Day #4 Be Thoughtful Thursday

While seeking out this summer's theme days I wanted to make sure I could find a way to incorporate getting outside of our little selves and doing some good in the world. I was delighted to see a Pinterest pin suggesting to have Thursday's theme center on being thoughtful. With a growing number of scouts in our home, I wanted to find things that would help them earn merit badges; while still including the younger members of our crew. This is not always a simple task. As I was calling local non-profit organizations looking for ways the boys could volunteer and earn hours for their Citizenship in the Community, I became more discouraged as place after place informed me they were just too young. I knew we could always just write a note to someone or drop off a treat to one of the sweet widows we love; but I was looking for something we had not done in the past. I was pleasantly surprised to discover a huge need for toilet paper at the local food bank. The woman at Community Action Service and Food Bank in Provo told me the best way for the boys to get involved was to simply host a toilet paper drive. It was so simple it almost sounded to easy. As I talked it over with the boys and we began planning the drive, we were all humbled that such a simple commodity was in such great demand. We quickly became very excited about participating in this service, and planned for it to be our very first Be Thoughtful Thursday activity. After a few dozen fliers were handed out and a post was made on facebook to notify other family and friends, we set the donation deadline and set back to wait and see the response...

Step 1: Unwrap and Stack all the Rolls

Step 2: Place two rolls in each grocery bag

Step 3: Tie each bag with a double knot

My very handsome and happy Scouts, all done bagging...for today

Little Helper #1

Little Helper #2

The final donations will be gathered on Sunday from Church, then we'll finish bagging and take to the Food Bank next week. For today though, we are grateful that because of the generosity of family and friends, we were able to bag 66 rolls of toilet paper. That is 33 families who will benefit from this little drive of ours. Thanks to everyone who helped us out. Happy Be Thoughtful Thursday!

Day #3 What's Cookin' Wednesday

For today's new recipe, I thought that pulling taffy sounded like a wonderful idea. In my mind I envisioned teams of little boys, pulling the soft confections and giggling as it stretched. You know, like you see in the movies. Things started out well. I am a novice to candy making, I so invested $4 in a candy thermometer and figured I was all set. On Pinterest there were dozens of recipes. All with conflicting reviews. Feedback from comments ranged from "super sticky and mushy" to "brittle, hard as a rock" Everywhere I looked there was a difference of opinion on what temp. to cook the liquid to. With round one, it was immediately apparent that I had let it cook too long. I was distracted by sweeping. (In my defense, that line on the thermometer took nearly 15 min. to get to 200* how was I supposed to know in the 45 seconds it would take me to sweep my pile into the dust pan we would shoot right past soft ball stage, hard ball stage, and hit hard crack stage?!?) The boys could not have cared less about my worries over cooking it too long.

 

Their hands were buttered and they were rearin' to go by the time it cooled enough to touch.

So, there we were, all set to pull. I could see it so clearly in my mind...you know, that lovely scene I had envisioned earlier. I attempted to pull off the first clump for them to stretch. It pulled a bit, then SNAP! The boys erupted in laughter as I continued snapping off pieces for them to each try to pull. With little success stretching it more than an inch, they started sculpting shapes of thin pieces and snapping them off. They loved the sound it made and before I knew it, they were tossing candy all over the table and watching it shatter; the sights and sounds were not what I had pictured. However, in this family full of little boys, I considered this alternative just as good. 

For round two, I was much more attentive. I cooked it to a soft ball stage and then we hoped for the best. This time it was a bit more stretchy initially, but once you pulled it too much, it would harden and snap. I am not really sure how its possible to roll this stuff into a snake and snip it with scissors. We never did make it to that step. In the candy world, today would have probably been deemed a failure; but to me it was a delightfully unexpected outcome. Will we be making more taffy anytime soon, you ask? Probably not. But we'll probably be talking about how we shattered green colored, orange flavored, hard tack candy for weeks to come....

Day #2 Time to read Tuesday

For our Time to read Tuesday, we decided to head over to the Library to choose books for our June book reports. Since outings with all 5 guys can get tricky and time consuming, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the Summer reading program sign ups were going on while we were there. After hunting through shelves of books with large spreads of glossy photographs, and dealing with a couple of fickle decision makers, each boy selected a book or two about an animal; and we were on our way. Hmm, that makes for a rather boring and picture-less post. But, in my defense, who takes pictures of their children selecting books at the Library? Now, video of them using the touch screens and being fascinated that the black pad can magically scan the bar codes on a giant stack of books, that would have been something to capture.
As far as June book reports go, it looks like my husband and I will be well educated at the end of the month on a wide variety of animals. If memory serves (yesterday was a long time ago with my brain) E chose gorillas, J chose frogs, G chose kangaroos, V chose bears, and P chose Tigers.
On a separate note, the schedule seems to be holding up nicely. We consistently are a bit behind, but with the built in free time, we are keeping on track well enough. The boys' only complaint thus far is that there is not really any "free" time in the morning because we are currently trying to pull all the weeds our of the garden. It's a pretty large plot; and until its done, they each are responsible for a 5 ft. length of furrow each day. I enjoy gardening but with irrigation there are lots of weeds and a huge plot with long rows. Plus, since I am no expert at gardening, we let a pretty good bed of weeds grow in before I feel like I can differentiate between plant and weed!

