Showing posts with label cell phones for kids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cell phones for kids. Show all posts

9.06.2019

Week 34 Around Here {2019}













{These two are starting middle school... it feels impossible}


{Master bedroom: original paint}

{Master bathroom}

{Wyatt's bedroom}

{Wyatt's bedroom}

{Carly's bedroom}

{Upstairs main bathroom}

{Twins' bedroom}























{August 2019}

{August 2016}

{August 2016}

{It looks white here, but it's gray}

{Moving!!!}
 Trying... out a new lake with my sister-in-law and her family on Saturday and LOVING it!  It had a great swimming area and the most beautiful rocks to kayak by.  (I'm a HUGE rock nerd.  I always say in another life I would have been a geologist.)  We will definitely be going back there again.

Enrolling... the twins in middle school.  They start sixth grade next week, so we stopped by and got their PE clothes, their ASB cards and their Chromebook insurance (every student is issued a Chromebook in our school).  We also got their locker numbers and practiced opening them, which was a breeze for Jack, but harder for Logan who is left handed.  He got it, though! Phew!!
It was quite timely that I happened upon this Insta-post by Jen Hatmaker about middle schoolers that ends with the promise that "everyone is going to make it".  If you have a 5th through 8th grader, I highly recommend you go read it.  It's like a reassuring hug.  It's gonna be okay, mama's.  We can do this.

Cleaning... the new house while Josh and the twins cleaned the old house.  It felt SO good to spend some time in our new house, getting to know it, and get it ready for painting and moving in.

Running... what felt like a million errands on Monday while Josh worked and I had all four kids.  We took Logan to the orthodontist and got a bunch of other things crossed off my list as well. 

Ordering... new beds for the twins after my friend Shana suggested getting them loft beds for their new room.  This will double the square footage in their room, allowing them each to have their own desks and space under their beds, which is brilliant. I'm so glad I talked to her about it!  My parents jumped on the super helpful train as well, and bought Wyatt and the twins new dressers from Ikea that will better fit in their new rooms and allow Carly to have her own, and Josh to have his own.  (We all shared before.)  I am getting so excited for it to come together.

Dropping... my younger two off at my girl Megan's house (Lord bless her!) so I could paint Wyatt's bedroom with less "helper's" on hand.  It is the most beautiful blue now (before it was the original builders primer) and Wyatt loves it.  It's the first room I have ever painted, start to finish, all by myself, so I am quite proud of it!!!

Prepping... my room for painting while Josh took the kids home for dinner and bed Tuesday night.  I got to glimpse what sunset will look like out my bedroom window in the new house (dreamy!) and get the room ready for me to paint it Thursday.

Adventuring... with my friends Jolene & Shana (and our collective eleven children) to Sun Lakes for some swimming & sun.  The weather was a bit chilly (mostly thanks to the wind) but the kids had a blast regardless.  I love hanging with Jolene and Shana because they are so down to earth, but also because each of us has a set of identical twins.  We ended up in book club together a few years ago, and happen to all have twins.  It's such a fun, random fact.
My favorite part of the day was when we stopped for dinner at an Italian restaurant on the way home.  We ate outside on the patio and it was so lovely.  The kids were really well behaved, and the food was amazing!  I just love those girls & their kids.
While we were gone, Josh shampoo'd the carpets at the new house, and they look awesome!

Selling... furniture we don't need and having the kids sleep on air mattresses in the mean time.  They were such good sports about it!  Thank goodness for their flexibility.

Taking... the kids on one last walk in our neighborhood, for old times sakes. I can't believe how much they have all grown since we moved in, and how much I have come to love these sidewalks.  I will miss them (and our neighbors) very, very much. 

Starting... the school year for Josh with his first day of students on Thursday.  I probably say this every summer, but truly this summer felt like it passed in the blink of an eye.  I am so glad for all we accomplished and the memories made, but I will be happy for next summer when we are not trying to fix up a house to sell and not trying to pack all our worldly belongings up so we can move!

Deciding... that the twins weren't ready for cell phones after all.  Nothing terrible has happened with them and their phones.  In fact, for the most part, they have done pretty well with them.  But Logan lost his cell phone while we were at Sun Lakes.  He was on a "bridge" of sorts, standing over a sludgy pond, looking at a turtle, when it fell out of his back pocket and into the water.  This is the second phone he's had and Jack is on his third, having accidentally swam with the first one, and lost the second one.  Josh and I agree that while it can be convenient to get a hold of them, for the most part, they are always somewhere that we know the adult and can call them, and they just aren't quite ready for the responsibility that comes with having a phone of their own.  (Luckily we knew this was a trial and bought Pay As You Go phones from Walmart.  They will be deactivated and saved for a later date. No harm done.)

