The Sensible Mom

Food, DIY, Chicago Mom Blogger

Sandra

Entertainment for the Whole Family: Raging Waves Waterpark

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My family and I enjoyed an amazing, fun, free Family Day at Raging Waves Waterpark in exchange for sharing this review. #WelcomeToSummer

Entertainment for the Whole Family at Raging Waves Waterpark #Chicago #Staycation

We make a big deal about “Family Days” around our home.

They are must-do.

Can’t miss.

We’ve got to schedule a Family Day and make it happenΒ at least once a week.

And if it looks like we aren’t going to be able to enjoy family time on our regular “Family Day” of the week, Sunday, then we plan ahead and schedule it for a different day. It’s that important.

Plus, we love this time together, because we realize that our days together are precious. And they’re not guaranteed. In fact, that truth became far too real for me this past year, and I guess that’s part of the reason why I strive to make family time a high priority — every single week.

Raging Waves Waterpark

Most of the time, we spend family days at home. But recently, we were able to experience an unforgettable time together at Raging Waves Waterpark, which happens to be located in the Chicagoland city of Yorkville, Illinois.

raging-waves-lunch

Seven Hours Later…We Barely Scratched the Surface

It was our very first time at Raging Waves, and we can see why it’s Illinois’ Largest Waterpark. Raging Waves is enormous, and it has something for everyone!

The Fun at Raging Waves Includes:

  • 17 Waterslides
  • The Lazy River
  • 1 Wave Pool
  • 2 Huge Kiddie Areas
  • Good Food
  • Sandy Beach Areas
  • A Family-Friendly Show
  • So Much More!

We split most of our time between the two kiddie areas and the wave pool. David and Isaac loved the slides in the kiddie area, and everyone had a blast in the wave pool! We hung out at the shallow end of the wave pool. And that turned to be a good idea, because those waves are powerful and have the ability to knock little ones over. πŸ˜‰

Entertainment for the Whole Family at Raging Waves Waterpark #Chicago #Staycation

When Fire and WaterΒ Make Great Entertainment

Besides everything you can do in the water at Raging Waves, there’s also a new show you can sit down and take in with your family. It’s called β€œSinbad and the Search for the Golden Pineapple.” And if you wait to see the last show of the day, you can watch one of the performers be lit on fire before jumping into a giant pool of water.

It’s pretty spectacular.
Entertainment for the Whole Family at Raging Waves Waterpark #Chicago #Staycation

Cleanliness, Friendliness, and Safety

While we were at the park, we had the opportunity to learn more about the people who work there and how they go all out and do their best to make sure that Raging Waves is a clean, friendly, and safe place to be.

As a mom (and germaphobe because I have to be), this made me incredibly happy to hear.

Entertainment for the Whole Family at Raging Waves Waterpark #Chicago #Staycation

Our family day at Raging Waves was awesome. I’m thankful for all the memories made and know that my kids will remember all the fun for a long time to come. πŸ™‚

Have you visited a waterpark this Summer?


10 Goals for the Week

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10 Goals to Tackle This Week

I was able to cross almost everything off my list for last week.

I completely missed drinking a single one of my lemon (or lime) water concoctions. And I only wrote one blog post last week, but this week should be different.

Now that the July 4th holiday has passed, and my neighbors are no longer having illegal fireworks competitions in their backyards… My kids should be able to sleep a little better, and I should (hopefully) get back to having more time to myself after they go to bed. πŸ™‚

Here’s what I accomplished last week:

Family/Mothering Goals:

1. Continue to work on memorizing two verses of scripture as a family — We tend to go around the table during mealtimes and practice each verse.

2. Organize a fun Family Day at home

Personal Goals:

3. Read 20 pages ofΒ Virtual FreedomΒ (affiliate link)Β by Chris Ducker

4. Walk a total of 90 minutes on the treadmill

5.Β Drink water with lemon (or lime) and cayenne pepper 5x

6. Read 20 pages of Tasty Food Photography by Pinch of Yum

Home Management Goals:

7.Β Clean bathrooms

8.Β Unpack one box in the basement

Business Goals:

9. Fix recipes on my blog that are no longer working because of a plugin that I had to deactivate

10. Write 3 blog posts

Here are my goals for this week:

Family/Mothering Goals:

1. Continue to work on memorizing two verses of scripture as a family

2.Β Plan a fun Family Day at home — Our family days usually happen on Sunday afternoons, and lately, they’ve involved a movie and fun snacks. To be completely honest, we’ve been watching The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings films week after week for a while now. We went through all five movies and now we’re checking out the extended versions from the library. πŸ™‚

Personal Goals:

3. Read 20 pages ofΒ Virtual FreedomΒ (affiliate link)Β by Chris Ducker

4. Walk a total of 95 minutes on the treadmill

5.Β Drink water with lemon (or lime) and cayenne pepper 5x

6. Read 20 pages of Tasty Food Photography by Pinch of Yum

Home Management Goals:

7. Organize Elisabeth’s play area — It’s become overridden with LEGOs.

8.Β Unpack one box in the basement

Business Goals:

9. Get caught up on emails

10. Write 3 blog posts

What are your goals for this week?


10 Goals for the Week

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10 Goals to Tackle This Week

I did pretty well knocking out nearly all of the goals I set for last week.

But after thinking about the area I struggle with most – my business goals – I’m going to make a little change moving forward. I realize that week after week I keep biting off more than I can handle in terms of my business goals, and it’s just not good or helpful.

So, instead, I’m only going to create two business goals per week, and I’m going to add an additional personal goal in order to maintain ten goals per week.

It’s so much easier to work on personal goals around my kids anyway.

Business goals? Those generally have to be saved for after they’re in bed or for when I’m able to get some time alone to work on them.

Anyway, here’s what I accomplished last week:

Family/Mothering Goals:

1. Continue to work on memorizing two verses of scripture as a family — This has been such a blessing to our family. Even Elisabeth, my 2-year-old daughter, is doing great with her memorization. It helps that we work on the same verse for a few weeks at a time.

2. Enjoy a Family Day outside of the house

Personal Goals:

3. Read 25 pages ofΒ Virtual FreedomΒ (affiliate link)Β by Chris Ducker

4. Walk a total of 80 minutes on the treadmill

5.Β Read 25 pages of 52 Things Kids Need From a MomΒ (affiliate link) by Angela Thomas — I finished reading this book and plan on sharing some of what I gleaned in a future post.

Home Management Goals:

6.Β Clean the microwave — I’m not really looking forward to this. — Thanks to my hubby for getting this done for me. πŸ™‚

7.Β Unpack one box in the basement

Business Goals:

8.Β Add a header to my email newsletter

9.Β Attend a local one day blog conference

10. Write 3 blog posts — I only wrote two posts.

Here are my goals for this week:

Family/Mothering Goals:

1. Continue to work on memorizing two verses of scripture as a family — We tend to go around the table during mealtimes and practice each verse.

2. Organize a fun Family Day at home

Personal Goals:

3. Read 20 pages ofΒ Virtual FreedomΒ (affiliate link)Β by Chris Ducker

4. Walk a total of 90 minutes on the treadmill

5.Β Drink water with lemon (or lime) and cayenne pepper 5x

6. Read 20 pages of Tasty Food Photography by Pinch of Yum

Home Management Goals:

7.Β Clean bathrooms

8.Β Unpack one box in the basement

Business Goals:

9. Fix recipes on my blog that are no longer working because of a plugin that I had to deactivate

10. Write 3 blog posts

What are your goals for this week?


10 Goals for the Week

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10 Goals to Tackle This Week

I know that it’s almost Thursday.

But that’s okay, because it’s never too late to set goals, right? I may have had this post published earlier, but I was a bit thrown off when I woke up this morning and went to change Elisabeth only to find that there wasn’t a diaper or Pull-Up in sight.

We were all out.

That took our little potty-training adventure down a new path today and meant that I had to spend a lot more time in the bathroom with a little person. Oh, and then there’s the extra laundry that needed attention… πŸ˜‰

Anyway, here’s what I accomplished last week:

Family/Mothering Goals:

1. Continue to work on memorizing two verses of scripture as a family

2. Plan a Family Day

Personal Goals:

3. Read 25 pages ofΒ Virtual FreedomΒ by Chris Ducker

4. Walk a total of 70 minutes on the treadmill

5.Β Read 25 pages of 52 Things Kids Need From a MomΒ by Angela Thomas

Home Management Goals:

6.Β OrganizeΒ the files on my computer

7.Β Unpack one box in the basement

Business Goals:

8. Design a new Facebook cover for my page — I finally got around to this! You can see my new Facebook coverΒ here. πŸ™‚

9.Β Set up my blog feed on Mad Mimi — I did this. Then I found out that Mad Mimi’s web forms are not what I expected, and after doing more research, I decided to switch back to my old email service provider. PerhapsΒ Mad Mimi will work out another time, but for now I’m back with Feedblitz.

10. Write 4 blog posts — Once again, I only got around to writing two posts.

Here are my goals for this week:

Family/Mothering Goals:

1. Continue to work on memorizing two verses of scripture as a family — This has been such a blessing to our family. Even Elisabeth, my 2-year-old daughter, is doing great with her memorization. It helps that we work on the same verse for a few weeks at a time.

2. Enjoy a Family Day outside of the house

Personal Goals:

3. Read 25 pages ofΒ Virtual FreedomΒ (affiliate link)Β by Chris Ducker

4. Walk a total of 80 minutes on the treadmill

5.Β Read 25 pages of 52 Things Kids Need From a MomΒ (affiliate link) by Angela Thomas

Home Management Goals:

6.Β Clean the microwave — I’m not really looking forward to this. πŸ˜‰

7.Β Unpack one box in the basement

Business Goals:

8.Β Add a header to my email newsletter

9.Β Attend a local one day blog conference

10. Write 3 blog posts

What are your goals for this week?