Family Time

Family Time

This is something I have been thinking about a lot lately.  As the kids have grown, it has been harder and harder to carve out those moments where we are all together at the same time without any distractions.

School is great - but it takes up huge amounts of time

Sports are so healthy and good for the kids - but with practices and games they take up huge amounts of time

Music/Orchestras/Private Lessons - the kids love them and have so much fun, but again the time commitment (especially when multiplied by 4) is also astronomical.

I love that my kids are so involved with things that are healthy and that they love.  I love that they have friends and like to bring them over to hang out and play.  All that I love, cherish, embrace and am grateful for.

BUT...it means that we are going in many different directions and are going there fast.  We have to be on time - sometimes driving back and forth across the city several times in one afternoon.  We briefly touch base (and not with all of them) at dinner before homework.  Some of them have sports practice or music practice that takes them away during the dinner hour.  How did it get this way?  When they were little, I vowed that the dinner hour would be sacred and we would have dinner together EVERY night without fail.  Great idea, but it doesn't work right now.

Then there is all the screen time - computer (for homework only during the week), TV (ditto to the computer), phones, DSs, iPads(only the 9th grader has one and she got it from the school-ARRGH!)

Family Time - I have made a commitment to having more screen free family time this year.  This is my only New Year's resolution and I am working hard toward it.

 To that end, we got away to Monterey over the New Year.  This kids were not allowed to bring any electronics with them - not even their phones.  My husband and I brought our phones for emergencies, but stayed off of them.

Instead, we went hiking as a family.

 We visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium and because there was no texting, the kids got truly involved with their surrounding and other things that were going on.  The questions they asked of the docents were amazing and the way the kids interacted with each other was great.

 We played games every morning before breakfast.  We had to learn how to modify SkipBo to accommodate 7 players!

 The oldest truly appreciated her surroundings and took time to enjoy them instead of "report" them.  It was nice just walking next to her and having some great conversations.

 Learned new things from siblings.

 Acted crazy, dancing and singing to ring in the New Year - all together, focusing on our family.

 We enjoyed street music.

 We enjoyed crafts and drawing and writing.

 Holding parrots.

 Photography.

 More games.  We played games everyday.  We read out loud to each other every day.

 Breakfast out - we all played word games and guessing games while waiting for our food to be delivered.

 More hiking and exploring.

And more hiking and family time.

Since the first of the year, we have gotten out hiking, played more games, and spent more time reading to each other.  Just spending more time together.

I am sharing over at 5minutesformom.  We are sharing things that we are working on and organizing.  Family Time - that's what I am working on - meaningful interactions, less distractions.  This will be our theme for the year.

Hexis and Homemade Candles with Kids

5 puffs this week.  I used the Candy Skein yarn that I purchased last week and love it!!  It's soft and doesn't split and those stripes are the best!

 Sometimes the kids come up with such fun things to do.  One of my kids had made candles on a field trip last year and wanted to make some again at home.

 We started by melting the just plain old white wax and added wax dye.  Blue was the color of the day.

 It was very hard to cut that wax in smaller pieces.  It took my big knife and that meat tenderizer (I used it like a hammer on the handle of the knife) to break off pieces.

 Cut strings for the wicks - they are too long, but the kids didn't seem to mind!

 Then we set up an assembly of sorts - several stops with a can of melted wax and a can of water.

 The kids then walked around the table stopping at each station to dip their wick first in wax and then in the water.  The had so much fun talking and walking!!

 Some of them made big ones and formed them into shapes...

 others just let the wax do whatever it wanted.

 The 7 year old meticulously made different forms.

 The 10 year old trying to get a skinny one to stand up.

 Still trying.  It never did stand up, but she didn't mind.

The candles of our labors :o)  Not perfect, but perfectly fun!  They want to make more as soon as we use these up.

I love these times with the kids where we can just stop all the crazy business and take a breath.  Do something fun together that they have initiated.  These are the times, I hope, that they will look back on and think how fun it was to grow up in our home with all their siblings.

Sharing at:  Carole's, Nicole's, and 5 Minutes for Mom, and Mindful Mothering.

Finding Time for Me

Summer vacation is coming to a close - the kids all start school on Thursday.  This comes, as always, with a bunch of mixed feelings.  I am a little sad to have them going back, we have great times over the summer together.  I love hanging out with my kids and watching the siblings (and cousins!) reconnect.  The school year is so chaotic with each child going their own ways for school and activities.  I am also looking forward to more "me" time.  With everyone home for the summer, I have not had a chance for any breathing space.  My exercise routine went out the window as did the time to accomplish much of anything else.  I wouldn't want it to be any other way.

 I was able to keep knitting (a real sanity saver!)  These are hexis for the last two weeks.  Not so many of them this time!

