Farewell, Lazy Days of Summer…

I’ve been enjoying the “farewell to summer” posts written by some of you northern bloggers . The great pictures, the wistful thoughts and eagerness to get in some outdoor time before the temperature drops. I enjoy those posts because I can’t relate to them one bit. There are things about the end of summer that appeal to me quite a bit, most notably the gorgeous fall and winter weather we enjoy in these parts.

It’s not that I don’t enjoy the leisurely days of summer. I do.  I love having my big girls home all day every day. We have great times together: cooking, reading, going to the movies, the library, the science center, you name it. It’s been fun. You may also have noticed that these are all indoor activities. We expend more energy attempting to avoid the sweltering ninety degrees+ temperatures -we hit 100 today- than we do lying around on the beach. It’s all about how low we can keep our thermostat before the electric bill soars to intolerable sums. When we get out, it’s in the evening hours just before the sun sets, provided it isn’t raining cats and dogs with thunder loud enough to shake the windows. In other words, our summers aren’t particularly conducive to hanging outside. That’s reserved for October through April.

Around here, we start gearing up to spend most of  our time outdoors just as our northern friends are preparing to retreat from the frigid winter winds. We’re on the lookout for clearance patio merchandise so that we can refresh our own, which is battered by the fierce sun and violent afternoon thunderstorms.  Our family loves to lounge on the patio for hours on a Sunday afternoon in November. Yes, I said in November, snow bunnies. Eat your hearts out.

But I do so enjoy summer. It’s a relaxed, unstructured season, the time I get more of the blessed sleep I’ve miss out on the other nine months of the year. The daily chore list and laundry is divided among four people instead of just one. The big girls and the little girls spend lots of time together cementing bonds that are vital when children are separated by as many years as some of mine are:

Yes, summertime is good.

But I also pick up a few habits that will not serve me well minus all the extra hands around here during the day to help keep things going. So I’m using the next couple of weeks to get back on track. My schedule, which has largely gone by the wayside, is back in force. I need a good plan to be productive, else I’ll flit about from one task to the next, look around me at the end of the day, and shake my head in disbelief that I did so much and accomplished so little at the same time.

Sleeping until 7:30 feels wonderful, but for me to get anything accomplished, my feet have to hit the floor no later than 5:45. This:

Along with meals, education, and errands, not to mention any incidentals my husband might require,  will not get done without a plan. At least not in this house.

So while the end of summer in our house is marked by a bit of soberness (I mean, who wants to go back to school?), we also envision blue skies and highs of 72 in the “dead of winter.” What’s not to love about that? Some of you may remember the fit I threw last winter when one of our customary three-day cold snaps lasted  the better part of a month.

Either way, I feel fortunate enough to say that I love all the seasons of the year. The dog days of summer, the cool winters, the gorgeous spring and autumns we enjoy down here. I used to lament that our fairly homogenous seasons mean that we miss out on the changing of the leaves from green to red,orange, and yellow, but then I remember that I get to go to the beach in February. And I get over it pretty quick.

Whether it’s the time of year that you start unpacking the sweaters or fixing up the patio, the advent of fall signals a time of  a little more work, a little less play, and of course, school. It’s a time of when gears shift as surely as the seasons change.

Farewell, lazy days of summer…

Best Buds

This is a picture from late last summer, but it is one perfect illustration of why I love having kids close in age to one another. Our older girls are even closer in age than Sweetie Pie and Little Princess (pictured here), who are 21 months apart. They truly are each other’s best friends.

My girls look out for each other. In this case, I don’t think peer dependency is such a bad thing, do you?

Lil' Princess, yes, in a swimsuit, with SweetiePie. We allow them for the toddlers!

Fitness Friday: Sometimes LIFE Is a Workout

This week’s assignment was simple: tell what works and doesn’t work in terms of exercise. Reveal ways that we get physical activity in even when we don’t have the time to carve out 30 minutes for that express purpose.

If you read this post, then you already know that I have been very busy in recent weeks. Formal and focused exercise sessions have taken a back seat to the demands of life. However, that doesn’t mean I have been inactive. A few of the ways that I have participated in lifestyle workouts.

