Why I’ve been a silent blogger aka What we did this summer

 

The big news from this summer is that we moved back to the City from Small Town, Ontario. It’s the 3^rd move the kids and I have done since their dad and I split and thankfully, this will be the last move for a very long time (decades hopefully!).

We basically had to gut the house we moved into, renovate lots and then move in. The original plan was to move on the Saturday of one of the full weeks the kids were at their dad’s over the summer so I would have the week to finish painting, unpacking and organizing. Of course, renos never go as scheduled/planned and when the kids moved in at the end of the week with their dad, our bathroom was fully function the day before, and supplier mess ups meant that we still didn’t have a kitchen. Well, the basics were there but nothing was functional because the supplier sent us the wrong countertop (a white one…who orders a white countertop??! One spaghetti dinner with a white countertop would stain and ruin it!). I had ordered a very cool brown-toned countertop called “Jamocha” (which I say with a really horrible weird accent every single time!) and at no point in time had been told that was a customized countertop so would cost extra. Along with the many other little problems from the supplier which all together meant a huge problem, they ended up giving us the customized countertop (which is supposed to take 6 – 8 weeks I might add) within 3 days.

Somehow I pulled off still feeding the kids with horrible fast food (our digestive systems weren’t happy!) and eating at my man’s place daily (he’s the best, especially since my kids are very picky eaters). Somehow I also pulled off “Back to School” without a functioning kitchen OR being fully unpacked.  I knew I had all the supplies, I just couldn’t find them!  I perfected a very intricate method of balancing everything on top of the dishwasher top (which is NOT flat in case you were wondering) to make and pack lunches.

Now, we’re at the “making everything pretty” stage with only 3 more rooms to paint. My daughter’s room is pink (she chose it…and it’s VERY pink!). My son’s room is blue (which he also chose). My room is green (my fav colour) and it makes me smile. The rest of the house is a nice warm beige/taupe colour that, as soon as my man saw it he declared that it was the same colour as my chai, which I actually hadn’t noticed until he pointed it out. It was so nice being able to choose all the paint colours myself, for the first time in my life.

Best of all, just tonight, I finally made pumpkin loaf (our family staple) so we’re finally “home”!

 

List of #Summer Activities

 

Happy first day of summer!

 

Summer has hit us hard here. We’re currently in day 3 of a heat advisory. Today’s forecast is 33 degrees Celsius (92 degrees Fahrenheit) with a humidex that will make it feel closer to 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit). Needless to say, all our Canadian igloos melted days ago…ha!

 

Recently, I blogged about trying to get organized to get crafty and have activity ideas readily accessible (so I don’t have to think), so I thought I would share our list, compiled by Googling “summer activities” and asking on Facebook mom groups what everyone is up to over the summer. Here are some of the things the kids and I will be doing this summer:

• Make homemade ice cream in a bag
• Make homemade popsicles
• Ride bikes outside
• Make a “Park Passport” and check each park off as we visit new ones
• Wrap a piece a duct tape around wrist with sticky side up. Take a walk around the neighborhood and stick leaves, small pebbles, sticks, and other treasures onto duct tape bracelet
• Paint the sidewalk with water
• Washand detail the car (get ready for a water fight!)
• Make a bird feeder
• Go to the splashpad
• Go on an “Alphabet tour”: go for a walk with camera & notebook, and beginning with the letter “a”, find something that starts with that letter (i.e.Adams Street). Take a picture & write it in your notebook. Continue with each letter. Each child has a personal and creative alphabet memory book for the summer.
• Go to a local pond and record items, animals and plants you see
• Go to a Farmer’s Market
• Play with a Hula-Hoop
• Go on a picnic
• Collect rocks and paint them; make them into Rock People
• Go to the library
• Go to the beach
• Pick some flowers
• Draw with chalk on the sidewalk
• Blow bubbles
• Go swimming
• Water balloon fight
• Play Frisbee
• Play soccer
• Play baseball
• Build a sandcastle
• Lie down on the grass and find shapes in the clouds

 

I have printed these activities on a label template, and put them in our Summer Box.

 

What are you going to do with the kids this summer?

