Kid Choices for Amazon Prime Day!

Are you new to Amazon Prime Day and what it is? Then you can read about my description of it here.

I thought I would share with you what my kids are into now that are available from Amazon. I was really picky with this list. There are a kajillion toys that they have but these are the big things that they use almost every single day. They love these things and they have proven to be reliable, fun, long lasting, and useful for us.

As you can see our kids have a lot of interests. During the summer they are allowed to play 20 minutes of video games and that is if they have earned it. So there are a lot of crafts made, playtime had, recipes made, outdoor games played, and nature studied. I love challenging the kids to continue to find something to do. To be honest it has been weeks since I’ve heard that anyone is bored so I think it is working!

Anyway, this is a good list for you if you are looking for something for your kiddos or maybe you are looking for some gift ideas.

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If you have any other suggestions for what to get on Prime Day I would love to hear them! I put money aside each month for Christmas gifts and am always looking for some great gift ideas. Comment below with what your kiddos love!

My Top Homeschooling Picks for Amazon Prime Day!

AMAZON PRIME DAY

 July 15-16, 2019

This post contains affiliate links. See our full disclosure policy for more information.

If you follow the Super Busy at Home Facebook Page then you know that I sometimes share my favorite Amazon products. I love sharing deals on items that we use regularly in the home or for homeschooling, and Amazon deals are the best on Amazon Prime Day!

With our new school year starting in less than a month (eek!) I thought I’d take this opportunity to put our favorite go-to supplies in one post and I’d love to hear what items you love and suggest snatching on Prime Day! Make sure to leave a comment!

To explain…

What exactly is Amazon Prime Day?

Amazon Prime Day is one of Amazon’s largest annual events during which they put thousands of items on sale or run deals for a limited time only. This sale is HUGE and has even come to rival Black Friday in the online shopping world, as Amazon has become a leading retailer.

You can view this super cute visual on how to have your best Prime Day!

Can anyone get Amazon deals on Prime Day?

The thing is, this special offering is exclusively for Prime Members. Not a member yet? It’s so so worth it, even just the free shipping is amazing! Not to mention things like the music app, the movies and tv shows, and more! So much is included with your Prime membership!

You can get a Prime Membership here and take advantage of the Prime Day deals. You can even cancel before the 30-day trial period before cancelling to avoid the $119 annual fee.

When is Amazon Prime Day?

This year (2019), Prime Day deals start on July 15th at 12 am Pacific Time and will run for 48 hours through the end of July 16th. That’s two entire days for deal shopping!

What does Prime Day mean for Homeschoolers?

Amazon Prime Day is a chance to save money on items you’ve been eye-ing but just couldn’t pull the trigger to buy. Now is your chance, folks!

But there is so much more that Amazon offers besides physical products (and books… so many books). Homeschooling can be made easier by efficient ways to get groceries delivered to your home, reading lists on your Kindle device, audio books for that child who has trouble reading, and music to soothe their quiet times at home.

Here are Our Favorite Deals for Prime Day

Here’s our list of favorite items. These are items that we have either purchased and loved because they make our life better or we are planning to purchase ourselves! If you have any questions on any of the items please don’t hesitate to ask. You know I’m here to help you mommas.

Other Amazon Products

Audible

Here’s a great deal to try Audible, a resource to get audio books and spoken word content.

Kindle

Unlimited reading, unlimited listening to thousands of audiobooks, and you can read on any device! If you have a kindle or like to read on your device they have several pre-paid options that make this an amazing deal!

Prime Music

Borrow Kindle books, get free shipping, and listen to loads of songs ad free! Get a free trial when you sign up here.

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So there are my recs. If you have some for me, I’d love to hear them. Please comment below so we can all share the Amazon Love!

Happy 4th!

I hope y'all had a great Independence day! We're slowly but surely making it a tradition to go to my mom and dad's every year for a supper picnic followed by fireworks.

They live out in the country and it's fun to get out of the city to set some things on fire!

My mom always makes everything so cute for all of us.

A Cottage Update

You guys, we are almost there.

