The Water Bottle Solution

So...you want to know what happened, right?  Well, here it is.  It didn't quite work out the way I planned, but I am not sure what I should have done differently.  (Besides go back for the water bottle in the first place, because the more I have thought about it, the more I think maybe I should have.)

Anyway, I liked all your answers.  Thanks for the feedback.  I really liked the idea of selling a toy to come up with the money.  I think that would have been the best solution to teach Sophia the cost.  I think her having to part with something would have left more of an impact.  The problem is that I don't think she has many toys that are worth $15 used.  We would have had to sell several things for a few dollars here and there.  And to be honest, I just wasn't willing to go through the work and the wait of posting them on Craig's List, hoping that someone would want her used babies to teach her a lesson.  If I could have thought of anything she owned that would have been worth the right amount in one shot, I think I would have done it.

So instead, I made her pay me back every penny.  I was determined to do it, no matter how long it took.  I loaned her the money so that I didn't have to wait four months for a new water bottle, but then we taped the receipt right next to her payday chart, and subtracted amounts every time she was able to pay me.  All of her savings and spending money were coming back to me until she could pay off her debt.

What I didn't take into account when I decided on this solution was that she had a birthday coming up.  Duh.  Which wouldn't normally factor in too much, because my kids generally don't really get money for gifts.  Until this year.  Guess how much she got for her birthday?  You got it, $15!!!  Come on, Mom, you could have just bought me a new water bottle!  :)

Not really sure that the lesson was driven home the way I intended, but what else can I do.  Lesson learned.  For both of us.  Or at least me!

Thanks for the input!

The Last Leg of the Journey

Let's be real.  These posts are mostly for those of you loved ones who want to see the pictures, so I'll do my best to cut to the chase and give you what you long for!

We spent the last few days of our 3 weeks of traveling in South Dakota.  It was the first time most of the Nielson clan got to meet Phoebe, and our opportunity to see Tim's grandparents before they head south for the winter.  We happened to be there on our newest niece Naomi's birthday, so we got to celebrate with a day at the water park- of which I have not one single picture.  (Might be able to use the puking kid excuse for that one.)  But we spent lots of time riding tractors, swinging, loving kitties beyond their wildest dreams (desires), and hanging out with the fam!

Sophia and her cousin Leona.  Sophia got cowgirl boots to match Leona's as an early birthday present from her cousins.  (Sam and Gabe were so concerned that she wouldn't be matching that they actually opted to return the gift they had already gotten for her to get the boots to match Leona and Naomi!  And Leona, who has two brothers, is only too happy to finally have a girl to match!)  She loves the boots, and I frequently have to try to rationalize why wearing the boots to the pool when it's 100 degrees might not be the best choice!

Sophia and Naomi going for a ride.  

The farm is all about rides!  Here, Tim is giving his sister, Sophonise, and niece Naomi a ride on the four wheeler.

Phoebe meets Great Grandpa Walt and Great Grandma Leona.

All the Nielson grandkids.  Noah (3), Sam (5), Naomi (1), Leona (5), Sophia (almost 5), Phoebe (4 months), and Gabe (5).

The matching cousins: Sophia, Naomi, and Leona.

What would you do?

Now, I don't pretend to be one of those super-bloggers, of the professional nature who have thousands upon thousands of people caring to read what I write.  But I know there are a few other mom readers out there, and so it is for you that I pose this question:  What would you do?


Let me tell you about the "water bottle incident" and I would love to hear your feedback.  In typical summer fashion, we all ventured out to a park yesterday to meet a friend for lunch and outdoor play (ie: fun for the kids AND mom, since I get to chat and catch up with a good friend).  During the course of the outing, I offered Sophia a drink from my water bottle.  Somehow, without my realizing it, she took off to swing with my water bottle (yes, exactly like the one pictured above).  I discovered this, you guessed it, once we had gotten home.  It probably took me a full minute of internal debate to talk myself out of loading all three kids back in the car to go in search of the missing water bottle.


Needless to say, the water bottle incident left me a little perplexed and frustrated.  Partially at myself for not realizing that Sophia had carried it off.  (If you know me, you may realize that I am kind of anally good at keeping track of my things.)  But also at Sophia for leaving it behind.  Now, I know I need to cut her slack; she is, after all, only 4.  At the same time, though, I do desire to teach her a lesson about remembering things and their value.  


I realize in the scheme of life that a $15.00 water bottle is minimal, but on our simple budget, I will not be replacing very many $15 water bottles.  We have recently started "pay days" for the kids when they get paid for the chores they do.  They each have a spend, save, and give envelope.  The grand total in Sophia's spend and save envelopes?  83 cents.  Gonna take her awhile to pay for that water bottle.  And several months before I can replace it.  


So, there you have the water bottle incident.  Which brings me to the question- What would you do?  I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Conversations to Remember

Last week, on one of my cherished nights "Off Duty," I spent some time exploring the world of blogging.  I have just become aware of how deep and vast that world is, and it kinda scares me.  I love it, but I am overwhelmed by how much time it can seem to take.  You could spend forever reading from one blog to the next.  I'm all about learning great mom tips and tricks, but man alive, it could consume a person if you let it.

