What do you do in the summer time when all the world is green...

There were several summers in our lives that that lived up to the idea of that song.  Long lazy summers where we did whatever we wanted and things moved slowly and blissfully.  This is not that summer.  At least not for me anyways.  I still aim everyday for it to be like that for my kids.  Or at least a few days a week, or a few hours a day - or at least for one of them.  ha.

I think I have gotten into a good mind set.  I had to let everything non-essential go.  Everyday I read scriptures and pray.  That is all that I need to get done.  I am lucky if I shower twice a week or put on make-up once.  When the kids were in school every day I blogged, worked on Family History, spent a good hour in the scriptures, and worked for 20 minutes turning my blog into books.  All of that is now put on hold.  If I get a free 10 or 15 minutes a day because all  the kids are with friends or occupied and Dane is napping and I don't have dinner to make or something to clean then I blog or work on family history.

I have a few other things that I prioritize and do everyday that is aimed at the children or family.  Every morning the kids and I have a 5 minute devotional.  Well.... it is supposed to be 5 minutes - but it always goes to 15 or 20 because we end up having a great discussion where they ask a lot of questions.  It is always about something from Come Follow Me from that week.  Then we talk about what the plans are for that day and then we have a prayer.  That happens everyday and it is great.  Also we read from the Book of Mormon every night.

The kids do 2 jobs everyday.  That is 8 jobs a day I get done around the house!!  It is fantastic and I feel good that they are learning to clean, do jobs, contribute to a family, feel needed and successful, and the joy of a clean house.  They can do their jobs 100% independently and that is FANTASTIC - it took about 3 summers of me having to work with them, show them, supervise them.  It was long, slow hard, frustrating, and tedious - but I am finally to "pay-out" and it is amazing. There are mornings where I wake up, feed Dane, come downstairs and the kids are showered and dressed, the dishwasher is already unloaded, the kitchen is swept, things are dusted, and garbage is taken out.  It is unbelievable.  But some mornings I come downstairs to 4 kids in jammies cuddled up in blankets or huts reading books or building legos.  Those mornings are also amazing and bring joy to my heart.

I gave up on doing school work this summer.  My kids read constantly anyways and the read the Book of Mormon out loud every night.  Something just had to give, and I felt like in 10 years I would never look back and think "I sure wish we did school work that summer of 2019".  But I would regret looking back and remembering chaos, demands, unhappy kids, and a feeling at the end of the day like we got nothing done.  So the last week of summer we are going to do a blitz of math facts and writing and call it good.

On Monday we clean and go to the library, on Tuesday we go to the Park with our ward friends, on Wednesday we go swimming with our neighborhood friends, on Thursday we go hiking or on a bike ride, and on Friday we stay home and do NOTHING.  This isn't set in stone - but it helps me remember to get out of the house and do something with them. We usually do our activity in the late morning (10) and are home around 2.  Then the rest of the day is theirs. Brock also tries to go to the temple every week.  So that happens in there somewhere.  I try to go with him but some days I just drop him and a few friends (or sometimes just him) off and pick them back up when they call.  Then I just try to say "yes" rather than "no" to things every once in a while, "can I bake a cake" yes.  "can we have a lemonade stand?" yes  "can I make a strawberry garden?" yes "can I get out the hose and spray things?" yes "Can I build a fort?" yes  "Can all my friends come over and ______ (play in the basement, play mine craft, play a board game, give our barbies a bath, play with American girl dolls in the garage)" yes  "Can I ride my bike to ________ (park, school 7-11, friends house) yes   "Can I have screen time" yes.  I have been saying yes to that last one more than usual.  I am trying a new approach to screen time.  Letting them manage themselves more and trying to encourage screen time as a social activity rather than a solitary activity.  I think it is going well.

I have to admit I was terrified for summer.  I was so bummed that I was terrified because I always love summer and love having my kids home - but I just couldn't see how it would work.  I prayed and pondered for a good month to try to see a vision.  One day I got one, I saw just reading scriptures and praying, letting everything else go and living in the moment with my kids and enjoying our day with a promise to the Lord that I would use my "free time" productively on things that mattered most.  When I get free time I say a little prayer "what should I do right now?"  and what ever comes to mind I do it.  Sometimes the answer is to blog, or family history, or clean something, or read the ensign, sometimes it is to go find a certain child and connect, sometimes it is to go outside and hang out with the neighborhood women, and sometimes it is to take a nap. 

Today the prompting was to blog.  And now I need to go clean up the house cuz we just got home from swimming and there is a cooler that needs food to be put away and wet towels that need to be dried and dinner that needs to be started (bacon fried rice tonight) and Dane should wake up in the next 30 minutes to eat.

Mothers Day

I had a great mothers day this year.  The kids and Jason always spoil me with an easy day where I don't have to cook or clean anything!!  It is amazing.  I also got some great books I am so excited to read: "the slow ripening fruits of motherhood" and "what would a holy woman do?"  I can't wait to read them!  I don't have a lot of reading time lately :)  I will start that as soon as I finish Saints.  Since summer started I had 50 pages left and now... 3 weeks later I have 40 pages left. ha

Here is a decade of mothering.  The bottom one is Noah in 2009 and Dane in 2019.  Same outfit. 

Look at what Jason made for me!  He rocks.

Birches came

The birches came to visit us the first weekend in May.  I really didn't take any pictures.  In truth they didn't really  come to see us.  Their good friends were getting married.  Veronica text one day and asked if she and Carmen could come stay with us for a weekend.  I texted back, "only if you bring Lu with you"  "and Harry"  "and Aaron" "I guess you could bring the babies too".  She text back 10 minutes later "ok, we are all coming"  What?  I called and told her I was kidding.  But in my requests the found really cheap tickets and thought it would be fun, so all 7 came and stayed at our house.  It was so fun.  We have missed them so  so much.  Our quality of life has definitely taken a HUGE hit when they left.  We have tried to fill the void - but it is hard to make new friends when you just had a baby.

They got to watch our kids play soccer (which I am sure is exactly how they wanted to spend their saturday morning.)

They played all around the house.

On Sunday evening we had the clarks over and we had a break-the-fast breakfast for dinner. 

I swear they all came even though I only have pictures of the same people!  Ha

Garden

I finally got out to may garden one day.  I usually start working on it in March - but I didn't even touch it until end of May!  Once I got out there I remembered I never "put my garden to bed for the winter" as I was quite pregnant in the fall and never got around to it.  So needless to say there was a lot of work to be done. 

I got things quite in order during Dane's morning nap.  And even got the fairy garden out.  

Once Dane woke up he joined me outside.

I have had lots of little girls playing in my fairy garden and making little neighborhoods and homes.  I love it.

That was my garden back in May.  I haven't worked in it since  so it is kind of just left to it's own devices - but it is coming along quite nicely. 

My peonia even bloomed! It has never had a chance to bloom before cuz a hail storm always knocks it out. 

big

I wish I was more up on my blog... because Dane just keep growing and changing.  So this was actually back in like April.  

He was just learning to sit.  I still needed to balance him - but he thought he was pretty big stuff.

He also got his exersaucer.  This is a Herbert family favorite.  All our kids loved the saucer and Jason and I love it too.  

He also loves his swing. 

Dance

For Christmas from my mom Megan chose dance lessons.  She has been going every Monday since January.  She had a Spring Recital that she was so excited for.  She did great and loved performing.  She felt so big doing her hair fancy and putting make-up on.  

She is on the very end right.  There are waaay too many pictures.... but oh well.  she was a doll and really did great.

Above are the pictures I took.  Then Julie Roper emailed me these that she took with her nicer camera.