Planning for Summer Survival

Well, it has been awhile again since my last post.  I'm trying to post a couple times a week for several reasons, but mostly because I like it!  Like everything in my life I'm finding I have to make time for it.

Right now in our crazy life, D has one and a half days of school left, I'm recovering from a nasty sinus thing, and we are finally settled into our temporary living arrangements (which are amazing!), and as of right now I'm excited for summer.  Ask me again in about two weeks though.

To help survive, and I do mean survive, our summer I am making out plans for daily-weekly activities.  I find that if the days aren't semi-structured D and W get antsy and bored.  I'll also have another, kiddo Miss F, so I think planning ahead will make things easier on everyone.  So here is my idea for summer!

Movie day Monday 

Library Tuesday 

Water Wednesday 

Crafty Thursday 

Field trip Friday

Maybe one of these needs to be a park day and also I could make the first summer craft making and coloring some calendar pages so we know what's coming when, it's kind of a work in progress.

Next week starts swimming lessons for the older kiddos which should be interesting.  D has a football camp at the end of August and will continue to do his gymnastics through the summer.  I'm looking at maybe a soccer camp for W since he seemed to enjoy soccer so much, but we'll see.   

Of course this still needs to be a little flexible because things are in a constant state of change around here!  I will also have a weekly play date set up with some of my other mom friends so the kids can see their friends and also so I can stay tethered to my sanity.   Curious as to how many kiddos we have combined?  Here's a pic:

What you can't see is another child in a stroller and two more who aren't in attendance to this event!  We have a crew.

Within each day we will also have time set aside for quiet reading time and solo time so that all the kiddos don't end up fighting all day.  

I did see a good tip that I want to try it's called the boredom basket.  It's full of activities and chores and when a child comes to me saying they are bored I'll get it out and they pick one and that's what they get to do, like it or not!   

As crazy as summer is to get through, it does seem to fly by and the next thing you know it'll be the start of another school year and then snowing.  So I'm going to try my hardest to enjoy the little things this summer and take it at a relaxed pace.  I want to leave a little time for spontaneity - which is hard with four kiddos, but I want us to be able to enjoy our summer and not be going at a crazy pace!

I do not want my summer to look like this:

I want to be able to enjoy the amazing Montana summer that looks a little like this:

What do you all do to stay sane in the summer??  

Let me know in the comments below!!

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Interesting tidbit about this post:  I wrote this on my iPad mini with 15 month old twin boys climbing on me, around me, the couches and anything else they could get a foothold on.  The older two were doing their own part to keep me on my toes and ignoring their twin brothers who were also super interested in the tv, the tv remote and my phone.  

Somehow I managed to keep anyone from getting hurt, nothing got broken and I got this post done!  

That's my super power, what's yours?

Until next time!