 

Trying to get organized to become #crafty

Last week, I mentioned I had created lists for crafts and activities to do with the kids. I’m not a crafty person but honestly, Pinterest has actually inspired me to think I may be able to handle some crafts. Even bought my first container of Mod Podge (was a bit thrown off that there are different types, but I’ll fumble my way through)! So, if I show any crafts here, I can guarantee you that anyone can do them!

I wanted to have pretty containers for my lists of crafts and activities so the kids and I went to the dollar store and found 4 boxes we liked (ok, I liked…my daughter picked out some really brightly coloured ones with a very strange pattern – I just couldn’t imagine myself looking at them all the time).  We bought:

• 4 same-sized boxes
• scrapbooking paper (as a non-scrapbooker, of course I don’t have any at home)
• 2 pages of letter stickers to make sure I had enough letters for all the words I was going to use (I actually had some letter stickers, but in colours that didn’t match the boxes)

I traced the green side of a box that showed under the lid onto the black paper and cut it out. Then I just eyeballed to make it smaller than the side of the box (see, really technical here!), and cut the paper smaller.

I went to add the word “summer” to the paper for that box and encountered a bit of a problem before I even stuck the letter stickers. I have really good spatial awareness, so I realized that they were too big to fit horizontally across the paper. I stood there and looked at the letters, then the paper, back to the letters, back to the paper, cursed the “M” for being so wide, especially when I needed to use two for the word “summer”.  Took me a few minutes (ok, closer to 10 minutes, but I’m new to this!) for me to realize I could put the words on diagonally. So, that’s what I did.

(You would think I would have taken pictures of the word “Summer” in progress, alas, I did not. And clearly I need a better camera…any sponsors? Am willing to test out different ones…hint, hint!)

Then I repeated the same process for all 4 words I’m using to classify the lists: Summer, Rainy, Crafts, Winter.

Then I taped these “cards” onto the four boxes, and voila! I actually did a “craft” of some kind.

Rained Out Weekend, So I Created Kid-Related Lists

 

Mother Nature and I were at odds on the weekend. My original plans included going to local parks, nature walks looking for bugs and insects, a playdate, and going to the outdoor farmer’s market, etc. Basically, being outside most of the weekend. Alas, the rain spoiled that fun. Instead, we had a different playdate as our original one had to reschedule because of illness, going to the library, lots of tickle fights, computer games, iPad time, popcorn and a movie, and some colouring.

 

I’ll admit that I get very frustrated when Mother Nature foils my plans, primarily because I seem to have missed that class that most (all?) moms have taken where they can instantly come up with crafts to keep the kids happy and busy.

 

So, I also took advantage of the lazy, indoor weekend and started some lists. What can I say? I may be a SAHM, but I used to work out of the home, in an organizing role…lists are my life!  The lists I’ve now started are:

• Summer activities
• Rainy day activities
• Crafts
• Activities to do with other kids
• Winter activities

 

I have compiled them from many sources I found online, with Google, Pinterest and also some personal moms groups on Facebook. For the record, considering we’re 4 – 5 months from winter showing its ugly head again, it’s a lower priority than the other lists.

 

I’ve created the lists as label templates so I can cut them and put them in boxes, labeled appropriately. Stay tuned for how I actually created the boxes and the labels.

To Do This #Summer

Came across this list on Pinterest of things to do this summer.  Have replaced some words with ones that are more “PG”:

1. Get a tan ~ in my ginger world, this means becoming one big freckle

2. Be happy if I’m single, taken or heartbroken ~ I’m happily divorced, and am taken by a wonderful man who makes me very happy.

3. Hangout with all my friends

4. Partying it up

5. Remember that I only live once

6. Have my hair long ~ done! My hair is always long!

7. Not care about those who don’t matter

8. Do what I want ~ within reason of course, I am a mom after all!

9. Wear a swimsuit without feeling self conscious

10. Go skiny dipping ~ think I’ll replace this one with swimming, with my swimsuit on

11. Spend all day at the beach ~ with SPF thousand of course

12. Less computer, more outside

13. Catch fireflies ~ hmm, where would I find fireflies?

14. Camp out with friends

15. Be crazy!

16. Meet new people

17. Go on a trip somewhere ~ I went on a mini weekend trip with my man last weekend. Does that count?

18. Not care what I look like

19. Do something new