I am a fun mom

 Rye Beach, NH   Yesterday

This post documents that I possess spontaneity and can be fun sometimes. Not as spontaneous and fun as some of my daughters, but at least I drove them there. 

It is only 1/2 way through March, not even officially spring until next week. And usually not spring up here until May. It  even snowed several inches last weekend.

This was Marcus barefoot in our backyard Monday. So what were we doing at the beach on Wednesday? 

A couple of us were swimming. 

Camille and Savannah are totally insane.

The rest of us were on the shore shivering a bit wishing we weren't in shorts and tee shirts. 

They said it felt like ice. I reminded them the northern Atlantic feels like ice in August. I was afraid that one of the many beach walkers bundled up in their coats was going to report me for negligence/child abuse. 

So that's why you don't take your kids to the beach in the winter. They will swim. In their clothes. 

 All winter long Kennon has been complaining that I never take them to the beach. Especially since we got a new camera. She keeps saying, " Why do we even live here if we never go to the beach?" 


Yesterday it was 60 degrees. So I surprised them when they got home with the car packed with a picnic, camera and Marcus's beach toys, "Let's go to the beach!"


 I didn't pack any swimsuits. Savannah ran in and grabbed one.

Once at the beach it felt at least 20 degrees colder than it did at our house.  Marcus got wet up to the overalls. His favorite overalls that he has missed dearly all winter. 

 He dried off while chasing all the dogs that passed by. 

Kennon didn't swim but took tons of pictures.  And that's the whole reason we went anyway. 

I visited the second grade yesterday and enjoyed Caroline's class presentation. She spent most of her time smiling and posing for me.

And this picture shows that Kennon literally takes pictures of everything. Even our makeshift outhouse for Caroline at the beach. Calvin went too but we never got him out of the car seat for pictures. Too cold. 

 So that was a fun day. Most days unfortunately I get too busy to be fun and choose working instead when it's up to me. Only because there is always so much to do and it it makes me feel so good when I get it done. And fun can be a lot of work too. Especially when it involves a sandy beach deposited in my car. 


Lately I spend many hours painting. I painted all the basement walls then all the trim. Now I am going through this house room by room painting maple trim. 

Just because I can't stand the look of wood. Brent can't understand what I have against stained wood, but it's so boring and dated. If you ask me. 

My painting projects around here seem like they will never end. I love the work but hate all the slow progress since painting isn't the only day job I am juggling. 


I sometimes think I should just forget about home improvement until Calvin starts running around but so far I keep up the daily juggling. 
This actually is one reason I blog about our lives. It helps me to refocus on what's important. 


Parenting. . . not painting.