Waaaay too much to update here. I'm overwhelmed at the task at hand. Maybe I should summarize my summer, so far.
1. Every Tuesday and Thursday, I bike to the neighborhood pool and swim laps from 6 - 6:30 am with a friend/neighbor. On Wednesdays, we walk for 50 minutes of so during that six o'clock hour - because it's hard to talk and swim laps at the same time, so we have to catch up on our news together on Wednesdays. This whole exercise with a friend concept? It works!
2. I have loved watching many sunrises while swimming my laps, and I have noticed my endurance really increase as the weeks have ticked away. The last couple of weeks, I've included some olympics daydreaming during my swimming. I pretend I'm training for Rio 2016. hahahahaha.
3. We had a week of vacation up in Door County (Fish Creek, WI) at our regular spot in mid July. I made sure to charge my camera and clean up the memory card, and then I promptly forgot the camera at home next to the computer. Doh! I have asked for the photos from my parents but have yet to grab them. Anyhow, if you had talked to me a week or two prior to this trip, you would have heard me complaining about the week. Bob was not going (needed to stay home and work), nor were my younger brother/sister-in-law. I was anticipating missing my buddies and being very lonely indeed (amidst my parents, other extended family members, and my 3 children). Turns out the week was actually pretty fun. We stopped by this awesomely cheap amusement park on the way up. Kids played a bunch of euchre (our family's card game). They made multiple trips to the Candy Store (which caused me to sing 50 Cent Candy Shop over and over and over). We had a fun rainy day. We went to the beach, to PC Junction, Cave Point County Park - all the favorites. The week ended with me getting a nasty cold and driving home feeling lousy, but even that went ok. I asked a lot of my boys since I was solo parenting, and they rose to the challenge.
4. I have added 8 hours to my work week, so now I'm working 32 hours/week. I work 12 hours on Mondays, but it all pays off by Thursdays at 2 pm, where I'm off until Monday morning. My extra hours are doing new type of work - still social work, still at the same agency, just a different focus - and I really, really enjoy it. I feel blessed to do something that I love, that I am trained in, and that is fulfilling to me. And I dig the people I work with, so that's a nice bonus. What's not so nice is being gone from my boys, but we are all handling it fairly well. Our nanny this year is my cousin's adult son, and he's great. He keeps the kids active, and they enjoy their time with him.
5. We had too short of a visit in late June with my aforementioned brother/sister-in-law who are now on the move to Tunisia. My brother got a position with the Peace Corps there, and although I am thrilled for him to have scored such a perfect job for him, I am sad that he is even further away than ever now. I will visit him - I will! - so now my focus is on saving pennies here and there so that as many of us who want to make the trek can go there. My brother is back to updating his blog, so read about his adventures there.
6. Bob and I made the executive decision to not allow One to play tackle football, given the fact that the (self induced) pressure of that situation put him into a bit of an emotional tailspin the past 2 years. We just took the option away from him. "We are not paying for it," we said. He seems relieved to be off the hook, as are we. It's a much more peaceful August than in years' past. Two, on the other hand, has just started playing - he of the different temperament than his older brother. "Are you nervous?" I asked him on the drive to his first practice last week. He looked at me quizzically, like, "should I be nervous?" and said, "nah." What a joy to drive a kid to football practice who isn't tantrumming in the car. What a joy and a relief.
7. I love learning little things like that about my kids and how to better parent them. I feel sad that I seem to learn most of those lessons on One's dime. Those first borns really do have to forge their way, and mine, in the world. I have a whole new respect for the uptight, anxious, type A firstborns out there.
8. I read a great book (Gone Girl) and just downloaded another one to my kindle app on my ipad. I feel so high tech. Now I just hope I don't forget to read it.
9. I said goodbye to a very dear friend's very dear mother who passed away last month. I visited her in the hospital a few weeks before she passed, and I am so glad I got a chance to see her one last time. The world seemed like a better, safer place with her in it. Even though I didn't see her very often, I felt comforted knowing that she was out there, doing her thing, being her self, in the world. I miss her a lot, and my heart hurts for my friend and her loss.
And on that note, I think I'm done. More to add, but not tonight.
