Juggling Chainsaws and Broomsticks’ Here we are, in the middle of July and we’re in full summer swing. Well actually, July is kind of ending, but it’s on a roll! My kids are all excited about the upcoming end of school, summer camp, and of course, their summer vacation! Yes, the summer vacation they dream about is less than two months away. So let me ask you – how many summer activities have you planned or attended this summer? As a mom and part-time business owner, I don’t have a ton of money to spend on summer activities. The money that is left for us to spend is limited to my boys’ school supplies, a few birthday parties and of course, vacations! To tell you the truth, I am quite proud of myself for what we’ve accomplished this summer. We have so much fun that we forget we’re even having a vacation! I’m telling you, when I go to the kids’ activities, I sometimes can’t tell the difference between a camp or a normal daycare. Summer Vacations During my many visits to the pediatrician, I am told what a wonderful, healthy kid RJ is. So imagine my delight when I received the most wonderful news this spring – RJ has passed all of his hearing tests, he can’t use hearing aids yet, but it will just be a matter of time. I was pretty excited about that. On the other hand, this has been harder on my older daughter who has been sick since she was around 2 years old. Her cold is really bad, but other than that she has been healthy. So we don’t know what’s wrong with her. She just seems to have a little cold virus that won’t go away. In fact, they think it’s bronchitis, but we’re not sure. I’m worried about her because I don’t want her to get any worse. I don’t want to let my baby get sick. The poor girl…she looks sick, but the thing is she’s not coughing or anything like that. I just don’t know how to make her better, or what to do. I guess we’ll just wait and see. I still want her to get better as soon as possible. That’s about it for now. I have a lot more to write about, but I don’t want to overwhelm you all at once. I want to keep my blogs short and sweet, and hopefully to your liking too! Weather I can’t believe it’s July! It seems like just last week that winter was around the corner. My husband and I love to get out of town for our vacations. We love to stay at home and relax as well. We love to spend time with our friends and family and enjoy all of the beauty that this place has to offer. We love to vacation and we love to stay home. As we drove to our cabin in Michigan, we noticed that it was a little chilly out. By the time we got settled, I’m sure the kids were wondering what happened to the beach. We would have liked that, but the weather didn’t cooperate with us. The weather was extremely warm and humid and it really didn’t feel like a holiday. We had the air on and it didn’t really help us much. My son loved the fishing. He got some great pictures and he really tried his best to be there for the family pictures. The weather wasn’t so nice at the time, but luckily it wasn’t hot either. That day was pretty warm, but luckily not to hot for most people. There are a few hot days coming up though, but we are having some great weather so far this summer. I am very thankful for that! I was surprised to see that the average high temperature for mid-July is around 80 degrees, and that the average low for mid-July is 60 degrees. We haven’t had to turn on the air conditioner at all so far. We usually have to turn it on in mid-July. It would be good if we could have some warmer weather this summer. This is one of the reasons why we moved to Arizona. I know that it’s hot here, but it’s much more comfortable than it is here in Arizona. And I love the way Arizona turns from winter to summer without even moving a muscle. My kids were so surprised when we got here because it seemed like it was summer. Even when we were driving, they would exclaim, “Look there are lots of people in bathing suits. It’s summer!” They’ve spent the last two summers with me in Arizona, and they’ve never seen the lake before, let alone been swimming. The weather has been pretty good so far this year. I hate having to turn on the air conditioner all of the time. I don’t like to run my air conditioner all of the time. My husband and I like to save money. We don’t like having to use all of the electricity running a huge house that just sits there and is rarely used. So far I have only turned my unit on a few times. The weather seems to be just right in Michigan. The kids will love being able to go out and swim again. We are looking forward to it! We just returned from our latest trip to Arizona. I love to vacation in Michigan, but this is the first time we’ve traveled south. My husband is from Michigan and grew up there. I’ve visited once before, but that was when I was younger and still lived in Michigan. I always wanted to visit a place I called “The Sunshine State”. This was a family vacation, my husband’s first time going on a boat trip in a lake, and my second, so I had planned on getting up early every day to enjoy the wonderful weather! I don’t think we did any too much sleeping though! My youngest daughter didn’t sleep well at all for the first two days of the trip. But when the sun goes down it really gets chilly. We enjoyed every minute of it. We got to spend time with family, and the weather cooperated with us. We went to some beautiful places and enjoyed every minute. Michigan did not disappoint. We went fishing and boated some of the Grand River. There are a lot of great lakes in Michigan that have great fishing. The weather in the mornings was excellent, so we didn’t spend too much time inside of a boat. We saw many deer in the brush. We really did some exploring and we found some gems along the way! One was a place to eat breakfast in the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. It wasn’t so bad to be out in the sun for most of the trip. There were a few days when it was a little humid, but there is something to be said for being warm and not baking in the sun all day long. We definitely got that from mid-June to mid-July. I’m glad we stayed outside as much as we did! We headed out to our favorite spot. We go on boating vacations every summer. It’s a great place to just escape all of the noise of the kids. We like to sit there and relax while we’re fishing. The kids are allowed to play and get wet, but they’re only allowed to get into the boat once they get out of the water. We love being on the boat for two days and I like to be there with the kids and let them relax. It’s a really great family time and I love it! We just couldn’t get enough of the great weather and being out on the lake. It was a great trip, just wish we had planned it a little earlier. My husband still managed to teach his son how to fish though! He loves the lake and was so excited to learn how to fish. The weather was kind of crazy. Some days were sunny and others were cloudy. At one point I looked outside and there was a tornado! I never saw a tornado before. At that point we decided to just stay inside of the house and enjoy the weather. We did a lot of fishing and boating. It was a lot of fun, but I don’t know if I want to do that every time we go on a trip. I like fishing, but it was a little crazy there for awhile. The weather was good until it started getting chilly. I think I’m ready to be back in the state I live in.