This is summer

Right now, my boys are spread out across the living room, each engrossed in their own activity. Reed is meticulously lining small plastic animals up on the brick fireplace, narrating in whispers the storyline he is creating. Max is sitting with a book open, staring at the pictures for much longer than his attention span usually allows. Calvin is surrounded by his pirate toys, singing a made-up sea chantey.  It’s total nonsense, but it does have nice rhythm. A snippet: “There was 15 pirates (pause to do a quick toy count) I mean, there was three pirates. Doo dee doo dee doo. And a bore. Do you know what a bore is? Do you? Do you?”

What about the adults in the house? Well, Ryan is outside taking care of some random farm chore. I was catching up on blogs I follow and reading between page loads (the joys of dial-up). When I noticed what was going on, I decided to write during the down time, instead.

I’m taking my last recovery day from the last two weeks’ adventures. Right after school got out two weeks ago, we started working nonstop to get ready for this weekend’s festivities. My sister got married two days ago, and we had a total of  eighteen people either staying with us or visiting our house for a breakfast tour. I was her matron of honor. Our boys were her ring bearers (or rather “wagon-load-of-precious-flower-girl” bearers). And I baked her wedding cake. Needless to say, it was a crazy busy weekend! But everything went smoothly, my sister (and her wedding) was gorgeous, and we had the best time with family EVER!

And now, our house is in great shape to start the summer (and we have tons of leftovers crammed in the fridge). After one more veg-out day, I plan to put the munchkins and me on a semi-structured schedule. I’m all for free-wheeling it, but three months with NO organization spells disaster for this anal control freak. After seeing this morning what a little free time can beget, though, I’m starting to think unplanned days can bring about great things. While writing this post, Calvin moved to the kitchen, where he constructed a toasted PBJ sandwich almost all by himself. Reed shared Apple Jacks (correction-- Apple Rolls) with Max, without giving him full access to his stash, of course. Max danced around giggling and taking an occasional ride on Reed’s back. And now they’re all three working together to build (or pull down and giggle under) a fort. Here’s to a great, not-too-structured-but-not-too-loose summer!