101 Things to do in Spokane with Kids (for cheap) and #1

As a part of my attempt to get more involved with my kids I want to try this. I want to find 101 things to do in Spokane, and do them. We are on a tight budget so they will have to be cheap or free. Are there this many things to do? I don't know. But we will soon find out.

#1 Swimming lessons at the YMCA
Every Tuesday and Thrusday morning we bundle up and head to the YMCA for swimming lessons. We are already Y members so lesson are $30 a month, which breaks down to $3.75 a lesson. If you're not a member its $70, which is $8.75 a lesson.

Swimming is an extremely important skill and one that I am sentimentally attached. I grew up with swimming lessons every summer. It is a wonderful memory of spending the summer at my aunt's house and taking lessons at the city pool. We loved our aunt and loved spending time with her and it was even better that we got to swim all the time. She even threw her annual swim party at the pool. She would rent the pool and invite everyone she knew to go swimming with her. Such a good time! Then as I got older we would swim as a family whenever we got a chance. The year we spent in San Diego was a glorious one for swimming. There was an outdoor pool in our apartment complex and we would swim several times a week, sometimes everyday. That year we even went swimming on Christmas Day. Everyone thought we were crazy for going swimming on Christmas (it's winter you know) but we were basking in the sunny 60 degree day and enjoyed ourselves immensely. Swim class in high school, college PE courses, even learning to SCUBA dive all pull from those early swim lessons.

Now that Travis is old enough for lessons he gets to go. He splashes and dives and shouts "Look! I'm a fish." He has so much fun swimming that I'm glad we are making the effort to get there. I take Kenzie swimming once a week, while Travis is in lessons. She loves the water so much too. She tries climbing out of the pool so she can jump back in. The days she isn't swimming are hard becuase all she tries to do is climb into the pool! I am so excited that my kids like to swim and hope its something we can do for a long time to come.

My love of swimming but be genetic. Here is a picture with 4 generations of swimmers. Grandma Abraham (a swim and SCUBA instructor), Mom (parent/child teacher at YMCA), Lynette (Aquatics Director YMCA), Travis (current swim student) and me (I don't really think I have any qualifications to put here other than swimming lover).

Start of the quiet book.

Well I have a plan and I have some fabric. Now comes the hard part. I thought that I would post pictures of the progress I am making. So far not much, just the plan :) Blue circles for Travis and pink circles for Kenzie. I am ready to get started, but unfortunately there is a pile of laundry and a counter full of dishes to do first. Maybe after kids go to bed...

Always Starting Again

I hate how much time I waste. I took a hard look at things, and its really pathetic. Between the Facebook, the TV, and the nothing, I waste a ton of time. I can only imagine what I could get done if I didn't waste my time. I've had this realization several times before, and I've improved each time, only to slide backward farther... So its time to start again and remember the little things are important, and that the electronic things are not.

I decided that this process needs some goals.

The first step to starting again is to cut way down on the TV. It's mostly garbage anyway and I spend more time looking for something to watch than actually watching. The other really bad thing is that it affects the kids. They are exposed to things they shouldn't have to be, and they get ignored, which is really the worst of it. So for my kids, I will not watch TV between 7 AM and 7 PM. Those are the hours they are awake, they don't need it and I don't need it so its gone. Just like that. Now, things are different when my husband is home, but I will just have to work hard to avoid the temptation to sit down with him. He can watch it. He works hard and honestly I'm not ready to take on that battle.

So now that I have 12 more free hours... Ok, not really 12, but there will be a few more hours in there. What should I do with them?

My first priority is my kids, so that's where most of it will go. More playing. More learning. More interaction. Little Kenzie needs some love and attention as she hits some big milestones coming up. Travis is learning so fast, I need to make sure he is learning the right stuff and having lots of different experiences.

Secondly, I want more productivity from me. I want to learn new skills and dust off some old ones. I read a blog post today about a woman who's whole week is consumed with music. Between piano students, her own children, and primary, there is music in every part of her life. I want that back in my life. For a couple years I was so busy with music, and I remember being so happy because of it.

I have a house that, with a little ingenuity and a lot of hard work, can become amazing. My yard NEEDS landscaping. I want a garden. I need to maintain all that grass. There has to be a way to do it on the cheap and not cheat. So here's to designing a landscape. Learning about plants and design styles to conserve water and attract nature into our space.