Two and a half years ago we purchased our lake cottage and we’ve been working on it like turtles…slowly and steady we are getting there.
Pretty much like with every older home remodel nothing has gone as it was planned. Nothing is square or perfect but it is heaven on earth to us because I get to lay in bed every morning and watch the sunrise over the lake.

So many of you have been writing in to ask if we even have the cottage still because it has been crickets on the site about the place. For a long time we were at a stand still with really exciting things like electrical and hot water issues but those have been fixed and we are almost done.

The only large project inside we still have is to paint the floor. It’s a gray color right now so while it isn’t bad it is pretty scuffed up and just not what I want. I want to go with a midnight blue color or something like a Kelley Green and knock everyone’s socks off. Which do you guys prefer?

Until I decide we have that project on the back burner. That and the fact that we are painting it with marina grade paint which has a ton of fumes and needs to cure…both of those factors mean we’ll probably stack the furniture high in one half of the cottage and then paint the other half before we leave the for winter.

Other than that we are done with all of the big projects. We have the details and the fine tuning to work on but the nuts and bolts are in!

Other projects outside include installing a railing on the front porch and putting in a deck out back that overlooks the lake.

I wanted to show you some photos of how the place is looking…

Enjoy!

Here is the view we get to wake up to every morning. I think this alone is worth all of the headache, blood, sweat, and tears we’ve poured into this place. I should also mention that literally, this is what we wake up to. This is what we can see from our bed!

This Ikea coatrack is perfect for the cottage…cute and functional while being simple. That gorgeous wrap is from Evy’s Tree and my Magnolia hat is there too.

This corner in the bathroom is one of my faves…the original cupboard and the lake house sign are precious.

I found this old container at a Habitat for Humanity Restore. Its quirky and works really well as a hamper in our bathroom. I can’t bring myself to scrape off the letters yet but I might one day.

Using hardware from Amazon Nick put together these double barn doors that cross each other in the middle. The door on the right leads to the bathroom and the door on the left is a set of double doors that leads to the kids sleeping area. All the doors we salvaged from a house being torn down next door to our primary residence. Nick cut them to fit the area but they work perfectly!

I’m still on the hunt for a large lampshade that will work for the lamp and will help to hide the electrical panel on the wall. Anyone have any favorite places for lampshades? I am horrible at shopping for them. This antique bed belongs to Nick’s parents and I just love it! The bedding is actually from the 1890’s and goes really well with the cottage. I’m trying to keep everything as neutral and light as possible to keep your eye drawn to the outdoors. We have a Casper memory foam matress that we love!

Everything here was put together. The hutch belonged to my Grandma Jean. It is an old Coppes Kitchen piece. The velvet chair belonged to Nick’s parents and is in desperate need of reupholstering. Anyone have any ideas for what to do it in? I am really tempted to go with a navy velvet but we are trying to make everything “lake friendly” and I don’t know how sandy, wet bathingsuit bottoms would do on velvet. The “W” was a gift from my parents, the lamp came with the cottage. We keep a space heater tucked away there for those cold nights in the spring and fall.

This is the kids bunk area. I found their bedding at a resale and was over the moon that 1 I found nautical themed bedding and 2! that I found two of them together. I bought their striped long pillows at Costco. It helps them both to use their beds as loungers and they like to sleep with them.

Emma has a little ladder up to her area. Nick covered the ceiling in planks. I was bummed he couldn’t find enough reclaimed to finish it so we’ll probably end up painting it because the contrast is so stark. Before it was just the original ceiling boards which were cool but the roofing nails were hanging down…not cool when you wake up in the middle of the night and take a nail to the head.

I think I will forever spend my days trying to figure out if I like this chair or not. It came from Habitat for Humanity Restore. Some days I find it neat and eccentric. Other times I find it offputting and garish. It is comfortable though so it will stay…

Here’s the cottage when you are standing by the bathroom and looking in. As you can see I didn’t tidy for these pictures so excuse the mess. I love the kitchen chandelier, we found it on amazon. The fridge works great and we bought it off Craigslist for $50. The couch folds down into a bed and is an authentic mid-century couch. It came with the cottage but was owned by a friend (there’s a story there somewhere folks). The red cooler on the fridge is the only big pop of color. It was my Grandpa’s and my Grandma gifted it to us. I adore it because of that. I really love how the kitchen counter turned out with the chairs and the bar. It’s one of my favorite features of the cottage.

