August Events

August, like all other months this year, has been very busy. Here are some smaller events!

-We hit up Jurassic Jungle on the 6th. We found out they added a new mission, so we decided to use our membership on a night we had some free time. We spent a couple hours there letting the kids loose and we all had a lot of fun. I really love going through with the kids and playing wtih them. Pierce was obsessed with the slides (which I still get nervous to try since my bum injury)

-I decided to take the kids out to get a Heaven in a Cup on the last Friday before school started (the 8th) at the Chevron up the street. I had been talking about it for weeks with the kids, but unfortunately when we got there we found out that they don't do them anymore. While we were bummed, I let the kids pick between Frazils or ice cream from the freezer. Pierce and Lucy chose frazils (blue and mango) and Me, Gwen, and Cara chose ice cream (I got snickers ice cream bar and they each got a Spongebob one). I was bugged when we were driving home and I realized we probably should've gone to the snow cone shack instead, but oh well. We enjoyed it!

-We spent the weekend of the 9th going up to City Creek, hitting up Cheesecake Factory, and getting our cars cleaned out! I had been wanting to do Cheesecake Factory for lunch (hopefully with a lesser crowd) ever since we attempted to go after Wicked, so this was the first time we could make it work. I tried their new Oreo cheesecake and, as usual, the food was really good! After lunch we walked the mall looking for clothes for family pictures coming up. The mall was really nice, there were lots of places to explore. The kids loved the fountains and checking out the toy store (which was only okay). I also let them pick out bath bombs from Lush (which also had some fun activities for the kids to try out). On the way home we hit up the car wash (I had washed the black car earlier in the week and realized the van needed to be cleaned too). It was nice to have a family weekend right before the chaos of school started.

-Soccer officially started on the 16th. We took the kids out to buy new cleats on the 4th. We went to Dick's where we learned their shoes get ALL sorts of mixed up and we ended up having to order Gwen's online (we also found they have EVERY flavor of Big League Chew so we had to grab some of those haha). Luckily, Lucy could reuse ones we used last time AND we already had shin guards that worked for all girls, so didn't need those. The first game was a bit unexpected (I thought the season was going to start on the 17th, we got last minute texts from the coaches to do quick practices before the game and it got pretty chaotic). Adjusting to adding soccer in our mix has been....interesting. Hopefully once gymnastics ends (next week) it'll get a little easier.

Not really activities or events, but things I am celebrating this month:

-I have new cleaning and organizing plans, a little different than the ones I posted about back in March. After that post and doing the activity closet, I got sick of organizing and stopped (that ADD hit again! I'm telling you, it's a huge problem). Then I realized I needed to get the house under control (when the motivation hits I love it, but it's keeping the motivation that seems to be a problem) and started up on Sundays again (instead of doing our usual cleaning). But, of course, it means our normal house areas (bathrooms, floors, etc.) would get super messy.

 So, I got an idea back in July: I'd gather boxes to pack it up like we're moving and then we'd bring stuff out as we needed/used it. Then that evolved into lots of different ideas (why pack everything if there are things we know we'll use - like the dishes or our books). So now the plan is to clean like normal on Sundays and wake up early Mondays and Fridays to just clean out ANY area, doesn't matter where. I make sure to touch/go through every item/piece to make sure we actually need it, it has all pieces, it's in the right area, etc. I make sure to have a box for the "I'm not sure if we're keeping" it stuff and another for the "for sure giveaway" stuff (the "I don't know" stuff is being added to giveaway if we don't use it within a year-ish). Our giveaway pile is growing BIG (especially after I went through the kitchen). I'm really digging through stuff to get it cleaned out this time because I'm officially sick of keeping ALL the crap. At one point I attempted to do the kids' rooms and that almost knocked me off course (SO demotivating), but I forced myself get back into it. We've already done a few Saver's runs and it's nice to get the stuff out of our house! So far we've finished the two front rooms, part of Cara's room, and the kitchen! Decluttering feels SO good, but now I cant wait to get rid of the boxes haha. 

-I have created a new workout routine. I used to do workouts on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. At first I'd do nights on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but then one day (way before my surgery) I decided to get up early on those days and do it in the mornings, which was a nice game changer! But Sundays was starting to fill up with things, so now I get up early Tuesdays and Thursdays to do a basement workout (like I used to) and then on Mondays and Wednesdays I do a workout on my walking pad, in the office, right at the end of work. I do different "strength" things between the two and I end up looking forward to doing them. Because I'm getting up Early Mondays and Fridays AND Tuesdays and Thursdays, I make sure to sleep in a bit on Wednesdays (usually just an extra hour, but it's VERY nice). Now Sundays can be for grocery shopping, cleaning, and (soon) Football :) It's been such a nice change for me! 

-And, of course, my favorite pics of the kids:

Gwen gave Cucumber an award for being 
So cute and fluffy!