Week Six

For our sixth week of summer vacation (Wow! I cannot believe the weeks are flying by so quickly!), we felt like people of leisure again. The weeks of VBS and Swim Camp felt so structured by comparison. We went to the library and updated our summer reading logs. Gracie had earned 16 tickets, Lauren had earned 15, and William George had earned six. George immediately spent five of his tickets on a water gun/fire extinguisher-type thing, while Lauren judiciously spent two on a bracelet. Gracie was amenable to my idea of saving her tickets to collect the maximum of 20 so that she could purchase a medal, a more permanent marker of her summer reading activities.

Pixie had an eventful week. She went to the veterinarian to be spayed, and while having the surgery, they discovered a defect on one of her ovaries, meaning that her procedure was more involved, resulting in a larger incision site and longer recovery time. Here she is with her cone. While she was out for the surgery, she also had some dental work performed, i.e., a cleaning and extraction of three stubborn baby teeth.

Since she was staying overnight, we agreed to a grooming experience, and our little Pixie experienced her first bad hair cut. In addition to not looking her best, she sustained a nick to the ear, resulting in two sutures.  Needless to say, Pixie had a rough go of things, and we pampered her for an entire week. She was pitiful, but her hair is growing back... slowly.

We also had some significant yard projects in the front yard, wherein we removed the old border and installed a new stone border, consisting of about 400 stone blocks. Whew! Skip gratefully borrowed our neighbor's Gator to re-mulch all of the beds and extend existing beds, and he, Gracie and George are now obsessed with acquiring a Gator, so much so that George received two toy Gators for his birthday.

Gracie, George and Skip

By the time July 4th rolled around, we were hobbled and limping (from all of the labor), and we (Skip says, "We??!!" Ok, it was mostly him.) fired up the grill for a quiet celebration. Gran and Poppa and Grammie came over to help celebrate.

Yankee Doodles

During this week and the next, we were in full birthday preparation mode for William George's upcoming 4th birthday. Therefore, on the 5th, after church, we grabbed lunch at J. Alexander's (a family favorite), and then procured supplies from Costco. George had vacillated wildly on what he wanted for his party, from Snoopy to a "helicopter" party to Cars... he couldn't make up his mind! We finally nailed him down to helicopter so that we could order his cake and proceed with our plans.  This meant his birthday week, the week of the sixth, would be very eventful.

YMCA Camp, Week Two

Grace, George and Lauren, on the last day of camp

Oh, hello there.

I have no excuses for you regarding the delayed updates, except to say that it is summer time, and we have been exceptionally busy... and having fun... and working on projects... and none of those items on the to-do list have lent themselves to any time sitting at a desk and/or in front of a computer.

I'll try to catch up quickly. The duo had their second week of swim camp from June 22nd through June 26th. The second week was even better than the first because their friend Kaitlyn attended that week, having gone to camp with them a couple of weeks last year (as well as playing softball and basketball with them this past winter and spring). William George continued his second week of daily swimming lessons, and we continued to log a lot of time at the gym and pool. On the last day, the duo had an awesome field trip to splash adventure, and when it was time to leave, the trio hugged their counselors (and George hugged his swim coach).

William George, lunching by the pool

Grace and Lauren, swimming laps at the indoor pool

Lauren, conquering her fear of diving into the deep end

Overall, the trio had an awesome time at camp. They were top plankers again this year, and they out-ran their fellow campers, even though some of them were older. William George made a friend, his classmate, Luke, and he progressed to treading water and jumping in the deep end. We logged some solid pool time over the course of two weeks, and strengthened our swimming skills.

 Also, we listened to the Village People's "YMCA" a thousand or so times.

DJ William George

When people ask me how William George got his start as a DJ, I will be able to point to his mastery of our music collection at the age of three.

 
DJ William George from Cathi Lindsey on Vimeo.

Daily Photo

Apparently, they are not too old to enjoy William George's sprinkler.  

YMCA Camp 2015, Week One

Grace and Lauren attended their first week of swim camp at the YMCA from June 15th through June 18th.  They were excited to see the counselors from last year, and quickly made some friends in their camp. On the first day, the camp ran a relay race, and their PE coach would have been pleased to see them easily outrun the older kids in the camp. (Also, I don't think I ever posted this last year, but they won the camp-wide contest for best "plankers" last year. Woot! The pressure is on for this year.)

William George is signed up for swimming lessons at 11:00am, Monday through Thursday, and they all three converge on the indoor pool at the same time.  Logistically, we drop the girls off at camp at 9:00am, George has his lesson at 11:00am, and the girls are picked up at 4:00pm. Therefore, we have been spending the entire day at the Y, instead of commuting back and forth multiple times. While it is impossible to complain about a week at the pool, it is fair to say that the trio were worn out after spending approximately 20 hours in the pool last week.

