The Sensible Mom

10 Goals for the Week

July 13, 2015 by Sandra 6 Comments

So right now my kids are playing with water balloons in the house. 🙂

I gave them each two balloons and a towel and told them to play and see how long they can make them last before they pop. All this because we have neighbors who like to let their dog run loose outside. It seems we can’t escape these types of neighbors.

Oh well!

On the plus side, the kids are having a lot of fun, they’re using their imaginations, and I crossed off all my goals for last week.

Here’s what I accomplished last week:

Family/Mothering Goals:

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

2. ~~Read to my children 5x~~

Personal Goals:

3. ~~Do resistance band exercises 4x~~

4. ~~Walk a total of 100 minutes on the treadmill~~

5. ~~Read 10 pages of The Lord of the Rings (Part One) The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien~~

6. ~~Journal 2x~~

Home Management Goals:

7. ~~Research and create a list of new curriculum I’d like to order~~

8. ~~Order journals for the upcoming school year~~

Business Goals:

9. Shoot, edit, & upload four videos to our family YouTube channel

10. ~~Create a backup of my blog~~

Here are my goals for this week:

Family/Mothering Goals:

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

2. Read to my children 5x

Personal Goals:

3. Do resistance band exercises 4x

4. Walk a total of 100 minutes on the treadmill

5. Read 10 pages of The Lord of the Rings (Part One) The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

6. Journal 2x

Home Management Goals:

7. Sew a few things in our home that need it

8. Clean out and organize Isaac’s and David’s homeschool drawers

Business Goals:

9. Shoot, edit, & upload three videos to our family YouTube channel

10. Shoot, edit, & upload two family vlogs

What are your goals for this week?

5 New Minions Movie Minion Toy Reviews (The Latest YouTube Videos on Fun Playtime Reviews)

July 11, 2015 by Sandra 2 Comments

I have five new Minions movie Minion toy reviews to share today. 🙂

But before I get to the videos, here are a few YouTube-related things I’ve observed:

There are lots of mom vloggers on YouTube, and I love gleaning tips and ideas from them. This past week, I found out about a great new homeschooling resource for my two youngest boys. And I saw two “homeschool hauls” where I learned about some inexpensive, but smart homeschool tools/supplies to pick up for when we get started again next month.
For days, my computer ~~lost its mind~~ was acting crazy again, so I deleted applications I don’t use often and updated it with every update available. It turns out there were only two or three updates I needed to make. I have an “old” MacBook Pro and had updated it to the (then) new operating system the last time my computer was giving me problems. The current updates I installed seemed to work, and old “Herb” isn’t giving me the blue screen of death anymore.
That’s great! But with the new updates also came the latest version of iMovie, which I’ve been dreading because I love using the old version. It turns out, though, I like the new version, and I’m actually editing videos faster with it. 🙂
Teaching your kids how to edit and upload videos to YouTube can be very helpful. I plan on working on these things more with Nathan and Breanna, my two oldest kids, once schools starts back up. Breanna is already helping out with thumbnails, though.

Now, here are 5 New Minions Movie Minion Toy Reviews:

NEW 2015 Minions Movie Minion Surprise Blind Bags

NEW 2015 Minions Movie Minion McDonald’s Happy Meal Toy – Talking Egyptian Minion

NEW 2015 Minions Movie McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys

HUGE Minions Movie BOB Play Doh Surprise Egg with 2015 New Minions Movie Surprise Toys and More!

2015 New Minions Movie Cereal Toy

About once a week, here on The Sensible Mom, I write a weekly wrap-up post to share the videos we’ve uploaded since our last update. Please feel free to subscribe to our channel to stay even more up-to-date.

Our KeyLime Cove Indoor Waterpark Resort Family Adventure

July 8, 2015 by Sandra 6 Comments

I worked in collaboration with KeyLime Cove on this blog post. They provided us with a free one-night stay in a beautiful Toucan Suite, water park passes, and a $50 voucher. We traveled there on our own and provided for everything else (gas, food, desserts, game card, etc…) out of our own pocket. 🙂 #KeyLimeCove

Our family of seven has lived in Illinois nearly all of our lives.

In fact, Ruben, me, and our five kids were all born here…in the same town.

It’s true. 🙂

And because we’ve grown up, lived, and worked in Illinois for so long, we’ve been to many of the places located throughout this fabulous state.

But one place we’d yet to visit was KeyLime Cove — Chicagoland’s largest indoor waterpark resort!

We recently had an opportunity to stay at the resort in one of their beautiful two-bedroom Toucan suites, and we had an amazing time. I vlogged our little trip there and back home, so you can get a feel for what it’s like and also check out the inside of a Toucan suite.

It’s roomy and spacious enough to fit our family of seven.

Here’s our KeyLime Cove Family Adventure Day 1 vlog, which includes a tour of the room:

Here’s our KeyLime Cove Family Adventure Day 2 vlog:

Things We Loved About KeyLime Cove

We can’t wait for another chance to go back to KeyLime Cove and, hopefully, be able to spend at least two or three nights there. My kids didn’t want the fun to end so soon and kept asking if we could stay longer. They loved the whole experience.

We all did. 🙂

Fun Facts About KeyLime Cove:

It uses a state-of-the-art ozone disinfection system which provides impeccable water quality and clarity.

The pH value of the water is the same as a human teardrop.

Air is refreshed every 20 minutes during the hours of operation.

Pineapple Splash Bucket is 10 feet tall and holds 250 gallons of water.

Maximum occupancy of the waterpark is 1,476 guests.

Besides the waterpark, I know they enjoyed spending time at the RipTide Reef Arcade, which happened to have fun rides and games for all of the kids.

Before we headed home on the second day, we took some time to walk around KeyLime Cove and take pictures. I love the fun theming they’ve got going on!

It’s everywhere and really makes you feel like you’re on vacation.

Overall, the KeyLime Cove Indoor Waterpark Resort turned out to be a place we can’t wait to experience again someday.

And I’m thankful for all the wonderful memories we created there! 🙂

Have you visited a waterpark with your family this summer? Do you have any fun memories of visiting a waterpark as a child?

10 Goals for the Week

July 6, 2015 by Sandra 4 Comments

I hope you had a great weekend.

We spent lots of time together as a family and did a few fun activities together. It was all very memorable, and I don’t think our kids will ever forget “the year the neighbors set off fireworks in just about every direction.”

They set off tons of fireworks last year, too.

But this year?

I think they all went and got permits ( 😉 ), because we didn’t even have to leave the house to see a fantastic show!

As for my goals, I didn’t meet my treadmill and vlogging goals, and I’m actually going to cut back or cut those out for this week.