11 days and counting…
…until school starts…thank goodness!!
We have had an amazingly quick summer. The main objective has been survival. An equally important objective has been to remain sane. That’s going to require a separate blog post……..My part of the survival plan has been to keep the girls out of Robert’s way as he completes the last semester of his year back in school. It has been the hardest semester by far.
I was great at my part in June. The girls and I went to North Carolina for an entire week with my parents. A week back home and then another whole week in Birmingham for camp. I even took the dog. This coincided with Robert’s finals for the first half of the summer. Things were going well.
July was lackluster in comparison. Abigail and Hattie have both spent time with their grandparents, leaving us with only 2 children for a total of about a week. The dynamic with 2 instead of 3 is vastly different. The two left at home don’t argue as much and the one who has been gone is spoiled when she comes back. (No problem there…that is the grandparents’ job!) However, there have been other stresses at work. Robert is going to graduate in less than 2 weeks. He has been job hunting since April. The economy is struggling. You can fill in the blanks yourself…
As a general rule, I love summer. I despise being cold so summer is the best in that respect. I love the beach and the pool. I also love the lack of schedule. The girls have gone to a small summer camp 3 mornings a week (mostly so I can go to the grocery store alone 😉 ) but other than that our time is unplanned. The alarm clock is on vacation and most days, the girls can stay in their pajamas all day if they want to. We have had countless trips to the pool, play time with friends, walks around the neighborhood and a few special treats. Over all it has been a success.
But, as August rapidly approaches, we are all secretly longing for the routine. It is nice to have the week structured with school and planned errand and cleaning days. A couple of days of freedom on the weekend round it out. I don’t know why but it just works. I’m looking forward to it already!!