This I'll Miss: Cyride

Maybe it's my home schooled upbringing, but I love riding on the bus. It's one of our favorite adventures!

The kids love not being in car seats, the novelty of all the seating, and especially all the big windows to watch the world pass by.


When we ride, we usually have the bus to ourselves. Probably because we go during the day and usually only to the mall or library. I can't figure out any more routes than that. :)

(Side note: Really, is there anything more difficult to read than a bus schedule? Each time, I have to call James to be sure I'm reading it right and usually feel frustratingly thick in the head. Probably because I can never figure out my north and south. :))
I love this small town and how safe I feel. Somehow, I can't picture me riding the bus with all my kiddos in Atlanta. We ♥ Cyride!

This I'll Miss

This is the children section of our library. I know, right? In all my years of library-going, I have never been to a better library! :) The board books are in a fun alligator shelf, which is low to the ground for easy kid access. And there are tons. That whole thing is full, with extra bins underneath for more. There are also puzzles in there that you can check out and take home.
There is a puppet theater with two bins full of fun puppets that you can check out and take home.
All the picture books are in these great shelves which make it easy to flip through and find the one you want. There are pictures marking where the character books are, like Dora and Spot.
Logan's favorite things to do at the library- play with the trucks and the Lego table behind him. There is also a computer kiosk, and several fun stations throughout the area that change every few months. The rest of the library is equally fabulous. We are so going to miss this!!

M&M's make the best incentives

That is really the only reason I ever have a bag on hand. I don't like bribing with candy, but sometimes it just works best, ya know?!

My latest application of the M&M incentive has been at dinnertime. Lately my kids have had a real problem keeping their bottom in their chair. They have to jump up to look out the window, make sure their toy is where they left it, look at their calendar, and a myriad of other silly reasons to be up out of their chair and not eating their meal. So I give them five M&M's at the beginning of the meal, and take one away each time they get out of their seat. At first most of them got taken away, but after a few times they're catching on. I only give them three now, and not every day. I like the idea of using this for politeness too.

Kids are so much more aware of their actions when chocolate covered candies are staring them in the face!

The new face of Brighton

Yes, at age 6 Brighton needs glasses. :( Like mother, like daughter.

I'm happy for her that now she can see things she didn't even know that she was missing out on, like leaves on the trees. As soon as we walked out of the office she was so excited because she could see the car! She likes to take her glasses on and off to see how she can see things differently.

I'm sad for her that now she has to bother with glasses. Having to be careful with them, yearly check-ups, higher prescriptions, not being able to see when you wake up in the morning. All the stuff that I had to deal with from age 8 to age 20. When I got 'em lasered, yeah! My vision was really bad. -8 is legally blind and I was -10. When I was shopping around for Lasik a lot of the "bargain" places said that they hadn't seen anyone with eyes as bad as mine. No thank you, I'm not gonna be your guinea pig. When I was younger, my worst nightmares were not being to find my glasses and not being able to see anything. It was really emotional for me when I got up from the chair after Lasik and I could see.

So sorry that they couldn't fix my genetics as well as my vision. Oh, well- she looks cute, right?!

The Spencerspence

Yeah, I know. I come up with great nicknames. :) I also have little ditties that I sing to my babies, unique to each one. Spencer's is "Spencer, Spencer, it's gonna be okay" sung to the tune of Daisy, Daisy. Logan's was to the tune of La Bamba. I'm a genius!

This picture is after a recent haircut. His fluff was getting out of control. :) I need to get a video of him crawling. Seven months and already crawling! It's mostly an army crawl, but he gets around. I had to stop swaddling him and that made for a rough week. He also was getting two teeth, one of his top front and an incisor, at the same time! Same rough week. Made for even more rotten sleeper. I think it's getting better though.

I'm such a push-over with this little guy! I was so much tougher with my girls. I think it's because I know how quickly this stage passes. I love my little babies. I love nursing them and holding them when they sleep. And I know how delicate and precious they are.

a great find!

Found: One small bird's nest.
Where: On a recent trip to Grandpa and Grandma Hall's house.
Also found: One (1) small cracked blue egg. Empty. Egg has been replaced with acorns for this photo.

my solution

I don't want to sit around being depressed all month, so this is what I've cooked up. To keep me and the kids excited, we have an adventure jar! I've filled it with fun things to do, such as get a sno cone, go on a nature walk, have a pretend movie theater, and so on- enough to have an adventure a day for the month.(except for Sundays, when we'll rest from our adventures. :)) Each day one of the kids get to pull our adventure out of the jar. They've been really excited so far.

Today's adventure: Ride the bus to the library!