The past month for us involved 1 concert, homeschool educational activities, relatives coming to visit (the best part),2 community plays, several rehearsals, and one trip for Dad back east.  Basically we had one or two things every single week ending with Dad’s trip the last week of the month.  Besides all this there were other things I needed to attend to such as household stuff, paperwork, taxes, etc… Coming back to this website to blog just wasn’t an immediate need and I felt that it could wait a day or two and then I would have more to write about. Oh I forgot, how could I forget! My yahoo account was hacked into and someone sent out messages to every email address that I had in my book. That was fun! One morning I awoke to see 44 returned emails in my inbox and that was how I found out about it.  Thankfully it only happened once. 

The plus side to April was I did actually get some downtime. Yeah! When my hubby went back east, I deliberately went nowhere three of the five days he was gone and kept myself busy with projects around the house which I had longed to do. 

So now we are in May. May looks to be busy so far not as busy as April which is allowing me to write in my blog.  I actually have time to complete some of my saved drafts which have helpful teaching hints for busy mamas with small children so I will be back soon. I have to go now, my third son has an ortho appt but I will be back.  Promise, Kristina

p.s. if there are any busymamas that would like to blog there days on this site, please email me. I am looking for three other busy mamas to join me. GG.

Well in the past week lots of stuff happened in our lives, most of it the norm but there was the not so norm too.. I got to ask this question..

Have you ever been dumped on an email??  Well I am not talking about my dh, he is absolutely great, no complaining here.. At the start of last week, my son, Adam had his last guitar lesson with his teacher Mike. Things were pretty much the same, he had a great lesson at his teacher’s place and before we took off for home, we said see you next week. 

Anyway, at 1am on April 2nd my Iphone dinged.. I forgot to turn off the sound so I heard the ding, woke up and looked and there was this email from his guitar teacher informing us that he decided this was his last week teaching guitar, that he had other things to deal with personal and professional, its been great and see ya later.. I was a little stunned and puzzled.  I wondered how my son would take it. Was he right to do that in an email? I mean after all we had been taking lessons from him for like 8 mos , would  it been better to pick up the phone ??? 

Personally I would have picked up the phone or if I couldI would  have waited til the next lesson to say something in person. What would you have done?

My mother has always said that there is a reason for everything so there has been some good to come out of this. We found a guitar lesson program on line which he will work off of and when the community play is over that he is in, he will meet with one of his teachers to learn what he knows on guitar. It should be interesting, his teacher use to play  guitar with a Lennon.

Well that’’s it for now, it’s almost 10 and I want to go watch some tv with my dh before its too late. It is nice being home on a Monday night. Til another time this week ,

See ya,

Kristina

Self declared Busy Mama.

So anyway, we headed down to Hollywood and I have got to tell you Hollywood has cleaned itself up nice.  Hollywood and the Santa Monica area are my kind of places. Y? 

First not everything there is new construction. I like the fact that many old buildings have been left in tact on the outside and redone in the inside to the places we like to shop now. The mix and blend of buildings goes as far back as the 1920s was really cool to see, it gives the place character.   This is something that we do not have this in southern Nevada. The other thing I liked seeing was the creativity on the buildings themselves,  the color, no one was limited to the modern favorite  uniform color, beige. YUK!

There were buildings that had several colors and some that had one , two or a few, but none had beige. Yeah! no beige!  The creativity that people put into their buildings was ever so charging, I just loved it!

The second thing I liked alot was that I could breathe again. The air was so much kinder to me in Hollywood,  and I know its because the ocean was so nearby.  I don’t have this at home, the downside of living in the desert is that you sinuses always seem to be inflamed or in general just ticked off and I didn’t realize this was going to be a problem. Its either the dryness or the pollen or something that makes it difficult to breathe.  When its windy outside , you so want to stay in because when that dust gets into your system, you really can get sick. You can get valley fever.  Valley fever resembles a cold, a lingering cold that frequently gets misdiagnosed as something worse. So anyway of course, I can take a pill ,some over the counter medicine but do I really want to make that a habit ? I don’t think so.  I humidfy or use a bag of cold peas, I stay out of the wind, and try not to walk too close to pine and olive trees. 

Third, you can walk. Yep, walk. There are enough shops in close area and you can walk on the sidewalk to get what you need. You can’t do that where I live, it’s either too hot or too cold and the stores you need are farther apart.  It’s not very safe to walk here either, drivers are just not really there when they are behind the wheel. Now, I know I will hear flack over this.. but its the melt of the locals and the tourists, the ones looking and the ones rushing to drink and spend all their savings.

