Private or Group Lessons Learned!

Swim Lessons, the bane of my existence!

My four year old keeps reminding me to sign him back up for swim lessons. I must remember to do that because I did say to him a while ago when he didn't want to go to swim lessons that he would not be able to go on our boat during the summer months without having lessons.  So he is listening.

Oh Swim Lessons what shall we do.  A year or so ago we were paying for swim lessons at a reputable gym. They were not private lessons but group lessons. It wasn't that he was shy with other kiddos but he had two negative experiences (which I was not happy about and complained).  The first experience was that after a few lessons with the same instructor the instructor was assigned to a different class (also going on at the same time different part of the pool) and the new instructor picked him up and put him in the water screaming.  Um okay, my son takes a minute to warm up to strangers and that was not okay. Now he might be afraid of the water.  The second experience was that the instructors changed on a daily basis.

Now after I complained a bit about the 2-3 year old age group not having a consistent teacher (developmentally inappropriate) the head instructor put two swim teachers together making sure one was always the same. My son had a much better time with that piece of consistency. We went, he practiced but would not perform in order to move up a level. One day there were two new instructors and my son would not get into the water.  So we left and haven't been back for a while.

I did that intentionally. Maybe time away from the issue and a year older would provide for a more positive interaction at the pool?  He seems to be ready for swim lessons and asking about them. So why not?  My husband and I are talking about private lessons. The idea is one on one more intensive lessons costs way more than the group lessons but in the long run might be worth it. Maybe the learning would be faster, it would be more consistent and we might feel better about it. But maybe it would be giving in? Bottom line is that he needs to learn how to swim. He needs to follow directions and get used to different people and he needs to be able to  adjust to a curve ball that is thrown at him.

I am looking into both private and group lessons again and will be making my decision shortly.  I know one thing,  we have got to learn how to swim!

Catching up on #photoadayApril

Life sometimes gets in the way of things that you want to do when you are a mother of two boys, a wife and full time work-a-holic. Now that the Easter weekend to do list and relaxation is over, I am getting back into the grove of my blog and normal to do's!

Today I am catching up on the #photoadayApril challenge.  I am completing day 5, subject: Lunch, day 8, subject: In My Wallet and today Day 9, subject: Younger You.

Day 5, Subject: Lunch

Well I can say that I am trying to be healthier in terms of what I eat. I definitely have a sweet tooth and totally love carbs.  That being said I always have trouble with packing my lunch. I think it would be much easier to go out to eat rather than worry about one more thing in the morning, which is funny because this morning I was all about getting my son's lunch together and he doesn't even have school (Easter Monday holiday for the Catholic schools).  So here's what I came up with...

Two Fruitable drinks, two Nutri-Grain bars, 1 applesauce, two hard-boiled eggs, and a bag of apples.  I have two of everything because one set will be my dinner tonight as well (school board meeting). Again need to work on the lighting with this photo. I really would prefer bright natural light but when I shot with the natural light in the house it was too dark. Hard to do at 7 am I would say.

Day 8, Subject: In My Wallet

Boy my wallet is a mess! I think I have receipts from as far back as a year ago. Time to clean. Thanks to this challenge it will quickly get done today.

Seriously does anyone have any tips for lighting. Back to the blog reading I go as well as my book on the Nikon. I am practicing and shooting mainly with the Aperture setting and messing around with my speeds. Lighting is an area of need to improve upon.

Day 9, Subject: Younger You

I thought long and hard about how to shoot this subject. The easier way would be to take an older photo of myself and scan it and then upload it but I have been really trying to take pictures with my camera and not really cheat. So how could I go back in time to get this shot?  

Here's how I did it. I dug through a million photographs of when I was younger and landed on these two. One from high school i.e., cheerleader pose, and let me say I know I probably couldn't do that pose now so many odd years later, the other from early college years when I attended Washington State University, Pullman, GO COUGS!   I planned to lay them down and take a photograph of the pictures.  I think it turned out well. I used my shorter lens, had to position the subject out of the lighting (note to self learn more about that area of photography) and wallah here it is a photography of my Younger Me!

A Weekend of Firsts!

The Weekend

What a fabulous weekend. And I must say this was the most stress free weekend I have had in a long time! Despite my sleep deprivation and the fact that I have been rather moody because of it I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend. I was able to spend time with my boys. 

