I won’t go into detail, but the last couple of years have been a struggle at times.  At the end of the summer I  felt like I had survived rather than enjoyed them. Sure, we had some great vacations and wonderful times, but my stress and anxiety levels were way to high.

This summer I am not only looking forward to, I am planning. Planning beyond the normal camps, activities and how to keep your kiddos reading throughout the summer.  I want to make it EPIC.  Okay.  So maybe I am setting myself up for disappointment, but I have this yearning inside of me to breakout from the normal, go beyond the stress, ignore the anxiety.

So what does EPIC mean to me?  It means me having fun as well as the kids.  The kids always have an EPIC summer (though they don’t always see it that way).  That is why I am going to fall in love with my camera a little more.  Learn how to actually use more of the settings?  I also want to do some fun shots with the kids with the inspiration of Pinterest.

I am also going to start running again.  My post-op no exercise rule was up a long time ago. It’s time to take my new, improved and smaller bust to the track and she how they do!

So my EPIC may not be as EPIC as some, but it is mine, and I am going to do it.

What are your summer plans?

I cannot review Where She Went without reviewing If I Stay. So I will do a double review here and try not to give out any spoilers. I loved this book set so much I want everyone to read them for themselves and not hear it secondhand.

If I Stay Tells the story of seventeen year old Mia.  She is a talented, young musician who plays the cello, has a wonderful, yet quirky family and a boyfriend, Adam, who literally rocks.  The story has a unique way of backtracking through her memories seamlessly, so that you really get to know the family, their history and how much Mia loves them and loves Adam.  After a terrible accident, Mia, has an out-of-body experience that shows her world from a different perspective. As a nurse, I especially loved how Forman portrayed the nurses and hospital staff. She nailed it, from caring to cranky –  nurses do make the hospital experience what it is!

Where She Went continues on three years later with Adam being the storyteller. I have to say I missed Mia’s narrative at first, but gradually settled into hearing Adam’s voice.   Adam is so vulnerable after his experiences with Mia, but to the world he is a rock star.  He is not allowed to show his feelings of loss and therefore his anxiety is sky-high and he is very skittish, and appears arrogant and standofish to those who try to get to know him.  Spoiler alert here in that Mia does show up again in the story, though not exactly how I wanted her to.  It all makes perfect sense in the end and it doesn’t leave you hanging.  Along with the rock and roll theme throughout the book, there are lyrics at the end of the book that are great to read and tell more of the story which is awesome.

I will stop there. It’s hard, but I will stop.  Go read this book series! It is rated 14 and up.   High schoolers will like it and I think if you read it first and talk about a few things, seventh and eighth graders would like it as well.  Check out the BlogHer Book Club discussion page and find out what others are saying about this amazing book!

The book trailers can be found here and I predict a movie to be made.  It’s that good of story and what is so great about it, is that it is realistic, it could happen.  I’m off to mourn now that I have finished these books.

Any suggestions for a good read?

(Disclosure:  This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.)

I also got and acrostic poem written in my honor:

 And the cutest set of hands that have ever made a heart:

 Meg, Enu and Elle accompanied me and my mom to a fun mom and me event at The Wilds. The Wilds is an amazing conservation  park where you can see animals in a natural way, no fences for most of them!  We had a great time and got to pet a few animals that we normally wouldn’t pet: a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach, a possum, a gray fox and a corn snake.

Top my day  off with homemade lasagna from Meg and my Dad and I had quite the nice day ;) I hope yours was blessed as well.

Ella bridged from being a Daisy Girl Scout to a Brownie Girl Scout.  She is extremely proud of this  and the fact that her first overnight camp will be this summer.

Meg went to sixth grade camp.  She climbed the Alpine tower and is planning on zip-lining this summer.  Adventure awaits her for sure.

Mita is furiously making plans for becoming a sixth grader that include playing soccer and the cello.  She will have to be at school at 7:30am next year, and while she thinks it is no big deal, I am dreading getting her up that early!

Enu, in Fourth grade, hit the jackpot for field trip years and has been busy running around the state visiting Amish Country (not a real country mind you), the high school FFA ( a different world) and has plans to visit the State House soon.  She is ready to rule the intermediate school next year in the fifth grade with NO other sisters to bug her.

Goodbye 2011-2012 school year. May we have a long, long summer full of fun times, empty afternoons reading in the shade and popsicles. Lots of popsicles.

Sunburned from camp!

I don’t like breakfast in bed. I hate eating in bed, even late night snacks, so breakfast foods are just impossible for me to  enjoy.  I don’t want crumbs on my pillow or syrup on my sheets.  I just don’t like anything about it.

Except for the look on the kids’ faces when they bring it up. I do adore those faces. They are so happy and so proud, giggling and arguing  bursting into the room to awaken me.

Bless them.  If I am treated to this custom once again on Sunday, I’ll be sure to ahh it up and let them know how awesome they are.  Then I’ll eat my carrots with a side of ketchup (okay, I’ll quietly skip the ketchup) and try not to mess up the bed too much.  This may be my last year of my surprise, you never know, I may miss it someday. I probably will miss it someday, but I cannot help but hope they choose an everything bagel over cereal this year!

