Rain, Rain, go away

Central Illinois has been soaked for the entire month of June. As I think back, I can't remember a wetter June.  I know we've had some very wet springs but when you get into the summer and have more rainy days than sun, well it just gets old.  The rain has been relentless.  The picture of Jay is how he spent his entire week, playing video games, doing nothing.  How often do I write that my kids did nothing?  Rarely!  When the sun would come out for maybe 2 hours a day, the boys would take advantage of it and go to froggie island but other than that, the boys hunkered down for the week.  I feel bad for all the farmers.  I'm no farmer but the crops look ruined.  Our yard which sits on a hill is too soaked to mow it.  The rain was even putting Nick in a bad mood.  I am praying things dry up for the month of July.  This is one of those summers where it feels we've hardly had a summer because of the weather.  Okay, I'm done complaining now.  I am thankful that the sun is out this morning, at least for the moment anyway. 

What we've been up to

 Mike is heavily involved in turning Nick's room into an old fishing shack.  I'll post another picture when it's completed.  I can't imagine that there will ever be a day when there is not a project Mike is working on.  Truthfully, I'm over all the projects but I always like the end result and I especially like it on my pocket book.  It would cost us a pretty penny if we were paying for labor on all our projects. 

 On Saturday night my sister invited us over for dinner to celebrate Father's Day.  We had a really nice time.  All four kids are looking at the camera but unfortunately I was too far away to get a good picture. 

 Jay took this picture of Cole and I thought it was really good.  It really reveals Cole's personality which is feed me, pet me, love me. 

On Monday, Curtis came home to spend some time with the boys.  They went to Froggie Island, of course. 

Nothing like a brother

During the summer months things stay relatively quiet at the Siebert house.  Last summer I was very intentional in that I wanted the boys to depend on and appreciate each other more.  This summer is no different.  The boys have spent countless counts at Froggie Island building bridges and catching frogs.  Today Nick decided he didn't want to go to Froggie Island, despite Jay's pleas to go.  The rule is the boys can't go without a buddy.  Jay sulked around the house and I suggested he call a few boys from the neighborhood and see if they could tag along with him to Froggie Island.  Jay said he had no interest in calling anyone else, his brother was his first choice and there was no one he likes to hang out with at Froggie Island, other than Nick. I thought that was so sweet coming from Jay.  I shared Jay's comment with Nick and like a true younger brother, he grabbed his fishing net and the boys were off to froggie island together.  Jay was all smiles.  On another note of brotherly love, Nick is scared of storms.  He developed a fear of them about 2 years ago while watching the news of the tornadoes that hit Oklahoma.  He absolutely hates storms, especially at bedtime.  Last night as he was going to bed a storm was brewing.  Mike and I went to bed and a few minutes later we heard talking coming from Jay's room.  Mike went to check on the situation and found both boys cuddled up together in Jay's room.  Jay invited Nick to spend the night with him in his room.  Neither of them had movies or electronics, it was just two brothers chatting away or rather one older brother trying to distract his younger brother from a storm.  I have to be honest, it isn't often that Jay goes above and beyond for Nick.  In fact just earlier in the afternoon Jay had chewed up all of Nick's "Big League Chew" he received at a birthday party.  Jay does things to Nick to just aggravate him but last night I was proud of my eldest.  Like I always say, if both boys can get over their personality differences, they love the same things and slowly but surely are learning to love those things together.   

Social media "bliss"

This blog post will be a lot different from my previous post.  Why is that you ask?  My children have returned to the homestead!!!  Nothing like kids to remind you who you are, what your duties are and kick you out of your slump.  Any parent of my generation knows how challenging social media can be for our kids.  My mom often comments that she would have lost her mind with me if smart phones, facebook, snap chat, instagram (the list goes on and on) would have been available to me during the 80's & early 90's.  And I was a real dumbie, especially in middle school, when it came to making good choices so no doubt I probably would have posted a picture of my boobies (what small ones I had in middle school) at some point.  Boys don't appear to be as interested in social media as the girls do which isn't much consolation for me but it's something.  I try to stay one step ahead of Jay.  He has a girlfriend now so I have spent a lot of time monitoring the texts between them.  I was going along just fine.  Jay and the girl kept their conversations on the up and up.  I felt like a girl out on a country road, enjoying a Sunday drive, nothing but the wind in my hair and sunny skies ahead until out of the blue came a thunderstorm.  Suddenly Jay and the girl decided that snap chat was a better form of communication- the thunderstorm struck.  I curse snap chat.  I think the developers of snap chat were fresh faced kids, right out of college, trying to seek revenge on their parents for the control they still had left over their over paid educations.  Clearly the developers of snap chat did not have children!  With snap chat, you can send chats and poof, it disappears.  There is no way of monitoring it.  However, my husband has been challenged by this.  He can't believe there is no way of monitoring the chats.  If any one can figure out how to monitor it, it's Mike, in all his free time - NOT!  Mike has no free time, just like every other parent in our generation.  But I digress, that's another blog title.  I've left most (most, not all) of these conversations about girls and what is and isn't appropriate to Mike.  Usually I have to give him a gentle reminder, like the other night when Jay said he was taking his galaxy (this is the device that has snap chat on it) to his room.  When I heard Jay's room door shut, I gave Mike a swift kick to get off the couch pronto!  Jay is a good kid but don't all parents say that?  He hasn't given us any reason not to trust him but there is a lot of junk out there just waiting to take kids down the wrong road.  Today I was with Nick when I got a notice that one of his friends was following me on Instagram.  Nick was horrified!  Why would his friend want to follow me on Instagram and I better not put anything embarrassing out there for his friends to see.  With Nick I have learned that sometimes it's best to just let him rant and sure enough when he was done, he said, "Well I guess it's okay if my friend follows you."  I wanted to scream at him, "Gee, do ya think, Nick?  I am 41 years old, what the heck to have to be embarrassed about and I'm not the one that started following him, he started following me!!!"  And this was just a glimpse into the fact that I am soon entering the social media bliss with Nick so I better get ready because round 2 is about to start! 

