Summer Break

It seemed like only yesterday when I watched my older kids come flying off the school bus canting the well-known mantra “No more papers. No more books. No more teacher’s silly looks!” Yep, it was the last day of school and inevitably the first day of summer break.

Unfortunately my excitement level did not match theirs. Actually it was quite the opposite. I was somewhat worried about the following 11 weeks. With our limited resources (which is just a nice way of saying “we ain’t got no money”) I knew that we would not be taking any vacations to far away places in those long summer days--76 days to be exact. To be completely honest our aforementioned limited resources would keep us from even getting to enjoy even visiting the local park pool or nearby day camps or summer enrichment programs or… Well you get the point.

So we got inventive and creative. We relied on neighbors and friends to invite us over for play dates and pool usage. We signed up for three VBS programs all over town. We were extremely grateful for Grandma’s Christmas present of a year long zoo membership. Although we used it sparingly. (As you can imagine taking four kids to the zoo by myself was not my favorite thing to do.) We did some home school lesson on various states and some science experiments. We made the best of our time together. And day by day, week by week, we survived.

Then, finally, school resumed. Some of my friends complained that it was too early to go back. But I was ready. Don’t get me wrong. I love my children but I love my schedule also. I find contentment in knowing that we have football on this day and church on that day and date night on another night. I find satisfaction when things are running smoothly and we have a routine.

Now that we are back on track, I can get back to writing. I never knew how much I loved it. I like sharing my life though stories. I like writing down my thoughts and the funny things that happen in our ever-eventful family. I like that someday I can just click “print” and my kids will have all of these stories to pass down. But mostly, I love that you readers take time out of your schedule to read my ramblings. Thank you for that.

So until the next adventure…………