As you can see we have an active puzzle going on our puzzle table. The table came with the cottage and we knew we had to find a place for it. It works really well for puzzles and will work for board games or if we have a lot of food and/or people. Really, the possibilities are endless!

So we have had this fan for almost as long as we’ve been married. It is vintage and neat. So we brought it to the cottage and introduced it to it’s new home. The dishes in the photo belonged to my late Grandma Wannie. They are one of my prized possessions. I spent countless hours having tea with Grandma Wannie with those dishes and I am so tickled to have them. I miss her so much.

Here’s a shot of our kitchen. We bought our Jenn-Aire range for $60 again from Restore. I am in love with how Nick got it to fit. The seam on our counter just popped up. Actually the counter is what popped up and the bar area is where it is supposed to be. Weird, I know. We have to reglue it and hope that fixes it. We knew something like this might happen with how humid it is at the lake.

You can see things are unfinished but they are coming along. We are having a drawer specially made that will fit around the stove parts. We need trim and outlet covers but the main parts are there. The sink is the original sink. We bought the faucet handles on amazon. It’s a bit weird having hot and cold so far apart but I insisted because that’s the way it was.

Nick salvaged as much wood as he could from the original kitchen before he tore it down and I just love how this wall came out. We aren’t going to paint this wall but will leave it like it is. It has so much character. We have this convection oven because we don’t have an oven but really, we don’t need one save for a pizza which cooks just fine in this. Perfect!

And I think that is everything! I’ll be going around and showing you some of my favorite details. If you have any questions please let us know!

The Other Shoe Has Dropped

Well it is here.

We are back to where we started from and yet somehow wondering how we got here.

A while back I wrote about how great things were going. How well we were doing with Cal’s behaviors and how it was all sunshine and puppy dogs.

Well throw that out the window because those days are over.

To put it mildly things have been horrendous. Please let me state that life with autism has been horrendous. As hard as it is to understand the differentiation that does not mean that Calvin is horrendous. Our Calvin is great.

I always wonder and contemplate if things truly are worse than I remember them being before or, if it is because we had the good time and so now comparing the good times to the now not so good times exasperates the bad to make it seem magnified in its badness.

Does any of this even make sense to you?

I don’t like to say Cal is bad. Because he isn’t. I mean, the kids no Charlie Sheen or anyrhing. But… Ornery, perturbing, and not meaning to be rude are also words we can say.

There’s this small part of me that thinks that maybe this is just adolescence but if it is then I want my money back because this is a horrible show.

There are so many extremes in life where I am thinking “life is such a gift” and then other times where I’m on here saying “life’s a crap shoot, here ya go. It stinks right now. Bye”.

I am sure you all love the inconsistency of our life here.

But that is the reality of life, isn’t it? And here’s to truthful.

I have found in this autism journey that it sucks being a parent on this journey.

Can we all stop the platitudes about how life is so wonderful and honestly talk about how hurt my feelings are 1000 times a day by a little boy who sometimes is just a prick and doesn’t seem to care.

Can we all talk about how the moms and dads need some support and understanding

And for God’s sake if I hear one more person ask me if I’m sure, like really sure, that Cal is autistic I am going to scream.

Yes, we’re sure but thanks I guess for thinking I’m out of my mind.

In case you’ve wondered that other shoe I was waiting for to drop when everything was blissfully peaceful, has now dropped. And here we are. Again trying to figure out new medicines to make the lows a little more not so low and the behaviors something we can manage and parent through rather than a trauma situation over the wrong olive placement at the pizza place.

Who even eats olives on pizza.

Gross.

A Rough and Wonderful Weekend

This weekend was weird.

I spent a lot of time away from the kids and Nick. I was working at camp and was gone basically from Thursday until late Saturday night.

When I am at camp I love it and enjoy my time there, don’t get me wrong, but man I missed my family.

