Kids are home and our Saturday adventures in Amish Country

Happy Monday! How's your Monday going so far? I had cardio rehab this morning, and then spent the day babysitting my niece and nephew and "A" (whose dad is working a different shift this week so I will have her all day.) It is now around 4PM and "A" and my niece and nephew just got picked up in the last half hour. I am tired so decided that I will sit for a while with the fan on, the Olympics on in the background and my kids playing. 

The kids are back together again. Ben and I picked up Rebecca and Jacob from camp on Friday. Thankfully it wasn't too hot. We got there at 12:15 and we were finally home around 4ish. They had mass for the campers and their families, that was officiated by the Bishop of Cleveland. Then we had to go to the cabins to get the kids and their stuff. It was crazy. 

On a side note, as we were walking back to our van, Rebecca stopped to say goodbye to a counselor that she had gotten close to. Well, this counselor looked over at me and we both kind of had a look on our face that we knew each other. Turns out that she was one of my students at the small school that I was teaching at when Rebecca was born. She had met Rebecca as a newborn! Rebecca said that her and Monica hit it off right away and it felt like they had known each other forever! Crazy how life works sometime! 

Our weekend was pretty busy. Saturday, we had an early birthday adventure for me. The kids and I met up with my parents, my sister, her girlfriend, and my niece and nephew out in Amish country. Our first stop was The Farm At Walnut Creek, where we had a blast on the 1+ hour long wagon ride feeding the different animals. I got slobbered on by numerous cattle species and by a juvenile giraffe! I enjoyed seeing the baby lemur and the baby porcupine. It is such a pretty farm. 

We spent most of the morning at The Farm. After we left, we headed to Der Dutchman Walnut Creek for a yummy lunch. I ate way too much, but it was so good! Then we stopped at Coblentz Chocolate which was right down the road and got some super yummy chocolates to take home. Thankfully, I had a cooler in my van as it was really hot out and I didn't want the chocolate to melt. 

Then it was off to our final stop of the day... Hershberger's Farm and Bakery. They have a huge petting zoo that we wanted to take the kids to. We enjoyed feeding the animals carrots. Rebecca fell in love with the baby goats. I thought the pigs were pretty cute. They also had a HUGE horse that was taller than any horse I have ever seen. We stopped in at their farm market, where I got 2 loaves of super yummy homemade honey wheat bread. Oh it is so good!

 

We drove home to drop off our goodies and to pick Bill up who had worked all day. Then we headed back out to my parent's house to enjoy a pizza dinner with my brother who stayed home with his puppy and my sister's puppy. Needless to say it was a fantastic day! 

Sunday, I was super tired. The day before was A LOT of walking in the heat and I am still not able to go, go, go like I used to. I spent most of the day relaxing and doing a little bit of laundry. I tried to stay out of the living room as Bill decided it was time to paint the walls. In the evening, we watched a little bit of the Olympics.

 

This week it is supposed to be HOT!!!! It was in the 90s today and super hot. Not sure what fun I will get into this week. Wednesday is my birthday which will include cardio rehab and babysitting. One thing I know is that I am not cooking dinner Wednesday although I am not sure what I want to eat that night. I am supposed to get a new exercise bike that I ordered on Thursday. My parents also ordered me a rowing machine that is supposed to be here this week as well. Not sure what else I will get into. But for now, I guess it is time to go start chopping veggies for dinner. I am making a make your own salad bar for dinner today, which sounds like a perfect meal for a hot day!  

How was your weekend? What's the weather like in your town? 

Cleaning while the kids are away and life this week

Happy Friday everyone! Thank goodness it is Friday! It has been a busy week but that is probably because I was determined to get some cleaning projects done before the kids came back from camp. Due to my heart issues I can't these projects all at once. When I am deep cleaning or cleaning in general, I can work about 20-30 minutes at a time before I have to rest or my chest will start working. It is what it is. 

So what have I have been working on this week? 

Well, my first project was to weed our back flower bed, as that is the one we see when we park and come in the house. It took about 25 minutes to do and thankfully I had a semi cool morning to do it. 

BEFORE

AFTER

My other BIG project was to clean Rebecca's room. Her room is a teenager's messy room. She has the smallest room in the house with no closet. She is also an artist and a musician so she has tons of art supplies, musical supplies, yarn and crotchet projects going on, etc. Well I finally finished it yesterday. In total it took me about 4.5 hours total in small sections of 15-30 minutes throughout the week. 

BEFORE

BEFORE

AFTER

AFTER

What else have we been doing?

Well, we have been watching movies with Ben. We watched The Lego Movie, The Lego Movie 2, and The Lego Batman Movie. We went out to dinner to Rooster's restaurant on Tuesday night as Bill and I had a counseling appointment and we had to go pick Ben up at my parent's house which is about 20 minutes from Roosters. It was so good! (Sorry I didn't take any pictures!) Yesterday, Bill took Ben to our local science center as they had reopened a couple weeks ago by appointment. Ben had fun. I think he has had a nice week being an "only" child while Jacob and Rebecca are at camp.

