October Favorite Things: Exploring and The Great Outdoors

This afternoon, the boys and I were able to enjoy two of my most favorite things...exploring new places and being outside!!  We visited Spavinaw State Park for the first time.  The boys enjoyed exploring and catching crayfish and other critters, while I took pictures and skipped rocks.  It was a much needed getaway!

Catching Crayfish!

October Challenge: Some of My Favorite Things!

If you have tried to follow my blog for any amount of time, then you know I've had a hard time posting with any sort of consistency over the past 2-3 years.  Why? Lots of reasons, but none of them really good ones.  So, today I'm starting a challenge to myself...to blog every day for the next 31 days!  It takes approximately 21 days to form a habit.  I'm hoping that this challenge will help me break through and get back into the habit of blogging, something that I enjoyed and have missed doing!

To make it easier for myself, I'm just going to talk about my favorite things: my family, books, food and cooking, websites and resources, school, exploring, or just being outside!  Today my 'favorite' is a someone, or actually two someones!  I love my boys and really enjoy being outside, exploring and having adventures with them!  These pictures were actually taken at the end of May at one of our favorite parks here in town, Hunter Park!  The boys enjoy fishing here, especially Big J.  We have lots of success when we fish this pond with worms. I'm so thankful for days like this!  What are some of your favorite things?

Urgent vs. Important...In other words, what I've been up to!

These past few weeks have been a whirlwind of work, school, activities, school plays, basketball games, wrestling tournaments, and more.  I feel like I've been constantly pulled between what is important and what is urgent.  It's so hard sometimes to slow down, take a breath, or say no to something just to get some margin in my life.  And it feels like I'm living on the edge of chaos in my house.

Now, some of the chaos is fun...like the shark costume I made M-Man for his school music program.

Or the gingerbread houses that the boys made...and then of course wanted to eat.  Hilarious.

We went to see the Transiberian Orchestra as a family.  We enjoyed it, but it was definitely a cultural experience...more 80's rock than Christmas music.  :)  And an attempt to get a family selfie was thwarted by the boys...as always!

Never a dull moment around here!

On Ninjas and Pokemon Trainers

I never know what the boys are going to decide to be for Halloween.  It usually changes a few times over the course of the fall, so I don't even ask until about two weeks out. Big J knew exactly what he wanted to be (a Ninja) and did most of the costume himself.  I spray painted an old pair of shoes black and bought a new set of ninja swords for him.  Easy enough.  

Inevitably, though, M-man usually decides to be something for which no official "costume" exists.  This is fun for me, but also a bit stressful, as I'm generally under a time crunch.  He wanted to be Pokemon Trainer Lance.  So, we found a picture online and worked from there.  It involved hunting for just the right pair of sweat pants, a shirt to match (which he happened to already have), some orange Washi tape (super cool stuff!!), a cape (already had from a previous Darth Vader costume), metal buttons, old boots, and spray paint!  Oh, and lots of hair gel!  I thought his costume turned out well.  He approved. It was a job well done, and right on time, as I was doing the finishing touches on Friday afternoon. :)

Better Right On Time Than Never

Whew.  This has been a crazy month.  We just barely squeezed in carving pumpkins.  In fact, it was Friday afternoon on the 31st when we finally got around to it. Ha.  Thankfully, the boys are older now, and were able to do almost all of it themselves.  Both boys designed their own pumpkins, and Big J did all of the carving on his pumpkin by himself!

Here is M-Man's pumpkin!

Big J, with both pumpkins!

Choose One

As a family, we have been slow to enter the world of sports and extra curricular activities.  We value family time, meals and activities together.  It is essential for us to have time to rest, relax, play and be creative.  Oftentimes, being involved in extra curricular activities does not support a life with downtime and time together as a family. We also value new experiences, though, which bring challenge and growth on multiple levels.

 That said, last year was the first time we took on more than an Upward sport or a week long camp.  The boys spent just over a year in mixed martial arts and really benefited from their time there. Not to mention, they enjoyed it, were challenged to try new things, and made new friends. But the time came when they wanted to try their hand at new things.  Since we value and support their desires to have new experiences, we agreed wholeheartedly.  They finished their commitments with martial arts and have now moved on to new activities.  (On a side note, we had 3 or 4 weeks of overlap between their time starting new activities and finishing their commitments to martial arts.  Wow.  That was a long few weeks.  It really drove home the value we have of choosing one activity to do and do well!)

I have been amazed at the progress both boys have made in their new chosen activities. They have grown by leaps and bounds in the skills needed to do what they need to do! But they have also grown personally and their work ethic has been strengthened.    For that, I am proud of them!  

Lightning McQueen and Grasshoppers!

Today was an eventful day for Micah! He finally figured out how to get onto the Lightning McQueen riding toy ALL BY HIMSELF! He was so pleased with himself and had a grand time getting on and off, over and over again! It takes quite a bit of practice to figure out how to swing the leg over. I was impressed! :)

As for Joshua, the kid is amazing. He manages to scoop up bugs that other kids can only dream of! In the picture above, he is showing off the catch of the day, a grasshopper. Those critters can be difficult to catch, but he seems to do it with the greatest of ease, just like his Daddy!

The boys seemed to handle the time change okay. Thankfully, they only got up at 6:15 am. I was worred that it would be 5:15 a.m.! We'll see how they do the rest of the week. After dinner tonight, I voiced to Neil that I would miss our evening walk. He suggested that we should go anyway, even though it was pitch black outside. So, we grabbed a flashlight and went on a "tree frog hunt"! The boys thought that our evening walk was a blast!