This can be summed up in a photograph.

A Disney Cruise

As you know, we are HUGE Disney fans and we LOVE to cruise so we dream of taking a Disney cruise!

What vacation would you like to take this year? Leave me a comment and let me know.

The post A Dream for 2012 appeared first on The Mom Maven.

Jordan needed a new laptop. His died just as school was starting this past fall and because we use Switched on Schoolhouse for some of our homeschooling he has to have a windows computer to do his schoolwork on. Since the death of his old, hand-me-down laptop he had been doing school on a desktop that Aaron had pieced together so we could make do until we could afford a laptop. My husband found him a great laptop and we split the cost with my in-laws.

Christmas Eve we are at my in-laws opening gifts and we get to the laptop box, which hubby had wrapped. We don’t usually open our big gifts on Christmas Eve so Jordan wasn’t expecting his laptop until Christmas Day. He starts to unwrap the gift and well, I’ll let the photos tell the story.

Jordan and the box

Inside the box, on top of the tissue paper was an Etch-a-Sketch!

Then, under the tissue paper, he found his laptop.

We all got a good laugh! Hubby said there was extra room in the box and he wanted to put some kind of gag gift in there so he went to the store and looked around and when he found the Cars 2 Etch-a-Sketch he knew it would be the perfect “old school computer” to put in with the laptop.

On Christmas Day hubby showed off his Etch-a-Sketch skills!

Did anyone in your family get any retro toys for Christmas? Leave me a comment and let me know.

The post Look What Jordan Got for Christmas! appeared first on The Mom Maven.

Let me start by saying we have been in our small house for 20 years. For their entire lives my boys have shares a 10×10 room with a small closet. The room worked ok with 2 toddler beds and even with 1 toddler bed and one twin bed but when we went to 2 twin beds there was just no room to play. I had suggested bunk beds to my husband for years but he was very anti-bunk bed. Most of the ones we found in stores seemed too flimsy and didn’t seem safe enough for my 2 little monsters. We put off getting bunk beds for two years because my husband was so against them.

Then one day in the spring of 2004, the boys were 11 and 8 at the time, I found free plans for bunk beds online. The sure seemed sturdy enough so I downloaded them and showed them to my husband. The boys went away for a weekend camping trip with Royal Rangers in April of ’04 and we did a “While You Were Out” makeover on their room. We painted the walls and built bunk beds out of pressure treated 4x4s and 3/4″ plywood. It was a lot of work but the room came out great.

The boys loved their new room and especially the bunk beds. Unfortunately, it is now 2012 and the boys are 18 and 16 and still sharing those bunk beds. The worst part of it is that my 16yo is the tallest and biggest of the boys and he is still on the top bunk. The positive is we built some sturdy beds and they can hold the weight of two teenage boys.

I never thought I’d find bunk beds in my boys’ room. What have you found in your child’s room that you didn’t expect to find?

The post Something I Never Thought I’d Find in My Boys’ Room appeared first on The Mom Maven.

There are days or even seasons when I have felt there is too much television in our house. Currently, we are not in one of those seasons. hubby and I watch Chuck, Body of Proof, Last Man Standing and Switched at Birth regularly and we are fans of The Amazing Race, The Sing-Off, Dancing with the Stars and Survivor when they are on. My guilty pleasure is My fair Wedding with David Tutera.

My 18yr old son watches Chuck, Body of Proof, Burn Notice and NCIS with the occasional American Pickers thrown in for good measure. My 16yo son watches Chuck, Tanked, Pawn Stars, American Pickers, Top Gear and The Amazing Race.

Thankfully, the invention of the DVR has allowed us to plan our TV time around our lives instead of our lives around the TV schedule. Almost all of our television watching is done via the DVR when school work and chores are complete. I don’t think we watch too much television and we seldom watch alone so we dialog what is going on while we fast forward through the commercials.

I didn’t list any sports…we are fans of NASCAR, Tampa Bay Rays baseball and college and pro football but watching sports doesn’t take precedent over other family plans.

I think we have come to a comfortable balance with our television watching and with our kids being older we no longer set limits on screen time for them. How about you? Is there too much television in your house? What shows are must watch television for your family? Leave me a comment and let me know.

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