Summer: The End Is Near...
I have succeeded in getting myself up to jog around 6 AM for the last three mornings. I have not been (willingly) awake for that hour all summer. It's not the first time I have tried setting my alarm - but it IS the first time I set a SECOND alarm in my bathroom for about 6:13 AM, and that is doing the trick - so far. My first alarm wakes me up, but then before I can snooze and forget it, I am jolted out of bed with the panic of a girl who wishes to keep all the other people in the house in blissful dream state. By the time I reach my sink, I am able to consider the possibility of putting on tennis shoes, and it's downhill from there. (Figuratively, of course - in reality, it is a LOT of UPhill after that, but I don't particularly mind.)
Unfortunately, said tennis shoes left me with a discouraging blister yesterday morning, and none of our considerable collection of bandaids will stick to that tricky place on my Achilles heel where I have the sore. Logically, I have convinced myself that the Solution To All My Woes is out there in the form of one of those bandaids made especially for blisters. We have tough and sheer and Dora and monster, but we do not have blister bandaids.
What's that you say? "Just run over to the drugstore - they can't be that hard to find!" Why, yes, of course! But you forget one key thing: The Children.
This is the thing about Summer for me. It's the weird things, the small things, the seemingly insignificant things that drop off the list of manageability. I can get all the groceries and take a kid in for a medical appointment and be faithful to swimming lessons, karate classes, and Sunday school - but I can. not. go get myself blister bandaids. It is one of those chores that simply does not pass the "Is it really worth bringing the kids?" test.
Lucky for me, school is just around the corner, and my chances for managing these trivialities should increase significantly. I'll have hours of time to squander with trips to the drugstore for single items. But I suspect that I might then find myself pining for the inconvenience and joy of "doing life" with my kids around all the time.
This has been a great summer.
This has been a largely unplanned summer - each week is a different experience, and we live each day largely on its own - which is a welcome change for the [overworked] planner in me. We checked off our beach trip early, before the crowds and the endlessness of summer days hit, and then we did a few birthdays, and a few family reunions, swimming lessons, and a long and languid week in Arkansas. We have done very little [read: no] school work, but we have made several serious library visits and spent lots of time in the "school of life": the Texas coast and the Arkansas Ozarks gave us lessons in the geography, biology, and geology, while roadside battle monuments and Calico Rock provided us as much history as we could stomach. Luke has spent quite a bit of time getting to know the economics of allowances along with the cost of Pokemon cards, and all the kids are in front row seats for Psychology of a Mother's Changing Moods...
It's not likely that much of our summer would pass the Pinterest test, but I hope that we as a family will enjoy looking back on the photos I've faithfully taken (assuming they ever make it to print!) - pictures of tall kids jumping off the diving board, of a boy perpetually clad in a Pull-up, of visits to aquariums and museums, of silly faces and messy rooms, of backyards and bugs and sprinklers, of coloring and playing board games and dressing up, of treasured friends and beloved family. And maybe of some of the things my camera missed... impromptu water balloon fights and bike rides, sweet, deep talks and snuggles, stacks of books read, movie nights, Chick-fil-a lunches, late, late bedtimes...
Here's to summer! (And here's to the End of Summer, too, which makes all the good moments precious, and the bad moments bearable!)
Unfortunately, said tennis shoes left me with a discouraging blister yesterday morning, and none of our considerable collection of bandaids will stick to that tricky place on my Achilles heel where I have the sore. Logically, I have convinced myself that the Solution To All My Woes is out there in the form of one of those bandaids made especially for blisters. We have tough and sheer and Dora and monster, but we do not have blister bandaids.
What's that you say? "Just run over to the drugstore - they can't be that hard to find!" Why, yes, of course! But you forget one key thing: The Children.
This is the thing about Summer for me. It's the weird things, the small things, the seemingly insignificant things that drop off the list of manageability. I can get all the groceries and take a kid in for a medical appointment and be faithful to swimming lessons, karate classes, and Sunday school - but I can. not. go get myself blister bandaids. It is one of those chores that simply does not pass the "Is it really worth bringing the kids?" test.
Lucky for me, school is just around the corner, and my chances for managing these trivialities should increase significantly. I'll have hours of time to squander with trips to the drugstore for single items. But I suspect that I might then find myself pining for the inconvenience and joy of "doing life" with my kids around all the time.
This has been a great summer.
This has been a largely unplanned summer - each week is a different experience, and we live each day largely on its own - which is a welcome change for the [overworked] planner in me. We checked off our beach trip early, before the crowds and the endlessness of summer days hit, and then we did a few birthdays, and a few family reunions, swimming lessons, and a long and languid week in Arkansas. We have done very little [read: no] school work, but we have made several serious library visits and spent lots of time in the "school of life": the Texas coast and the Arkansas Ozarks gave us lessons in the geography, biology, and geology, while roadside battle monuments and Calico Rock provided us as much history as we could stomach. Luke has spent quite a bit of time getting to know the economics of allowances along with the cost of Pokemon cards, and all the kids are in front row seats for Psychology of a Mother's Changing Moods...
It's not likely that much of our summer would pass the Pinterest test, but I hope that we as a family will enjoy looking back on the photos I've faithfully taken (assuming they ever make it to print!) - pictures of tall kids jumping off the diving board, of a boy perpetually clad in a Pull-up, of visits to aquariums and museums, of silly faces and messy rooms, of backyards and bugs and sprinklers, of coloring and playing board games and dressing up, of treasured friends and beloved family. And maybe of some of the things my camera missed... impromptu water balloon fights and bike rides, sweet, deep talks and snuggles, stacks of books read, movie nights, Chick-fil-a lunches, late, late bedtimes...
Here's to summer! (And here's to the End of Summer, too, which makes all the good moments precious, and the bad moments bearable!)
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