Swim is officially over!!
I didn’t get the greatest shots of Asher swimming this time. Just wasn’t really sitting in the right spot, I guess. But here is one of him getting situated on the blocks.
And now, swim is over until September 6th. His coach told him to mostly stay out of the pool, and just let himself rest and recover. He encouraged him to stay active in other ways, play outside, and he recommended he do a certain Youtube yoga video 3x per week or so. (Asher is like me… NOT flexible at all. Apparently having more flexible ankles is a plus for swimming, so this offseason is a good time to work on that?) Maybe I’ll try to do it with him. I’m sure I could use more (or some at all…) yoga in my life.
I am feeling a big weight off my shoulders at the moment. Swim is done, the boys’ daily summer school strength and conditioning class is done, Ethan’s job is mostly done, I think, and this Wednesday is Asher’s last volleyball class.
Our calendar is looking pretty nice and open!!
ALSO, the boys are staying over at their cousin’s house for two nights- last night (A headed there as soon as he got home from the swim meet) and tonight.
Meaning my house is gloriously EMPTY and quiet right now. And it is a beautiful day.
I feel almost beside myself, after this crazy feeling summer, to have some open expanses of time in front of me, relatively speaking. Some alone time. (I mean, I have to work, but without the kids around, life is just wayyyyy simpler.)
It feels like we are moving into the “Phase 2” of summer- when all of the daily, recurring activities wrap up. I feel like I failed to really ever get in a groove exactly during Phase 1. And now it’s over, so, I guess oh well! We survived.
Unfortunately, this phase will be short lived, because we leave for Mexico in just over 2 weeks. And then after that, it will be (gulp) a pretty short time before school starts!! The end of August, when school is looming, just never feels as carefree. (They go back I think September 1st.)
I can’t say that this summer has felt the most seamless to me. Not sure if I did a bad job of organizing life, or if it was just out of my control, or if I’m just getting cranky as I approach 40, but it has made my head spin, kind of.
SOOOO much fun stuff!!! I hate to complain. But rhythm/ routine/ consistency? Lots of white space? Bunches of downtime? A big nope. And that makes me feel a little twitchy after a while.
Anyway, break over, back to work. Gotta run! Hope you have a nice day today, too.
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for having two desks in my house- my basement office desk, and also one upstairs in the sunroom. I like having options of where to work.
GRATEFUL KAE 
Your schedule makes my head spin, too, so I can’t imagine living it! So many things to do! Meanwhile, I’m just going to sit over here and read a book with our cat on my lap.
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hehe! That does sound wonderful. I try to remind myself that we had our boys young in our life, and also very close together…so in reality, we are already down to about 6 years left with kids living at home! (well, supposedly, assuming they “launch” appropriately…lol….). So in the not really too distant future, I might have more free time to sit with a book. I probably won’t know what to do with myself! haha.
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Yes, to this! I’m 35, so theoretically both kids could be out of the house by the time I’m 45. That leaves a lot of great years left for work/travel/leisure pursuits.
Having kids young has some great perks later in life…I just didn’t have ANY downtime between schooling and kids (7 months pregnant with Abby when I finished my graduate degree).
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sounds like a fun summer to me but I understand the need for downtime and feel the summer slowness. hope you get at least some before the school starts. going to Mexico again? sooo good to see family. I really miss going to china… thanks to non-covid policy, really don’t see it happening anytime soon.
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SOOOO much fun stuff!!! I hate to complain. But rhythm/ routine/ consistency? Lots of white space? Bunches of downtime? A big nope. And that makes me feel a little twitchy after a while.
This is me?! Did you hack my brain and write this out. 100% how I have felt about this summer. In reality, it should have been our best ever – John on sabbatical, the kids older, not a ton scheduled…but it has just been nuts. Work is unpredictable, we continue on with renovations which just completely upend life, John is of course now doing some prep for returning to work…so the most relaxing part of his sabbatical is over…and I just want a do-over for summer. We have a whole bunch of things scheduled for the next month, but I kinda don’t feel like doing any of it. Can we just jump to September and get back into a daily routine where I know what to do every day and there are no strangers working in my house?! Literally, Abby walked out of her bedroom the other morning (woken by hammering) and said: “Mom? Where is our door?” They had to take our door off to get drywall into the entryway, but it was a bit of a lightbulb moment to me. As someone who stresses about having company in the house, constantly having upheaval inside and out – including not always having a door…is never going to be where I thrive. Haha.
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We are in such a different stage of parenting and we started so much later in life that our life will look so very different from yours! We’ll be 58 when Will graduates which is kind of hard to wrap my mind around, although not different from my parents situation as they were that age when my younger sister graduated, but they also had kids around 23 or 24 I think, so they just basically had no downtime/were always managing kids for many many many years!
Summer doesn’t feel all that different from the school year since our kids aren’t in school yet, so the rhythm of our days is mostly the same and I am trying to appreciate that after reading blogs of others, like you, whose summer is so very different! We are trying to fit in as much fun stuff as possible and to get outdoors as much as we can since summer is so short in the Midwest. July has felt busy with my work trip, 2 concerts, hosting various groups of people, etc. So I am hoping August is a bit quieter. We are going to my parents for 5 days in August and I’m looking forward to that as it’s usually a pretty relaxing trip!
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You guys sure are busy and I am glad you got most of the summer handled pretty well. I hope you enjoy your trip to Mexico.
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Seems like something else that could be feeding into the feeling of overwhelm is the fact that it’s the first normal-ish summer in 3 years. And your kids are older -and in a lot more activities! Like NGS, I don’t know how you do it! I hope your brief down time was enjoyable – have seen that you’re now posting on the Mexico trip (I MUST catch up on blogs!) so also hope that trip came off without a hitch. (Or, well, minimal hitches…)
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