Not to mention that when I got home the house looked like it had exploded.

Not only was I busy and gone but the kids had lots of activities this weekend.

Emma had the opportunity to perform in the ballet La Fille Mal Garde. She had 4 performances at Notre Dame. Thankfully I was able to get home to go watch the Sunday performance.

However at the same time Calvin had an awards ceremony for his ceramics work and I missed that.

The moral of this post is, it’s hard being a working mom.

Everything is a juggle and sometimes, like this weekend, I feel that I am not so good at juggling.

But it is wonderful to know that Nick steps in to pick up the pieces when I need to be gone. And we were able to split the parenting so the kids had someone at their big moments. The house got cleaned Sunday morning (I think the Lord understands!).

Sunday evening when we all returned home we were in the mood for something different so we decided to hit the road.

We drove up into Michigan to St. Joe and had pizza at my favorite spot, Silver Beach Pizza.

We ordered my favorite, margherita pizza and the antipasto salad.

After dinner we went down to the beach to play on the playground and to watch the sunset. It was so beautiful!

It was a great end to the weekend.

It was a rough weekend.

But it was a wonderful weekend

Here’s to this week!

A Big Thank You for Your Prayers

My heart is overwhelmed at all of you.

So many friends have called me, texted me, facebook messaged me, whatever to say that they are praying for me.

And let me tell you, it is so very much appreciated and needed right now.

Our first camp of the summer is this weekend.

I realized the other day that it is so true, that when you are doing the work of the Lord, Satan loves to chew up and spit out our family.

It has been an especially difficult last couple of weeks. Unsupportive people stirring the pot, marital strife that seems to make no sense and came out of no where, developmental setbacks with Cal, tension between the two kids…it all comes on like pulsating waves, ever coming, never diminishing, just slowly growing in their power and tenacity to set us over the edge.

But it won’t break us. For we know who our God is. And I know why we are having these problems.

Because when I am on my knees and my forehead is on the ground at the foot of the cross for these children who will come to camp is when my back is exposed for the enemy to attack.

But I won’t stop. We won’t stop. We won’t stop praying in intercession for the children who come to camp, whose home lives are in shambles, who don’t know where their next meal is coming from, who just so desperately want to be loved.

We won’t stop praying for the children who have been sold into sex trafficking, who don’t know whose house they are living at when camp is done, whose mom takes the week of camp to abandon the family. We won’t stop.

For all of the children we won’t stop. For we are raising up the future generation of world fighters, dominating ninja power changers of the world. And if we can have them into camp and pour God’s love into their little lives, what can that do?

Will we plant the seed that will grow missionaries up? Can we invest in people who will go into the darkest of the dark to save those who have no voice? And if I can show the meekest of the meek the awe inspiring love of God, the love that makes noise become white and tears come to the eyes in nothing but pure passionate love, then can’t the world truly then be changed through these children?

Each year I have a number of kids I want to have come to camp. To the board members it seems small, to some it is a fiscal amount. But to me? And all of the countless volunteers? And to the other camp directors? To us it is the number of kids that we are going to pour into, who will leave our introverted bodies frail and stiff and wretched at the end of the day from pouring everything we have into their lives, into their souls, into their hearts.

And so that is why I will never stop fighting. And why right now I am coveting your prayers. The enemy is out there friends and he can’t stand what God is doing. What he will do. What he promises will be done.

Please continue to pray for us, to pray for the ministry, because this really has nothing to do with me and everything to do with Him.

And you know what?

Spoiler alert, but I’ve read the end of the book…and He wins!

Love you friends!

It's Never Going to Be Perfect

I sat at the counter at one of my good friend’s houses this week and had some deep and meaningful conversations. My friend is one of those whom I feel comfortable being whiny with, going in and saying “will you make some hot tea"?” She’s one of those amazing people who love serving. Who offer you a piece of bread which, for others would seem super plain and boring but because it is her it is fun and exciting and fancy.

I’m convinced that everyone should have one of these friends.

I leave her house feeling recharged and rested. Feeling at peace and ready to get back into life.

Except this time.

It was nothing that my friend had done, she had done everything right. She’s the sweetest, kindest person ever.

