I seem to have taken an inadvertent blogging vacation. I say “inadvertent” because nearly every day I thought about writing a post. And nearly every day, something else came up that distracted me or ate up the time.
Mostly, I am getting into my end-of-summer panic mode. Have we gone swimming enough? Have we gone to the park enough to hold us for the winter months? Have we eaten enough garden-fresh veggies and popsicles? Can we push back the kids’ bedtime any further so that they can play in the yard just a little longer?
Thursday – Sunday featured the Navy’s elite flying force, the famous Blue Angels. I am just as impressed by them as everyone else, but their traffic path over our house and turning around just south of us means that I may be dealing with the repercussions for awhile – Adam has developed a panic-filled fear of them, and whenever he’d hear the roar, he’d point at the sky and say, “Scared! Bad guys! Bue Angels – bad guys!” We are blaming this on Leah and Ben playing Legos and “bad guys”.
Friday evening we were hit with a brief storm, which although it did not provide much moisture, certainly gave us a dose of wind…enough to blow over the frame of the shed Aaron is in the process of constructing. And of course Aaron was at work. And of course this was the evening that I decided to start working with the kids on their “90” projects. I spent the time between supper & bedtime thinking about size, proportion, and multiplication. And paint. Lots of paint.
After the kids were in bed, Aaron came home and we went out and re-raised the shed. And prayed that we wouldn’t have to do it again in the morning. (Which we didn’t. Whew!)
Saturday found us (that would be me and the kiddos) visiting a friend and taking in the delights of a small-town parade. When you have a 2 year old who possesses a sweet tooth the size of Wyoming, distraction is your friend. Adam would grab a piece of candy off the ground (I’ve always thought that parades are the exception to many rules: Playing in the street. Eating off the ground. Taking candy from strangers. Does anyone else find this rather disconcerting?) and immediately turn to me and say, “Open!” After letting him eat about 4 candies, I started saying, “Hey, what’s coming next?!” and thankfully it was either fire trucks, princesses, or more candy. He’d turn to look, I’d grab the candy out of his hand and dump it into his bag, and we’d start all over again.
Aaron was home with us on Monday as payback for working the weekend. He did some work on the shed and then I convinced him into going on a lunch date with me, followed by a very sexy shopping trip: looking for a new mattress. Or a whole bed, actually. It was an errand we really didn’t want to take the kids on – can you see three kids in a furniture store with mattress as far as they can see? Isn’t it funny how a kid’s dream is usually a parent’s nightmare?
There’s your update. Now, maybe this week I can get back to my usual blogging schedule of sporadic. But you never know…we do have two weeks left until school starts, and it looks awfully nice outside…
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Do you have any end-of-summer traditions? What is the one thing that you make sure to do before school starts and/or the weather gets cooler?