Anyway, as I am just beginning to get my feet wet into this new world, I frequently find myself musing about how these moms find time to do it all.  Clean house, well-behaved kids, families on the go, organization beyond my wildest dreams, all the while blogging about all of it.

So I made a goal to attempt to blog every day for two weeks and see what that would look like in my life.  HOW on earth to fit it all in?  I fairly recently started a list of writing topics I would love to explore "when I have time."  (Yeah, right, what was I thinking?)  But all of those things will take far more time than I have right now.  So, to make good on my goal for today, I leave you with some insights in our house over the past week.

A Conversation with Sophia:
In a public restroom at a park.  For the 5th time that day.  By 12:00.  Noon.

Me: "You have to go to the bathroom ALL the time!  Always!"
Sophia: "Yeah.  Because my brain is so small isn't it, Mommy?"
Me:  "I think you mean bladder, Sweetie!"

A Morning with Noah:
Who was recently stung by a bee for the first time.  Who is now VERY aware of bees.  Real and fake.  Photos and drawings.  Who asks lots of questions about bees' stingers.

Noah (while running around the house after Sophia):  "Ah.  It's my stinger!  I will sting you!"
Tim: "You are NOT a bee.  Pull your pants up and put that thing back in there."
Noah: "But it's my stinger!"

And there you have it folks.  A day in the life of a Nielson...

The Skier and the Scaredy-Cat

If you know our family, you may have made guesses as to who's who, but maybe these pictures will tell a different story for you.

Ski?  Why, yes, I would love to try!

Man, this horseshoe ski is sweet.  This is so easy!

No big deal, Friends.  I love this stuff!

My sister sure has some guts.  Look at her go.  I wish I were that brave.

But, alas, this is as good as you're getting from me, folks.  I'd love to ski.  Behind the boat?  Hun-unh.  No way.  Not today.  I just want to "pretend ski."

And if I can ski, why not tube, too?  This stuff is so easy!  I am, after all, "just a little fishy in that water, aren't I, Mama?"

That's right folks!  My timid little princess tried skiing for the first time this weekend!  It was awesome to watch her.  Hubs keeps trying to discredit the whole event by explaining to everyone that he held her up to get started and that all she had to do was stand there.  True enough.  But I am still so proud of her for trying!  I couldn't believe she did it.  She usually doesn't want to try anything new that involves either risk or failure.  If she's not confident that she will nail it on the first try, forget about it.  And, to make me eat my words, she fell off the first time and got right up and did it again!

Noah on the other hand was having none of it.  He was content to play with the ski and run around with it as long as the water was only a foot deep.  Behind the boat, yeah, right.  

Do you think I was smart enough to video any of this monumental event?  Nope.  Didn't even occur to me.  And while Sophia will tell you that was her favorite part about being at the lake this weekend, I absolutely could not coax her back on the ski to get some video footage.  Oh well, something to shoot for quite literally - pun fully intended!

Tales of Traveling, Part 2

In order to prevent extreme boredom, I think I'll share the second leg of summer traveling mostly with pictures.  They pretty much tell most of the story anyway.

Except for the crazy Nielson way of traveling.  We arrived back to church from our Kansas trip at just about 12:00 noon on Saturday, July 3rd.  We cleaned up at church, waited for all the high schoolers to depart and headed home.  We made it back to our house around 1:00.  The next few hours were a bit of a blur involving ONE load of laundry, changing the oil in the van, cutting Hub's hair, going through the mail, balancing the checkbook, holding the mail for the next two weeks, mowing the lawn, taking Kansas stuff out of the suitcases to make room for the MN and SD stuff I had piled on the floor before the first part of our trip, repacking the van, feeding Phoebe, watering plants, waiting for the buzzer on the dryer, and heading out of town just 3 short hours after we arrived!  

That's right.  3 hours.  That's how long we were home in between trips.  After all, we needed to be in MN by 1:00 on Sunday, July 4th.  For one very important reason.  

That's right, Friends.  Please don't forget that our annual trips home each summer are ALWAYS planned around the Twins schedule.  And how much more so this year, in our desperate attempts to see the new stadium.  THANK YOU to my dad for making it possible for us to get into this sold out 4th of July game without having to scalp tickets.

Okay, I'm really not that bad of a mom.  The (other) real rush to get to MN, of course, was this:

My brother and sister-in-law had Noah and Sophia (in addition to their own two small people) for the last 3 days of our Kansas trip.  We are so grateful to them for generously doubling their craziness and loving on our kids in our absence.  And really, I'm not a bad person for going to the baseball game with Hubs first before seeing the kids, right?

The remainder of our time in MN went something like this:

Sweetest P got to meet her cousin Mackenzie for the first time.  Cousin M was born just 4 days after Sweetest P!  And Oma had all kinds of time to love on the two sweetest baby girls I know.

We spent all kinds of time here:

We were, after all, in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.  (Did you know it's actually 14,000 some?)  And sadly, in all that time, this is about the only picture I have to show for it.

