We are in the home stretch of summer. School starts on Monday, and I have very mixed emotions about it. It has been wonderful having all of the kids home all day, but it has also been sort of a free flowing organized chaos, which is not when I am at my best. I'm hoping to blog about some of the lessons I learned this summer. After repeating the same things to my children for three months I decided maybe they were lessons I needed as much, if not more than my kids. In case I forget (which is likely) I will jot down the main themes: Your brother/sister is more important than your stuff, love your neighbor, life is NOT fair, fair and equal are two different things, get your work done first, the best things in life are free (or at least pretty cheap).
This week is not going quite how I had envisioned it. It looked pretty clear on the calendar, but manages to fill up by about 7:30 each morning. Today I had coffee with a group of ladies. I had meant to leave the kids at home, do coffee for an hour, pick up a couple of Lisa's kids and cruise home, get some managerial stuff taken care of, eat lunch, take everyone to the pool, bring them home for dinner, and start the earlier bedtime routine. I ended up taking four kids to coffee. I was there for two hours. Lisa's kids got through the dentist faster than expected so I didn't need to get them. I left coffee with five extra boys, two extra girls, and a couple of boxes of macaroni and cheese. We made a mondo lunch. The girls changed clothes 400 times, the boys played baseball for two hours, and then we all hit the pool. We got to the pool just ahead of the U of I football team, which made it a bit more crowded than usual. I ended up with several of Lisa's kids at the pool, thinking I would have them for dinner, but right in the middle of prep their ride showed up. This is just one typical day in the life of summer around here.
Last week I caught some nasty bug that laid me out for four days. After day three I began to imagine all kinds of dreaded diseases that I surely must have. Fortunately by Sunday I could take enough Ibuprofen to make life liveable again. I am so thankful to live in a place where most dreaded diseases are all in our heads. It did set me back a few days. Rick cleaned the house and kept the kids in amazing order, which always makes me wonder if maybe he should be the one that stays home. I still have four days to get all the school supplies rounded up.
And if that all wasn't enough to keep my life interesting, our front stairs are being "repaired". Which at this stage means jack hammered off the front of our house. That began on Saturday, which was a great help to my splitting headache. One of my friends stopped by and asked if we were putting in a slide. Not a bad idea, and it would keep the door to door sales down. It has given the kids another activity, hammering away at the rubble heap. Lord willing they will pour the cement soon.
That's about it for the last couple of weeks. The end of summer will be a bang, not a whimper. Bring on the school year.
1 comment:
What an interesting summer you had. I can't wait to read about the lessons you have learned. I am sorry about the coffee date. I always look at having a cup of coffee in peace with like no noise. Hm, I guess I am a stepmom because when I get up in the morning I have my devotional and after that trying to do my coffee but if the kids get up too early I tell them they have to stay in their room a bit longer, ha just so I can drink my coffee in peace. Doesn't that sound selfish? Sorry about your steps, that really looks scary. And I agree with the men doing such a great job with kids and house.
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