soup and strawberries

He said I could take three pictures of him playing in the sand the other day. This is what I got.

 

 

I also got a bowl of the soup he had been making in the red bucket.

 



 

Since I'd hit my quota of pictures of him, I wandered around the yard, and I have to mention what a great gardener my husband is. Check it out: these are the strawberries he planted last summer. Not only did they survive the winter, but they're thriving!

There are even some red ones. We sampled a few. Yum!

an hour of entertainment

During our last Mama-and-Son night, my son was busy for over an hour with this activity. We started by hammering golf tees into this piece of Styrofoam. Then I got out some rubber bands. It started out as an art project / musical instrument, but, as you can imagine, turned into a rubber band shooting machine after a while. Luckily, it didn't hurt at all. Sometimes as he was preparing to shoot me, I'd accidentally lose my hold on the Styrofoam block, and it would go flying. He laughed so hard!

a ham

This guy is such a ham! Maybe it's the shirt.

put your child to work

I feel like there is some pressure these days for parents to always be focusing on their child and only doing activities that the child wants to do. 

I like to play with my son. But I also like to get stuff done. I think it's fine for a parent to do their chores while a child plays by himself / herself or, even better, helps out. Learning how to do chores around the house is such a great life skill! My son's confidence grow with each successfully completed task.

Cleaning our house together can be a really enjoyable activity. I think it feels great to get a handle on the chaos, and my son is usually happy to join in. It works best when I give him the option of helping rather than request or demand his help. He can decide if he wants to help me or go play by himself for a few minutes. I also give him tasks that I know he can do and will enjoy, such as spraying or organizing things. And as long as I keep my expectations at an appropriate level, it works out well. Now that I think about it, the biggest benefit to having him help me, other than the joy of his presence and funny sense of humor, is probably that he isn't busy destroying one room while I'm cleaning another.

Anyway, here are a few tasks he's helped me with lately:

Taking his plate to the kitchen after a meal. He's been doing this for about a year now. It was a major struggle at first, but now he sometimes does it without my even reminding him. (Hurrah!)

Cleaning the bathrooms. He always likes to spray stuff.

Washing the walls. (Sorry this one is out of focus, I just got so excited!)

Washing the floors. Might as well, while we're at it.

Taking out the recycling. He has a system where he sorts through every piece of mail while putting them in the recycling bin. He has also set up a separate glass collection bin, for safety, and plastic bag collection.

 

 

And remember those videos that I vowed not to clean up? Well, check it out: my son cleaned them up (in return for a favor he asked of me. There's no shame in bribery, people!). And he did a great job of organizing them by size.

 

 

Ready to get started? Here is a great printable with age-appropriate chores for kids. A good rule of thumb is one daily chore per year of the child's age.

what i gave up for Lent

I don't celebrate Lent in the traditional sense, but I do often participate by giving up something that I love. I like the challenge of it all. I like pushing myself to see what I can handle. I like seeing that I'm not as addicted to some things as it may seem. In past years, I've given up television, sweets, and chapstick. This year, I've given up complaining.

 

Why on earth would I choose that, you ask, instead of something easier, like chocolate, or texting, or maybe even breathing? Well, I like to pick something that will really challenge me, and I really like to complain. There is something that rubs me the right way about commiserating with a friend.

 

Of course, the flip side of this is wallowing in a swamp of negativity that annoys those around me. (I recently had an epiphany that, although he's never said it outright, my husband has a major aversion to complaining.)

 

So I'm on an exciting journey, one that I hope lasts for longer than just until Easter. Because I like this more positive me.

 

Your turn: Did you give up something for Lent?

 

 

hike + jellybeans

My son and I went for a hike last weekend. We climbed up on a huge rock to take a break. I took a photo of him.

 

He took one of me. (Didn't he do a great job with composition? Rule of thirds?)

 

 

 

We took another break a little later and found a spot just off the trail to sit down. He showed me how to make jellybeans using these flowers.

 

You mash them up a little with this stick.

It was a really lovely day. The flowers are starting to bloom here.

Hiking with him is one of my very favorite things to do.

 

chores i'm not doing

I'm beginning to acknowledge and accept what I can and cannot do. Part of that is accepting that my house will only be presentable when visitors are expected (and sometimes not even then). Here are some things I'm NOT doing around the house these days:

• Cleaning the master bath shower more than twice a year (the guest bathtub gets cleaned four times a year - i.e., right before each visit from my parents)
• Cleaning the toilets (hubby is in charge of that)
• Making my son's bed
• Giving my son a bath more than once or twice a week (sorry, bud. When you're grown up and have kids of your own, you can shower more frequently if you want. Like three times a week.)
• Taking out the recycling (my son has become obsessed with this task, so I have whole-heartedly turned it over to him)
• Shaving my legs above the knee
• Cleaning up these videos. Every time I put them on the shelf where they belong, they are back on the table within minutes.

• Pulling weeds.

While I was outside taking photos of the weeds but not pulling them, I took the opportunity to enjoy how beautiful the flowers are right now. These tall pink ones are wildflowers ("penstemon", for those gardening buffs) that grow in our yard every year. I love them. And they're so easy! They just pop up in the spring and don't need to be watered. I let them die and dry out, then shake the seeds all over the ground when I finally get around to trimming them a few months later. That's my kind of gardening.

More flowers. I don't remember the name of this one, but it's one I paid money for, and it's surviving!



Society garlic. One of my new favorites. I love the purple flowers and that it's more bunny-resistant than my rain lilies are were.

Your turn: what chores do you not do? 

tennis

We took a trip to the tennis courts last weekend. It was a short, but very enjoyable, outing. Here are some pics.

About 15 minutes in, we got a little low on energy (or maybe interest).

And by the end, we were hulking out!

Needless to say, we quickly called it a day after that last photo. But I hope to get back out on the courts again soon!