How do you feel about schedules?

In our family, we live mostly according to a schedule. It works for us. The structure keeps things movin' along and most things get done (but certainly not everything).

So as summer approached, I decided to create a predictable schedule for the boys and for myself. We have all enjoyed it. Our schedule includes things such as going to the movies, swimming lessons, going to the library, some simple arts and crafts projects and of course, some time at home to just play outside.

We are also having some instructional time on recognition of ABC's, numbers and shapes, etc. Both boys know all of their ABC's and are doing well at counting, too. But recognition is another story. We're still working on that. So, a little "mommy school" time is also part of our schedule.

What about you? Are you a scheduled person/family? or do you "fly by the seat of your pants"? I think it's good to be able to do a bit of both. But for this season of our lives, we are definitely more scheduled with a little "flying" on rare occasions.

CRUISING with the boys

Right after school was release for summer vacation, we took the boys on a cruise to Cozumel, Mexico. We left from Galveston on the Carnival Esctasy, which came equipped with 3 waterslides of various sizes to match the sizes of the passengers. Jonathan had a blast on the toddler-sized slide. Donovan was just tall enough to ride all three slides, and so he did. I must say that Kevin and I both rode the biggest one, which was a tube that wrapped and curled around from WAY above the deck of the ship and even extended over the side (thankfully that portion was enclose to prevent passengers from flying overboard)! It was SO much fun.

Of course, we also ate too much food - a requirement on any cruise. If you have never cruised, I promise, you cannot help but eat and eat and eat. It's impossible. Maybe there are subliminal messages playing in the background music or something. It's just unavoidable.

In Cozumel we took a ride in a boat with a glass bottom and glass sides. We saw amazing fish, the beautiful coral reef (2nd largest next to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia) and even saw some folks scuba. The boys loved that part. My favorite part was the school of about 10,000 sardines that swam by - so many it actually made it dark!!!!! And they moved complely in-sync, just like the schools of fish on Finding Nemo - only they didn't form any words or pictures. VERY COOL though.

Check it out....

ANNOUNCING..... The WORST blogger of the year!

I'm bestowing this title upon myself. I can't believe how poorly I have kept up. As much as I would like to discuss "good intentions", you know where they lead, so I won't mention it.

So, I guess I am going to add several posts in the next several days to try to catch up on everything. That is..... if anyone is still there. Can't blame you if you're not.