summer 2012

When your kids are little and not in school (or in very small amounts of school) nothing really changes when it comes to summer. It's just hotter and you change activities. Sometimes it's actually like winter because it's just too extreme to be outside (unless you're at the pool). But when your kids start attending school regularly, and they are used to routine and lots of stimulation and lots of people around all the time, summer takes on a whole new meaning.

The first 5 weeks of summer were just straight up hard. We moved, everyone was transitioning into new things, Ted and Sophie were learning to spend lots more unstructured time together, we had lots of house projects, we had to find things on tv that both of them could watch, Ted had to get used to entertaining himself and not be mentally stimulated all day long and Sophie had to get used to not being the only kid home all time.  I couldn't get my feet under me as a parent, wife, keeper of a new house or any other role I played.

By far the hardest thing for me was I had lost my time.  We stayed up late, got up early (out of internal alarm clocks) and didn't take many naps. By the time the kids went to bed - usually well after 9:30 - I was shot. But then I ended up staying up later for some down time only to be up early again. For 6+ years, nap time had been a sacred time for me and that was sporadic at best for Sophie only. But with every waking hour being around little people, I really had a hard time. There were days that if I heard, "Hey, Mom" or "Come here" one more time, I was going to walk right out the front door.

Thankfully, around the second week of July, we all started sleeping in. Usually till around 7:30 or 8:00. I honestly cannot even remember the last time I consistently slept till anywhere near 7:00. It's been amazing and makes staying up later in the evenings slightly more realistic. It's also been super helpful on everyone's cranky scale.

And we have traveled a lot. Amazingly, those weeks have been easier than being home. The kids have been amazing, we've slept well, and had fun as a family. It's been the time that we've been at home that have been so hard. I think for those we weeks were home, I had such high expectations of a routine, devotionals, doing a little reading and their school activity books, and a host of other things. Ben had thoughts about his summer looking much different and more restful without being on assignment. When, in reality, those days and the summer as a whole looked nothing like that.

I'm starting a new job in 7 days. Ted is starting school in 16 days, Sophie in 29 days. This summer has flown by at warp speed. Although I'm ready for the kids to be back in school, I'm not ready for the impact the world will have on them during the year and the lack of investment I feel like I've made in that this summer. It's all so cyclical.

All in all, it's been a great summer. I'm so thankful for not have an assignment. For 2 family vacations, 2 weekends at the river, buying a new house, a week at Rockbridge and so much more. These are some misc pictures from the last 2.5 months.

This boy lost both his two front teeth and this is the only picture I have of it.
Both the big teeth are coming in quickly.

We bought a tent to camp at the river which was really fun. I had my first successful
yard sale sale with a $25 queen size double high air mattress. Boom!

Gary Pap came over for a couple of days to do some house projects.
I got a garbage disposal out of it. The kids enjoyed smoke breaks with Pap.

We set up the new tent in the old backyard for a several days.

Tooth pulling drama.

The kids went to Walmart looking like this one day.

This might be one of my favorite pictures from the summer.
These stellar guys helped us move and they represent many seasons of our lives.

We went to Cheat Lake one day with friends to play at a playground.
The kids ended up swimming in their clothes. They LOVED it.

We helped a friend move this summer. My friend Shawna & I brought our
4 kids over to combine with her 2 kids to pack. In two hours we had this basement packed.

One night we had impromptu color-by-number after dinner one night.

We spent the 4th of July with the Teodoro's.

Ben took some adult guests to Rockbridge for a long weekend.

Ben took the kids one afternoon (what a gift!) for a ride on the PRT.
They walked from Ben's office to the PRT and from engineering to the
Creative Arts Center . . .

then walked to the Colosseum and the Shell building . . .

and fell asleep on the way home.