August

This August the kids and I were lucky enough to enjoy four weeks at our family beach house in Maine. (Andrew, poor guy with a "normal" job, enjoyed 2 weeks.) I started the month feeling a little bit guilty that I was doing no "work" except for menu planning and grocery shopping- but then I realized that I was taking a month of Sabbath time. I was enjoying the fruits of my labor over the year and just being. Being a mom, being a daughter, being someone who floats around in the ocean thinking about nothing. It was heavenly.

And now we are home, it's September 1st and school starts next week. It's not so heavenly around here, just now. But that's the point of the Sabbath- to soak in some sunshine and peace to last through the back to school shopping and the endless whining over summer homework and screen time.

This was August:

on the road

can't get a better view

sand castle # 1

sand castle # 2, a prize winner!

candlepin bowling = harder than regular bowling

the fireman's slide, aka, "slip and slide" 

sailing cove

sailing race

swimming hole jumping

We are very, very blessed.

Let's hope that feeling lasts through my morning trip to pick up school supplies.

How to Survive a Vacation with your children...

bring your babysitter with you!

hahahahahaha... just kidding. But wouldn't that be great!?!

We are just finishing up a long stay at a family beach house. We are very, very blessed to have this beautiful place to get away from city life, and it has been a gorgeous month.

However... I am also really, really happy that the kids are starting camp on Monday morning! I will be dropping them off with a big smile, a hearty wave and a relieved "See you in 8 hours kids!!!"

Because let's be honest: a vacation with your children is not really a vacation. It can be lovely fun, but it's not exactly a loll around on your beach towel reading for hours kind of thing. As soon as you get all comfortable on your beach towel and open up that book you've been dying to read... some little person who's well-being you are responsible for needs to use the bathroom, or is hungry, or has fallen and scraped their hands, or is desperate to show you the dead crab they just fished out from the ocean.

You will never finish that novel.

Here are my tips for enjoying yourself while vacationing with kids.

demonstrating their excellent restaurant manners

1. Keep It Simple.  Food = Simple. Activities = Simple. Wardrobes = Simple.

Pretty much every day this month we got up, ate some toast or cereal for breakfast, put on our bathing suits and went swimming. We went to the beach.  Or we went to the other beach. Or the lake. Or the swimming hole.  Then we ate some sandwiches, fruit and carrot sticks for lunch. Then the kids ran around or played ball or rode their bikes or we went swimming again. Then we ate nachos for snack. (Daniel is a HUGE fan of nachos. We went through 8 bottles of salsa this month. 8 large bottles.) Then we went up to the ice cream parlor and got some ice cream. Then we started cocktail time dinner (spaghetti/mac n cheese/rice and beans, repeat), read some books, and went to bed. When it rained we visited the local library, or they watched movies on the computer or played in the attic. There were occasional trips to town to visit the five and dime and the grocery story for bribes toys and more salsa. Sometimes we put ourselves through hell went to a restaurant to eat. Other than that, it was peanut butter, nachos, ice cream and spaghetti. Bathing suits and bikes.

super excited to have taught his cousin how to make his favorite treat!!!

2. Try to keep the adult:child ratio balanced. 

My minimum for a vacation is a 3:2 adult:child ratio. That way, one person watches the kids, another one is cooking/cleaning/doing laundry/running errands, and the third person gets to relax. Keep rotating, and for at least 1/3 of the time, you get to relax! And, you also get the fun of fighting with the other two folks about who is spending more time doing chores and who is getting away with too much relaxing. It's just really not a family vacation without that argument.

swimmin' hole. no fear.

3. Keep Stocked Up.

You may have little people to keep alive, but this is still your vacation. So, stock up on your favorite vacation treats! We always have a ready supply of good strong coffee, chilled white wine, cocktail mixers, and sweets. My pants are bit snug, but my spirit is loose.