Painting... my master bedroom Behr Chic Gray with Jolene, who is a painting master (and a saint!) and offered to help me.  She made quick work of my room, and we got it done in less than 3 hours.  It was great.  Then she offered to take the twins home with her, so I was kid free (my mother in law had the littles) for a few hours- to pack and then go sign papers with Josh.  I am telling you, I would not have gotten through this move without the help of all my amazing friends & family.  They've been the best village a girl could ask for.

Finally... moving.  We started on Friday morning when Josh's brother showed up (on his day off) while Josh was at work to help me get a head start on the move.  We jumped in and didn't stop.  It was a whirlwind of a day, but we managed to get all the bedrooms & bathrooms moved so we could sleep there Friday night, which was my goal. 

***************************************

Hahaha!




2.22.2019

Week 7 Around Here {2019}










{flashback to 2 years ago}
















Enduring... a crazy weekend of blizzard conditions and so.much.snow.  Roads & highways got closed, certain stores weren't opened, and we were basically housebound for four days straight.  Thankfully, Josh saw the storm coming and went grocery shopping before the weather hit!
Once the wind quit, we were able to get out in it, and the kids were SO HAPPY to have snow.  Especially Carly who loves to eat it.  Haha!
The boys went sledding and dug snow caves.  They had snowball fights and climbed on the "mountains" created by the snowplows.  Wyatt laid down to make a snow angel and told me to take a picture and then put it on Facebook with the caption "#hardestsnowangelever" because the snow was so deep.  That kid constantly cracks me up!!!

Drinking... coffee and creamer this week as a special treat in the cold weather.  I (mostly) gave up coffee in 2018 because of how it made me feel with my anxiety.  But I've been craving it with our temps being so low.  I will occasionally get it at Starbuck's after a particularly rough night, but otherwise, I exist without it.  So it felt super luxurious to have it all week!

Snuggling... up with the kids & our kitties and tons of blankets every morning as school was canceled over and over 3x this week.  They would watch cartoons and I would read and drink my coffee.  It was the stuff dreams are made of!

Napping... almost everyday as well, which was so lovely.  Josh, who is a teacher, also had a lot of days off due to weather (he works in a different district than our kids attend) so we were all 6 home together, and I really enjoyed sneaking in a nap each day after lunch despite all the kids being home.

Reading... and finishing Orange is the New Black on audio.  I also finished 52 Things Moms Need to Know and started reading The Poisonwood Bible, which is deep (and long!), but really good so far.  All these snow days made for some awesome reading time, and that made my bookish heart so happy!

Receiving... my Book of the Month order (hooray!) and feeling like it was Christmas as I pulled each of the three books I ordered out of my big blue box.
This month I ordered The Winter Sister, Circe and The Heart's Invisible Furies The Winter Sister is my February pick, Circe was the 2018 book of the year, and The Heart's Invisible Furies was the 2017 book of the year.  I am going to finish The Poisonwood Bible, then The Water Cure and then Five Feet Apart (both library books), then I will either start Maid (another Book of the Month book) or The Winter Sister.

Celebrating... Valentine's Day casually at home with dinner as a family, but planning a getaway with Josh for next weekend.  We are pumped!!

Getting... cell phones for the twins.  I am nervous to even share that here, for fear of judgment (#honestmoment) since they are only ten, but I like to be transparent here.  So there you have it. We got pay-as-you-go phones for about $40 each.  We decided to go for it because I got tired of going out into the neighborhood to knock on doors and ask the twins to come home for dinner. (#lazyparenting)
We had talked about getting them cell phones about six months ago at the peak of Logan's seizures so that if he had one while they were walking to school Jack could call for help, but we never made any final decisions.  Then, as of late, they've been spending more time playing at friends' houses and it's hard to get a hold of them.
We are nervous, but figure that we can always take them back if it's not going well, and the boys have to do well at school and be showing respectful behavior at home or they lose their phone that day.  We can log into their phones on our computer and see all their activity, which offers me great comfort, and they know that, so they have had good behavior thus far.
I think that this will be a good opportunity to teach them good phone etiquette and build their responsibility.  I'll let you know how it goes!

I saw this last week:
This is my virtual fist bump for you.
We got this, girls.

***