"Mom'ing" in the Summer

You know it's summer, because this blog has been neglected. With both kids home all day long, my days seem to leave little to no free time for myself. Even with my days a little busier, I still feel like my kids are having a little too much screen time for my liking. But things like laundry (oh, the never ending laundry) have to get done whether my kids are home all day or not. So some days, I spend 3 hours folding and putting away laundry (I'm not even kidding y'all...3 HOURS), and my kids get a free for all when it comes to screen time. It's called balance, right?

Summer is always an interesting time for a stay at home mom. I feel like it's a true test of our abilities as a mother. Are we truly capable of caring for our school aged children all day long without completely losing our minds? I can answer that for myself. No. I'm not capable.

 I lose my cool with my kids more times in one day than I am willing to admit out loud. I oftentimes find myself at the end of a very long day wishing I would have been a little more "fun", a little more "grace-filled", and wishing I wouldn't have been so hard on my kids. Let's face it though, in the heat of the moment when my kids are fighting with each other, tattling on each other, and whining to me about being hungry or bored or whatever they are, it's really tough for me to not be completely overwhelmed. That's usually when I lose it, and I'm not always proud of it. Praise the Lord for grace and mercy, amiright?

The other day, I did manage to stop myself before saying something unkind to my children. I got in my bathing suit, and just lounged in our pool for 20 minutes while I gathered my thoughts. Once I was calmed down, I felt more in control of my erratic "mom emotions", and in turn was more more pleasant for my kids.

Sometimes, you just need some water, a floppy hat, and some quiet time to gather your thoughts.

Oh yeah, our pool is finally finished! Hallelujah! It literally feels like it took forever, but the pool company finished it just in time for summer. The temperatures are averaging in the 100s these days, so it's a nice reprieve from the heat. It also gets my kids out of the house and off their screens, so that is also a nice added bonus. My backyard is also slowly coming together as a nice place for me to hang out. Shout out to Nick for tirelessly working and building things for me.

I don't want to ever hear from Nick that I don't help maintain the pool...

Not sure if this little boomerang video will even load, but if it does...

I got a TON of compliments on this striped one piece bathing suit. I got it several years ago, and thought I lost it. But through moving and unpacking, it mysteriously appeared out of thin air! These days, I am enjoying rocking a cute one piece more often than a two piece. I'm trying to teach my daughter about modesty, and it's hard to be doing that when mama's hanging out of her bathing suit all the time. 

A few months ago, we got 6 baby chicks that are now hens. We named them Opha Mae, Dixie, Lydi, Kimchi, Presley, and Aggie. One of them (we think its Lydi) laid her first egg this week! We're excited for all of our hens to start laying. We are going to be using the opportunity to teach our kids about entrepreneurship and giving!

This is me and Lydi (the suspected egg layer)

I started a new devotional this week called "Children--A Gift and a Responsibility". It's a free devotional I found on YouVersion, and so far, I am really enjoying it. It literally takes me 5 minutes a day, and let's face it, during these summer months, even just 5 minutes with Jesus can restore your sanity.

There's a lot I need to blog about and catch up on. Nick and I recently celebrated our 11 year anniversary, and got to do some really fun things here in Yuma. I think that's what I'll post about next! Other than that, I hope summer is going well for everyone. I thought I'd end this blog with a quote that I found this week on Facebook that lade me chuckle...

"Don't worry about me. Worry about your eyebrows."

Summer 2018 Recap

It's been good to get back to blogging. Several months ago, I changed the name of my blog (well just the domain) with plans to redo everything. Obviously, that has not happened yet. My header still has my old blog name on it, and a lot of the links on my blog no longer work. I'll get around to it.

I looked at transferring my blog to wordpress, but there is a possibility of me losing some content in that process. I have had this little blog of mine since 2009! That's nearly a decade of me rambling on about everything from my life as an active duty Marine, wife of a deployed Marine, giving birth (both times), and all the ups and downs of military life. I can't possibility bear to think of losing ANY of my content on my little piece of the web.

So, I'm thinking of keeping my blogger blog up, and just starting new posts on wordpress. I'll keep the link to this one up on the new site, so if you want to look back at the last 10 years of my life, you can (if you really care). Again, I don't see this happening anytime soon. Maybe after we move to Yuma and get settled in.

I figured since I have not blogged in several months, I'll just give y'all some quick updates on my life through photos. If you follow me on Instagram (@semperag_blog), you can pretty much skip this post. I post a lot of life on there!

Nick graduated from the Marine Corps' "The Basic School" in May, and we got to have him home for a solid month!

For those who don't know, our family has been separated since September of last year, so an entire month with Nick home was so needed!

He is currently in Jacksonville, NC in ground supply Officer's school learning how to be...well...a ground supply Officer! He'll be there until September 13 when he graduates, and will return to Texas to help prepare our family's move to Yuma.

Dannika attended "Kanakuk Kamp Out" in June!

Kanakuk is a Christian summer camp based in Missouri!

They have a "traveling" camp where they bring a little taste of camp to local communities across the country.

She had an absolute blast!