We dyed Easter Eggs, went on Easter egg hunts, cleaned the house, vegged out and watched some T.V., completed some yard work, and enjoyed the park together. There's nothing I could ask for that would top this time!

Easter

Today was one of those firsts that you write down in your journals if you keep them, or rather blog about it since most of us are now functioning within the digital age. Today's first, and a moment I am rather proud of, is that we (my husband, and two kids) were able to sit in the pew at church in the actual church not in the cry room (like we normally do) and participate in our Easter service like many other families with small children do.  I was so proud.  My oldest son did a great job of keeping quiet, not so much staying still, but quiet none the less. He did a great job of reciting the prayers that he knows (from his preschool class) and found many of his friends with their parents at this particular service.  I was especially proud because not only were we up at 5 am  to conduct our first inspection of what the Easter bunny brought him but we had already consumed a little (tiny bit) of candy before coming. It was also the 8 am service and we needed to get there early.  There were around 300 people at the 8 am service.

My four year old also was able to walk up the isle to the priest during communion and remembered to put his hand over his heart (indicating that he has not yet gone through the sacrament of First Communion) and was respectful during the blessing the Father gave him! He is growing up and thought he gives his father and I a run for our money at times, he is a great kid who is learning and growing up quickly.

Our second son, who is now beginning his 5th month of life, was also very attentive and then of course slept after being rocked by my husband for a while.  He was super cute today during church, when awake, he was staring at the fans up in the rafters of our church building. We made it through the service and headed home to prepare our Easter meal.

Family

  We were fortunate to have some parts of our family over for our Easter meal.  Our supper consisted of my husbands wonderfully interesting ham recipe (which includes rum,gingersnaps, mustard and some other ingredients) a new Italian Sweet Bread recipe I tried (so good), Green Bean Casserole, a favorite, mashed potatoes and dessert. Uncle Mike and Papa Johnny stopped by and stayed for a while. It was wonderful to enjoy their company in a rather relaxing way.  We just hung out, played, ate and talked.  It was great.

  Uncle Mike even graced us with his trick bike moves, while my husband showed of his "high" jump skills to our four year old who felt compelled to "be like him" and jump off of our brick pillars out in front of our house.

 Needless to say, thankfully, no one got hurt.  Oh these boys will give me more grey hair than I will know what to do with, (thank goodness I have a great hair dresser)! Yeah to a great weekend (and many more to come)!

Me and My Shadow #photoadayApril

My Shadow

I love taking pictures of shadows. I am sure I have a few favorites from the beach as well. Luckily today there was a lot of sun shining when I was taking the picture of my own shadow.  Take a look.

I took this pic with my larger lens and probably could have gotten a better longer body shot with a shorter lens but this is what I got. I am getting ready for Easter which means boiling eggs, cleaning and keeping my four year old busy with mundane things until the 1 pm Easter Egg hunt at our local park.  Oh the excitement of it all.

Here are a few other shadow pictures I shot with my digital canon small camera by no means a professional camera but a great point and shoot.  Love pictures like this from the beach. Taken at Seaside with my sister and son walking towards the water!

I took this today as well.  This is a shadow of one of our trees in our back yard. I like how it looks against the green grass.  

I am enjoying the #photoadayApril challenge. I have only missed one day and that subject was Lunch. I am sure to pick that up sometime in the near future. I will also be posting all of my pictures to my pinterest board as well.  

This challenge is forcing me to carry my camera, read and be intentional about what settings I am using etc. I really enjoy digital cameras because the best part is that if you have a really unfocused or blurred photo that you don't like or it wasn't what you wanted to capture you can delete them.  I am looking into photo software as well. Any suggestions on what to look for and why?

Post a comment would love to hear from you all.

Commitment

You know how sometimes, you decide you'd like to go through old photos, photo albums, and now with the digital age CDs or online photo albums?  Well I just did and boy it was a great blast from the past.  It also reminded me of one of my goals or New Year's resolutions..

TO WORK OUT!

Yes back in the day I worked out 5 hours per week religiously and it showed.  Now two babies later and  7 years older I am whittling away the added pounds from my two pregnancies.  I know what my goal weight is. I know that I want it badly. I know I have to make it work.

