Mid-Summer Dreams

After Art and her boys left, things sort of got back to our summer-normal. I say sort of because one big thing was different-- I got a job. Rophone and I had been talking for awhile about how it might be good if I got a part-time job, but nothing was working out schedule-wise and what-to-do-with-Edith-wise. But then, while she was here, Art got me set up to work for her employer as an editor. It's the perfect job for me! I get to do it from home around my schedule, and it's doing something I enjoy. Plus I really like what her company is doing. It has been so great for me to have something other than just "Momming" in my life. I really needed it. I'm learning how to readjust the well-oiled routine I've had for the past few years, but it will become normal after awhile. 

Anyway, a few days after Art went home, I took Big and Edith to the school to watch the construction trucks. We decided to play on the playground for a few minutes before going home. 

I think this was my favorite moment of the morning. There was a little boy, maybe 2 years old, who started hanging from a crossbar and swinging out over the drop to the ground. Edith was watching him get ready to swing, clearly worried about what he was doing. When he swung for the first time, Edith gasped and whispered only loud enough for me to hear, "Oh, no! Don't do that!" I was touched by her concern for the little boy's welfare. So cute. 

Look at Edith's sweet face, right? I have to tell you, though, she's really kind of getting to be a big smart alec. She was following Bud around one day, annoying him by pretending to be Siri.

Bud: "Stop following me around, Siri."
Edith: "Here is what I found on the web for 'Stop following me, Siri'."

She is so quick-thinking and clever, that girl. It makes it easy to forget she's only four. Hopefully she learns to use it for good or it might get her in trouble one day. 

We've been doing the construction/playground thing a lot this summer. It sure is handy having a new school being built just around the corner. 

We're trying to make sure we even things out with a lot of game-playing.

A good friend and I took our kids to a little man-made lake with a beach that she'd heard about. It was so much fun. Great to be together as friends and to do something we don't normally do. And it's so close to the house, too! Less than 15 minutes away. I think it will definitely become a place we go to often in the summer. Big could have stayed there to dig the entire day long.

The water was pretty darn cold, but very refreshing on a hot day.

A few days later (on July 19th), I took the two youngest on a hike we hadn't been on together before. It was a cooler, slightly breezy day. Perfect for the hike we were going to do. It was really steep on the way up, and it took us forever because we kept on getting sucked in by the view. I didn't mind the slow ascent too much, though, because it kept me from keeling over. Ha! 

This is a picture of this at the top of the hike...

...and this is the view from the top:

Now you can see why we kept stopping to take a look. It's fun to see our little world from above. The hike down was slow, too, because there were so many great rocks to pick up. I love that my kids like to find cool rocks as much as I do. 

July 19th was also National Ice Cream day, so of course we had to celebrate! I got some cute shots of Edith as she was enjoying her cone. She understands the importance of not only having fun when eating your cone, but also eating it with intense concentration. It's all about balance.

The evenings are a perfect time to ride scooters on our driveway, so she had to do some of that, too. I love when she scooters up and says, "I love you!" I sure do love her, too.

The kids started swimming lessons on July 20, and that day happened to be pretty cloudy and cool. So that means when you get chilled at swimming lessons and then go to the park in kind of cool and cloudy weather, you dress like it's October.

Not so sure she can do it. 

And then you go home and have hot chocolate because "It's like winter out there!" I've been loving how many cool and rainy days we've been having this year. So not the norm, but it has made this summer much more tolerable for me than it usually is. I'll take the rain and cooler weather whenever I can.

This post is getting pretty long, so I think we'll pick it up from here on the next one. It really has been an enjoyable summer thus far. For real.