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.

This Is How Our June Was Spent: Drawing, Exercising, And Swimming

Well, June is speeding fast to its close, and our family is about to leave town and (finally!) take a trip to Colorado. We're going for a Nash family reunion, and we are pretty darn excited about it. But first, maybe I should churn out a quick blog post or two to let everyone know what we've been doing for summer thus far.

We may have had a nicer-than-normal spring, but unfortunately, Mother Nature seems to have remembered that we live in Arizona, and it's supposed to be HOT down here. For most of June, it's been pretty miserable. We've spent most of the last three weeks well north of 100 degrees, and some days we've wanted nothing more than to stay indoors, trying not to sweat too much.

So, of course, I enrolled my kids in a bunch of activities to ensure that we all spent lots of time outdoors! That's logical.

I actually managed to keep the kids pretty busy during June. Reasoning that idle hands are the devil's playthings, I enrolled each girl in multiple activities. Much of our time was spent driving to and fro, dropping people off at one event or the other. Luckily, nothing ended up being too expensive, and the kids all enjoyed themselves.

First of all, I got all the girls to participate in the free fitness and wellness camps offered at our local clubhouse. My two older girls participated in these camps last year and loved them, so we wanted to give them another shot. This year, Aurora participated in the first week of camp (for the 4-6 age group), and Celeste and Lorelai participated the following week (for the 7-12 age group). Even though many of the activities took place outside, it started fairly early in the morning, so the kids wouldn't roast. The kids took nature walks, played soccer, dodge-ball, Red Rover, and volleyball; they also did some kid-friendly aerobics, ate some healthy snacks, and played hard at the community pool. All three girls had a blast. We love that our clubhouse offers these camps; it is an easy way to get kids out and moving a bit more in the summertime.

But that's not all! This year, each girl got to try their hand at a new activity as well. Lorelai and Celeste, for example, both took a weekly two-hour drawing class, taught by the art teacher of their charter school! A friend of mine approached "Ms. Sophie" and asked her if she wouldn't mind teaching an extra class over the summer, and my girls were eager to try it out. As a bonus, Ms. Sophie only lives a short bike ride away from our home, so both Lorelai and Celeste were able to get themselves to and from the class without any problems.

 

Confession time: I have almost no artistic ability whatsoever. I still draw stick figures to this day! I fear I have passed along my anti-art genes to my girls; I definitely saw improvement in their sketches from week to week, but something tells me their paintings will never be hanging in any major galleries.

But that doesn't matter, because they had a lot of fun chatting with the other students at the class, and trying out something new! It was a  good chance for the girls to get a little outside their comfort zone and have fun doing it.

Speaking of "getting outside a comfort zone"...

 

...Aurora had her first-ever swim lessons in June as well! She was overdue for these lessons; earlier this year, she was still wearing her life jacket and was terrified of swimming. I knew it was time for her to get more confident and independent in the water.

We signed up for private lessons with one of the clubhouse's lifeguards. Aurora's teacher was a cute girl named Marissa, and she was a wonderful teacher. I was impressed every day at how quickly Aurora progressed. She went from tentative to confident to fearless, all in a two-week span! Plus, since I wasn't supposed to be interfering with the lessons, I often spent the time poolside, getting caught up on my huge summer reading list:

I still have a ways to go!

But back to Aurora: on her last day of lessons, Marissa congratulated her on her progress, and invited her to test out her new skills by taking a trip down one of the clubhouse's water slides. This surprised me a little, and made me a little nervous. She still looked too tiny to be going down the water slides! But Marissa's encouragement was all she needed; she barely hesitated and went down the slide almost immediately! I was so impressed. In fact, after her lesson was done, she went down the slide over and over again, without any problems.

In just two weeks, my little girl suddenly looked so much bigger! But that was a good thing; I am so happy that she is getting better able to take care of herself. She was super excited to get her "certificate" (a free pizza from Papa Murphy's!) and a celebratory popsicle. Just a few days later, she tried out another one of the clubhouse's water slides, and handled it without difficulty. It's like a new door has been opened for her, and she' taking full advantage of the opportunity.

Mainly because of the swim lessons, our whole family spent a lot of extra time at the pool for the middle weeks of June. It wore us out pretty well! However, it was worth it to see all the progress Aurora made. So far, all three girls have had some great opportunities to exercise, play, and learn.

Blogging For Five Years!

Grinnin' Barretts has been up and running for five years!

It was actually Nathan's idea to start a blog in the first place, and it was he who helped me overcome my nervousness about blogging. He started the whole ball rolling back on June 12, 2010, with a short but sweet description of his experience juggling coconuts in our backyard. He even posted pictures! That simple beginning helped convince me that maybe, writing about our family on the Internet wouldn't be such an intimidating task.

Not long after that, I decided to blog about my annual salsa canning, a blog which has ended up inspiring several of my friends, including those in other countries! I just hope they're able to find the right kind of ingredients overseas. (Speaking of which, I should probably update that post sometime...I have tweaked the salsa recipe quite a bit since then.)

That salsa post, which friends have been linking to for years, was the post that opened my eyes to personal blogging. I realized that people around the world could see our blog, and comment on it. I realized it could be a good way to keep in touch with friends and family who may not live close by. I realized that blogging could scratch my writer's itch (I've always fantasized about being a novelist, or a notorious journalist...heck, any kind of famous writer is okay by me). And as someone who has not been very good at keeping a regular journal, the blog proved an opportunity (and a challenge) to document more of our family's history than has hitherto been done. This is a challenge that I rose to meet gladly.

