So, what do I do all day now that my kids are all in school? I know you’re all dying to know. Well, maybe not all of you but it has come up in conversations and emails and text messages.

Those 6 hours do go by quickly.

Can I just say that I am blessed to have a husband who works hard & supports our family & has made it possible all these years for me to be a stay at home {& now work at home} mom.  I know what a huge blessing that is and I do not take that for granted.

My new schedule has allowed me:

• to catch up on my stockpile of books to read {here are just a few}
• to write more in my journal & hopefully some of those thoughts can be shared on here one day
• to practice my photography
• the flexibility of returning to my Body Pump classes
• to have lunch or coffee with a friend
• to volunteer my time to harvest & work in the i Grow Lemont gardens & participate in their book club
• to do a little more freelance virtual assistant work for 3 to 4 bloggers scattered across the country
• to find a theater that’s showing a matinee {I haven’t done this yet but I want to!}
• to be spontaneous with a random act of kindness
• to play uninterrupted 80s music radio on Pandora

Obviously, that isn’t an exhaustive list of everything I do, just some of the new stuff.  If I really listed everything, you’d be completely bored.  Maybe one day I’ll do a “day in the life” post just for fun so you can see how completely exciting my life is that day! {wink}

I wouldn’t be completely honest with you if I didn’t tell you that there have been a few times in the past few weeks where I sit alone on my couch, surrounded by quiet & do nothing.  I am refreshed by quiet.  I know there are 100 things that I could do that are within arms reach of that spot on the couch but I choose to sit.  To listen.

I do have to be careful though.  If I sit there for too long, that quietness & stillness can transform into laziness & sometimes depression.  When that starts to creep in, that’s when I text a friend to meet me for coffee or go out for a walk.

Rarely do I get on a soapbox but here it goes:  What other profession {and yes, stay at home moms and/or dads is a profession!} gets asked the question “What do you do all day”?  Can you think of one?  I can’t.  If I asked my friend that’s a doctor, “What do you do all day?” they’d laugh.  Am I right?  The job we’re doing of raising babies to toddlers to kids to teenagers to young adults to adults is a profession.  The hardest one in the world. Just because we have the privilege of staying home doesn’t make it less difficult.

Off of my soapbox now.

Thanks for sticking with me on this journey and reading my random thoughts & daydreams.  I am truly thankful for you.

Tell me about your day.  {See how much better that sounds?  Oops, back on soapbox! Sorry!}

1. The Cottage. Our 3rd annual trip to the mountains of North Carolina with the Smiths. {Read about our 2011 & 2012 trips}. Chad & Myquillyn have friends that let them borrow their convertible for the weekend. Clearly, we enjoyed the ride. The Cottage is a beautiful place & each year we come away with lifelong memories.

2. iGrowLemont Harvest. The seeds that were sown in the Spring are producing a lovely harvest.

3. Greg surviving an emergency landing on a United Airlines flight from Charlotte to Chicago but it was diverted to Dulles because there was a hydraulic leak or something crazy like that and it caused the landing gear to malfunction. This is a story that you must hear in person from Greg & how he was disappointed that he didn’t get to slide down the inflatable emergency slide. Yep, he’s crazy.

4. HeartFriends weekend. Ahhh.

5. Dreams. Dreams. Dreams! Cheering on these dreams: The Smith’s, The Dobie’s & Reeve’s.

6. A wedding. Congratulations to Jonathan & Whitney!

7. Family reunion!

8. Grandpa’s visit & homemade ice cream!

9. Brown Sugar Maple Bacon ice cream! {If you’re in the Asheville, NC area, find Hickory Nut Gap Farm & hopefully they’ll be serving some when you visit}.

10. We went to our first Chicago Fire MLS game. This has been on Stone’s wish list for about a year now & thanks to the generosity of some good friends our entire family was able to go.

What’s your Summer 2013 Top Ten?

Our Summer 2012 Top Ten

12 years.

12 years of raising babies into kids.

Now, we have 12 years ahead of us of raising kids to teens to adults.

This next stage makes me have heart palpitations & night sweats.  Not the fun flutters of excitement but the anxious excitement as you approach the first hill of a roller coaster and then the adrenaline rush that follows & sends you immediately to the nearest bathroom once the ride is over.  What?  That only happens to me at the end of a roller coaster ride? The need for extra calming factors as we enter this next stage of parenting is essential.

The first 12 years has been about keeping our kids alive.  Seriously. It has been our responsibility to feed, bathe, clothe & shelter them. Survival & life training.

The next 12 years they will put into action what we have taught them along the way.  We will still provide them with food, clothing & shelter but they are taking the survival skills  & life training we have taught them to the next level.

It is still our job to protect but it also our job to let them fail.

This past weekend our family went through one of the first tests of survival of this next stage because of a bad decision by one member of our family. We ALL learned the lesson of “your decisions don’t just affect you, but many people.” We survived, but not without consequences.

We know the next 12 years will be a challenge.

Our survival skills & life training will depend on us:

• staying calm & focused – honestly, when things get tough, I retreat & become silent.  I think that’s ok at first, because it helps me to not do or say something that I would regret later.
• communicating – just because my husband & I  have 20+ years of hanging out teenagers under our belt doesn’t mean we know everything. We need to be in constant communication with each other.  This goes hand in hand with staying calm & focused.  Communicate calmly with each other & our children.
• remembering priorities - there will be sports & friends & school activities & sleepovers & jobs…Remembering that God comes first, then family, then friends, then the rest.
• saying sorry when we mess up as parents – as parents we must not be afraid to apologize for our mistakes. We are two imperfect people working as a team to parent 4 imperfect children, there will be mess ups.
• noticing the good – “Your decisions don’t just affect you, but many people”.  As I mentioned earlier, last weekend there was a bad decision that was made and our whole family suffered.  On the flip side of that, we want to emphasize that when a good decision is made, good things happen. We must notice the good & reward accordingly.
• praying, praying, praying
• being consistent – consistently communicating, prioritizing, saying sorry, staying calm, noticing the good & praying…

We’re not claiming to be experts. Clearly this is new territory for us. Scary and exciting at the same time.

At the end of these 12 years, all of our children will be adults and I’ll be, um, 53.

That’s a whole new level of roller coaster, right?

Or maybe that’s when I try sky diving??

It’s no surprise how much I love Instagram but today, I thought I would share with you a few of the Apps that are the TeSelle favs right now:

1. PicTapGo :: definitely worth $1.99! take your Pic, Tap {choose your filter with the option of layering several filters} & Go {share via the social media platform of your choice!}  This app also allows you to post to Instagram full frame like the picture above. AND p.s. In their next update they will be adding a Cropping/rotating/straightening option.

2. Cozi :: We use this exclusively for the grocery list option.  Since we have 4 iPhone users in this house, this is a fabulous way for us to add to the grocery list.  Gunnar needs deodorant, he grabs his phone, opens up Cozi & adds it to the grocery list.  Greg wants hamburger helper for dinner this week, he adds it to the list.  It instantly syncs with the other phones.  How is this useful?  When I’m at the store, I know what our family needs just by checking Cozi.  When Greg is on his way home from work & offers to stop by the store for groceries, he doesn’t need to ask for me to text him the list.  I just say, “check Cozi”! Also, if the kids complain that they are missing something in the pantry of if they are out of soap or socks, all I have to ask is “Did you put it on Cozi?”  There are other great things about this app that are very useful (calendar, to do lists, etc.) too but for right now, we only use it for the grocery list.

3. Netflix :: this isn’t a new App but it has quickly become a favorite at our house.  The kids can watch their favorite shows {& mom too}.  You have to have a Netflix account & we have the online streaming that we can access on our iPhones as well as our Apple TV. A big plus for me – there’s a Parental Control setting that allows you to block “mature” titles.

4. Walgreens :: again, not a new App BUT with their most recent update last week, now you can print your photos from Instagram with their Quick Prints option. Upload your pics & pick them up in an hour.  Love this!!  They come in size 4×4 right now, but maybe they’ll offer different sizes in the future?? The quality is great too!

5. Flickr :: their latest update allows you to add a hashtag to your photos & instantly see all the photos related to that hashtag. Do you have a Flickr account?  I do! Find me here & let’s be friends.  The people who I follow on Flickr are the ones that I go to for my photography inspiration.  Who’s inspiring me now :: Justine Gordon, White Peach Photography, K_W Daddio & jeffconlin.

6. Minecraft :: for those rainy, snowy or bitter cold days this winter {& hello, it’s the 1st day of Spring & it’s 10 degrees outside!}, our kids have enjoyed playing this game together.  I personally do not understand the fascination, but they are virtually building & destroying & building & enjoying this game.

7. Stack the States :: the geography nerd inside of me loves this educational game.  You answer various trivia questions about the capitals, flags, shapes, etc. to earn more levels.

What are your favorite Apps right now?