• Rushing from the track and field area to the school building (roughly 1/4 mile) to get Li’l Princess to the bathroom before it’s too late. And then rushing back before I miss out on seeing my daughter run in her 400 meters.
• Rushing from the back of the Wal-m*rt Supercenter to the front of the store to get Li’l Princess before the bathroom before it’s too late.
• Rushing to get the two littles in the stroller and into the library for toddler time after spending 15 minutes looking for a parking space in the always over crowded lot-before it’s too late. We have to rush so we don’t miss the best part: the welcome song. And if you have ever had to load and unload a double stroller in and out of a car, you know it can be hard work.
• Of course, there’s always the daily duties that make up the life of a homemaker. Sweeping, folding and putting away laundry, kneading bread, picking up toys off of the floor and more…all these require quite a bit of movement. As long as you’re not a couch potato, there’s plenty of opportunity to move your body, and isn’t that all exercise is? It’s probably why our grandmothers and great grandmothers were able to maintian a healthy weight without even owning a pair of sneakers-eating real food and living active lives.
• One really enjoyable stroll through the local botanical gardens (free admissions on Mondays). Even though it was a warm day, it was a bit of exercise I enjoyed a great deal. Here, L’il Princess takes a moment to literally stop and smell the roses:

In addition to all of that, I did manage to have one formal workout, and I managed to lose a half a pound. It’s not much, but I’ll take it.

On the food front, I have been staying away from sugar, making exception once a week, when I sample the dessert that I make for the family to go along with our Sunday meal. You may remember this was the compromise reached when I stopped keeping the cookie jar stocked on a daily basis. Still, before last week, I had been without any sweets for two straight weeks, and the second week was much easier than the first.

I want to end this post with a funny video featuring NBA star Shaquille O’Neal, who has recently begun a new diet to shed some extra weight presumably so he can get down the court faster and jump a bit lighter. He’s about my age and I think he’s just step shorter ’cause he’s getting old, but I digress. Like me, he seems to have had a love affair with Krispy Kremes, which my family has enjoyed hot and fresh on many a Sunday morning after church. We were suckers for that “Hot Now” sign! As he silently expresses in this very short (93 sec.) video: breaking up was hard to do.

Click on over to Brenda at The Family Revised for some more Fitness Friday encouragement.

Mostly Wordless Wednesday: Homemaker in Training?

Before we get to our budding homemaker, I thought we were overdue for a picture of Sweetie Pie. Can you believe she’s four and a half months already?!

Welcome to Casa de Lil’ Princess. She’s the chef…
The cleaning girl…

And she does dishes too!!!

Vacation, With a Side of Education

We took a few days last week to enjoy some much needed R&R. We took a short trip a few hours from home and enjoyed St. Augustine, which not only has great beaches but is rich in history. It’s America’s oldest city, for those who didn’t know. Did you know that Martin Luther King was jailed when he visited there during the civil rights movement in 1962? I didn’t either!

One of the highlights of our trip was drinking from what Juan Ponce De Leon believed was the Fountain of Youth, pictured here. I can’t say I felt any younger after drinking from the spring! We also visited the Castillo De San Marcos, a fort built by the Spaniards when they colonized the Florida coast in the 1600′s, the oldest still standing colonial fort in the U.S. (that’s Princess leaning on a cannon):

Here are the barracks where the Spanish soldiers slept in the fort, circa 1600:

Here, 5 of the girls pose on top of the fort where there were cannons all around:

While our littlest, Sweetie Pie, finds a spot in the shade with her dad to beat the heat:

We also took a trip to The Lightener Museum where we saw a mummy:
We also took in some earlier renditions of music instruments and fledgling technology, such as this typewriter, circa 1700. Are you loving your computer now? There was so much to take in at the museum it was difficult to decide which pictures to post.

And what’s a vacation without a trip to the beach? Our girls looked terribly overdressed in their tank tops in shorts compared to all the other bikini clad teenagers on the beach, but they had a ton of fun! That’s Princess in the picture below:

Dad is behind the camera, though we did take one with the entire family using a tripod. Can’t get the okay to post it here, though. Secret agent man, remember?

