Organizing, Tower Walking, Belated Birthday and Other Stuff

Happy Saturday! Here it is raining off and on and cloudy. Good day to stay in and get some stuff done after a busy couple of days or to rest as I have slight headache (which I think is caused by the weather!).

 

Thursday I woke up super early as I had "A" at 5:20 AM. Then I got my niece and nephew at 5:30. It was a long day! LOL I ended up letting them have movie/TV morning. I did get a big project done on Thursday that was kind of bugging me. I ordered a large shelf for our pantry area in order to consolidate 3 smaller shelves that were a disaster. I spent most of Thursday evening clearing out the pantry and reorganizing. It looks much better.

 

Yesterday ended up being a long day! In the morning, I took the kids to back to Ariel to climb the tower! I told them that we were going to do it one more time before the end of summer and since this was the last day my mom had to work and so that was the last day I would have my niece and nephew. We went to the park and I told them we needed to go up the tower faster than last time. Well we did (and believe me I am feeling it today!) 

We also ended up walking 2.3 miles around the park and the kids got to throw rocks at several of the lakes. They had fun.

 

After we got lunch, while we were waiting for my mom to get off work, my sister, her girlfriend, my brother and my dad showed up with a belated birthday cake (baked by my sister and her girlfriend) and a couple presents. I am blessed.

Shortly after that Bill left to go pick Rebecca up from her week long camp. When they got home, it was like my old daughter was back. She was full of life and smiling and standing up taller. I was really worried about her mental well-being before she went to camp as she has such an outgoing personality and the COVID-19 restrictions have been extra hard on her. She had an amazing week and is so thankful we sent her. The camp did a great job of screening kids for symptoms daily and asking parents to screen kids everyday for 2 weeks prior to sending them. They put the kids in groups of 9 or less with 1 counselor and the kids were masks most of the time (not when swimming or eating). Rebecca was in a group of 6 kids and 1 counselor as a couple in her pod had decided to do camp virtually. I am so happy that she is home. (I was able to snag a couple of photos from their website that she was in!)

While she was gone I was able to get her a desk for her room. She has such a small room it is hard to fit anything else in there, but a friend gave me a desk that fit perfectly. All I had to do was get bolts for the legs so for less than $5 she has a new desk. I found the perfect desk chair for her at a used furniture store for $25 as well. I was NOT going to spend upwards of $60 for a new desk chair. I also ordered her a new bookcase for her room to replace 2 smaller bookcases. It should be here next week. It was $40 so for under $100 I am giving her more functionality for her room. That is a good thing because our school district just changed their model for the first 9 weeks to a hybrid/yellow model (meaning the kids will go to the school buildings for 2 days and then do virtual learning at home for 3 days!).

This morning, everyone slept in until after 9; even the boys! I cleaned up the kitchen, took trash and recycling out to the bins, ran the dishwasher, all before eating breakfast. The kids have been playing. Rebecca has been up in her room playing her ukulele and texting her friends. I am now taking a break to type up this post before I get some lunch. I need to clean the boys' room this weekend as well as do some research about what tutoring options I may offer once school starts back--I had 3 people already contact me as to what my plans were going to be and interest especially since some school will be virtual. 

I hope everyone has a good weekend. What plans do you guys have this weekend?