Summer is Here!

Posted in Uncategorized by adrianahartley

My kids finished school today and I’m so excited.

We started the day with a pancake breakfast with April and family, per Charlie’s request. Pancakes are always a sign of good times.

The kids and parents all walked to school together, except me, as it was late and I had to catch my TRX class. Here’s the last day as a fourth grader:

Juliana was done with school at 10:30 and we went to get Jamba Juice for her as this is her favorite treat. We then decided to go shopping at Target together before picking up Charlie at 12:30.

I loved the excitement in the air and the anticipation of summer fun to begin. Everyone felt happy. I loved all the promotion and graduation pictures shared and posted on Facebook. This feels like a good time of the year.

We had time to relax after school and to hangout and swim with good friends.

Charlie went to a birthday party and Jeff and I took Juliana out on a dinner date with us.

We finished the night by picking up the kids and Facetiming with my family, laughing together and sharing stories.

So happy that summer is here and we have a break to our normal routine. Let the good times roll….and please help me figure out how to limit the screen time with my kids! Amen.

Happy summer!!

3Jun2014

Almost Summer

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It feels like summer now. It’s staying lighter out later and the weather is warming. I am ready.

I am starting to transition and I’m loving the feelings of anticipation for my favorite season to begin.

The kids finish school this week and our schedule is all wonky. That’s ok – it’s just another signal that our schedule is about to change and I like it.

I’m ready for my 6:15 am weekly alarm to be turned off.

I’m ready to stop making 3 different lunches at 7 am.

I’m ready to not have 3 different schools and 3 different times to drop off kids and pick them up.

I’m excited for the unity to return and hopefully a bit less chaos.

I’m ready to have my kids back with me for more hours of the day – to explore, to learn, to share and to love.

I’m ready for vacation time. We have 10 weeks to make our own and we’re beginning to carve out a loose plan. I like to have some planned activities and lots of down time too, to fill up as we wish depending on how we feel each day.

We started playing yesterday, by driving to pick up Jeff from work and going to pick up Indian food for dinner. We typically wouldn’t be able to do this on a normal week, as we’d have sports practices and homework. Today I took Christian and his friends for ice cream after school, as it was my last day to drive the carpool. These are some great teenagers and I love that I get to spend some time with all of them each week and am going to miss seeing them. I’m hoping they’ll still get together over the summer.

Later today, I took two of my kids with me to Costco after school. That was a mistake!! I have to remember not to take additional shoppers with me as it doubles the time, doubles the questions and doubles the bill!! I’m much better off shopping alone! Lesson learned. 😉

Bring on summer. I am ready! What are your summer plans? Do you enjoy the summer months?

Happy Summer!!

21Apr2014

Spring Break for Moms

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Today was my spring break and I was so relieved and thankful for my still and quiet house. Can you relate?

Everyone went back to school and I got my break from the noise, continuous clutter stream, chaos, constant requests, and conflicts. Thank you to the teachers for taking over again today!

Typically on Monday mornings I exercise right after the kids leave. Today I was so happy that no one was home and I had the house all to myself. I decided to watch a movie first thing in the morning for three reasons. One, I usually fall asleep during movies when it’s night time. Secondly, Pili told me about the Book Thief and that I should watch it because the little girl in it reminded her of Juliana and that it was a good movie. It’s been on my list and I picked it up from Red Box yesterday but fell asleep last night before I could watch it! Finally, I just wanted to relax before working again and I wanted to be in my house and this sounded like pure luxury to me. Of course, I folded all the laundry while watching so it wasn’t completely just quiet time doing nothing, not that there is anything wrong with that. The movie was great by the way, and I highly recommend it.

I love my kids and having them home with me and actually really enjoy their company and personalities, but when we don’t have structure for a week, my job gets a lot more challenging and constant without many breaks. I got a taste of what summer will be like and I think I’m going to start planning some activities and outings right away.

I’m all for unstructured days and going with the flow, but my kids would prefer to sleep in and the. spend 8 hours looking at their electronic devices and I’m looking for a little more stimulation, movement, and learning than that.

I am going to have them help me with the planning, especially on the days we don’t have anything particularly planned.

Today I saw that Marianne’s daughter made a list of the things she was going to accomplish and do on her vacation day in Hawaii. She came up with this plan on her own and I love that she created some structure to help her think about how she was going to spend her time.

I think it was Christine L. who once told me that her dad made her do this during the summer days when she was a little girl, and that it helped to manage expectations. The child came up with the first draft, and the parent could edit it and add their suggestions.

I’m thinking if I have my kids do this, it will provide them with more autonomy, and hopefully I’ll have to direct them a little less and I won’t have to think of all the details every day. Go ahead and steal this one. Don’t you think it’s a great idea?

How do you like to plan your summer break? Do you send your kids to camp? Stay home? Travel? A little bit of all? Hmmm… Just curious.