The inside of my house can be made more beautiful. Painting walls, decorating the kids room, and making our room an escape. I have ideas, but now I need to do something about it.

I want to sew and make things. Be productive. I have a quiet book project that I have just started and will take a lot of time, but it will be amazing when it's done. I want to sew diapers for my baby.

I can spend more time with Christ. Today in ward conference we talked about how keeping ourselves up spiritually is like daily grooming. Praying is like flossing our teeth. Repenting is like taking a shower. Reading our scriptures is like eating healthy. I have seriously lacked in most of these categories for a long time. So its time to get back on track, with more fervent prayers and daily study of the word of God. 

My home can be more organized. We are getting back on track financially. While I know it won't be easy to keep on our new budget, I know it will be worth it when we are debt free and financially sound. That requires planning and careful shopping. Making do with what we have.

Keeping the house clean is another goal. Do the dishes more, keep up on laundry, put things away. I heard from someone that "A clean house is a sign of a wasted life." Yes, to an extent that's true. If I become obsessed with keeping a tidy house I might as well just turn the TV back on. Kids get ignored and I don't learn anything. But I know myself well enough to know that if the basic stuff isn't done, then all I do is obsess about it and make myself, and everyone else miserable. So tidy house is a must for a happy me.

I know there are more things I want to get done, but I think with the list I just made, I've filled more than my allotted 12 hours.

So, small steps first. Let's see how well I do this week. Family is here until Tuesday, but I can make better choices even while they are here. No excuses. Time to start over, again. This time there is no room for error. This is my life and the life of my family at stake, and I won't fail at this.

Split Second

The crying starts at about 5:00pm and goes for hours. It happens every night without fail for about 2 weeks. I'm hoping its a short phase... tonight was no different. Between the crying and the nursing by evenings are shot. Then there was a break in the crying and she was sitting there on the boppy pillow staring at her toes. She was making her feet kick and she was enthralled. Then she looked up and gave me the biggest grin. So sweet and happy. I could see the wheels working in her head as she figured out how to wiggle her own toes. And then before I was done it was tears again and the moment was gone. But it was there. I have hope that this phase will be over and that she will be grown up before I am ready for it. I live for those split seconds.

Monday

I think Garfield and I  (as well as most people) share the same feeling about Mondays. We hate Mondays. While I was in school it was always so hard to get out of bed. While I was working nothing seemed to go right on Monday. I don't know if its all in our heads or if there is some strange cosmic power that works against us all on Monday. Even staying at home with my kiddos Monday is hard. Nothing gets done, everyone is grumpy and I can't wait for Tuesday.

I think part of it is trying to get our routine back, which is totally shot by the weekend. Another part of it trying to put the house back together after a weekend with Tim in it. I love my husband...a lot. But when he's home I can tell. Shoes, coats, papers, hiking gear...the list could go on. From the moment he walks in the door on a Friday to the time he walks out on Monday I feel like I follow him around picking up or stepping over or just not getting any of the things I need done. So when he leaves on Monday morning for work I sigh and look at the wake he's left and prepare to spend the week putting it all back together, just in time for Friday again.

Now its not always his fault. Two kids tend to create quite a mess all on their own. The problem is, when Tim is home he doesn't want to clean up, he wants to play and spend time with the family. In fact he's told me when I've asked for help, that he thinks its more important to spend time playing with Travis than cleaning the house. And so I don't push it, I can't stand nagging so I don't do it. Plus we are so blessed to have a daddy who wants to spend time with the family. I would much rather be playing and having fun too. But that usually means we are going places or doing other things around the house so even a little picking up doesn't get done.

So Monday morning rolls around and there is dirty laundry spread from one end of the house to the other, the counter is piled high with dishes, the kitchen floor is muddy from dirty shoes that have been playing outside, there is a pile of hiking stuff by the garage door, all the garbage cans are full, I can't find the floor in the office...I know we all know what it looks like.

So what do I do? I snuggle my kiddos on the couch and watch cartoons. Look at the mess and want to cry. To make this Monday even better Kenzie is sleeping for the first time in 3 days and I am relieved to be able to sit with out a screaming baby in my ear...So with no motivation at all I feel guilty for spending time on the computer and watching TV. I will scramble to get a few things picked up before Tim gets home (he was snowboarding today so there will be more mess) to make it look like I did something today. And I know I will catch up like I usually do. Mondays just suck.

So I hope you're ready for me house, because I'm going to kick your butt...tomorrow.