Vacation "fog"

Ever since I got home from vacation I feel like I'm not functioning at my normal "rate of speed," like I'm in a fog.  We were only home for one day when our sump quit working during a flood warning! The boys left to go RV'ing with their grandparents so the house is oddly quiet and I have felt like doing nothing.  I will sit down, feel lazy, and a little voice in my head will tell me, you should be doing something.  I ignore it.  I managed to get a shower today by 10:30 - geez!  We haven't even gotten groceries since we got home from vacation.  I picked up some milk and eggs and let's just say Mike and I have eaten a lot of Subway.  I've gotten a small glimpse of what my life with Mike will be like as empty nesters.  We eat dinner around the breakfast bar and then we discuss where I'm sleeping for the night.  Yes, I know, it's pitiful.  I snore (BAD) and Mike has a terrible cold and Jay's bed is comfortable so I'm taking full advantage of him being gone.  And Yes I'm well aware this is not a habit that I want to establish as I age but for the week the boys are gone, I'm rather enjoying it.  So as I wrap up the week I will be glad to get the boys back and hopefully snap out of my vacation fog! 

Our Kanakuk Family Kamp Vacation

 This year my mom blessed us by giving us some extra money.  She said we could use the money however we wanted and I choose to take this summer kamp vacation.  I will admit that for weeks leading up to the vacation I was super nervous.  I just didn't know if this vacation would be the right fit for my family.  So now that we're home I can tell you I am so glad we stepped out of our comfort zone to try this vacation.  Would we ever do it again - No but there were many things we liked and some things we didn't but I will tell you this, we have never been so engaged as a family and it was wonderful.  We were unplugged all week not only with our phones but we had no TV either.  We played, prayed and laughed together as a family.  It was beautiful.  This vacation gave me an opportunity to connect with Jay.  Mike and I got time together, just the two of us and I was reminded how important it is to continually work on your marriage.  I was inspired by the staff of young college kids.  It gave me hope in America.  So although the vacation started rough, it ended well and I am truly thankful.

 Mike and Nick loved the hammocks throughout the camp.  I often found Mike relaxing in one.  It did my heart well to see my husband relax this week.

 Nick jumping off the high dive.  This kamp had two pools, this one pictured and another pool with a huge lazy river and a very tall and big waterslide. 

 On our first day at kamp the boys did the rope course.  I opted out since my back was finally starting to feel better.  Jay literally ran through the course.  Nick didn't make it through which surprised all of us but it was a tough course. 

 The activities we did this week included canoeing, archery, bb guns and all of us jumped off a cliff.  Jay jumped the highest by finding a cliff about 30 feet high - crazy!  As you can see by some of the pictures the weather wasn't great.  Thankfully it never rained but it was cold and cloudy.  By the fourth day we were there the sun finally came out and it was warm and beautiful. 

 Nick being Nick. There was no TV in our room so we welcomed the Nick entertainment.

 One morning we took a break from kamp and rode go carts and Mike and the boys took a helicopter ride.  They loved it. 

 For some reason the frogs loved making their home in the lazy river and Jay loved to catch them.

 On Wednesday night there was a space party at kamp and we enjoyed it.  The staff surprised us by having a bubble dance party.  Jay participated for about 1 minute (kid you not) but Nick loved it.  In fact the bubble dance party was Nick's favorite of the entire trip.

                                                          Even Mike got in on the action. 

 Nick, covered in suds!  He went into the party and we had to wade our way through the suds to find him! 

 Here I am before paintball.  I simply want it noted that I actually did this.  And when people tell you it hurts to get hit by a paintball, they aren't kidding.  But it made it all worth it when afterwards Jay said to me, "Mom, I don't know any other mom that would play paintball."  Mission accomplished. 

Another positive from this trip is the friends Jay made.  He really bonded with his small group.  Jay got to witness one of his friends be baptized and he was moved by that.  Nick made friends too but Jay seemed to have formed closer bonds with the boys.  He and his friends played paintball together and Jay took pride in the fact that he took his whole family out.  Ha.  The trip was a great way to start our summer vacation.  We are all glad to be home and get in the summer swing of things and we are glad to be eating my food again.  Yes, you read that correctly.  The food was not good this week and when we pulled out of kamp on Friday Nick said, "Mom, when we get home I'm going to gobble up all your cooking!"  That comment and Jay's paintball comment made the trip worth it.  HA!