Thoughtful Thursday: Summer 2011

It was a good summer. Looking back it seemed pretty uneventful and yet there was still a lot going on. Mr. Whitty was in the middle of closing down his office. This was a big, big, bummer of a task and caused a lot of stress for both of us. It also caused a lot of penny pinching over the summer and only 1 quick family vacation over the 4th of July weekend. But the kids all ended up having a great time anyway. PK went to scout camp, the lake and several skate parks. PC went to scout camp, the lake, ice skating with friends, movies with friends, and swimming and swimming and swimming with friends. Miss A had 2 dream jobs this summer. The first was babysitting cousins on a houseboat at Lake Powell. The second was babysitting another set of cousins at a guest ranch in the mountains. She was in heaven. Mr. E spent lots of time playing and pool hopping with friends. He also was invited to movies, birthday parties and went to the lake for the first time. I guess I owe the parents of all of my children's friends a big THANK YOU for providing so much entertainment this summer.

And me, I spent some time on some organizing projects. I did a lot of reading. And I also spent a lot of time keeping the peace. Here are some of the things that I learned over the summer.

1. I am incredibly more motivated in June than I am in July. I am awesome in June! I keep the summer routine going strong with chores and projects and meals and games, etc. By the end of July you can find one child on the computer playing a game, one child on my laptop playing a game, one child on the Wii downstairs and another child watching TV upstairs. It really goes downhill from there. We get hot and cranky and just hang in there til school starts in August.

2. Having teenagers is a lot like having little kids. I found that even though 3 out of my 4 children are old enough to stay home alone, it was really hard for me to go anywhere. There was always the fight over who has to stay home with the youngest one. And there were about 20 calls to my on my cell phone as soon as I left the house. I'll admit that most of those calls were about who was fighting with who. I couldn't leave the house with a kitchen full of 13 year old boys "doing a little cooking". And I won't leave the 15 year old boys playing on the computer home alone either.

3. You can never have enough brownie mixes. (See reference above to the 13 year olds.)

4. When my two older boys were playing Words With Friends with each other on their ipods, I counted it as family together time. Even though they were in different rooms. I totally counted it.

5. Summer is a really hard time to pinch pennies. I think I will start a little summer savings fund for next year. Without older kids and no swimming pool, you really do run out of things to do.

6. A snowcone machine is worth its weight in gold.

7. Every year it is the same. At the beginning, I look forward to staying up late, sleeping in and kicking back and relaxing. By the end, I need the schedule and the routine. And every year, we marvel at how short summer seems to be!