Summer

Summer is always interesting for us.  I mean, we don't go off and do a LOT of exciting stuff, but it is warm and the pool is open and we aren't doing normal school.

You'd think the end of school would make life simpler for me and it does, but when I'm out of routine I feel a little weird. I'm thinking through school for next year and trying to spend more time with the kids.  I love schedules and I'm out of schedule. So I'm working on being calm and praying for wisdom about how to best use my time.

Daniel turned 4 in May and Rose turned 2 this month, so our babies are growing up.  I do feel a bit odd about it.  Rose is still so much a baby, yet she isn't. She isn't a little baby. She is talking more and more, can climb stairs (though she's still wobbly) and is generally maturing.  It is all good, but it does feel strange as we move inexorably forward into a season without very small children.  By her next birthday, she'll probably be potty trained and we'll be done with diapers.  I won't miss that. I think.

She's also getting crabby about taking naps. Seriously kid, you just turned 2.  I'm not ready for you to stop taking naps!  And she really isn't either, as the days she doesn't nap, she is horribly crabby by 6 p.m .

The kids have been swimming a lot.  The pool isn't amazingly warm (upper 70's) but the kids are tough and don't mind. I mind. I've not been in the pool yet this summer.  I hope soon to start working with Sarah on learning to swim. Most our kids learned how to swim around age 5/6.

This morning Angela and Miriam went out to swim. They came trooping back in almost immediately to announce that "a small animal" was floating dead in the pool.  I will freely admit that I have my phobias, and floating dead things (bigger than insects) freak me out. Yuck.  I didn't even go out, but Naomi and Isaac did. It was pronounced a dead skunk and they got rid of it. Poor skunk. We had a live skunk in our pool 9 years ago and it swam for hours before Kevin finally got tired of trying to help it out, and just flung it out of the pool.

Kevin's mom has been hard at work clearing out parts of her house now that she is retired and has more time.  She came across Big Mouth Billy Bass, which was a crazy mania a couple of decades ago.  Billy Bass sings 2 songs (including Don't Worry, Be Happy) while flapping his tail and moving his mouth. Needless to say the little ones are ecstatic.

I'm visiting a chiropractor frequently these days as my neck and back have been rather a mess.  The chiropractor I'm seeing is very firm and very quick but she's done miracles in 2 weeks. I am faithfully doing some core exercises too as I really need to improve my strength.

Speaking of, time to do my exercises.