Hitting the Trails
June 6, 2008
I love taking the kids for bike rids and I’ve found that going for a bike ride with the kids doesn’t have to be a dull, mundane trip around the block. I’ve added several bike trips to our Family Fun Planning sheet.
I have a pick up truck and a bike rack on the Jeep to transport our bikes. A couple of months ago I visited the wisconsin tourism website and had a bunch of brochures mailed to me including one that listed all the states bike trails. Today we’re heading to one of the local parks that is a couple of miles away. We’re going to spend the day bike riding, playing frisbee golf
You wouldn’t believe what I did one day when it rained on one of our planned bike trips? My mom had given me one of those stationary bikes ( you know — the thing in the corner of your bedroom that you hang clothes on) I lugged that thing out and let every one take turns riding bike. It was great fun; the picnic lunch was already packed, along with our back packs which had a few good books. So we just straped on the camel packs (I decided to forgoe the frisbee golf!), and we had a really fun rainy day.Everyone took turns riding the bike and when we reached our destination we had lunch, read some of the books together, and just enjoyed each other’s company.
If you take a bike trip somewhere with you kids take along a camera and get some good pics of your trip. You can e-mail me one if you want and I’ll add it to the Surviving Summertime newsletter. You can send the pic to
family-fun-time@ssmommy.com.
Have a great weekend everyone!!
Baking Cookies
June 5, 2008
I’ve been making cookies since I was 8; my dad taught me how. The first time he showed me how to make them while I watched, the next time I mad them while he watched, and then the last time I made them while he read the newspaper in the living room. From then on it was up to me to make them without help or supervisiong. He used this technique to teach me how to make pretty much anything I learned how to cook.
I thought it was a pretty good way of doing it so I’ve used it on sissy. She’s 9 and is learning to make cookies on her own; she’s at the stage where she’s making them on her own while I sit with my feet up in the living room. Seems like a good deal to me but there’s one problem. The last time she made them she goofed – the recipe says 1 cup butter (2 sticks); we use Crisco sticks which are 1 cup each. Do you see the problem yet? LOL
She made cookies tonight; I could hear her brother’s in there harrasing her a bit so I went in to chase them out. She already had a pile of flour over the top of the butter/sugar mix but I instantly saw something looked wrong. So I scooped up a bite, dusted off the flour and popped almost pure Crisco in my mouth; oh boy did I gag! So I scooped up another bite and let sissy taste; “iiiiiiiick”! So I asked her to tell me what she added and how much; as she went down the list I had her show me on the measuring cup what she did — when we got to the butter I pulled a stick out of the cupboard and had her read the amount of the stick. Her voice lowered noticeably as she read it aloud and she instantly remembered the last time she made cookies; she knew exactly what she had to do to fix it.
I returned to the living room, my laptop, and the work I was doing. She’s an excellent cookie baker and I was confident she’d get it right this time. She just brought the cookie dough in to me; the first thing I asked her was — “how do they taste”? LOL mmmmmmmm was all she said and she was right! I just told her that it was a good thing they have no school tomorrow ’cause she’s going to be up for a while baking cookies!
Tips for Working Single Moms
June 4, 2008
AS a single mom it’s just unbeleivable the balancing act that I have to go through every day. Dealing with work, chores, discipline, multiple schedules, and usually a whole lot more. Here are a few tips that help me and may be able to help you too.
Set Your Boundaries
This applies to both work and home; when you walk out the door at work that’s the end of your work day. Work issues and problems don’t have a place at home. Being a single mom who operates a home-based business I’m fully aware that this isn’t always easy to do. I also know that at times the things that happen with my work and my clients can make me really crabby and on-edge at the end of the day and then this carries over to how I deal with the kids. My work day ends as I’m walking out the door to pick the kids up from school so I don’t have a buffer of time that I can use to wind down before being bombarded with their excitement from their day. What I try to do with them is to let each of them have a few minutes of time to tell me what exciting thing happened with them at school and instead of dealing with all their school papers they pile them in a basket in the kitchen by the back door. This way I can deal with their papers at a time that’s convenient for me and they can pick them up again as they are packing their backpacks in the evening. After I spend some time with the kids they have their after-school lists to complete and then they are “free” to play outside with their friends. This give me some time to unwind and put myself in a better frame of mind to deal with the evening.
