Our 1-child week marches on…. again, it’s been an oddly nice little break having Asher away! haha. I feel bad saying that – I miss him, too. I really do. He’s often my more “snuggly” kid who will randomly come and hug me, or that sort of thing.
But time with just the 14-year-old this week has been amazing. In part because it’s been a light week for him- just a 2 hour soccer camp each day (which, I’ve had to drive him to and from = time with him in the car). He’s been around pretty much all week. For some reason, not much time even w/ friends this week.
He’s our kid who sometimes slides back out of the spotlight when his younger, generally more outgoing brother is around.
In his words, “It’s so peaceful when Asher is not here…. ahhh…. no one being ANNOYING.” lol. (I think he is referring to this weird Goofy laugh that Asher has started doing, for no apparent reason, other than to mostly be annoying…. I mean Goofy, like the Disney character, you know. Asher will randomly, and loudly, make this hearty, gulpy guffaw sound…. like, arg-huh! I can’t explain it in words. He thinks it’s hilarious, probably because we all turn and say Asher, knock it off…..I don’t know what to say other than that he is a 12 year old boy and finds weird things funny?? 🤷♀️)
Asher’s camp ends tomorrow late afternoon. I’m glad we’ve been able to carve out some special time with Ethan this week, even though I have had training meetings every.single.afternoon from like, 1:30-4 (literally chained to my headset, “learning stuff” every afternoon this week, no breaks).
We’ve had the bonfire nights, rode bikes to get breakfast yesterday, the movie night last Friday, a few walks, and just random time hanging around the house.
Tuesday night the 3 of us went to a Concert in the Park event here in town, just a couple minutes from our house. They had a female duo singing ’90’s songs! My favorite, haha. They sang everything from Alanis to BSB to Britney to Semisonic and R.E.M and more. It was a gorgeous evening to just lay on a blanket, eat some snacks and chill.
Ethan wasn’t overly impressed with the musical selection, and he eventually ran off to join some friends of his he ran into, who were also there with their ~40 year old parents. 🙂
I spent some long stretches lying on my back looking up at these amazing TREES while listening to the music…. ahh. It was a pretty hot and humid night, but so comfortable at 7 pm- very relaxing. Another example of a slow summer-type activity I feel we’ve not had much time for this year. Was happy to fit this in.
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for the Toyota dealer giving me a rental car when I took my van in Tuesday to get the sliding door fixed. Some cable on the door snapped, and we couldn’t even open the door anymore. My 2012 van is OLD now and has just surpassed 160,000 miles!!! Eek. But I really, really want to keep it a while longer, hopefully…I really like it, and I’m perfectly happy driving an older van! It’s in great shape otherwise- we recently put new brakes AND new tires on it.
We are at the point though where we now get to play the fun game of “how much money is it worth sticking into this old van before we buy a new one?” 🙂 Fortunately, the van door cable “only” cost like $350… (for an electric door, I thought a fix might be even more? We saw some stuff online in the $2k range, but that might have been for actual electric problems.) Anyway, they had to keep it overnight to get the part, and gave me this little rental:
GRATEFUL KAE 
Yes! I’m also grappling with how much money to sink into our older car. It could break down tomorrow or it could go another five years. What to do?!
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I’m the opposite of you and am very much a car person. When I have to drive a van, like when we’ve rented one on trips, it feels sooo huge! It will be an adjustment to drive an SUV when we are able to buy a Rav4 Prime, but it’s a smaller SUV so I’m sure I will adapt. Everyone tells us we will end up with a van, but I know that won’t happen because it wouldn’t fit in our tiny garage – it would be too long!
The outdoor concert sounds really fun! I love 90s music! Isn’t it weird that we are 40yo (or late 30s) parents? I remember my parents turning 40 and I can’t believe that’s the age I am!
I feel like my boys are going to be similar to your boys… time will tell but Paul is the quieter/shy one and Will seems to be more outgoing and boisterous. He’s also a dare devil whereas Paul is not a risk taker. Paul is also petite and I think Evan is your petite one and then Asher is almost as big as him. I feel like Will is going to be as big as Paul in a year or 2!
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spending time alone with one kid is so precious. I loved it when I traveled to Jakarta with Lizzy alone. it’s very bonding and we enjoyed each others company. life got simpler when there are no kids fighting around. 🙂
I don’t care about cars at all, it’s just a mode of transportation. as long as it doesn’t break I see no reason to upgrade.
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We are on the same situation with a 10-year old car which needs more frequent repairs vs a new one. My geeky husband even did a cash flow projection on us getting a new electric car vs keeping the old one, haha. The electric car wins for the long-run because you need less maintenance but you can’t drive too far with them.
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I would love if we could get another year out of mine!! We don’t have any big road trips planned in this next year really, so that helps. (We do oftentimes take road trips, which add up to thousands of miles…which would make me nervous in my old van with so many miles on it). Though I do drive quite a bit for soccer games and stuff, but not TOO far from home at least.
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So nice you got some quality time with Ethan (I know about being pushed into the background by a louder, much more outgoing sibling!) and I am sure he enjoyed the attention too.
That outdoor concerts sounds so fun. I haven’t done anything like this in ages.
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