William George also had a follow up appointment with his allergist on the 16th. He continues to do very well with environmental issues and avoidance of certain foods. Next year, he will undergo full testing and blood work, in the hopes that he will have outgrown a few of the allergies, such as egg, strawberry and soy. Since only 20% of the affected population outgrow peanut/tree nut allergies, it is unlikely that he will have progress with that, but his allergist relayed some optimistic data about recent trials and protocols that have been changed. They are working on a cure for the stubborn peanut allergy so continued prayers for that.

Back at camp, the duo were working hard. Gracie quickly advanced to "green band" swim lessons, having passed the swim test the first day. Lauren, however, still had a lot of anxiety about swimming in the indoor pool, which is 9 feet deep. Although she is a very strong swimmer, she has previously panicked during the water treading portion of the test. Last year she was so determined to pass that she took the test three times in one day, becoming increasingly frustrated with each failed attempt.

One counselor offered to swim alongside her in the indoor pool to help with her anxiety, but she was still too nervous. Finally, during the Tuesday afternoon outdoor session, she took the test and easily passed. Here she is flashing the yellow band because they were temporarily out of green bands.

She allowed herself to be proud for about 30 minutes before obsessing about advancing to green band lessons and learning the backstroke. Instead of anxiety about the depth of the pool, now we are addressing what-if-I-never-learn-the-backstroke during the morning drive. Although we are convinced she will conquer the backstroke, reassuring her that her life will be perfectly fine, whether or not she learns it, only seems to add to her anxiety.

As for William George, he is making many friends at the pool, has perfected the "cannonball" and is learning to swim.

As for me, I have been making friends, too, which always helps pass the time. Unfortunately, I contracted a stomach bug and am, therefore, approaching camp a little more cautiously this week.  

VBS, 2015

June 8th through June 12th marked one of our very favorite weeks of summer: VBS. In a very exciting development, William George got to attend this year for the very first time, since he will be turning four next month.  Lauren and Grace had a very fun class with some friends they already knew, along with some new friends, and George got to attend the four year old boys' class, where he also ran into a buddy from preschool.

They diligently attended every day from 9:00am until 12:00pm, and they enjoyed learning some new verses and especially enjoyed the music. Thursday night was parent night, where both the preschool and children's choir performed.  As with all prior years, they had a wonderful time, and George especially enjoyed the week.

After VBS on Friday, the trio spent the night with Gran & Poppa, while we wrapped my week-long project of cleaning/purging the trio's closets.

Overall, we had a fantastic and productive week.

Last Day of School, 2015

I found the below photos in a draft folder and wanted to make sure to capture them here.  As the last week of school wound down, William George completely lost interest in attending, and we often found him hiding when it was time to get dressed.  

Once we coaxed him out of his hiding place, he was happy to pose with his sisters on their last day of school for an official wrap of K3 and second grade.  

Father's Day 2015

Happy Father's Day to an amazing dad, husband and best friend. We love you more than the sun, moon, stars and sky!

Weekend Update

Happy Monday, friends! How was your weekend? Ours was productive with some much-needed work in the yard, along with some water fun for the trio.

When it came time for the mower to appear, William George took a break from playing and retrieved his mower with lightning speed. He insisted on following Skip around the yard (at a safe distance).

Photos like the below clearly demonstrate that Grace got all of the height in our collective gene pool.

After church Sunday, we went to a local park where our city was celebrating the 111th birthday of a local statue. Or, as Gracie said, "We're here for a statue's birthday party?"  Once she realized there were activities and other fun to be had, she no longer cared that we were celebrating an inanimate object

Fun fact about Skip: he loathes the vinyl Pepsi sign in the below photo. The owner of the building could no longer afford to maintain the lighted sign (I don't recall now... but something like $12k per month, maybe?) and covered it with vinyl. Why, oh why, did they not just let the sign go dark?

We opted for balloons instead of face painting (whew!), and we burned off some pent-up energy in the bounce house.

After bouncing, William George spotted a fire truck, so the trio climbed aboard for a tutorial.

George wanted to take it for a spin but would not get in the driver's seat without Lauren. "Come on, Yu-Yu, get in!"

After a picnic (hurray for food trucks!), we spotted a box turtle who was visiting from the zoo. Again, George wanted to go, but wanted back up. When Lauren declined, Gracie bravely stepped up to help.

During the reptile portion, he was largely on his own while I used the zoom lens from a distance. "Why don't you put it down?" George kept asking. Fortunately, the reptile was closely guarded because George was wearing his grab-and-go expression that he often uses when playing with toys.

