Summer Winding Down?

Yes, you read that right. We are winding down summer her in our household. School doesn't start until Aug 12, but the kids that I babysit start coming next week. One will be here three days next week and then I ad the other four days the next week. My three day a week baby will only come for a few weeks and then his grandma is retiring and going to keep him. I can't decide if I want to look for another child to keep. The extra money is nice, but two kids are alot more work and it really ties me down during the day. I really can't take two little one very far. If one of my kids has an appointment it is almost impossible for me to go with two babies in tow. I have some things listed on e-bay right now. If I can do decent selling the things that I got at yard sales this weekend I might try e-baying a little and not worry about taking in more kids.

Well, we are going to Grandma's this morning to wish Granddad a late birthday. He was out of town on his real birthday, and my kids love to make a big deal out of birthdays.

We are at the beach with most of my extended family.  We have swam on the beach for most of the day and will eat hotdogs and homemade ice cream tonight.  My uncle and his friends have a garage full of fireworks that they are going to shoot off on the beach tonight.;  It is legal in Florida to shoot them off, so we just watch their's and have a great time.  The kids look forward to the fireworks all year!  Happy 4th of July!

family fun on the beach

Birthday Savings

We had a few bithdays in the past couple of weeks. I always make the kids birthday cakes. We usually pick a theme and then we try to come up with something creative to do with them. Evan wanted a camo/hunting cake and Ashley wanted a mermaid. I think they turned out fine. We took some girls to the waterslides and Steven took some boys fishing, then we had the family over for cake and ice cream. It was fun!

Ashley's Birthday Cake

Evan's Birthday Cake

Babysitters

We have had people in the past ask us what do we do for babysitters. Until this year we have not lived in the same town as relatives in seven years. For the most part, we haven't gotten babysitters unless it was absolutely necessary. We rarely went out by ourselves just for the fun of it. If we felt like we needed some alone time, we would put the kids to bed and turn off the TV and just talk or fix some decaf coffee and sit outside on our porch. When our kids started getting older, instead of going to bed, they had to go to their rooms with a book and read for a while until we told them "lights out"! I usually try to get up with my husband, even though I have not been doing that this week, so that we can get a moment together before he goes to work.

When we would have the rare occasion that we needed a babysitter for a function for my husband's work, we would usually hire two teenagers and pay them well. We could usually find someone from church who was wanting to make some extra money. This usually worked out well. We figured it would take two teenagers to watch four small children.

Now our oldest is 13 and our youngest is 7. We usually leave them at the house with instructions. The oldest is in charge, but everyone is in charge of their own behavior. I will usually pay Ashley a little bit if we go out, especially if the house is in good order when we get home. We do have family that they can stay with, but we rarely use them. Most of the time the kids want to come with us and do whatever we are doing. They don't get to see their father alot during some weeks because he has to travel and we get busy in the evenings, so if they get a chance to spend the evening with him, even if it is to go shopping, then they do. We also usually take vacations and short trips as a family. I figure that we will have plenty of time to travel alone when they are grown and I want the kids to experience vacations with us. The one time that we went off by ourselves for the weekend I was saying " Ashley would love this, Evan would love this" then I realized I would have enjoyed it more if I had brought them.

When I run errands when everyone is home I ask "who wants to go?" If they all want to go then I take them all. If Ashley want to go I take them all because she is the babysitter. If Ashley wants to stay Evan will usually stay because he hates to shop like most men.

Over at the website keeperofthehome.org they are giving away a sport Berkey water bottle.

These are supposed to have a filtration system that is built in and can filter out almost anything harmful in your drinking water, even E-coli and pathogens. Steven and Ashley are going to El Salvador on a mission trip in December and I thought these would been nice to take to insure that they are drinking good, safe water. The mission compound that they will be staying in is supposed to have good water, but I would feel better about the whole trip if they had another layer of defence.

If you are interested go on over and enter her contest!

Camp Fun

Last week the girls and I went to a church camp and this week the girls are at a different church camp. The girls love these camps, and because they are through the church, they are reasonable in cost. Evan is not old enough to go to camp yet, so last week he hung with my mom and this week he and I are hanging out. This is a great way to have frugal summer fun and serve the Lord at the same time. We try to participate in every church activity that our church does. We try to do these first, before we do other activites because we think that this is important and we want to support our local church. By the way, this is a picture of Emma climbing a 40 foot rock wall.

Squash

The other evening Steven and some of the kids went and picked squash in the garden. It was way too much for us to eat, so the kids helped me put some in the freezer. All four kids chopped while I blanched it and put it into freezer bags.




After it has been blanched and frozen, it is not good for much else than squash casserole, but that is how everyone likes it. I got 10 bags for the freezer and one for dinner that night.




I figure the more that I put up this summer, the less I have to buy in the winter!