Summer Vacation ~ Day 25

Monday, June 16

This is what happens when one child is at camp and the other is skipping swim team practice in order to go to VBS. :) (I still felt like I could sleep all day.)

I have canceled several alarms on my phone this week. :) I kept the 2.45 PM alarm for LM's pill and I added a 9.15 AM alarm for Duolingo. BK doesn't want to lose his streak while he's at camp. We're going to see if I can keep his chess streak by doing Japanese daily.  We use the same app, so possibly??? 

LM went to VBS from 9-11.30! And her first day of gymnastics at 1 PM! And tutoring from 4-5.30! Whew! Let's go to bed early. :) 

5 or 10 minutes

I have a friend who says, "Five minutes matter."  Whatever household chore or decluttering or maintaining you can do in five minutes still matters. 

One of my favorite podcasts, "A Slob Comes Clean," encourages a daily 5-minute pickup by all family members.  5 minutes x 4 people = 20 minutes. :) It seems so small, but it adds up.  

I am in a chronic illness group on Facebook and someone asked recently.  There were 56 comments, and one was: 

One minute at a time, one day at a time. It is ok to take a couple of days to get a room cleaned.

Yes! One minute matters. Five minutes matter. 

We came home from swim practice. (Heat index was 90* when we left at 8 AM and 99* when we came home at 11 AM!) I just wanted to crash, but set the timer on the dryer for 10 minutes (to dry out the humidity!) and thought, "What can I do in ten minutes?" It turns out that I could check the temperature of the meat in the crockpot and turn it down to "Keep warm." And I emptied the console in the van, brought the contents inside (in the air conditioning), organized them, threw things away, put pens in the pencil drawer, etc.  

Every minute matters.  How did you find time today? 

Summer Vacation ~ Day 24

Sunday, June 15

My alarm went off at 5 AM because my ox was in the ditch. If you're following along on our summer, you know I am doing "just-in-time" parenting/ living, with no margin to do anything ahead of time. 

So, this morning I was filling out all the paperwork in duplicate for BK to go to Trail Life camp.  (The long checklist and the emails stating that if your forms aren't correct, your child will not be allowed to stay are a rule-follower's worst nightmare.) 

The HUGE answer to prayer is that I found his swim competency form (which I had spent a long time looking for yesterday). It was stuck to the paper in front of it.

The good news is that he was ready for camp before we left for church at 8.30. The bad news is that I felt like I had pulled an all-nighter ... 

Jim opened his Father's Day cards & gift before we left for church.  He declared it his best gift ever ... a photo book of him with his children. <3 

I was glad when they said unto me, "Let us go to the house of the Lord." Great prayer time in our adult Sunday School class, great teaching from Isaiah, good to worship corporately. 

And then we quickly shifted gears to family time.  Lunch at a favorite pizza restaurant (in another city of course) with 14 other extended family members for Father's Day. 

Quick rush to get BK to Trail Life camp on time.  Whew!  Jim did that, and I rested.  :) 

Why do we try to fit so many things into every single day???

Summer Vacation ~ Day 23

Saturday, June 14

Another day for the books! Jim likened my intensely busy summer season to what planting & harvest seasons are like for him.  "Lord, give me strength," is my prayer. And I'm looking forward to Monday morning 9-11.30 AM when LM is registered for VBS and BK is registered for camp.  This mama needs a little breather. ;) 

While LM was at tutoring from 10-11.30, BK and I worked on packing for camp, and I sorted all the papers on the dining room table, paid bills, and went to the post office. 

I had to take a timeout from 12.15-12.45 so I could face the rest of the day.  

The children and I left at 1.15, dropped BK off for warmups before a round-robin baseball tournament, and went to a 2 PM bridal shower. 

Afterwards, we went to Kroger to pick up fried chicken for family reunion + 2 sides. 

From 5-9 PM we reveled in God's grace to & in & through our extended family.  In attendance were: 

• Jim's 95 year old dad and 3 of his 4 younger brothers (92, 89, and ?83), 
• three of their spouses, 
• 7 from Jim's generation 
• 5 of their spouses, 
• 12 of the next generation 
• 4 of their spouses, and 
• 4 of the next generation (including an infant and two toddlers)! 

It's BK's favorite night of the year!! LM was thrilled because she got to meet her cousin's 3 month old son ... and hold him!!

Summer Vacation ~ Day 22

Friday, June 13

I drove the least of any day this summer I think (two roundtrips to a town 6 miles away).  

BK had an 8 AM dentist appointment, after which we hurriedly picked up the MESS in our home and cleared surfaces. 