How was your weekend?

June 4th & 5th

June 4th

We decided Thursday would make a great pool day. We packed our things, a picnic lunch and brought Grammie along for the ride. We have settled on an official song for summer, and we blasted our song on the drive. To get George motivated for swimming lessons at the YMCA this summer, this was the obvious choice for our summer song. 

June 5th

Friday was our horticulture day, meaning we struck out for Lowe's to pick up a few vegetable plants. Although we are very late, we created a container garden on the deck and will hopefully be enjoying tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers soon. Fortunately for procrastinators like us, flowers and herbs can be enjoyed immediately.  

Camp Lindsey, June 2nd & 3rd

Ok, friends. I am going to come clean here and be completely transparent about the fact that our summer has had a rocky start. You will find no perfection on this blog. There have been many time out's, behavior chart plummets, and some home damage (documented earlier). In putting together a response to the trio's issues, I Harry S. Truman-ed this situation (i.e., "The buck stops here.") and drilled down to identify the causes.

First, while I think we should have arrived, developmentally, to a place of having a relaxed schedule  and a relaxed approach to summer, the reality is that, of the many words one could use to describe our children, relaxed isn't one of them. Second, I tried to recall being eight, and remember how long summer seemed back then. If someone had told the eight-year-old version of you, dear friend, that you had plans looming three or more weeks away, that would have seemed like an eternity.  I definitely recall the months from June to August stretching out indefinitely as if anything were possible. Third, the little "LinkWithin" widget at the end of each post randomly populated with one of the old "Camp Mom" posts from when the girls were the age William George is now. Since George is often the impetus of our plans being derailed, this was an especially beneficial reminder.

Therefore, we will be kicking off Camp Mom immediately, although it is being rebranded as Camp Lindsey, as I foresee some pushback in the upcoming tween years. Actually, it began two days ago.  On June 2nd, while strategizing my response to a challenging day, we spontaneously signed up for gymnastics. They attended their first classes and loved it. Incidentally, this was also the day I started carrying a wooden spoon in my purse.

On June 3rd, we went to a local show at our library, signed up for the summer reading challenge and put together our official library book bags for summer. As a bonus, Grammie arrived to spend a few days with us. After quiet time, during which time, the girls each read approximately 70 pages, they alternated between playing on the playground and practicing gymnastics.


Hometown Heroes from Cathi Lindsey on Vimeo.

After grilling out for supper, we took a neighborhood bike ride, and Grace climbed a very large hill for the first time. Lauren is a bit of a dare-devil, and we are cautioning her repeatedly to slow down before the inevitable crash occurs. (Everyone wears helmets, of course.)

We are almost finished with day three of Camp Lindsey, and significant progress has been made. Keep your fingers crossed.

A Review: Shipt

Shipt, discussed previously, is a local company who has partnered with Publix to deliver groceries. Shipt recruited an initial 1,000 customers, who paid a (reduced?) annual subscription rate ($49/year) to beta test the service.

Shipt is daring to venture into the grocery delivery business, an endeavor that other companies have attempted unsuccessfully. To make this really interesting, their goal is to provide same day delivery and even delivery within one hour. Local readers understand the logistical challenges of covering our city and its many neighborhoods. For non-locals, our city isn't Manhattan, is not dense at all, and will send delivery drivers scrambling in all directions to various suburban neighborhoods, making the one hour delivery window seem impossible.

But it's good to dream.

We signed up for Shipt early and have been waiting for months for the email telling us we were on board. When the email finally arrived, we did a happy dance, and prepared to transfer our shopping list to the Shipt website once items were needed. We have now completed a couple of Shipt transactions, and below are my initial thoughts.

1) Shipt website: Overall, very easy to use. Every item on my list was located on the site. In the event an item is not listed, a shopper can add the item manually, and it will then be added to the Shipt inventory. A big plus is the special "BOGO" section. This was especially helpful to be able to shop for sales under the BOGO tab - even easier than remembering to check for these items at the store.

2) Price: Aside from the subscription fee (mine was $49/year), there is a slight mark up on each item. When time permits, I will check this more thoroughly. For now, the total was not noticeably higher. We asked our delivery driver how the pricing works, and she explained that Shipt is tax exempt (?) so perhaps the surcharge translates to roughly the tax amount which is pocketed by Shipt? Honestly, I'm not sure how it works, but felt only a slight increase in total. To be fair, I would have experienced the same increase if I had physically gone to the store with my three children, who happen to be superb shoppers, i.e., they would add more than a few items to the basket before checkout.

For couponers, there is no coupon redemption opportunity to my knowledge.

