Summer, so far

There are photos, believe me; it's just that those photos are on the two devices that Dave has taken with him to Renfrew for a dentist appointment.  Thus, you will have to put up with text.  If you are still out there, that is.

The winter was incredibly long this year - December through April.  When spring finally began, we warily welcomed its arrival, not entirely believing that it wouldn't somehow revert to winter again. Life around here felt a little like Narnia before the return of Aslan.  Aslan did tentatively return and spring brought rain and tulips and a reluctant summer.  Usually we can rely on the month of June being hot and sunny, producing kids itchy to break out of the school doors and into the freedom of those endless summer months.  This didn't happen.  Rather, June was more spring-like than summer-like and the end of school came abruptly and as a bit of a surprise.  "What?"  we asked, "Is it already summer, swimming lessons and the countdown to trips away?"

Summer, to me, stretches itself out like a canvas with endless possibilities.  Everyone is at home and the freedom of having another adult in the house brings child-free grocery runs, non-treadmill runs and a bit more adult conversation.  Also, no more school lunches - but that is another story.

This summer, like the weather, has been a little unusual.  We had visitors before the end of the school year, Dave returned to work for the beginning of July to clean up the classroom and last-minute appointments, tasks and responsibilities seemed to jump out of the woodwork.  I thought of writing creep out of the woodwork, but that would not adequately convey the startling manner in which these to-do lists seem to hit me.  As in:  phone calls telling me that I have missed appointments, forgotten an NFP teaching date and left my spiritual director wondering why I haven't shown up.  I guess my mind slipped into summer mode before it remembered to check the calendar.

Also, and this is a big also, our usual mid-morning swimming lessons were re-scheduled to 8 in the morning.  This means that kids who stayed up with the sun don't find it very easy to rise with their bedtime companion.  Neither does their mother and father.  One of us struggles out of bed, shakes the children awake, convinces them that swimming suits are necessary, and tries to force breakfast into tummies that are not quite ready to receive it.  And, oh, the water temperatures at 8 in the morning are   not very pleasant.  Lake water, when the ambient temperature hovers around 18 degrees, is character building, to say the least.  Today Isaac managed an attempted back and front float and then exited the water in tears.

There's not much else to add to this little update.  The kids are all as trying and humorous as they always are.  Jacob and Hannah, now 11, are hovering on the precipice of the puberty cliff.  Little signs of this new stage are cropping up, but mostly the talk is just plain funny.  Jacob told me the other day that he is not afraid of puberty as every man since the dawn of time has experienced it and, besides, he has a really good model in Daddy.  His only understanding of puberty and impending teenage-hood is what he has read in books.  Thus, he seems to think that his teenage years are going to hit him like a brick wall over which he has little to no control.  This was exemplified yesterday when I heard him and Hannah arguing over when was the best time to visit their relatives in Texas.  Hannah said that we should wait until Sarah, now two, is five years old.  Jacob looked up in alarm and cautioned, "No!  Hannah, that will be right when we are at the height of our bad attitudes.  Travel would be unadvisable."  I'll keep that in mind.