The housecleaner was here from 10-12.30.  That was my rest time.  

Sloppy joes for lunch. Dropped BK off at the grandparents' where he ran errands with them and was helpful (and got a free Friday slushie at Casey's). :) 

LM had a 1.30 dentist appointment.  

4-5 Zoom.   And then LM did her favorite thing - take a L-O-N-G bath.  BK mowed.  

Baseball practice was cancelled due to mud. 

Despite being such a choppy day, and mostly thanks to the housecleaner, we got a LOT of housework done.  Even moved the couch to look for hidden treasure. ;)  Got caught up on all dishes & all laundry (even the special loads).  And re-did the dry erase calendar with the next four weeks of kids' activities. 

Whew!

Vacation Friends

Wisconsin is a favorite getaway, and we usually share the house with family while we are there.  We also usually go for Memorial Day - with crowds, a parade, and a huge gathering in the park.  We at least usually see both of our neighbors.  

But this year we could not go for Memorial Day.  We went the next weekend, and there was no family there.  We didn't see our neighbors until we were packing the van to go home, and ne neighbor waved briefly on her way to an appointment.  It felt a little lonely. 

But it wasn't. 

After church on Sunday, I ran into Judy in the women's restroom.  Judy married into the family of my mother-in-law's best childhood (and lifelong!) friend!  And Judy roomed with Jim's cousin on a Wheaton alumni trip some years back.  It was good to reconnect. 

Walking home from the ice cream shop, I stopped to chat with Maureen, a ninety year-old lady I spoke with at the parade two or three years ago, and her daughter.  Maureen used to live here near us, but retired up north! She is delightful.

LM always makes friends at the beach.  One day she played with a very athletic girl her age. I spoke with the mom, and we had a long conversation. They live over an hour away, but go to that area a lot to see the girl's little brother's dad. Maybe LM will play with her again at the beach another afternoon when we're both there. :) 

Another day at the beach LM played with three sisters.  I spoke with the mom on our way out, and learned their life story.  Her husband has always dreamed of having a summer house there, and they just purchased a condo, so it's probable LM will see them again. :)  The girls were just in a musical theater production of Peter Pan, and were singing and dancing on the beach.  LM sang and danced right along with them as if she knew all the words & choreography!  

Summer Vacation ~ Day 21

Thursday, June 12

Out the door by 8 AM. 

Swim practice 8.30-10.30 AM.

Drop off LM at daycare (their field trip today was a swimming pool!). 

Pick up mail at the post office (we had been so busy we hadn't been in days!).

Pick up BK's friend to come play while his siblings were in swim lessons 5 minutes away. Take him back. 

Drive to a bigger city to get a camp physical for BK. Swing by ALDI first, because, why not?!

Home. I had ten minutes to pack LM's bag for tonight's swim meet and pack a snack bag, also. 

3-4 PM Zoom meeting for me (for my mom's business).

Jim and BK left at 3.40 to attend the visitation of a young man (the parent of one of BK's baseball teammates). Jim dropped BK off at the pool at 4.35. 

I picked LM up from daycare, got her a cheeseburger at Casey's (she's burning lots of energy swimming!), and got to the pool at 4.40. 

Warm-ups started at 5. 

When your child is on swim team, parents are supposed to volunteer. In our third year of swim team, I volunteered tonight for the first time ... in the bull pen. 

That means I spent two hours on my feet looking at the list of swimmers in each event, and calling out, "Event 5! Event 5! Sara, Jill, Ella, and Stella! Line up in front of me. Event 6! Event 6! John, Joe, Levi, and Zach!  Where is Zach? Does anyone know Zach? Do you see him? Can you go get him? Line up in front of me." For. Two. Hours!  

Volunteering also means that I asked a girl a year older than LM to make sure she got in line for her events, I gave her my Sharpie (every swim mom carries a Sharpie on them!) to decorate LM with goggles and bubbles :), and LM ran free for two hours and had free reign to our snack bag. 

Afterwards, a parent thanked me, and said, "You must have experience as a junior high teacher." I replied, "I'm just bossy." :) 

Another day of barely being home. I ate no lunch, but after the swim meet, bought a chicken bacon ranch salad from a food truck and ate it when we got home at 8.30. 

Another day of not doing oh, so many tasks that need to be done ... update forms for upcoming dental appointments, pack BK for camp & fill out all the forms, etc. 

Another day of no reading or math by the children. 

Another day of falling into bed exhausted.  But thankful, so thankful that my health is the best it has been any summer since 2020.  I can stand!  While I still have issues with mobility, I can bend and move so much better than I have the past four summers! Praise God!