deJong Online

There are so many things I want to be better at. To be a better wife, a better friend and of course a better mom. Then there is the sister, daughter, employee, but I am finding that I need to be a better me first.

I had a shock lately that has put some things in perspective. My weight is not where it should be so I am working on taking control of that. I am watching what I eat, limiting the snacks. No donuts, bakery items, little to no ice cream. It is a work in progress, but I am working at it. I have an amazing support group in my WT moms as there are many of us working on this goal. I am just thankful that I have people to turn to when I need the extra “hey you can do this” and also the “great job!”

At this point I am down 2 pounds. Weigh in will happen Thursday night/Friday morning and I am hoping that my work this week will pay off. I am still not 100% so working out is tough as I start coughing pretty quick after starting. Guess I need to get at it again though. I know I can do this!

On a better note… the girls are both doing well. They are keeping us on our toes and helping cause as much trouble as they can. You would think with the lack of snow that we have we could be outside, but it actually isn’t that much warmer. However, that may just be what I need to take the girls outside as the sun is coming up earlier in the morning and staying up a little later (YEAH!). Guess I just need to suck it up and deal with the cold. For one being from Minnesota (yes I am even from Southwest MN) I still hate the cold weather. The snow is okay if I am not driving in it, but the cold just isn’t my thing. CJ has found a new love in the song “Fen.ces”. This kid can easily sing the song and I don’t even listen to it. Even found out Jon doesn’t really either. C has it on her Inn.otab and I guess CJ loves singing and dancing to it. She is really funny, especially when she is singing it as she is getting ready to fall asleep at night. C is loving her swimming lessons and I am so glad to hear it. She starts a soccer camp soon and right now hoping she continues to enjoy it. Seems a few of the girls on her team have decided they don’t want to play anymore so not sure she will want to continue where we have her. Just not ready to spend the money to put her in the “elite” league with her classmates as it is roughly $200 or so. A lot of money if you ask me to play a sport with volunteers as the coaches. Then again I didn’t play soccer so I can’t talk much about the money side of it. C continues to amaze us with her reading knowledge. I find it funny that she loves math and then dislikes it. I think sometimes it is too easy and others she just wants to play. To be honest I wish I could let her unwind after school but if I do that she wouldn’t do her homework so we have a plan in place that all homework needs to be done before tv or anything else. Maybe once she shows that she can handle it a fun time at the park will happen first and then homework or when she doesn’t have any homework.

All is going well here. We are keeping busy with life and what it has to offer.

So this is what our day looked only having one of our two children home with us. It seemed so odd not having the two of them running underneath all day, picking on each other, reading, you know the true day to day life.

CJ woke us up at 7:40 this morning and while Jon read to her the 5 books he promised her the night before. Mind you when she woke up that was the very first thing she asked for. Her books and daddy. Jon always jokes that the girls have minds like a steel trap, can’t say that I don’t agree as they both remember things that I have no idea how.

After story time was breakfast, which was simple oatmeal. Well CJ had her favorite, strawberries & cream.

We got dressed and then CJ and I went to the bank and Tar.get to get a few things that we would need later next week and a few other things. While we were out Jon cleaned out his car and cleaned the tub. I hate cleaning the tub and thankfully Jon doesn’t complain and does it.

After coming home and putting things away we had lunch. Again very simple today since it is so stinking hot and humid out. Mac & Cheese. After lunch was CJ’s naptime. She went down without much trouble and slept a good 3 hours. Yeah for naptime.

While she napped I was able to finish dishes, sort through a bunch of coloring books/notebooks/workbooks/etc that the girls have. Many of them were colored on all the way through so they got tossed. Sorted those and got them in piles to put away in the girls room once they got up. Got caught up on FB and my boards, which wasn’t as long as I needed, but I tried. Read some of the many blogs that I follow through my reader and then sat and read through my Family.Fun magazine that I love! So many fun ideas.

After naptime, CJ and I did some building with Leg.os. She loves making towers and then after a few minutes knocking them down. Played some more and talked to the other grandma on the phone about tomorrows get together.

Had dinner of peanut butter & grape jelly sandwiches. Now it is cartoons and then bedtime around 7:30.

CJ’s day may be done, but mine will consist of some additional cleaning/picking up. I want to finish the bathroom cleaning and then use my new vacuum thanks to my father (in-law). Gotta love connections to companies from time to time. I hope he is enjoying his time with his oldest grandchild!

After the bathroom, I am hoping to tackle the closet in our room, well more so my clothes. After two kids my body is not the same and nor will it ever be so clothes that don’t fit will be gone. I need to sort the girls clothes as well and get them ready for donation. I may put some up on ThreadUp and see if anyone wants any of them. Just tired of the two huge totes full of clothes taking up space in our room. Wonder if my niece who is a day younger than CJ, yet a full size behind her, needs any 2T clothes?

