Teenagers

I took my youngest two to the local amusement park today while the older ones were at school. Usually we go as a family on the weekends since we bought passes for this summer. It was a nice change to the routine to just take two. They took turns picking rides and got so excited about the little things. Since it is the end of the school year here there were a lot of school trips there, the parking lot was packed with buses but there were very few cars. The way some of the teenagers were acting made me so glad when we entered the kiddie area, since they had no reason to go there. The obnoxious comments about how lame the train ride was were uncalled for. If the ride is really that lame why even bother to go on it? I know kids will be kids and they were acting up for their peers, but the language was uncalled for. (Their word was not lame, I paraphrased to something I was willing to type.) I don't think my children noticed and I chose to ignore it at the time and be thankful when I was able to walk away from them. Do they know they are offending other guests and just not care or are they still so self-centered that they cannot see how their actions could be affecting those around them?

Snow Days

It looks like we are in for more snow and ice again this week which will most likely mean either delays, cancelations or early dismissal for school once again. Since January started we have yet to have full week of school. There has been at least one day of snow and ice that led to no school. Yesterday was nice out, not too cold, and I suggested to myc hildren that we play outside. There is still over a foot of snow on the ground and our neighbor was out there making a snowman with her dad. My kids seem to have lost interest in teh snow already. Less than a month of real snow and they are over it. I know most of the adults I know are over it too, but I thought they would still be excited about it. Hopefully they will get excited again so we can spend more time outside because too much more inside time may be more than we can take!

Summer is on it's way!

Sometimes time seems to creep along and at others it feels like we are hurtling along at such a fast pace. It is hard to believe that summer break starts in a few weeks. It will be nice not to have to get the kids up for school every day, but how many more fights and disagreements will there be with all four being home every day? When do kids stop fighting? Ever? I recall last summer went so much faster than I thought it would. There were so many things I wanted to try doing with my children that we never got to. I already have tickets to take them to a children's play at a local college, which we do every summer. Plans to see at least one or two of the free movies offered for kids at our local theater. They are signed up for VBS, have their names in a lottery for a free sports camp, and I have the forms ready for a nature camp. I'd like them to do swimming lessons as well, practice bike riding, use our pool membership, go to the pool, visit the zoo and more. Have I planned too much? I'm really not sure.

Age Restricitons at Play Areas

In the past month I have taken my children to two parties at local McDonald's with play areas. One was a newly remodeled location on a weeknight at dinner time and the other was an established one at dinner time on a Sunday. At both places there is an area for 3-12 year olds and another for 3 and under. I have two children who fit into both categories. Both times I saw children who were much closer to 12 than 3 in the area for smaller children, but what made it worse was they were playing tag and roughhousing where small kids were playing. While it bothered me that children who should be able to read the posted signs were ignoring them it bothered me even more that the parents were watching them (or not) and didn't make any effort to have them leave that area. At the new play land I let each of my children see the younger area before it go busy and then after that I told them they were not allowed back in because they were too old. I had to later hold my one year old for the rest of the party except when he was in a high chair because it was way too crowded for him to play. Tonight he was almost stepped on by a kid who was about as tall as me and easily outweighed me. He may very well be twelve, I'm not exactly tall, but he was playing in an unsafe manner and his dad just kept reading the paper. I hope that I manage to be a more observant parent as my children get older and need less constant supervision because if your child is putting other children in danger it is your responsibility to do something about it.

Country Living Magazine for March

Today I took a break from reading books to enjoy a magazine and it was such a nice change of pace. Lately I have felt like I've been on a lot of self-imposed deadlines. I agreed to review a number of books without thinking about how it would all add up. In the last two weeks I had six books with dates to have reviews posted by and then a few that were supposed to be done ASAP. I've finished 7 of them and am close to finished with two more. Realistically I should have read those today, but my brain felt kind of fried so I declared a bit of a holiday.

Last month my friend Kelly mentioned that she enjoyed reading Country Living on her blog http://www.kellyathomeblog.com/ and I realized I'd never read it. When I was placing some orders on Amazon I was $5 away from the super shipper discount, I could pay $4.98 to have my order shipped or buy something for $5 more. I picked a magazine subscription for $5 to Country Living. The March issue arrived today and I read it from cover to cover. I had to get out a small notebook to write down ideas for things I want to do at home like put up some shelves in the kitchen and plant flowers and herbs outside. I needed to get motivated to get to making out house more of a home. We moved here over four years ago and after moving in we added two more children and had a home based business (that we closed last spring) all of which took a lot of time and energy. I feel like we never really finished personalizing our house. we have no pictures on the walls. How can that be with four children? Hopefully I will actually do the things on my list because how your living space looks really does affect you. I know having it be perfect is unrealistic, but a little less cluttered and a little more inviting and homey would be a welcome change. Anyone else ready to change things up for spring?

Still not done!

So I thought after our visit to the doctor on Monday, which was followed by my daughter throwing up repeatedly Monday night, that we were finally done with the stomach bug and that my three year old had missed it. No such luck. He got up from a nap today and threw up all over the floor, luckily it was the hardwood floor that I hate for other reasons, but appreciate for the fact that it is easier to clean up vomit from than carpet (as the hallway carpet upstairs can attest to after Monday's stomach bout). The funny thing is the older two relished in being able to say they were sick, while he insisted, after he was all cleaned up, that he was NOT sick. Kids are so funny sometimes. But at least he didn't want to be sick which is something.

Sickness and Kids

Where to start? I realize I have pretty much ignored this blog. It seemed like a good idea when I started it and then I got sucked off in a different direction. Lately all of my kids have been sick. Today when I was at the pediatrician with all four of them for booster shots I realized I had been to the doctor four times in the past week with 1 to 4 of them with me. My older three were terrible for the booster shots, carrying on like crazy and I was a bit embarrassed. It is like as they get older they get worse rather than better. My oldest was the worst. Why? No one likes shots, I get that, but they have received all of the immunizations they were supposed to get at every visit and never have they been as bad as this. On top of that, one of them was diagnosed with strep throat so we had to go to the pharmacy for a prescription. This year my kids are sicker than they have ever been before and it is raising my stress levels. I just want them all well and back to themselves!