Clever Child Care

I'm starting to get smart about child care. Or at least I have friends who are smart, and it's starting to rub off on me. It's a funny thing to "get a sitter" when you're a stay-at-home-mom. It's hard to justify spending money on a sitter when your primary job is to be home with your kids.

But it is also super easy to justify spending money on a sitter when your primary job is to be home with your kids. Because you can never leave your job. Ever. Unless you have a sitter.

So here are three creative sitter ideas I want to pass along:

1. Hour for Hour: The most obvious of the babysitter swaps. My friend Ali and I try for this once a month. We set the dates on the calendar. One day a month I'll drop my kids off at her house from 9-1. And then later that month she'll drop her kids off at my house from 9-1. It means when my kids are at her house, I can be at my own house, without kids. Which is one crazy, amazing feeling. I've also noticed how much easier my own kids are when Ali's kids are over. Everyone seems a bit more self-sufficient because they have playmates. I still have to help with toy disputes and sharing from time to time, but I love having her kids here. And I love having my own time too. And when my kids go to her house, she feeds them her food. When her kids are at my house, I feed them our food. No packing lunches...that just makes more work for the mama who is getting the morning off!

2. Parent Date Night: My friend Allyson thought this one up and it's brilliant. At the beginning of each month she emails me dates they are available for the next month. Any nights of the week are game. Then I reply with the dates that work for us. We narrow down to two different nights. One night Rory and I will bring both cars and our kids to her house, while she and her husband go out on a date. When bedtime comes, Rory loads our kids in one car and takes them home for bedtime. I put Allyson's kids to bed and then cozy up on their couch with a good book because the deal with this swap is that it usually allows for late night dates. The couple on the date isn't paying for a sitter, which means this date can be longer than normal. And when they return, I get in my own car and drive myself home. It eliminates paying a sitter AND driving to pick up and drop off the sitter! The babysitting itself is a family affair...I love having Rory babysitting with me and it's easy peasy because our kids adore each other and entertain themselves nicely.

3. Monday Morning Babysitter: This one costs money. At some point it dawned on me that dollar for dollar, I would rather pay for a babysitter for four hours on a Monday morning than for four hours on a weekend night. So I have a girl from church come for just four hours each week. I pay a little more because she's married and this is her income. But it's worth every dime. The bonus is that when I wake up on a Monday morning around 7, I have this two hour high productivity window that amazes me. I know my reward is coming at 9:00 in the form of a babysitter, so I get the house in shape, clean the kitchen, do some laundry, get myself ready and at 9:00 I fly out the door to a coffee shop or whatever. And sometimes Rory and I will arrange to meet for lunch, which makes this a legit date with my husband, as well.

And finally, I can't number this one because I haven't done it myself, I have a friend who used to live in South Dakota and swapped with two other friends. One loved to watch kids, one loved to make soup and another loved to make homemade cleaning products. So once a month they swapped these services. How clever is that?!!

So these are my latest discoveries in the world of Mama Self Care. Anyone else have any clever babysitting ideas?

Honey Bee School 101

So Bee Keepers are passionate people. There is a whole movement out there to save the honey bees and this week I have jumped on the bandwagon. Each night we've been watching another movie or youtube video and trying to educate ourselves as quickly as possible. And it's true. All that is happening to our honey bees is a really big deal. During one movie I turned to Rory told him that I'm really proud to be keeping our own bees.

Today I wanted to pass along a few of the movies and videos and sites that I have discovered. Two movies were recommended right in the comments of this blog. Brad (are you high school Brad?) recommended a great video called Portrait of an Urban Bee Keeper. It's 20 minutes long and really well done. Enjoyable to watch and worth your time. Also really cool to think of keeping bees in the city!

Then I found beverlybees.com and the resource page on that site is fantastic. This TED Talk she has on her site is an incredible overview of what is happening to our world's bees and why we should care.


We watched every other video on the Beverly Bees Resource page. Really fascinating stuff there about verroa mites and foul brood and colony collapse.

Rory's brother Kyle told us about the movie More Than Honey and we ordered that on Netflix. I enjoyed this movie a lot and was amazed at the up close footage they had of the bees doing their thing, even the birth of a queen. Really fascinating. The transportation of bees to big monocrop operations is pretty terrifying. The whole time we watched I kept shaking my head, "this is all against God's created order. God never designed the world to work this way..." It's sobering to watch.

