Almost June?

Where has the time gone? Do you realize the year is almost half over...how many days until Christmas? It feels like it should be closer to winter than summer here today. It's in the 40s and rainy...hello!! It's the end of May!

Summer will come, right? We will have more than a couple days of warm weather right? We have a few 90s...then the temperature plummeted into the 50s. And rain...we've had lots and lots of rain.

Ahh...Summer. Last year I was panicked about it. Being home with my two boys...them fighting the entire summer. I had nightmares about it!

But it ended up being a great summer. As long as we keep busy, all is good. We'll be back at the pool this year - that helped...kept them separated a bit. And camps. Lots and lots of camps.

Between all of that and a few vacations I realized we only have about 4 weeks without anything planned!! I think it will go by so fast.

My youngest is already done with preschool. That ended last week. My oldest will be done with school in 11 days. They're counting down at school...actually so am I.

I am looking forward to our family vacations, the warm weather, getting a nice bronze look to my skin again (sorry I like being tan!) and squeezing in a few worksheets while we're at it.

My soon to be pre-K son wants to learn how to read. So we'll be starting with sight words this summer. We'll see if he and I have the patience to work together. I'm not going to push him hard...but we'll see where it goes.

And after spending $50 at The Chalkboard store, I hope my older son will be happy with his Presidential Puzzles workbook, math workbook and hidden puzzles book.

But our priorities this summer will be to have fun, relax and spend time with family and friends.

But first it needs to get warm and sunny. Then it will be a beautiful day! At least more beautiful than today!

Lucky to Have GG

Ahh...Mother's Day. The weather was beautiful and my boys were pretty good!! Not too much fighting or yelling...too bad I can't pull out the "stop it, it's mother's day..." every day. But I should be able to, shouldn't I?

This year, for the first time ever I started a new tradition. I was lucky enough to go out to a quiet dinner with my sister, mom and grandma on Saturday night. Without having to speak over the playing and trying to referee all the boys (I have two, my sister has 3) we were actually able to enjoy each other's company and conversation!

My grandma had a bit of a cold, but she did well. It was so nice to catch up. When we're normally all together, I hardly get 10 minutes to talk to her!

I tell my boys all the time they are so lucky to have a great grandma, not many kids do. I was lucky enough to have one too. My great grandma lived until I was a young adult. I didn't know anyone else growing up that had a great grandparent alive. It was such a pleasure!

I know my boys love their great grandma - they call her GG - and I think they realize how lucky they are. Exciting for them, she seems to always have a present for them! But most importantly they know she loves them with all her heart.

After quite a health scare with her in December, my new year's resolution was to call her once a week. I realized she isn't going to be here forever and I want to make sure I call, tell her about our week and make sure she knows I love her!

I also love hearing her reminisce about my grandpa (who died in 2002), talk about my mom's childhood and even our childhood. We lived with my grandparents for several years after my parents divorce when I was just a toddler.

I easily talk to my mom every day or every other day, but not my grandma. Of course - maybe that's because she's busier than me...volunteering and socializing with her friends and neighbors; and the weekly hair appointment and church! When I do call, she's hardly ever there!

But that makes me happy. It means she's feeling well enough to get out, and that makes it a beautiful day!

Crazy Month of May

The month of May is here! I should be delighted it's finally here. Warmer weather. Coming to the end of the school year (summer pool time!). And much needed vacation to see my dad in Arizona.

However...I am a couple days into the month and I'm wondering what I did to myself.

Besides school, my oldest son is already in soccer, cub scouts, piano lessons, and a gaming club at school. Now he's also in swimming lessons twice a month.

My youngest son is not only in preschool for three more weeks, but he's also now in soccer and swimming lessons twice a week.

AHHHH....

Crazy schedule every single day. I'm not sure why I did this to myself. I'm already struggling with keeping up with the boys' schedules, cleaning house, laundry, PTA duties, cub scout duties (did I mention I am a co-leader of my son's den?), getting dinner on the table every night and trying to do part time freelance work. Now my family will be lucky to eat dinner every night.

However my new goal in life is to look at the positive side of everything. There are too many negative people in this world and darn it, I'm not going to be one of them.

I am thankful my husband has a great job that helps us do all these extra activites without putting us in debt. And I am thankful that my boys love a busy schedule like I do!

And I am so excited to get my boys to really learn how to swim (I hope!) They both love the water and being in it, but drop them in the deep end and I'm not sure they'd survive. And that's what I want. Will they learn that in 8 lessons? I don't think so. But hopefully they'll learn the basic lessons of how to swim that we'll be able to use when we're in Arizona soaking up the sun at my dad's pool!

But who am I kidding? I HATE, yes I said hate, sitting around with nothing to do. I love a crazy, busy schedule and I wouldn't have it any other way. It makes me feel important and a successful mother, wife and woman.

Now, that doesn't mean I won't be glad when this month is over! I will be! But I will be reminding myself often, no matter how hard it is, it's another beautiful day!