 I also kept up with my garden.  This is just some of the bounty.

 Lettuce from the salad planter.

 I love the look and taste of those that look like little trees.

 I have tried to start a pineapple plant from the top of a pineapple - Only time will tell.....

 This is how the celery looks now that was started earlier this summer from the bottom of a bunch of celery from the grocery store.

 A new celery bottom waiting to be planted.  I love celery in salad!

These are plans for more crops to be planted in the next week or so.  This has been such a fun experiment this summer.

After the kids go back to school on Thursday, my plan is to do.......NOTHING.......this will be the first time that I don't have lists of things to get done.  Don't misunderstand, there are many, many things that need to be accomplished, but for Thursday and Friday I am giving myself a "free pass".  A little time to breathe and to hear myself think.

I am sharing for Tuesday Tallies and 5 Minutes for Mom today.

Tuesday Tallies & Kid's Organization

As you can see, this week was a little more busy than usual.. only 6 puffs completed.  My favorite of this bunch is the one in the upper left had corner - I'll have to make sure that's somewhere in the middle when I sew all these together :o)

 My sister-in-law sent me a photo of a chore box.  I thought it was such a great idea that I created one for our kids here!

 When she sent me the photo, I quickly put it on my to do list and it just sat there.  Well...earlier this week I wanted to mop the floor and the amount of kid's stuff that I would have to pick up just to start this job seemed daunting.  I realized that sometimes I get frustrated and demoralized because to complete any task there are several steps of "clearing" that need to happen first.  I guess you can imagine what happened next....the floor did not get mopped, but this box was born.

 Then I created the chores.  I kind of just walked around the house and wrote down things that needed to be done.

 Then I typed them up, cut them apart, and folded them.  There were several more sheets than the ones above and now that I have been able to think about it more I have quite a few other "chores" that I have added.  There are also a couple of "free pass" tags in there as well.

 The basket for picking chores.  I hold it just above eye level so there is no trying to pick a certain job.

 Just love it....

This is our box that first day.  One of my sons had all of his shoes in there!  Books, bags, jackets, and a broken toy (it needed to be won back so it could be thrown away).  The kids worked diligently - all of them had things in there - and pretty soon the box was empty.

It has been a few days now and I have not had to add anything to the box.  There has been an unexpected upside to this, the kids are going around every evening to pick up their things (that's not unexpected) and while they are doing that, when they spot something that belongs to a sibling they are either picking it up for them, or calling that kid to pick it up.  It has fostered a general working together and taking care of each other (this is the unexpected part!)

I'll keep you posted on how this continues to work (or not work).  The kid's "To Do" list from last week is still working fabulously.  They get up and it is almost a race to see who can move the clothes pins from one side of their board to the other.  The big test will be if this plan will be workable once school starts and we don't have as much free time.

Check out Carole's for more Tuesday Tallies and check out 5 minutes for mom for more Tackle it Tuesday projects.  These are great sources of inspiration for me :o)

Hexi Puffs and Kid Chore Challenge

My weekly hexi puff update - 14 this week.  I'm not quite sure how this got done, since I feel we have been busier than ever - we had camps, dentist and orthodontic checkups, orchestra "stuff", and....well the list is endless!!

 I really like these color combinations and am working up the courage to start sewing them together.

 I really like these little ones that look like they have hearts all over them.  I learned a new technique with these - how to knit holding the yarns in both hands - one in the right and one in the left - definitely hard to do!  The tension is still not right, but I am working on it and am so happy to be learning something that I have wanted to know how to do for a long time.

My Tackle It Tuesday Project

Lately, we have been having a few challenges with getting the kids to do their chores.  They "forget" or they "don't have time" or any manner of excuses.  I saw this idea on Pinterest the other day and the lightbulb went one.  Literally, I heard a "ding" in my head!!  I sat down with the kids - all 5 - and we talked about the importance of chores and teamwork within a family.  How we all work together to keep ourselves and our home safe and organized and that we are all in charge of taking care of each other.  It was a great talk - not the kind where I lecture them and they roll their eyes - but one where they were totally engaged and had some great input.  I introduced this idea from Pinterest and they were completely on board.  The lists were created by them and I wrote them on clothes pins.  Then we made door hangers out of the back of some empty cereal boxes and clipped them on.  Every morning they start out with their complete list on the "To Do" side, and as they finish their work (we call it work here - and all of us have work), they move the clip to the "Done" side.  We'll see how it works in the long run, but for now they are all excited to move those clips!!  Hopefully this will decrease the amount of nagging from mom!

Head over to Gingerbread Girl for more Tuesday tallies and over to 5 minutes for mom for more Tackle It Tuesday Projects.