Summer Moments

There’s not much to report from these parts lately.  We’ve been doing a lot of this…

Which is one of my favorite things to do, so no complaints here.

I had to get out of the pool long enough to go to a teacher workshop this Monday and Tuesday. I’m a nerd because I love workshops and trainings. They get my mind going 90 miles an hour. We did some intense planning for next year, and I was just beside myself over a crisis I am calling, “Planner Crisis 2016.” All my teacher friends around me are starting to use these super cute teacher planners. My personal planner is by Erin Condren, and she makes a pretty fantastic teacher planner. But I don’t really use all the features of a teacher planner, so I was on the fence about spending so much money on something I wouldn’t completely use.

(This is the Happy Planner by Create 365. They also make a Teacher Planner, which is just as adorable as my beloved Erin Condren, if I’m honest with you. I spent half an hour putting together a planner because these are customizable, but in the end, I put it all back and left empty handed.)

I seriously wore myself out with Planner Crisis 2016. I have been thinking for WEEKS about how I’m going to plan next year – stick with my current system that is super simple, but really effective for me, or switch to a fancy teacher planner and try something new and a little more complex. WHAT SHOULD I DO!?!?!

Finally, I settled on a plain Jane weekly planner from Target. It isn’t a teacher planner and it only cost $12.00. Whew! Planner Crisis 2016: RESOLVED. My life can go on.

Today I didn’t have to be back to work, and to celebrate my freedom, I dragged the kids all over town. First, we went to an arts class at Michael’s. Did you know they offered summer art camp classes for kids?! I had no idea! It’s $5 a kid and lasts two hours! You can even drop you kids off and come back later. I don’t really like leaving the kids with people I don’t know, so I stayed and played with them. But there were plenty of parents who just dropped their kids off and it went just fine.

It was alien day at art camp today, so we made rocket ships and alien eye headbands. They were a gluey mess and the kids ended up shoving them into their backpacks (they get drawstring backpacks at art camp!) and the arts projects completely fell apart. But $10 for all of us to play in art supplies without any clean up? Still a winner to me!

After that, we headed to the mall to get Gracie’s earring replaced. About three days after she had her ears pierced, the stone fell out of one of her earrings. We had to wait until she could finally take her earrings in and out before we could go back to Claire’s and get the earring replaced. They were really nice about it and replaced them with no questions asked and no receipt! Thanks, Claire’s!

After grabbing lunch at the mall food court, we returned something at Ikea before heading home.  I dropped the kids in the Ikea play area for the first time ever.  Like I said, I’m not crazy about leaving them with people I don’t know, but this felt a little more secure and safe to me.  You get a pager for them to buzz you if your kids need you or want to leave, they have arm bands for checkout so they can’t just wander out with anyone, and they are locked back in a kid-proof play area.  They had a blast and I got to shop in peace for an hour.  Everybody wins!

It was a great day, full of nothing important at all. I even managed to read a little! I’ve read three books so far this summer. Most of what I’m reading are young adult books because I hardly read at all last school year and I’ve got so much school reading to catch up on, in order to stay hip with the kids these days. I read “The Forest of Hands and Teeth,” which, it turns out, is a zombie book. Who knew? It was pretty good, though. I also read “The Knife of Never Letting Go,” which I liked even more. It’s a weird dystopian novel that I really loved. Not an easy read and pretty gorey and graphic (I wouldn’t suggest it for anyone below 14 or 15 years old).

Now, I’ve moved on to an adult novel, “The Glass Kitchen.” When I checked this out from the library, Gracie asked me if the kitchen was glass in my book. I said I didn’t know because I hadn’t read it yet. So, anytime she saw me reading it, she would yell out, “MOM! IS THE KITCHEN GLASS?!” I cracked up every time. Finally, I told her it was, just so she’d quit worrying over my book. (Spoiler alert: There is no glass kitchen.)

That’s about it from the home front today. Thinking about doing some thing responsible tomorrow. Like laundry or cleaning the house up.

But we’ll probably go to the beach.

Because, summer.