Now I have heard of people complaining about the traffic in Hollywood, my mom is terrified of driving there and I must dispel this myth. Driving there was as bad as driving in San Diego or as driving in Las Vegas.  Wait, Las Vegas, no not the same.. too many drunks and people speeding to lose their money on the strip.  Anyway, I had no problem.

We got there around 3 and headed toward Manhattan Beach to drop something off to a family friend and by 4:40 ish, we got back onto the freeway to head into Hollywood getting to the hotel around 5:15. Then in the morning, we were in the midst of morning traffic coming home and that wasn’t too bad either. What made the drive really great and time distracting  was listening to Mark and Brian on KLOS. Gosh the guys are a riot, I totally miss them. They put out some topics that you really can’t here anywhere else.  

Well busy mamas I have to go, one of four kids and I am guessing my oldest, the leader of all really big ideas is up to something. For the last few minutes its been utterly quiet and that usually means something is up, wait, no back to noise but its not quite the norm.. gg for now.

Until next time, 

See ya,

Kristina

Self Declared Busy Mama.

My nonprofit is keeping me busy, my kids have been keeping me busy, and everything in general is keeping me  busy.  I knew its been about 10 days since I was on the busy mama, I was surprised it was more.  

Life has been good.  My nonprofit had its second clothing swap on March 20th, the days leading up to it were filled with early donations for the swap and my front room was filled with clothes. The swap went really well and we learned from it too. Our next one in October will go back to a weekday, by placing ourselves on a weekend, we were in competition with yard sales, garage sales, and baseball/soccer games.  Somehow even though I made sure my moisturizer and my make up had spf in it, I still ended up with a sunburn. We moved over 1000 items and donated at least 3000 items in the end to a local nonprofit.  

We also had some great homeschooling park days, the weather was just gorgeous and many of us came out. 

My son, Adam continues his schedule for acting, dance, etc.. classes which he loves. We spent one day getting his headshots made, the place we went to had machine problems and in the end after a few problems were resolved, we ended up with headshots the following day.  Our other sons took advantage of our gorgeous days and spent some time in the pool. To me the pool was to darn cold. One day I got tired of them asking to go in so I said go for it. The next thing I know, son #3 is telling me #2 and #4 are jumping in the pool. The temp 68 degrees.  Too cold for me. 

We have been also completing an enormous amount of schooling, everyone has been so eager to get work done that they have been getting up anywhere between 6 and 7am continuing until lunch and then wanting to get more done after 3pm.  Math is a big big favorite here and that was the focus. Adam began Algebra 2, Blake is at the end of Math 6, Kyle is rolling in Math 5, and Aiden is so enjoying addition using money.  I think I know where Aiden is going in life, initially I thought he would be like Hugh Hefner.  He likes to sleep til noon, wander around in his pjs, cuddle, and take photos. Lately, I can add to that list, electronics.  He has been busy learning about the tvs, the computers, the printer, the air cleaner, any electronics that he sees he wants to learn about it. 

My hubby has a new plan that he revealed to me today which I can’t figure out.. He said he lets me do what I want. ??? I have always done what I wanted and the things I do are very family focused an rarely on me specifically so I am like what???  You know, he does what he wants too so  ??? 

As I mentioned in my last post, he is pretty damn amazing, supportive, my best friend, and pretty awesome well.. 

I think this is a direct result of my new interest, privately making meals for others. Whatever meal I make  for my son’s acting teachers, Vince gets some for him too. With the schedule I have been keeping, I have found it really helps to plan some meals in advance.  

Let’s see what else have I been into? I worked on another web site and got it up and running, this time it was for the speech teacher. What it needs now is the material to fill it from her and that should be in by the end of the week.

So what’s this week look like? 

Adam and I head to the Paul McCartney concert in Hollywood on Tuesday. Its just me and him, Vince is watching the others  and concerts aren’t his thing anyway. Adam and I share the same love for concerts. The concert is going to be AWESOME! Paul hasn’t been there since he was a beatle.  Before we return on Wednesday, we are going to take advantage of a raw food restaurant and the farmers market before we head back up.  There is also a couple of other things I would like to do with him before we return but we will see if time allows it. 

