The Story Makers.

The Story Makers.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

52 Plants.

Summertime is in full swing.
We are soaking up our Utah bound friends as much as possible.
We are all getting tanned....well fried actually, from squeezing in  so much 
beach time with them.
Only one week to go before their big move : (

 Besties!!
................................................
Last night I met 
my Master Gardening friend Erica at the 
Cocoa Extension Office where we browsed through hundreds of 
plants, bushes, and trees of all varieties.
Like kids in a candy store!!
I left with a FULL Truck bed of plants.....
52 to be exact.
Now for the hard part....getting all these beauties in the ground.
  In a place that suits them.
 In an arrangement that balances the yard...
and to decide what spot makes the most 
out of every little, and not so little specimen.....
52 times!
(thankfully my leader gave me some guidance here as well : )
I think I have twelve or so to go....mostly for the back yard.
Which once again requires my honey.
He is really beginning to wonder about my mysterious gardening buddy.
I need to make introductions!
He says he is not interested in spending every spare second he has 
on any more yard projects.
Truth be told, he has been a wonderful sport....
he and the kids finished repairing the sprinkler system last night,
just in time for todays planting.
Then tonight, after walking in the door from work,
he kindly accepted my next plea for he and L to
pull and dig out three more decrepit, over worked, tired looking trees
from along our back fence.  

I think this is the place I am most excited about.
I am so excited to look out our big family room window 
and see something of beauty through them for a change....
rather than our neighbors back yard through our rusty old chain link fence.
HIGH HOPES!!  
 Will post a final update this weekend : )
.........drum roll please........

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

TIC - TALK

Pioneer Trek.
Scout camp.
Hair Bobbing.
These kids have it made.
Lots of fun summertime experiences.

 E and R spent four days at pioneer trek with other friends and 
kids in our stake.
I love that they had this opportunity.

Before Pics.
After.
Here is a short VIDEO of their return.

I can't seem to get any of Lawson's scout camp pics uploaded to 
my blog today.....so I guess we will settle for pics of one of the two
tics found in L after he got home, 
(and showered and cleaned up) from camp.
L found this one in the side of his foot, 
earlier K had dug one out of the back of L's head.
Geeez!
I wanted you to see what they look like, I sure didn't know.
If you are wondering why there are so many angles.....
that is because this little guy was a quick mover.
YEP.  that's right, both tics were alive and well,
ready to burrow again after being extracted.
I guess that is good, otherwise, if they had been dead it would mean 
the head popped off in the skin, 
and would have continued to burrow!!
 M has been wanting a bob for a while now.
We (I) cut her hair a few months back, and she has enjoyed that.
However, she and a few of her good gal pals had a shorter
style in mind.
V and I took the girls to a "Salon" ......The $15 Hair Cuttery down 
the street, and they had a BIG TIME.
They loved it!
It was a fun little girl time splurge while the boys were away.
Bob-C Twins
 I have been excited to be working with my Master Gardner friend,
Erica, for the last week or so.
We are making big plans for our yard, she has given me certain 
assignments I need to fulfill before we meet up again next week to purchase
new native plants for our yard.
Some of those assignments are to pull out some 
old, nasty trees and bushes.
Great.....
it's just that K has been traveling so much lately,
that I felt a little worried about how the kids and I were going to
remove them on our own.
Well, Fear not!
K said, lets just do it now!
OK, lets DO IT!
Here are the remains of our yard for now.
You can see the broken sprinkler pipe in the big picture....
So yes, 
we ran into a little trouble, but we will  forge ahead.
Kev was not exactly tickled about the project after the sprinkler 
buckled and snapped after being drug out of the ground with the 
roots of the third tree.
He has big doubts now that he is more involved with the project.
He thought his involvement would begin and end with the
tree removal / grass tearing up project....
so did I.
Here is a brief, yet distressing VIDEO of the Damage being performed.
                                
I wanted to share this beautiful morning with you.
Come visit and see this magnificence with your own eyes : )
and Hey.....how bout one more VIDEO to start, or end your blog reading right?

Monday, June 3, 2013

BORED Games

Summertime is here.
Kids are home all day every day.
It brings me back to our days of schooling at home.....
I do kind of like it.
I announced to my four little buddies,
"We are going to be spending a lot of time together guys.
We are a team, remember that.
Plan to work on projects together,
and having lots of together time this summer."

The flip side of summer is also
terrifying, and exhausting.....
the constant battle to keep kids off their electronics.
It is a never ending task.
I am 100% positive that it is the same for many other moms
out there...I know this because we talk about it,
and I hear you on the phone in the middle 
of conversations, etc.
It is a CONSUMING issue for us all.
I can't come up with enough chores, and projects to slow them 
down.  They work fast and like a fine oiled machine when
they know when they are done they can get right back into gaming.

