Sunday Reflections – 15 July 2018

Sunday Reflections Button

Happy Sunday (and happy, happy birthday to my dad)!

As I said on Friday, it has been quite the month. I have no desire to rehash it again because I still question how I managed to do everything. In fact, just thinking about it brings back those feelings of complete panic, chaos, and total exhaustion. All I can say is that I hope never have three weeks like that ever again, but if I must, please let me have a long break.

Honestly, I am amazed the house did not burn down or completely fall apart while I was in the throes of that. The house sort of got cleaned thanks to what little Holly was able to get done during the day. The yard, well, it has been mowed; that’s all I can say about that. The landscaping is embarrassing, but our landscaper does not seem to have enough free time to return our calls. We had clean clothes. We had food, even if I was not cooking or had a definitive meal plan. It almost feels like those first few weeks of having a newborn in the house. Things get done, but you have no memory of how.

Anyway, with that behind us, we can sort of settle down into a fairly normal routine. Holly’s dance classes are a little earlier than she had during the school year. Plus, since they do not offer as many classes during summer, she is not at the studio as much as she has been. I am there more than I usually am thanks to that, but I have been using that time to get caught up on email and blog posts. It keeps me out of the studio drama, and I do not feel like those hours are lost or completely wasted.

The boys are busy at work and seem to be enjoying their time together. I know they both love bringing the dogs to work. We all love it because it tires the dogs out, especially the puppy. It means they are both much calmer and quieter in the evenings, which is just lovely. It turns out Cletus probably has a little bit (or a lot of bit) of boxer in him, so he is much taller and heavier than we expected. A wild puppy is a bit more than we want to handle at times as a result, no matter how much we love him.

The rest of the summer is pretty much completely planned and essentially over. Holly’s dance takes up at least three weekends during the next month, that we know of right now. Jim’s company has at least one more event for summer fun. Connor moves back to school August 10th. Even Connor was commenting how quickly this summer is passing, to which Jim and I welcomed him to adulthood. Every year I comment on how the summer is flying, and yet every year it catches me by surprise once again.

One thing to which I am looking forward is this unexpected but exciting summer readathon planned by the two loveliest of bloggers running Dewey’s Readathon. It is the only weekend for the remainder of July and August that is clear for us, so I knew I was participating. I have always wanted to rent a hotel room for the event and thought with its 7 PM CDT start time that it would be a perfect opportunity to do so, but then mommy guilt kicked in and I felt silly for wanting to do so. Then Holly said something to me that still resounds with me. She told me that I was the only person in the family who has not had a vacation; she reminded me about Jim’s three weeks in Australia, plus she said both Connor and she have school breaks throughout the year. After she said that, I not only booked the room for the night of the readathon, I booked it for the next night too. Two nights by myself in a semi-luxurious boutique hotel in Milwaukee sounds like a little slice of heaven. I don’t even care if I never leave the room; in fact, I am almost looking forward to trying not to do so.

The agenda today is to continue to catch up on organizing and cleaning from the last few weeks. That includes blog posts, laundry, reorganizing my shoes, and finally rehanging pictures in the basement/family room after repainting and replacing the flooring. Little things for which we have had no time. Nothing exciting but it still makes me feel like I am accomplishing something. The goal is to get that stuff done quickly so I can enjoy and relax the rest of the day. I never want to feel like I did for the last three weeks, which makes downtime a necessity.

I hope everyone is having a restful Sunday and peaceful weekend. Have a wonderful work week, and I’ll see you back here next time!

**********

Here are past posts from the last few weeks in case you missed them the first time: