Swim

So, last Monday morning (2 Monday's ago now this post has been sitting in editing for a bit) we, along with some of our friends, decided to pack up and head down to San Antonio for the week to explore as many amazingly cold, clear, refreshing swimming holes as possible in a Texas summer week.
Sounds great, right? Yes! We left with all the noodles, life vests, floaties, swimmy shoes, & floating water toys as two families can cram, stuff, and finagle into 1 Tahoe and 1 Suburban and still missed some of the best swimming holes in the friendship state.
Monday, leave from our house on TX Hwy 281. Sing as loudly as possible to any song you know which the kids blast through the car radio via iPod.
"Wait! I know an awesome candy store to stop at! We have to stop there. I see it every time we are on 281 and haven't stopped since I was a kid," I tell Jenny over the walkie talkie.
We finally find it, after I almost run out of fuel in Tollar. The candy store was a complete success with the kids and perfect timing for a pit stop. We gathered every flavor of salt water taffy the store had, from blueberry to bubblegum, plus some chocolates made right there in the store, restroom break, pictures with fiberglass buffalo, loaded up, buckled up, and hit the road for S.A.
Our truck, er the people in it that is, were so busy singing, I missed the cutoff in Lampassas and we ended up on 183. Jenny radios to me, " Why does that sign say to go right?"
"It's all good, that next sign says Austin, we can get to S.A. via Austin."
An hour after our original eta, we finally arrived at our destination. Everyone was still in great spirits, so we played in the pool a bit, then story time and off to sleep for our first day of adventure!

Linger

Mmm, I want to linger
Mmm, a little longer
Mmm, a little longer here with you

Mmm, its such a perfect night
Mmm, it doesn't seem quite right
Mmm, that this should be my last with you

Mmm, and as the years go by
Mmm, I'll think of you and sigh
Mmm, This is good night and not good bye

Mmm, I want to linger
Mmm, a little longer
Mmm, a little longer here with you

Mmm, and come September
Mmm, I will remember
Mmm, our camping days and friendships true

Mmm, I want to linger
Mmm, a lttle longer
Mmm, a little longer here with you

I don't know the author of this. I recalled only the first 3 lines and was able to find it online. I am sure if I scoured a bit longer online I could giver credit where it is due, but, I have no time to squander. Just know, I did not make this up. :-)

We spent a wonderful day in Turner Falls with out fantastic friends yesterday. I was in the water a good part of the day and therefore did not have my camera much. I did manage to snap a few pictures.

Life

This morning, Dom getting out of bed woke me.It was 8:30. I don't like waking up, it doesn't matter what time of day it is, waking takes me an hour, and even then, I don't want to chat much. The B vitamins I have begun taking help me to feel awake a bit more quickly, but I still don't want to talk. I don't enjoy regular coffee much either. I love, love, love an almost frozen Starbucks Frappuccino. I can put a tiny smile on my face if I have one of those!

Mady and Niki always sleep until at least 9 am. Luke and Ezra are awake before me. Thankfully Dom is a morning person so he usually helps them get whatever it is their little hearts desire very first thing in the morning.

This morning, as every morning, I attempt to focus my attention on what is going on around me at the moment. The children obviously make that an easy thing to do since they are there, awake, excited, loving, and ready for whatever adventure the day may bring.

Wait! This morning isn't like that. Luke and Ezra both woke up with different needs today then usual. Our family had planned on visiting the aquarium today with Nenaw and Jessie. It was clear that is not what the boys needed. Upon asking them if they did indeed want to take the hour long trek to our previously decided destination, it was discovered they indeed were no longer interested. I quickly made the calls to let everyone know they could slow their mornings down and we hopped in the truck to fetch some much needed sugary syrup for wheat pancakes. (Sugary is all the closest store has. This didn't disappoint Luke and Ezra at all!) We rushed into the store, exchanged a few sentences with Lucy behind the counter, and raced home to cook breakfast. Luke and Ezra helped me mix ingredients. Before I was able to actually cook any pancakes, each of them was literally screaming for a different cereal. Request fulfilled. I continue cooking pancakes. Luke and Ezra eat 4 wheat pancakes in addition to cereal! Yeah, all our dispositions are improving. I have to remind myself several times we all have different needs this morning. I take a moment to look around me and just breath, drink a protein shake, hug Luke and Ezra. Now we sit down and snuggle on the sofa and watch Spongebob. Niki wakes and joins us on the sofa. Word World is on. We listen and say words slowly to hear all the sounds in each word. The boys feel better. We talk about going to the store for an inflatable pool (sturdy plastic one bit the dust-decide it's not so sturdy.) Luke and Ezra want to play cars and Niki and Mady want to watch YouTube videos. I think it maybe a good time to write something about our family.

Lately, between reading, and talking with some amazing mom friends, it has occurred to me I dwell too much in other places instead of in the present moment with my family. Not only does this effect each of us now, it will continue to effect my children as I am passing these habits onto them, unintentionally. Time to shift my way of thinking, being, living. Wake up, be here now, not in some fantastic fantasy or miserable memory.

Records

I am sure I have pictures to post if I wanted, but for now, I think I just need to get back in the habit of keeping some kind of documentation of what we do. We have been using our little calendar but blogging obviously provides more room for detail.
Niki and I played on Starfall yesterday for a couple of hours. She hasn't been interested in this website lately. Upon re-introduction to Starfall.com we discovered Niki can now read! Amazing how it just happens. We watch Word World, and the LEAP videos often, and we read daily but, who can say why everything actually clicked suddenly? I can say there was no coercion or pressure put on Niki to learn to read at the age of 3 and 4 as there was for Mady when she attended private school. Niki also loves workbooks. We worked on some mathy sort of pages yesterday as well. There are some blank pages in the workbook which Niki filled with her own made up story in her own made up language that seems to consist of the traditional alphabet. We all painted pictures yesterday. Niki painted some rainbows and the boys painted, well, the boys painted lots of things. We also began a new book titled "Fever 1793" about a little girl living during the yellow fever epidemic of 1793. Niki wanted to go bike riding with me last night. Instead of leaving our neighborhood for a long winding stretch of hilly road, we stayed here and I rode a short 3 times (3 Miles) around our neighborhood with Niki, which seems like a long distance for such a little girl. So to put everything in schooly terms, we had a bit of history, math, reading, writing, PE and art. I believe that is a full day people.
Luke and Ezra and I played Memory and color Bingo. We played them our way since Luke and Ezra are a bit young for following "rules" to board games. Ezra also decided he needed to paint some of his die cast cars...on the laminate flooring in his room while I was helping Niki on Starfall. There were tire tracks all over the floor!
Niki and Luke have a pretty nasty cough so we are headed to the library for some books today and maybe to a friends house (who already has the nasty cough.) Mady should be home Wednesday and we can begin her new writing videos. I know she will LOVE that.
Next week we have plans to hit Port Aransas with Nenaw while she is on vacation. We are staying in a hotel, a rare event for this camping family. As a matter of fact, I think the boys have spent one night in a hotel in their 3 years. Consider all the trips we have been on all over Texas. This will be an exercise in finding what is socially acceptable behavior for Texas hotels.
The weekends around here have become extremely busy. There are so many free outdoor concerts in the area and our family loves to be outside the music is an added bonus. We have tickets (these ones weren't free) this weekend to Concerts in the Garden in Ft. Worth at the Botanic Gardens. There will be a laser show!
So, off to the library and visiting we go!