That’s the thing about vacations. They are loads of fun, yet they help you appreciate home so much more when you return. Is that strange or what? Enjoy your families and have a wonderful weekend.

Pictures!!

I’m FINALLY posting pictures of Miss Maya. And all my other girls, too.

This is Little Princess holding our newest, littlest princess on the day we were discharged from the hospital:

By the way, that’s my secret agent man holding the both of them.

Miss Maya is pictured here, tucked away in her crib. Notice the pacifier. That’s as close as it ever gets to her mouth. Despite the hospital’s best efforts, she hates that thing:Here’s a recent shot of the Little Princess that I just love so I’m posting it:
I have no idea how to rotate it right side up so I apologize for the sideways view. I am terrible at posting pics. It takes me forever, which is one reason why I rarely post them. If anyone has any tips to offer on how to do it quickly and easily, I’m open to advice. Now back to the pics:

My 8th grader ( a brilliant flutist and pianist, in my unbiased opinion) had a band concert Tuesday night. I thought I’d include a shot of her in action:

That’s her on the left side of the shot with her hair pulled back. She really is quite a fine musician.

One of the twins also plays the flute and performed the other night as well. Here she is:

The other twin is much more into track and field. And she’s good at it, too. Here’s a shot of her at a recent track meet:

I chose that shot because we took it just at the point when she really takes off and takes first place. We love it when she comes around that curve!!

I will take and post more pictures of Miss Maya soon. Unlike my bloggy pal GB, I’m just not the best photographer, though she has inspired me to reach for the camera more often. Enjoy the pics and have a great weekend!

What A Weekend!

I had all kinds of interesting and thought-provoking post ideas in my head that I wanted to post about, but I’m beat. We have had a blessed, fun, family filled weekend. I enjoyed every minute of it. But I gotta tell you, I am sooo tired! Maybe later this week I’ll be able to explore some of the ideas bouncing around in my head. For now, I’ll just share a little of our fun-filled family weekend.

Our kids were out of school for Spring Break last week. On Friday, my sis-in-law and I decided a trip to a local theme park would be a fun outlet for the kids. We also had quite a few free and discounted tickets! Between the two of us, we had 10 kids with us. That’s not counting a couple of extra kids who were able to be blessed with a free trip to the amusement park and came along with us as well. My girls had a blast:

I knew I was in for a lot of walking. It is, after all, a theme park! But boy, I think I’d forgotten how much time I would spend on my feet. It had been a while since we’d gone to one of these places. I was able to enjoy a couple of safe attractions, since I can’t do roller coasters right now. I’ll make up for it the next time we come across free tickets!

Side note: I must have missed it when it became common to wear bikini tops to amusement parks. It was hot out, I’ll admit, but my girls looked like they were going to church compared to most of the other teenage girls at the park. And here I thought bikinis were meant to be worn at the beach. Of course, I guess a bikini IS the best way to showcase a belly button piercing! Since I’ve been thinking (and writing) about modesty lately, I noticed it more. And felt bad for the young men who were no doubt distracted by the scenery, including my two teenage nephews.

You also may remember my mention of our new niece, who arrived 6 weeks ahead of schedule!! Well the baby shower was already planned for Saturday, and since the invites were out, the room was booked, and the baby still needs a lot of things (it IS their first), we went ahead with the shower as planned and it was a lot of fun, too. One of my daughters managed to get a rare shot of me while pregnant. I normally avoid cameras during pregnancy, but since she got the picture, I guess I’ll share it. This is the little princess, with cake frosting around her lips, and me at the shower (with CeCe in the foreground):

Since we were all having such a wonderful time together this weekend, we decided to top it off with a big Sunday dinner after church. The food, fun, and fellowship was great and a fun time was had by all. My girls were not looking forward to going back to school today. I have a few things to catch up on myself, and I’m hoping to be back on track by mid-week. Despite my exhaustion, I feel so blessed to have friends and family to celebrate and spend time with. If I can offer profound thoughts in this post, it would be to cherish those close to you, enjoy them and don’t take them for granted. Even those the Lord uses like sandpaper to smooth out some of our rough edges. Thank God for the blessing of families!