This is it- the last day of August. whoa. Not sure how we ended up here, but here we are. To me, this = the “last day of summer”, because the boys start SCHOOL tomorrow!! And, in my mind, September is a fall month, anyway.
This summer was….something. ha. It was good! But also, a lot. Some things didn’t feel so good. Somehow, I feel we were simultaneously too busy and not busy enough (regarding the kids’ schedules- I feel like they did a LOT of….nothing, despite what it might look like on paper. Some of this is age-related, I think. They are at a bit of a transition age where they are not interested in being stuck in day camps all day, every day, anymore.)
I also do not feel like we successfully mastered the “screen time/ life” balance over here. sigh. Not sure what else to say about that.
Flipping through my calendar/journal this morning, here’s what our summer looked like:
JUNE
- Went to LaCrosse for a weekend as a family
- Asher went to swim camp
- I got a new boss
- Ethan started his first ever job! (working at a farm, for a few weeks)
- Asher went to his first ever concert (AJR, with a friend)
- We went to Chicago, twice. (Mexico vs Ecuador soccer game, then Club America soccer game)
- We lost our beloved Flint the Hamster. 😦
- The boys did a daily strength and conditioning class at the high school
- Asher swam a lot. He went to several meets around the region, including a weekend in Iowa with Ivan.
- Asher went to swim camp for a week.
- I finally had a Dermatology appointment and mostly fixed my skin issues!
- Ethan made a new club soccer team.
- We saw Top Gun: Maverick and loved it
- Ethan went to traditional summer camp for a week
- We spread mulch and planted flowers in the yard
- I bought some new clothes
- I booked our spring break trip for March 2023
JULY
- Went to a 4th of July party at a friend’s house
- Spent the holiday weekend with my parents
- Went to a baptism
- Ivan’s mom was here all month from Mexico
- We saw the new Elvis movie
- My mom came to stay for a few days
- Ethan suffered his first work injury. lol.
- Asher did a flexible online art class
- I saw the Backstreet Boys in concert, and connected with an old friend!
- Ethan turned 14
- Ivan and I went to San Diego for 4 days
- We unexpectedly lost Steel the Hamster. (sob)
- We got a new hamster! “Summer”. She’s doing well. 🙂
- I endured LOTS of changes at work. New boss, new staff, new duties, good amount of stress.
- Asher competed at WI 12&Under State swim meet for 3 days.
- Asher went up north with all his friends for a weekend!
- Then he went to camp for a week with one of his best buddies and had a blast.
- Saw the new Thor movie with Ivan and Ethan
- Finally bought a fire table!
- Drained and cleaned the hot tub.
- Ivan got braces.
AUGUST
- Ethan went to a daily soccer camp for a week
- My van door broke; got it fixed
- Travel is booked for June 2023 now too
- I walked outside a bunch this summer. Not daily, but a lot.
- I met a big deadline at work right before leaving for vacation
- We went to Mexico for 2 weeks, Aug. 9- 23.
- Spent a lot of time with family. We were in: Mexico City, Toluca, Tepotzlan, Malinalco, and Valle de Bravo.
- Ethan started ortho treatment, too.
- Went to a wedding.
- Did the whole “back from a big trip” thing and re-entered normal life successfully. ha.
- Filled out 8,246 forms between school papers, medical forms for sports, waivers, band registration and more.
- Cleaned out my email inbox that had over 1,000 messages in it.
- Asher re-joined club soccer after an almost 3 year hiatus!
- Ethan got hired for his first “real” job, at McDonald’s
- Attended several parent meetings for sports, etc.
- Missed school Open House night for the first time ever, due to a work event. sad. (The boys said they did not care at all if I was there or not; “it’s not a big deal”. Ok then! At least I wasn’t missed. This is also the first year that I have zero pictures of the boys at Open House….because Dad took them, and why would we need a picture of them standing by their locker? 😆 Ha.)
That’s a wrap. On to the next season….
Quote of the Day:
Look for something positive in each day, even if some days you have to look a little harder.
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for a surprisingly pleasant work event last night. (We toured the new Transplant Clinic that is opening next week at the hospital, as a team. Then, our new boss took us all out for dinner!) Believe it or not, this was my first time setting foot back in the hospital since FEBRUARY 2020!!! It was weird to be back. I mean, I used to be there every day, for well over 10 years.
