Sum-Sum-Summertime

We're enjoying the final days of summer. Really, the final days of no routine or schedule. The warm weather will be here for a while yet, and afternoons at the pool won't stop anytime soon.

But the start of a new school year is just around the corner and we're ready to roll! New books and new supplies - shiny and fresh - are waiting to be enjoyed.

We've had a hot, dry summer but that has only guaranteed cool, wet days at the pool. I've lost count of how many pools we've visited this summer. While I'm pooled out, I don't think my kids are. Sigh. Even so, come Labor Day pool closures, come.

And honestly, the thought of packing any more picnic lunches makes my heart want to die. Packing lunches is for the birds.

Because we can't live at the pool all day every day, I've taught the boys a few new games. Games that started off as fun are now simply obnoxious because they want to play them ALL THE TIME. The Game of Life? Cribbage? Rack-O? Oldies but goodies until they are played a hundred and one thousand million times per week.

The boys said goodbye to a neighborhood friend as he moved cross country, and Annalyse said hello to some preschool age kids that a neighbor cares for everyday.

She spies out her window many mornings to see when they arrive, bursts down the stairs to ask if she can go outside and play, and then spends much of the morning playing and pretending. And probably being a little bossy, too.

 

The boys have taken initiative to write letters to several of their favorite ball players to ask for autographs. Quite the learning process for them to draft an appropriate letter and address envelopes with good penmanship. My fingers are crossed some of these athletes can translate the scribbly writings from Micah and that he actually gets a signed card or two back.

Annalyse is a little mom to Jaxton, forcing him to hold her hand as she drags him around the house telling him to pretend the right way. She can usually get him to comply, but when he's not in the mood to be bossed, he will surely hold his own. 

If I'm honest, I'm biting my nails trying to figure out how I'm going to teach Annalyse to read and do basic addition this year while managing Jax and his charades. A closed eye to Jax for mere seconds is all he needs to use highlighters on the floor, smear lip gloss in his hair, or totally annihilate the toy shelves.

BUT.

We're still in the lazy days of summer. I've got plenty of time in the next two weeks to get a game plan developed. Jax has plenty of time to mature and discover the delight of playing quietly by himself with a few toys, The boys have plenty of time to remember the joy of identifying nouns and verbs and recalling multiplication tables. And Annalyse has plenty of time to learn through osmosis how to read so that I am saved the eternal hours of sounding out c-a-t and s-a-t and r-a-t.

Right?