Summer schedule

I've been obsessed with schedules this summer.  No lazy, unplanned days in this family!!  Mostly because lazy, unplanned days turn into warfare between my kids while I hide in my closet taking deep cleansing breaths that only seem to make me more irritable.  So my goal this summer has been to have an answer every time someone asks, "What are we doing today?"  And I have been, for the most part, successful.

I think this kind of freaked out my kids at first.  In the past, they would ask, "What are we doing today?" and I would bark, "How should I know?! Go play with your toys before I take them all away!!"  Now they ask, "What are we doing today?" and I shoot off a list with more items than they have fingers, leaving them wide-eyed, bewildered...and happy.  (Heaven forbid they have to think of something to do on their own.)

Here is a peek at our schedule the last couple of weeks.  Almost everything was planned in advance.  This is not the summer of spontaneity.  I think we all have found comfort in having a plan every day, especially Greg, who is swamped with schoolwork and knows that the kids and I are more likely to leave him in peace if we know what the heck to do with ourselves hour to hour.  I know I'm weird about recording daily schedules.  It's just sort of fascinating to me, to look back and say, "Oh. So that's what we did all day last summer/when David was a baby/after Mary was born/once David was school age etc."  It's so easy to forget what day to day life was like during a certain period of time.

Here it is:

My schedule, my friend.

Monday
Laundry
Clean house
School work
11:05 Swimming lessons
Sonic slushes
Lunch
Quiet time
Afternoon schoolwork
Watch TV and leave Mom alone
Dinner
Family Home Evening

Tuesday
Schoolwork
9:30 Gym
11:05 Swimming lessons
12:30 David to Jack's house for play date and lemonade stand
12:30 Mary to Lea's house
4:30 David to gymnastics
Dinner


Wednesday
Schoolwork
9:30 Gym
11:05 Swimming lessons
Sonic slushes
Lunch
2:00 Sariah over to play with Mary
2:15 Bailey over to play with David
4:15 Mary to gymnastics
Dinner
Bike ride with Dad
7:00 Mom to Young Women activity

Thursday
Schoolwork
9:30 Gym
11:05 Swimming lessons
Sonic slushes
Lunch
Quiet time
Afternoon schoolwork
Play in the backyard 
Watch TV and leave Mom alone
Dinner
6:30 David to swimming lessons

Friday
Schoolwork
9:15 Gym
Early to swimming to play in sandbox
11:05 Swimming lessons
Sonic slushes
Lunch
Quiet time
Afternoon school work
Library
3:00 Presidency meeting at the twins' house
Watch TV and leave mom alone
5:30 Missionaries over for dinner

Saturday
Cornwall

Sunday
11:00 Church
3:00 Home teachers
5:30 Dinner at Baby Emmeline's house

Monday
Laundry
Clean bedrooms
11:05 Swimming lessons
Costco
Quiet time
2:00 David to Bailey's house
2:15 Mary visiting teaching with Mom to Baby Jacob's house
Mary plays at Bailey's house too!
Watch TV and leave Mom alone
Dinner
Family Home Evening

Tuesday
Schoolwork
9:30 Gym
11:05 Swimming lessons
Lunch
12:30 Big playdate (Lea, Ellis, Jack, and Owen) here
4:30 David to gymnastics
Dinner

Wednesday
Schoolwork
9:30 Gym
11:05 Swimming lessons
Sonic slushes
Lunch
Quiet time
2:00 David to Bailey's house
Mary with mom on errands
4:15 Mary to gymnastics
Dad picks up a pizza
7:00 Mom to Young Women activity

Thursday
Schoolwork
Gym 9:30
11:05 Swimming lessons
Lunch
1:00 David to Michael's house
Quiet time
3:00 Mary visiting teaching with Mom to Molly's house
5:15 Pick up Dad for dinner at Culver's
6:30 David to swimming lessons

Friday
Schoolwork
Gym 9:15
Early to swimming lessons to play in the sandbox
11:05 Swimming lessons
Sonic slushes
Lunch
Quiet time
1:30 Bailey comes over to play
5:00 Bailey goes home
Watch TV and leave Mom alone
Dinner

Saturday (today)
No plan!  Yikes!  (It's too hot for the county fair--our original plan--so I offered to take David and Mary to a movie.  They CRIED at the mere suggestion!  What is wrong with my children???)  As it turned out, I spent the morning playing Wii with the kids while Greg studied, and then Greg took the kids swimming for the afternoon while I cleaned the kitchen.