4. Put them to bed early.

Lily has been heading up to bed around 6:30PM this month. Daniel is in pajamas by 7:30PM.  Yes, it's light out til 9PM, and yes the neighbor kids are still out riding their bikes... but no matter. Bedtime! By 8PM, the house is quiet, and I have time to pour myself another glass of wine herbal tea and enjoy my vacation. Lily will be climbing into my bed by 6AM to wake me up, and by 7AM the house is a unholy noisy mess again.  The day time is theirs, the evenings are mine.

If you don't put them to bed early, how will you ever finish that novel?

It's all about the ice cream.

5. Relax the rules, but not all the rules.

One thing I want my children to learn is that whether we are on vacation or at home, we are a family who helps each other out. So, since I still need to cook and do laundry, the kids still need to do chores. Tables must be cleared, toys picked up, garbage taken out. There has been a fair amount of grumbling about this, but not too much louder than the grumbling I hear at home.

On the other hand, it is vacation. So yes, you can eat ice cream every day. And yes, we will get that ridiculous toy from the bargain bin that will probably break in 5 minutes but be glorious, if brief, fun.  Yes, you can have nachos for breakfast. Yes we will listen to that ridiculous song on the radio, again.

And yes, we will take you to the lake to swim for 4 hours. I need to tire you out, anyway, so I can get you to bed early and start enjoying my vacation.

How do you survive enjoy family vacations?

Summer Scenes

We are ensconced at our family's beach house, feeling very, very lucky. It's kind of like being at camp....

There are lawn sports:

Grandpa teaching L the art of croquet

There is First Aid training...

Daniel sliced his foot on a shell while swimming...

Quiet reading time...

which was a perfect opportunity to get him immersed in the world of Harry Potter

Roller Skating!

Copious amounts of ice cream...

L's favorite flavor: purple!

Arts and Crafts

Grandma lets them paint. I took the photo and ran off. Arts and crafts with my kids stresses me out...

Sparkler fun...

it was all fun and games until L burned her finger... about 5 seconds after this photo was taken

Fishing with friends...

L and A

Bouncing at the local County Fair...

Animal Husbandry

L with a muscovy duck baby

Swimming...

More fishing...

And just general goofing off...

We hope your summer is full of silly fun!

Summers Off!

these two. They drive me so crazy, and then they go and do this and my heart melts.

Hello!

We made it through the end of the school year! I wasn't sure... it was touch and go there for a few weeks. I didn't think I would pull it off this year, but somehow did. The report cards were written, the attendance records updated, the room was cleaned and packed up, the students were sent off for their summer.  I bought, made and delivered thank you presents for D and L's teachers. All of the end of year parties, tips, notes and check lists were attended, collected, completed. We did the last day of _____ (gymnastics, basketball, dance, school). We did it. Phew.

And then we left! Hooray! We are up at our family beach house this month. We are eating our way through the ice cream menu at our local ice cream parlor. We are running, swimming, biking, playing and chasing and non-stopping to our hearts content. Okay, the kids are.  I'm making sandwiches, drinking a lot of iced coffee and reading on the porch. I am NOT making: to-do lists, school lunches or homework assignments. For that, I am very thankful. 

Plus I get to do this:

enjoying a windy sunset at the Lighthouse

and for that I am very thankful.

A weekend away

We took a little "escape the dusty no kitchen house" vacation this weekend.

I mean, if I have to eat out every meal anyway, I may as well also sleep in a hotel bed. 

So here we are in non scenic New Jersey, enjoying some family time.

The kids explored the Liberty Science Center, which has great stuff for both little and big kids.

We ate our faces off at Harold's Dinner, and Agave Mexican, and a local Portugese place, and a Dunkin Donuts, because why not? We are on vacation. 

Weeks and weeks of eating my stress and it's really starting to show. A third chin may appear to keep the other two company. I think what I'm going to be cooking when I finally have a kitchen again is Kale.

Lots and lots of kale.

