new

The first week of May, our family participated in our fifth annual Screen Free Week where we pulled out the plugs from our screen devices (tvs, laptop, tablets, and the social media on our phones) and spent the week unplugged and looking up. At five years in, everyone in our family is pretty familiar with how the week operates and has turned into basically a standard 'holiday' week that we celebrate at this time year; like Mardi Gras or St. Patrick's Day, or Shark Week.  In fact, at these ages (with no phones or devices of their own), the kids enjoy screen free week mostly because they get us all to themselves as WE (the parents) are not stuck with our noses in our devices. And so, as in years past, I tape up a reminder note on the television and flip off it's surge protector, I tuck the iPad on top of the fridge and let the battery waste away, I close my laptop down, and we stow our phones on the kitchen counter in hopes of forgetting about them. And we get about to li...

It's Screen Free Week again! I have been so looking forward to this week this year, because I know I am in need of a week-long reboot of screens so badly and I just can't wait to be 'off the hook' of knowing and seeing all.the.things all.the.time. The kids, as every year so far, won't even really flinch because they are much less tuned into screens than Bud and I.  It really boils down to the access to phones and since only the adults in our home have those currently, the main screen zombies are us! This year will be our fifth year participating in Screen Free Week and it's become another one of those mini-holidays we celebrate at our house.  The kids know it's coming, they know the drill, and we act like it's just another special week during a year of little (and big) celebrations. In preparation, the kids and I sat down to draft up a list of the kinds of things we could do that didn't involve screens - just in case we needed a reminder during the w...

First up in our fishing season was Mentor fishing day - which falls the weekend before the First day of Trout that is set up to encourage and promote kids to learn to fish.  Our two biggest kids filled out their youth fishing licenses and packed their backpacks for a fishing camp sleepover with their cousins the night before. The two little ones and I stayed home, so I woke up to this little face in our bed.  I got text pics all morning of everyone having a great time on the creek and lots of updates about how much fun the cousins were all having together.  We had plenty of mentors to go around for all the kids, including my Dad (Chum) who drove out for the day.  It's nice to have lots of adults around to help with all the different aspects of fishing and to keep an eye on kids who are baiting hooks, chopping wood (!), cooking over the fire, and hanging out near rushing water. We got a visit at our house with cousins Lisa and Rowan and then we all packed up and heade...