It’s funny… we’re not even “in school” right now, but I’m already in summer mode!  I looked over the calendar this weekend, and the summer is already packed with trips to the beach, church conferences, and other summery-activities, and I started thinking about what I’d like to do with the boys this summer in between all the running around.  Some of them are pretty cliché, but they are things we haven’t done with the boys yet, so I would like to start adding the “typical” summer traditions into our summers!

photo by jamelah

1. Catch fireflies! See? Cliché all over the place!  But how many fun memories are truly made of these types of things.  It just so happens I have several jars saved up, and the fireflies should be making an appearance soon!
2. Go to the James River. We are so blessed to have a beautiful natural resource like the James just minutes from our house.  The James River Park system has some amazing places to visit with the kids, and there are even some great “urban” areas to explore the river at the Canal Walk.  Very cool things!  What natural resources do you have close to home that you can explore with your kids this summer?
3. Do the Summer Reading Challenge! As a bookworm from an early age, I did many library summer reading programs.  I thought my boys were still too young until I read Allison’s post about her Summer Reading Challenge – we are so in!  Will you join us?
4. Continue our homeschool time. We have already been going rather light on our preschool lessons, so I see no reason not to continue as we can… I’m still working to get into a good schedule, and I don’t want to lose the progress we’ve been making!
5. Learn more Bible verses together. This is an offshoot of our homeschool time – and something I definitely want to keep up all year round!
6. Go to the zoo - a lot! We have zoo passes this year – what a great place for the kids to run their energy out and learn some stuff, too!  The Metro Richmond Zoo is not huge, but it is a really great place – well-kept, very doable for a short trip, and a whole lot of fun!
7. Build a new swing-set/play fort. Seriously.  I am even excited about letting the boys “help” a bit.  I was my dad’s helper in building things, and I know I practiced pounding nails at an early age.
8. Ride bikes. We need to do some bike maintenance and even some bike purchasing before we can all go rising together, but we have a great neighborhood for riding bikes!
9. See fireworks on the 4th of July. Classic!  We now have a baseball team again in Richmond, so we have a couple more options for fireworks shows in town.  The biggest question now is do we want to pay money and get a guaranteed good seat for a show, or brave the masses to find a good seat on our own for free?
   
10. Run through a sprinkler. Again a cliche, but since we don’t own a sprinkler (no actual grass in our “yard”) this could be a tough one to plan out.  But how much fun! Maybe we can get a sprinkler just for this?

What are your “everyday” plans for the summer?  Any special traditions you want to start or carry on? I’d love to hear your plans and get some more ideas to add to my list!

For more Top Ten {Tuesdays}, visit Amanda’s site here!

I’ve been gone from the Top Ten {Tuesday} linky for a while (sorry, Amanda!), but this one has been kicking around in my head for a couple weeks, what with all the questioning that goes on around here.  So here are the Top Ten Questions I’ve Had to Answer Around Here – either based on frequency or difficulty of question.

1. Why?
2. Wat dat?
3. Wat dis?
4. Can we watch TV?
5. Can I have more goldfish?
6. So the juice is the blood and the bread is the body? (in reference to communion at church)
7. Is this the blood of Jesus on my face? (in reference to a cut on his face)
8. Does that man have God in his heart?
9. Why does that man not have a home?
10. How does a baby get out of a mommy’s belly?

It helps to be ready for anything around here…

For more Top Ten {Tuesdays}, visit Oh Amanda here!

You know, we’ve been “up and running” again for several months, and we just wanted to check in with you guys to see how YOU are doing.  We’d love to know more about you – so if you’re a regular reader, or even a first-timer, can you leave us a comment and answer the Top Ten Questions we have for you?

1. What’s your name?
2. Where are you from?
3. How many children do you have and what are their ages?
4. Do you blog? Share a link to your blog with us if you do!
5. What do you think your biggest challenge is as a parent to impress God’s Word on your children?
6. What’s your favorite Bible verse about parenting?
7. What’s your favorite rainy day activity?
8. What’s your favorite color?
9. Where do you go when you need some peace and quiet?
10. What would you like to see from Impress Your Kids over the next several months?  Is there anything you’d like to see more/less of?