GRATEFUL KAE 
Kae! This is SO MUCH!! Holy moly! You guys had a BIG summer! I am trying to remember what my summers were like at this age. We did not do much besides weekend trips to the lake because of my parent’s jobs. No travel, big trips, etc. I went to music camp for 3 summers – usually for 1 week but I went for 2 weeks for my 3rd summer. That must have been in the 6-8th grade time frame? I think I started to babysit fairly regularly around age 14. I *think* I was that age, or maybe 15, when i watched 3 kids ages 3 and under. I feel like that would NOT happen these days! I would not hire a 15yo to watch my boys – maybe for a couple of hours in the evening. Not for like 6 hours. Mostly what I remember about summer was the long list of chores my mom would leave for us and her calling to check in on our progress, and then her coming home from lunch to again assess the progress. I did not love summers at home since there was nothing to do in my teeny tiny town of 500. No pool, no library, really nothing to do. Your kids seem very active with all their sports involvement so try not to feel guilty about the screen time. I do remember watching soap operas while folding clothes (we did everyone’s laundry, which could be for as many as 7 people and at a minimum probably 4-5). So it’s not like we didn’t have “screen time” – it was just trashy soaps and then I remember playing mario bros on our old school Nintendo.
Have you told us where you are going for Spring Break? I’m thinking you are doing to do the Europe trip you weren’t able to do in 2020 which would include time in Paris? I have a France blog so you could scan that for ideas/inspiration if you have a quiet day/downtime and want to get excited about how amazing Paris is. 🙂
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No, sadly the Paris trip will have to wait!! Not sure when that one will fit in… hopefully eventually though, while the boys are still home with us! We are doing a 2 week Costa Rica trip in March! This is a place we’ve always wanted to visit, and it’s been on my mom’s bucket list forEVER. So I really wanted to plan something and get her there- my parents will come with us! As it will likely be my mom’s only time ever going there (not getting any younger…), we’ll go for 2 weeks and try to cover the ground and visit multiple destinations. There’s a lot of variety in Costa Rica, from rainforest areas to volcanoes and beach areas. I also heard it’s really best to go in the spring, due to summer being rainy season, so spring break seems to be the best time, weather wise (hopefully!). I have all of our lodging booked and a basic itinerary planned, but still need to figure out other details like car rental for 6 people (ugh… not going to be easy, probably) and activities, etc.
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Costa Rica will be amazing! My best friend and her husband went there for their 5 year anniversary and said it was amazing! I hope the car rental thing isn’t too challenging!
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Your “Ethan got his first work injury. lol” astounds me. I still think you handled that with remarkable composure!! I would have freaked out so much!
Your summer was so busy! My list would basically say “read, exercised, walked the dog, did two brief trips to Michigan.” If you’re exhausted, I know why!
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haha, it is funny to look at it all listed out! I feel like writing out everything I did kind of makes it look worse than it was, in some ways, but also helps me to realize that, yeah, I was really, really busy!! Which makes me feel a little better when I see there are things I didn’t get done, etc. Your summer sounds perfect. 🙂
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I am so impressed that you book travel this far out! I feel like I am never organized or decisive enough to do that. I’ve read articles about how planning and anticipating a trip can make people as happy as actually going, so there is certainly lots of benefit from booking travel so far in advance! Part of me is wary of booking vacations/travel things too far in advance because I freelance and I’m afraid I might plan a vacation then be unavailable for a gig if I get a last minute call.
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Well, I will say this isn’t exactly my norm. I don’t usually book quite this far out. Our spring break trip though I wanted to get booked because it’s a bit of a hot spot right now (Costa Rica) and I had read several sources that said lodging tends to book up quickly – especially during their prime time dry weather season (spring break season). The summer 2023 trip is a big family trip with my parents and sister in honor of my parent’s 50th anniversary and it’a a cruise- which required a lot of coordinating of dates and stuff with multiple families involved! So, don’t be too impressed. Normally I book things within 6 months or less, I would say.
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I’d very much like to think of September as the beginning of fall, but we’ve been experiencing a heat wave on the West Coast here and it really feels like the PEAK of summer.
You guys packed a lot into the three summer months. And you’re already booking more trips… I haven’t booked anything this far in advance for YEARS. I am very much a last-minute traveler these days LOL
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