Time and Space = Better Balance

Breakthrough!!

I should not schedule activities back-to-back, even if I can physically manage the close timing. I experimented this week with my scheduling and discovered that an hour between appointments is just about right. It's not enough time to get heavily involved in something new (like a personal project), but it's enough time to make significant headway on housekeeping tasks and other management issues that pop up...all those unschedule-able things that must be addressed anyway.

I've been trying this since my epiphany on June 28th.

We did go on vacation for a week right afterwards, of course, but the mindset remained. Since incorporating more "white space" into my calendar between events...

I haven't felt overwhelmed.

I haven't felt like a mom failure.

I have a little time to blog.

I enjoy my kids a little more.

The house is *slightly* more organized and clean (this has never been my strength anyway).

It's a good start! A better balance.

ACES Family Academy

Alice, Robert, and I had a unique opportunity this week to attend the ACES Family Academy at the U of I. It's a 2-day camp that the alumni association puts on for ACES (College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences) alumni and their kids/grandkids/nieces/nephews. We got to sleep in the dorms and attend a variety of classes and tours within the department. I was completely surprised by how much fun the three of us had! The classes were great, biking around campus was fun, the dorm food was excellent, and spending focused time on just two of my kids...bliss!

I learned something more about Robert. Very helpful. I still can't always predict what will trigger a 9-year-old tantrum, nor how long it will last, but I'm starting to see patterns. And develop a consistent response. And keep a level head. Progress!

On to the pictures!

Can you guess whose breakfast is whose?

Cool sculpture on our biking adventure the first morning. Alice led the way and tried to get us lost. We went all sorts of places, even the cemetery, and couldn't get lost.

Biking to the camp, to and from classes, and just for fun...one of my favorite parts of this camp experience with these guys.

Dissecting owl pellets. Mmmmm.

Robert checking out the moon from the U of I Observatory.

We were lucky that the clouds moved out of the way almost as soon as our group got there. Later, we went downstairs for a presentation on stars and constellations we might see this time of year. Alice and Robert got a lot of attention for their knowledge of Greek mythology (thanks, Percy Jackson).

This class taught us about how drones are helping farmers monitor their fields more efficiently. The instructor is demonstrating with his biggest drone. We got to make paper airplanes and attach a drone stick thingy to it, making it theoretically possible to control with a smart phone, but only one of the 12 planes made in the class actually stayed in the air for any amount of time. The kids were super frustrated. The next day, though, Robert named this as one of his favorite classes.

Creating a giant board game together in the family resiliency lab.

All geared up in the Food Science Pilot Plant to extrude some rice! That's a fancy way of saying "making rice Cheetos snacks". Robert seasoned his batch with brown sugar. Alice went for popcorn seasoning and brown sugar. I stuck with garlic and salt. Crunchtastic!

The kids totally want to go again next year. I would love to go back. They had a little "graduation ceremony" at the end and one family had been attending every summer since it started 5 years ago. That got Alice all excited to get that kind of attention, too ;)

Just tooling around and learning new things was fun. But the kids and I also got to talk about college and some whys and hows around it. Alice kept saying, "I feel so grown up with a dorm key and a food card in my pocket!" It's the little things I love the best ;)

Bunnysitting

James is really into animals and insects right now. I can't hardly be outside with him for 30 seconds before he's identified a cardinal or found a slug or captured a firefly. On vacation, he had an animal or insect in his hands half the time...fish, toads, snails, fireflies, moths, worms...anything he could catch!

He's been asking about a pet. We got chickens. He LOVES the chickens. And he wants more. The rabbits in our backyard intrigue him. He's asked about pet bunnies. I remembered bunny sitting for a friend some years ago and decided to contact them about it again this summer. As luck would have it, they would be leaving town for three weeks and they needed a bunny sitter! Huzzah!

We brought the bunnies over yesterday. James is over the moon!

James and Pip

The other kids don't mind it much, either ;)

Robert and Thunder

Four kids and two bunnies in an immersive, dual-species encounter

I'm treating the bunnies like they belong to James. He is 100% responsible for their care (with reminders as needed), including cleanup. Everyone is eager to help and play right now. What will happen by the end of three weeks? Will James' enthusiasm remain strong? Will he decide it's too much work for a 6.5-year-old? We shall see.

I do know, however, that in James' mind, this is not the end. Just this morning he asked with a grin, "Mom, do you think I'm doing a great job taking care of the bunnies?"

