Summer Is Upon Us

Wow - been awhile since I've written on here. I don't actually know if anyone is still even following this or not. I tend to give up on people when it's been over a month or so since they've written anything, but maybe there are still a few faithfuls out there. If not, I guess I'll consider this my journal entry but try not to get too personal, all at the same time.

Summer time has arrived, and although I have looked forward to it for many months, and am really enjoying the break, I am also aware of the increased fighting between my daughters (and I mean every 5 minutes), and the lack of time I am still taking to play with my kids. This is not because I don't have the time, just that I'm kind of at a loss as to what to do. I haven't had much time to play with them for so long that now that I can, I don't really remember how. "Mom, can you play barbies with me?" is usually followed by a "Sure - lets clean your barbies all up and organize your room so the next time you want to play with them you can find them easier." Is that playing? I guess it's still time spent together, but the word play implies a little more than an organization project. They go outside a lot, and I go with them, but I'm usually trying to figure out what to do with the sad, brown, dried-up excuse of a lawn I have and am not spending much time pushing them on our broken swing set. We are going on a summer vacation in a couple of weeks, so I'm hoping that getting away from everything here will cause enough of a jolt in my schedule to get me playing with them more. But I'll make it very clear that playing with me means no fighting. Maybe that will be enough of a reward to get them to get along a little more. Maybe.

Next week is the Stampede. We've been so busy with lots of wonderful family visiting (which we have loved) that I haven't really given it much thought until a couple of days ago. I do have western outfits for the girls, and a friend is making them fantastic bows for their hair, but I guess at some point we should actually practice their routine and make sure they still remember the words.

The town we live in is short on water, and with that, there are watering restrictions. As in, you can only water your lawn once a week. We have a lot of lawn. Once a week does not make a dent! I've decided to let this year be the year of the brown, poky grass. Next year I'll try again, but this alleviates the stress of trying to find someone to water our lawn while we're gone, so there you go. There's the glass half-full for ya.

So it sounds like my summer is actually quite a lot of being stressed or depressed about things from this entry, but it's not. I am happy to have a break from teaching, and even more happy to have my kids around. Last night they got in such a bad fight that PWL told them we weren't going on our trip and they believed him. I had to do 20 minutes of damage control before bed just to get them to fall asleep, but they still think they're not going on the trip. Oh, to be a kid again and actually think your parents would cancel their summer vacation, that is just as much for us as for them. Hopefully they'll get along better today - I'm making them clean out the van, so that will at least keep them too busy to fight.

And now for breakfast. I think that's the best part of summer - I have time to make something for the kids besides cereal. I'll eat my scrambled eggs and stare out at the brown lawn and think of what other chores I'm going to make my kids do today. Sounds about right.