Reflection & Rejuvenation: June

Wow. We are officially getting to the middle of the year. How did that happen? 

I'm feeling good about our summer plans. I'm looking forward to three weeks of vacation time with my boys! 

I'm not going to set any specific goals for the month, beyond just enjoying myself and my family! 

Here are my regular goals for the year:

1. Run at least twice a week and do yoga at least once a week. I'm still consistently running, even though I still never want to. With regard to yoga, I'm going to try switching to doing two sun salutations a day. In the fall, I really do want to start going to a class.
2. Eat in a balanced and healthy way. I'm doing much better! Salads for lunch! Smoothies for breakfast! However, I am back to eating too much junk food during the day. Mainly cookies! I need to get back to tracking my healthy eating goals. I can eat dessert on Saturday and Sunday and then once during the week. I need to track this every day instead of just weekly like I'm doing now. 
3. Continue my daily meditation and gratitude practice. I'm continuing to do guided medication using the Insight Timer app. I love it! I do need to work on my gratitude practice. I think first thing in the morning in the shower would be my best time. 
4. Stop working at 8pm to create two hours of free time for myself each evening. It's been really hard, but I'm stopping by at least 8:30pm most nights. This is a must!

Here were my specific goals for the month:

• Make our deck much more comfortable and inviting for the summer. We are working on this as our savings allow! 
• Build a cut flower garden, following the advice in this book. We got a quote for this and will move forward as our savings allow! 
• Take Tate to get genetic testing to see if he needs a prescription of folic acid like Henry does. We took him; we are just waiting for the results! 
• Plant non-invasive, clumping bamboo in our yard to create more privacy against the two-story house that is being built. Done! 

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A New Art Area

I'm always inspired by what Kylie sets up for her boys in their Montessori home, but I never feel like I have the time, space, or energy to follow suit!

But I have wanted to have a dedicated art area for a while. We do have a table in the boys' room, which is a good area for drawing and coloring, but I wanted them to have access to other supplies. However, I didn't necessarily want those supplies to be in their room (because they frequently play in there first thing in the morning unsupervised).

Kylie's recent post about having an art table in the main area made a ton of sense, but it doesn't match up with the layout of our house.

So I decided to turn one of our shelves into an art area by purchasing:

• Tempera paint
• A light box
• A paper holder
• A knitting fork

I raided my own craft closet and added:

• A felting kit

And I added this from IKEA:

• A bead melting kit

The shelf is right our dining room table, so I decided to order a fitted oil cloth tablecloth from this Easy seller. We will keep it in a basket on the shelf, so when we want to do art we can protect the dining room table and go from there! 

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Light Box for Children

I added a new light table work to Henry's art shelf. I bought this relatively inexpensive light box and then printed clipart that I thought would be easy to trace. I figured it would be a good way to improve his handwriting! 

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How to Teach a Child to Swim Properly

Henry and Tate are such little water babies. We swim in our backyard nearly every single day after school and definitely every weekend (basically from March through October). I want to continue to support Henry's growth as a swimmer (as long as he wants to; there's no reason to push him during his free time). 

I did a little research to figure out how to best teach young children the freestyle stroke. I wasn't able to find one amazing, comprehensive resource, but was able to piece together a few things, and this will be my approach:

1. Use a child-size kick board to teach him how to properly kick: long, extended legs and loose with fast kicks (being carefully not to bend his legs too much). Chin should be kept in the water. Here's a more thorough description. I can say things like "fast kicks" and "small and fast" to cue him about proper form. 
2. Then I'll teach him the "arrow" pose for swimming across the width of the pool without taking a breath: hands extended above the head with arms over the ears.
3. Then I'll teach "catch-up" arms. 
4. Then add in the breathing! 

During my research, I came across the most amazing website that has free step-by-step lessons with videos and lesson plans. I highly recommend it! http://uswim.com

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My New Favorite Sunscreen

Considering that my children are pretty much naked nearly all of the time while at home, we invest in a lot of sunscreen. 

I use the Environmental Working Group database to analyze how toxic sunscreens are because it has never made sense to me to try to protect your skin from cancer by slathering on known-carcinogens. 

And yet the more natural the sunscreen, the more impractical it tends to be. The healthiest kinds (those with a rating of 1) are so thick, so pasty, and so frustrating. Then you don't want to put on the sunscreen at all. And then you are back to the original cancer. 

So I've finally landed on a compromise. I use Sun Bum, which has an okay rating at 5. It's so light and easy to put on. It rubs in fairly well for less toxic kinds of sunscreen. Heads-up: It does smell of coconut, which may not appeal to some people. I tend to get put off by strong smells, but this one is really light to me. 

We feel ready for the summer! 

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My Summer Hobbies

As I mentioned in my summer planning post, I want to do less running around this summer. I want the boys to have open, unstructured time to run around, invent things, build things, and just calm their little souls through play. 

But being the Type-A person that I am, I need something to do while they are playing around the house in a relaxed way. Here's what's on my docket:

1. I am going to cross-stitch three microbes: Mono, ebola, and salmonella
2. I'm going to crochet a pair of slippers for myself (like these, but using gray yarn for the base and sea foam green for the edging)
3. I'm going to work through logic problems just for fun
4. I'm going to finish making scarves and hats for the boys (I started this project years ago and only finished a scarf for Henry)
5. I might try my hand at making little succulent planters from the directions in this book

I want the boys to be able to engage in craft projects if they are also interested:

• I can set up felt, embroidery thread, buttons, and needles for Henry and Tate to use while I'm doing cross-stitch. 
• I can get them each one of these knitting forks while I'm knitting or crocheting. 
• I might buy some of this clay for the boys to play around with!

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Summer Is Around the Corner

Have you all watched Capitan Fantastic? It's my new favorite movie and my parenting inspiration. Unfortunately, Matt thought the dad was too strict (I thought he was awesome). Not sure what to make of that.

Anyway, I'm preparing to have a lot more time with my boys this summer, and I want to make sure I'm intentional with it. I'm self-conscious when I talk about being an "intentional" parent because I see that our generation of mothers is driving ourselves crazy with unrealistic and unhealthy expectations about how to "do mothering," and the worst part is that things like scheduled activities, doting, formulaic crafts from Pinterest, constant supervision, and anxiety over inane details related to clothes or party planning actual undermine the things I want to develop in my children: resilience, self-direction, independence, creativity, joy, a growth mindset, self-confidence, and contentment.

But because of the pressures we face culturally around doing motherhood right, it does seem like we have to be even more intentional about where we put our energy and how we spend our time (even if it means we end up deciding to put less energy and less time into it).

The ironic part is that I have to make a plan for open, unstructured time or else I feel unsettled. I'll have to write another post detailing what I'll do with my open, unstructured time while the boys are playing. 

In terms of what the boys and I are going to do, I took this list and calendared it out. I'm feeling ready and excited! 

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