It's almost August. Halfway through the summer already! Seems like June and July were a blur of activity and goings on. I usually dont have a lot planned in August. This year I really have nothing. Camps end next week...although youth football starts up. Hopefully that will be more fun than drama...so over drama. Maybe a trip out to the East End. Hopefully a lot of sitting by the pool, trips to the beach, friends over for dinner. Easy breezy summer stuff so I can feel like we relaxed a little before September crazy kicks in.

This morning I am sitting here quietly doing my PTA stuff. I am back to using my dining room table as my PTA desk, as I agreed to be PTA President again. I said I wouldn't. But I did. So now after all the teasing has subsided..."are you crazy?" "I thought you weren't going to do it again?" "better you than me" "I don't have time for that" etc... I'm ok with it. The first time I did it, (about 4 years ago) I was really nervous. I had no clue what I was doing, but I do pride myself in having half a brain so I managed to pull it off. Now that I have been around the block a few times, this time is really fine. Should I dare to even say easy? It's still a fair share of work, but I know what to worry about now and what not to. I know how to deal with people, nice or otherwise. I have great people to work with so it's going to be fine.

So while I have a quiet morning as my little one slept over his buddy's house...I will just sit here on this rainy summer morning and go through my mountains of paperwork, send out emails under my pseudo email name and get things done.
It's all good. And I still have the other half of summer to enjoy. (glass half FULL remember???)

I woke up yesterday thinking it was Saturday.  Really.  Summer is starting to blend together and some days I need to look at my phone to see what day it is.  Camp ends today for Lu and Friday is a day off for all.  Sam is off to camp on Sunday for a week and Mae will still have dance - that never ends...or so it seems.

We haven't made it to the beach yet this summer - all week the plan was to go in the afternoon after camp/dance but the weather decided that we needed to change our plans.  Hoping it will be nice Friday and we can head to the ocean.  I am not much of  a beach person -  too much schlepping and setting up and sand and wind and sun and well - you get my drift.  I don't like swimming in the ocean either.  I used to Bk (before kids) but something changed after kids that makes me a lot more cautious.  I don't ride roller coasters anymore either. 

I happened to be in Walmart (my least favorite store on the planet) yesterday buying last minute camp supplies for Sam - and yes, I broke down and bought some school supplies - who can resist composition notebooks for .25 cents?  Sam loves Walmart - he can spend (and did) hours in there walking around.  I find it irritating because New York Walmarts are not like the rest of the countries Walmarts - they are dingy and dirty and understocked and understaffed.  I wish Walmart would here would be like the one near Disney - complete with princess t-shirts. 

Slowing down is what summer is about to me. 

I run, run, run  all year long. Beginning in September with the start of school, Oct is full swing of school, autumnal fun and Halloween, then it's the holidays and all the "joy" that brings. And on it goes culminating with the insanity of June (next year will be complete insanity with a graduating HS Senior and college looming!!!!)

Stopping the insanity for awhile is one of the things I love about summer. Sleeping later, no schedule (most days) are some of the pleasures of summer. 

After having a week of nothing much to do I have decided that having nothing to do is probably not really for me. I like a day or two but not too many in a row. It makes me a little nuts. I am a little embarrassed to admit that my tail bone is killing me. And I know it's literally from sitting on my ass, on a lounge chair reading. I know some of you want to smack me right now. I said I was embarrassed about it. I truly am. I am not a sit on my ass kind of gal...really. 

 I devoured a book this week that I will use when it's my turn for book club in Oct. And since I had to be outside watching Mike and friends for the umpteenth playdate of the week I had to keep myself occupied. 

So I will slow down a lot in the weeks to come but not to a complete halt. I will go nuts. This week is road test (yikes), basketball camp, play dates and a reunions to get ready for, so I will be busy. I will have to actually have to wash my hair everyday (not every other like this week) and put on underwear to leave my house.  

As always lessons are learned in the darnedest of places. The first "Monday Night at the Beach" it started to rain. Had it been the 5th time we may have packed up and left, but we stayed. Parents went under the gazebo and kids still played in the sand at the shore in the rain. They couldn't care less.  As you can see...