Friday, my homeschool group has a field trip. We won’t be participating in this one, I have a friend hosting it for me. I will be on the phone arranging the fair field trip in April and the Mad Science classes about to begin this April too.  Other than that, hanging with my family and our regular routine things are on the agenda. 

So wow, this is long.. I am up to over 800 words.. If you have stayed with me this long.. Please check into my site again at the end of the weekend when I can tell you how cool the trip was..

GG fellow busy mamas.. Sign in and leave a comment. Share how your life is going..

Kristina

www.broadwayweststudio.com

www.adamsimonkrist.com   See my oldest kid here! 

www.lvvhsn.org

The real craziness for me was on the computer. I put the word out on our clothing swap coming up next Saturday to many different groups where I have met a person or two at and spread the word at companies I have had the pleasure to meet their employess. The other big thing was fixing a problem on my homeschool web site which took me two days to solve and it sucked up a lot of my time.  I even went to the point of working with the creators of the plug in on my site, nice as they were, they weren’t much help.

That’s the interesting thing about working on websites whether  you know a lot or a little. Either way when you come to a problem there is really no one you can ask and in the end, you have to figure it out for yourself .

The other thing about working on websites is that you gain a lot of confidence in what you are doing and then when you crash the site and dont know why, its very humbling and you got to work backward fast so your site isnt down for very long.

So today’s post that I have worked on and off  this entire week is about partners specifically hubbys.  Mine is amazing and I told him that I am going to brag him on my blog.

He is pretty damn amazing. He works hard all week creating code for a website that he created and takes care of now for a company that he sold it to and then on Saturdays, he doesn’t get upset when he is stuck at home all day with the kids while I am out getting things done. He doesn’t get upset when the house is a total mess and in fact tries to help me out. He is incredibly easy going with all my projects and their continual progression like painting the downstairs, I am doing a Beatles theme wtih the Magical Mystery Tour on the ceiling and the Yellow Submarine on the walls or on very very short notice, we have several homeschooling families over for a party, or a Mad Science class, or even when we have one other family over for dinner and their are 8 young boys running around and having fun.  I am sure that sometimes my creative spurts make him ponder what I am up to next because they almost always initiate another project. In the last year and half, I started on the house, started the nonprofit with a friend, started maintaining web sites.  

My hubby is so not wimp if you are thinking that, I have to give a little to.  I give him his space when he wants to play his xbox, or he want to train for a marathon, or when he has a project that he wants to get into.

You know what? He doesn’t even mind that I have Rob Pattison hanging in our laundry hallway, or that I won’t miss one episode of Vampire Diaries or Nip Tuck because all of the shows contain hotties.  Have you seen the Vamp bros on the CW? Yum. 

I really really appreciate him and everything he does for us as a couple, me as a individual, and us as an entire family.  We are partners, equals, and on life’s journey together. 

Hey you busy mamas, how’s your hubby??? or life partner???

I will so talk to you soon, my weekend is not over yet and I am sure Sunday has something in store for us.Kristina

The title of this particular post has actually nothing to do with the weather for the month of March but whether our busy mama schedules this month will become busier or calmer before picking up again.   As I sit here typing this I have to wonder what I will be in store for the 31 days for March. 

Do you ever plan for nothing and then the month gets a way from you?

The end of last month we celebrated our second son’s 10th bday.  In my mind, it was the last big event so i visioned the checkered flag that gets waived at the races.  I guess the races came to mind because Nascar was covered quite a bit here with a race on the other side of town.  I had a lot of scheduled events in the short month with a small percentage of unplanned activity.

Anyway, I don’t have many plans for March but I have this feeling its going to be a busy one.  We have homeschooling which is quite enjoyable, parkdays, a St. Patty’s Day party, my nonprofit’s Clothing Swap which is going to be big, Adam’s classes, website building (it’s like scrapbooking, well kind of), taxes, planning for next months nonprofit events and at the end  a trip to the Hollywood Bowl to see Paul McCartney in concert.  Does that sound busy?  I feel like I am missing something in my list. What does yours look like?

Please share your event lists of March, I would like to read them. 

I need to go, the washer is done, the dryer is buzzing. I have something I want to share with all of you but it will have to be later today, so I will talk to you then,

Kristina

When: Saturday, March 20^th from 8am till 3pm

Where: LDS Chapel Parking Lot on Viking Street in Las Vegas

How: This is a FAIR EXCHANGE SWAP and its open to every person in the Las Vegas Valley. It will be much bigger than last time, there are 4 other groups that have asked to join us in making the swap bigger and the media will be covering this swap!

