Be the difference!

 

I know I know. It’s scary to let you middle schooler contact a teacher with a question or to check into something. But I promise if you’re there to guide them with some of the basic verbiage they’ll be doing it on their own by high school and it will #1 be one less thing on your to do list and #2 be an important lesson in life in how to handle things and begin communicating. I ONLY get involved if it’s something that either shouldn’t involve a child in the communication due to the nature or does not get resolved with the child’s attempt. These lessons last a lifetime and watching them blossom into respectful, responsible adults will be worth it. #parentingishard #nolazyparenting #teachkidsresponsibility

Do you just feel sad when the kids are sick?

 Sad?  Helpless?  Wanting to snuggle them regardless of their age?  Our sweet J (14) has had a cough for 6 straight weeks. Started with a cold and never went away.  Took him to his doctor last week and she’s thinking since his lungs sound okay it could be his allergies but he’s had walking pneumonia last year so it could be that again.  He has been so tired. But he gets up at 5 am 4 days a week for footfall workouts and then practices right after school for track until 430pm plus track meets. He was already on daily Claritin so she switched him to Zyrtec and added Flonase and a daily saline rinse in the shower after track to get anything he breathed in out.  It didn’t work. The cough has gotten wetter so today she put him on antibiotics as discussed and he will miss weights the rest of the week to get some extra rest. 

I knew he needed this but wow.  How much?  Poor guy fell asleep at 7 tonight. We got him moved to his room at 830 and he is sleeping straight through. I think he definitely needs a rest.  

Hopefully he’s good to go for his track meet tomorrow?

Our babies are always our babies. 

Best way to watch television!

 

We’ve been using Amazon Firesticks for 7 years. 

When we moved and got reliable, high speed fiber internet I was so excited. This finally meant we could get rid of having satellite service.  We don’t have access to cable at all and never have so that’s not an option. We were stuck with satellite. 

But 7 years ago we bought our first Fire Stick. We’re up to 4k now. We even have the outdoor tvs hooked up. They’re fantastic!  We can change up what we want to subscribe to and totally control our spend. I always look for Black Friday deals for a spare fire stick AND for streaming deals.  We’ve gotten Peacock for a year for $20 this way. So worth it. 

Seriously worth it to have streaming if you can and control what you watch and spend!

Fire Stick on Amazon

Pool opening 2023

 

This is our third season, 2nd pool opening and first pool opening by ourselves. We got everything power washed (losing battle with the pollen until June but whatever), pool filled, cleaned up, leaves cleaned up from under the deck, everything for the pool plumbing back together and chemical in balance.  It did take a day or two to get the salt levels up enough for the salt water generator to make chlorine but it’s been going on it’s own and now instead of an ugly gray winter cover I can see pretty turquoise water. I’m not wasting money using the heat pump yet.  We will let the sun do it’s job for a bit and then when the nights aren’t in the 40s anymore we will fire that up and swim. 

I can go into pool care over time  I’ve learned a lot about the different levels to keep everything at to have a well maintained salt water pool.  Right now my CSI is at .06 so it’s great.  I am only messing with individual levels when the CSI is in jeopardy.  Alkalinity, PH, CYA or calcium alone is never what you focus on  it’s a combination that matters that makes it corrosive or scale forming.  Neither are good.  If you want to keep your pool balanced I suggest the Pool Math app  it’s fantastic for tracking your numbers and calculating CSI for you  

#poolcare #patiocleanup #springcleaning #poolopening #readyforsummer

Solar cover reel with tow

 May still tweak the straps some because solar covers are not cut square and definitely don’t lay square but this work makes taking it off and on so much easier.  #poolcoverbudget #moneysavingtips #poolstuff

New look

 

I’ll share more in a video of this whole idea but it started with a large round table taking up too much space under our deck and everyone ended up getting separated when we had a gathering. So some research and brainstorming was done to create this and come within the budget we set for this long term solution. 

I LOVE it!

#patiofurniture #patiodecor #patiodesignideas #outdoorgatherings

Versatile Easter gifts for older kids

 

Do you want simple, inexpensive Easter gifts for older kids?  This is what we do.  After the youngest was old enough to understand, so just a few years ago, I bought these cute little tins from Hobby Lobby. I simply get each kid a gift card to their favorite drink or eating place and put a little candy in there. It’s easy and stress free and you can do gift cards for as little or as much and you can afford and reuse the tins every year. And they leave them on the counter until the candy is gone yet they look super cute in them making them not annoy me. Lol. #inexpensiveeastergifts #easterforolderkids #moneysavingtips