As for this week, it’s an odd one as two of our three boys are out of school so we’re a little bit in limbo mode at the moment. The end of the school year is in sight for Chase though and by Friday we’ll all be in Florida kicking off our summer break!
Today I figured I’d share a catch-up style blog post of sorts in the form of a “Currently” style post to share a little bit about what’s currently going on in our world over here! Let’s dive in, shall we?
Currently: May 2024
-
Currently celebrating… The end of school
(Book: The Circus Ship — 10/10 recommend this book. All 3 of our boys continue to love it. / Button-down Top: Amazon — currently a Lightning Deal! / Jeans: Old Navy but old)
We have one foot in summer break mode and on foot still very loosely in school mode. We’re definitely feeling ready for summer and have been thoroughly enjoying all the mini celebrations that come with the end of the school year! Rhett and Ryder’s school year officially ended on Thursday but Chase still has two more days this week.
Our days have been filled with summer birthday celebrations for all three boys, theme days, end-of-the-year parties, the end of martial arts for the summer, the beginning of swim team, preschool graduation for Ryder and a big art gallery walk through where we get to check out all of the art projects Chase completed throughout the year in second grade. While all of these things have certainly added to the mayhem that is May, we’ve loved them and it’s been so fun seeing the boys so excited and so proud of the things they accomplished during yet another wonderful school year.
-
Currently checking on… Our garden’s progress
We planted our garden for the second year in a row and the boys absolutely love checking on its progress every day. So far we’re seeing solid growth from our cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, watermelon, basil and spinach. We’re learning as we go with this whole gardening thing as the bed we used last year for wildflowers has proved to be a little tricky for us this year as we attempted to overhaul it to grow produce. The wildflowers want to come back with a vengeance, despite our efforts to till the soil and add new soil, which has made it hard to tell whether we had any sprouts from the bell peppers or the shishito peppers we planted. (I also realize I probably should’ve started the peppers inside and transplanted them for the best luck.)
We pulled up what we could and think we may have inadvertently pulled up our peppers. Our new plan: Give what we think are our peppers another couple of weeks to grow and if they turn out to be flowers, we’ll transform that side of the garden bed back into a bed of wildflowers which we loved last year anyway. Gardening is certainly a learning experience for us right now!
-
Currently living… In water!!
My favorite part of summer! The water! Our kids love water just as much as me and Ryan and the minute temperatures climb over 80 degrees, we seem to spend the majority of our time in the pool or lake. It’s the best and thankfully we have three little fish who can never seem to get enough of pool and lake time, whether it be splashing around in our neighborhood pool with friends or swimming and kayaking around the lake. Also, Pepper is surprising all of us with how much she loves the lake. She may look like a drowned hamster in the water but she gets so excited when we let her come out on the water with us and it’s so fun to watch her swim back and forth from kayak to kayak. More of this all summer long, please!
-
Currently eating… Chicken and chickpea salad on repeat
I cannot stop making my chicken and chickpea salad. It checks all the boxes for me when it comes to warm-weather dining: It’s cold and refreshing, produce-packed and includes a decent amount of protein to help keep me satisfied. I made it twice this weekend and even shared a Reel of the recipe on Instagram if you’d like to check it out and see a video version of how to make the recipe!
-
Currently packing for… Our annual summer trip to Florida
Chase gets his braces off late Thursday afternoon and then we’re off to Florida for our annual summer trip! Our boys look forward to our extended time in Florida every summer and we’ll keep the tradition going as long as possible! We love the extra time with my parents and sister’s family and cannot wait for days filled with family, beach and pool time!
-
Currently thinking through… Summer routines, expectations and quiet time
(Kid chore charts: Etsy)
Over the weekend, Ryan and I started chatting about summer break, expectations, routines and consistency. A huge thing I’ve learned throughout my motherhood journey is that built-in routines and expectations your kids know and understand make parenting a lot easier. If they know they’re supposed to help with the dishes every night, they’ll just do it whereas if you ask them to help with x, y, z every once in a while, you may face more resistance. We’re planning to have a “family meeting” with the boys when we come back from Florida to let them know our expectations for the summer and their responsibilities every day. (If you do something similar, I’d love to know what your kids are responsible for doing around your house every day! Our kids already have a few responsibilities but I know they’re capable of more.)