How does it work?  You bring your gently used clothes, shoes, socks, coats, hats, belts, and purses etc… we count them, and you can exchange them for an even number. 

And this time we are also including gently used household items and toys too!!!You can even donate books and used curriculum! 

All remaining items after the swap will be given to charity.

If you would like just to donate or give your items in advance, please email us at lvvhsn@gmail.com , we will be picking up items from March 1^st until March 18^th.

If you would like to volunteer please email us at lvvhsn@gmail.com

Why: LVVHSN is a nondenominational, nonprofit pending group. Our purpose is fun, friendship, and giving back to our community.

GG, Kristina

Are you wondering why my other kids are not involved in any activities?  They are but only Adam (because of his age) is in an actual program, the rest of my children are involved in homeschooling activities, our park days, field trips, Mad Science, parties, and community service fill up our schedule.  We tried classes at our local rec center for our remaining three, but it didn’t really fit. Kyle hears his own drummer’s beat, Blake is a self declared gamer and they really don’t offer a class in games. Sports is so not this kid’s thing. Aiden is 5 and the only classes they offer are preschool and he is now learning at a second grade level. He is alot like Adam except he doesn’t want to entertain, I think he will be more like Hugh Heffner. He loves to sleep in, he loves taking pix, he loves wearing pjs, and he loves to cuddle and read. See the similarities?  

So here is the piece of good news that I mentioned in the last blog. My homeschool group was recently featured in an educational magazine! The magazine is called Education Update and the majority of its readers are actually public school teachers. I use to get this mag when I taught and I really enjoyed it but their most recent issue, I enjoyed it even more.  Anyway, the article is a positive story about homeschooling and I feel it shows a thawing toward homeschoolers from the our educational system.

While the public school system didn’t write the article, I think this definitely shows a bridge toward breaking the us vs them thing that’s been going on for eons of time.  Check out the article:

http://issuu.com/educationupdate/docs/edupdate_janfeb10/27?mode=a_p

Hey I am going to close this blog for now, I will be back on Friday this week. 

Talk to you then, Kristina

Tomorrow my day is quite full, we have Kyle’s speech class in the morning. The class happens to be here which is nice, his speech teacher travels to you not you to her. Then we have a  homeschool park day, we are celebrating Val-inese Day. What’s that? Well it’s a combo of a late Valentine’s with Chinese New Year. Both holidays are very cool to celebrate and technically I could’ve cancelled Valentines because of the rain last week, but I really didn’t want too. That’s the nice thing about homeschoolers, we can change the dates on anything.  Last, Adam (my oldest) has practice at the community play titled “ Damn Yankees. ” We will be going from 7am  to 8pm. Actually my other kids won’t be just my oldest and myself. 

So the last I left off I mentioned that on our trip we heard some other good news, well we did. As we pulled into the parking structure at the hotel, my phone rang.  It was the production company that works out of Las Vegas telling me that they wanted my son, Adam for a part!  Yep, Adam had his first movie role.  It was just a movie short, a movie that is actually lasting half the time of the regular movie but its actually part of a series of shorts that will be made into a feature film. 

When we returned from our trip to L. A., Adam had a table read one day, a dress rehearsal two days later, and then filming at the end of the week.  It was done over three days, and the filming part was just one day.. For all you moms, when you have a minor interested in this field, our job is to sit around and wait. Yep, there has to be a parent  of each minor on set at all times so you kind of get stuck.  The plus side is there is food to eat that you didn’t have to prepare, but you can’t sit and watch a movie or something because you are on a movie set. Nor can you play on your phone or make calls because they don’t want your calls to interrupt the movie.  You can read, it’s quiet.  Those working on the film had their laptops something I didn’t consider but they weren’t watching movies,they were working. I was there with three other moms and I  watched the process of what was made was very interesting. 

When a scene called for multiple people like for a conversation, there really was only one person there so the same scene was done over and over again until all parts were done.

This schedule fit in with Adam’s schedule coincidentally so where we had a lull in the week, we had something to do.  What’s the movie called? I can only tell you so far that it’s called ” First Order of Business”. Sorry I can say no more at this time, but when it comes out.. I will be typing it everywhere..

We received other news too this past week, really cool news for my homeschool group and Adam did happen to be involved in this one too.. but this is for another blog so I am going to sign off.. see you in a couple days.

Kristina