy, I throw in the three middle "Jesus loves" songs.

Here's that little gal now.

She loves that I take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese's to celebrate the end of school.  Some years we'll do a pizza while we're there, but most often not, we (they) like to use the money on tokens.  this year I splurged and got 200 tokens for $40.  Lara didn't come this year for the first time (she still had school this week, plus well...not sure she would want to anymore). The boys won lots and lots of tickets to purchase trinkets at the end of the time and, well, they had their little sister up at the counter with them, who had won maybe 20 tickets total. They walked away buying her the most expensive item, a shiny silver tiara and themselves a small box of nerds candy each and a small rubber spider.  Harrison appeared the most despondent about this decision having really wanted to get a slinky.  Ben's rational was that she was going to pitch a fit if they didn't get her the crown. Hmmmm....

Livia's second song...

"Sleep, Livia, Sleep,

It's time to go to sleep,

Your mother shakes the dreamland tree

and father tends the sheep ("children" she always interjects) for thee

Sleep, Livia, Sleep

Sleep, Livia, Sleep."

The summer trips have started! . . .

I started one kid too late (sorry Lara...but you did have an awesome trip in France this year (-:) to take my newly minted 13 year olds on a quicky trip to Chicago the weekend after school ends.  This year Ben and I got to induct my new plan, and what fun we had!

We hopped on this guy Saturday morning around 10:30a.m. (not for the $1 ticket though, but still, our prices beat gas and parking and the train, although we left an hour late at departure and and 1.5 hours late to come home because of "mechanical difficulties) and returned home 1:30 a.m. Sunday "night" though it was supposed to be 11:50p.m. arrival.  The buses were double deckers with outlets and very slow wifi, but it was clean, had nice people and only one 20-30 minute stop in the whole trip.  I think I'd try it again if I don't score a low train ticket price.

This is both of our first "selfies" ever. 

We're not selfie people!

(-:

 Petting sting rays was definitely a highlight of our 3.5 hours in Shedd.   We probably could've stayed longer had we really read everything and pondered more, but this duo had aching feet and wasn't into reading signs. We totally LOVED our time here though.

What a GREAT pic of Ben and Harrison!

(-:

Our second highlight (we did two main sightsees) was getting out onto one of these window ledges on the 103rd floor of the Willis/Sears tower.  

We were SUPER excited to learn that we were in the line to get on the ledge that CRACKED just a few weeks ago!!!!! Oh my goodness!

Besides the snafus with late busses, literally everything worked like clockwork on our trip.  The best tip ever was from our hotel check-in gal who told us to go to the Shedd Aquarium 30 minutes before the 9a.m. opening to avoid lines, that was absolute genius!! We had no lines and no crowds our entire time there, awesome! Plus, our time at the Willis Tower was also very manageable lines/waits wise. I think it really helped to be sightseeing so early in June and on a Sunday.  Sometimes you can get a 1-2 hour line just to buy tickets at the Tower, not us though, right on in.  Great deep dish pizza with an amazing buttery crust at Lou Malnati's and we had a nail biter of a Stanley Cup hockey game to watch Saturday night all comfy and tucked into our quiet hotel room. What a great trip!

The first and the last . . .

Oh my goodness these two pics just give me a good little giggle.

So, yes, today we hit the last day of school for these three.

Whew!

Nice to be done with that routine for a while, just too bad I didn't get my house cleaned before they're going to be home every day for three months. I better get my rear in gear with some chore charts and stuff.  Haha, all the moms in the cyberworld right now are all optimistic about their summer charts and plans, we should all check in about mid-August to see how that all worked out! Ha!

So, Bring on Summer, we're ready!

First on the agenda the biggest billy goat gruff and I are slinging backpacks over our shoulders tomorrow morning and heading to Chicago for an overnight adventure in celebration of his 13th birthday.  First stop, Sears Tower, which btw, I'll just always call the Sears Tower, kinda like, Tiger Stadium...sorry, can't get used to ball games at a bank.  Anyhoo...oh, haha, I actually don't think I've even been to a Tiger's game as an adult, well, if I did, I'd rather see it at Tiger Stadium than at a bank's park.  O.K., now, anyhoo...we'll roll back onto the home front about midnight on Sunday.  I think we're just going to have a hoot of a time, looking forward to it!