June. T’was a crazy month. We started out with Luke’s Minecraft birthday party, and we just kept partying. My niece’s last choir concert (so spectacular), our last-day-of-school party at the park with our charter school friends, a hurt foot that kept me limping for over a week, a day at the beach, a new run of our Book Detectives book club at our house, an afternoon with friends we hadn’t spent time with in forever, and a lot of time spent in preparation for speaking.
Then on Wednesday the 19th we met up with Texas friends for a day at Multnomah Falls. Thursday I tried to play catch up on my reading for another book club that evening (all 4.5 hours of fantastic chatting time with friends). On Friday I was supposed to spend the whole day finishing my prep for practicum. Instead I spent 6 hours taking Lola to the doctor and then to the pharmacy, trying to get her down for a nap (unsuccessfully), hanging out at the doctor myself and then back to the pharmacy… Sigh. Saturday was an all-day marathon of swim meet, straight to a birthday party with Lola, straight to a BBQ in my sister’s/parents’ garden to hang out with out-of-state friends (including a hilarious volleyball game and s’mores) until late. I spent all day Sunday finishing practicum prep, cleaning house, and making sure we had food for the week.
Monday started bright and early. Well, at least early. My sister and my niece shared the responsibility of caring for my kids and transporting them back and forth to VBS while Russ and I headed to Eugene Monday through Wednesday for the Classical Conversations Parent Practicum where I spoke all day for all three days! My awesome husband was there every minute as my chauffeur, technical assistant, and all-around support. I have no idea what I would have done without him!! And I am so thankful for all the people who were praying for me. It went smoothly, and I didn’t get an overwhelming case of the jitters. I spent Monday and Tuesday evening working on more prep for the following day, so I was absolutely exhausted by Wednesday evening. After Russ took me out for dinner, I crashed on the bed for the rest of the evening. Lola did manage to get a fairly nasty burn on her hand Monday evening and Luke put a hole through a window with a rock and a sling-shot, but other than that…
Thursday the kids had VBS again and I tried to catch up on reading for book club #3 of the month. We, the ChocLit Guild book club, spoiled ourselves rotten with a fancy evening at a local golf/event center, enjoying a chocolate fountain and discussing Oscar Wilde. (A big change from our more recent meetings at the café of a local bowling alley…)
Friday was the last day of VBS, afternoon swim practice, and then we headed over to my parents’ house for a lovely dinner in the garden with my grandparents who have just arrived from California to spend the month with us! (Just the day before, my Grandpa became a Knight (Chevalier) in the French Legion of Honor for his part in the Battle of the Bulge in WWII.)
Saturday my friend Tsh (Simple Mom) came over with her kids to hang out for the afternoon. We had such a relaxing time chatting. I didn’t even snap one picture, so I can’t prove it to you. Ha! By the way, have you seen her new book, Notes from a Blue Bike: The Art of Living Intentionally in a Chaotic World, that will be released in February of this next year? I can’t wait to read it! Isn’t the cover art lovely?
And then yesterday we spent the afternoon and evening at our friend Bob’s annual Independence Day BBQ at his house on Lake Oswego. (Tuesday it was cool and pouring down rain. Sunday was 98 degrees. That’s Oregon.) The boys and Lola enjoyed swimming in the lake (picture above). And the boys must have had plate after plate after plate of Bob’s famous ribs. YUM!!
Which brings us to today, July 1st. I have nothing on my schedule except for swim practice (which is Russ’s domain) and spending time with my grandparents. Wahooooooo!! We might even get some house chores and lessons completed. Oh, and maybe I’ll catch up on blog posts and pictures. But maybe that’s too ambitious. We’ll see.
I think July will not be quite so busy, though Russ has two out-of-state business trips, the boys have another VBS, we’ll be spending time with my grandparents, and I’m speaking at the Albany practicum on the last three days of the month. But I’m hoping to spend most of the time just enjoying summer.
It was 118º today and I went outside at 5:30 am to work in the garden some more.
ReplyDeleteWe actually took last week off because of the garden and we are taking this week off, too. Next week we will be having school again, though!