She choose recycling as her topic.  She learned about recycling jeans into insulation for homes and part of her project is to collect denim to send to the Cotton From Blue To Green program.  She almost has 100 pairs.  She has gone to  several Girl Scout meetings to teach the girls about her project, and to do a craft with them using old jeans (cup cozyies).  Working on her speaking skills she presented her project and asked for sponsorship money to two groups of adults and her own troop.  She toured a local recycling plant to learn how plastic is recycled, and also planned a “Fashionable Recycling” event for the our community.  Meg has taken this very seriously and knows that earning her Silver Award and eventually her Gold Award will help her get college scholarships.  She does think this far ahead on her own. It’s genetic she is a mini-hubby.

She held her event today.  A very busy day for our community with baseball, prom,and  a local festival.  Her turnout was not what she had hoped for.  My heart ached for her.  She held her chin up, taught the kids (mostly her helpers) and the adults about her project, played games, made bracelets and then came home and went to her room for a while.

She didn’t cry, complain or whine, but she wouldn’t talk to me either. I told her that today was a success. She planned, organized, brought together volunteers, got door prizes and hosted a wonderful learning event.  Today was a success.  I hope through her disappointment that she can see what she has accomplished and take some learning lessons from it and move on.

Her project is not quite done, she has a few more hours to go and more jeans to collect.  She will finish though. She will probably also turn a lot of today’s work into a fair project so the work will not be in vain.

I cannot be more proud of my girl. Living the disappointment and successes of your children is a roller coaster ride.  I want to jump in. I want to fix things. I want it all to be rainbows and unicorn farts (a favorite saying of my girls).  I also am glad to know that while disappointment is rough, that learning how to deal with the disappointments in life when you are young makes you a tougher more tenacious person. 

My Meg is going to set the world on fire, just wait and see.

Seeing a parent read is the best way to raise readers. I truly believe that. I also accept that not everyone is going to be as crazy about books as I am. But I will try to convert you I promise.

Summer time at our house is a great time. We are either crazy-busy or crazy-lazy.  For the crazy-lazy times it can be challenging to keep the media to a low-roar.  In our house media is TV, computer or non-active Wii games.  For the last two years I have used media-bucks to keep the kids on limited screen time and to keep them reading.  Last year I had yard sales at the end of the month where the girls could buy fun stuff with media bucks if they saved them. This is great because they are earning the media bucks, but not using them on TV! I also had a read-so-many-minutes over the summer you get a book series.  All the girls earned great book series. Meg got the entire 39 Clues series, Mita got The Hunger Games Trilogy, Enu got a huge Junie B. Jones series and Elle got… I cannot remember, I thinks she just chose a few books instead of a series.

While I was happy with last year’s success, I am ramping it up a bit.  This year I am doing a stamp card.  This way they hopefully don’t loose it the way they could the media bucks.  Here is how it goes:

1 Media Stamp = 30 minutes of media time

Level 1 books = 1 media stamp for 30 minutes of reading

(age level books the kids like to read)

Level 2 books = 2 media stamps for 30 minutes of reading

(Book that push them to read at a higher level)

Level 3 books= 3 media stamps for 30 minutes of reading

(any non-fiction reading, classic or a book that Mom would like you to read)

Learning Lab = 3 media stamps

( A workbook or experiment.)

Active outdoor play for 30 minutes= 1 media stamp

You can see where I am going with Level 3. Meg doesn’t want to read the classics right now, but I am bound and determined to get some Little Women in her this summer!  This should all equal to plenty of TV time as well as great reading time and some fun prizes. This year I am doing gift cards to Amazon, Barnes and Noble and iTunes instead of a yard sale. The kids are stoked!

This may seem like a lot of work, but for my family it is how we function. We have to have clear, set guidelines or it is chaos around here.

We also do the Summer  Reading at our local library. This is a family favorite, but as the kids get older I really push content over how many books are read.   I try to get the girls to set a content goal over a number goal, like “I will read 20 books this summer, 10 of them chapter books, 2 of them classics and 8 off them non-fiction.”

Scholastic has a great summer reading site that you should check out. We did this last summer and the kids had a lot of fun on it. It is a fun way for them to keep track of how much they read.  It also lead to a great discussion on honestly and integrity when one of my girls cooked the numbers a bit!  Click here for a video tutorial on how it works.  They also have great book lists for all ages.

If you want to keep your kids reading this summer the first thing you should do is pick up a book and read it yourself, let the kids see you read and talk about what a great book it is. Then take them to the library!

Meg (said almost thirteen year old) has a blog. She started it not quite a year ago and reviews books, movies and a few random posts. She is an obsessive reader, likes to write and is currently writing her first novel, which I find amazing, I know I am a her mom, but it is amazing.  From time to time though she gets writers block and for some reason thinks it is my responsibility to help her through it.  This conversation just happened this morning:

Meg:  Mom, I don’t know what to write for my next blog. Tell me what to write. (Read in a whiny voice).

Mom: Write about Earth Day, write about your Silver Award project.

