Our family

 

 

I saw another blog post similar to this, so I thought I would do one.  And I am thinking we operate far from the traditional family! 

We never eat dinner at the table.  It works better to feed the boys at the counter, sometimes one of us sits down with them, but it seems like I rarely just sit down and enjoy a meal.  I’m always either feeding Olivia, still cooking or serving more, cleaning dishes or who knows what!  This is too bad because my kids have no idea what it’s like for a family to sit down together and enjoy dinner.  So maybe something for us to improve on over the next couple of years.  But as the weather warms up, I’m certain our meals will get quicker and we will be eating in the driveway.

We are dog people  - well we were at one time, ours is working her way to a new home if she doesn’t straighten up.

We bring our kids out to eat.  Sometimes they are good. Sometimes they are bad.  But I feel like they need to be exposed to things like that and I’m not about to spend our lives inside our house, nor am I going to get a babysitter every time we want to go out. 

We rarely make beds.

We try not to watch too much TV – pretty easy to get into the habit of it. 

We are too messy!  Carter and Dylan are like the best cleaners at school, (D claims to be in charge of the marker caps being on – seems a bit more like a market boss) but they don’t bring these skills home or to the play dough lids!  They said we don’t have a clean-up song, so I think we need to work on one. 

50% of the loads of laundry are washed twice b/c we never remember to put them in the dryer.  So annoying and I don't see this improving significantly.

We always have snuggle time with the boys before our final good nights.

We both do the chores – I’m lucky to have a husband who cooks, cleans, does laundry and is not afraid of a dirty diaper.   

We could not live without the internet – I would get rid of cable first.

We read bedtime books.

We allow independence – we let the boys get out their own breakfast, we let them do their own showers (with a bit of assistance from us so the waters not too hot), we let them pour their own drinks, we let them help cook, we let them dress their selves  and pick out their own clothes if they want (and they don’t always match), we let them put the toothpaste on the toothbrush- sometimes all this gets a bit messy, but that’s how they learn!  Now if they could take this independence to putting the dishes in the dishwasher and a couple more tasks!

We produce what must be a world-record amount of laundry.

We play hard! 

We buy most our groceries at Target – generally, they are priced well!  Well, until I buy a bunch of other crap I don't need.  

We would really benefit from meal planning.  Keith calls me at like 4:30 and asks if I have any ideas for dinner, I say no – you, no.  Hmmm.  We have anything?  No.  Hmmm.  Anything in the freezer?  No.  Until one of us finally breaks down and says, OK I’ll come up with something.  This also leads to much food waste.  We toss far too much.

Despite what my husband thinks, anytime my kids have bad dreams or are scared, they are welcome to sleep with us.  (As long as it’s not a habit!)

We love stay home days.

 

Carter is pretty darn good at the Match game.  I'm sad to say, but much better than me. 

 

 

 

It's so darn cute how much she loves hanging out with her brothers.  She will just sit there and watch them and I can tell she has a different sense of confidence when she is cool enough to hang with the brothers - which by the way, they are so over that.  

 

 

Doesn't this picture make my little boy look like a giant!!!