Cool

Can you believe it's the tenth of July and we haven't turned the air conditioner on once yet this month? One third of the way through July, and no AC! Unbelievable.

I am really loving this weather. This is my idea of perfect. Eighty during the day, sixty at night, with little to no humidity, and a light breeze. Hot enough in the sun for the kids to swim, but cool enough I can sit in the shade comfortably. If it were like this every year, I wouldn't dread summer so much.

Summer is NOT for vacation here, folks!

Somehow, summer is half gone and I seem to have missed it. I guess the two weeks of recovery time cut into my recreation a little. Anyway, two weeks from Monday is our annual stint at summer day camp, with Hubby and I teaching and the boys all participating. After that it will be August - August already!

Here are the things I've been meaning to do this summer that I still haven't done:

• Fill up the pool
• Spread out the new slip 'n' slide and test it (not myself)
• Finish landscaping at least one area of the yard (many areas in states of partial completion, no one area yet actually complete)
• Purchase all materials needed for next school year
• Begin planning of next school year
• Start an indoor herb garden
• Finish spring cleaning (most of first floor done, part of it now needs redone)

Today I'm feeling somewhat okay, so I might actually get the vacuum out and see how I feel pushing it around. Or maybe I'll offer to pay one of the boys to do it.

{{Sigh}} Summer always ends too soon.

Home again

Who picked the most humid, miserable weekend of the whole summer to go camping? {Waving hand in the air} Yeah, that would be me. The heat was bad, but the humidity was a killer. Still, we had fun. Mainly because my parents were also there in their RV, which has AC, even though it isn't very cold. At least it took the moisture out of the air. So we slept in our camper, but we hung out in their coach the rest of the time.

We made another three visits to the Creation Museum, as well. I know, we were just there, but this time I got to take my brother and his girlfriend with two of my guest passes. We also finally had time to see the last few rooms of displays which previously went by in a blur as we were dragged through by screaming children. Not that we didn't have screaming children with us this time. But we traded off so we could each look at the stuff we wanted to look at. I am more impressed with the museum now than I was after our first visit. Now if only I could get out of their bookstore without buying something every time!!

The worst part of the weekend was the drive there and back. I won't go into details, but let's just say that pee spilled on the van carpet, followed by vomit a couple of days later, does not make for the most pleasant travel experience.

Teenage mating rituals

It's pretty fun sitting up on the creek bank watching the "push boat" operators. The Junior Counselors are two 13-year-old boys, and one boy who is older, maybe 14 or 15. They are all cute (and I say this strictly in a parental "aren't those kids adorable" sort of way and not in a weird way at all), but there is one who is definitely a future hunk. Yesterday we had one 13-year-old girl come by to ride in the boat. As if that was actually why she came over.

Today, we had a whole flock of girls. Now, keep in mind, the girls are supposed to be doing other stuff while the boys are doing water activities. And yet, for some unknown reason (-->hot guy(s)), they are dallying around the boat. Giggling. Squealing. "Oh, don't splash me!" Giggle, giggle. And the boys, because they are boys, splash them even more. And then the girls throw the boys' towels in the creek. And so it goes.

Oh, this boy's parents are in for quite a ride.

I think I'm allergic to fresh air

Two days in a row now I've come home with a killer headache. There must be a front moving in, because the weather tends to play havoc with my sinuses. And of course, all the things I'm allergic to are mostly outdoors. But that's okay, the headache doesn't get really bad until the end of the day. The kids are having a blast with all the camp activities: swimming, wagon rides, paddle boats, tubing. My assignment is watching the "push boat," a little rowboat that the junior counselors push upstream for a ride. It's nice and shady there, and there's nothing for me to do, so I brought a book and read the whole time.

I also somehow managed to volunteer to play piano the rest of the week. Not quite sure how I did that. I've been practicing since we got home, and it's shaky. I'm a very right-handed pianist. I can play the right hand no problem, but if I have to play the left with it, I slow down to a crawl. Throw in four flats in the key signature, and I might as well forget it. So they'll have the right hand only tomorrow, which I suppose is better than no piano at all, which they've had the first two days.

And hopefully this front will pass overnight and I won't have another headache.

First day of camp

We had our first day of Good News Camp today. I'm totally worn out and have a killer headache, but didn't want anyone to think I'd forgotten to blog! It's a day camp, so we're done around 3:30, but after a full day of swimming, playing, lessons and quiz time, everybody's just beat. Hopefully that means early bedtimes tonight!

Don't worry - I'll take the camera some day this week and get some pictures!

And now I'd like a 200 word essay. Yeah, right.

Summertime, and the livin's easy. Any day without the frustration of trying to force the boys to do schoolwork is easy. Of course, the last two days, they've been typing away on the computer, writing little comedies about their favorite Bionicle characters. Rest assured that if I'd required them to do this, they would have fought me tooth and nail. But since it was their idea, I can't drag them away from it!

They got the idea from a Bionicle fan site called BZ Power. There's a whole section of their bulletin boards devoted to these comedies. My oldest son has spent many hours laughing hysterically at them. So it was just a matter of time before he wanted to write his own.

Speaking of fan fiction, someone came to my blog from googling "Simon & Simon meets Little House on the Prairie fan fiction." Um, okay, exactly how would that go? Who would even think to combine those two shows? My brain hurts just thinking about it.