Day #1 Make it Monday

Our first Make it Monday project was Grass Heads. I found these cute guys pinned on Pinterest, and followed the picture to Red Ted Art's blog. Here is the link: http://www.redtedart.com/2012/04/04/kids-crafts-grass-heads/ (I am new to the blog world, I hope that works...
It was pretty fun. The boys found it rather silly to stick dirt in my old pantyhose. We picked up the bag of grass seed at the local IFA store. I'll keep you posted on how well/fast Kentucky bluegrass grows. We picked up some terracotta pots at Hobby Lobby and I laid out a piece of poster board and let the boys go to town on the painting. Then we filled up the knee-highs with about 1 T. of grass and a lot of dirt, shaped the heads and stuck them in the pots. Monday was busy with a family BBQ for the holiday, and some other yard projects, so our little guys remain faceless to this day. I am sure we will get back to that soon enough. It was pretty fun! The big boys were especially creative with their painting.

Our face-less little grass heads!

*update* Fast forward a couple of days, we now have finished products!

Clearly I will need to get better at taking more "action" shots, by the time I thought to pull out the camera, the paints were cleaned up, the left over grass seed was planted on the dead spot in the front yard, and the boys were long gone; off playing in their fort I think. (I will post about that at a later date!) We are excited to watch these grow and can't wait to give them each "haircuts" later on in the summer!

Getting Organized...

I don't know about you, but I am all about the visual aids. Perhaps it became a part of me after all those years of serving in the Primary organization in my church. Children, like myself, thrive on visual learning. So, around our house there are lists and schedules posted everywhere. Don't misinterpret the presence of such things as an indication that they are strictly followed by everyone, each day. They aren't. However, having them gives me a better sense of order around the house and keeps reminds me what everyone needs to be doing, and when.
For summer though, changes needed to be made to the schedule to better accommodate us all being home together all day. In the past we have always had a "theme" of sorts for each day of the week. This summer is similar, but for some reason I like it more. To keep organized, I typed up my goals, daily theme plan, and other pertinent ideas in a word document and saved all the links I would need for recipes and ideas on that master document, and saved it to my desktop. I also printed out a hard copy and a copy of the daily schedule to hang on the wall.
Not that I have anyone but myself following this blog, but just in case, here are our Theme Days:
* Make it Monday (a craft project)
* Time to read Tuesday (trip to Library, story time with Mom, monthly book reports, or write/illustrate your own book
* What's cookin' Wednesday (try a new recipe together)
* Be Thoughtful Thursday (service project, write a letter to someone, scouting service hours, etc)
* Field trip/Friendship Friday (go on a field trip or plan and outdoor activity and invite some friends over)

                                  I used our white board to display what is coming up each week.
Here is our Daily Schedule too:

Daily Schedule:

8:00 am – wake up and eat breakfast

8:30- breakfast clean up

8:30-11:00- outside time: animal care and free play

11:00-12:30- STOP and give me 30 (piano, reading & math rotations)

12:30- Lunch

1:00- clean up lunch

1:00-1:30- chore charts

1:30-3:00- Days of the week activity

3:00-4:00- Siesta (quiet activity IN rooms)

4:00-5:30- Free time and dinner prep

5:30-Dinner and clean up

6:00-7:30- Free time

7:30- Family scripture study (or FHE on Mondays) & family prayer

8:00- 8:10- Many hands make light work house spiff

8:10-8:30- Bedtime routines

8:30-9:00- Reading in beds

9:00-LIGHTS OUT!

There you have it! Nothing earth shattering, but to me its just the right balance between free time and responsibility. We'll see how it goes!

Making a Plan...

"There's 104 days of summer vacation, and school come around just to end them. So the annual problem for our generation...is finding a good way to spend them....."
Aah, therein lies the challenge. I enjoy summer for many reasons. Many involving areas in which I can be a bit more lax in the daily schedule. However, lets face it, if there is nothing for anyone to do; and no real structure to each day...it's gonna be a Looong 104 days.
In years past I have gone all out with homework packets and new skills I was determined the boys would master over the summer. My best intentions seemed to dwindle in mid-June, and never really got back to any level of consistency. So, this year I have taken a new approach. We will have a schedule, but it will only include what really matters most to me and will be flexible. I spent hours in the weeks before summer pinning to my hearts content every craft project, outdoor activity, recipe, and educational idea I could get my hands mouse clicker, on. Then I spent even more hours sifting through everybody's idea of what the "101 best summer activities" were. I narrowed it all down to fit my "plan" and came up with what I believe will be a rather "Pinterest"ing Summer Vacation! This blog will serve as our journal of the summer to remind me (and the boys) of the adventures we shared and the memories we made as we found a good way to spend our 104 days together.