Daughter Date

At the beginning of the summer I had a Mommy/Daughter date planned for Tabitha and I, but due to the craziness of life and Brett being out of town I had to cancel it last minute.

Thankfully this past week I received a text from my sweet friend Katie inviting Tabitha and I to join her and her daughter for a play at the local children's theatre. I jumped at the chance and I think it was a grand success ( even though the play itself was decidedly awful*)

If you don't mind I'm going to document our little date here so that one day I can look back and smile ( read: bawl my eyes out)

We started our date in good girl fashion by picking out our outfits and getting ready. I let Tabitha wear whatever she wanted and when she heard the name of the play we were going to see was "La Cinderella" she made her choice very quickly!  She then went on to pick my outfit for me and also the accessories that we both wore.  She was also very much insistent that she and I wore the same lipstick and then she made sure to pack her lip smackers "lip stick" in her puppy purse for the much needed re-application later in the night.

We then took "prom style" pictures by the front door while Daddy and brothers fawned over her. ( Seriously, Ransom's compliments and kisses for his sister were so sweet! Sure, he was mostly excited just to get his "guys night" started with Daddy...but he also accomplished making his sister feel special, which was great.

Then off we went in the car by ourselves. Tabitha tends to really like going on little trips alone with me , I know this because she always starts telling me how much she loves me every few minutes. Tabitha's love language: Quality Time.

I asked Tabitha what music she wanted to listen to and she asked for the "dust to diamonds" song. Luckily, we listen to enough Christian Radio that I was able to narrow down which song she meant pretty quickly, and found it on demand on the Amazon Prime Music App.

After listening to her song several times in a row followed by a few listens of "Let it Go" and "Move it, Move it" and her letting me know that her REAL favorite songs were Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and the ABCs song, she then admired the clouds and the beautiful sky- finally arrived at dinner with our friends.

We had a tasty dinner at a wonderful cafe called Cafe Lorraine downtown at The Pearl and my only regret is that we were a little rushed and didn't get to "savor" our time there as much as I would have liked! It's kind of a dreamy spot for a little ( or big) girl on a date complete with a green lawn, twinkle lights and tasty food... we definitely got a lot of stares from admiring "fans" as we paraded back to our cars to head to the theatre....little girls in frilly dresses and crowns will do that.

We carpooled to the theatre, and my friend and I enjoyed listening to Tabitha and her friend chat in the backseat, overheard:
"It's important to obey your Mommy and Daddy!"
"Oh yes, and to be sweet and kind...AND PATIENT"
"YES! Patience is very very important. And to be loving and share...."

Haha!  Honestly I wish I had recorded more of their little chatter!

The Magik Theatre is super cute and decorated with a child's eye in mind and I think Tabitha and her little friend were kind of overwhelmed with the stage and the seating. We ate jelly beans ( that had been conveniently packed in Tabitha's puppy purse) and the girls "read" their programs. Sadly the play itself was a bit too "old" for our girls, and yet, because of some of the crude jokes and crass choices, I'm honestly glad our girls were too young and hopefully didn't notice or get most of what was happening. My friend and I were definitely bummed that Children's theatre has clearly lost its innocence and that we now have to "preview" theatre as well as movies...but such is life! And we ended our night playing in the WONDERFUL Hemisphere Park: Yanaguana Garden. I had read about it opening a while ago, but had totally forgotten that it was open! Anyway, the girls ended up playing for a while and enjoying the "late night" ( it was already an hour past their bedtimes!).

Tabitha was verrrry sleepy when she got home, but was met at the door by here very excited brother who had clearly had a great night too!

Life hacking

Who else can believe that July is almost over?!?! Who else is ready for fall to just come already?!? Is it just me, here suffering in the South?!  I know my daughter, for one, is ready....she heard my friend talking about Pumpkin Patches the other day and has asked to go every day since. She even resorted to some mind tricks by praying about it during her nightly prayers, "..and thank you for letting us go to the pumpkin patch soon." ...well played, daughter but sadly even Jesus isn't gonna conjure up a pumpkin patch for you in 112 degree heat.