Also, it’s been a long time since we’ve done quiet time in our house (mainly because the boys’ school pickup times and activities made it almost impossible during the school year) but I’d love to get back to it on the days when we’re home around lunchtime this summer. My vision: Each kid gets 30-45 minutes of alone time in separate spaces to do a quiet activity (reading, coloring, playing with toys, etc.) as a “reset” of sorts during the day. In the summer months, we’re together non-stop so I think some built-in separation for our boys where they can decompress alone in their rooms would be beneficial for everyone.
-
Currently reading… The Throne of Glass series
I’m deep into this Sarah J. Maas series with no end in sight. I haven’t shared book recaps in my recently Things I’m Loving Friday posts because I’m making my way through the 8-book Throne of Glass series and plan to share my thoughts once I’m finished but it’s another great fantasy series that has me completely captivated.
-
Current cozy find… Lightweight, breezy pajamas
(Pajamas: Amazon / Pillow slides: Amazon)
These cozy pajamas are such a good find! I was looking for some summertime jammies that weren’t shorts but still felt light and breezy. This set on Amazon caught my eye and I took a chance and ordered it in the light blue color. I love the fit in person more than I do in the online image (the top is not nearly as cropped) and the subtle detailing at the bottom of the leg is so cute! I already ordered the set in black as well!
-
Currently watching… Enola Holmes (on Netflix)
It’s been months since Ryan and I have had a show or movie to watch together… other than Is It Cake? with our boys for family movie night. When he arrived home from a work trip recently telling me about a movie on Netflix his coworkers were loving, we figured we should give it a shot and watched Enola Holmes after the boys were in bed on Sunday night. The movie follows Enola, the teenage estranged sister of Sherlock Holmes, as she uses her detective skills to search for her missing mother. It was a quirky and creative movie and while I wouldn’t give it a 10/10, Ryan and I still both really enjoyed it! There’s apparently a sequel on Netflix as well so we’ll be watching that one next!
Questions of the Day
Pick a few “currently” prompts and join in!!
- Currently celebrating…
- Currently eating…
- Currently anticipating…
- Currently watching…
- Currently wearing…
- Currently reading…
![\"Quantcast\"/](\"//pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-1e3-7hOJ_U8Bg.gif\")
I love these posts! My favorite! Currently, I am celebrating my birthday, it is Wednesday. We are currently anticipating our trip to Disney in July.
And I am currently reading Harry Potter with my daughter (book 5).
As far as chores goes. My daughter is expected to make her bed every day, practice her instrument,unload the dishwasher and help with the pets. And I agree, it you make them do it every day, they argue with you a lot less
Happy, happy birthday Valerie!! I hope you have the best day today!! And enjoy Disney in July — we still talk about our Disney trip all the time. You will have the most amazing time!
Throne of Glass is my favourite series that I’ve ever read- so I’m very happy to start seeing it get more love after everyone discovered ACOTAR series. Specifically, for me, Queen of Shadows was my favourite book in the series as well.
I love how your joy of motherhood and your kids leaps off the page. I find a lot of my friends who have kids focus a lot on the negatives of being a parent and how hard it is- and while I love that this conversation is happening for more accurate depictions of parenthood- the joy of it seems to be almost forgotten. As someone who’s currently trying to start our family, it can make the idea of parenthood very daunting. I don’t know if you’ve shared before, but do you have anything specific that you do to focus more on the joyful side of things?
Thank you so much for saying this, Sarah. I appreciate your words so much. Honestly, I think most of my joy for motherhood comes from immense gratitude. I realize this will sound awful, and it truly, truly is the most heartbreaking thing, but I’ve seen a very good friend lose a child and another whose daughter is currently battling cancer and their perfect little ones are children I think about daily. (Admittedly out four miscarriages have only served to reiterate how fortunate we are to have our three boys and undoubtedly plays into these feelings a lot as well.) Their children are a huge inspiration for me to look for the joy and goodness in motherhood and my children because I feel very deeply how lucky I am to have every minute I do with my kids. Of course there are absolutely HARD days so I am not discounting that but for me a lot of it is about perspective. It’s okay for me to be frustrated with my kids or myself or motherhood in general sometimes but bringing it back to gratitude helps me a lot. My children and motherhood are truly what I enjoy most in my entire life and I’m so excited you are currently on the journey to starting a family. It’s the absolute BEST. Sending all the good wishes and prayers your way!!
