I have to get my pics in order for that post but to catch you up on HERE and scheduling and cleaning and dieting and child raising and home schooling....I thought I needed a separate post!
Weight:
So before our trip I did not get to the doctors to weight because Kate had a rash and we went to her doctor instead! It is all better now, thank goodness!
I know that I had lost weight but unsure of how much at this point so I will let you know after my doctors appointment which I think is next MONDAY! I did pretty good eating on the trip.. I made some great choices and even though I didn't want to miss everything.. I choose to try things but not have much. I walked a TON! In Chicago alone I am pretty sure that mom and I calculated us walking about 6 miles in the 12 hours we were about the city! That doesn't account for stairs and ramps. I worked out in three of the four hotels we stayed in that had fitness rooms even at 10 at night after a full day of doing stuff so I felt good! It was different for me than most vacations... usually it is eat what you want because it is "special" and fitness rooms have never seen me before at a hotel!
Scheduling:
I am giving myself till Sunday evening to acclimate and catch up on laundry etc before starting my full week of STUFF getting ready for school and our new "year" to start.
On Monday the kids switch to a new schedule, no electrons till after 3:00 currently it is 12:00. A little more serious about bedtimes and I plan to do one unit study to have them sitting at the table working. This is more for fun though! We have had 3 weeks off minus math and a Lewis and Clark study for the trip!
On next Monday we launch school full schedule minus science and history. this will mean school table promptly at 9:00, chores done, memory work(which we haven't done since MAY!), math, spelling, writing, Bible, ETC and LLTLA for Emily. I will update our curriculum choices later this week but not much is changing.
The following Monday we will add science and history!
I am really, really expecting a different school year with NO AGH and very little BSCH. I know that I am excited and have big plans, just gotta work on my FOLLOW THROUGH.
I have always wanted to do Tea Party Tuesdays for example and always start out with the best intentions. But the extra stuff gets cut as outside stuff adds to much to our schedule so I plan to have Tea Party Tuesdays this year as a staple! I gave big plans for it too!
As far as other scheduling goes we will continue Sunday church, Sunday night church and Wed night church, we have not had that with much consistency throughout the school year so it will take some getting used to. We tried so many churches and that took up a lot of weeks but never with the intent of making it our home church and long term commitments.
Emily will continue gymnastics, Kate volleyball assuming they offer a Fall session and Matt well ... we don't know maybe a home school PE class at the gym Emily goes to. We will see depending on cost and timing!
My workout will still be paramount! I am unsure of the child care situation for my older children come fall at the YMCA so it is a wait and see I guess. I might have to go early or later to accommodate us!
We will add more outreach, service projects this year, I hope to do one a month at the least but a few might be more ongoing and we don't know what the church offers yet either.
CLEANING
this could be under home schooling or scheduling I don't know but I have got the kids notebooks for their room almost done, hopefully will finish those next week and be ready for our Monday school start.
It will include:
their rooms
chores
devotions
money accountability
a daily journal- which will count as a writing exercise for school
a food journal (we are working on food knowledge and our bodies and how they work best so I thought the kids could keep a food journal for a while and SEE when their bodies work best.)
and school assignments - which is new for us! we will see how it works for their seat work.
I am still using the House That Cleans Itself. ---this is another post in itself!
Child Raising...
We had some issues on the trip. I have some work that I have honestly been putting off with Kaitlin. I need work just bite the bullet and add a few OT and neuro work to her day. It is necessary. I know for the most part what needs to be done to make a difference I just don't do it! So we will be working on that more.
Emily was not very agreeable. She wasn't really bad just a pain. We had a few out right defiant moments. I can blame some of it on food (we had been doing so much organic and being careful for her to be thrown into eating out for 8 days wasn't good), I can blame some of it on just being tired... we WENT and WENT and WENT for 8 days straight! The rest is of course her personality and that is what we are going to simply have to crack down on more. We have but a few things are just going to have to be a zero tolerance situation. I think after a little bit of that a few things will simply go away although it seems that just as something goes away another "problem" crops up! do you know what I mean! We also had what I would deem pure and simply jealousy when mommy gave attention to all the babies! This is a definite work on!
ALL three of my kiddies showed a little more ungratitude than I would have liked so that is first on our character traits that we will work on this year.
Honestly they did do really good, it was a long trip and we did sooo much! But something I just found unacceptable- it is one thing if a a child disobeys the other parent on a trip but them disobeying my mom made me much more stressed out. I found myself much crankier with them.
Soooooo many things to work on do and accomplish!!! Oh and finance are a different story... now that the trip is over we are on lock down besides some school necessities and of course Garner in October. We need a new vehicle!!! It is priority number one, you know under everything else!!!!!
7 comments:
We are going to Chicago in August! I can't wait to see all your pics and get the dos and don'ts for what is must see!
We only have a couple of days though, going up for a baseball game for the boys and just to see stuff. The Creation Museum in Kentucky is on our way and back so we want to do that also.
I enjoy your blog so much! It is inspiring to know that we all have the same ups and downs with every area of our lives and none of us have "arrived." Thankss for keeping it real!
Carrie!! Where are yall staying? WE had such an amazing time! I loved every minute of our short stay!!!
We don't really know where we are staying yet. Probably a hotel where we can use some points Corey has accumulated for a free night or something. Where did you stay? We are thinking we will probably stay north in the Schaumburg area. What all did you do? We were thinking of maybe the zoo since it's free if it isn't too hot. We want to do the hop on hop off bus/trolley tour to kind of see everything. Thinking about the Lego Center but it gets iffy reviews online, so not sure.
We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn right off Michigan Avenue. It was around 180 plus parking. The biggest cost is parking! A lot of places are between 18 and 40 dollars a day! We chose to park our car and not use it until we left! We took the trolley to Navy Pier and walked home. we think we walked about 6 miles in teh 12 hours we were there! It was a lot.
There are trolleys, make sure you check the last stop time our stopped at 8:00. We went to the Lego center, it was neat but it is kindof expensive. Unless your kids are LEGO freaks, maybe save for Lego Land California! :)
the lego store on the Magnificent mile is cool too. It is about as big as at Disneyworld. There are a bunch of boat tours but they are pricey, if you just want a boat "experience" there are water taxis that are cheaper and quicker- still "expensive" but cheaper.
The ride tickets on Navy Pier were between 5 and 6, there is a family pass that is 10 tickets for 35.00.
The American Girl store is amazing! It is in 900 place I think. There is a cafe, store, hair dresser and snack shop.
If the kids are into Build A bear the store on navy pier has an exclusive shirt that says Chicago on it, cheaper, cute souvineer. It least it will be used!
In
Shaumberg there is a popcorn place called popcorn Palace- it has all different flavors and colors of popcorn-- realy neat!
Millineum park is really neat and FREE. there are places to eat and venders. There is a very large water area that is full of kids in bathing suits, it is neat. The sphere is cool picture wise!
make sure and see Buckingham Fountian--- it is SOOOOOO beautiful.
Someone said the Childrens musuem is cool.
We did not venture on the EL but I really wanted to. there is also a subway??? which might be an option for you?
Ummm... trying to think!!
I didn't get to tell you but you look great! Seriously, I could tell you've been working hard! Swing some of that motivation this way? :)
thanks for all the info! Yeah, I discovered that the hotels downtown are super expensive. I will keep thinking about the Lego thing, my little guy just loves them, so we may end up doing it. I will start looking for coupons.
I will keep all your tips in mind. I loved your post from today with all your pics too!
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