Anyway, as the summer has rolled on and we've dealt with the hubs being gone for business several times, plus fussy babies, and hot hot hotness....I've collected a few "life hacks" that have helped me survive. Here they are:

Hack #1: Smuckers PBJ Uncrustables.  Sure, its not hard to make a PBJ and I make at least 3 of them basically 350 days out of the year- because that's all my children ever want to eat for lunch, ever. HOWEVER, there is something truly magical about dropping a few dollars at Costco to get the 18 pack of these puppies and then come lunch time just throwing them on a plate next to the Manna from Heaven that is Pirates Booty and a giant pickle and calling it "lunch". It will take approximately 65 seconds after walking in the house from swimming lessons for lunch to be on the table. This is very important because that is also 65 seconds TOO LONG for a certain hungry baby who wants to be nursed. Now. Basically whether its Uncrustables or some other food that you've found to be fast and "mildly" nutritious, I'm telling you to just GO WITH IT. Not ever meal has to be filled with the food pyramid. Sometimes something's gotta give...so cut yourself a big fat break ( or a piece of zucchini bread made from all those zucchinis that are in season, I bet if you cut yourself some of that too...life will be better, guaranteed)

Hack #2: Swimming lessons. If you spend money on ONE THING this summer, let it be swimming lessons...but if you DON'T want to spend money on this, did you know that MOST cities provide FREE swimming lessons!?! Look it up! Because, in our house, if Daddy is going to be gone then we're gonna need something to do every single day. This is important for many reasons. Tiring out children. Also it is a ready answer for when Ransom asks me "what are we going to do today?" for the trillionth time.-swim lessons are at the top of the list for ALL summer lists, and if you haven't done yours yet, you need to RECTIFY. Also, I suppose its icing on the cake if my children actually learn to swim. The jury is out on that one. As a former lifeguard going to the pool can by highly stressful. I mostly want to spend the whole time scanning the pool for drowners and yelling at children who aren't my own to "stop running". That said, it is VERY important to me that my children are able to swim without floaties- because, turns out, my kids don't actually wear floaties 24/7 in the off chance that they are near a body of water. How many kids have I saved who fell in the pool when their families were either just arriving or just leaving the pool!?! Yup. A lot.


Hack #3: Baths. I've trained my older two children to "go take a bath" without any oversight at all. This is wonderful for lazy me, but maybe not so wonderful when you're trying to get "clean children" out of the deal. But I gave up on that a long time ago so we'll just settle for "wet children". And, if you play your cards right- it can take up a whole 20 minutes of your day. That's gold.

Hack #4: CD player. I wrote a whole post on this. So I'll save my breath here. But let me just say, this puppy is getting a work out, and I'm loving it.


Hack #5: grocery shopping help. This summer, due to the insane heat and also me being me and therefore excessively lazy- I've hated going grocery shopping MORE THAN EVER. This is when I've started incorporating two different services into my life. One, Walmart Pick up , (ps if you use the code here, than you get $10 off! ) is AMAZING. Sure, they don't have TONS of locations yet, but I suggest you at least clicking on that link and putting in your zip code, because you never know-there might be one close by, and also if their isn't I have a feeling that if we all put our zip codes in over and over maybe they'll get a clue and put in more locations ( this is just a theory and not at all confirmed. Abigail Wishful Thinking, if you will). People have asked, and yes, I have gotten produce this way and I was actually surprised at the selection. I feel like in some cases they had a better apple selection then when I had picked them out myself.

Anyway, there is NO FEE for using the service ( only a $30 minimum) and you literally shop online and then drive up and PICK UP YOUR GROCERIES FROM YOUR CAR at the assigned time. Um. That's basically God's gift to me. We live in the golden age, people. GOLDEN AGE.

Two, I've used Amazon Prime's NOW which guarantee's to deliver certain items within two hours. This is a much more expensive endeavor, and I save it for "emergencies".  But I have used it to have Butter brought to my door when I had forgotten it and just could not face the 100 degree afternoon heat with my 3 children. A girls gotta do....


So, enough from me! What are your current Summer hacks?!? I've got another month of summer to get through, so I'm gonna need all that you've got! Let's get through this together...