Now, here are my answers…

1. Leigh (aka Momma and My Love)
2. I’m from Atlanta, but I live in Richmond, VA now.  I love it up here!
3. I have 2 kiddos – Elias is almost 4 and Donovan is almost 2.
4. I do blog – I actually have a blogging problem.  I have 4 blogs – only one of which is active right now (Impress Your Kids).  I had to stop the other 3 so I could actually spend time with my kids.
5. My biggest challenge is scheduling time to do activities with the kids.  If I don’t schedule it, it typically doesn’t happen.  Also, it doesn’t happen naturally for me – I really have to think and plan things through.
6. “Behold, children are a gift of the LORD…” Psalm 127:3; “But Jesus called for them, saying, “Permit the children to come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” ” Luke 18:16
7. I love to sit on the front porch with the boys and watch the rain.  This really only works when it’s warm and rainy, though… otherwise, we build forts.
8. GREEN!  My current favorite is spring green.  Nice and fresh.
9. For peace and quiet, I really don’t go anywhere yet.  I can see how it would help to have someplace special to go, but there’s not a place in the house that I can go that I can’t hear the boys.  So I guess I would have to leave the house for peace and quiet.  Leaving the boys appropriately supervised, of course.
10. I’m excited about the next several months at IYK.  I’m always looking forward to more fabulous ideas from Amanda, and I’m excited about what I have planned for the boys.  And with Christmas coming (soon! argh!), there seem to be even more opportunities to share the Word of God with the kids.

Please let us know a bit about yourself… we really want to know you better!

For more Top Ten {Tuesdays}, visit Amanda here.

…we started off about a year ago with 3 verbal rules (Obey Daddy and Mommy, Do not hurt others, and Do not hurt yourself), and I’ve kicked around several lists in my head for the past couple of years – but they were always very negative.  No kicking, no hitting, no shoving, no throwing…  A lot of “NO’s” to address very specific behaviors – but not getting to the heart of the matter.

Then I ran across this post – and I fell in love.  Not only with the presentation, but also with her rules.  So positive, so uplifting… I freely admit that I used almost all of her rules – I added two more (#1 and #2) and I took out a couple others, but for the most part, they are the same.  And instead of doing this on canvas, I did it on a scrap piece of MDF that we had in the attic – so it’s heavy as all get out, but I had everything on hand, so it was free!

So here are our 21 Family Rules…

For more Top Ten {Tuesdays} (or top 21, since I can’t count), visit Amanda here!  And for more Do It Yourself Day projects, visit A Soft Place to Land here!

I feel like I’ve written a post about this before, but I can’t find it on this blog or any other one I’ve ever maintained… so maybe it’s just been kicking around in my head for a while.  Please remember that I am a mom of 2 boys – ages almost-4 and almost-2.  These kiddos are crazy and gross – they are all boy, that’s for sure.  I decided to do this list after I said the following to Elias yesterday:

1. Get that out of your pants. This really applies to anything… but yesterday it was a 4 foot length of doweling that he had threaded through his underwear like it was a sword.

2. Sweetie, not everyone wants to see your Spiderman underwear. Do you see a theme happening here?

3. OK – go show Daddy, and then never do that again. Suppressing laughter, but followed by the admonition…

4. Kix do not belong in your nose.

5. We have to put on clothing to go out of the house.

6. Underwear is for family time only.

7. Stop smushing your face into mine!  I can’t breathe! This is a way that Donovan shows his love – I need to teach him that love does not have to be so… smothering.

8. Donovan, give your brother some space while he goes pee-pee. This is mostly so I don’t wind up with a little kid covered in his brother’s pee-pee.

9. Stop drinking the bath water!!!

10. I miss the boys. Said on a date night with my hubby.  I really never thought I would say that on a much needed night alone… Sorry, my love!

For more Top Ten {Tuesday}, visit Amanda here!

In no particular order (chronological or otherwise), here are my top ten favorite summer pictures:

1. Elias and his best friend, London, at London’s 4th birthday party (held at Inflation Nation – super fun!).

2. Craft time. What I hope will be happening in our house for years to come.  This is one of the first times I’ve been able to keep Donovan busy while Elias and I worked on a craft together.

3. A trip over the James River to Belle Isle. A first for the boys this year, but it won’t be the last!

4. An everyday occurrence at our house - followed by much laughter, and then, finally… “Momma, will you get him off of me?”

5. Donovan’s first trip to the Metro Richmond Zoo. I didn’t get many pictures, so this is the best one that was taken of Donovan (and me).

