My 10 Tips For a Great Family Vacation

I love to just up and getaway with the family! It's truly an important bonding time for all. No work, no school, just plain old fashioned togetherness.  We love to just hitch up the boat and hit the lake!  It's not renting a cabin, or hotel room....  Its us and a tent.  But I'll tell you it is the most rewarding and relaxing vacation we could imagine.

We go hiking the trails and look for wildlife. My sons love to bring along jars to collect the *icky* bugs.  Then there's the fishing.  Just sitting in the boat talking, laughing, encouraging each other.  Believe it or not, even as loud as we get, we've caught some fish!  Matter of fact, some of our best talks were at the end of a couple of fishing poles. You want to know how your kids doing?  This is it.

Of course, the main event of the trip is the boating!  Oh how the kids love it!!  Jumping the waves, racing other boats, or finding a spot in the middle of the lake to jumping off.  It completes the trip.  Soon the older ones will be "allowed" to be pulled and that's going to be terrifying!!  If it were up to Hubby they'd already be pros.  But I'm such a worry wart. 


10 Simple Tips For a Simple and Absolute Fun Family Vacation:

10.   Don't bring your work!
                No one, kids included. Save that for a weekend at home.  The sky isn't going to fall just because you left your Blackberry.

9.    Bring family games.
                We always take our "Sports Set"  It's a soccer ball, baseball/gloves, football, a couple of tennis rackets/ball, some swim toss  rings.

8.    Include everyone in events.
                  No child is the same.  Not everyone is going to love the events planned.  Anthony is more of my  bug guy and sports fan.  While Cody loves the water and Wyatt just tries to keep up.  Then of course Baby Lady who just wants to lay out and show her baby doll around.  Try and find enough time to do it all. Teaching compromise is very important!

7.    Take time for each child.
                 Every child wants to know their special.  Vacations are perfect for that.  Sometimes they get lost in the shuffle of life.  They need to know what they have to say ROCKS!

6.    Never ground on vacation.
                 Thats not what this time is for.  Wait til you get home to make a stink.

5.     Pick a place that might not have internet or TV.
                   Find spots that are aimed a quality family time.  Pre-planned vacation spots are great because they center around families.  In other words save wine country for your Anniversary.

4.      Get involved!!
                    Be a part of the time spent.  Just as life...You get what you put into it.

3.      Bring back your Goofball self.
                    We get so wrapped up in work and discipline, it's our time too ya know.  Let loose!

2.     Pick a spot where maybe you've never been or is unlike you.
                     Out of the ordinary brings a challenge......Challenges are a great way to bond.  Rock climbing, skiing, snowboarding, surfing...  A family that learns together...... Laughs A LOT!!!

1.     It shouldn't take much.... Just remember this is your family time.   You only get a few years with them.  What memories do you want them to take. 









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Happy 2010!!

Wow is it really 2010!! Well I sure hope you all had great holidays and made some more amazing memories with your loved ones.

2010, I can remember thinking we'd have flying cars by now. Living like the Jetsons high in the sky or something from one of those sci-fi movies with robots. But I woke up and it was just another regular day.

Get this, I had 2 weeks off straight no work, no home school ahhh it was so nice. We were able to do so many projects and get so much done. We had a lot of good, quality family time together. But this week we got back into things. I went back to work and the kids went back to school. I must say this was the break we all needed so bad. Hubby's vacation time won't come til next month or so. He was the only one that had responsibilities, lol. The kids and I slept in and went to bed late. But, we'll all be jealous of him when its his turn I'm sure.

Christmas was great the kids gifts were a hit! Nana loved her tree and everyone loved their decorations! We went a little overboard with the sweets of course but yummy! We had but one glitch in our plans. I had spent so much time on baking and making gifts I left myself very little time for making tamales. We went grocery shopping for everything a couple of days before Christmas. I started the meat the 23rd. On Christmas Eve I started the masa....... and the darn masa was bad! Yuck! So we didn't get to make the tamales we ended up having just burritos and beans. Luckily my Mom sent us home with a dozen of hers. They were tasty as always. We fought over the last couple, lol.

Our New Year has begun and my resolution to my kids was to be more patient and creative with home school. To Hubby it was to set aside more time for just us. For myself it was to become a more healthy me and tackle this anxiety, when I feel burdened and overwhelmed, give it to God and find relief. For my family it's to have more fun as a family. ♥♥♥

Peace and Love in Your New Year!

Lake

For sound press the little icon bottom left corner!
{{{Apparently my song plays without pushing that button and I was busted by the "EC hall monitor" LOL Sorry. So now I placed a playlist under it!}}}

We had a blast!

Gone Fishing!

