Friday, June 26, 2015

Life in the Fast Lane

Oh, the lazy days of summer!  (This is where you insert that sound of a record scratching to a halt.)

Okay, they haven't exactly been lazy days! If you saw my post on organizing the family for all-day out-of-town sporting events, you have a pretty good idea of how my summer is going.  Here's our schedule:

Monday - recover from the weekend and do a mountain of gross, sweaty laundry (see Saturday and Sunday). I exercise. Take the kids swimming. Reading. Math.
Tuesday - boys have therapy and other appointments; try to squeeze in cleaning the house. I exercise. Reading, Math.
Wednesday - Weight Watchers, I exercise, take the kids swimming; more errands and appointments. Laundry. Try to spend  quality time with husband. Reading, Math.
Thursday - I exercise (see a trend here?, Spend the day finishing the laundry, grocery shopping, prepping snacks and packing for the weekend. Reading, Math.
Friday -  Hit the road early with Sunshine, Tinker and the Blitz. Check into our hotel, head to the ballpark. When we drag back to the hotel late at night, swim the Littles, bathe everyone, get them in bed. I exercise. Meanwhile, Dear Hubby, Pepper, and the Captain stay at home to do the same ball playing with The Captain.
Saturday - Just like Friday without the driving.
Sunday - Just like Saturday except the driving comes at the end of the ball playing and Mama gets a day off of exercise . . . well, after I get in at least 10K steps, that is!

It is a wild and crazy life and I wouldn't have it any other way. There is nothing I love more than watching my kids play ball. And the exercise, well that's about leveling up my own life, so that has to hit the top of my priority chart.

We are also having a lot of fun, so that's what summer's about, right?  Sunday I called Pepper to let her know we were headed home to celebrate Father's Day, and not only had she organized a Father's Day meal, she had also organized a picnic to Barton Creek for Monday!  So much fun and something I'd probably not have gotten to without her support. 





It made me revamp my schedule to decide that Monday will be FUN Day after our busy ball weekends. Yes, the laundry must be done, but so must FUN!

The saving grace in all of this is I do have a master schedule for the week days, so most days we are getting in the kids reading time, sight word games and math. At least we are managing to preserve their brain cells and hopefully avoid the "summer slide." 

This is our last week of our summer round of well-checks, dental appointments, etc., so that will be several hours back in my day. I can finally stop emergency cleaning and get onto decluttering! Yay. In July, we have only Sunshine playing ball so may get some camping in. That said, I am also on the lookout for fun, free family activities, so if you have any ideas for us, send them my way via comments or Pinterest!

Have a wonderful weekend.


Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Surviving All Stars and Select Tournaments! (In Comfort if Not in Style!) WIth FREE Printable lists.

It's Select and All-Stars season.  For us, that means every weekend we are watching one or more tournaments in the Texas heat and humidity.  Half of the time, we're away from home and staying in a hotel. Special preparations are required to save our lives and our pocketbook!


In true Dreena-fashion, I made a couple of checklists to help us not only survive but thrive during tournament season.  Keep in mind that there are one to three youngsters in tow who are not playing ball so some of these preparations cater to them. My goal is to keep everyone well hydrated and reasonably well fed so that when we have a long enough break to go eat, we are able to make healthier choices. Certainly this strategy would apply to lots of hot-weather activities; think: 4th of July, swim meets, soccer matches; the list is endless.

Here is my packing list for tournament weekends, printable in PDF format. It's two pages.


In case the embedded link doesn't work, here is a direct link.
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Here is my shopping list for tournament weekends:
If you include other items in your comfort/survival packs, let me know! I am always working to improve our process.  You too can look this relaxed at the ballpark!