Here is what I have written on our calendar for the next few days:

Sunday
11:00 Church
3:30 Dad goes home teaching

Monday
Clean bedrooms
Schoolwork
Gym
Lunch
Quiet time
Afternoon schoolwork
Haircuts
Library
Watch TV and leave Mom alone
Dinner
Family Home Evening

Tuesday
Schoolwork
9:30 Gym
11:15 Mary to gymnastics
12:30 David to play date
Quiet time for Mom and Mary
Packing and organizing
4:30 David to gymnastics
Dinner
Mom to Target

Wednesday
Laundry and packing
Schoolwork
10:00 Playgroup at the splash pad
Lunch
Quiet time
2:00 Bailey to our house
4:15 Mary to gymnastics
Dinner
7:00 Mom to Young Women activity

Thursday
Drive halfway to Texas
Go swimming


Hmm...looking over our schedule, I notice that it fails to illustrate how much time I spend in the car shuttling people around.  It also fails to show how wiped out the kids are by the end of the day.  The fact that David and Mary fall asleep instantly at bedtime is, I think, a sign of a fun summer.  The only problem is that I want to fall asleep when they do--these fun summer days leave me pooped!--but after waiting hours and hours for some peace and quiet, there's no way I'm going to bed when they do.  The silence is much too blissful, even though morning comes all too quick.  The life of a mom...

Anyway, as you might have noticed, I'm driving to Texas on Thursday (with David and Mary, of course).  We'll all be back in Wisconsin on August 11.  My posting might be erratic for a while--or more regular than it's been all summer.  Who knows.

What I do know is that I hope you're having a wonderful summer (or winter, depending on where in the world you are).

Swimming finale

For better or worse, we're finished with swim lessons this summer.  David's final Thursday evening class was yesterday, and both David and Mary finished their two-week session this morning.  They had a great time!  But I think lessons ended just in time...I think we're all starting to burn out a little.

That adorable picture up there?  From his lessons.  The lifeguards took them as a fundraiser.  I love that picture!

Of course, Mary wasn't up for having her picture taken under water.  So here's the above water shot they took of her.

I love the melted chocolate chip on her chest.  Beautiful, isn't it?  I guess that's what happens when you feed your kids in the car--they go to swimming lessons filthy.

Today I brought my camera--and I actually watched their lessons.  I have enjoyed so much sitting under a tree in the shade with my nose in a book and NOT watching their lessons.  But today I purposely left all books at home AND packed my camera.  I figured with a camera and no book, I would feel slightly more motivated to watch.  They both did a great job!  And they were so dang happy!  It was like the happiest 30 minutes of their lives!

With that camera, I did of course take a few pictures.

We arrived a few minutes early, so David and Mary played in the sand beach area for a while.  Building a river is serious work.

Then it was time for lessons.  I spied on Mary.

And I spied on David.

And I spied on Mary again.

And back to David.

I also watched David go down the big water slide!

Then it was time to get their progress reports and give big hugs to their teachers, Carly (Mary's teacher) and Gabby (David's teacher).

This was Mary's first swimming lesson, and she loved it.  She is one of those kids who is "a joy to have in class."  She follows directions, tries hard, volunteers (but not too much), and has a happy demeanor.  Seriously, this girl seems to thrive in any teacher-student scenario.  She did a great job practicing her skills.  Carly was great, and even decorated their progress reports.  She also included helpful tips for working with Mary on certain skills in the future.

My pal David surprised us all and passed level 2!  (Remember, it's not like I'd been watching his lessons.  I had no idea he was so good...until today, when I was like "Holy Triton, that kid can swim.)

David spent 14 years in Level 1.  Yes, I know he's only 6 years old, but remember that time is relative (ask Einstein), and, trust me, he spent 14 years in Level 1.  Level 1 is fine.  My kids can spend 40 years in Level 1 if they need to.  But David could swim!  But he was not progressing at all in swim lessons.  Until we realized the problem.  He would act like he couldn't swim.  So his teachers (he's had about four thousand different ones) wouldn't make him swim.  He had a good gig there.  I mean, who wants to go to the effort of doing the front crawl when instead you can have an attractive young coed carry you around the pool?  David spent years (14!) faking out his Level 1 teachers.  Until this summer--when I finally wised up and had the sense to just register the kid for Level 2.  And that was that.  The kid is a fish.  And apparently going into Level 3.