3) Delivery: A) When I placed our first order, delivery options were limited to next day delivery. Shipt is actively recruiting shoppers/drivers and will hopefully improve delivery times. Next day was not a big deal to me, but is less than their stated goal. Next, our first delivery was late. To be fair, delivery was scheduled the Friday of Memorial Day weekend between the hours of 4-5pm. A text at 4:20 from the shopper confirmed that she was an hour away (see above logistical issues). From there, she was incredibly efficient, commuting and shopping and then arriving at our home approximately one hour later than the stated time (which was no big deal at all).

B) For our second delivery, I placed the order in the morning and the delivery options began at noon on the same day. In the span of about a week, delivery times were improved.

4) Communication: We received several texts from our shopper. Aside from communicating her delay, she checked in about substitutions and let us know when she was on her way. She was very polite and was obviously hustling, even though we told her to drive safely and be careful.

5) Delivery: A driver and passenger pulled to our garage door and delivered our items to the basement door. I believe groceries can be delivered to the kitchen for an additional fee, but I caution against that due to safety concerns for both shoppers and customers. (I would not want my children, if the were employed as shoppers, entering homes of customers.)

6) Overall: Shipt is impressive overall. As mentioned previously, I am pulling for this company to thrive, and I definitely recommend and will use again.

Go Shipt!

Apple Tricks

Yesterday I stumbled across something that will radically change our snacking on-the-go, school lunches and picnics. In a very rare moment, the Internet delivered something perfectly useful... how to make an apple a portable snack, while simultaneously avoiding the only apple downside (i.e., the unfortunate browning).

Total apple game changer.  

You're welcome.

Weekend Update

How fantastic is it that today is June 1st?

Our weekend started off with some mischief. While we were getting ready to go sign up for camp last Friday, the trio decided to have a "water fight" upstairs. The details were never clarified, but there were three towels as drenched as if someone had used them at the pool. Later in the day, Grace expressed some concern that William George's ceiling fan was no longer secure. George had apparently said he was hot, and the girls decided to help him adjust his fan. This led to the fan precariously hanging from the ceiling. Again, details were sketchy, and we could never get a straight answer on what exactly had transpired.

From there, the trio were on lock down Saturday. Instead of visiting their grandparents, they helped clean out the basement. The icing on the cake was the family trip to Lowe's to purchase a replacement fan and some other things so that we could spend the rest of the weekend completing household projects. If nothing else, we had a productive weekend.

We went to church Sunday, and then played in the neighborhood all afternoon, topping off the day with a bike ride. A highlight was George riding in the bike carrier with Pixie and Kami, a Jack Russell Terrier, our neighbor's dog. Sadly, I did not get a photo of that.

I also failed to get a photo of the light fixture dangling from the ceiling, but some things are best forgotten.

Enumerated Update

Our first week of summer break is in the books, and we have spent this time relaxing and making plans. Camps are scheduled, lessons planned and all that jazz.

Here are a few things on our minds:

1) Vocabulary: Fifteen words you should eliminate from your vocabulary to sound smarter. Admittedly, I have been guilty of all but one (#15) of these.

2) Income Inequality: This has been posted everywhere, but I had marked it to share a few weeks ago. In the country/suburbia, imagining trees as a luxury feels foreign, but I promise not to take our trees for granted any longer. Truthfully, they are appreciated already. One of my favorite sounds is of winds rustling in the breeze, and sitting on the deck listening to that sound is one of my sure-fire ways to relax.

3) Rainy Day Hair: After enduring a week with rain showers on the daily, I applaud the embrace of rainy day hair. However, I think a messy bun, an updo, a sleek pony or just a go-to hat would be a better option. Yeah, no, I cannot pull that off.

4) Rochambeau:  Skip and I use the time honored classic of rock, paper, scissors to decide many things around the house. Our game has evolved over the years, and we have been employing these methods for years. This scientific analysis is an interesting read nonetheless.

Fun fact about Gracie: She takes an extra fist pump thereby delivering her weapon (rock, paper, scissors) a second after everyone else's, adjusting her choice after she sees what everyone else has chosen.

By the way, what is your position on Rochambeau versus roshambo? Which way do you spell it? My fact-checking revealed that the correct spelling is "roshambo," but Skip was reading over my shoulder and reflexively backed away from the computer saying, "You have GOT to change that. That CANNOT be right." He stopped just short of shielding his eyes, but he did have a pained expression.

5) The Small Life: The best ways to be happy and fulfilled. A favorite and the most thought-provoking sentence in the piece:

This [decision trap] is an amazingly consistent phenomena whereby "big" decisions turn out to have much less impact on a life as a whole than the myriad of small seemingly insignificant ones.

I'm not sure I completely agree with that statement, but maybe a little, if that makes sense.

Have a wonderful weekend!