Summer

During June I am dreaming of long, lazy days spent basking in the sun. Warm skin, cool drinks and the shrieks of happy kids playing. I am dreaming of doing nothing and having to go nowhere. Yet summer is over in a blink of an eye. The end of summer is looming ahead of us and the back to school shopping and preparing will soon begin.

My summer days passed with not a whole lot to show for them. I have totally put aside all goals of learning for easy reading historical romance books, all the while doing the bare minimum around the house, which is basically laundry and dishes, and I don't remember the last time I went to bed before midnight or got up before 10. But that is what summer is - a break from all the mundane, everyday tasks, chores and demands that occupies my time during the school year, yet, I have to admit that I am a bit ashamed that I am not using my time a bit more effectively.

Over the next three weeks my Jesse and Tia's days will be filled with back to school prep (Justin is away for all of August). Tia will be have two weeks dedicated to getting ready for fall dance classes and will spend most of her days at the dance studio preparing for fall exams. Tia's final week will be spent in a volleyball camp getting ready for fall tryouts. Jesse on the other hand will fill his final summer days with First Aid and lifeguard training, with some extra time spent lane swimming as he wants to increase his strength and speed. Plus, Jesse wants to prepare for his driving learners test and do a bit of driving training - hmmm, we will have to see about that one.

With two of my kids buckling down and ready to work hard towards their goals, I too will resume working on goals from my Ten Year Plan. The first thing I am going to re-focus on is studying sign language. I know I will want to use it during volleyball season with Tia, so I need to study hard and then practice with Tia so that she will have some practice too (although she reattains it far better then I seem to).

I will also clean my house on Monday - I mean REALLY clean my house. The kids will be out of the house all day and I am going to do both my weekly and monthly clean jobs - both of which have been largely neglected as of late. I will then move on to the yard work. Jesse, Justin and I have been keeping up with the yard work, but I think that some extra time spent weeding and fertilizing may be needed. Plus, it seems like a endless pile of flip flops and runners is growing on my front porch and balls seem to be laying everywhere - soccer balls, volleyballs, basketballs, and kick balls. So before the rain hits - and it will - all those balls will need to be picked up and put back into the bin in the garage. All in all - I think my cleaning will take me all day Monday and some of Tuesday.

Summer is coming to a close and days filled with nothingness is definitely over...but it was nice while it lasted!

Christine