Summer vacation starters

Yesterday was the last day of school. Yay! It was also a day we had a baseball game. Unfortunately, we couldn't get to the game. I could not find Jennifer's baseball stuff! It's so weird; her baseball stuff keeps disappearing. I felt stupid not taking her to the game just because we couldn't find her stuff, but I didn't want her to show up without it, either. Believe me, I turned the house upside down trying to find it. I even kept asking Jen where she had her stuff last but she couldn't remember. (Oh, that helps!) What was even more frustrating is that she would not help me look for it after she got home from school. So I just pretty much gave up the search. I guess it wasn't that important to her! Wasn't happy she missed a game, but...there it was.

Also yesterday, I had a bit of a scare. I had the baby with me while running errands and managed to get to the bus stop in time to pick Jennifer up. We sat there for a while and I kept myself occupied with reading the EW. Jesse kept himself occupied by keeping himself occupied. Haha. Anyway, we just sat there waiting for the bus to get there, and it ended up being about 5 minutes late. I watched the doors of that school bus open and children file out, keeping my eyes peeled for Jennifer. One child after another came off that bus and I kept expecting Jennifer to appear. But, she didn't. And the bus doors closed and the bus drove away! My heart froze. I scanned the children again, thinking maybe I missed her. But, she wasn't there! I asked a little girl who knew Jennifer if she had been on the bus and she told me no. ACK! I raced home, my heart pounding in my chest and feeling very scared. Remnants of the story of the disappearance of the Portland boy, Kyron Horman, ran through my mind, mainly because it wasn't discovered he was missing until the stepmother was at the bus stop to pick him up and he never appeared. So I got home, logged on to the computer and emailed hubby, asking him if he'd picked Jennifer up while he was out meeting with his friend. I was barely able to breathe at this point, my hands practically shaking. Finally, he replied that, yes, he did have Jennifer with him. THANK GOD! I was so scared something had happened to her. I politely thanked him for telling me (NOW!), though I was tempted to scream at him, "Don't DO that!" Sheesh. I'm just glad she was okay. I hugged her extra hard when he later brought her home. Now I DEFINITELY need to get a new phone, just so we can text each other faster and know where everybody is at!

Since it's now officially summer vacation, I have been pondering just how to plan it all out. We're DEFINITELY going to have some mornings of sleeping in -- though, in order for me to have time to work on my books, I'll still be getting up early. Except for today. I slept in today. Maybe it was until 6:30, but, hey! That still counts as "sleeping in" for me! It's later than 5 or 5:30, anyway. The kids slept in this morning, too. But we won't be sleeping in ALL summer! No, sir! Just the first week. I'm planning to have Jennifer back on her "summer schedule" just so she won't veg out in front of the computer or TV all summer. I know it's important for children to have structure.

I was reading the papers sent home from Jen's school and comments her teacher made. Her teacher had, in fact, expressed her hope that Jennifer will continue to read books this summer. Well, that's not going to be hard; she DOES love to read! But, I thought, it would be nice if her teacher would be able to see just what kind of progress Jennifer makes with her reading during summer vacation. Eventually, I came up with an idea: Create a reading chart! This way, we could keep track of all the books she reads over the summer and we can show it to her teacher when school starts again. Also, I think maybe a reward system would be a nifty feature for that reading chart. Say, after she reads 20 books, she gets a reward. We have decided that her first reward will be a visit to the Splash! water park. Other rewards could be an ice cream outing, a new book, a new toy, a picnic, etc.

I think this "reading challenge" will be good for her because I have growing concerns about her addiction to computer games and TV. Yes, yes, I know I am partly to blame for that. It is just so hard for me to curb that addiction. I certainly DO NOT want her to end up like her father, spending hours on the computer every day. So I know I need to step in and DO SOMETHING about that. The reading challenge is just one thing I can do. Another is to set a time limit on how much computer time and TV time she can have. I'll need to put my thinking cap on about that one and see what I can do. Really, if it was educational stuff, I wouldn't be bothered by it so much. But it's...computer games (like the one with plant zombies) and kid-friendly sitcoms (though she'll try to watch OTHER, teen-related shows if she could get away with it!). It's something I'll have to work on.

My plans for the summer are not all worked out just yet, but at least we can start it off with some ideas.