I am sure I will wait up for Jon to get home tonight like usual and then will go to bed almost immediately after he does. Yup, life is strange with only one. I would have been a thousand times more busy, but know that each girl is enjoying their time alone with whomever they are with.

We celebrated the 4th yesterday as my wonderful hubby has to work today. We had a great time. Spent the afternoon in Bloomington at the Family Fest which had a bunch of inflatibles that the girls thought were just awesome. CJ has turned into a major jumper lately and I was hoping that all the jumping yesterday would help deflate the need, but that just isn’t the case. She was all about jumping more today.

Anyways, we ate dinner at Poor Richard’s and then walked back and picked up a bag of Kettle Corn and of Cotton Candy and then found our spot. While C and her daddy went to get our chairs from the car CJ and I sat and people watched. That was fun. We ended up watching a really great firework show and the girls had so much fun. We were blessed with two girls that love fireworks.

We hope that you have a wonderful 4th of July and that you remember to thank those serving (or did serve) our country so we can have that freedom!

So a few of my favorites lately for the girls…

They love applesauce and in January while on vacation in the Wisconsin Dells (another fav!) my Mother-in-law had these GoGo Squeeze Applesauce and my girls were hooked. Since then I have been able to find them at a couple of stores (Um, Target, could you PLEASE add this to your stock?!). There are 4 pouches in a box and they have a few selections to pick from. Apple/Strawberry; Apple/Cinnamon; Apple/Banana; Apple/Peach and Apple/Apple. We haven’t tried the peach one, as my girls aren’t big peach kids, but the rest are a huge success with the girls. I love that they are a pouch with a top that can be screwed back on to save for later (which never happens). Even better… One pouch equals one serving of fruit. A quick an easy snack and even easier to send with C when she needed a snack at school.

WI Dells. Man we went there in Janauary and we are already hoping to make a return trip there. We stayed at Great Wolf Lodge and I highly recommend it! GWL only allows guests staying at the hotel in the waterpark, which is nice as there weren’t a ton of people there and the kids had a great time. The girls loved going down the waterslides and playing in the wave pool. Even more, C was able to go on mayn of the big slides which she loved immensely! She has been measuring herself, with daddy’s help, monthly in hopes to being 48 inches so when we go next time. Well as of right now she is just barely under 48 inches. She will hit that mark before we leave for the trip. To be honest she has grown an inch in a month. Darn growth spurts! Good thing she likes to shop.

Cardio Kickboxing. Okay this one is for me. I have taken three classes and am hooked! The instructor tells us that we burn between 600 and 800 calories a class. Man I feel it, but it is so wonderful. The girls get the love of playing in the kid area and having fun while I work out. Now to find one more class that I love as much as this one to make me want to be there two nights a week and then on Saturday with the whole family.

Summer. I love summer. I hate hot and humid, but it is a fact that it comes along with summer. I am going to enjoy this summer with the girls and Jon as best as I can. C is keeping busy with all her school challenges and now a program through the YMCA that includes field trips , water safety, art, library time and so much more. She is one busy girl and I can only hope it wears her out!

We haven’t been camping in 11 years. Yup, you read that right… 11 years. After moving to Minnesota we just never made time for it or found a campsite that we loved as much as our camping place in Michigan.

When we had C we wanted her to experience camping. Well her not so great sleeping held that off for quite some time as we didn’t want her crying to wake everyone else around us up. As she got older she let us know that she had an immense fear of bugs. Yeah, try telling a 2 year old that the bug really wasn’t after her when it would crawl up her leg/arm/foot/etc. Well as we got to the point that we could take her, I was pregnant and just didn’t want to camp pregnant, not my thing sorry. Then we had CJ and I just wasn’t ready to brave the outdoors with two kids, one being a baby since we own two cars that don’t have big trunks to hold everything we would need for two girls.

Last weekend we went to my parents house and set the tent up. So thankful that it is in great condition after being stored for 11 years. Enough that we are going to take the plunge next weekend for one day to see how it goes. If all goes well, we will try it again and then maybe schedule a little weekend.

Now the question is, what the heck do we pack?!

School is out for our cute six and a half year old, yet you would never know that by talking with her.  She has taken on the Principal’s Challenge which requires reading, working on math and writing stories. There is a Kindergarten going into First Grade and then the rest of the grades level. And my little smartie pants is taking on the big kids level. So 1500 reading minutes, 5 minutes a day of math for a total of 50 days and writing 6 stories. So far so good, just got to work on the reading, which is funny as she loves to read. So tv will be turned off for an hour each day, which is usually is until around 3:30, so that she will read and not get distracted.

