Day 81

The first official day of summer!  I'm sitting here at our messy dining room table.  I can see three laptops, work-related magazines, pieces of paper covered in fractions, markers, a stapler, masking tape (for the bathroom project naturally) and a plastic box filled with crayons, index cards and more mechanical pencils than any family should own.  Maybe later tonight, I'll clear off the school stuff and try to open up some space so that people can actually eat a meal here.  Who are we kidding, this table will look like this until I'm shoveling everything into a tote right before people come over for dinner.  I'm happy that school is wrapped up, but I think I might miss sitting side-by-side working on projects and practicing spanish, reading math word problems (if Jennie starts off with 13 apples and 15 oranges...) and helping write poems.  What I won't miss?  All of the cajoling and following-ups and you-have-a-zoom-call-in-3-minutes-please-change-out-of-your-pajamas-and-why-are-you-still-in-bed?!   But we made it through to the end of the school year and that is definitely something to celebrate.

Yesterday, I took the afternoon off and the kids and Cousin Alena drove west in search of someplace for Will to swim.  That was his only request - a lake to swim in. Oh and some m&m's to eat on the way.  All of the lakes I had in mind had a pesky 'no swimming/no dogs' policy so we ended up hiking in search of a creek big enough to wade in.  Just as we found a good spot, the rain started.  It poured and poured.  Luckily it was warm enough that we mostly just laughed as we hiked/ran/slogged back to the car.  The car ride home was a intoxicating mixture of wet dog and human but the kids were pretty good-natured about all of it.  I hope the rest of our summer goes a little more according-to-plan but I'll take as much of the laughing and shrieking (when the rain got a little cold) as I can get. 

I'm off to pick up Will from baseball practice.  Glenn is fishing with a friend tonight. On my way to baseball, I'm picking up Arby's for dinner.  It doesn't get much more summery than that.