Summertime Colds

I know that there are germs 365 days of the year, but somehow it seems so wrong to have a nasty cold in the middle of summer. It is fairly miserable walking around hot and stuffed up. When there are tons of fun activities to do outside, it is not fun to have an overwhelming desire to crash into bed and sleep for a few days.

Last week, Rachel started with a nasty cough and slept TONS. There were two days where she didn't want to rouse from her nap and ended up sleeping all night for a total of 16 hours or so of sleep. Next Barry caught it, and I soon followed. NOW I understand Rachel's sleepy days. Sleep sounds so wonderful! But, as a mom with lots going on, extra sleep is a luxury that I can't afford right now. So, I plug away, focusing on what needs to get done most because I am working at a slower pace. I need to be very intentional with my choices of activity or I can find that my entire day is gone and I have nothing accomplished to show for it.

A bit behind

That's how I have been feeling lately. I am bit behind in every area of my life it seems. I had a couple of big tasks on my plate a few weeks ago and didn't keep up on the cleaning and laundry. I have been trying in vain for the past couple of weeks to catch back up and get things back in order and it seems to be an impossible task. There are mountains of clean laundry in both my bedroom and laundry to fold/hang and put away. More mountains of the stuff to wash. I have piles and piles of the assorted papers that accumulate in a house. It astounds me how much paper one household can process! Of course there is just the general clutter of life: toys, books, dishes, STUFF.

Anyway, so that's where I am right now - struggling with continuing to do my daily duties along with all the work to catch up.

Indiana Beach

We took a day trip to Indiana Beach yesterday with our 4-H club. It was a perfect day and no crowds!

Our club goes every year, but we have never been able to go in previous years. I am so glad that Barry was able to get the day off work and we could make this happen. Our younger kids have never really been to an amusement park before and it was a really fun experience. Having never been to Indiana Beach, we weren't sure what to expect. Although it is not a big park compared to say Cedar Point, it has some nice big roller coasters as well has lots of smaller rides for the younger set. I spent a good chunk of my day in Kiddie Land which has a nice amount of rides for the wee ones. Another mom told me she started her kids as young as 10 month on these rides. I was, however, able sneak away with the big kids at one point to ride a few of the big rides. My favorite was the Steel Hawg which was smooth and flips you upside down.


Patrick's fave was by far the bumper cars followed closely by the antique cars. I bet he rode these about 20 times! He wasn't into the bigger rides, too much. We had to really sweet talk him to get him on the log ride and Barry said he quivered through the whole thing. Oh well, there's plenty of car rides.




Abi turned out to be more of a daredevil. She wasn't tall enough for any of the coasters, but wanted to ride just about anything she could. Her fave and Anna's as well was the Tilt-A-Whirl. Here they are high fiving during the ride.

Anna wasn't as fond of the really big rides, but instead preferred the smaller stuff. She did run around with Elizabeth and another friend for awhile riding the big rides. Elizabeth ran around with friends for a lot of the day and rode about every big ride there.

Rachel was too short and got left out of most rides except the Kiddie ones. Here she is hanging with Daddy and watching the rest of the family.


All in all, it was a great day. We got home at 9:30pm and crashed into bed happy and exhausted.

I have a whole album loaded up at Facebook you can see more here:
Indiana Beach 2009

Update

No, I have not forgotten that I have a blog. I've had a lot on my plate the past few weeks and just haven't found the time to update here.

Samuel is nearly 4 months old. The time is just flying by. He gets more personality every day.



Although we had frost on the ground through mid May, it has finally reached "sprinkler weather" and the kids have gotten to enjoy running through the sprinkler and the kiddie pool in the back yard. Abi LOVES it!



Samuel has officially mastered rolling over. Here is one of his first rolls captured on film (well, memory card). Now, often I go to get him up from his nap and find him on his tummy. He gets pretty proud of himself when he does it, too, getting a great big grin.

I have to show off my fun new project here. I made those cute little shoes for him. It was so much fun, I think I may whip up a few more pairs.



And here is just one more shot that I couldn't resist sharing. My little moo cow - isn't he cute?


It is late and I should really be in bed, so I'm signing off for now...