I’m very excited to share this week’s activity report with you because I just loved researching my family tree. I started when I was about 13 years old, taking notes and filling in the blanks of my family tree journal that I had gotten for Christmas.

Young children can help create many different family history projects; they don’t have to strictly write in a journal. There are lots of ideas in this report and your kids will have fun while learning about some personal history!

To subscribe, simply register your email in the sidebar column. Every subscriber will receive each special report in the series but ONLY until August 29th! Sign up now!

Surviving the Summer at Home is a series of themed activity reports that you can use to keep your kids busy and unplugged from their video games this summer. I know those awful cries of, “Mom! I’m bored!” so this is just my little way to help ease that stress.

For complete access to the series, simply register your email in the right sidebar. Only available until August 29, 2008.

Subscribers…please let me know what you think! If you leave a comment here, I will definitely read it and respond!

This is a picture of a newly bloomed peony in my backyard. These are truly the easiest perennials to grow! I purchased the small plants years ago, plopped them in the ground (how’s that for “official” gardening lingo!) and have watched them grow and bloom wildly ever since!

Peonies thrive in full sun and with minimal work. Since it’s a perennial, you need to cut back the dead stems and leaves every fall but then it turns around in the spring with baby sprouts and glorious flowers.

The only drawback is that they are top-heavy, so you need stakes to hold up the plant and the flowers. The flowers open up SO wide that these skinny long stems can’t possibly support them upright. They also have a very short blooming season, maybe one month, before they are dead. The foliage lasts longer so at least my garden doesn’t look dead right away but I would love to enjoy the flowers for a longer period. C’est la vie.

Every year I look forward to my peonies blooming. It’s a shame that we had such a massive rainstorm two days ago because the rain can make them bend over, too, but I look out my window every single day and just marvel at the glorious color.

You can’t be in a bad mood looking at that beauty!

For more Wordless Wednesday pictures, visit 5 Minutes for Mom

Come back tomorrow for the story behind the picture, Tell Me Thursday.

And yet here I sit…at 2:38am…unable to sleep.

So why not redesign my website? I never have time during the day because of my VA client work (which I totally love; this is NOT a complaint!) so I’ve put my lack of sleep time to good use.

My body won’t agree with me when the alarm goes off in 4 short hours but hey, I’m flexible. This is yet another blessing about working from home.

I’ve also been doing a lot more writing and have put together a summer ecourse with lots of ways to keep your kids active and thinking this summer, rather than plugged into their favorite games. Believe me, this will be a HUGE challenge with my kids as well but they will be my guinea pigs for testing these activities. The program is totally free; you can see the signup box in the right sidebar.

Wishing you all a well-rested and productive Wednesday!