It was me.

I had let this feeling of discontentment creep in. It always seems to be after me. Sometimes it hunts me down like prey, slow and creeping softly closer. Other times, like this time, it pounced on me and overtook me, overwhelming me quickly with its weight and force.

I saw her life and started comparing mine to hers. Things like “she has an indoor sauna room and I don’t” , “she gets to stay home with her kids and I have to work part time”, “she buys muffins from Costco and I feel morally obligated to make my own.”

You guys, I think I might be legit nuts. And if you are now thinking that then I think we are in the same think tank.

I came home and complained to my husband which made him feel inadequate in his ability to provide and then I wanted to crawl into a hole for saying anything in the first place.

Anyone else ever do this?

As I dealt with this, y’all I gotta tell ya, I was struggling with the matter of my heart. I had recently taken a new position that is such a blessing for our family and yet I felt myself feel pity for poor old me who had to go back to work.

And yet I think it is going to be the best thing in the end.

And then enter Dr. Edie. I am a part of Dr. Edie’s Young Living team. You can check her out here. She has a May challenge going on and she was talking about how nothing is ever going to be perfect until you learn to be happy with wherever you are. How you can’t think you will one day be happy when x, y, or z happens because when those things do happen, unless you’ve learned contentment you’ll never find happiness when you do have those things happen.

Wow.

Such powerful words.

And so I have tried to stop being unhappy with the place in my life and instead find happiness in where I am. I am working on looking at every place I am as an opportunity to do God’s work.

Life is never going to be perfect but we can love life where we are just as we are and just as life is.

It’s never going to be perfect but we can make the choice to love it.

California Day 5: California Coast

Such an amazing day! The day started out dreary and bleh weather-wise. It was rainy and stormy. The radar made it look like our future was bleak.

But then the forecast seemed to clear more towards the Cali coast so we headed out to the shoreline to do some exploring. We started in Newport Beach at the Little Corona Del Mar. The amazing Pepper and Pine blogger, Hana helped me to find this beach which I was so excited to take the kids to because there are tide pools to explore! During the day while Nick was working I kept going back and forth on where we should go that night. I didn’t want to ruin the evening by going to the ocean when it was raining and storming. However after looking at the radar and thinking of how cool it would be to go to the ocean when it was angry and tumultuous, I decided the ocean it was.

When we arrived we immediately found a parking place which was so nice. So far parking has been very convenient and easy everywhere that we have visited in California. The path to the beach was paved and a nice walk. Once we got down to the Pacific Ocean I was in love. I have never been to a shoreline like this. I expected either to see Barnabas Collins standing up on a cliff above us or to see the Goonies ship around a corner. Seriously cool.

We started just looking at the sand and finding fun shells and rocks to look at. The California coastline is protected so we couldn’t take anything with us. As we went further on down the beach we found the tidepools to explore. Emma and I loved watching all of the sealife there was in these shallow pools. Low tide had occured shortly before so there was lots to see. Meanwhile Calvin was climbing rock formations and exploring caves. And that is why I love nature and nature studies. There doesn’t have to be just one thing that we all are doing at the same time. We can find our own interests and explore parallel to one another. That is my favorite thing. Emma and I can be zoologists together and Calvin can pretend he’s a pirate all at the same time.

After a hefty amount of time at the beach we decided to travel on. We (really I guess I should just say I) had seriously wanted to go see the Pirate’s Tower down in Laguna Beach. However by the time we drove the short distance to get to it, it was pouring again. So we decided to turn around and head back up north on Highway 1 (just saying that makes me feel really, really cool you guys). It was so much fun to stop at all of the beaches along the way and check out all of the cool coastal towns that all of the 90’s shows were about.

We stopped in Seal Beach for dinner. We found a great little dive type restuarant right on the ocean and they had some really good seafood. I had a Shrimp Roll and everyone else had fish and chips. I’ll say this all the rest of my days, it still knocks my socks off that our kids now like fish. Hallelujah!