I am outfitted with Nike clothing and shoes. I have my Nike + iPod sport kit (never used yet purchased three years ago) and a goal to run at the very least a 5K within one year.  This means I have to train. I have to have a plan. I have to be accountable.

My husband wants to get back into shape as well. I say more the merrier.  We can do this together.

The plan

1) Make time
2) Do it
3) Start small (miles) and grow
4) Track and share status with others (FB, Blog etc)
5) Continue to build this cycle back into my hectic life
6) Enter 3k run/walks for practice
7) Enter 5k run/walks for practice
8) Complete both
9) Complete a 5k run (not practice)

It is important to me to get back into shape. I am already watching what I eat, watching the portion intake and have been loosing weight slowly and surely. Each week I drop on average one pound which is good (not too fast) it is a nice pace and will help ensure that the weight stays off. My kids are important, my husband is important and so is our health. So here is my commitment to all my readers!

Let's Do It!

Two Dogs & A Cat.

Family

Two of my favorite buddies and really my first two kids! Jake and Cali are our two labs. They are just as much a part of this family as our cat Bailee and the kids. 

Let me introduce Jake.

Cali.

Bailee.

These are our three other kids. Really our first attempt at being parents was to care for these animals. Before I met my husband I had two cats. Smokey and Bailee (pictured here) Bailee is 12 years old.  She has outlived Smokey Rose who was by the way a boy cat and the coolest cat in the world! He owned the place, loved to sit on your lap and walked about with a tail sticking high in the air and a curve at the top much like a question mark.  He was fabulous.  He died three days before we were married.  

We  did however include his paw print as well as Bailee's and Jake's on our sign that was attached to our car the day we got married! That sign still graces many a wedding with that particular car! So his memory lives on!

Animals become part of our families the minute we choose them. We were blessed to have chosen Jake our Master hunting dog. He spent what I call many years being educated to be a hunting dog. He is Byron's best friend and the best docile dog otherwise!  Cali is my dog. Of course I picked both out, but Cali has been my bud for a while. She is kind of a hyper dog but very protective of our family and fun to play with.

Bailee is a great cat. Once Smokey passed, she became more social. Now she won't leave us alone. The kids both like all of our animals and they are great with both of them.  It will be hard should any one of these guys pass on but we have captured many memories over the years.

How many animals do you have? Are they part of your family?  Love to hear from you! Post a comment.

Cute Easter Fun with PEEPS!

Anyone love PEEPS?  I do and not afraid to say it. I love them, I eat them and the best part about them is that there are PEEPS for every holiday season now.  I actually watched on the Food Network one time the history of making PEEPS fascinating I should say.

Okay so I love pinterest and love Tipjunkie.com two of my favorite places. I love to pin ideas and then try them which inevitably leads me to a new creative blog that I love and then follow.  I think it could get out of control so I am trying to slow it down a bit. But when the creative juices flow or I see the cutest idea that I just have to try there's no stopping me! I found a blog that was featured on Tipjunkie.com a few weeks back for their cute little idea for a quick Easter gift! I fell in love with it. So I checked out the blog called Bloom !  What a perfect gift. So I tired it out and LOVED the Free Printable that she emailed to me.
Here is the project.

I am not the owner of this creative idea but I did love using this idea and free printable to complete the project. Mine has a slight item variation "edible grass" as opposed to using Green Apple Big League Chew as the grass in the bucket. However as I am thinking about it, it might have been easier using something a bit heavier than the edible grass I found.  But absolutely love this crafty idea.

Items Needed:

1. Peeps  (flat bunnies not the bird shaped)
2. Edible Grass or you could use Big League Chew (green apple flavored)
3. Clear plastic buckets (found at local craft store)
4. Label (provided to me via email request from Bloom a free printable) or make one of your own.

Cost:

Peeps:  2 pkgs for $3

Buckets: 2 for $6

Edible Grass: $1.20

Label: Free if you make or find a free printable for personal use

Total: $10.20 plus time (less than a half hour for sure)

Special thank you to Bloom for the use of the printable and ideas! I hope his teacher likes the gift. I am sure she will. Of course this will be posted after she receives the gift so as to not spoil the surprise.