Manic Monday

Well, well, well....

I've not done very well with keeping up with this.  I think about writing a blog fairly often, but then I just never sit down and take the few minutes to knock out a post.  Insert obligatory statement about how I will do better *here.*  Meh, I'm gonna try guys.

Today I have a Monday off.  It's the last Monday before school starts for my boys, and we really have nothing planned because I'm a lousy mom.  Summer has come and gone and we didn't do very much at all.  We went to the trampoline place, and we hiked.  IDEALLY, I'd like to go to the zoo over the weekend, as we haven't been in a REALLY long time but as a one-income household (ok, technically I have 3 incomes, but I'm one person and those 3 allow me the equivalent of ONE person truthfully...maybe I should put up a post about how that math works) the zoo is expensive for 5 people (3 adults...but if you think I'm going to the zoo without my GROWN children you would be WRONG, WAY WAY WRONG) PLUS it's almost a full tank of gas to get us there.  We will see.

I'm trying to get back on track with my house.  We don't live in squalor but a little over a week ago I was thinking "Man, my house used to be SO clean."  Now, granted, back then I didn't work AND I had a partner who definitely did his fair share of housework.  But, still, since my kids are older now there is less clutter in the way of toys strewn about so I feel like it should be manageable.  So I went back to my roots.  Flylady.net  I reminded myself of my old routines, and how I used to get things done and I did a rework of those routines based on current schedules.  For over a week now my "clean" laundry basket (I have one clean and one dirty basket lol) has been EMPTY.  Seriously.  Such an accomplishment.  *curtsies*  I'm trying to return to the world of meal-planning as this is a spot that I've not only dropped the ball, I lost it...it's somewhere in a ditch, deflating as we speak.  Truthfully, I'm at the grocery store probably 4 times a week.  I loathe the grocery store.  But I've been so terrible at planning ahead that I have no choice.  I typically decide at around 2 pm what we are eating for the day and have to run to the store for what I need.  Also, this is TERRIBLE for the food budget since the closest store to me is more expensive AND I am guilty of impulse purchases.  Trying to get a handle on this and bring out monthly budget down is a big goal.

So there you have it.  Summer is over.  I'm trying to regain control of my house, and my grocery budget and I've so far successfully managed to gain control of the laundry.  Small victories my friends.  Small victories.

Two For Tuesday

Yeah, I still have links to share.  :)

The first one is about creating a summer bucket list.  I'm so busy these days with work that I want to make sure I carve out time over the summer to really BE with the boys while they are out of school.  My "real job" schedule allows me three half days a week and my other job is at my own schedule (nice right??  Someone not so long ago told me I was lucky.  I told them I am not lucky, I don't believe in the concept of luck actually.  THIS is the life I've created for myself.  BOOM.)  Anywayyyyyyy, I'm working on compiling a list.  Because I'm a list maker.

Here is your link to my Summer Fun board over on Pinterest.  It's just a jumping off place.  For me personally, reading other people's lists gets my own thoughts going.  I'll (hopefully) at some point in the next week-ish post my own list for us for you to puruse.  We've done a lot of the things on the board I shared, but just by re-visiting it today I saw three things that I want to add that I saw and know we either haven't done or would like to do again.

The second one is about limiting screen time.  This is a HUGE problem for us.  There are multiple old blog posts about it here on my blog, so it's been a problem time and time again.  With summer approaching, I was looking for a way to limit how much time the boys are in front of a screen.  My girls remind me all the time that they had to EARN screen time and they are salty AF about the fact that their brothers do not.  Well, boys, summer is about to be a rude awakening because yesterday while cleaning out my closet I found STONES.  Yes, stones.  This is the system I used with their sisters.  Each stone allowed for a certain amount of screen time.  You started off with a small amount, but you could earn more.  You could also lose them for bad behavior.  For us, it's going to look like this.  You can start your day with three stones.  Thirty minutes.  If you'd like more, you will have to complete things from a list.  The things on the list will be reading, writing, playing outside (although, we tend to do that anyway,) chores, helping me or Two with something.  They will also be weighted.  Three HATES to read, so if he will read for the 20 minutes that school recommends he can earn an entire half hour of screens.  Judge me if you want, but I'm doing what I need to do here.  Four loves to do all the things on the list so he should be watching Gotham ALL SUMMER LONG.  Here is your link to some tips you can look at and see if something seems like it would work in your household.

Summer Fun

My hope is to turn dinner over to One and Two one night a week in the fall, giving me 2 nights that I don't have to cook, plus, until it gets COLD Hubby cooks on the grill usually once a week. So, I've been doing "cooking camp" and teaching the girls how to cook some things that we have pretty often.

Two mixing meatloaf.

After my rainy day fun post yesterday, I set up some bowls for Four. He was very excited!

This week we tye-dyed some towels for the kids to use after they swim (or shower, etc). This first one belongs to Two.

This one belongs to Three, he wanted it to look like "fireworks."

I'm not posting One's towel because she chose to tie-dye her first name across the towel (which turned out super cute) but I don't call them by thier real names here, so I won't post it.

Here is Three, very excited about his discovery box yesterday afternoon!

Pool fun. :) Seriously this is the best I could do of all 4.