After dinner we drove up to Long Beach for some ice cream and to check out the town. What a neat place Long Beach is! Such a cool, vintagey feel to the area. We ate at Long Beach Creamery and you guys, it was amazing! Calvin and Nick both had Burnt Caramel Ice cream, I had the Oolong Chocolate, and Emma had the Fennel and Cashew. Their wafffle bowls were amazing. We loved the place so much we left with stickers, coloring sheets, and a hat. Thank you Long Beach Creamery for such a fun experience!

Overall it was such a cool experience driving down Highway 1 with our kiddos and stopping wherever the wind took us. We’re having so much fun!!! Here are some more pics from the beach:

Happy Birthday to Our Emma Kazoo!

Last night I held a sobbing Emma in her bed. She was so upset. When I asked her what was wrong she said, exasperated “I wasted it. I wanted so much to be older and now my childhood’s gone.”

Poor baby.

I know what the feeling of discouragement and dismay feels like.

After 3 verses of “You are My Sunshine” I think we both felt a little better.

And now our sweet Emma Kazoo is 13.

A teenager.

Holy wow.

I have tried to explain to her so much.

Like how great of a big sis she is to her autistic brother.

How she doesn’t have to grow up just because she is 13.

Like how God made her to make such a big difference in this world.

How her smile and her kindness are what set her apart.

She has a grace and poise that cannot be taught.

She loves the Lord and it breaks her heart when she breaks His.

She is the most strong-willed child in this whole world. When she wants to do something or doesn’t want to do it, by golly that’s all there is to it.

How absolutely stunning she is.

And smart.

And hilarious.

And helpful and generous.

And talented.

Happy Birthday, Emma Kazoo! You are our favorite and our best, forever and ever.

Love Y’all!

How We Travel and Why Sometimes I Don't Post About It

I know that everyone loves to travel and get away. We do too! But for me, it is truly a fun time and a vacation if we can cross a new state off our list!

We have been trying to get the kiddos to all 50 states. This trip of ours was out east and we were able to visit New York for the first time, making that our 29th State! Woo-hoo! We’re well on our way since we’ve passed the half way mark!

Our trip was already two weeks ago (I can’t believe it’s already been that long!) and we had such a relaxing time. We were able to visit New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Because we were traveling with Nick for work this wasn’t exactly an ideal route that we took that I would ever recommend it, but I’ll be posting individually about the places we went. I swear, sometimes it takes me the most time to come up with HOW to format telling everyone about our trips. Otherwise they can turn into these long-winded accounts of everywhere we went that get super confusing…nobody wants to read those and I certainly don’t want to document our wonders in that way.*

So that is why it has taken me nearly two weeks to even mention that we were away, let alone where we went. The majority of our trip was spent in Pennsylvania. The kids and I ended Classical Conversations at the beginning of the month, hallelujah! I am feeling so burnt out with it all. I’ve been trying to pinpoint if it is with CC itself, the lack of time we have to study other things outside of CC, or something totally different. While I am still completely unsure about what it is that is troubling me I did know that I was ready for a break from CC and was ready to start something new. After a lot of research we decided to embark on a unit study. Knowing that we were going to be going on this trip and would be really close to Gettysburg is what made us decide to do a unit study on the Civil War. Emma loves history and Cal loves learning about the military so this helped them go hand in hand. A perfect pair for us!

I love when I can make our trips coincide with schooling. It’s a match made in heaven for me…after all like I always say, there is nothing more educational then walking in the footsteps of those who actually made the history you study in school. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it! I love it so much. This is why we homeschool…well, that and I’m just about the nerdiest person ever but those two things, with their powers combined, are why we homeschool.

I also love when the places that we go allow us to explore more about our country or about our world in general. In case you’ve ever wondered how we pick the spots we visit, most of our travel has to align with where Nick is going on business. Then we get creative, spending weekends going around the area and discovering things that are a car ride away.

Friends, I’d love to know…how do you plan your travel? Do you look for unique adventures or do you relish going back to your favorite spots? Do you plan around your kiddos interests or around the destinations that you go to? Do you have any travel challenges (like all 50 states!) you are trying to accomplish? What do you love about traveling? I’d love to learn more about you and where you love to travel!

Comment below, kisses!

