Trading Date Nights

Tonight I had 7 kids, 1 college student & 1 husband in my house.  4 extras for DATE NIGHT!

9 years ago my friend Gwen & I were desperate for some time out of the house with our husbands.

Date night was born.  This means different things to our children than to us as parents & they look forward to it just as much as we do.  One night a month my kids go to Gwen’s house for a Friday night and Steve & I go out & eat or to a movie or wherever!  Then on another Friday, Gwen’s 4 kids come to our house & they go out.

It is the perfect arrangement.  The kids get to play and the parents get to spend time together.  Seriously if we’ve not got it scheduled the kids start to ask “When is date night?”

We’ve been so blessed to have them in our home & get to grow up with our children’s friends.

Now that Michael is in college he isn’t around for date nights.  However if he hears that it is going to happen at Gwen’s house then he’s been known to show up.  I love that my kids are comfortable around my friends.  Of course Michael & Gwen’s hubby go off and play computer games than I totally don’t get.  But hey that is okay.

However, as they’ve gotten older and we now have 3 teens in the mix--it has changed.  Tonight the 2 teen girls took over the kitchen and baked cookies.  I am not complaining of course.

They aren’t in to Barbies & Polly Pockets anymore.  They had Grooveshark going for music on my computer & were picking fun songs to play for us to work to.  I love it.  I am just along for the ride & it is a wild and crazy one! 

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

How do you eat an Elephant?

I have scrapbooking on the brain since I got back from my getaway this weekend.  I keep hoping to sneak off downstairs to work for a few minutes.  It hasn’t happened yet but I am still hopeful.

On the other hand I have done almost a full week of homeschool with all three kidos!  That hasn’t happened due to illness & various other distractions for a couple of weeks!

Right now working on my pictures feels like an a MASSIVE project that just sits there waiting.

I often ask my kids “how do you eat an elephant?”  They then give me 1 of two looks.

1.  Confused—they haven’t heard my speech about having too much to do to catch up and feeling overwhelmed.  They want to give up and not try but I won’t let them.

 

2.  Oh mom—not that speech.  Complete with eye rolling(I’ve never caught this in a picture!)  They’ve heard it but it hasn’t sunk in yet so I have to repeat it again.  Break your project down in to small pieces and then start working on one of them.  Just take a small BITE!

I am basically 5 years behind with pictures.  That means I either have pictures in a box, slide in album, or on my computer that aren’t out where the kids can enjoy them.  Just slightly frustrating.  These weekends where I go away let me get our vacations done but not much else.

So instead of packing my supplies away I took them to the basement so that I can work at odd moments.  Even if I only do a few pages a month, that is better than doing nothing. 

I am going to report here in a month—April 23rd.  Accountability is good right?  Feel free to check on me if I don’t report!  I am not setting a specific goal but a general one just to work on some pages.  I also plan to put up some simple layouts that I like to do over and over.  But for now I am going to get to work.

What projects do you have that are elephants & what is the next BITE you are going to take?

Scrapbook Getaway!

Brownie + Scrapbooking = Perfection

Partner in Crime

Some of my best friends on the planet

I never get anything done while I am here.