Don’t get me wrong, I love summer. I love the warm weather, the fact I don’t have an alarm clock attached to a tardy bell, no packing lunches, and no homework. That’s right, just because you don’t have to turn it in, you have to make sure your child does it, does it right, and it’s in the backpack the night before. Shew, and I thought those days were behind me. Anyway, there are some things the summer brings that I could do without, though. The “I’m bored” every ten minutes, “what can I eat now?” (even though they ate fifteen minutes ago), “are we going anywhere today? maybe a movie, the mall, anywhere?” Ah yes, the idle hands of time. This I don’t like so much. I’ve been extremely fortunate in the past with a mother-in-law whom we fondly refer to as camp. She is awesome–orchestrates scavenger hunts, themed menus for the week, outdoor games, milkshake days, and trips to the stores. This year, however, she’s become the caregiver for her mother. My children are limited with their time at her house. Heck, she’s limited at the time at her house. She lives with her mom throughout the week and returns to her own on the weekends. So it’s been somewhat of a bummer summer. And I get it, kids don’t have the same things that need to be done as a parent. We’ve taught another one how to cut the grass (a five hour chore on a riding contraption), I’ve assigned another one dish duty every morning, and the two smaller ones hang out, making sure their dirty clothes get in the basket and out from under their beds. But how long can this entertain? Approximately eight minutes. Then there’s the rest of the day to consider. And flopping schedules with your husband so one of you can remain gainfully employed.
Alas, summer is coming to a screeching halt. I smell the paper and wooden pencils as I walk into Target, see the back-to-school advertisements when the television is switched on, and pass all the parked buses, begging for newbies to join the ranks in transporting the crazies to the school back and forth. It’s time to get hunkered down to waking up early, praying we have bread, and wondering what I can make for dinner. (for those weeks I don’t have it magically planned out ahead of time). It’s better this way. The kids are all in places that’s making them think, they’re finally out of the house, and I can get into a schedule. It’s both liberating and frightening to think about. I’m not fond of schedules, but it’s necessary.
I took my two littlest to see Despicable Me 3 yesterday. Yeah, it was as good as you can imagine a rental to be, sitting in a theater that just charged us over $20 for the tickets, $30 for snacks, and a kid kicking my chair and talking the entire show. But I do it out of love. Although I must say, my kiddos didn’t seem particularly thrilled with it. Kind of like they were thinking it was a DVD rental at the Redbox, too. Once you go into the second and third editions of movies, it’s a rental for sure.
But it was nice to get everyone to pitch in and clean the house with me in order to go to the movies! My daughter and husband got to see Spiderman. They raved over it. Ironically I’ll see that in the Redbox. Times are changing, as my second in birth order son skulked to the back of the theater with his girlfriend, and my oldest met up with someone and watched Dunkirk.
Well, that’s all for now. It’s Sunday and the weather is a perfect 70 degrees. I’m going to soak up the last day before Monday begins. We have a dentist appointment and our first home study scheduled for this week. And, I might be doing a little bit of school supply shopping. Open house for my smallest is in 10 days. I can only imagine the teacher is going to demand 20 sticks of glue, 10 notebooks, and 15 boxes of tissues!
Have a great one, everyone!