D headed to VBS at Christ United Methodist the week after Kanakuk

We have had lots of pool dates at our neighborhood pool!

Dannika made the Bronze team at gymnastics, and Mattis moved up the the advanced preschool class!

We put our house on the market, and went into escrow in just 2 weeks 

Our friend Emilee who is currently in flight school in Corpus Christi flew herself to College Station to see us!

The kids got to see inside the plane she flew in!

Nick came home to see us for 4th of July!

Dannika turned 9!

I can't believe it. We moved to CS when she was only 5 and had barely started Kindergarten. 

Just a reminder to cherish the moments, because time is finite!

Dannika did College Station High School's "Strutter Kick Start Camp".

The Strutters are one of our local high school's drill team.

They hold a fun camp every summer where they teach young girls a few dances, do fun arts and crafts, and play games.

It's hard to believe that Summer is already over, and school will be starting in just a few short weeks. I know our move to Arizona is going to creep up on us. I'm anxious to move and have our family back together again. By the time Nick graduates from supply Officers' school, we will have officially been living apart for an entire year. I can't say that it's been the easiest year, but I am happy with our decision to stay in Texas while Nick completes training. But like I've mentioned before, this is "normal" for military life, and just one of the many small sacrifices families make for the well being of their families. 

Summer Lately (and Picture Overload)

A few weeks ago, I made the comment to someone that this summer has been pretty mild (for Texas). I guess mother nature overheard, and decided to "show me up". It has been hot as HAYLL lately! Thank goodness for A/C, popsicles, and pool time. We've been making the best of it and enjoying the heat! After all, I did say that I would never complain about the heat ever again after living in New England for two brutal winters. As Nick and I wrap up college (eek!), our kids have been troopers. They've become experts at entertaining themselves while mama studies, and have been very patient (most of the time) with my school schedule. We do find fun things to do in between classes and studying! We created a "summer bucket" list for our kids, and have been diligently knocking each one off, one by one!

S'mores in our backyard was one of our bucket list items!

So Zima made a comeback!

It's actually a pretty disgusting malt liquor that I enjoyed back in my underage drinking days...

It was more nostalgic than anything.

My goofy husband drinking one with his pinky up!

 Family game night ✅ (another bucket list item)

ice cream for lunch!

Cheer clinic!

Summer reading shopping trip ✅

Who remembers "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry"?! 

It's a classic, and I was so excited for Dannika to read it!

Fun 4th of July photos!

Bluebell ice cream on National Ice Cream day!

Who knew that was even a thing?!

Bake cookies ✅

I can hardly believe that it is the end of July and graduation is so close!

Life These Days

I don't blog a lot these day. Heck, I hardly have any time to read my favorite blogs that I used to frequent daily. Thanks to Instagram, however, I get to keep up with most of the bloggers I love through wonderful filtered photos. I want to get back into blogging a lot more. But things like school, kids, school, life, happiness, Texas, school....they all seem to take precedence over blogging. I do post a lot on social media, so if you follow me there, you get a pretty good idea of what is going on in my life. Here's just a little recap for those of you who don't follow my IG.

 Dannika is having an early birthday celebration tonight with a joint birthday party with one of her besties at our local pool. Joint birthday party = best idea ever. The other family and I split the cost of everything right down the middle, and it is so much less stress! Hassle free! Nick is relieved, because I tend to go into super party planning mode when it comes to my kids' parties. I turn into a bit of a momzilla.

We did a cute Evite photo shoot.

Look how adorable it turned out!

Sweet nanny Rachel came for a quick, short visit!

We made our Summer bucket list.

Fingers crossed we get through all of it!

We've done some frog catching at night.

I've woken up in the mornings a few times to find these two cuddled in bed together.

*insert melting heart*

Random morning doughnut dates

Playing outside in the rain

Dannika attended a Christian day camp last week called "Pine Cove in the City". Pine Cove actually has  two locations in Columbus and Tyler Texas where they host their overnight camps. Pine Cove in the City are satellite day camps they do all around Texas. They give kids the fun camp experience without the over night part. This is the first year Dannika has done Pine Cove, and she had an absolute blast! Dannika will be attending Carolina Creek Christian Camp for their overnight camp again this year (for the full week this time!). So Pine Cove was the warm up! I was so impressed by the staff, the camp counselors, and the activities that they had planned for the kids each day. They made learning about Jesus fun and interactive. Dannika actually came home from camp each day excited to read her bible and dig into the word. It was really exciting for me to see her willingly want to do that! I highly recommend this camp! It's especially great for parents who are not ready to send their kids away for overnight camp!

Dannika and her camp counselor "Boom". 

Dannika was described as selfless, compassionate, and trustworthy by her camp counselor!

What amazing words of affirmation for a 7 year old girl!

 We've done lots of swimming at the neighborhood pool!

Mattis started gymnastics this summer!

It's been a great way to wear him out, and also start building some strength, agility, flexibility, and balance!

We're hoping it pays off when he starts to play sports!

And of course, lots of sprinkler fun!

Summer has been busy so far!!

But we've been having a lot of fun! 

Prayers for Nick and I to finish classes this summer strong so that we can graduate in AUGUST!