Summer began with a bang on Memorial Day weekend. It was the first weekend Tim and I had spent in town with our kids after ditching them for the two previous weekends. We bought a house in Utah for my mom to live in and, well, let’s just say it needed a little polishing up. The previous owners did little to improve the place in the five years they’d owned it. And, they were proud parents of two gigantic dogs (Huskies!) and two cats. Who pretty much had a run of the place.
Maybe I’ll get around to blogging about the house, but in the meantime, let’s get back to summer.
What summer?
Well, the one where I had planned to build up business for my in-home music studio but instead invested many of my waking hours supporting the baking business Eve decided to run with a friend.
What summer? Oh, the one where Anna decided to work a graveyard shift and consequently sleep all day so we pretty much never got to do anything with her.
What summer? The summer where my two high-schoolers opted for getting a leg up on school by taking two full semester courses. Online, of course.
It was basically the summer where I didn’t get to do anything I had planned, instead pouring my energy into my children. Which isn’t so bad if it’s speckled with fun family plans but, truth be told, there simply wasn’t a whole lot of that. The stars just didn’t seem to line up in our favor. Still, there are always bright spots to be found.
Anyway, we kicked it off with Anna’s voice recital. The culmination of almost four years of voice lessons and participation in choir. She did not disappoint. She sang songs in French, Italian and English, nailed the high notes, and made her mother cry. What else could a girl ask for?
Then the baking business began.
Eve comfortably agreed to join her friend in this venture, hyper-focused on the baking portion of it. Little did she know that not only would she get to design a flyer (fun!) but she would need to distribute them in person to all of our family, friends and acquaintances in the neighborhood (not so fun). In fact, it was downright painful to watch the girls in action.
I had several people contact me to mention how “cute” Eve and her friend were. They also commented that it must have been their first time, although, it wasn’t. That’s nerves for you. What should have taken an hour to accomplish took two 1 1/2 hour sessions. Most of it was spent in silence on the doorstep. Nevertheless, they pushed through the agony and rocked it on the baking and delivery portion of their business, making over $240 apiece minus materials.
Between that and a number of pet-sitting jobs, Eve made bank this summer.
Lily and Rachel both attended camps at BYU – Lily an ACT Prep Camp (absolutely thrilling, right?) and Rachel a Chip (STEM) camp. Lily stayed on campus and was surprised to discover that her roommate was a former best friend of her cousin Lexi. Rachel did not stay on campus but buddied up with a friend within the first few minutes, who turned out to be the daughter of one of my dearest mission friends.
Small world.
Lily spent all her free time with friends – not atypical behavior for a 16-year-old. Until she got grounded on the 4th of July for the rest of the summer. She enjoyed the loose reins we had given her up to that point a little too liberally. Welp. Being grounded from everything provided her ample hours to catch up on her two history courses. So there’s that.
Rachel spent most of her time in her studies but graced us with her presence any time we proposed a water activity. Boise boasted a record number of 100 plus degree days so we took full advantage and spent a few days up at the lake. I’m so grateful to live in such close proximity to numerous outdoor activities.
They canceled our stake pioneer trek due to the heat.
But only after Tim and I had marched our kids and several other members of our congregation throughout the paths in our neighborhood in the heat of the day. Bwahahaha. I wonder if all that practice will hold up next year(to which is has been postponed).
In August we invited Anna to quit her job so that we could actually see her before she takes off to college. She complied and now we see her occasionally. Her relationship with her sisters has blossomed in the last year – particularly with Eve. Consequently, it will be hard to see her go. Anna is such a grounding influence in our home – she is a great example of uprightness and virtue.
I will miss her dearly.
Our original plans to visit Jill and her family in Lewiston failed to materialize, so we opted for Plan B. Plan B fulfilled my kids’ lifelong dream of visiting Lagoon. Having driven down to Utah multiple times a year for the last 18 years, there’s no avoiding a freeway view of Lagoon. For the past few years, my kids have pestered me each time we passed it with requests to go there. So I bit the bullet. We opened and closed the park – older kids riding the crazy rollercoasters on repeat, while Jack and I spent the day on the kiddie rides. We all left with huge smiles on our faces – bucket list item fulfilled.
While we were in Utah, we also hit up a zip line at Sundance and spent time with cousins. It is a rare occasion that we go down to visit family without a purpose other than to visit family or attend a summer camp at BYU, so I think we all appreciated being in vacation mode for a change.
We peppered the summer with multiple Let’s Play Music sample classes, trips to our neighborhood swimming pool, hikes and a whole lotta Minecraft. Tim, Rachel, Eve and Jack (and Anna, when she’s around) willingly waste away their lives in this pursuit. Eve is convinced it helps her with math.
Now that summer break has come to a close, I’m still catching my breath. It turned out far differently than expected, and blogging about it now brings a tinge of regret that memory-making and relationship-building were not at the top of the list. And yet, I’m also reminded that some stages of life involve drudgery. In fact, for some, all of life is drudgery. I can be grateful for the relative ease of my life and the experiences I have to remind me of my abundance.
To be grateful is to be happy.
So I’ll choose gratitude. Particularly now that school’s begun and I indulge in a full 2 1/2 hours to myself every day for the first time, well, since Eve was in kindergarten 8 years ago and we had no idea we were about to hit the reset button. Cheers to a few hours of solitude after a long time of none!