Tag Archives: Summer

Live Love Serve 06 04 11

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WOW! It’s been a long time since I’ve done one of these. Life has been just a bit hectic I guess. I have quite the list of posts I’ve read to share with you. Here are some of my favorites that I’ve read over the last {ahem} two months.

Live

I started my own Summer Is Here series this year, and have found MANY other ones across the blogosphere. Here are a couple to check out.

Summer Activities for Children: Go Mom – The beginning of her own series, Go Mom talks about how to get prepared for all that summer brings!

Summer of Purpose, Free Chart: Inspired to Action – A great post about how to have goals with kids even in the summer. And, there is a free chart!

List of Games to Play When Hiking with Children: Listplanit – An amazing list of things to do with kids while you’re hiking. My girl always needs a to-do list. Does yours?

Love

Three Types of Friends Every Parent Needs: Simple Kids – We as parents often worry so much about our kids’ friends, but do we worry about our friends? Do we make sure we’re taking time to cultivate those relationships? Because, we need friends… we really do.

Teach Your Daughters Wailing: Homegrown Mom – A powerful post about teaching your daughters what’s really worth crying about.

Serve

How to Volunteer with Small Children: Metropolitan Mama – We sometimes feel that our littles can’t help, but they can. A great series for every mama.

Is Your House Too Clean?: Simple Organized Living – I LOVE this post and am a firm believer that being a good hostess means NOT having the perfect home.

What did you read this week that was awesome?

Linked to Saturday Stumbles.

Letter From Camp

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We got these AMAZING letters in the mail Thursday. Why were they amazing? Because they were from the Princess. She wrote us two letters from camp! I was SO EXCITED when I saw them in the mailbox.

The Princess is off at camp for the week. We packed her up and dropped her off on Monday. We’re picking her up Friday morning. I can’t wait to hear the stories she has to tell! Her letters told of us of swimming and kayaking and tubing… all the joys of summer on the lake. I can’t wait to hear about the dining hall, her cabin mates, and chapel time.

I am SO PROUD of her for writing us. I am SO THANKFUL that she’s having fun. I am ECSTATIC that I get to see her soon.

A letter from camp… it’s a FINER THING.

Linked to Finer Things Friday.

Summer is Here!! Packing for Camp

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We took the Princess to camp yesterday. I am still struggling with that. I haven’t known what she’s doing for over twenty-four hours. This is SERIOUSLY killing me. Yes, I’m used to being in control. Like, seriously used to being in control.

I had to have a bit of control. So, I packed her as well as I could to make the trip as easy as possible for her.

I learned several years ago that it is easier for the Princess to be independent if I set her up to succeed. That means making it easy for to get dressed each morning.

What makes choosing an outfit as easy as pie? Ziplocs!!!!

We all know I have a love for Ziplocs. Love them!

I pack each of the Princess’s daily outfits in a Ziploc.

Then, I squeeze all the air out of the the bags and line them nice and straight in a duffle.

I added an extra Ziploc with spare panties and socks. I put in her jammies and swimsuits. I added her bag of toiletries and a pouch with her Bible, journal, flashlight and pens. She was all packed and ready to go.

The best part was that the duffle bag fit nicely on the shelf the Princess was provided at camp. She can live right out of the duffle…

And have a blast a camp.

Linked to Works for Me Wednesday because packing in Ziplocs works for me!

Summer is Here!! What to eat?

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Nothing says summer like an ice cream cone. Mmmmmm… However, one cannot live by ice cream alone. Well, I guess you could, but I don’t think you would feel really good after awhile.

However, there are certain summer foods that we all LOVE to eat. I thought I’d start gathering some for you. Fun – right!

House of Hills:

Other Blogs:

How’s that for a start? I’ll keep adding as the summer goes on. I’m sure to come across some more yummy stuff.

Have you found some great summer recipes? Do you have one of your own?

Summer is HERE!!! What’s the Plan?

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Today is the last day of school. The last day of 3rd Grade for my Princess. I CANNOT believe that she will be in 4th grade next year. Overwhelms me. I always take a LAST day of school picture.

So I can compare it to the FIRST day of school picture.

And then think about how much she’s grown over the years…. How did she get SO BIG?

Alright… Enough reminiscing… this blog post was supposed to be about SUMMER! It’s here!

Now, what do we do?…..

I work full time. And, while I can work from home some, I still have to find time to actually, well, work. Therefore, I must keep the Princess busy. So, here are a few things we already have planned for the summer…

  • Sleep away camp for four days: I’m sure I will blog about it as I’m sure I’m gonna be a little {ahem} sad, overwhelmed {ahem} lost while she is gone and not in family care.
  • Callaway Gardens: Her annual trip with Grandma, Gramps and the cousins.
  • Drama Camp: Like we need more drama in this house. We’re hoping to channel it.
  • Camp All-American: An AMAZING day camp that we’ve LOVED for the last two years.
  • Time with Cousins: There is NOTHING better than hanging out with the cousins at Grandma’s House.
  • Childcare at Church: Since my Sweetie works at our church, they provide childcare (paid of course) for staff. There are a couple of fun activities they have planned that the Princess is excited to attend.

Seems a bit overwhelming – right? All this planning. You should see it on the calendar…

The thing is I HAVE to plan because I HAVE to work. You know what? I’ll tell you a secret. {shhhhhh} I’d plan even if I didn’t have to work. We at the House of Hills like to have a plan. Even if it’s a tentative one. So, on the days that I plan on staying home with the Princess, we’ll still have a plan. However, those days are planned with more flexibility. Those days are planned more in tune with what she wants to do right then and the weather forecast.

I’ve found some great resources that will help me plan the “hang out” days. I thought I’d share them with you.

  • Cumming Local: I live in Cumming and LOVE this site. Mandi has lots of great lists and continues to update weekly on things to do around town.
  • Free Cheap Summer Fun: Again, local to the North Metro Atlanta area, but you could probably find something similar in your area.
  • Summer Staycation: An amazing list of blogs giving ideas to do in cities around the country.
  • Your local library: Most libraries have summer programs. Check yours out.
  • Your local bookstores: Many bookstores have weekly story times. Investigate.
  • Local Movie Theaters: Just about EVERY movie theater in our area offers cheap or free kids’ movies once a week. SERIOUSLY worth investigating.
  • Make Your Own Bubbles: This is just fun!

What’s your summer plan?