The Shoe Basket & NO more TV

When we moved into this house (almost a year and a half ago….wow), I decided that I needed some place to put our shoes instead of them lying all over the kitchen floor. I had an old basket that wasn’t being used and thought it might work to store our shoes. Honestly, it has been great. It is not all that eye appealing but sometimes practicality wins out over the way something looks. Then there is the issue of too many shoes being put in the basket and it over flowing. But that is easily solved by quickly going through the shoes and returning some of them to our closets. Actually getting the kids to put their shoes in the basket is sometimes a problem but with most things they just need a reminder every now and then. The BIG problem is this little guy!!

At first we fought him dumping the basket over to play with the shoes. While this is pretty cute to see him in the middle of a big pile of shoes it is more annoying to have to pick them up multiple times a day! We did finally get past this and “trained” him not to dump the shoes out. But we have a new problem now. Alex is really into wearing shoes (and hats) right now and he puts them on himself. The thing is, that he usually only puts the left shoe on because he tends to forget about his right side. So, our new problem consists of one shoe from many pairs being spread through the house as he wears them for awhile and then dumps them where ever he happens to be at the time. We are constantly looking for mates for our shoes (mainly the kids).

I have not figured out a solution to this problem yet. I still like the idea of the shoe basket. I know that it is just going to take consistency to get him “trained” not the steal our shoes (like it did with getting him to stop dumping the basket). But he is pretty cute walking around with one shoe and a hat……..

Here the little culprit is wearing Hayden's hat and Hayley's shoe!!

On to the NO more TV thing! We have had Dish Network for some time now. Not too long ago we added the DVR. So we have the capability to record shows, pause live TV and rewind the show we are watching. Being able to rewind is very nice when you have noisy kids and missed something. Or you can pause the show to get the kids attention, etc. And I like to record a few shows and watch them when it is convenient for me (but I will say that I don’t watch as much TV as I used to!!). But all of this nice technology has created little TV monsters in our house (and maybe the occasional big TV monster also). We have become very dependent on this technology which seems to have promoted even more hours in front of the TV. The kids already watched more than they should. So, Cory and I have been discussing putting our Dish Network on hold for six months (did you know that you could do that?) to see how it works out. With it being on hold, this means you don’t have TV…..not channels….nothing (although you would still have access all the shows you have saved to the DVR). Well……this morning we called and had it put on hold (and just for the record, it is off almost instantly)! The kids seemed to handle the news pretty good but I am not sure if they understood all that is involved (like when we wake up in the morning and they ask to watch their favorite show…). I am excited to see what we can fill our time with other than the TV. I will have to keep you posted on how it goes for us!!

*Upon further inspection, we have figured out that we do have a few channels. Most of which consist of some sort of home shopping……oh joy!

4th Of July

This weekend we went to see the movie Up. Alex stayed with Granny and we took the big kids. This was Hayley’s first time to go to a movie and she did so good! I did forget to mention to her that it was going to be very dark and loud in the theater. Hayley doesn’t like surprises. She needs to be informed of these types of things so she clung to me for a few minutes then she was fine. She sat very still and was quiet the whole time. With about thirty minutes left in the movie she said she was ready to go home but she stayed quiet. I never even knew Hayden was there. They both liked the movie and the 3-D glasses we wore! It was a lot of fun.

When we got back home we decided just to get some fireworks and stay at home. We can see the big fireworks show from our back yard so we just hung out until it started. We ate supper outside (the kids love to do that) and then they played with the sparklers and other little fireworks. Cory was in charge of all that!

Hayley was not so sure at first.

Hayden loved them, of course!

Alex was not happy! Maybe I should have let him play with fire too.

Here are a few shots of the fireworks. We had a great view!

This was how the kids watched part of the show. Can't get much better than that!! :)

This might actually be a real smile! I never get him to smile for the camera :)

We had a weekend full of family fun!! Hope you all had a great 4th of July!

Funny Things My Kids Say

Hayden:
Hey, that’s not fair that I drank all my drink and Hayley still has some left.

Hayley:
I poked myself in the eye but not on purpose.

You’re the meanest momma I ever met (that’s not really all that funny to me :)).

Alex:
Knock, Knock…….while rocking in the rocking chair (translation: rock, rock).

At this stage in our lives, Hayley really does come up with some funny stuff. Hayden is now old enough that he knows what he is talking about (most of the time) and Alex isn’t really talking yet (but he will!!). Some of the time the things they say aren’t always funny at the time (like telling me I am the meanest momma ever!) but I want to look back and remember all of it. They really are fun kids and I want to remember that too. How often do we get caught up in “things to do” and not enjoy our kids. The answer to that for me is ……way too often. I want them to be able to be silly and I want to be silly with them.

Hayden and I had a conversation the other day about smiles being contagious. We were discussing him and Hayley getting along (or I guess at the time you could say NOT getting along). I told him that if he stayed calm and smiled at her that it would make it better. But not just a smile on your face……a smile in your tone of voice and the way you think. I love how God uses my kids to tell me how I need to change my way of thinking. I can see that Hayden is trying this (at least some of the time) and of course when I put this in to practice it helps so much because the kids really do feed off of mom…….such responsibility :).

I hope the next time you see me I am smiling (and I mean really smiling). I also hope that the next time I have to “handle a situation” with my kids that I am smiling (and again….I mean really smiling). What a challenge!!