Well were taking a quick day trip to the lake tomorrow. See how that new boat does!! I've been shopping and cleaning all day. Tonight I packed the kids goodie bags. A staple on our trips. Everyone gets baggies so theres no fights! Makes things easier and fun. They never know exactly what in them! Tonight I put an orange, grapes and carrots for them. Plus popcorn for the ducks and a granola bar as their sweet . Just a little something so their not whinning to get into the cooler every five minutes. ☺

In order for just a day trip to happen a lot of things need to be brought! The cooler is filled with drinks, hotdogs and sandwiches. The box has trash bags, cleaning wipes, towels, sunscreen, spare everything and toliet paper.....You never know what those facilites are like!

So we're off for Saturday.......

Yea right he wishes☺

What Men Do For Their Family

If you can't tell by now, we are a family of campers! We love to go to the lake, fish, be out in nature and hike. No distractions from Tv or anything. The longest we've ever camped out is 7 days!! And not in a fancy RV. Just us and our tents. Playing games, swimming, talking, just good family fun! But being a girl and all you kinda just have to say screw it to lost amenities and enjoy!

I grew up as a camper. We didn't go to fancy vacation spots. We went to the mountains! It was great. Mom would pack neat little treats and theres always something to do. My older siblings would go hiking up mountains with Dad. While my Mom, sister and me would do nature walks.

I always wanted a "guy" guy to do these things with. But I had for some reason liked prissy sissy boys that couldn't change a tire let alone keep me safe in the mountains. Hubby is awesome. He knows everything *swoon* there is to know about anything.

We love to fish. Scratch that he loves to fish I love riding on the boat and tanning. But the peacfulness is amazing. Last year at the lake (we try to go every year atleast once), our boat let us down. I ended up renting the Party Barge they have there. I didn't want Hubby to lose out. He works so hard and asks for little. But it spoiled us! We caught so much catfish we were in heaven! We were impulsive and went to check out brand new boats that weekend. Our was an oldie but goodie. We were looking at all the shiny newbies!

This was all before our "simple life" really started. We chickened out hours before they cashed our check. So we thought we had "Cheaper to Keep Her" til death do us part. Well, Hubby surprised us this week. Instead of spending all that money fixing her, he traded his Harley for a new-to-us boat! Yes I said his Harley! Now its not brand new or shiny, but it's newer than our oldie and it has six seats. Our old one had four. Theres drink holders, the pass through works, and we won't get stranded and have to use our trolling motor to get back!

Hubby loved his bike. But he says this is time to spend with the kids. He has years to be selfish when their gone. So true baby! I love this man! What a sacrifice.

I'm Just A Girl

I was the girl who always had a ton of stickers on her stuff. The more the glitter all the better! I stumbled upon a website that can turn my regular photos into cutesy pics. (Blingee. ) I seriously need a 12 step program here!

Now if your one of my myspace friends, you know all too well of this obsession.

Blingee has cool backgrounds for the photos, glitter, animation, props, and even contests! You should see some these that are entered. Artistic! My designs more for fun and laughs than anything.

They are great for a more fun type of scrapblogging or just print them out and you have cute wall hangers for the kids room!

Heres a few:

TGIF!!

Thank goodness it's Friday finally. Phew....made it another week without serious injuries. All kids accounted for and in one piece! Yea me.

Now that probably sounds a little dramatic. But if you knew my kids, it's a wonder we're all still here. I have 3 wildly crazy, very curious and try anything once to scare mom boys. And one little lady along for the ride. Often times shes moms heart attack waiting to happen. I caught her on the top of our rv once and holy goodness!! That one scared me. She climbed up Hubby's motorcylce to reach the ladder then thought hey I think I'll dance. Thats when I walked outside. I dang near peed myself I was so shocked. Where were my boys you ask? Laughing their butts off at it all. Mind you she's only 2.

For some reason us moms can feel something going on. Call it intuition, whatever we just know. When it's just too quiet, we know. When their overly nice, we know. When one tries to get your attention away to distract you, we know.

We live in a very safe open area, we got some acreage so I leave my doors unlocked all day long and all night long. If I go to the store chances are I leave it unlocked. Our gate is hardly shut, let alone locked. We have guns, but never need them. So having the kids outside playing should have me at peace. With them out of the house so I can clean, talk on the phone or just have some quiet time to myself should be peaceful. But not with my kids. Their adventurous and curious nature always has me peeking out the window.

One nice sunny summer afternoon, I was having company. My sister and her kids had come over. We had all 9 kids playing on the brand new swing set. We were inside laughing and talking. All was going great. That is until we hear a horrifying cry. Immediatly we jump up and I see out the window my son holding his face. I tell my sister, "you go check. I can't look." I can't stand to see one of my kids injured. So she looks and calmly tells me to get my purse I had to take him to the hospital. I muster up the courage to look... and holy madness his eye lid was slit open!! I cringed just remembering. Not his first set of stitches or our first ER visit. The only child to not see the inside of an ER is Caitie. God help us she never will.

