(Playing 'wash the animals at the zoo' on one rare warm-enough-to-swim days. A hot shower followed as one little girl claimed "I'm fweeding cowd")
This summer has brought much mixed emotion for me. I'd like to blame hormones, which I know are responsible in many ways, but also will blame a lack of sleep which seems to trail me throughout these parenting years. I had hoped to "get alot done" this summer, as well as enjoy some sunshine before the dreary wet days fold in on us again, but seem to fail at that each day. Today it was actually sunny in the morning (when I have a bit of energy), so I did mow a bit of knee deep lawn and washed our truck, which felt really good. We have a ton of projects to tackle, but with my huge-ness and cumbersome nature these days, I have to leave most of them for my dear husband who is much more limited for time. Summer also brings vacations (usually) and so I'm kind of down that we can't go on one when I hear of others traveling here and there. Driving is extremely uncomfortable for me, so a stay-cation would be our only option, and we haven't been able to make that happen yet, and time is running short.
The one fun thing I did want to do, and did do so brought me more grief than I had anticipated. I wanted to camp in the yard with the kids, so we went ahead and set up the tent on the deck. They've gotten many hours of playing on it, but then we slept out there one night and the 2 little kiddos both ended up with nasty coughs that are still lingering (and keeping me up with them every night) 3 weeks later. Makes me wonder if it was worth it, even though we enjoyed it. I was able to share camping stories with them and have lots of question/answer time with them while we were waiting for the sun to settle down and go to sleep which is priceless.
We did get our family room painted this weekend too, which has been waiting for about 5 years. We spend most of our time there in the winter as that is where our woodstove is, and the paint has been rather dark. I was given 5 gallons of white paint, which I had hoped to tint, but then when I went to do so, found out that it had already been tinted a shade of white that would make tinting it muddy looking. So, Greg ended up painting the white on the walls, and it looks great and much brighter.
We also got our 6 year old riding a 2 wheeled bike and got him through a session of swimming lessons which is exciting and challenging for him. It's fun to see him advancing, but also a bit hard on my already-fragile-nerves to let him go off in the men's changing room by himself and in the deep end of the pool (with lifejacket of course) without my protective-ness getting in the way. Hopefully he can keep practicing these skills, as I would like to see him keep getting braver and bolder.
Playing Doctor in the tent
Supper is about ready, so I should close for now. Taking it one day at a time (sometimes one hour), keeping up with the vitamins and rest (not sleep necessarily, but at least resting frequently) and concluding each day that growing a baby is one of the hardest jobs out there! (especially the older I get and with each successive baby).
(Our shed with new deck and windows thanks to my father-in-law and hubby. Now I just have to finish painting it up.)