6. Great-grandbaby #6! My nephew, Mason, was born at the end of June, and he became my hubby’s Granny’s 6th great-grandbaby!  There’s another on the way (not us!), so Granny will continue to be surrounded by little ones who adore her!

7. Another everyday occurrence at our house. Donovan loves running around in his diaper, and he also loves shoes… so he’ll take everything off and then bring us a pair of shoes to put on him.  crazy kid….

8.&9. An afternoon at the water fountains. With Josh’s mom, who the kids all call Emmy, and my sister-in-law and her two daughters.  The kids all had such a good time together that day!

10. Brothers!

For more Top Ten {Tuesdays}, visit Amanda here!

Elias and Donovan are almost exactly 2 years apart – the same difference as between me and my younger brother.  Even at ages 3.5+ and 20 months, they are already deep into a love/hate relationship with each other – and doing the same things my brother and I used to do to each other.

5 ways to annoy your brother:

1. Have something (anything) that he doesn’t have. It doesn’t matter what it is, but if you just pick it up, he wants it.

2. Touch him. ’nuff said.

3. Be sitting on Momma’s lap. Apparently, this gets to both of my boys equally.

4. Try to take his current favorite car.  Oh my – it’s like the sky is falling when this happens.

5. Try to hug or kiss him. If he’s not in the right mood, it’s the worst thing ever.

5 ways to love your brother:

1. Share. Anything – toys, food, couch space… and it always makes my heart melt.

2. Read him a book. He’s only 20 months old – he has no idea that you can’t read!  In his eyes, you can do no wrong!

3. Just let him be with you. My mom told me over and over that my little brother just wanted to be with me.  It’s fascinating to watch Donovan gravitate to wherever Elias is – following him room to room, doing whatever big brother does – just to be near him.  And when Elias lets him, it’s a huge sign of love.

4. Laugh together. Oh, I love hearing the boys laugh their little belly laughs together… knowing that they are loving each other at that moment.

5. Hug and kiss him. When he is in the right mood, the love that is shown is fabulous!

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For more Top Ten {Tuesdays}, visit Amanda here!

I’m posting this list to keep me accountable.  If my boys are to learn these habits, I need to model these for them.  I cannot preach what I don’t practice…  so I need to practice these habits myself!

1. Patience. Need I say anymore?

2. Loving nature. I love the idea of nature – and I know that I used to love being outside.  But at this stage in my life, I hate heat and bugs, so I don’t like being outside.  If my boys are to learn to love nature, I need to get outdoors with them and not complain about those nasty bugs…

3. Natural musicality. This is not something I’m going to be able to develop in them…  the natural part, that is.  Did you know that I was a music major?  But through all the years of music training, I knew that music did not come naturally to me.  Intellectually, I got it, and I trained myself to perform well.  But it never was natural to me.  My husband, on the other hand, has music oozing out of him… naturally.  So I pray the boys got Josh’s natural musical talent, and my love of music and dedication to hard work.

4. Compassion for others. Something that has been developed in me through the years – and something I hope that if I keep practicing it, Elias and Donovan will develop it early.

5. A missionary’s heart. I’ve never felt called to a mission field, but I know there are opportunities to spread the gospel in our every days lives.  I pray that the boys know this early on, and that they will listen to the Lord’s will for them in spreading the gospel.

6. Whatever the opposite of procrastination is. I’m working on this post Tuesday morning at 10:30.  ’nuff said.

7. Single-minded determination. This goes hand and hand with the-opposite-of-procrastination for me.  A part of my procrastination is not sticking to one task – I flit from one to the next.  That’s why it’s taken me 3 hours to write this post.

8. Neatness. I used to think I was a neat and tidy person. And then I met my husband, who is the neatest and tidiest person – ever.  I have to practice neatness not only for my husband and my home, but for future generations of women who join this family – for them to be amazed at the neatness of certain men in their lives.

9.  Being comfortable in a room full of people. Not the most comfortable thing for me… I’d love the boys to not have to face any social fears like this.

10. Decisiveness. yeah, I think I’d like them to be decisive.

Yes, I definitely need to model these traits and many more for my children’s sake.

For more Top Ten {Tuesdays}, visit Amanda here!

See our other posts on Boredom Busters here and here…

1. Playdoh. Another crafty-thing that is not an everyday item around chez moi.  So it is a special treat.

2. Sidewalk paint. Buy some or make your own… all I know is this is super fun!  You can even thin down your homemade version and put it in a spray bottle for more fun!

