Well, it's swim season again. I'm really too busy and too stuck at home to do many sports...but I really like swim team. The kids learn a valuable sport that they can use for the rest of their lives...plus a life skill should they ever need it. Mackenzie and Megan both did swim team last year. It was a pretty pathetic team...sort of like the bad news bears, but despite the patheticness of it all, they learned all the strokes and were EXCELLENT swimmers by the end of the swim season. We didn't care so much about winning, just about getting really good at swimming. We are in Branson this summer, and thank God for the pathetic team we were on last year, because this year, they hopped right onto the awesome team and feel right at home. Living in Branson has had its' own learning curve as far as having several little kids. They have ticks here. Bad. So, I'm learning what to do with that. Max found one on his privates today and proceeded to show everyone around "his tick". Basically, I thought you burned them with a match and they would would fall off. Not so. These guys know a good deal when they see one and won't let go for anything short of a beating. So, after hours of research I found you just pull it out with tweezers. Actually, we just had houseguests leave and they found one that had spent a few days behind their babies' ear (they had been home a week) and lo and behold, that tick gave their baby rocky mountain fever which can paralyze you or kill you. (I'm learning more every day. It has to stay embedded for more than 24 hours to give you the ol fever.) Oh yeah, and we have brown recluse spiders here. If you would like a quick fear jolt, google those guys and look at images. Yikes. I saw three in one day at the house. Two inside and one out. I have to remind myself that the spider is little, I am big, it won't hurt me.... I killed one when we first got here and left the spatula in the sink. The next day, the end of the spatula was melted in the spot that I had squished the spider.
Well, so what do I do with this? I'm so against pest control. I can hardly stand it. ESPECIALLY with a crawling baby. But when you pick 14 ticks off of your dog in one day...something's gotta give. On dogs, I found out that Advantix works much better than frontline...I just ordered a case. On the kids...I like to find out the poisonous possibilities in the area, and then find some good scriptures. There are some good ones on poisonous insects that I can proclaim in our home. If the insects avoided the Israelites, but bugged the Egyptians, the same can happen today, right? I then read blogs on the subject, finding people who have been bitten or stung and then "arm" myself with a plan before any event ever occurs. My new first aid items include burn gel (this numbs the pain and heals the burn) (Water Jel Burn Jel, Pain Relief 25 ea
) and then my other new item is called an "extractor". This little dude "pulls" the poison out of a bite or a sting. You pick the suction cup size and it will extract everything from mosquito bite poison to ant stings to poison from a spider bite. Nice to have on hand!
Anyway...some of the other things I do in the summertime. I don't use sunscreen. I know, I know, it's really bad, but I figured out that the sun in the afternoon (after 3PM), does not burn you, so I usually like to swim with the kids after naptime. If they swim in the sun in the morning, I REALLY smooth on the sunscreen. Mackenzie is going to camp next week and they require bug spray and sunscreen in the packing list, and I found a bug spray/sunscreen combo from Avon of all places. It probably has as many chemicals as anything else out there, but because it's avon, I totally trust it. Also, you can get it in a pump spray (YAY). Has anyone else noticed that the aerosol sunscreen sprays only last 2 days when you have 5 kids? If you go to the beach for a week, you need at least 5 cans to make it to the end of the week. I'm thinkin' BULK product here, people! So, I was happy to find this little all in one item for camp. Speaking of camp. How exciting! She's going to Kamp Kanakuk, and I feel really good about it. We have a really close friend who was homeschooled all of his life, but his parents sent him to Kanakuk for one month every year starting at age 7. He thinks it is an excellent idea for homeschoolers. My little brother went to this camp when he was young and it was LIFE CHANGING for him. So, we are excited for her. Nothing like giving the little ones' wings while they still live in the nest. I want her to go on missions trips as soon as she turns 12 as well. But for now, a camp will do. This camp is located in Branson and they have 70 different sports available to the kids. I think the camp she's doing they sleep in tee-pees. There is a rigorous interview screening for the counselors, and basically, I just have a peace about it. So there you have it. The only other activity I have lined up for summer is a spelling bee coming up in two weeks. You know I can't stay away from spelling bees. Mackenzie just watched Akeelah and the Bee and she's nervous about standing in front of "all those people", but we live in a little town and I think this "bee" will be more like little house on the prairie than the Scripps spelling Bee in Washington. The Bee is being held in Springfield Missouri at an old school house built in 1854. How totally cool is that?