The swimming grand finale comes in a week, when we head to Texas.  The kids will have plenty of opportunity to practice their skills because there's nothing else to do in August in Texas other than hang out in the pool.  So we have plenty more sunshine, water, and piles of wet bathing suits this summer.

"Cornwall"

Saturday, in a continuation of our Family Summer Northern European Tour Wisconsin Time Machine Style, we got a taste (literally) of the British Isles.  Cornwall, to be specific.  (In an effort to help my kids give half a hoot about about Cornwall, we got out a map of the U.K.  I told them Cornwall was on the very bottom...blank stares...and Coach Gary's Scotland is at the top...hooray--delighted children!  Thank you, Coach Gary, for making Britain slightly more interesting to my children.)  In this case, Cornwall was the town of Mineral Point.  

We went there to see the old stone houses, built by Cornish immigrants in the 1830s and 40s.

It was beautiful!  And it really did feel like we had traveled to a different country.  There were moments when Greg and I would both have these flashes of "Wow! It feels like we could be in a European village. For real."  I guess this whole Wisconsin way of touring Europe kind of works!

We first visited the Wisconsin Historical Society's site in town, Pendarvis, which is a collection of Cornish stone cottages that were saved from demolition and restored during the 1920s and 30s.  The buildings now house exhibits on early mining in the area.  It is a lovely, lovely site, especially with all the summer flowers and foliage.

Meet our adorable tour guides.

They studied the map...

and then led the way up, down, in, out, and all around.

Much like Little Switzerland, it's an easy and fun self-guided tour--the maps are simple and the buildings clearly labeled, so kids really can lead the way.  Between letting them lead the way and reminding them of Coach Gary, we were able to tour the site with minimal (zero?!) whining.

We were all--especially David--very interested in the mining information.  Anything involving sharp and/or dangerous objects is interesting to David these days.  If it looks like a weapon, it must be a weapon--and automatically exciting in David's book.  Which is why he insisted on taking this picture...

Now you're going to get a little history on mining in Wisconsin.  Excited?  (Hey, at least I'm not talking about T.E. Lawrence anymore.)

First, a trivia question.  Do you know why Wisconsin is the Badger State?  (Hint.  It has nothing to do with badgers.)  So, I've been in Wisconsin long enough to know the answer to that question:  Some of the first European settlers in Wisconsin were miners in the Mineral Point area, where iron ore had been discovered.  Rather than build cabins or homes, they simply lived in holes they dug out in the ground, earning themselves the nickname of "badgers."  Now you know.

I also knew that there had been a large group of Cornish immigrants in Wisconsin who came to mine.  What I did not know was that the "badgers" and the folks from Cornwall were not one and the same.  Now we get into the history part...

In 1827 large, shallow deposits of iron ore were discovered in the area around Mineral Point.  Settlers of various backgrounds, but primarily from Illinois, flocked to Mineral Point in hopes of making a living off mining the easily extracted ore.  At the time, the U.S. Government owned the land and it could only be leased.  Because the settlers did not/could not buy the land they worked, the miners had little incentive to make improvements, like build homes or other permanent structures.  That's why they literally lived in holes in the ground.

By the 1840s, the shallow deposits of ore had been exhausted, and extracting the deeper ore was becoming difficult.  But at just that time, over in Cornwall, where there lived a plethora of highly skilled miners, food was becoming scarce.  An exodus from Cornwall began, and those highly skilled laborers improved mining operations all over the world, including Wisconsin.  Just as the "badgers" realized they did not know how to dig deeper, the Cornish arrived with generations of knowledge of deep-shaft mining.

The immigrants from Cornwall were fleeing a scarcity of food, as well as religious oppression--the Methodist Cornish population wasn't so keen on being forced to support the Anglican state church.  By this time, land in Wisconsin could be sold, and the immigrants looked forward to the opportunity of purchasing land, which would allow them to farm and mine.  The town of Mineral Point flourished.

Speaking of mining.  Look at this picture.  A water well?