19Aug2013

Last Day of Summer

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Today was our last day of summer vacation. The kids all start at three different schools bright and early tomorrow morning. We are all excited and a bit anxious and sad to not be returning to our International School in Amsterdam and seeing all of our friends there again.

We enjoyed a day with friends down at the beach on the Santa Cruz Wharf, where Juliana participated in the Hawaiian Outrigger canoe paddle races.

She was invited to try it out last week at Vasona Lake and really enjoyed being on the water with her friends. I think I would love it too, however I loved just watching her and being a proud mama today.

We ate lunch at Woodies on the wharf, and then tried to stay on the beach for awhile, but picked a spot that wasn’t good for swimming and was covered in flies! Jeff had a bit of a cold, so we decided to take off around 2 pm and enjoyed a sandless and flyless drive along the coastline before heading back over the hill.

Of course, I waited until the last minute to get school supplies for the big kids, so we stopped at Target along with the rest of our town. Luckily it wasn’t too painful and we got to catch up with some old friends while scouring the aisles for deals. We spent so much less today than we did in Holland. Things are so much cheaper here and more readily accessible.

The kids got their backpacks and supplies ready and picked out clothes for the first day and laid them out so they would all be ready for the structured morning tomorrow. We shared an early dinner with our family – April and Steve and the girls, and talked about walking to school together in the morning. I can’t wait!

School begins and so does a little bit of quiet time with a few hours to myself! I hope everyone with school aged kids has an easy transition… especially the mamas with college kids beginning!!

Aaaaahhhhh……Namaste!

3Aug2013

Preparing for School

Posted in Uncategorized by adrianahartley

In 2 weeks from Monday, the kids return to school. I’m so glad we moved back to the States long before school begins for several reasons. One, it takes longer to resettle than you think and I’m still not there yet. Second, there are lots of doctor, dentist, and school appointments to make and they are spread out and almost done now three weeks into being home. Third, there are several friends and family to visit and reconnect with and relationships take time. I love this part the most and am so thankful for all the visits and hugs and kisses on both cheeks. And finally, well maybe not finally, it’s summer break and kids need to be kids and play and swim and run around the neighborhood without appointments and structured team sports and homework.

Today brought us to the doctor’s office to have the TB test results read and signed off. We then took the results to Christian’s new high school to finish registering him and setting up a counseling appointment. Juliana’s new school wasn’t quite ready for us and told us to come back a week before school starts.

We also went to the DMV, to apply for duplicate driver’s licenses. It took 3 weeks to get an appointment, and you definitely don’t want to go there without an appointment. The line at 9:30 this morning was wrapped around the building! The Netherlands took away our California driver’s license when we applied for a Netherlands license. I don’t quite understand why we couldn’t keep both, but it just wasn’t possible. I’m learning to just go with the flow and jump through hoops.

The rest of the day was more fun. We got new tennis rackets for the kids, baked cookies for the potluck BBq at the swim club, visited with friends, and played some tennis with the kids. We ended the night at the BBQ, chatting with friends and watching the kids swim until after 8 pm. A very full and rewarding day. Thanks to Kris for stopping by for a surprise visit. You made my day!

Life is good.

4Jun2012

Day 51: First Day of Vacation

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It was nice to not have to wake up to a 6:30 am alarm this morning. I love the beginning of summer and the change in routine. But this summer feels different already. Still exciting, but a different feel because I have WORK to do!! Only 51 days left to figure out the details of this big move, AND enjoy our California summer with friends and vacation and have the kids at home without a plan!! In the end, it’ll all come together – it always does, but I’m a bit of a control freak with my lists, and strategies and plans that swirl around on my to-do lists and in my head and trying to fit as much as I can into each day.

I felt a little anxious today with the ying and yang of work and play, but it all worked out and I think we all had fun. We made chocolate croissants for breakfast and shared them with Megan before she had to leave. Afterwards, April drove Megan to the airport and I took all our kids to Kristin’s for a graduation brunch with a few friends. It was so nice to be together chatting and enjoying each other, while the kids played in the RAIN!! WTH?!?

Afterwards, the kids and I sat together and talked about our summer wish list of places we’d like to visit and things we wanted to do. Luckily the list isn’t too overwhelming. I put limits on the amount of TV/Video screen time and made them come up with their own list of other things they might want to do instead. Trying to manage expectations a bit and to set up some boundaries. Little C went on a play date and the rest of us hung out for awhile.

In the afternoon, I took the kids to Target to use their gift cards from Megan. Little C picked a water gun and a Lego guy and some Poppers. Big C bought some new games – which is perfect, because I want us to play together, especially when we move. And J does what she usually does – negotiated a deal! She asked that I use her card to pay for my stuff and give her the cash instead. She doesn’t like to spend her money. I let them each pick out a snack that I don’t typically keep in the house and these chips and dips were Lil’ C’s choice. His “girlfriend” introduced these to him last summer – brought back fun memories! J picked Jolly Ranchers and Big C picked a new Dorito flavored bag of chips.