 

Later today Ben and I will go to pick up Jacob and Rebecca from camp. I can't wait to hear all about their adventures and activities. I have been able to see a few photos of them that the camp posted so that makes my mom heart happy, but it will be great to have them home. 

Well I need to go get lunch made for Ben and my nephew as they will be eating in the car. I also need to make sure that the house is generally cleaned up before I have to leave in about 45 minutes or so. I hope you all have a great Friday and a nice weekend! I have a feeling mine will be extra busy!

Until next time....

Camps, Ice Cream, and More

Happy Sunday! Hope everyone is having a great day so far. Today has been busy. 

Who am I kidding? Life has been busy. 

I think a friend of a friend said it perfectly on Facebook--- The pandemic is not over, this is just a lull between pandemic 1 and pandemic 2 (the variants); however as moms we are trying so hard to get out and do things so that if/when the next lockdown happens we will feel like we had a break. I totally agree with that sentiment, and so life has been busy. 

This past week Ben had a morning day camp at a local university. He took the camp class on Geology. He was super excited and learned things about geodes, fossils, identifying rocks, etc. He had a lot of fun each day and came home each afternoon telling us all about it! 

The kids and I met up with a friend and her daughter and son for ice cream. We all had fun catching up. We hadn't gotten together in 2 years.  

Bill and I celebrated our 16th anniversary. Life hasn't been all sunshine and rainbows but here we are. We celebrated by getting food from a couple food trucks that were in town. We got gyros from one and woodfired pizza nachos from another. My shawarma chicken gyro was really good! Bill also got me 4 beeswax candles from a local artist coop as the traditional gift for the 16th wedding anniversary is wax. 

Yesterday, I spent the day packing for camp for Jacob and Rebecca. They are attending Catholic camp this week. Rebecca was excited as she went last year and LOVED it. This year she is on the high school side!! Jacob was nervous as this will be his first sleep away camp away from home without mom or dad there. He seemed excited today though when I dropped him off. I hope that they both have a wonderful time. 

Ben has been quite upset all day as he really misses his brother and sister. To soften the blow of dropping his siblings off, I took him to get ice cream for National Ice Cream day today! Then he got to pick out dinner and he wanted to go to Wendy's and eat in the restaurant so that he could pick his own drink. LOL 

Tonight he is watching The Lego Movie and just hanging out. We have another busy week ahead. I can't believe we are nearing the end of July already. The kids just have a couple weeks left until they head back to school. Time is flying, but we are trying to have fun! 

What about you? Did anyone celebrate National Ice-Cream day today? Did you ever go to summer camp? Any fun plans this week? 

Science Museum Visit and Life

 Happy Thursday everyone! How is everyone? I am doing okay. Sorry for the absence. After our Akron trip, I did not have a good week. I think I overdid it on our 2 day trip, as I spent most of the following week extremely tired, my blood pressure was weird, etc. I really didn't get a whole lot done other than the minimum. I am doing better health wise, but it was a reminder that I am no where near where I was physically. 

I was finally starting to feel better towards the weekend and I needed to get out of the house. Bill had to work, but the kids and I were free. I was torn between taking the kids to an arboretum that I have been wanting to visit or a museum of some kind. The weather was calling for showers and I wasn't sure how much walking I could really do so, I decided to head to Newark with them to check out The Works, a science museum. I had never been there so didn't know what to expect. Rebecca said she had been there in like 1st or 2nd grade on a field trip. 

What a gem of a surprise. The Works was awesome. They had a planetarium show that was really neat. 

They had a whole floor dedicated to science labs and experiments that the kids could do.

 

We attended a glass blowing demonstration which the kids enjoyed. 

The top floor of the building is a museum of local history including all things science, manufacturing, etc. This includes a mastodon skull and bones that were found nearby. 

They had an art exhibit of tapestries going on, and an outdoor exhibit of habitats that the kids got to explore. 

After we spent several hours at the museum, we headed out to get lunch. We ate at a Wendy's literally right around the corner from The Works. 

Then we headed back home. I decided to make another stop at Velvet Ice Cream Ye Old Mill so the kids could play on the playground, visit the ducks and of course cap our Mom/kids day off with ice cream! 

It truly was a fun day. 

This week, I have done cardio rehab 2 days. It has rained a lot. This was our radar one morning...LOTS of rain! 

 

Ben has been gone to a morning camp at a local university in a Geology class that he is really enjoying. 

The kitties turned 5 years old on Sunday! 

Just another week in paradise. LOL How are things in your life? Anything fun going on?