My love-hate relationship with summer

Don't get me wrong; I love summer. No hating involved. It's the summer vacation part of summer that I have serious doubts about, and this summer vacation has been worse than usual because my kids got out of school in mid-May. And they don't go back until the end of August. That makes for a LONG break from school.

I love summer vacation because my kids are home from school, which is exactly the reason why I hate summer vacation. And maybe I'm just not a resourceful, patient mom (okay, so I'm NOT patient, that's a given) but even though they do chores every day, they don't do enough to cancel out the negative effects of their activities on a home. For example: Parker sweeps the kitchen floor on a given day. Great! Then 4 sets of feet going in and out, eating lunch, doing crafts, etc. return the kitchen floor to it's natural "decorated" state within approximately the same amount of time it took him to sweep.

So, to avoid the above scenario, I try to get out and go places to entertain the troops. But that also causes stress because I'm not at home to do all the other chores and to-dos I have. Laundry doesn't get done. Bills don't get paid. Blogs don't get updated.

Now, I'm sure few of you have these problems, and I'm still learning to more efficiently utilize child labor, but this is the stuff of my life right now. And, I'll admit that I'm not getting up as early as I do during the school year, so I'm losing time from the get-go. Yes, I will claim most of the responsibility for my inability to negotiate this trial.

There are definitely some good things about summer vacation, like being able to sleep in, as noted above, and being able to go to family reunions at Bear Lake. I can only hope there will only be love for summer vacation in Garden City.

I [heart] my nike + ipod

I'm not a gadget person. I don't necessarily need all the latest gear to make my life easier. Besides, if I had all that stuff then I'd have to find a place to put it!

But my husband, being a guy, likes gadgets. He had talked to me about the Nike + iPod and I just didn't appreciate it. Besides, I didn't have Nike shoes, so why bother?

Trevor is a good internet researcher and he found out that you don't have to have the shoes to use the Nike + and he got it for me for Mother's Day, as he stated in his previous post. That's after he got me an iPod Nano for HIS birthday. I thought I was in heaven with the music, but it gets better! Who knew?

He macgyvered the sensor to attach securely to my shoe, as in the above pic, using 2 rubber bands and some Velcro. I put the iPod in an armband with the receiver in it, and I've got my own little cheering section, of sorts. Before my run I choose a goal, such as distance, time or calories. Then as I'm running a woman's voice (you can choose a man's voice, too) comes on at certain increments and says, "You've completed 1 mile (or 100 calories, or 10 minutes)." Then it counts down after the halfway point and congratulates me when I reach my goal. At any time during my run I can push the middle iPod button and hear my time, distance, calories burned, and pace. It's been a great motivator for me and I thank my husband for his persistence!