Category Archives: Family

Last Week’s Accomplishments – July 4th 2016

05 Tuesday Jul 2016

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Happy 4th everyone!

Since Monday was a holiday, I’ll cover two weeks of groceries plus the June summary next Monday.

For now, we’ll look back at last week:

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  • I ordered more lighting and cabinet hardware for the new house.
  • I caught up on the missing March Monday posts (apparently I missed a few weeks of pictures so there’s not much I can do about that).
  • I did a paint walk through for the new house.
  • We BBQed three times over the holiday weekend:
    • Friday: hot dogs, chips, potato salad, strawberries
    • Saturday: chicken, baked beans, corn on the cob, biscuits, salad
    • Monday: steak, pan fried potatoes, creamed spinach, veggies

Lawn Ornaments

01 Friday Jul 2016

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I’m not sure if they fall in “the best things in life are free” category, but large kids items can often be had for little or no money.  This is because folks don’t want the big items taking up space – in or out – and they outlast one, or even a few, kids.

For Exhibit A, I present our backyard collection.  The hockey net was a present.  But, for the rest of it I paid a sum total of $25.  That’s one big wooden structure, one small plastic structure, two 6-seat kids picnic tables, one play house, one basketball hoop, and one plastic kids basketball hoop.

It was all herded onto the driveway for winter and so as not to kill off the grass while we sold the house.  Similarly the attachments are off the play structure until it gets to its new home.  Everything was worn, but in good repair; some things we’ve had for 8 years now.

Strawberry Picking

30 Thursday Jun 2016

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Our summer days seem to fall in one of two categories – we either do a lot or we don’t do much.  Yesterday was a lots day.

Our entire day was planned around heading to New Hampshire for strawberry picking.  The weather was questionable, but held.  And, while humid it wasn’t so sunny that our strawberries got cooked before we got home to eat them.

First we went strawberry picking.

In total we picked just over 8 lbs of strawberries.  Many were eaten after paying but before returning to the car.

Then we went to McDonald’s for lunch.  This has been a requested summer outing and it seemed like an opportune time to fit it in.  Plus the New Hampshire McDonald’s play area is different from the one closer to our house.

Third, we dropped off a few items at someone’s house while we were in the area.  If I can get it out of the house I am, in preparation for the move.  These items were permanently leaving our possession.

Fourth, we stopped at Lowe’s to pickup our online order – lighting for the new house.  Customer service took forever though.  I’m fairly sure I could have walked to the lighting department, found all the items, and gone through the regular checkout line faster.  I think this is an issue that both Lowe’s and Home Depot need to address as I’ve had the same issue there.  Online ordering with store pickup (where you could potentially buy more things) should be the best of both worlds for them, and fully encouraged.

Then we ran across the parking lot (I did move the car.) to BJs for a few items.  And, on the way home we stopped at the dry cleaner and the gas station.

All in all a very productive day and we were only gone from 10-3 so still plenty of summery downtime.

Last Week’s Accomplishments – School’s Out 2016

28 Tuesday Jun 2016

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The moving date is closing in on us so, with school / sports largely done, things are pivoting in that direction.

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  • We attended one birthday (fairy garden) party and one end-of-year party.
  • The last day of elementary school occurred, which resulted in the inevitable onslaught of paper.  Normally I just deal with this in September, but not wanting to move it I’m about 75% through sorting keep from recycle.
  • I made it to a monthly twins meeting for the first time since December.  It was nice to see folks again.
  • We went to the pool.  I still have one water unfriendly child but he’s not water unsafe, just water averse.
  • After some hiccups, we finalized the kitchen counters and bathroom lighting fixtures.
  • The house is moving along with retaining walls starting to appear.

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  • I packed 6 boxes.
  • I sorted many things for Goodwill/recycling/trash.
  • I updated the grocery postings for February.  I have the pictures and receipts so I’m going to go back and fill in just the Mondays that I missed as it is a good record for me and seems to be popular reading.

Graduation

23 Thursday Jun 2016

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As we sat through our third preschool graduation – middle one or first of the second batch depending on how you look at it – I realized that we’d have 5th grade graduation next year.  What I didn’t quite realize initially is that we’ll be going to at least one graduation for the next 7 years in a row.  At that point, assuming everyone stays on track, we’ll have one year off (1st, 4th, 6th, 9th, and 11th) followed by 8 more consecutive years of graduations.  Then there’s another single year off before more graduations; but, things do taper off at that point!

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Last Week’s Accomplishments – The School Year Winds Down

21 Tuesday Jun 2016

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Eventful week last week.

  • We had preschool graduation and the last day of preschool.
  • We attended an end of the year party for the younger preschooler.
  • The older three went to a Red Sox game.
  • Our oldest had his last baseball game of the season.  They lost, but since it was the playoffs pretty much everyone lost their last game.
  • We had soccer & baseball end of year gatherings.
  • We attended two birthday parties + one family BBQ.
  • We had a playdate – I should do more of these but with the number of people involved and the bus logistics its annoyingly challenging.
  • We met with the builder about landscaping.  This is still a work in progress.
  • I registered our oldest for summer baseball + the older three for summer golf lessons.
  • I took all the boys to the strawberry festival.

Last Two Week’s Accomplishments – Pool is Open!

14 Tuesday Jun 2016

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We are closing in on summer!

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  • The swimming pool is open.  Baseball is done for three of four kids (playoffs run one more week for our oldest).  Soccer is done.
  • We went for Kindergarten visiting day.
  • We attended two birthday parties.
  • We selected garage doors and carpet for the new house.

Most of all we’ve enjoyed the distinctly fall-like weather.  It’s been sunny, but windy and hardly out of the 60s.

May Accomplishments

07 Tuesday Jun 2016

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At least I’m caught up on this one!

May is always super busy around here.

  • We’re juggling two soccer teams + three baseball teams.  This usually means 8 games + 4 practices per week.
  • We went to three birthday parties.
  • I got moving quotes.
  • I met the new elementary school principal.
  • We settled paint colors, tile, & countertops.
  • The older boys went to a New England Revolution game.
  • We got the broken window fixed.
  • Everyone went to the dentist.
  • Skating, drawing class, bike club, Before School Sports, and Math Mornings all finished for the year.

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April Accomplishments (belatedly)

31 Tuesday May 2016

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I feel like I’m catching up to real time, finally.  Though, I still have to go back and update the grocery shopping and spending updates for the past couple of months.  April was the start of spring hecticness, with kickoffs for both soccer and baseball.

  • We sold our house! Yeah!
  • We had 3 dentist appointments.  Everyone got their hair cut, except the baby.
  • We had parent-teacher conferences for the older three.  We got spring reports for the next two.
  • We hosted one birthday party.  We attended another.

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  • I made more tile and stone decisions.  Neither of those are our actual cabinets, but they are the correct colors for those that will be nearest these stones.
  • Over spring vacation, the older three participated in a mock revolutionary war battle which everyone seemed to enjoy.
  • We went to a Red Sox game using free tickets.  The weather was accommodating and taking the very small ones was not as bad as I had feared. (We would not have done this except for the free tickets.)

A Turning Point

26 Thursday May 2016

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Today marks the beginning of the end of the school year, hence the tortoise & hare theme.

  • Today is the last day for before school activities.
  • Today is the last day of Rec Center activities until next September.
  • Today is Kindergarten visiting day for the graduating preschool class.

Today I am going to the grocery store to shop for Memorial Day weekend BBQ opportunities, though we have very few this year as baseball will continue through the weekend and we have two birthday parties to attend.

After today we have exactly 4 weeks of school left.