Reflections Toward the End of Summer
One of our son’s friends was over last night, and he politely asked my husband if he was having a good summer. After a pause, he said it was okay. I jumped in and said, “no, he’s not having a good summer”. He laughed (my husband) and said “why do you say that?” I proceeded to remind him he hates summer (the heat, unless he’s at the beach), the building project (that should be finished today, praise God) has been a pain (because he’s had to rely on other people coming, doing, coordinating), he liked going to Chicago on business, but was lonely, and everything has been rather disjointed. We laughed and went on.
I then started thinking about whether I was having a good summer. I think I would probably say no, in comparison to other summers that is. First off, this is the first summer in 12 years that I have worked for someone else so that I had regular hours to have to be there (my 15 hour a week job downtown). I love that job, but with the kids at home it has been a new adjustment. Second, my boys have been hither and yon with 3 camps for Eli, camp and a Europe trip for Ivan 4. Emma and I went to the beach for a week while everyone was out of town, but she has a short summer (6 weeks) due to attending an extended year program – so that kept her from some camps she could have done. All of that to say, we haven’t had a chance to establish a “summer routine” that I could get comfortable with.
We had planned to take a family vacation next week (the only week everyone is home from all of their travels), but I haven’t been able to make the plans we had intended, and now it’s a crap shoot.
They say toddlers work best with a routine, I think I do too. I’ll be glad when we get past Labor Day and things are settling into a new routine – this is what I do best!
I hope we can patch together a GREAT summer outing next week to salvage this debacle…although sittin' around the shack with you is always pleasant and a joy! You are a great writer…..I3