Top Ten ways to get out of a Funk!

A friend over at Day by Daye posted how she and her kids overcome cabin fever in winter. We don't get the winter blues here in Indo, but some days are so challenging we have to be creative in planning our daily fun! Here our our top ten ways to get out of a funk!

1. Hiking/Beach: We live at the base of a mountain that has a waterfall.  We love hiking up to the lower falls and swimming in the pool.  The water is ice cold and so refreshing on a hot day.  Our boys are finally old enough to do the hike with very little help from us. The beach is another favorite of our family.  We don't go often because it's a lot of work but it's so relaxing when we do. 

 

Pickle Falls

beach in Bali

2. Music- Sometimes my squirmy boys just have too much energy.  One of our favorite ways to release this energy is this song. We crank it up and press the repeat button.  It's a favorite of our neighbor kids too! Wiggy-Wiggles-Freeze-Dance



3.  Popsicles: Some days the heat is just more than we can handle!  We try and keep our freezer stocked with store bought or homemade popsicles.  It's amazing how refreshing it can be on a hot stressful day.  When our kids are disagreeing or struggling to get along, a popsicle can help improve attitudes instantly!

Family photo time, everyone say "popsicle"

4. Game Night:  Our kids love playing games.  Preferably "big kid" or "mommy and daddy" games.  Sometimes, we just open the game cabinet, grab a pile and sit around the table playing. Most of the games are too old and difficult for the boys to understand, but they are content to play with the pieces.  Some of their favorites are Blokus Mancala, and Traffic Jam by Rush Hour.


5. Creative activities.  I am not creative on my own, but I love creativity and creative activities.  My two favorite resources to get the creative juices flowing:  Five Minute Miracles and 365 Unplugged Family Fun Activities  Today's activity from the Miracle book, shining pennies.  We don't have a lot of pennies here in Indo, just what was in my wallet when we left the states last year, but the boys are having great fun trying to make their pennies as shiny as mine!
 
6. Parks, parks and no parks?  We don't really have parks here in Indo. It's a challenge, because my little boys love parks.  We do take them up to the international school to play at the playground.  MAF also has a little play place on their compound here.  We've discovered a few overlooks here that we also enjoy.  Some overlook beautiful Lake Sentani and others overlook the ocean.  Most of these places are not well cared for and have plenty of trash and overgrown grass but we love the views!

7. mini vacations: This is a new thing for our family.  Our first mini vacation of the year was in February, right before Jon went on a 10 day ministry trip to India.  We stayed in our town, just at a guesthouse, 10 minutes from home.  The change of scenery was all we needed.  It got us away from our house and"to do lists" and gave us a breath of fresh air for just 2 nights.  We came home refreshed and ready for a new week!


8. Up until recently we didn't have camping gear on this side of the world.  Plus, who really wants to go camping outside in a tent when it's 80-90 degrees and muggy all the time!  Or what about the fact that one little mosquito bite may mean contracting a tropical disease like malaria or dengue fever! So, we came up with "camping" in mommy and daddy's bedroom.  The kids love it.  We make little pallettes on the floor for them and they bring in all of their special stuffed animals to sleep in the air conditioned room.  It's a special treat for them to sleep in a cool room with ac so we save it for times when the kids are sick or have had a rough week.

9. I don't do tons of baking, but when I do, I really enjoy it! My latest favorite is bagels.  We can't get them in stores here and I found a tasty recipe in my breadmaker cookbook.  I love that the machine does half the work for me and I just have to form and bake!  I think I need to make bagels a bit more often though.  I was doing a project with the kids one day, making napkin rings.  Jon came home and saw them sitting on the counter and got excited that I was making bagels or donuts.  Sorry, honey!  Here are the pictures from the project!

unpainted, ready to bake

painted napkin rings

the boys had a blast painting these

 10. Have you ever told your kids "don't Play With Your Food !"  We don't!  Early on I learned that kids will eat anything if it is presented in the right way!  My kids love the cool things that we come up with to make lunch more fun!  Again, I am not at all creative on my own.  I just do a search online to get some good ideas.  One of the easiest ways to be creative is with peanut butter and jelly.  I spread the peanut butter on one piece of bread and use a squeeze bottle with jam to draw silly faces on the bread.  My kids think it's great and usually ask for another one with a different face!  Great way to get kids to eat on a picky day!

 

 

Pig sandwhich, got the idea from a library book.