Setting boundaries in the house for the children involves establishing routines for them and being very clear about what I expect such as doing homework before playing outside, no overnight visitors on school nights, laundry put away before bed, and etc. It’s important for single moms to set these boundaries for their children in order to keep a sense of order in their homes.
Pick Your Battles
There are definitely some things that my children do that I don’t like but don’t violate any house rules; I’ve decided that I just have to bite my tongue at some of these things and let them pass. I can’t create a rule and pass discipline for every little thing. For example my 7 year old son loves to create a variety of craft projects. When he gets ready to begin his creations he digs out every single art supply we have in the drawer and dumps them all out on the table and makes a huge mess. It drives me nuts to see all that stuff all over but I’ve decided that as long as he picks everything up and makes sure that anything that fell on the floor is cleaned up as well I let him make as much of a mess as he wants. Another major issue in our house is bedtime. My children will not go to bed when told and stay in bed. So I’ve decided that once I send them to their rooms (which are all upstairs) that for the first half hour after they are sent to bed they can play, read, or color quietly with each other wherever they want as long as they stay upstairs. After the first half-hour I make them stay in their beds where they can read or color for another fifteen minutes. After that it’s lights out and quiet. This compromise has made a big difference in our bedtime battles; the children no longer fight with me over their bedtime.
Create Balance
As a single working mom it’s really difficult to find time to spend having fun with the kids and no focus on all the stuff that needs to be done like chores, homework, doctors visits, and so on. Find time each week to do something fun with your kids; when you neglect their need for leisure time with you they start to feel resentful and display behaviors that you don’t like. Kids need to spend fun time with you and as a single mom this should be one of your priorities. Fun time doesn’t have to be an expensive outing it can be something as simple as a walk in the park, bike riding, or even visiting some fun children’s website. Check out my free e-book 118 Fun Things to do with Your Kids to jumpstart your creativity and get some ideas for things to do with your kids.
Being a single working mom is definitely not an easy task but it can be accomplished. There are sure to be times when you feel guilty that you can’t offer your kids more but instead of letting it get you down use that guilt as a springboard to help you move forward in a new direction. Kids are quite resilient and forgiving; just keep doing your best with them and they will surely appreciate the love and effort you put into creating a better environment for them.
Here Comes Summer Vacation
June 2, 2008
This Thursday is the start of summer vacation for my kids; this school year seemed to really fly. The past few weeks I’ve been working on my Summer Fun Activity planner. Do you want to see what we’re going to do this summer? Go ahead and take a peek. You can download a blank copy of my Summer Fun Activity planner and plan what you want to do with your kids this summer too. It’s a fillable form that you can type your activities into and then print when you’re finished. It doesn’t allow for saving so you’ll want to make sure you print it out when you’re finished. Since I work from home I have to make sure that I have time to work every day so in addition to family outings I have created a daily activity planner for our days as well. Some of the things that I included in our days are homework time, TV time, and outside time (or a rainy day plan). I also planned for lunch and snack choices for each day. And most importantly I’ve got a new kitchen timer with a magnet that I can stick to the fridge; I’ve promised the kids every hour I’m for them for 10 minutes. This doesn’t seem like a lot of time but I’m home all day with the kids rather than being at a 9 to 5 job and them in daycare. I’ve also planned a 1/2 day off once a week.
So I think we’re ready for summer vacation to get started. The kids only have 1/2 day on Thursday so I’m going work till it’s time to pick them up and then spend the rest of the day with a bike ride to the park and spending some time talking about our plans, playing/relaxing together and an early picnic supper.
Have you spent some time planning your summer time vacation yet? I’d love to hear what you will be doing for the summer and how you are working the kids into your normal day.
