summer happenings...

In the summertime, one should sip coffee in the morning breeze, barefeet wiggling in contentment. The schedule should be kept as clear as possible, to support spontaneous excursions. The pool should be sparklingly clear, and the refrigerator stocked with sugar-free seltzers. The freezer, of course, should have a variety of popsicles, and hopefully some no sugar added 60 calorie fudgesicles.

The house should be kept clean, the laundry caught up, yet one shouldn't do much work in the summer, as the days are best spent relaxing.

ha, right?

If you breeze through your friends' facebook or instagram posts, you might well think that THEIR lives are like that.

But here's the thing: life isn't always pretty. Our living room, for example, doesn't exist solely to model pinterest photos. There is a Labrador Retriever sprawled on the back of the couch, for goodness sakes! And I mean on the TOP of the back, so she doesn't miss anything good to bark at. At this very minute, I see three empty cups/glasses, two of which are mine, two coffee cups, two water bottles decorating the top of the book case, towels from the pool draped on the back of kitchen chairs, the fort Paul built for our granddaughter Lydia the other night, the half finished Labrador Retriever puzzle on the coffee table, bins of toys, the container of formula that Adrian accidentally left here last night, the clothes drying rack from the deck, some stuff that's listed on ebay stacked on the kitchen table, bags of camping snacks...

We'll clean it all up, we will. We vacuum and sweep every day, and clear up the clutter. Then in then we will LIVE here, and leave things, and clean it up again.


(just a wee bit messy!)

(a wee bit picked up...actually, after writing about it, I took a blogging break: vacuumed the floors, including the hallway, mopped, picked up, removed all couch covers and put them in the wash (which entailed removing clothes from the dryer, then the washer, of course), wiped down the counters, picked up and straightened, and dismantled the fort Paul built for Lydia the other night.)

Samuel is here for the week, he's in the Army Reserves and has drill all week, but he's here for dinner, and for evenings. There have been church things every evening, but tonight the schedule is free. (there's cleaning, but Kathryn, Evelyn, Suzanne, Sonja, Jonathan, Charlotte Claire, and Lydia have gone out to do their part this morning instead!) So tonight, a nice evening with Sam here. Sam, who has gone and grown up, but not really. He still gets all ready and gets his shoes on, and walks all over my floors, looking for his coffee mug or his phone or his keys, but now those shoes are Army boots. He's the same little boy in a grown up body...he's responsible and respectful, but still Sammers. He likes to tease, mostly Jonathan and me. :)

Have you ever taught someone to drive? Have you ever taken them to a driver's test? Waited on the curb while they drove away? Had your pulse pound and palms sweat and wished wished wished with all of your heart that you could steady their hands and calm their nerves, so they didn't mess up their parallel parking and fail their test? Have you ever gotten back into the car after the test, the car that's filled with sadness and tears, hopes dashed...?

We waited in line for SO long, then finally, she was next...


This was us, so optimistic before the test. I did not take an "after" pic, are you kidding? I'm treading thin ice just writing about this at all, teenagers do not like their mamas telling their stories, but in a way, this is MY story too, because I went through it with her. And sometimes, standing up and admitting we don't always succeed on the first time is strengthening for others, so they don't feel like the only one. I also mentioned that although I have been driving for 30 years now, I would probs fail a driving test, being all nervous and forgetting my left and right.

Anyway...kids are on their way home, and we have plans today....loose plans, I want to visit Robert's grave, we want to get homemade ice cream somewhere, and a beach somewhere sounds nice...