(Written the first day of summer June 28 2011)
The first day of summer vacations always reminds me of an ice cream sandwich with three flavors. When you are eating the chocolate part you are always anticipating the taste of strawberry in your mouth-but then when you eat it you miss the chocolate part.
Whenever summer vacations are close around the corner I start to crave them heavily. Yay no more homework! No more routines! No more schedules! Then I actually get granted these wishes.
Today I took a day off to enjoy the kids on the first day of vacation. Not part of our family vacation just a regular day off at home. What realized is that it was not all that relaxing! I was thinking a few popsicles, a nice float in the pool, maybe a manicure…nope. First I drove Chase to sailing camp where he asked me not to say bye to him in front of his friends, next I asked Beauty to spend some girl time with me in the pool and she was delighted until another girl called her and invited her to another pool, third I watched Bear play on his ipod most the day-pretending he was really playing outside.
In between I did so many dishes too. Ok so throwing out all the junk in the house has led to my kids snacking on creamed corn and pea’s soup-but these things leave an even bigger mess. Sometimes I think the only reason I work is to stay away from cleaning up dishes. Truly I am not meant for domesticity.
I may complain-but here’s the strawberry part now. I ate a big buffet at Pizza Hut with Bear. We were so full and stuffed since we could not resist the cinnambuns at the end (we even went as far as to throw out the cold ones when the piping hot ones made it to the buffet!)- I got to see my girl gingerly hang up her bathing suit and towel on the patio just so like I have prayed she would do for years! I got to have 3 big kisses from Chase after camp when his friends were not watching!
Watching my three children grow up-is incredibly fascinating for me. They are like one big science project. I study them, I research them…. I am in AWE of them. Taking a day off to just sit back and smell the flowers (and clean up the pea soup) is really, really nice. When I stop to ponder what I am really doing is connecting and caring. My kids today really made me sit up straight and notice them…and made me notice just how grown up they are becoming.
In between all that my blackberry broke, I had my amazing friend, my Soulkeeper, over and I fired off a hundred emails. I actually did float in my pool by myself for 45 minutes and have tan lines now to prove it.
It was a bit of a vanilla day all in all. Not perfectly yummy but extremely sweet and satisfying. Sometimes the best days after all are those that are just plain ordinary but extraordinary in their own way.