Only, I don't want that to be their summer.
I WANT THEM OFF THE COMPUTER.
OFF THEIR PHONE.
OFF THE INTERNET.
OFF THE T.V. GAME SYSTEM.

It is a full time job trying to creatively and peaceably try and assist them 
with this goal,
because they are fighting for the exact oposite.

Here is what I love to see as a mom.
Washing dishes while humming a tune.
Happily reading.
Writing a report on the importance of honoring your mother
and father (had a little run in that needed addressing) 
 ....and this,
working in the yard together.
They would never admit it, but they had a good time picking these
cut branches up as a team....
I was spying, they were laughing, having
CONVERSATION, and funny competitions.
It was not torture, no matter what they try and say.
Besides, I had already done all the hard work of cutting and 
trimming to prepare this task for them.
We had a very enjoyable out doorsy trip to Asheville, NC with
Kevin last week.
The kids and I drove the 8 hours there.  We spent 5 days river rafting,
(can't wait to do that again!!)
hiking, 
 Eating a lot of fine barbecue.
(Me, reading!!!! Happy, Happy, Happy!) 
 Climbing Chimney Rock, 
 Zip lining, and enjoying the Adventure Park.
 It is so much fun now that M is finally old enough for us to 
start enjoying these more active wholesome recreational activities together.
 We had a wonderful time....all except for my speeding ticket : (

This trip was fun, and a great way to stay off the dreaded media....
sort of.....we did have some of that to.
Vacations are GREAT!  But obviously, 
all summer long cannot be a never ending vacation.

So that is what I am trying to figure out now.
A happy medium for all of us.

I love the new church magazines that came today, in 
The New Era, there is a great article, 
there are some fun ideas.  
One quote I like is this,
"We know that spending time with our family is important,
but not every family gathering can be a planned, themed event.
So we need to know how to spend time with our parents and siblings
from day to day."

I bring this up because sometimes I feel that we struggle with 
communication. 
Polite, courteous, friendly, supportive conversations.
We sometimes get critical, cynical, and just plain rude
with one another.

In one of my many strategies of trying to get our kids off media and
into real life, and interacting with each other,
I implemented family board game time.
We kicked this off last night.
K had to head back to Asheville, so I corralled the kids,
and forced a game on them.
It was Hearts, to begin with.
This was a struggle from the get go.
M was pushed to tears twice, there was a lot of 
LOUD yelling and accusations thrown about cheating,
and game wrong doings.
We tried two games total....it was completely frustrating and
bewildering to me.
So much so that I extended the program of family game 
playing to every day for the rest of the summer.

I am doing this with the hopes that our 
FAMILY CAN LEARN TO BE NORMAL.
I had no idea our boys could not function and play a real live 
board game with out being insane and crazy.

Well, guess what?
 We have a lot of summer to go.
I have HIGH hopes for them.

The night ended with me having to count several times,
"Ok, that's it.....1, 2, 3, 4, 5.....what in the heck?
These guys are all teenagers?!
I took away a sword, a phone, and one person got assigned 
to write a report on respect.

Basically it was a major joke night.
..............
I have thought many times over the years 
about an experience I 
had with my own dad while we were vacationing with them in Utah.
We were staying with them at their previous home in 
American Fork.
My sisters and I were having a late night game night,
playing Canasta and probably eating a whole ton of garbage....
(can't wait....only a few more weeks and we will be doing it again!!!)
 We were trying to get dad to play with us,
(which he has numerous times)
but he was hum-hawing around and did not want to play.
I said dad, why don't you want to play?
It is so much more fun playing together.
He said, well I feel like it is just a waste of time.
?
I quickly retorted.....gee dad, it is never a waste of time to play
with your kids.
He agreed, and sat down to play with us.
Mostly I am sure I said this just to guilt him into joining us....
because 
those words out of my mouth were really 
meant for my ears.
.......................
It is certainly effort to play with our kids at times.
Last night it sure was.
But it feels like something that is vitally important.

In the June Ensign I stumbled upon another great resource,
there is an article I found helpful called, 
There are many great quotes, 
I will use just one,
"Just as honest toil gives rest its sweetness, 
wholesome recreation is the friend and steadying companion of work.
Music, literature, art, dance, drama, athletics - all can provide entertainment
to enrich one's life and further consecrate it.  
At the same time, it hardly needs to be said that much of what passes
for entertainment today is coarse, degrading, violent, 
mind-numbing, and time wasting.
Ironically, 
it sometimes takes hard work to find wholesome leisure."

I am up for the challenge!!


Is something working great for your family????
Share your successes...PLEASE :)