June 8, 2015

We did it: A perfect summer day.  WE DID IT!

1)  I was awake from 3-5 with the most amazing head ache.  It was like there were little pebbles on my bones around my eyes.  I tried everything I could think of- I was stretching, rubbing, and pouting.  None of those things really worked- pity.  I worked so hard at them.  J texted me this afternoon to ask if I, at one point, had my bottom where my head should be and my feet up on the wall.  

"Of course."

Ahem.  I DID manage to sleep a few more hours, until about 8:30, to add to my few hours I got before 3.  Not a bad night!  The kids are so self sufficient in the mornings, it's awesome.  I think that's part of why summer has really thrown me for a loop so far: No one needs me.  I am so used to be needed all the time, it's kind of a hard shift to just accept that I get to take a break.  

2)  A friend came by to pick up the last of my wrinkly autumn apples (again, that dang wrist.  How can I peel 50 pounds of apples and stir and do all those things?  I can't.  Less work for me!)  She made up batches of apple sauce this afternoon- she's such a go-getter.  (Of course, she is retired and has the energy of a chipmunk.)  

3)  Around 10:30 I told the girls they could bike to the park.  Cocoa really wanted to go, so (get this) I drove him down.  We stayed until he got tired.  I drove him back.  GENIUS AT WORK!  The girls didn't have to leave before they were ready, I didn't have to try and make him walk a half mile in 82 degree weather, and no one got upset.  Not even me (which is huge: I really, really don't like taking kids to parks.)  This is awesome.  This has possibilities.  Oh the joys my kids are going to have as they get old enough to have the things they want instead of waiting for someone to give them to them!

I drove C home when he got too hot.  When the girls got home we all had lunch.  

4)  By this time, it was 85 degrees outside and starting to heat up upstairs.  I told the girls that if they finished their chores, everyone could watch a movie downstairs.  They chose a Tinkerbell movie.  Do you know how great the Tinkerbell movies are?  I'm not even joking.  The characters have personalities, disagreements, strengths, weaknesses, and real friendship.  Also, real lessons (even hard lessons.)  Tinkerbell and My Little Pony are both pretty great in this house.

5)  After the movie, I pulled out a history story book I'd unearthed while I was organizing our cupboards.  I picked it up at a curriculum 2nd hand shop a few years back, for no reason except everyone else liked it.  We have LOTS to cover during the school year, but just because it's summer doesn't mean the kids aren't still anxious to learn and do guided activities.  Today we learned about nomads and the dawn of civilization in the fertile crescent.  We made cave paintings afterwards, and I challenged the girls to make a shelter out of "found" items in the backyard.  Since they had just watched Tinkerbell put gobs of cool machines together, they were all over it.  

The paint quickly became a moot point as Ernie and Cocoa started smashing raspberries in old garden pots, adding water, and painting rocks.  Cocoa stripped down to his skivvies.  How quickly civilization slips away- can anyone just picture my kids literally going "Lord of the Flies" if I was gone for a solid 48 hours?  That's all it would take, I'm sure of it.  

(Mom's legs are longest- I attack with wet toes with no regrets.)

6)  Ernie convinced everyone to get their swim suits on, and she turned the sprinkler on in the backyard.

7)  I called everyone inside around 5:30 to get dressed.  We went to Costco with the intent of shopping in the air conditioned store and then coming home to eat after the evening had cooled off a little.  It didn't cool off much by the time we were eating at 7:00 (and a few children barely made it through Costco) but I stocked up on no-cook things for meals this week.  We had croissant sandwhiches tonight with grape tomatoes and actual grapes, with frozen blueberries and whipped cream for dessert.  (Third time we've had fruit and cream in a week's time.  I'm hooked.)  I bought shredded rotisserie chicken to mix with an asian slaw for another meal, and I will make the rest of the chicken into a chicken salad with tomatoes and serve it with the rest of the croissants.  I bought zucchini to spiralize and mix with a quick sauce, and garlic bread and frozen meatballs (I can just microwave those.)  That's four meals, not bad!  That will get us through the week- tomorrow night we are having a picnic at the beach.

8)  We finished off our family night by introducing the kids to American Ninja Warrior.  They were entranced.  Am I in trouble??