Answer Me This end of summer

The last edition of

1. What's your favorite grocery store splurge?

Fresh berries and cheeses. In the summer i get used to such good berries for such  good price and then the prices skyrocket and the quality plummets.  I try to eat stuff seasonally, but every now and then I just want a pint of berries!  Cheese are my year round splurge.  I love a good Gouda but I am the only on the family who really loves cheese so it is a splurge for sure!

2. How's your penmanship?

My penmanship is horrible. And so is my spelling. Put that together and things I write by hand look like they were composed by a middle-schooler.  My handwriting is also inconsistent. I never really developed a style. 

3. Do you have a "Summer Bucket List?"

My Summer bucket list: swim with kids, take big trip with Husband, take little trip with kids, plan-execute VBS at our parish, birthday. I didn't so much have a bucket-list this year. More like a big ToDo list with fun Stuff sprinkled throughout. 

4. What's the best thing on the radio right now?

I don't really like the radio because it generally leads to some discontent in my car. Music is hugely important and anna has recently decided she is all about the classical station much to the dismay of her siblings whoike to bicker over whether we should leave it on Taylor swift or Bruno Mars. I actually like Sam hunts "take your Time". I think it is sweet and it makes me smile. I think at this point in my life time seems so valuable. As a mamma it is in high demand. I willingly but strategically give my time away and see it as a gift, something to be shared, something to be valued. The kids hate the song. 

5. Ice cream or frozen yogurt?

I  definitely a frozen yogurt kind of gal. I love them both, but I feel less guilty with frozen yogurt I guess. I love making the cup myself and sprinkling my own toppings in just the right ratio. That said my absolute favorite is coldstone creamery's sweet cream and strawberries.  Back to those berries I guess!


6. Have you had that baby NOW? (Again, you can skip this one if you want.)

6 Tips on Handling Sibling Bickering

Maybe it is just me, but my kids seem to go through irregular cycles of bickering.  In the thick of summer it can get pretty bad.   I haven't been able to blame it food, or sleep, or the phases of the moon, or really anything else.  Some days, they just seem to want to fight.  You know it is bad when you have to tell the kids they are not allowed to speak to, or look at one another, which is what I found myself saying today.  I generally get annoyed and then irritated and then really angry and then I snap and end up yelling at them all leaving me annoyed with myself.  And they are back at it 5 minutes later.  So I got to thinking about what I SHOULD be doing instead...

1.  Get out of the house. Take them with you if you have too.  Take them to the park, or the library, or the McDonald's Playland - anywhere but home and preferably somewhere that serves coffee but also has a play-space large enough that they won't be bumping into one another constantly.

2.  Lock them outside.  If it is hot you can turn on the hose.  If it is cold... well.. tell them to grab their mittens if guess.  I live in Arizona so we don't have that problem.

3.  Lock yourself in the bathroom and take a bath.  I never understood the "Calgon take me away!" commercials - now I get it.  When they start pounding on the door to tattle, just slip your head under the water or turn on the spout and you won't hear a thing.