And my greatest resource is our teacher, Adam. He came out again this week and was so excited to see our bees thriving. We even added a box so that one hive can spread out and make more comb! That's a great sign of a healthy hive and I was so excited.

And finally, there is Oma Zina. Oma Zina is my sister-in-law Lisa's mom who came out for her 77th birthday. She loves it out here and really loves our bees. She and her husband used to keep bees and she has a lot of great lessons to pass on about swarming, drones and even has her son sending her late husband's bee suit so she can get in on the action. What a joy!

Elsie eats a popsicle

The ratio is always the same: One Popsicle Equals One Bath.

being the fun aunt and the little sister

My sister had her 15 year reunion at St. Olaf this weekend, so I got to have her girls for two nights. It was awesome and also reminded me once again how hard it has been to transition from Aunt Bec with no kids to Aunt Bec with kids of my own. This is a warning to all of you readers who are aunties without kids of your own yet: LIVE IT UP! Before I had kids of my own, I was able to be all things to my nieces (especially my sister's kids...we lived in Montana for a season with them, and I made TONS of trips to visit even when we lived a 22 hour train ride away.)

The moment I had my own kids my ability to be all thing to these little girls shifted, and I'm still adjusting. I think they are too. Instead of being Super-Fun Aunt Bec, I have to do all sorts of things that tend to my own kids. Which makes me Not-Quite-As-Fun Aunt Bec.

This is just a shift I'm still trying to come to grips with. But again, if you are an auntie without kids of your own, savor this time. And know that things change a bit when you have your own.

This is unrelated, but a funny thing to recognize. My sister was with her college friends all weekend. And I adore her college friends. They're great people who I have gotten to know through weddings and parties and stories. And at age 33, I realized I totally fell into the little sister role again, pining for stories from Annika when she got back, asking for updates.

It's just funny to still be the little sister. Made me laugh a bit. I've been pining for stories and updates about Annika's friends since she was in the 5th grade. Wanting to know what they were doing, what they were talking about, what they're interested in etc..

Hilarious. I will always be the little sister. And I will always try super hard to be Super Fun Aunt Bec.

summertime things to do at home

A part of the summer packet we were given at ecfe was a list of things to do at home during the long days of summer. I actually much prefer staying home during the summer. It's finally time to be outside, and we've got plenty to do.

-Paint on the driveway with big paint brushes and a bucket of water
-Wash things with a bucket of water and soap (the stroller, the cars, toys from the sand box)
-Get out the sprinkler and baby pools. Make an obstacle course.
-Make up plays, dances: Oak Tree Theater.
-Set up a tent and pretend camp.
-Pick flowers, make dandelion necklaces and crowns.
-Blow Bubbles: make huge bubbles with hoola hoops and kid swimming pools.
-Decorate bikes for a neighborhood parade.
-Use sidewalk chalk. Make race tracks, hopscotch, big art.
-Catch bugs in a jar.
-Make a terrarium.
-Wash the car.
-Paint the house with water buckets.
-Have a water balloon toss.
-Go fishing (for real or pretend over a sheet with clothespins attached)
-Go bird watching with a bird book.
-Build a fort over a clothesline. (my personal favorite)
-Have lunch over a campfire: hotdogs and smores.
-Make a frisbee golf course.
-Play croquet, bocce ball or badmitton.
-Target practice with water guns.
-Slide into a baby pool.
-Make forts out of big appliance boxes.
-Have a lemonade stand.
-Put a blanket down under the trees with a big bin of books and read.
-Have a picnic in a new location in your yard each week.
-Make cookies.
-Play in the rain with rain boots and umbrellas.
-Play board games outside on picnic table.
-Make a collage out of nature objects.
-Make cards for relatives.
-Have an indoor picnic on a rainy day.
-Give the kids the water hose in the sandbox.
-Fly a kite.
-Make paper airplanes and fly them.
-Throw a "very merry unbirthday" party.

And one of my very favorite websites to get lost in (careful, you'll be sucked in for hours!) is: Modern Parents Messy Kids. You'll find all sorts of fun ideas on this site like ideas for outdoor play spaces or this list of outdoor playtime ideas.