With the youngest two watching:

Strangely enough, this trip also involved a lot of this:

We rode rides at the Mall of America.  We rode rides at Como Zoo.  We rode rides at Oma and Opa's.  (If you count riding the tractor with your self-proclaimed "crazy uncle" a ride.)  All firsts for my kids.  And now I'm screwed because for the first time, they know what rides are about and there's no going back to that blissful state of money-saving ignorance.

And don't forget this:

If you exlcude sleeping time, I think we spent more time outside than in.

Which may result in this:

Which may result in an inconvenient, unplanned shower!

But the best part of this leg of our journey, was this:

All kinds of time with the parts of the frozen tundra we love best!

Peace out, MN!

Things to Remember in a Day

As a mom of many small children, do ya ever stop to ponder all the things you must remember in a day?  Today was a very typical summer's day for us, and I can't tell you how many times I thought about all the things I needed to remember.

My perfect mental plan was for us to get out the door at 10:00 to meet some dear friends at a park just five minutes from our house- at 10:30. Those of you who are not moms of small children are scratching your heads at this point trying to figure out why we needed a half an hour. Those of you who ARE moms of small children are nodding your heads in total understanding.

And for the record, it turns out I have learned just a few things about mothering small children, because here's how the morning schedule played out:
9:55- I hopped in the shower.  Now or never, right?
10:00-Comb hair with one hand (because we all know styling is a long gone luxury and combing now constitutes styling), brush teeth with the other.
10:05- Grab a green pepper, broccoli, carrots, meat and cheese out of fridge for lunch, add some ranch dip for good measure to insure that my kids remember I am a GREAT mom!  Finish packing lunch.
10:10- Round up all buckets/shovels/etc. from sandbox in backyard to take with us, while instructing kids to get on Crocs and start strapping themselves in carseats.
10:13 Fill water bottles.  3 of them.  Ice AND water.
10:15 Get Sweetest P out of bed, into carseat.
10:18 Grab camera, phone, crackers, swim gear, diaper bag, baby, sunglasses and head out the door.
10:19 Back in the house for my forgotten water bottle still on the counter.
10:20 Get Noah off his bike, into the van and strapped in his carseat.
10:22 Pull out of driveway
10:30 Arrive at park EXACTLY on time.  Super impressed with myself.  My friend is waiting for us, kids in the stroller, sunscreening many small children, 5 minutes ahead of me and putting me to shame.

DISCLAIMER: This schedule involves not one iota of exaggeration, and now you non-moms-of-small-children might understand why I allotted myself a half an hour to get to a park five minutes from my house!

So...back to that list of things I need to remember for today.  On this very typical summer day, it went something like this:
*swimsuits on kids-check
*towel-check
*dry clothes/underwear for later-check
*picnic blanket-check
*stroller-check
*stocked diaper bag-check
*lunch-check
*Sophia's vitamins-check
*knife to cut green pepper-check
*Ranch dip for veggies, so kids think I'm a GREAT mom-check
*water bottles x3-check
*water toys-check
*Crocs for kids to wear in very rocky water-check
*camera-check
*sunscreen-check
*Money to ride the little train-check
*baby-check
*Make kids go to the bathroom before we leave.  Easier here than there-check.
*Have kids move bikes out of the way for Dad's car when we get home-check.
*Return movies to library: TBD.

We hit the road, my brain intact after all that hard work, and I'm feeling like Mom extraordinaire for remembering it all.

We get to the park, and as the day progresses, I realize the things I've forgotten:
*deodorant.  Note to self: must keep some in the car for exactly this reason.  Dear Jesus, help me not to smell.  Too much.
*To fix Sophia's hair before we left.
*To APPLY the sunscreen I ingeniously remembered.
*To GIVE Sophia the vitamins I remembered to bring along.
*When the last time my kids had a bath.  Which I discovered while fixing Sophia's hair.  At the park.  With mud on her head.  From the mud pit she played in last night.  (In my defense, there were showers at the mud pit, and I thought we had gotten it off.  Turns out I was wrong.  We missed some.)
*To make sure kids haven't REMOVED anything from the aforementioned stocked diaper bag.  Like burp rags.  For my favorite Sweetest P- who happens to be a VERY spitty baby.
*To take the chicken out of the freezer for dinner tonight.
*To CHANGE the baby's diaper with the again said diaper bag.  Now I'm feeling like a TERRIBLE mom.
*That Sophia WILL need to go to the bathroom 5 minutes after we get there, even if I did remember to make her go before we left home.  And every hour after that.  No matter what.  It's never convenient.  I may think teaching the kids to go in the river/stream we were playing in is the best idea I've had all day.  Until I realize what I've forgotten about this is that once they do so, they will announce to everyone and anyone that they have just done so.  And be so marveled at the fact that they can go in the water that they just might do so every 15 minutes just for fun.

And that, my friends, about sums it up.  Things to Remember in a Day- or alternately titled: Why My Brain Just Might Explode.  Or so I feel some days!

Chillin'.  It's what I do best.

Watching the train pass.

Playing in the river/stream.

And yes, last but not least, I leave you with the documentation that if you teach your kids to pee in the water, they may do it frequently just for fun.  For clarification and redemption, the water was flowing downstream, and there was no one behind us!