Other items I'm working on this summer:
+ making my own kombucha (I have DETERMINATION in my soul...this WILL happen)
+lose my final 15 lbs. (baby is 10 months old, now)
+ Get my soap onto Amazon.com (should be up there in a week)
+ Learn how to do gel nails at home (they stay on for 2-3 weeks, would be great for doing girls' nails as well)
+ Read up on the Suzuki method for the violin. Mackenzie's been playing with a teacher, but I want to read Nurtured By Love as well
+ Get Max reading ready-
+ Get some really yummy kids pics at the pool and beach
Is the list too long? As long as I stay at home, anything is possible. I find the more I leave the house, the faster my time slips through my fingers. If I do an outside activity with the kids, it needs to be within 10 miles of the house. Right now, I'm getting my nails done and it takes 3 hours of my time. Drive-1 hour Nails-1 hour Drive-1 hour....it's things like that that PUSH me to learn yet another skill. (that's where the gel nail thing came from).
I'll give a full report as the summer progresses. We didn't quite finish school this year...so I'll have to fit it in here and there between everything else. Having a baby and moving to another place can put a monkey wrench in my plans...but God totally has graced me to do it all.
oh yeah, I've added Avon Skin So Soft to my first aid "armor". All the children get sprayed as they go out the door in the morning. Do you guys remember that stuff? It's really great for a body "pest" spray. Count your blessings if you don't need this.
) and then my other new item is called an "extractor". This little dude "pulls" the poison out of a bite or a sting. You pick the suction cup size and it will extract everything from mosquito bite poison to ant stings to poison from a spider bite. Nice to have on hand!Anyway...some of the other things I do in the summertime. I don't use sunscreen. I know, I know, it's really bad, but I figured out that the sun in the afternoon (after 3PM), does not burn you, so I usually like to swim with the kids after naptime. If they swim in the sun in the morning, I REALLY smooth on the sunscreen. Mackenzie is going to camp next week and they require bug spray and sunscreen in the packing list, and I found a bug spray/sunscreen combo from Avon of all places. It probably has as many chemicals as anything else out there, but because it's avon, I totally trust it. Also, you can get it in a pump spray (YAY). Has anyone else noticed that the aerosol sunscreen sprays only last 2 days when you have 5 kids? If you go to the beach for a week, you need at least 5 cans to make it to the end of the week. I'm thinkin' BULK product here, people! So, I was happy to find this little all in one item for camp. Speaking of camp. How exciting! She's going to Kamp Kanakuk, and I feel really good about it. We have a really close friend who was homeschooled all of his life, but his parents sent him to Kanakuk for one month every year starting at age 7. He thinks it is an excellent idea for homeschoolers. My little brother went to this camp when he was young and it was LIFE CHANGING for him. So, we are excited for her. Nothing like giving the little ones' wings while they still live in the nest. I want her to go on missions trips as soon as she turns 12 as well. But for now, a camp will do. This camp is located in Branson and they have 70 different sports available to the kids. I think the camp she's doing they sleep in tee-pees. There is a rigorous interview screening for the counselors, and basically, I just have a peace about it. So there you have it. The only other activity I have lined up for summer is a spelling bee coming up in two weeks. You know I can't stay away from spelling bees. Mackenzie just watched Akeelah and the Bee and she's nervous about standing in front of "all those people", but we live in a little town and I think this "bee" will be more like little house on the prairie than the Scripps spelling Bee in Washington. The Bee is being held in Springfield Missouri at an old school house built in 1854. How totally cool is that?
Other items I'm working on this summer:
+ making my own kombucha (I have DETERMINATION in my soul...this WILL happen)
+lose my final 15 lbs. (baby is 10 months old, now)
+ Get my soap onto Amazon.com (should be up there in a week)
+ Learn how to do gel nails at home (they stay on for 2-3 weeks, would be great for doing girls' nails as well)
+ Read up on the Suzuki method for the violin. Mackenzie's been playing with a teacher, but I want to read Nurtured By Love as well
+ Get Max reading ready-
+ Get some really yummy kids pics at the pool and beach
Is the list too long? As long as I stay at home, anything is possible. I find the more I leave the house, the faster my time slips through my fingers. If I do an outside activity with the kids, it needs to be within 10 miles of the house. Right now, I'm getting my nails done and it takes 3 hours of my time. Drive-1 hour Nails-1 hour Drive-1 hour....it's things like that that PUSH me to learn yet another skill. (that's where the gel nail thing came from).
I'll give a full report as the summer progresses. We didn't quite finish school this year...so I'll have to fit it in here and there between everything else. Having a baby and moving to another place can put a monkey wrench in my plans...but God totally has graced me to do it all.
oh yeah, I've added Avon Skin So Soft to my first aid "armor". All the children get sprayed as they go out the door in the morning. Do you guys remember that stuff? It's really great for a body "pest" spray. Count your blessings if you don't need this.
