Busy, Busy

I've finally got motivated to get started on my "book." It will be a book about Simple Self-Sufficiency (shocker, I know) and so I've been reading, and reading and reading and deciding on the format, etc.

I've also been making dried herbs (from my herb garden) - this year, I've got parsley, basil and oregano. I love making my own. I am probably just kidding myself, but I swear the homemade tastes better.

And I canned some bread and butter pickles last night as well as started making tomato pulp in preparation for making tomato sauce. I run the tomatoes through a food strainer as I pick them, put them in freezer bags until the end of the season, then defrost them, boil them down, and can them. Making the sauce is a couple days of hard work, but it keeps most of the other stuff spread out and manageable.

The girls finished up a great season of Swim Team, and Super finishes his last T-Ball game tonight. The Library Program ended last week.

I'm sad that there is only one month of summer left, but August should be much less busy (well, except for all that gardening LOL)

You remember my complaining last summer . . .

about how busy we were? Remember how I confessed that I fell off the Simple wagon last summer?

Well, here we are and it is May. It isn't Summer yet. And I'm trying to look ahead and make things different.

Well, maybe not different exactly. Because both girls will be doing Swim Team this year, and Super is going to be doing T-Ball, so that part of our schedule will stay basically the same. I thought long and hard about having the children involved in summer activities. And I decided that for OUR family, that it is a good fit. But what I can control is how organized about those activities, and what we do with the time that is not involved in sports.

We are still going to do the Library Reading program, but we are not going to Story Hour, and I'm going to be very selective with the Reading Program activities that we go to. We are not going to do Running Club. We aren't going to do any day camps. We aren't going to any playgroup/kid get together activities. I'm not going to do a structured learning time (although we are going to still have some preschool materials out this summer, and the girls are going to continue doing Math during the summer.) But I'm not doing like Bug Week for preschool or anything like that. No circle time. No Helper Jobs. Just the materials. They can use them. Or not. We are not going to watch television. We are not going to watch movies.

So what are we going to do? Well, we are going to spend a lot of time outside. That is for sure. We'll play on the playset. We'll play in the pool. We'll work on the garden. We'll walk on the Trail. I'll read stories. We'll crochet. We will go to the Nature Center. We will go to the Zoo. We will go to the Park. And we will work. Chores will continue. Projects will be done.

And I want to do look beyond our family too. Simple Mom is talking today about 10 ideas to Inspire Community Connections. She talks about things like having a block party or baking for a cause or being part of a solution to a community problem. And I'm not sure yet what we will do, but I want to do at least one thing that helps my children feel connected to their neighborhood, their community.

And in terms of me not falling off the Simple wagon, well, I've been making some changes to eating more simply lately (and healthier), and I anticipate continuing that. I'm exercising. I'm clearing my house of lots and lots of extra "stuff". I'm starting my garden. I go outside, often, and just look at things.

I'm sure that it won't be the perfect Simple summer. But I'm hoping that it is a Good One. Maybe even a Great One.

Lazy Summer Days

Here's the Simple Kids and the little girl that I watch (after almost two years of watching her, she is going to Kindy in the Fall! Sniff! We'll miss you! She's become almost like Super's twin sister.) We don't have anything scheduled for almost a month, and so we are just hanging out and doing whatever. We decided to go on a walk today, and we stopped to run around at a local football field. Go Team! (Oh and yes, Flower is wearing the same dress she wore to the Fair. She loves that thing! Bought on a very rare shopping trip last fall, and my dear friend Stacey talked me into (just kidding Stacey!) buying some clothes at Old Navy and the Gap that were on clearance. I must say, the kids have loved them all!

Then we came home and we've been listening to music while we cleaned the house. It helps us all get the work done faster. After this, we are going to go play in the sprinkler.

I was reading on a blog that I follow that said Time Is All That We Are Given. I don't know that the person who wrote it on the blog was the author of the quote, but I don't know who wrote it, but I've been thinking about it for the past couple of days. It's made me think a lot about my life, and what I've spent time doing, and what I've not done. And it has made me think about the time that I've had on this earth, and what if today is my last day. (Hope not!) Or next week (Hope not!) But I do want to make the best of the time I have been given. I need to be purposeful with my Time and not wait for "someday" to do some of the things that I want to do. But I will also never regret spending Time just walking, listening, working, playing with my kids either.

Almost Summer . . .

Yesterday was the last day of school at Montgomery Academy. It was a great year, it really was, but I'm looking forward to a less structured summer. It will be good to have all my kids together again (my middle goes to public school), and one of my full-time daycare children will be home for the summer. So far most of the time, it will be Me, Flower (9), Jelly Bean (7) Super (4), Daycare Kid #1 (5), and Daycare Kid #2 (1).

I have plans (I'll post them in the document section soon) for some things that I'd like to do education-wise for myself this summer, but here are some other that I'd like to do this summer:

:: draw
:: garden
: have a midsummer night celebration
:: sew
:: FINALLY learn to knit
:: read
:: cook
:: camp
:: go on lots of picnics
:: play outside.
:: Actually spend as much time as we can outside
:: Start making things for Christmas presents

It makes me smile just thinking about it . . .

How about you? What plans do you have for the summer?