Brainwashing our kids

Last weekend we were vacationing at Crescent Bar. While we were at the pool there was a group of boys playing the classic game, Marco polo with a fast food twist.

The one who was "it" would yell "subway".

The others would say "eat fresh"

"subway"

"eat fresh"

"five dollar"

"foot longs"

"five dollar"

"foot longs"

"McDonald's"

"get fat"

Does McDonald's have a PR problem?

It's as I've always suspected...our kids are brainwashed by fast food chains.

One more week of Summer

We decided to prepare for school we would start getting up and going to bed earlier. Everyone was on board with this until this morning. Morning came a little early. We had some grumpy kids today. I hope will be on a good schedule next week.

Terrific Tuesday

What did you learn today? That was the dinner question.
A new Joke. Once someone starts a telling a silly joke everyone knows one and wants to share. Here are some samples:

knock, knock.
whose there?
hatch,
hatch who,
God bless you

What is the best time to go to the dentist?
2:30 (tooth hurty)

Why didn't the skeleton cross the road?
Because he didn't have the guts.

To start the New Year off right I wanted to go through the house and make it into an environment that supports everyone in the family. This is the place we start our day from and so we want to feel energized. This is where we end our day so we need to be able to relax and unwind here. This is where we are together and we want to have fun together and also be able to entertain ourselves. I want our home to become a great launch pad and resting place.

On the drive to Tacoma the other night we talked about two rooms in particular, the family room and the living room. I asked each family member to come up with three words that would describe the way they would like those rooms to be. Than I asked them what activities they would like to do in each of the rooms.

We decided that we would like the living room to be, warm, comfortable, calm and peaceful. The activities we will do here are F.H.E., read, listen to and play music.

In the family room we wanted to be comfortable, warm, fun and relaxing. We will play games, do puzzles, watch TV and movies here.

Now we are arranging each room to better fulfill its function. The books are being removed from the family room and moved to the living room. The games are being moved downstairs.

Christmas Tradition

We decorated mini gingerbread houses today.
I used to avoid this because I thought it was too much work, but kids of all ages and genders love doing this. It fits all my criteria for a good holiday activity, it brings us together as a family, we all enjoy it, I get to bake, it's worth the work. I start this activity by building anticipation. I tell the kids where I am going to display them and we talk about the kinds of candies that they might want to try and incorporate this year. It was fun today, Dad even joined us in the kitchen, he made snicker-doodles. Now I have cute little colorful houses to mix in the garland that I have hanging above the stove and sliding glass door.

Christmas Tradition

We did something during Thanksgiving that was lots of fun. I set up three different games in a couple different areas of the house. We divided up into three groups. The idea was to rotate these groups through each game. Each group started at a game and when the timer went off, the game stopped where it was and than we switched to the next game and started it just where the group before us left off. We did it until every group got a turn at every game. Everyone loved it. The only suggestion they had was to see if we could mix up each group when we switched to the new game. It was fun and we will do this again.

Plan your work and work you plan

Day three
I have written everything down that my family and I want to do this Christmas from baking to bowling and planned it all out on a calendar. We don't always follow the plan perfectly but I like to have a basic plan. I know it sounds crazy but I feel with a plan I can be more spontaneous. That's because I know I can do what I was going to do at another time. It helps me make better decisions. My month is all planned. Good thing, because it's 12 days until Christmas.