Summertime

So I was looking at the calendar this morning, trying to figure out how to structure the rest of the summer.

I realized that even though this is only the 7th of July, and even though the kiddos don't start school until August 15th, I have exactly 13 days left at home to get ready for school and "the fall." Granted, I know I don't have to have all their clothes ready on the day they start, but I would like to go into fall feeling a little less scatterbrained than I have in previous years. After all, this time I don't really have much of an excuse. At some point I need to get their supplies, I suppose. Funny to be thinking about that in the first week of July.

I'm not really complaining about how crazy it's going to be. There have been several fun trips, with more to come, and the kiddos are enjoying the hell out of not having to get up in the mornings. They've spent a lot of time with friends and relatives, and I'm taking them to Dallas for 5 days next week to spend time with some relatives they rarely see. This is time well spent, in my book.

But all the grand plans of working on reading and other school work this summer? Yah, that's not gonna happen. Neither will some of the activities I had thought might be fun. We may try to do Pinnacle tomorrow, but I'm not sure how cooperative the weather will be.

However, one of my main goals for the summer, getting them comfortable in the water and capable of some level of swimming, has been achieved. Benjamin can jump off a diving board and make his way over to the side of the pool without too much trouble. Alyssa wasn't quite strong enough last time we tried, but she's making progress every day, and is completely comfortable in the water. And the bonus part of the swimming? Wears their asses out. We spent nearly 3 hours swimming with friends yesterday, and Alyssa is still asleep at 8am this morning. This is a wonderful thing. I never hold out hope of B sleeping in; he's a damned energizer bunny, and I think he wakes up about 6:30 every morning, regardless of bedtime.

We've also spent time on the bikes, even though neither of them will take their training wheels off. We probably need another 5 or 6 outings and some peer pressure to make that one work. Ah well, that one will come.

So yeah, not a lot of "tangible" progress this summer (no large house projects have been accomplished, no major overhaul of anything, and the garage isn't even close to clean), but I know the kiddos have had a good time, and we've all slowed down at least a little bit. It's been nice.