On top of the school challenge, C has taken it upon herself to teach her sister her ABC’s and her numbers. CJ can count to 20 with a little help and can sing her ABC’s, but she doesn’t know her letters or numbers. So today she started school. It was a little difficult for C as she wanted CJ’s attention when she just didn’t have it. So with her daddy’s help a new plan is in place and we will see how the whole things goes for a few weeks. The day after July 4th C will be in a program that Monday and Friday is an afternoon program and Tuesday-Thursday is a full day program. Should keep her busy, at least we hope so. More on that later.

So today we dropped cookies off as well as a “story” Chloe wrote for the Police Chief. He had left for the day by the time we got there which was sad, but Chloe was still excited to drop the items off for him to get in the morning. She got really nervous as we were getting ready to walk in and even more so once we were inside and they called to see if he was available. Such a sweet little girl. After leaving the cookies with a wonderful woman that works there, we ended up heading downstairs and signing her up for soccer for the Fall. She is REALLY excited for that. Thankfully we didn’t need a new jersery since she has the one from last year and they are reusing them. Hopefully she has another great group of girls to play with.

Chloe also had her last official meeting for Girl Scouts this week. She was sad to know that it was ending, but was excited to hear that we had said she would be back next year. I think it was a good thing for her and the leaders are amazing! She is very excited to receive more patches for her smock. Guess I have time to get them all on now.

Some very sad news for Chloe though. I finally told her that one of her best friends was moving away. She kept asking where and when I finally told her she burst into tears. Poor girl doesn’t understand she will now have another pen pal. I have been thinking about calling the mom and seeing if she would be okay with me coming and picking her daughter up to have a mini photo shoot with the girls and to make a little book for each girl. I have some pictures that I took over the 3 years the girls have been friends and I know the mom has some as well. Thankfully Chloe makes friends fairly quickly but I know this little girl will be missed. There was high hopes the girls would be together next year in class.

Let’s see, oh Chloe is now in Speech. It was learned that even after the tubes were put in some of her letters were still not right. So she will attend speech twice a week in hopes that will help her with articulation. She has an amazing teacher who asked if she could have her observed and a great speech teacher that will be working with her. Plus I have the opportunity to ask a friend of mine that is in school for her masters in Speech. Love having someone I can ask questions to when I feel lost.

She loves her pen pals and is super excited to meet Jos in July. I think I hear about it almost weekly what we are doing that week when we see her. For Chloe, I think it helps that she will have someone to be with since it is more of a WT get together than for her. I know she is excited and that is all I can ask for. Plus the special family trip will be great for all of us to spend time together away from home and able to just relax.

As the end of the year comes upon us, I have to sit here and reflect on the fact that my daughter is almost a 1st grader. It seems like yesterday she was going to preschool for the first time and now she is almost done with Kindergarten. She loves school and anything involved with it. Enjoys Reading Club. All the friends she has made. Our special time when I take her to school somedays. We are so lucky to live in such a great area with such an awesome school system. Even better, I work for that school system!

A good friend of mine is homeschooling her daughter. After reading one of her posts it got me really thinking about what I want my girls to learn about government, people who work in the different fields, etc. All this brought me to an episode of 19. Kids and Counting that I watched where the kids baked cookies and brought them to the Fire Stations and Police Departments as a thank you. Wheels turning I spoke with Chloe about this adventure and she wanted to go full force. Last night I wrote to both our local Fire Chief and Police Chief asking if they accept cookies (or any baked goods) and if they would mind if we stopped in for her to meet Police Officers and the Firefighters. To Chloe, they are local heroes that help people, but she also knows that the Police Officers pull people over. So after the emails were sent I sat down and asked her to come up with a few questions that she would want to ask these indivduals. I love her questions and once we go and meet them I will post the questions and hopefully some pictures. Chloe really wants to see our Cities K-9 unit, which I find funny since she is scared of most dogs.

To me I find value in learning about who protects us and serves our community and our nation. My brother served our country in the US Air Force for 6 years and is currently serving in the National Guard. My father-in-law was in the Navy as was one of Jon’s Uncles. Jon also has an Uncle that is a former Marine. I have lots of Navy in my family as a cousin and my Grandfather served. So the girls get a glimpse of our national protectors. I would love for them to see Washington DC when they are older, one of my FAVORITE cities, and witness all the levels there. I have been so lucky to be able to say that I have seen the Supreme Court in action, the Library of Congress, seen Congress in session, been in the Hart building, sat a Senator’s chair that was serving for the area that we lived, been to countless memorials, watched the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, it is amazing. It is important that my girls understand that what we have is not free, that people have lost their lives protecting us. This is just my little way of trying to show the girls that there are people out there trying to keep us safe and we are so very lucky that they do the job they (hopefully) enjoy.

So we will have cookies for the Police Department and we will get a chance to see both the Police and the Fire Stations and the girls will get a glimpse into what they do.

Now to figure out whats next… maybe Construction?