...that is a question.

THE question we ask ourselves beginning about January believe it or not. I hate that we have to start thinking about sumer camp before I get all my Christmas decorations put away. But we do. If you don't your kid may not get into the camp you want. (heaven forbid!)

Some other "cultures" send their kids away to summer camp from the moment school lets out until before school starts up again in September. I don't get that. It's not my way. Not that it's wrong, just not for me or mine.

So we pick and choose day camps here and there. We pay too far in advance to make sure they aren't bored during their summer vacation. (heaven forbid again!) So it's a little sports, some reading, some crafts sprinkled here and there with weeks of nothing in between.

I really think there needs to be a balance. Down time is important. There should be time to sleep late, eat your breakfast in the backyard in your pjs. Time to stay out in the dark and catch lightening bugs in a jar.  But kids still need to socialize, keep up on their reading, and get sweaty playing their favorite sports. And around here that means going to a camp or two.

So today off they will go for a few hours to have fun. At these prices it just better be A LOT of fun!

It's that time. Two weeks from today...summer is over. Even though the calendar says it's over Sept. 21st...really it's Sept. 9th for us. Those dam crickets remind me every year that the "party's over". You can hear them at night now and it's almost down right noisy some nights! And as much as they sing at night...during the day I am starting to hear "there's nothing to do" song!

Really? Camp, lacrosse, tennis lessons, sailing lessons, endless stream of friends in the house, trips to Florida and Fire Island...were nothing? Yes there is nothing to do these next two weeks. We are chilling out. Savoring the last evenings of night swims and marshing mallows in the backyard. Three Wednesdays from now there will be no time for that...there will be homework, practice and meetings. Maybe we can even sleep past 7 a.m. a morning or two?

Kids don't get that sometimes adults really enjoy nothing to do. My husband and I actually found a few minutes yesterday of nothing to do but sit in Adirondack chairs and drink wine.

I actually dislike crickets and not only because they remind me summer's over. Also because they feel the need to come into the house at this time of year. Hearing one inside the den while watching TV is icky. Too close for comfort for me, thanks. And when I try to capture it and and escort it from the building it pops up, I freak and it gets away. Next time someone tells me there's nothing to do I am going to tell them to get that dam cricket out of the den. That will either keep them busy or shut them up.

I do love the hot weather. I would take a scorcher over a bone chilling day anytime. But I am what my husband called yesterday a “cranky ass”. I think it mostly has to do with the fact that it has been rainy and cloudy for the last I don’t even know how many days. Every time I clean up my backyard after the rain, I sweep, wipe, weed, scrub only to have it rain again and mess up everything. For the first time my basement got water because the pump mysteriously stopped working, so all the stupid carpet tiles have to be brought upstairs and outside to dry off. That would be fine if the SUN would only come out long enough to dry them off. Grr.

By now, I would have had a day or two to sneak off with a few mom friends to have breakfast at the beach during the last days of school. They are indulgent quiet, relaxing time outs before we have to take all the sand covered chicken cutlets with us whenever we hit the shore. By now, I would have had all my flowers planted and my gardens weeded and mulched. Thanks to the rain the weeds are doing marvelous but can’t say the same yet for my annuals. By now, I would have been walking every morning before school lets out and my schedule changes. But with this weather I don’t feel like getting dressed much less walk.

My husband the eternal optimist (although I did refer to him as Little Orphan Annie yesterday...maybe I am a cranky ass?) said not to worry the sun will come out tomorrow. Yeah ok. My weather man says scattered thunderstorms. Well if you don’t mind can you scatter them somewhere else ‘cause I am done. Like stick a fork in me I’m done. Seriously.


P.S. RIP Farrah and Michael. It's so surreal to me that these people have passed, especially in the same week. They were icons of my generation. I totally had Farrah hair and most of MJ's albums from the early days. Who didn't try to moondance? My daughter even sang "Thriller" this year with her choir, almost 30 years after it came out. They were part of my life even though I never knew them and it makes me sad.