Meg:  I’ve tried and I cannot. I’ve tried and tried.

Mom:  Just start writing and throw out your first paragraph, a lot of writers do that.

Meg: I can’t, tell me what to write! (whiney voice is louder and more annoying)

Mom: (Watching a TV commercial about cars) Write about how you feel when you start daddy’s car in the morning. It could be a good father’s day gift for him.

Meg:  (Silence)

Mom:  (….ah silence)

This is what she came up with When I Start The Car.  I think she did a great job sharing her emotions and I am very happy that I was able to help her out for once. Maybe now she’ll listen to me sooner, but I doubt it.

 It is times like these that make me think she may be ready to dip her toe in the tumultuous ocean of social media.  Not because writing a good blog makes you savvy to the ways of Facebook, but because she has demonstrated that she can share her feelings effectively to the world (or me).  She writes, she proofreads, she edits. 

She recently sent a text that hurt her friend’s feelings. We were able to talk about how texting and emails don’t show the emotions that your voice does.  You cannot say somethings with a text. It’s just not done. A painful lesson, but on a smaller scale thankfully.  I cannot help but mourn for the girls who have texted much worse to people such as inappropriate pictures.  Our children have the whole world in their hands, literally. The power they have is daunting, yet we seem to let them treat it way too lightly.

To many I may be over thinking the social media thing. I may seem obsessive or over-protective with my kids. I cannot help but be careful with my girls though.  Social media is the way of the world.  Bosses are checking your Facebook page.  Colleges are tracking your movements.  Your social media footprint follows you much like your credit score, and  you have to protect it.  On top of that you have crazy people trying to meet with your children in hotel rooms (we have one of those down the street).

 I hope when Meg clicks post on Facebook she looks at her post not as a brief update on what she is doing after school, but as a little piece of her that she is sharing with the world. I hope she can look at it objectively and think “Does the world need to know this about me?” “Is this a safe thing to share?” “Would I share this with a stadium full of people?”  “Is this fair to other people?” “Will it hurt someone’s feelings?”  That is a lot of questions to go through someone’s mind, but with time and practice I think we can learn to take a double  look at our contributions to the world. Even if they are only 140 characters or a pin.

THE NEXT CHAPTER OF THE BELOVED FAMILY CLASSIC ARRIVES JUST IN TIME FOR MOTHER’S DAY
 Country Music Superstar Clint Black and his wife Lisa Hartman Black shine in the Heartwarming Family Adventure Arriving on Blu-ray and DVD May 1
Exclusively at Walmart, Sam’s Club® and Walmart.com

Does anyone in your house like horses?   It seems the horse rage hits around age five at my house and never quite goes away.  So, needless to say, we were very excited to have the opportunity  to pre-view the Flicka: Country Pride movie starring Clint Black and Lisa Hartman-Black. 

The movie tells the story of a young teen, Kelly, who is struggling with the loss of her dad and the  passion of riding horses that she shared with him. With a new Mustang (Flicka) at the stables, however, and some stubborn determination Kelly is able to again fall in love with riding and competing.  The movie features a mean girl antagonist that is so popular with movies at this time and gives parents the opportunity to talk about how to handle the stressors of high school.  Overall a great movie that I think most girls ages 8-13 will especially love.  I am well over thirteen, though and I enjoyed it ;)

Be sure to check-out the end of this post to see a checklist of what young riders should know about taking care of horses.  This is a great list for Girl Scouts earning an animal badge!

I have two copies of Flicka: Country Pride to give away! YEAH :)

How to Enter: 

1)  Simply leave a comment telling me your favorite animal movie of all time. 

2) Like Four Against Two on Facebook and leave a comment telling me you did so.

Contest runs from April 23rd to April 29th at noon EST.  Two winners will be chosen from random.org.

 (Disclosure:  I received a copy of the above mentioned DVD to view and give my honest opinion.)

Then I was picked!  I had 30 books to choose from to give out and my number one pick was The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, not thinking I  had a chance with my first pick.

Then I got The Hunger Games! Whooo-ooo. Did I feel lucky!

So today, Monday, April 23rd, I got to giveaway twenty copies of The Hunger Games with special covers to my local high school students!  I worked with the librarian to pick the twenty lucky kids. I really wanted kids who may not like to read, but liked the movie enough to maybe want to try to read the book . She helped me find 20 kids who are reluctant readers.

Now I did deliver the book at to-darn-early-in-the-morning instead of at night, due to the fact I had a young adult book and my target population is held captive during school hours! I do think  I stayed in the bounds of the World Book Night theme though.

I love to read. I want others to love to read. Reading makes us smarter, gives us levity and takes our imaginations to amazing places.   April 23 is UNESCO’s World Book Day, chosen due to the anniversary of Cervantes’ death, as well as Shakespeare’s birth and death.  World Book Night started and is celebrated in the UK. This is the first year for the US and I hope it catches on and I get another chance next year to pass along some more books!

If this sounds like fun to you, check out the World Book Night website and make a note to apply next year to be a giver.  I am so happy and pleased that I was apart of this!