"Yes, James, I think you've been super responsible and mindful of their needs so far."

His grin widens, "Soooo, do you think I can get a dog after this?"

"Uhhhhhh."

Future Heights

Alice seems to be growing taller a lot faster these days. I said so this morning and she pulled out the measuring tape to have a look. Yup. Five foot four inches. Being a total geek, I looked up the official CDC Growth Charts and plotted her stats: 75th percentile. Which, if she stays on that trajectory, will mean her adult height will be somewhere about 5'6". This got me curious about our boys...where might they end up? We measured them all...

Alice...64" at age 12.25...75th %ile...~5'6" adult height
Robert...56" at age 9.25...85th %ile...~6'0" adult height
James...51" at age 6.5...>95th %ile...~6'3" adult height
Matthew...43" at age 4.5...75th %ile...~5'11" adult height

And because I'm really, truly, deep down inside a complete geek, here's where their parents line up:

Bobby...5'8" adult height...20th %ile
Susan...5'7" adult height...85th %ile

I cannot imagine a family picture where all the boys are taller than me. It has only ever been stair step heights up to this point. So orderly! So perfect! Gah!

I feel like Alice has done a lot of growing in other ways recently, too. Her needs are changing. Her desires are changing. Her outlook is changing. I will always be her mother, and she will always be my daughter, but in some ways on this trip to New York, we were also friends. That was a new feeling.

Finger Lakes and Palmyra, New York

We just returned from a week-long excursion out east. Even though we spent well over 24 hours in the car in only 6 days, the kids traveled remarkably well. Unbelievably well. So well, in fact, that I even returned refreshed and ready to get back into summer life. Growing up is a beautiful thing!

So is time with the Garner fam in Ohio...

Hammocks in the backyard, wiggle cars in the basement, and Saturday morning cartoons. Bliss!

Daniel dishing out snowcones.

Parting photo on the stairs (not pictured: me, Rachel, Matthew, Daniel, and the other 3 Garners still at Scout Camp)

...and a lake house in upstate New York with its own private pond...

James and Matthew frolicking barefoot.

The view from a canoe in the middle of the pond.

 

We loved the canoes! If anyone was in a boat, Matthew was too. That kid has overcome his fear of water travel.

Miniature toads were all throughout the lawn like crickets in our Illinois backyard.

Strong girl Alice getting the hang of canoe driving. Matthew in the boat. Again.

 

S'mores with enormous marshmallows!

Paddling on the pond some more. Oh look! Matthew's on the boat. Again. Every time.

Robert relaxing on the couch inside.

...well-stocked with eager little bluegills that will bite at anything...

This was Robert's last catch. It's not so little. Easily the biggest catch of the week. He was really, really, really happy about it. Ask him to tell you the story.

As much as Matthew was on the boat, James was fishing. By the end of our few days there, James was baiting his own hooks and releasing his own catches.

Even Alice got in on the fishing action!

I won't say I'm addicted, but fishing was certainly fun. The best part was the kids' enthusiasm for it.

One of James' many, many catches of the week.

We hiked Watkins Glen in the rain (also beautiful!):

Soggy hikers ready to start!

It was worth it...waterfalls, rock cliffs, suspension bridges, millipedes, toads, playground, and a water fountain that's WAY too powerful for its own good.

Enormous soft serve ice cream place after lunch! Mathew couldn't finish it.

We spent the first part of the Fourth of July visiting a few historical sites that are meaningful to us as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

We walked through the grove of trees where Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ first appeared to Joseph Smith.

Taking a break in the shade.

Boiling in the bright sun near the Hill Cumorah, where the golden plates (eventually translated into the Book of Mormon) were hidden over a thousand years. Mind boggling.

Later, we took a boat tour of Seneca Lake:

She's not grouchy or bored, just tired. Very tired. Matthew got sunscreen in his eyes and pretty much cried himself to sleep on Bobby's lap.

The things that made it a vacation for me: kids quietly taking care of their own entertainment and food needs in the car (thanks to Snackmeister Alice and Entertainmentmeister Robert...I'm definitely having them do that again next time), being allowed to sleep in every single morning (Thanks, Bobby! You're the best!), not being responsible for the food (many, many, many thanks to my friend), and seeing the kids play and explore and try new things together. This was one of my favorite family vacations to date!