California Day 4: Hollywood Hills and Pinks Hotdogs!

Day 4 of our California Adventure…

After visiting three national parks we were ready for a bit of a break. So it was a good thing that Nick had to work because the kids and I needed an excuse to relax. We were beat.

We are hotel bound with Nick having the car…which has been no big deal! We are staying at a Residence Inn, Marriott. We have a full kitchen, a living room, a recreation area outside, a pool, and more! We are having the time of our lives just relaxing the day away in Cali while we wait for Nick to come back.

In the morning I got Nick off to the office and then waited until about 9 to get the kids up. It was heavenly! I was able to write, read the bible, and just relax a bit. So nice. The kids woke up and I took them down to breakfast. After eating I let the kids go down to the gym with me to work out. Believe it or not but this is their favorite thing to do at a hotel! They LOVE getting to go to the gym to exercise and mom is all for it. I love working out as a family. The fact that our little ball of energy boy burns off some energy is a major bonus too!

Then it was onto the pool where Cal swam, Emma and I laid out, and we enjoyed the Cali sun. So amazing and wonderful…especially after the polar vortex we have lived through back home in Indiana.

After swimming the children and I went upstairs for lunch. I made them rice and beans (which is their favorite…I love that our kiddos are so easy to please!) along with crudites, applesauce, and juice. Again, having the kitchen was a major bonus so we can eat what we want, how we want, in the comfort of our hotel room.

And then we did some school work. I had the kids bring workbooks that I bought at a resale. They had never been used and have a bit of all of the subjects in them. However I found that they might be a BIT outdated. For example, they refer to Notre Dame as Notre Dame College and then one of the sentences was something like “One day people who travel will realize Traveler’s Checks are a good idea to use.” Yikes. I think we’ll just leave these puppies at the hotel when we pack up to go…

But do you know what was so nice? Doing school outside! It was amazing! When you are a family from the Midwest you are amazed by warm weather. It is simply scrumptious! I couldn’t get over how foreign and kind the gentle breeze blowing was to feel.

After about an hour of school work we played some b-ball at the court in our hotel which was a lot of fun. Calvin is super cute playing basketball and showing us all of his skills.

And then Nick came home! Hooray because it was about the witching hour and the kids were losing it. But for being stuck in the hotel the day went by seamlessly and didn’t seem to drag on. It was very nice and relaxing. It could have been much, much worse.

When Nick came home we were going to go to the beach so we started out but then did the math of time (math of time sounds serious, right?) and realized it would be dark before we got to the shore. Boo.

So we decided to head into the eye of the monster and go to Hollywood.

You guys, I cannot tell you how much I hate being strapped into a car with Nick driving. He says I am just getting old and becoming a nervous nellie. I say he is getting old and can’t figure out how to drive anymore. Is this the fate of the rest of my days? I mean, what does my Mother-in-law feel? Does this feeling diminish? Because, legit, I don’t know if I can handle this.

Anyway , we drove up into Hollywoods Hills (somehow we made it alive, hallelujah) and found “the sign” to take some pictures. Of course right as we were getting there it started to rain. I think that is just going to be the theme of our week here. “And then we got there so it started to rain…” So California you are welcome, I guess our family brought precipitation to you… Ta-Da!

We then drove all through the town and found Pink’s Hotdogs! Y’all I am not a fan of hotdogs, practically at all, but these dogs were amazing! So yummy! We also got the holy-Moley fries which were the best french fries ever. French Fries with guac and nacho cheese? Yes, please!

After the yummy dinner we drove down Santa Monica Blvd and then down Hollywood Blvd. We just cruised, taking in Groman’s Chinese Theater, Hollywood & Vine and all of the other iconic places. So surreal to be there! Now I feel like I understand 90210.

After that we went back to our hotel and went to sleep. The end. It was nice to get out and see the town. I am loving being in Cali and understanding the whole vibe thing that people always reference. There really is a different feeling here. We’re loving ourselves. And again I feel like I should shout it from the roof, “I can’t believe we’re in California!!!” Because legit, y’all, never thought this was going to happen. God is so good! See you tomorrow!