Fun Sandbox Surprises

Even my youngest boys are outgrowing the sandbox. They used to spend hours creating castles, mountains for their dinosaurs, and race car tracks. To make the sand box more interesting I used to throw things in it like old kitchen utensils like dented measuring cups, or a colander whose handle was coming off. Even an old cake pan or plastic container can be great for making sand cakes and mud pies. The boys liked to turn the hose on to soak the sand. I thought watering cans were a better idea for moistening the sand since the hose often turned … Continue reading →

Indoor Campout

I am not a woodsy or outdoorsy person in the purest sense. I love being outdoors, for sure, cooking on the grill and enjoying the backyard or local park on a warm and pleasant spring, summer or fall day but the act of camping out – of actually SLEEPING outside is something that has never appealed to me – not even a little bit. Seriously, the bugs? No Thanks! But the communal act of being together and spending that time in a general woodsy calm is highly intriguing to me. I just wish there was a way to do it … Continue reading →

An Outdoor Room for Family Fun

The first nice warm summery weekend is such fun. This year, the warm weekend came on Mother’s Day weekend, which made it feel even more special. Our family likes to spend a lot of time outside. And it almost feels like a holiday when we migrate outdoors with our plants and chairs. First we swept the patio of leaves and dirt. We put the insect screen back on the gazebo and the cover on the top. We brought out the place mats, citronella candles and wind chimes we’d moved indoors for the winter, and decorated our outside living room. It’s … Continue reading →

Bringing in the outside

My girl ran to the first dandelion to appear in our front yard this spring and promptly yanked it out. No, she was not weeding for me that was just a pleasant byproduct of her excitement for springtime. She carried that little yellow symbol of both April and a messy yard all the way to the market and back home again, even though the time spent in the hot car while we shopped made the weed a limp and sad shell of what it once was. When we arrived home, I ran around our side yard, which was covered in … Continue reading →

School Memories

We only have a few weeks left before the end of the school year. Desks are getting cleaned out. Already, my third graders backpacks are full of papers, reports, and art projects. The stack on the table grows larger each day. I have a friend who neatly organizes her children’s papers into school year and subject. Sigh. I’m not nearly that organized. And I don’t have room to keep everything. I try to save the big stuff, especially the creative stuff. Things like short stories, or poetry. Art projects always get saved. I also try to keep a few math … Continue reading →

Keeping Kids on their Toes

I love to challenge my daughter. I challenge her to think differently, express herself, be confident and in numerous other subtle ways as well. I really enjoy keeping her on her toes so that she, and we, does not become too predictable in our choices, movements and actions. Because we are creatures of habit and because the daily routines of everyday life can often feel, to be frank, really boring over time, I started to think about ways I could mix it up from time to time, ever so subtly, and keep my girl guessing and thinking. It started innocuously … Continue reading →

How to Have Fun When One Parent is Traveling

I’m lucky that my husband doesn’t have to travel much on business. We’ve both been gone a lot this month, though. My oldest son and I were gone ten days on a trip to England and France with his eighth grade class. A couple of week later has my husband and the same boy off on a three day camping trip. It’s hard on all of us when we aren’t all home. It’s hard on the parent left at home, having to cover everything. It’s hard on the kids, too. The routines are different, and we all miss whoever is … Continue reading →

Cooking for the Dog

I wish I could tell you that since this week is National Turn Off Your TV week that I had fun non-TV activities planned for every night of the week. The bad news though (and the honest answer) is that I don’t. The good news is that boys are thinking of things to do on their own. We are in the process of training our puppy, and are going through a lot of dog treats. So tonight we made homemade dog treats. The boys have wanted to do this for a while and there never seemed to be a good … Continue reading →

Turn off the TV for Fun

Today is the first day of “National Turn Off the TV week”. Keep reading for why you might consider doing that in your house. According to statistics up at The Center of Screen-Time Awareness, the average American home has more TV’s than people. The statistic that really bothers me is that the average American watches 4 hours and 35 minutes of television a day. The idea behind National Turn Off the TV Week is not that TV is all bad, but that letting it control our lives to the average tune of more than 32 hours a week is not … Continue reading →

Starting Seeds

This morning we celebrated spring in one of my favorite ways. We started seeds. Nothing fancy, just cilantro, basil, morning glories and moon flowers. The cilantro and basil are for summer cooking, for salsa and pesto. And the flowers are for my gazebo. I have visions of being greeted in the morning by the sweet fragrance of morning glories trailing up the sides – and at night being treated to the soft smells of moon flowers. I hope the flowers sprout and grow. Gardening in Colorado is a challenge. We have a short growing season with an average last frost … Continue reading →