Nope, it's a mine shaft.  (Now I can threaten my kids with sending them down a rusty bucket into a mine shaft when they misbehave.)

Here's what it looks like down there.

Yikes.  What amazes me is the equipment (or lack thereof).  We realized they did all their mining by candlelight!

These two pictures of Mary concluded our visit to Pendarvis.  And, no, my daughter can't keep her tongue in her mouth.

Across from Pendarvis is the Merry Christmas Mine Hill, where there are a number of trails through the prairie that take you by some old remains of the area's mining heyday.  There are even old badger holes!  I wanted to see one of those...but the sun was burning us and the humidity was drowning us.  And Greg and I weren't quite ready for the inevitable chorus of whining that would ensue.  So I think we'll head back there another day for a look at the badger holes and rusty equipment.

But we weren't ready to leave Mineral Point yet.  We still wanted that taste of Cornwall!  Descendants of those early Cornish settlers still cook like their ancestors.  So we headed downtown and stopped in here for some local grub.

Great place!  (Not least of all because of the awesome wallpaper.)

David and Mary enjoyed pancakes and crayons.

Meanwhile, Greg and I feasted on that quintessential Cornish food--the pasty (which, by the way, rhymes with nasty, not tasty.)  It's a half-moon shaped pie filled with beef, potatoes, onions, and sometimes rutabaga.

Simple.  And delicious.  (The crust!  The crust was perfect!)

I love that pasties are plentiful in Mineral Point--and they're not just for the tourists.  The pasty a staple for the locals.

We didn't stop with pasties, though.  We also got some figgyhobbin to go.

Did I mention my daughter can't keep her tongue in her mouth?

After lunch, we took a little driving tour around town.  So lovely.  And it's so easy to imagine that you stumbled into a village in the British countryside.  There are hundreds of Cornish buildings still standing in town.  You can even buy one for yourself!

Later, at home, Greg and I enjoyed the figgyhobbin.

Yum!  Seriously, so yum.  It's a dessert of raisins, walnuts, and brown sugar sprinkled over a pie-crust dough, rolled up and baked.  It sounds nice and all--but not something I would necessarily swoon over.  But this was swoon-worthy.

I think it was the pie-crust.  It was perfect.  Perfect!  (I think I gained a new appreciation for a perfect pie crust that day.  Whether it's wrapped around beef or brown sugar, it can make you swoon.)

Did I say yum?

You want to know something interesting about figgyhobbin?  (Of course you do.)  It came to Mineral Point with the Cornish immigrants and still remains strong here today...but it's nearly died out in back in Cornwall.  A piece of Cornish culinary history is preserved just down the road from us.  (I'm still trying to convince David and Mary that our car is a time machine.  This should prove it.)

It was a wonderful visit.  My pictures fail to capture the cuteness/quaintness/uniqueness.  Trust me, Mineral Point is a marvelous day trip from Madison.  (And a little cheaper than a plane and train to Cornwall.)

Last up is Norway!  Coming soon?

Backyard bust

The other day my kids desperately wanted to play outside in the backyard.  But first we had to do school work. And then we had to go to the gym.  Then we had to go to swimming lessons.  Then lunch.  Then quiet time.  And then, finally, time to go outside and play!

Hooray!

David and Mary had big plans involving swim suits, sprinklers, water guns, hoses, the sand box, bath toys, and a kiddie pool.  I spent a good half hour setting everything up to their specifications...including heating up water on the stove for the kiddie pool so it wouldn't be so cold.  Am I a nice mom or what?!?

Did they have fun?

You bet.

For five minutes.

And then they wanted to come inside.

Seriously?  I just spent thirty minutes arranging sprinklers, digging out squirt guns, heating up water, and dragging that dang pool all over the backyard.  Finally, I sat down with a cold drink, put my feet up, and called my mom to chat.

And they wanted to come inside.

No way!  I was going to drink my drink and put up my feet and talk to my mom.  So outside we stayed.  For thirty minutes.  While they cried and begged and whined and collapsed into hysterics.  Mary and David (especially David) were bawling up a storm.   (And I wonder why we're not best friends with our next door neighbors.  I wouldn't want to be friends with us either.)  And finally their awful, terrible, mean mom let them inside with their sandy, grassy feet and wet swim suits.

And that was that.

By the way, did you look at those pictures?  What is with my kids and WEAPONS?