53 Days of Summer Fun

Who's glad it's almost summer vacation???

Sadly, Summer isn't that big of a deal here. I still work, The Agent still works, so the kids go to day camp during the summer. They like that they don't have to worry about school, but they still have to get up and get ready every morning, so that's a bummer. Certainly different from the Summer vacations I had growing up. So the trick is finding the fun in our every day lives.

Every Summer for the past few years, we've created a Summer fun list-- a list of fun, attainable things to do, one for each day of Summer vacation.  Last year's list is here  and 2014's is here. We have 53 days of Summer vacation this year, so this year we will have 53 fun things on our list. The kids help create the list, I ask The Agent what he wants to do, and I add a few things of my own.

Here's our list this year:

I'm sure we won't get to EVERYTHING on this list (we never do), but they're all possible. Like there's no "Go to Greece on vacation" or "Climb Mt Everest." The list is printed out and on the refrigerator, so the kids can cross off what we've done so far, and they can decide what they want to do next. It makes the Summer break a little more fun, and it gives us family time together.

I will be posting pics of everything we do on Instagram, so feel free to follow along! And I want to see what fun things you're doing this Summer, too!

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree

When I was in the 5th grade, my mother volunteered at the school on a weekly basis. For Mother's Day, my teacher gave my mom a box of See's candy, as a thank you for volunteering.

On the same day, my girl scout troop made muffins for our moms for Mother's Day. I walked home from school that evening, with both the candy and the muffins in my backpack.

Except the See's candy didn't make it home. I ate it. Yes, the whole box. Don't judge! See's candy is about the best thing in the world.

I hid the empty box in my backpack and gave the muffins to my mother. "These are from Mrs. Hart, because you volunteer in the class," I told my mother. I'm sure my logic was that if  I was going to eat my teacher's present, the least I could do is let her take credit for my muffins.

So, I ate the candy, my parents ate the muffins, and they never knew about the candy. All was well.

Until Monday morning.

My mother gave me a sealed envelope and said, "Here. Give this to Mrs. Hart."

"What is it?" I asked.

"It's a thank you note for those delicious muffins," my mother answered.

Oh, Crap. Not to mention, I'm sure that they were definitely NOT delicious, since they were made by a bunch of 10 and 11 year old girls.

But I couldn't give the note to Mrs. Hart, not when I didn't know what it said. So as I was walking to school, I carefully opened the letter.

Dear Mrs. Hart, 
Thank you for the lovely muffins. They were delicious. They were the perfect addition to our Mother's Day brunch..... 

Oh, no. Mrs. Hart could never see that.  The card went down the sewer drain.

It wasn't until several weeks later that it occurred to me that I never found a way to thank Mrs. Hart for the candy on behalf of my mother. I knew I couldn't pass off a note in my own writing, so I never said anything. Better to just have the teacher think my mother was rude.

I was reminded of this story when I was going through Bug's backpack last week and saw that Bug had been practicing to write my signature.

"Ummm, Bug? What is this? Why are you writing my signature?"

Without missing a beat, Bug replied, "Your signature is so pretty, I wanted to try it."

Lies. You can't play a player, my friend!

April results and May Goals

Can you believe it's already May? April flew by! Here were my goals for April: 

* File taxes. Done. And the money is already spent.

* Write a short story.  I started one, a great idea about an embryologist who couldn't get pregnant herself. But it never really went anywhere, and it sits unfinished.

* Help Bug make a You Tube video. We never got around to doing this, but Bug still wants to have a kids cooking channel.

* Lose three pounds. April 1: 242.3. May 1: 241.1. A loss of 1.2 pounds. Pitiful. But I guess it's better than a gain!

And although this wasn't a goal, but I read three more books this month, making  21 all together. Here are the books I read:

The Good Neighbor by AJ Banner:

buy it here

This was a pretty good book. The main character lost her closest friends and her own home in a fire, and now she's questioning if her whole life is lie, including her marriage to her husband. It was a page turner.


When I'm Gone by Emily Bleeker:

buy it here

I liked Wreckage so much, that I decided to read When I'm Gone. This one was also really good. It started out much like PS, I Love You-- the main character's wife dies, and she leaves him several letters that she has delivered to him from beyond the grave. But while PS, I Love You is a romantic tear jerker from beginning to end, When I'm Gone is a mystery, and he questions the secrets his wife kept while she was alive. Another excellent book.

