Lesson 240: It's Tricky

Welcome, weekend!

Here are some of the latest happenings from the Lamp Post.

For starters, we can begin drying out.  

The first week of summer vacation has been a wet one.

No camp fires,

and lots of MUD.

My outdoor workouts continued as usual.

The Niagara provided the backdrop for Thursday evening's workout.

Those are our body prints left in the mud.

Rain-outs for Little League this week.

One of us was too cool for a make shift umbrella.

 We carried on though, and played when we could.

With temps in the 60's, we dug out the sweatshirts and long sleeved shirts I just put away,

and played anyway.

That's what summer is about at the Lamp Post---fun and play.  We're a teaching family, so all five of us are home all summer long.  That was the agreement when we had children of our own.  I would continue to use my degree and work through the school year, but we both would take the summers off completely to spend with the kids.  I've never regretted this decision.  There is no amount of money that anyone could offer me that could take me away from my family.

It is a bit tricky though, entertaining your family day after day.  Every parent knows you have to keep your kids moving, because when boredom sets in, the fighting starts.  I wasn't home for summer break for a half an hour when the kids began playing their favorite game to torment each other---they love to lock one another out of the house.  Sam and Ellen do lots of sneaking and slamming and screaming at one another.  Poor Natalie just stands there looking confused.  

Mother Eloise strives to keep a balance between busy and relaxing.  That can get tricky.  We try to find affordable things to do that the whole family enjoys.

We fish.  

 

Actually THEY fish.  I sit and watch and read a book.

I try to encourage some reading during the summer months, and that gets tricky sometimes, too.  Sam and Natalie read to me all the time.  Ellen is almost 13 and reading to Mom just doesn't do it for her anymore.  When I told her reading text messages didn't count as reading, she rolled her eyes and me.  I noticed her bookmark hadn't moved in the book she keeps next to her bed.  So I did what only a good mother would do--I hacked her book!

I picked up this teen fiction hardcover for her at Ollie's Bargain Outlet for a buck 99.  

I read the first three chapters, and while I did, I wrote my thoughts and opinions all over the pages in red pen.  My God, I probably just killed our school librarian.  Someone living out Deb's way better go check on her, and bring the smelling salts.

Here's an example of a book that has been Eloised.

Books are much more fun to read that way.

 

I left a blue pen inside the book with a post it note stuck to it.  Write me back!!!! it read.  I don't fish, but I hooked a reader, anyway.  

It's also tricky trying to navigate the lure of fast food alley, just a couple of miles from the Lamp Post.  We try to shop locally and eat healthy.  Natalie does.  When she made her plate for dinner the other night, this is what she put on it!  Natalie is the best (and biggest) eater in the house.

Once in awhile we go out to eat, and that is the trickiest feat of all.

We went out to lunch for my nephew Erik's 16th birthday on Thursday.

Our long table was filled with a messy six year old who insists on ordering spaghetti,

and teenagers who think everything is stupid.

In their defense, this was the view from across the table.  

 Still, we do it.  We've made it through every summer together for all these years, and this one will be no different.  We will survive.

One of the keys to our survival is establishing a few routines.  Everyone makes their beds as soon as they get up.  No one goes to bed before the dishwasher is emptied and the garbage has been taken out for the raccoons to get into.  Routines are good training for kids (and adults).

I started thinking about routines a lot recently when I picked up Habit, by Charles Duhigg to read.

It is a book about the science behind habit formation.  It is a good summer read for anyone thinking about making a change.  Reading this book will give you a different perspective beyond bad habits versus will power.  It discusses the neurology of habit formation and what we really need to do to make positive and lasting changes.

If you're sick of paying for Chantix to kick the smokes, or tired of making payments on the mounting credit card debt from your obsessive shopping habits, then this is the book for you.

The day after my 6,786 burpee challenge was complete, I got up the next morning and did 50 burpees without thinking about it.  Over 116 days, burpees had become a habit.  Now that I understand habits a little better, it makes perfect sense.

Next week I'll tell you about kicking my coffee habit.  That was tricky for me, indeed.  Yes, I did have a caffeine addiction, but I also had a strong coffee habit.  I'll reveal next week how much coffee I was drinking.  Without saying the numbers just yet, I will say that this was true for me:

 I drink a little coffee (I'll tell you just how much next week).  I still have my pot and my eclectic coffee mug collection, so don't worry friends.  I'll put a pot on at the Lamp Post for you when you stop by.  No worries.  This time when you come to vent, Eloise will be a little less twitchy.

To sum up this tricky week of navigating unseasonably cold weather, rainstorms, hungry kids, and boredom, I set this week's photos to It's Tricky by Run DMC.  Despite what everyone may think from reading this blog, I am more than just a country girl.  Eloise has a very diverse music collection.  Handsome is just a habit in a big, black hat---and one that I am not willing to get rid of anytime soon.  Tim McGraw is here to stay.

Let's mix it up a little this weekend, Readers.

Run DMC--you think it's tricky to rock a rhyme?  Try surviving the summer with my tribe.  

Until next time,

Eloise