3. Board games. You might have some kiddie games laying around that you play with all the time… so break out some of the “ages 8 and up” games and let your little ones at ‘em!  Closely supervised, of course.  We’ve spent some fun rainy days “playing” Battleship, sorting Scrabble tiles, and just laughing at the noises that the Bop-It makes!  We haven’t broken out Cranium yet, but that could give you some cool ideas – draw something for your pre-schooler to guess, whistle easy tunes for them to figure out…

4. Train Tables. We have a train table, and even a really cool train set to go on top of it.  But Donovan has a penchant for destroying things at this point in his life… so there is nothing recognizable as a train set on our train table.  So when we go to our local Barnes and Noble, the train table with the train set screwed down to the table is a huge hit!  We all get out of the house, the kids get a free play time, and if I hit it right, we get there on time for story time!

5. Playing in the sink. Grab a big plastic bowl, spoons, cups, and whatever else might help make a good “sink soup.”  I remember using apples and toothpicks for my sink soup as a kid – I haven’t broken those out yet, but Elias will play at the sink for hours if I let him.  I fill up the bowl with water, and when the water is gone, sink time is over.

6. Home movies. Oh my goodness – Elias and Donovan get such a kick out of seeing themselves on TV!  Grab your old camcorder or your new Flip and record something fun with the kids – even if it’s 5 minutes of your oldest saying, “Momma, can I do it?  Can I do it NOW?”  Then plug it in to the TV and let them watch it.  It’s so fascinating to them!  And you’ll catch some fun memories, too!

7. Dance party. Turn on some fun kid’s tunes and dance yourselves silly!

8. Rotate toys. I honestly thought that this was an unrealistic thing to try with my kids, because they love all their toys, and they would know if something was missing, and how in the world am I going to remember to actually rotate the toys out, anyway?  I put away some blocks that were driving me crazy by being poured all over the place and never being picked up… and lo and behold, they forgot about them!  And then when I get them out on occasion, the blocks are the best things ever!  Why didn’t I follow that advice sooner?

9. Flashlights and shadow puppets. Even better if they are in your boredom-busting fort!

10. Pop ‘em in the bathtub. So many water activities to help fight boredom… but when the temperature’s 100 outside, I don’t want to step outside even to turn on the hose.  So we play with water inside, and get clean at the same time!

For more Top Ten {Tuesdays}, visit Amanda’s blog here.

1. Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd Jones.  Need I say more?

2. Chugga Chugga Choo Choo by Kevin Lewis.  This has been a favorite for years around here – I have it memorized.  This is geared more towards Donovan’s age (19 months) but Elias still loves it, too.  I think it’s comforting to him… I know it’s comforting to me.

3. Ten Minutes ’til Bedtime! by Peggy Rathmann.  We have the board book version – and I love it!  There is always something new to see – and it’s been another book we’ve read for years.  Elias is really getting into all the little details, while Donovan thinks it’s hilarious as I yell the countdown to bedtime…

4. My Big Truck Book from Priddy Books.  What can I say?  We’ve got the boy-genes covered with this one.

5. The Goops and How to Be Them by Gelett Burgess.  The copy we own is the one I used to read growing up.  I love this book – it teaches good manners by pointing out the bad manners that the little kids called “Goops” have.  I remember pouring over the simple illustrations when I was a child, and I love seeing Elias doing the same!

6. An atlas – a 1996 paperback “quick reference” version that we picked up at the used book sale at our library.  We love maps around here… just wait until I show you what I did with Elias’s room…

7. Vacationers from Outer Space by Edward Valfre – another fun one picked up at the library book sale.  Photographs taken during a “road trip” out west provide the framework for this really cute story – basically about a boy with an over-active imagination!

8. Everything I Know About Cars by Tom Lichtenheld.  Hilarious!  We own a couple other books by the same author, and they are all marvelous.

9. Grace and Joe by Maribeth Boelts.  A sweet story about a little girl and her mail-carrier friend, Joe.

10. I Spy: Treasure Hunt – photographs by Walter Wick and riddles by Jean Marzollo.  Hours of endless entertainment for Elias.  We have a couple more of these I Spy books as well, and they do not get old for him.  I really like them because there are suggestions in the back for more things to find for older kids.

So what are you reading with your kids right now?

For more Top Ten {Tuesdays}, visit Amanda here!