Summer Survival Tips for Mom

Mom and Loving It! Author Offers Timely Tips for Summer

(Northeast, Texas) - The dog days of summer are upon us and with that brings bored kids, frustrated moms and endless hours of television. Why not make this summer different? Cool off with the creative tips and suggestions offered by Mom and Loving It! co-author Sharon Lovejoy Autry. She's compiled a list of low-cost summer ideas that will have kids and parents wishing the summer would never end.

Saved By the Bell
A Summer to Remember
Sharon Lovejoy Autry

The final bell rang. The kids screamed for joy. Mom sits in the carpool line wondering, "What in the world are we going to do all summer?!"

Maybe as summer has begun, you've found yourself resentful and angry because your children constantly "interrupt" your schedule. If that's how you're feeling, you're normal.

But, wait. We wanted these kids, right? Are they really interruptions or blessings in disguise? How can we move from simply surviving the summer to making it a summer to remember?

Here are a few ideas to get you out of the summer survival rut:

1. Realize they won't be this way forever. What is it about your kids that you won't have in two years? If you are a parent of:

• Preschoolers: Look at their hands and notice how tiny they are. Enjoy that.
• Elementary children: When you're away from home, call them. Their voices sound small on the phone. That always reminds me to enjoy their innocence rather than expecting them to act like little grown-ups.
• Tweens: Laugh at and enjoy their giggles (usually girls) and the fascination they have with being gross (usually boys)! Hopefully that won't last forever!
• Teens: Even if they are driving you crazy, make your home the safe place. I still remember the fun place our parents created at home. It was our refuge. Let kids feel safe in your home by cutting down on the criticism and looking for ways to build them up. Mom and Dad's secret was a ping-pong table. We spent hours there.

2. Say "no" with a smile. It makes you and your child feel better. They know you have some regret at having to say no. You are on their team.

3. Play music. Anger and music don't usually dance. Movie soundtracks, praise songs, music from my teen years or even classical stations. I rarely find myself upset with my kids when we have music playing in the background.

4. Go outside. Sometimes taking a walk or bike ride with the kids can do wonders to change everyone's perspective.

5. Things aren't always as they seem. Remember that the way you are seeing things at this moment is probably not how it will look in a couple of hours. Frustrations can build and dissolve quickly when you have kids.

6. Offer them 30 minutes of your time. After they have helped pick up around the house let them pick what the two of you will do together and watch their eyes light up! For older kids, offer them the day off after helping for an hour.

7. Ask your kids what they think is fun. You might be surprised to find that their idea of fun often doesn't cost any money. My sister was amazed to find that her 7-year-old son's idea of "fun" was playing tag in the front yard with dad, mom and his little sister.

8. Slow down. Successful parenting doesn't mean you have your children involved in every possible extra-curricular activity. Successful parenting means you are there for them. If you've been running all year, it takes "practice" to enjoy staying home. Don't give up. Turn off the computer, TV, cell phone, etc. and read or play games (no matter what the age of your children).

9. Pray. When you are at your wit's end, ask God to help you remember what to do with your kids. On our own, it's hard to enjoy the moments because "life happens." But God has a way of giving us perspective that will slow us down and help us see our families the way He sees them: with love and compassion.

The next time you blow your top or realize you're just surviving your kids instead of enjoying their clumsy feet, silliness, or their constant desire to talk on the phone, stop and think, "one day I'll miss this!" The funny thing is, tomorrow we'll be longing for today. If we choose to think like that long enough, the kids won't be the only ones sad to hear the school bell ring this fall.

Sharon (Lovejoy) Autry, a mom of 3, co-authored Mom and Loving It, Finding Contentment in REAL Life with her sister, Laurie (Lovejoy) Hilliard, mom of 4.

Check it out at http://www.momandlovingit.org/.

Menu Plan Monday — June 8th

Last week went pretty well, although I did the usual and a few things are getting carried over to this week. But that's okay since it makes the beginning of the week a little easier since I have those items on hand.

Monday — Fettucine Alfredo.

Tuesday — Pancakes with this Strawberry Topping.

Wednesday — Meat Loaf.

Thursday — Vegetable Buffet, and maybe Baked Potatoes.

Friday — Chicken Spaghetti. I already have some chicken cooked and cut up in the freezer from another time, and I need to use it up.

Saturday — Leftovers, and/or clean out the fridge and pantry.

Sunday — Eat out since we ate in all week!

I thought I'd share with you some of the places that we eat on a regular Sunday. By regular I mean not Mother's Day or Father's Day or someone's birthday, where we usually go somewhere a little nicer. Some of our favorite places to go on Sunday after church are Boston Market, Taco Bell, Chipotle (which they didn't have where we lived in Virginia), and Steak & Shake. If it's a special occasion we have been known to go to Macaroni Grill, TGI Friday's, Olive Garden, Logan's Roadhouse, Chili's, or Applebee's. We used to love Lone Star, but around here they have all gone out of business.

