I would say that we had a pretty good week. We had plenty to keep us busy, but we weren't so busy that we didn't have time to relax and just play together. I feel like that's a pretty bold statement for me, because I am always on the move and if I felt like we had time to slow down that's saying something.
I'm starting off with a bit of a brag. We planted a few grow bags this year. They far exceeded what I thought would happen. Our first attempt in North Carolina at a little garden was a failure. But, this go around we have already munched on a few fun yellow snacking tomatoes. Our slicing tomato plants each have about 20 tomatoes on them and we have giant peppers growing.
The small tomato plant is struggling a bit. One downside of the bags is we have to move them once a week for the mowers. This particular plant is shooting roots through the bag to the ground. I keep having to rip up the roots to move the bag which is making the plant look a little sad. It still has plenty of tomatoes growing, so hopefully we will get the ones that have already grown.
This week was our first week of screen free June. We've been prepping the kids for a couple of months for no screens for 30 days. We don't have a huge problem, but there is a lot of research being done on the negative effects of screens and depending on the the media is causes some pretty crazy side effects to the brain...especially with young children. They didn't know it, but I have been slowly decreasing the time in which they get to play their educational games and which days they got to watch shows. There was a bit of fussing the first couple of days, but I am super proud of them for not asking and when they went to the library they were eyeing the computers, but stayed away from them. We still have some periods of fighting and mom intervenes to separate kids for some alone time, but I have been surprised at how well the kids are playing and finding things to do. I guess the fighting to pretty normal, but there wasn't more fighting taking the place of lost screen time.
Here are some of the things the kids found to do instead of screens. Lila and Liam decided them wanted to clean some crystals again. I gave them the bucket that I was intending to get rid of and they spent an hour washing. I think I'm going to keep it for a while longer.
On a rainy day they commenced operation save the worms. They spent lots of time picking up worms and throwing them in the grass. Lila and Liam were a little grossed out at first, but by the end they were grabbing them as quick as they could.
Most days one or both bedrooms would look like this as they created forts or castles with elaborate rooms with specific functions.
There was also plenty of creativity with paper. Lila has been into creating shoes. She typically will create these crisscross sandals with beads and yarn, but this week she created boots with paper.
Monday we went to a favorite playground to just play before it rained. We ended going back to that playground to play with some friends. We hadn't seen them in a while and it was good to catch up. There was plenty of running and chasing. The favorite game was get Gage. They all just chased Gage. It was something else to watch a pack of six kids running after him. He loved it. They loved it. Moms were happy, so everyone won.
We also went to a free event at the local history museum. Each week through June they have a specific community hero they read a book about and then have activities. This week was police officers. We were able to look at some fun history. The kids enjoyed the old cars.
I had no idea, but our city police is pretty forward in their community relations. They are the only department in the nation that has a police car that kids can sign. They loved writing their names on it and Hyrum drew a picture of him and Pawficer Fuzz.
Tim was busy with work. He was pretty booked all week, which was a nice change. I made dinner for a family in the ward and was able to attend the temple on Saturday, which was very nice. We decided to celebrate the food portion of father's day this Sunday, because of the Elder's Quorum being together. It was well received, and I'm glad it's over with.
Until next week!
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