It's The Little Things That Keep You Happy In Summer

At this point in my children's summer vacation (nearly halfway through already...WOW!), I have been reminded that life will always be exhausting...at least, it will while there are kids living in the house. During the school year, that exhaustion is often more of a mental/emotional variety: you're home without children much of the time, but you spend that whole day scrambling to get all "your" things done before the kids get home. And when they get home, you are constantly on the clock, helping your kids deal with homework, music classes, peer issues, and eating and sleeping healthily. It can be a lot to keep track of.

Summer vacation, on the other hand, seems a little simpler (on paper, at least). Yay! No more band practices/volleyball games/Girl Scout troop meetings. NO MORE SCHOOL! You can do whatever you want. And soon you realize that unless you are okay letting your kids watch eight hours of television a day (I'm not), you have to fill their days up, with activities that may or may not be interesting to you.  You have to police your kids all day, in order to prevent them from tearing your home/each other apart. You won't get any time to yourself to "decompress"...and just forget about exercising on your own! You have to keep motivating your kids to learn (making them do math pages once a day! Daily piano practices! Reading books! Oh, the inhumanity!). Last but not least, playing outdoors is not always an option in the summertime...especially in Arizona. When your kids want to go swimming almost every day, in 100-degree plus weather in this punishing climate...well, that tends to wear a person out after a while.

Plus, it gives you lots more cute freckles.

So, long story short, I think the school year is stressful and emotionally exhausting, but summer vacation is aggravating and physically exhausting. Either way, parents are doomed to be walking around in a state of near-exhaustion.

But enough whining! In spite of my being tired, I think summer has been fairly successful so far. Sure, driving the kids around to swim lessons and fitness camps can get a little tiring, but they've been enjoying themselves, so that's a victory right there. More than that, though, we've managed to find joy in many of our small activities or isolated moments as well. (NOTE: these moments may not be arranged chronologically; they're just snippets from our June thus far)

 Moments like cooking zucchini bread as a family...

Moments like putting curlers in the girls' hair for the night...

Related question: when did my "tomboy" Lorelai start getting so interested in style & fashion? And she even wants her ears pierced for her birthday! Unbelievable.

Plus, she cooks us all omelets in the morning (when she gets up early enough). She's so domestic!

Just a couple of nights ago, I hosted a baby shower for my awesome next-door neighbor Jodie. She is having her fifth(!) baby, but it was a bit unexpected, and she had gotten rid of a lot of her baby clothes. It was a pretty low-key affair, but still a lot of fun for everyone who attended.

This is how the girls "helped" set up for the shower...by building cup towers.

All I had to do was supply the venue and make a few snacks:

A chicken/berry/spinach salad, with homemade dressing...

...and this key lime trifle. Mmmmm.

Everything was delicious, and the company was great. Plus, our guest of honor went home with lots of new clothes, diapers, and wipes. What more can you ask for?

For our Family Fun Friday a couple of weeks ago, we split our activities somewhat. "All" we did on Friday (besides catch the summer movie matinee and do laundry) was go on a bumper boat ride. We had a coupon for one ride, and by darn, we were going to use it for one ride!

Financially, it was a rip-off, but the girls had a blast (short-lived though it was). The bumper boats are at Funtasticks, a family fun center in north Tucson. Lorelai has been begging to go there (she is the right height to do all the big activities on her own, like the go-karts), but we are trying to stall a little bit until the other girls' heights catch up. Hopefully next year we can try out the entire facility!

Most of our fun "Friday" activities ended up taking place on Saturday that week; we killed a couple of hours hanging out at the Tucson Children's Museum.

 

 

After that, Lorelai was content to hang out with Daddy, while I took Celeste and Aurora to the local public library, where a "mad science" demonstration was taking place:

 

We got there a little late, so I can't tell you the exact theme of the activity, but it involved making lots of things go boom, often using air pressure and various combinations of gases. We missed some of the earlier demonstrations, but the "mad scientist" presenter was kind enough to shoot off some ping-pong balls for my girls after the official presentation was over. They really enjoyed that.

Hee hee, I love Aurora's expression of awe in this picture.

So, what have Nathan and I been up to? Well, I've been trying to grow vegetables...again.

I have a few tomatoes almost ready to pick. These are the biggest tomatoes I've ever managed to grow. So of course we are leaving town the day after tomorrow! Grrr...oh well. I hope Jodie and her family enjoys them!

Nathan has been working, golfing, and walking, and generally looking pretty fit and healthy. But he did allow me to cook him a huge, unhealthy meal for Father's Day last Sunday:

We celebrated Father's Day by eating (a lot), attending our church's semi-annual stake conference, and gifting Nathan with a new T-shirt and a camp stove. It was not a super-fancy occasion, but Nathan is not a super-fancy guy. He is, however, a very loving, funny, smart, caring man, and I am so grateful he is the father of our children. We are really blessed to have him around.

Even though I can be a bit of a complainer sometimes (see the top of this blog post!), I realize our family has many blessings, both big and small. Sometimes it's nice to focus on all those little blessings, and think about how they all add up over time to make our lives fulfilling and happy.