This is not to say that our family's little blog has anything of earth-shattering import on its pages. The blog was originally intended as a grab-bag of all kinds of things: politics, movies, family news, humor, books...you name it. Over time, our ambitions have been modified, and now the blog mostly consists of family news, with my occasional shallow detours into entertainment news & analysis (that's how the English major inside me gets her kicks).

Nathan hasn't contributed as regularly to the blog as he likes...this is for a number of reasons, but mostly because  I have more time to write in it than he does. However, he's always been very supportive of my blogging, even when it takes away from his valuable night-time computer activities. I am so grateful to him for letting me work on the blog and encouraging me to record our family's history here. He's also chimed in on a few important occasions: he's been transcribing our "toddler journals" that we kept for Lorelai and Aurora when they were little. It's great to have that information recorded in a more permanent place, not just jotted down in a notebook. And when Nathan visited Washington, D.C. a couple of years ago, he was able to write at length about his adventures in our nation's capital.

The blog has not been perfect by any means, and I've learned a lot in my time using it. It's made me learn how to write better, how to write meaningfully, and how to navigate the Internet and its many wonders and dangers. I am grateful to live in this era, in which technology can aid us in so many ways, including record-keeping. I hope that the few thoughts I leave in this account will help my family and my descendants get some sense of what our lives were like, and what sorts of things matter to us. True, I tend to focus more on the "special events" in our lives, but I hope it will still be illuminating as to what makes our family tick. Someday, maybe I'll even convert this blog to a series of books, and then--BAM! Instant family history, with a hard copy to be held and enjoyed by grand-kids. Who knows?

So, here's to many more years with the blog! I don't know if it will always be in its current format. I don't know if I'll be able to update it with the same frequency in later years; life keeps getting busier and busier. But I do know that I'll do my best to keep it going. Five years is the longest I've ever maintained a regular journal; that's a good sign to me. I hope it will always be a place where I can share my thoughts and our family news. Thanks to everyone who reads and comments; I hope you enjoy your time here, and hope you continue to do so.

Our First Family Fun Friday Of Summer 2015

As I've mentioned in years past, I like to plan fun outings for the girls and myself on Fridays during the summertime. I usually don't have any piano lessons scheduled on Fridays, and most of the girl's extracurricular activities are on the other days of the week as well. Sometimes, life gets in the way and our schedules get complicated. Sometimes, we need to plan our outings for other days of the week. This year, however, we were able to start the summer off with a Friday-morning trip to the Tucson Botanical Gardens.

We haven't been to the Botanical Gardens for a few years now. In fact, the last time we went, Lorelai wasn't even there...it was for a field trip with Celeste's preschool group. So, I figured it was time to give it another try. I also wanted to go there before the end of May, so that we could see the Gardens' cool Butterfly Magic pavilion before it closed for the summer.

 

Overall, the girls had a nice time, but the trip did have its ups and downs. Some parts of the gardens were closed off or incomplete, due to construction for a new visitor's center on the opposite end of the parking lot. There was some construction noise and dust that filtered throughout the gardens during our trip, and that got a little distracting.

But things started off well enough. I am not much of a botanist, but I did my best to call the girls' attention to the different varieties of plants (as well as their names) wherever we went. They really liked the grounds, and all the decorations.

Probably our favorite part of the trip was our detour into the Butterfly Magic pavilion. It was the last weekend the pavilion was open, before it closed until October. I suspect that the summer heat makes it difficult to maintain the proper temperature & humidity inside the pavilion. If we'd come at a cooler time of year, we may have seen more butterflies inside.

However, we still saw plenty! Every few seconds, another one would fly overhead, or just past our ear. They were all very beautiful and cool to look at. It took a while before I could get good pictures of any of them.

 

 

The girls had a lot of fun butterfly watching, and they were also able to spot a few of the dart frogs that also call the pavilion home (they were not poisonous, but were colored just like the dangerous tropical varieties). Even though the humidity, combined with the excessive heat, made the pavilion a sweaty affair, it was still a great experience.

There were a few other bright spots the girls enjoyed: the miniature village, complete with miniature running train...

...the fun photo ops...

...and the children's garden, complete with sandbox and water wall (where the kids washed their faces to cool off, ick).

But because it was the end of May, in Tucson, it was inevitable that the weather would start working against us. After being outside for an hour or two, we were all starting to feel pretty hot...and many of us were getting cranky too!

Aurora, in particular, is particularly sensitive to the oppressive summer heat; about an hour into our trip, she started to complain about her exhaustion. As time wore on, her complaining grew steadily louder and whinier, and she was weeping for the whole world to hear before too long. As you can see, her "enthusiasm" (or lack of same) was starting to rub off on her big sisters.

But at least the girls all got to see this velociraptor, standing amidst a forest of petrified wood!

Wait, what? Oh, Botanical Gardens...you so random!

Anyway, it was a nice trip when all was said and done. We made it home before the heat became unbearable...and then we chased it away with our first summer trip to the clubhouse pool.

As you can see, everyone was very refreshed after that!

Since that Friday, one more Friday has come and gone. It was a "fun" Friday, but mostly consisted of a bunch of "checklist" events...a summer movie matinee, clothes shopping, a trip to CostCo, a dinner with Grandma Barrett at the country club. A nice day, but not necessarily photograph-worthy. But we are hoping for more fun outings in the next few Fridays...including our annual Phoenix trip in just under two weeks! Not long after that, we head to Colorado for our family reunion. Summer just keeps on keeping on.