Summer Thoughts

Thoughts of summer fill my head. I have been working on planning our trip to Santo Domingo. It took for ever! Buying a plane ticket is such a hassle. What happened to the days when you could go to a travel agency and feel that you got a good deal? Now there is all the websites to check, all the "deals" to compare; and in the end I always feel cheated. Anyhow, I got that done.

Now is time to prepare for the trip. I need to make sure the kids have the proper clothes and shoes. I need to make sure we take things to entertain them. Visiting family is not like a non-stop vacation. There is a lot of down time, time spent soaking up family and basking in the feeling of, once more, belonging somewhere. For the kids,of course, is a different experience. If I don't want them to "soak up" TV instead of family, I need to have some activities planned. These are tricky since I need to take things that don't take too much room in a suitcase and that are interesting enough to keep their attention for a certain amount of time. I have not even started on planning these.

Between the end of the school year and the trip to Santo Domingo, there is a gap of time. I want to be prepare with activities and ideas so that the kids don't default to TV, Wii and computer games. This is year we have the complication of the addition. Our backyard is going to be swamped with workers and equipment. That makes it off limit for the kids. We won't have the yard to set up the pool. This means more creativity is needed to keep the kids occupied.

I am therefore busy creating reading lists,compiling a list of topics for science, history, geography,literature so that I can rotate the books in our book baskets. I also want to make a list of movies to watch as well as a list of art projects and games.

As my ideas develop and find resource,I am planning to post them here so I can have easy access to them. This afternoon I spent some time thinking and researching. I came up with these ideas:

String Art Project

Minimath Projects This site sells some kits for some fun puzzles as well as string art.

I also found this blog post 25 summer ideas I need to peruse it and pull a list of things that are suitable to our family.

More activities here Some of these sound like they would be fun.

Housework-the Search Continues

It seems that I am on a permanent search for a system, THE SYSTEM, that will make housework easier to manage. There is always a book or a blog post or forum post that makes sense. "Maybe I'll try this"- I think. And I do.

The thing with housework is... It is always there! It is this ever-present entity, always looming, always lurking. If you ignore it, it doesn't go away. If you tackle it, it comes back again, to stare at you in the face. There is no other choice but to stare back at it and hope that this time you will claim victory.

Thank God I am a person of hope. Because hope is what I need. Lots of it!

Hope that I find a system.
Hope that I will be consistent applying the system.
Hope that abuela's (my mother) organization gene, that seems to have skipped a generation, will show up in my kids.
Hope that someday, somebody, might invent a self cleaning house.
Hope that someday, somebody, will come up with disposable (biodegradable of course) clothes.
Hope that lint will evaporate, and dust will vanish and that stuff will magically find-on their own- their proper place, toilets will be self sanitized and tubs will be anti mold and soap scum repellent.

In the meantime I am left with the truth: housework needs to be done. In my constant search I came across this (HT to Elizabeth who got it from here who got it from Jennifer ) So for now, I am going to read this list and see if I can apply it to our household. Maybe, just maybe, this list will help me to get the essentials done.