Category: Uncategorized

My family and I are on vacation at my parents’ house in the Blue Ridge Mountains. And it. is. fantastic! See?

This has been a weird summer with me working from home, squeezing in 30 hours of work with just 14 hours of childcare, and still taking the kids to all their camps, summer school, VBS, speech therapy, and other activities that they want to do. I get up at 5:45 so I can get work done before they wander downstairs. I tell them they can’t get out of bed until 8, since they all still don’t know how to sleep in (although that’s not quite fair, Joshua WOULD if Jonah would let him, but alas, they share a room.)

So, basically, I have never needed a vacation SO BAD in my LIFE. And I am super-thankful for this week with my fam to REST and chillax.

I love my job, and I love my family, but I can’t wait to get back to the school schedule so that I feel like LESS of a CRAZY PERSON!

26 more days for the big kids, but I am still not sure how many days ’til Jonah goes back, because it’s always different for the preschool than it is for the elementary. But for this mama, it can’t be soon enough! I am ready for me work-life balance to go from non-existent to at least kind of existent.

In the meantime, I am soaking up this week with my beautiful family in this beautiful place!

 

 

Bobby and Joshua are currently on a father-son trip. This is their third year to go to Audiofeed Music Festival, listen to loud music, eat canned beans, and bond. Subsequent children get to join when they are 10, so right now it’s just the two of them. One subsequent child named Jonah is super-pissed that Daddy and Joshua have left him alone with ME (and Sophie).

From last night’s epic “I want Daddy and Joshua to come home” pre-bedtime meltdown:

Jonah LOST HIS MIND. He is very, very attached to Joshua, and he really, really, wants Daddy to put him to bed every night and spend every minute that he’s not at work with him.

Because…DADDY is the FUN parent.

Last weekend I went away to my 15-year college reunion (let’s  NOT talk about the fact that I am old as dirt right now, k?). Let me just say that while I was gone, the kids were with their dad and NO tantrums were thrown by ANYONE about my absence. AND when I got home, Bobby and the kids were out, so I was by myself for a bit. When they got home and we were lovingly reunited after 48 hours apart, the FIRST thing Jonah said to me, the FIRST thing out of his sweet little lips was:
“I want you to go work.”

What the FISHITY FISH!??! Knife. In. Heart.

Clearly Jonah knows that the fun stops when Mommy enters the building.

This week, on Tuesday, we were enjoying a nice family dinner and near the end of it Jonah said: “Mommy are you going to go to the store?” (I had gone to the grocery the previous night after dinner.)

Me: No

Jonah: I want you to go bye bye and go to the store!

Bobby: Is it because you think Daddy’s going to let you play video games?

Jonah: Yeah.

INGRATE! So carrying you for 9  months, nursing you for two years, and meeting EVERY SINGLE NEED YOU HAVE EVER means nothing apparently. Seriously, the parent who knows his #$%! shoe size, makes all his meals and SLAVES over trying to get him caught up on his language should get SOME points, right?

Nope.

I give.

All hail the fun parent. I’ll just be over here folding the laundry.

June is home safety month, which is fitting because summer is rife with opportunities for kids to hurt themselves.

Looking back on several of the “exciting” things that have happened to us, it seems to fit:
– Sam stuck a pretzel up his nose, landing himself in the emergency room – August 2010
– Sam busted his head running around with friends, ditto on the emergency room – May 2011
– Sam sprayed himself in the eye with spray paint, called poison control – July 2014

I’m sure there are more examples that I’m forgetting. See also: boys.

Of course, summer is when we tend to spend more time away from home as well. But even when we’re not there, we want to keep an eye on our house, kids and pets – enter the RemoteLync from Kidde.

The RemoteLync listens for a smoke or carbon monoxide alarm and then uses wifi to alert the homeowner on iOS and Android-compatible devices.

It works with existing alarms, doesn’t require a monthly fee, and is easy to set up. I plugged ours in, downloaded the app, and got connected all within 10 minutes.

When an alarm is detected, the RemoteLync sends an email and/or text message to designated people, who can then directly call 911, temporarily silence the warning, or call a friend or neighbor to check things out.

Here’s the test text message I received.

A few things I like about the RemoteLync:
– It’s reasonably priced. The RemoteLync can be purchased at Home Depot for $99.
– There are no hidden costs. It doesn’t require a subscription or monthly fee.
– It’s easy to set up. Just plug it in, download the app, and go through a brief set up. Like I said, the whole thing took me less than 10 minutes.
– One device monitors an entire home. It’s designed to cover the average-sized US home, approximately 2200 square feet.
– It provides peace of mind. You’ll be the first to know if something goes wrong at your house.

We all know how important fire safety is in our homes. The RemoteLync from Kidde adds another layer of protection so we can act quickly even when we’re away from home.

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This post was sponsored by Kidde. All opinions are my own.