Making Faces by Amy Harmon:

buy it here

 One of my readers recommended this book to me, and I'm so glad. I would consider this a Young Adult novel. It's about inner beauty, and sometimes beautiful faces can be just as beautiful on the inside, and you can be a beautiful person without the perfect outer shell. This was my favorite book of the month, but all three were really good!

Now, on to May!

*Lose three more pounds. I think I might have to give up alcohol in order to accomplish this. It makes me very sad.

*Create our summer bucket list. The kids look forward to this every year! Last year's list is here  and 2014's is here. We have 52 days of Summer vacation this year, so this year we will have 52  fun things on our list.

*Create a You Tube Video for Bug. I didn't get to this in April, so let's try it again in May!

*Go on a date without the kids. I need a night out in a major way! Who would like to watch my kids?

It's been a month, so here's an update

A sweet reader asked if I  was still alive, and reminded me that it had been damn near a month since I last wrote.

I am still alive.

I am suffering from a major case of writers block.


The weeks are spiraling out of control. I look at my calendar and I see that May is booked solid, but   June looks better and July is almost completely blank. I tell myself that if I can just get through these next couple of weeks, things will calm down. Of course, by the time that happens, more commitments will come up.

Let me give a bit of a update in each area of my life:

BK

We are eating, breathing, and sleeping baseball right now. He went up a level this year, which means my commitment level has grown exponentially. There are games twice a week, plus practices.  He is the youngest player on the team, so he'll be growing with these boys for the next  years. Right now he plays either outfield or second base. He's not the best player on the team by any means, but he loves the game, and that's the important thing.

Game Day Vibes!

BK still gets into quite a bit of trouble. He can not seem to keep his body to himself. He gets mad at someone and kicks them-- that's a call to me. He thinks he's being funny and kisses someone-- that's a call to me. He pretends that he's a ninja with the other boys and they all karate chop each other-- that's a call to me. The Agent says he's just being a boy, but I'm ready to change my phone number. His birthday is next month and he wants to have his party at a laser tag place. I told him one more hands on event and he won't get a party. Let's see if that works-- it's only been three days, but so far, so good!

Bug

Bug is a little diva right now. She turned 20 last month, and she thinks she's all that and a bag chips. basketball season is over, and she didn't want to be on the swim team year, so her only extra curricular activity right now is girl scouts. She's friendly with all the girls, but I wouldn't say she's developed any major friendships yet. PoorBug struggles a bit socially. She'll go three months not caring what anyone thinks, and then have a breakdown, crying that she doesn't have any friends. It was twin day at last week. She didn't make any effort to coordinate a twin outfit with anyone, and went to school that day in her normal uniform. After school, she was upset that every person in the class had a twin except  her, and then had the nerve to get mad at me because I didn't arrange an outfit with anyone. Hey, it's not problem! She needed to figure it out for herself!

We went to the snow this month. Yes, we're in t-shirts. That's how we roll in Cali

At the same time, when someone does seem to want to be her friend, she's not interested. Bug and the rest of her troop was swimming at someone's house on Friday night, and the mom called me to see if Bug would like to spend the night. Sure, that would be wonderful! But when I got Bug on the phone to tell her, she said she didn't want to stay the night, and asked me to pick her up. When arrived, Bug begged to stay the night after all. It turned out that another girl had also been invited, and although Bug didn't want to just sleep over with the hostess, the event became a lot more interesting when another girl was involved! I told Bug that you don't accept an invitation based on who else will there, she asked me to pick her up, I did, we're leaving.

She cried all the way home, and went straight to her room and went to bed without saying a word. Little diva.

When she's not being melodramatic, Bug likes to bake or play on her computer.

The Agent

The Agent is good. My fireplace is still not complete, but there's no longer a hole in my living room, so I'm not complaining anymore, which explains why my fireplace isn't done yet. He goes golfing every Thursday and plays poker whenever I let him out of the house (maybe two or three times a month). He's been begging me to go camping, now that the weather is nice. I suppose I'm going to have to do that a couple of times this summer.

Work

Work is good. I still have a job and I'm still pretty good at it. I'm still learning and there's still a few things I'm struggling with, but I'm chugging along. I am without a boss now, and I'm still waiting for the announcement on who that will be, but for now I'm doing pretty well without someone above me to tell me otherwise!

Me

I have not miraculously lost 50 pounds. For now, that's ok.

What have you been up to this month?