This week I'm going to make some Homemade Granola, and I'm going to try the Blueberry Muffin recipe with strawberries. But don't tell Caboose, because one, he's never had any muffin other than blueberry that he likes, and two, the last time I made these with the recipe, this was the impending disaster. I'm also going to make the Buttermilk Biscuits again sometime this week. These are all things we like to eat when they come out of the oven and then we can snack on them during the day or for breakfasts.

For more great ideas, go visit Laura at The Organizing Junkie.

Out of the Mouths of Babes 9-Year-Olds

I've never seen a Progressive store.

They make them look much better on the commercials.

I didn't know they would be brown. (I had to whip out my phone quick and take a picture before we started driving again.)

What's Old is New Again

I had this picture hanging in my room when I was growing up. It was one of the few things that I owned that was personalized. Anything personalized with my name was guaranteed to have been special ordered.

My mom gave this to me, probably when she was cleaning stuff out, back at least by 2001. I know that because it was living in my garage in Illinois. It was in the most putrid mintish pastel green frame. I went and found the coordinate code for the Crayola color 'magic mint' which appears to be about the right color and put it in for those words. I hope it comes out right so you can see what I mean.

The reason I dislike this color so much is that I can't wear it. If I do, I look that color. It's not pretty at all. When I'm looking at a rack of clothes, it doesn't matter if I see something that I absolutely love, if it's that color, I go right past it. It never touches my body any more. I don't even wear pajamas or have bedding that color. It's that bad.

Well, this post was about a picture, so here it is in the original form, mostly. I think I'd started working a little on the blue and brighter pink before I took this picture.

It appeared to have been done with some type of markers. We had a box of Prismacolor pencils from art classes a few years ago, so I pulled those out and a sharpener and got to work.

I did try to go along with the original color plan when I was coloring it in. A few of them were seriously faded, so I kind of guessed as to exactly what I thought they were.

The original paper is mottled except for the places where it had been taped onto some cardboard with masking tape. There it is white, of all things! I would have thought it would have been more orange than the rest of the paper.

I got a black frame on sale at Michael's to finish it off and make it stand out. And here it is in my 'hangout' area.

My scrapbooking area. I wielded the drill again tonight and hung up the black shelf which matches the ones in the kids' bathrooms and the first floor powder room/half bath. I haven't completely finished deciding how I'm going to use it yet.

Here's what it looks like a little farther down the wall. I also still haven't decorated those boards.

Here are two cat postcards that I just love and had framed 20 years ago. Man, I'm old!

They live on the little wall over by the other cubbie shelf that also houses the television.

I was especially happy with my little 'hangout' picture. I didn't really ever think it would see a wall in my home again, between looking bad, being in a putrid frame, and frankly, looking somewhat childish. I think it's kind of fun and in a good spot for what it is. I'll take it down when I'm 98.

Somebody please remind me.

Organizing Kids' (Not-So-Typical) Shelves

I figured I needed to just go ahead and put the disclaimer in the title of the post, lest you think this was about toy shelves, or maybe bookshelves. Or even shelves in one of my kid's closets.

But alas, it is not so.

This is how things started out. They've been living in the hall for about three months, since they were unpacked from their moving box. They lined the hall nicely and stayed in place though.

Here is where the remainder was, because these things were in one of Caboose's brother's boxes, since they used to share a room and they got boxed together out of necessity, and of course Buddy wasn't going to let any of it stay in his room until Caboose's room was prepared. (I would have been the same way if it were me if we're just going to be honest here.)

I decided I was going to be little miss handy-girl today. I know how to wield a drill. I just usually let Hubby do it now. But I was tired of waiting. We'd had the white shelf since December. It's June. Hubby is going to read this and say I didn't ask him. I have mentioned it in passing, in my defense.

Buddy came in to help me, since I just have two hands. Plus I think it's good for his future knowledge, in the possibility that he might not live with me forever. We wielded a stud finder (it kept going off incessantly whenever Buddy was around!), a pencil, a level, a hammer, a screwdriver, a drill, and molly bolts. I think that was it. Oh, and I had to stand on our tall step stool. Here is the finished product.

Since the walls aren't painted yet it is much easier to see in the second picture. I used those new Command picture hangers that are kind of like Velcro but not really to hang the Monster Jam poster (since it's already in a poster frame). They are really cool. Once I get a poster frame for the other picture, I'll do the same for it.

If you want to see some of the other surface and shelf organization round-ups that people are doing for this month, go check out The Organizing Junkie and see who's linked up.

No-Bake Cookies

I am awash in memories!!!

When I was in elementary school, Friday was always pizza day.

It was also no-bake cookie day.

It was my favorite day of all school days.

Back at the end of 2001, the paper Caboose brought home from Sunday school had a little recipe for cookies on it. They were called 'Make and Take Cookies' and looked like no-bake cookies to me, but without a picture I wasn't sure. But I hung onto the recipe thinking I'd try it someday.

Today was the day. Oh, my stars! The smell alone brought back memories. I just wish I'd had some school pizza.

Here's the empty spot where I took one off when it was barely hardened enough not to fall apart. I couldn't wait.

I licked the spoon and the pan as clean as I could get it.

