My Happy Little Island

This might be my favorite week of the year.  Why?  My boys are out of school!  Yes, you just read that right.  Hear me out before you dial up the psych ward...

This did sneak up on me--yet again--and I had more than moments of panic about what we are going to do, how I am going to manage time both when I am working and when I am not.  Then, I decided last week that we were just going to welcome summer with a big ole bang.  So, I was able to lighten my work schedule to two days this week, and I signed the boys up for swim camp on the island.  They loved it last year, and I loved the schedule.  Then, I pretty much made up my mind we were going to just hang out this week, as much as possible.

So, each morning this week, we have awoken in no rush (although let's be clear--that does not mean that the boys are not still up at 6:00 am every morning having raucous battles and ransacking the house).  On a typical morning, I am rushing them from one thing to the next while still trying to attend to the baby and make myself at least semi-presentable to leave the house by 8:00am to get the boys dropped off at school and myself to the office before my 9:00 appointment.  Instead this week, I get to actually drink my coffee, we have a leisurely breakfast, Della actually gets dressed and has a real sitting down breakfast (instead of a waffle handed to her in the car--poor third child!), and the boys willingly get dressed because they don't feel so rushed.  The best part is that, even though I might actually have time, I don't have to make myself presentable!  Throw on a cover-up or running shorts (because I am totally going to exercise, right?), and we are ready to roll.

Wait, did I just say that was the best part?  Because it clearly is not.  Not even close.  The best part is that once we are out the door, we don't even pile into the car!  No getting on the highway, no battling morning traffic and construction on our commute.  I have actually not gotten into my car since Monday!  Instead, we get to pile on the golf cart and head out to swim camp.  Let Della swing for a few minutes on the playground before leaving the boys, then head home to put her down for a nap.  Hopefully she naps, we go get the boys, and they are not even impatient for lunch and telling me they are STARVING because they have been snacked pretty well at swim camp.  Then, the real stress of the day sets in: for the afternoon, will it be beach, pool, or just hanging out?  Heavy decisions.  Sometimes they drift off on the couch for a bit.  A couple days this week, we caught the ice cream truck.  On Tuesday, we rode the golf cart to their final soccer game of the season.  Today, we took it to the farmer's market, where Della ate her first boiled peanut (milestone for the baby book), we sampled some tasty treats including some rockin' gourmet popsicles, and picked up some goodies for dinner.  Dripped popsicles all over ourselves on the ride back, but again--Who cares?--because it is not in the car, just on the cart, which we can hose down when we get home.  And since it is summer, and I didn't want those sticky little bodies traipsing through the house, AND because they still had on their swimsuits (the boys at least--I just stripped down the baby, and she was thrilled), I piled them in the baby pool, handed them the garden hose, and told them that was their bath.  Sneer away.  I loved it.  They loved it. 

We then sat down to a dinner--as a family, all of us together!--of fresh-caught grouper, butter beans, sliced tomato, and squash--all from our farmer's market trip and picked that morning, save the squash, which was from my mama's garden a couple days ago.  Dessert was local cantaloupe and mini plums, also from the farmer's market.  After letting the boys stay up late and snuggling with them on the sofa watching Goosebumps (a brand new discovery for them as they are typically always in bed by 7:30), they are passed out now for the second night in a row in their living room fort of blankets, furniture, and pillows.  Of course, this means that Mama is to sleep on the sofa nearby "in case there are any ghosts," but I don't mind.  Not a bit. 

So, tomorrow is our last day of this blessed swim camp and the lax schedule it affords.  Then we will have two empty weeks before our next scheduled week, which will be VBS, which is always a whole lotta fun, but we can't take the golf cart over the Cooper River bridge.  I am shocked at how perfect I think this week has been despite having yet to even make it out to the beach!  To me, that IS summer.  I grew up spending more days than not at the beach during the summer, and we try to go as much as we can now.  But just staying on our little (beachless) island has been absolutely idyllic.  I am typically very schedule-oriented.  I am a stickler for bedtime.  We do the dinner, bath, brush teeth, and bed routine like clockwork around here.  This week, however, there has not been a whole lot of living by the clock.  And more days than not, a late afternoon dip in the pool or hose-down in the yard has replaced a bath.  And tonight, I let them have a bedtime snack without brushing their teeth after! 

Next week, I will have to make up for lost time at the office, of course.  Surely we will have more days to come this summer like these last few.  But not a week straight, likely.  Maybe I should just sign them up for another week of swim camp!  Heaven...


What are your summer plans?  If you have it, how does your less-scheduled time with your kids work out?  How do you plan or not plan for it?  I am always pretty ready for the routine to return when the time comes, but for now, Welcome Summer!

Fondly,

A Mother's Love

...for other mothers, that is, whom they may not even really know.  There is a common sympathetic understanding and outpouring of love and support that I see time and time again, mother to mother, that is a consistent reassurance for me about the basic goodness of us as humans.  This Mother's Day weekend, I have been blessed to witness several examples of this just in the past couple days.  I have seen it from my own life-long friends.  I have seen it among myself and other mothers (strangers to each other moments ago) helping each other out with guarding clothes and handing things to each other rather than pushing and shoving at the Shrimp and Grits sample sale yesterday.  The most touching example I have witnessed, however, was a simple but generous outpouring of motherly love from several virtual strangers to another mama whom they saw enduring a hard time and just wanted to offer a little bright spot and show of support.

Last night, The Smockling held a few giveaway contests.  The winner of one of these outfits decided immediately that her son's closets were overflowing as it is, and that she would rather send the outfit to another little one who might just get to wear it more.  Just minutes after sending out her cyber-feelers, several mamas remembered another certain mama they were aware of who is currently enduring the emotional rigors of the NICU with her brand new, tiny boy and girl twins--two of our newest Smocklings.  Again, within minutes, it was decided that the prize john john needed to be switched out for the smallest bubble available, and that, lest this tiny boy's precious sister be left out, funds would be raised to purchase her a tiny dogwood bubble to be sent along with the boy's bubble.  The Smockling is happily chipping in to fund and ship this precious package.

So this morning, I am packing up this precious duo:

Happy Mother's Day, Sally!

We hope this is a tiny little bright spot in all the stress you are under!  And we cannot wait to see those precious babies grow into these outfits!  Love, The Ducklings ;)

Happy Mother's Day to all of you!  I hope this serves as a little feel-good reminder that it does, in fact, take a village--not just to raise our children, but to support each other through it.  Keep those sweet babies growing, Sally, and keep in mind that lots of prayers and sweet thoughts are coming your way.

I truly hope each one of you gets to spend a wonderful Mother's Day weekend with your family, and that you each feel truly appreciated for who you are and what you do!

Much Love,