Do you mainly read fantasy or do you like nonfiction too? Have you read Find Your Unicorn Space by Eve Rodsky? I’m curious what your unicorn space is! It sounds like Ryan’s unicorn space is triathlon training?
(The older Sherlock TV series is on Hulu now btw! I’ve been enjoying a nostalgic rewatch!)
I honestly don’t read a lot of fantasty!! Sarah J. Mass’ novels and Fourth Wing/Iron Flame are the first fantasy books I’ve read in years! I do MUCH prefer fiction to non-fiction though, as it’s my escape and “me time” at the end of the day every day! And I have not heard of “unicorn space” but I’ll look into that — sounds super intriguing!!
I love those responsibility boards! It’s great that they can feel as though it’s their choice and can check it off themselves. Do you use rewards at all to motivate or is it simply a routine expectation and that is enough to motivate them? We try our best to avoid rewards and consequences but we struggle with our 4 year old son who was recently was diagnosed with autism. Opposition and defiance is how he feels in control, in a world that feels very unpredictable and overwhelming for him. It is only now, in hindsight, that I understand why so many parenting tips didn’t work for our son.
Anyway, I’m curious to hear if you have any tips for motivating the kids?
Have fun in Florida!!
We are the same regarding rewards/bribing. It’s not something we do regularly and it’s a conscious effort not to do this but rather we try to set expectations and routines to help them succeed. It’s definitely NOT always perfect though!! Consequences are another story, however, and we will do consequences but they relate to whatever the “issue” is at the time. For example, if a hard toy is thrown, we’ll take the toy away and say something along the lines of, “Throwing hard toys can hurt people, so this toy is going away for a little while until we can play with it safely again.” I LOVEEEE Dr. Becky’s parenting advice and use a lot of her tips with our boys!! But please know I will never pretend to know what it is like to try to raise a precious child with autism as I know this can deeply impact many facets of parenting and would never want you to think I can properly weigh in on your journey. Sending you love!!
Thank you for your kind words. What a beautiful, thoughtful way to respond to my comment.
We do have natural consequences like you have described. It doesn’t exactly “work”, as in changing behaviour, but we do stop unsafe behaviours in a similar way as you describe.
I’m willing to try these charts. At the very least they might work for our daughter 🙂
Love these posts! Currently finishing A Court of Silver Flames and thinking of starting the Throne of Glass series next after reading a few of the summer beach reads on my list. Currently celebrating summer break and having all of my kiddos home. Currently working on chore charts/daily to do lists and one page of the summer brain quest workbooks each day!
Please report back on your Throne of Glass thoughts if you read it!!! And we love those workbooks — they’re travel staples for us!
Currently celebrating…
*** Mom’s 96th birthday
Currently eating…
***cold brew coffee with tiramisu syrup in it and baked cheese grits
Currently anticipating…
***what crazy thing our new cat will do next.
Currently watching… (on rotation)
***Elsbeth (not sure what channel/streamer it is on in the USA)
*** Shameless (US version) …. a guilty pleasure for me
*** Boardwalk Empire … a guilty pleasure for hubby
***
Currently wearing…
***a grey nightgown/housedress as I managed to sleep in until 8 am .. a miracle.
Currently reading…
***EVERY TIME I GO ON VACATION SOMEONE DIES … for the second time. By Catherine Mack (aka Catherine McKenzie of Montreal… I am also re-reading her THE GOOD LIAR.
…FRANKLY, I RE-READ HER ENTIRE LINEUP OF BOOKS EVERY SUMMER. (and I am a librarian with access to millions of books ….)
*** on ttap: Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan
I love your straw hat! Would love to know where you got it!
Hi Elizabeth! It’s Universal Thread from Target last year! I got it when I was in Florida because I wanted a hat with a string to wear on windy days at the beach. I looks like this is this year’s version: https://bit.ly/3V1FGQn Hope this helps!!
I loooooove SJM books but Throne of Glass is my favorite series of hers. I cried multiple times during Kingdom of Ash and it’s a series that has stayed with me for a long time. No action is too small for change to happen <3
I’m also working through Throne of Glass and it’s one of the best series I’ve ever read. I’m almost halfway through Tower of Dawn and I’ve cried so many times reading this series. I’m almost scared to read Kingdom of Ash because everyone says they bawled hahaha. Can’t wait to read your thoughts, we might end up wrapping up around the same time!