Balance

I have learned a hard fast lesson about balance. I thrive on bring balanced. Not super exciting, and not super depressing. I belong on the fine line right down the middle. This is probably true for everybody. But my balance requires flexibility and spontaneity. I had high hopes of being structured and strict this summer. Gotta whip these boys into shape!  They are going to learn and have fun doing it! Dang it! They are going to work and have fun doing it! Dang it!  Well come to find out, mom can't function like that. The fun is all out the back door when I am so stressed out about every item on the check off list. Forcing myself to live in an organized / structured world is like forcing an OCD person to live in a mess not knowing what is going to happen every minute. It just doesn't work.  My balance hangs on the concept of imbalance. Where I can choose which things so and which things stay. And just how important everything is or is not. For example: playing and having an exciting summer vs. learning to work and be responsible. This looks like an easy answer. Of course, it's more important to work and develop. But then the details of the activity come into play. Is it important to work at 9:00 am right when you get out of bed? No. They have 9 months out of the year that they are expected to perform in the morning, a little break is needed. I was trying so hard to force them to be responsible that I myself became a witch and found myself helpless and in a very dark place. As soon as I "let go" of the rigid ness of my plans, things became a lot more pretty around here. Kids were smiling, and laughing, and I didn't want to hide in a dark corner alone.  So now they do their reading when we can "squeeze it in" and if we forget, oh well. Better luck tomorrow. I am sure my maker would hold me more responsible for loving the kids i was blessed to raise, then the quality of our summer boot camp. Glad it's still June and I didn't ruin too much of our summer with boot camp. 

 That being said, Milo thrives on structure. It's a wonder the two of us got put together in the same house. Thats why the plan of happiness includes a mom and a dad. After 8 years together were finally learning to live under the same roof, looks like we've found our own balance ;) 

Day 1 of summer learning time

This summer I decided to step up my mom game. Each day we are having learning time where the kids write, read, do math games and we do science experiments. We kicked off the first day with Newtons laws of motion, oil vs water, and colored salt. Milo recorded his findings in his journal and we made a video of Makays experiment.  Makay has a much gentler hand like a ninja, he successfully tapped the pan out of the way 3 times and funny Milo knocked the whole setup off the counter like a hulk. Nora is still worried about the egg that was smashed on the floor.  The salt was supposed to spread the water color paint around and give it a splotchy texture, but Nora ended up just making a pile of painted salt and she was happy.  The other days we spent at the pool they just quickly read and played a math game on the iPad to pass off their jobs so we could get to the fun part of the day.  Aunt Tiff loaded Milo up with some magazines for reading material to try to get him to a little more excited about his reading time.  

Baptism Day

Last Saturday June 1, Milo got baptized. It was such a fun day. I think I expected more for him that day; like some huge spiritual experience or to be swept off his feet with excitement about being a member of the church.  But after some thought, I realized that these sweet little 8 year olds are just beginning their spiritual journey. They are at the age of

accountability and they understand that. They also get the blessing of the Holy Ghost which can be overlooked in the importance of the event. He was happy and spent the day with family.  Just because he didn't spent the day writing in his journal and praying doesn't mean it wasn't special and memorable. Still when I ask him about it, he says this is his favorite birthday because he got 3 parties.  It was perfect weather and we really enjoyed almost all of our family being together.