The kids loved the hotel pool, and quickly made friends with the other kids whose moms are cooler and remembered to bring floaties and pool toys.

We made a stop at the Newark Museum, a beautiful little oasis. Oh look, is that Grandma in that photo on the wall? Grandma used to work!? She didn't always spend her days looking for Barbie shoes and making chocolate pudding?!

Today we go back to reality. With maybe a few less donuts. 

Traveling...

So this week our floors were sanded and our bedrooms painted. So we traveled...

First we spent two nights at a local hotel. Small room, free breakfast. We let the kids watch TV. ( Anyone else wonder what the folks writing cartoons are smoking?)

Then the kids and I spent two nights at Grandma and Grandpa's new home. They still have lots of boxes, but no dust or cat smell. And, they let me sleep in (past 7!!!) The kids loved the new pool. Mommy liked the new hot tub. It was during this stay that I realized I'd packed no shoes for myself. I started to get a bit tired of the black flip flops I'd been wearing all week.

The final stop of the week was Bear Mountain. There Daddy would join us (poor guy, he'd spent two nights in a hotel All. By. Himself.) We'd celebrate my dad's birthday. The lodge was great. 

Daniel: There's a TV in every room!! Can I watch one?!

Mom: no.

The kids liked the playground next to the lake. This is when I realized I'd traveled an hour and spent a great deal of money just to do what I do every Saturday at home: Sit in a park and read my phone while my kids run around. Only the view was a bit better.

As always happens when you plan a big birthday party: someone got sick. So we ate pizza on the porch and toasted Grandpa with plastic cups of wine. Thankfully he wasn't the one who got sick.

I may have started drinking heavily day 4 of this journey.

Side cars are delicious. You should try one.

The kids are all asleep now. Or they better be, if they know what's good for them.

(Not all the kids were excited about their matching t-shirts.)

Tomorrow we go home and move in, again. The painters (who said they'd be done Wednesday, then Friday, then Saturday...) have been told that Monday is the first day of school and we are NOT sleeping anywhere but our own beds. 

$&@? it.

How was your weekend?!

Bye bye Summer!

Or, at least, the relaxing vacation part of our summer. We are on our way home, and will soon be up to our ears in boxes and mortgage paperwork. Hooray!

I hope all of you have some lovely summery things to look forward to. I'll be looking back on a delicious past few weeks... 

Vacation time

Our family is about to go away for a 3 week vacation in Maine. I'm filled with about equal parts longing and dread.  Three weeks, just us (mostly, there are Grandparents and cousins involved too.)  No camp.  No daycare.  No babysitters.

I'm looking forward to it, no really I am.  It will be good for us to spend lots of time together as a family.  It's just.  Well, parenting is tough and the days are long.  And we've decided, again, to have a "No TV in Maine" rule (and no ipads and iphones and other devices my kids love). Which means no electronic babysitters either. (This post brought to you by the TV the kids are happily watching quietly while I write.)

Sigh. I hope I'm not alone in this. (I'm pretty sure that my own parents popped some Champagne every time we went off to sleep away camp.)  I'm looking forward to spending days on the water, evenings on the porch, having lots of grass to play on and homemade ice cream to feast on.  But, but.  I've gotten used to having alone time too. And alone time does not exist with young children. Especially ones with sleep issues who will not go to bed in a strange house alone.

"Lily, I'm just going to the bathroom."
"Okay mommy, I come with you."

Two years ago, Andrew and I arrived in Addis Ababa to be united with our children. We'd been waiting and praying for that day for 2 (no, 4) years.  The intensity of that day and that days that followed has stayed with me.  I remember in my bones how difficult it was to be separated from them in the beginning. How I would ache and worry most of the time I was away from my children.  Now I'm worrying about how I will stand 3 weeks of togetherness.

How things have changed. How I have changed...  for the better? Hmmm....

Let's see how the next 3 weeks go...