Stitches, ER, operations, 911 calls, we're pros. With boys I think most are. But, still gets us every time! I should remind you that I was a "single" mother for 5 years basically. Hubby was an over the road truck driver. So I was the only one here to witness the stunts gone wrong, the careless accidents and I freak out a lot. Thank goodness he's home now.

So you see, thats why I say, thank goodness we made it another week all safe and sound! Have a relaxing weekend all!

Family

My Children

Crying, screaming, fighting.
Dirty, clumsy, angry.
Back talking, no listening, eyes rolling.
Selfish, loud, independent.
Stressing, hair pulling.
My children.
God made ‘em.
Perfectly in my image.
Adorable!
~The Chickenista

Hubby

You're the sugar in my coffee.
The gas in my tank.
You hang in there with me.
For that I must thank.
Our chaotic life and all it's mess,
Perfect by no means
N’ wouldn't settle for less.
Sometimes a circus with adhd
I’ll always follow you,
Thru our journey in life
N’ what is to be.
~The Chickenista

My Family

Attempting The Impossible?

About two weeks ago or so the kids and us decided to try a 3 day school week. Which to me meant two days double duty. All the kids saw, of course, was "woohoo 4 days off!!" Hubby used to be an OTR truck driver, which meant we saw him every couple of months. But this Christmas he started driving locally. We were very happy! But he has 12+ hour days and he works weekends so, the kids wanted to have school off with daddy plus I needed Fridays to go into town and do all the errands. So this was to be great all around... Yea right!
I usually start in the morning and end somewhere around dinner time, then homework begins. SOO...
Needless to say I have children breaking down left and right all day long. But like I said it was all agreed on to try this out. So I'm running from room to room trying to explain things to one kid, fetching a bottle to satisfy my baby lady, finding a descent cartoon to occupy my toddler and racing back to make sure no flipped the computer to games. Phew... I swear I may loose some weight.
I'm interested to find out how other home schoolers accomplish this. Do I need to get more anal about my schedule, do I just give up say it's just not possible?? Not sure.
But today I felt like a neglectful mother I sat my two youngest to watch t.v for a minute at 9am and I just found them passed out in front of it at 3:30pm My goodness I forgot about them this entire day. I can't believe it! I'm so ashamed! I need to visit "Bad Mothers Anonymous" at The Homesteading Housewife blog!!! But on the bright side, since the little kids were watching God knows what and are now sleeping, we totally finished early! I owe them some serious kisses when they wake up! But not just yet, maybe I can get in a relaxing bath first! I know, I know that's bad.

Raising Everything Under the Sun

 Hi!! Welcome to my "About" page.  This entry is all about who I am, what we do here and why the heck I'm doing it.  Sit back, read, enjoy and have a laugh. 

  I am a 31 year mother of four. Anthony is my oldest he's 9 and very active he's my little clown. Cody is 8 and a spitting image of Big Daddy. Wyatt just turned 4 and thinks he can run with the big guys, but still a little clumsy. Caitlin is 2 and my angel, she's so tiny but her voice makes up for it. No chance of her getting lost in the mix! I was lucky enough to have married my soul mate Tarry, or Hubby as I refer to him through out my blog. He's definitely my answered prayer. The Lord sure knows His stuff!  Well, that's my family. If you don't count the many many animals we have. But I'll get into that a little later.

I'm a stay at home mom and I home school my kids. So they're my job and I must be crazy enjoy it very much. It's tough and, lets be honest, unbearable some days... but they're too young to enlist it's worth it! My reason for schooling the kids myself was not a light decision made.  Hubby and I both were public school educated.  But between all the calls we got regarding my boys and what not, we chose that the best for our kids would be for me to school them.  Not that they're problem kids/ bullies or anything, more of "clowns" outspoken and low attention....wonder where they get that from??  Later, we found the kids to be behind on levels.  That was shocking to me to find that kids could just be pushed along.  But with hair pulling and yelling extra work we're getting them there.   

We're a very traditional family.  We believe that the man should be the main bread winner and Mom is the Queen home keeper.  Not that I judge anyone for what works for them.  I've worked outside the home before.  Sometimes ends don't meet, sometimes I wanna run away from home sometimes I need a break!  But, I was brought up with Dad working and Mom home with all us kids. So naturally there was no question. I'm also blessed to not have to work since Hubby handles that.  

This past year we spent gathering animals. Two by two. We're "trying" to get back to basics. We have pigs, chickens, goats, geese, ducks, dogs and cats. I may talk about them more since farming and raising animals is new to all of us. We're complete morons city folk trying our hand at raising farm animals.... So far it's been a learning experience! From bring up babies to slaughter it's definitely been eye opening. (And a little gross) But, we're trying to get back to basics, so I've learned to sew, raise the food and grow my own veggie garden which failed twice! I'll try that again in the spring (shh don't tell the rabbits.) Learning as we go is turning out to be very expensive. So I've read up on some of our falls.

Now that's most of my life and I'm glad to meet ya! Ya'll come back now ya hear!