Since I want everyone to share in my joy, here's the recipe.

No-Bake Cookies

1/4 cup butter
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup cocoa
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup peanut butter
3 cups quick-cooking oats

Melt the butter. Add the sugar, milk, cocoa, and salt. Mix well. Bring the mixture just to the boiling point, but do not let it boil. (Personally, this is a little tricky, so I would stir and look at it, and then when it got to the point that it looked almost bubbly around the edges and where it was about to bubble in the middle, I turned off my gas burner. It worked.) Remove from heat.

Add the vanilla, peanut butter, and oats. Mix well. Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheets or waxed paper. Let stand until firm. Mine were getting more firm even as the pan was cooling.

Poor Hubby won't get to have any since peanut butter flares up his gout. He might try to sneak one, but I think there might be too much peanut butter in it for him to risk it. Although when I get back downstairs in a minute and the kids and I start munching on them, it may be a non-issue. There may not be any left when he gets home.

Organizing Our Computer Area

This month's organizing round-up is a surface or shelf. Mine that I'm showing you in this post is a combination surface/shelf. It is what used to be our computer desk, and is now two computer desks with storage cubbies between them, from Ikea of course.

Here is the before picture that was taken sometime between Christmas and the middle of February. Yes, took me that long to get it down. Come to think of it, I see a big dinosaur that was a birthday gift in the middle of January for Caboose, so I know it was after that.

After we took the tree down we temporarily put up one of those plastic white folding tables to hold the second computer. I was a little indecisive about what I wanted, and they no longer made the desk like the one we already had. Plus the movers broke it and glued the legs back on that far side (you might be able to see particle board showing above the black metal strip at the bottom...it was completely broken off) so I didn't really know how long this one was actually going to hold up.

The night Hubby and I went to Ikea and measured the floor arrow, I wandered and stared at desks. The plan was to pick something. Wandering always gets my idea cells in my brain flowing. It doesn't happen very often. But I walked away with something totally unexpected that completely works for us.


This is on our second floor loft. Sometime I'll show you the rest of it, but I'm trying to stay focused here and not digress. It's challenging, but I'm determined.

The drawers are something extra that you can purchase to add in with this system (Expedit). I knew one set of drawers would be handy to hide a few things that would be necessary to have in this area.

Pencils, pens, scissors, tape, a couple of small notepads, small stapler, etc. The game box is there because I ran out of small cd cases that I move them all over to, so it's sitting in there for now.

I keep all the chargers we need to get to regularly in here, either electrical or the ones that hook up to the computer for cameras or ipods.

There are a couple of magazine files next to the drawers. One holds my current catalogs, and the other holds a couple of poly files. One of those files holds a bunch of odds & ends papers that would otherwise be scattered all over the desk area but that are notes or things that need to be kept for some reason or another, but not things that need to be filed. The other file holds recipes that I've printed off the computer that haven't made it into a menu plan yet...basically ones that I want to try soon.

The red cd boxes are from Ikea also. I posted about them and my favorite plastic bookends a little bit here. I still need to label all of them, but I thought I'd show you inside them, just so you could see how they are being used.

Kids' cd games. I have the Nancy Drew game cd's separated with a plastic bookend that you can't see. The newer ones come with two cd's that are necessary for game installation, but you only need the first cd to play the game, so I stick the second discs in the back.


School cd's, headphones for Rosetta Stone, my cd's (pictures, software, etc), and a few more game cd's.

My postage scale (usually my packing tape is in this box too, but it's downstairs ready to tape up a box), and an empty box!

One box has all the electronic/computer type cords that go to stuff, and the other box has video camera tapes, my old digital camera that will hold about 16 pictures, and some of our extra cords, because we don't need more than one out at a time.

Those wonderful brown woven baskets on top — one holds my extra printer paper, and the other holds items that need to be shredded. Of course I have a pile of papers and stuff over a foot tall piled up on top of the shredder right now, but we'll just pretend it's not there for the purpose of this post.

One of the woven baskets underneath is empty, and one holds files, primarily ones where I've torn out magazine ideas, but some are school files with catalogs or curriculum plans, and the green files are some that we have to keep from Hubby's military work travel for five years before we can shred them.

I put a couple of the plastic bookends in the back of the last file to hold them up since they don't take up the entire basket.

The blue lidded boxes hold files that we don't access frequently. Off the top of my head I can tell you that the red files are our taxes and my grandparents'/grandma's taxes, and the green files are Hubby's from the military.

The other blue box has a lot of medical records or school records that we need to keep. The brown accordion file doesn't have to be kept, but it has the insurance claims from the first 13-14 months of the girls' lives, and it's pretty astounding. I'm keeping it just for historical purposes.

I also used the plastic bookends at both ends of these boxes even though they were full. They are cardboard-type boxes, so the bookends helped to hold the files upright a little better and gave the boxes more stability.

I love how it looks.

You can check out what other people are organizing, or link up yourself, over at The Organizing Junkie.

You might also be interested in these posts:
The entire surface of my garage floor! — Garage: Before & After
Last month's round-up — Organizing the Master Bedroom Closet