Saturday and now it’s summer

I certainly didn’t mean to check out for a week, but right after my fun afternoon at the fair I got sick, sick, sick. Spent the better part of three days huddled in bed, wretched and useless. Scott, Rose, and Beanie took very good care of me and kept the house chugging along. By the time I recovered, the week was nearly over and it was time to head up the coast to pick up our college girl for the summer. We got back last night, minivan crammed to bursting, happy to all be under the same roof again.

Wonderboy, too, is finished with school for the summer. A long, lovely low tide is beginning. I’m making summery plans. Some garden work, a lot of Balboa Park time, some geocaching excursions. Mornings outdoors when it’s still cool, afternoons full of read-alouds and Minecraft. A day at the beach here and there. Jane has an internship lined up and plans to take a summer class. Rose wants to focus on her Spanish—and learn to drive. Beanie is practicing hard for Piano Guild. I’d like to empty my house of about half its contents. Is that too ambitious a goal? 😉

And suddenly I’m realizing we’re at the point where Comic-Con is next month. Gulp.

I want to do a lot of art with my younger set this summer. We’ve had trouble squeezing that in lately, and that’s all wrong—I’ve never thought of art as something to “squeeze in”; it’s always been a primary focus of the day. But my current teens-and-littles mix means our days have a lot of things that deserve focus. So I’ll be working to correct that upending of the natural order. 🙂 Gotta clean up the corner of the kitchen where we keep all the supplies. Time for some new watercolors and tissue paper.

I have lots piled up to write about. Like this podcast interview at The Parentalist! It was such a fun discussion, all about parenting and favorite resources. And I told about my Wrapple Summer, a favorite childhood memory.

P.S. If I owe you an email, see paragraph #1! I’m trying to get myself caught up. 🙂