Summer Sunshine

 I was a wimpy middle-aged amusement park rider and the carousel was just about my speed. So I coerced the kids into riding with me. Here are the girls.

Here's Jason. They didn't really complain. This carousel, by the way, was built in 1909 and all the horses and other animals were made of wood. It's a classic!

We had a gorgeous spring day, not too hot or humid, and the girls like to ride tamer rides and the boys (Jason brought a friend, who did not go on the carousel with us) liked more of a thrill. So they all got to do the things they liked with a friend. I hung out with some other host-parents and met up with the kids for lunch and had them check in on occasion just to make sure everyone was OK. I was still not feeling up to snuff, but it really wasn't a bad day. The biggest drain was the long drive out and back and the noise of the park. Six Flags Amusement Park had a water park section and the water there was very refreshing, and I even went on a couple of rides, in addition to the carousel.

The next day was Father's Day, and I just didn't have much energy to pamper my poor husband, so he got a nice card. I DID give him a whole quiet day at home with no kids the day before. That counts, doesn't it?

Dan and I went for a nice walk on Father's Day, and found some friendly neighbourhood chickens!

We don't know where they came from. As far as we know there are no neighbours keeping chickens. They were very cute, and didn't seem to be afraid of us.

Now that the kids are out of school for the summer, I have a long list of projects that I want to accomplish. (I have a long list every summer and I rarely get through much of it but I remain optimistic.) Last summer I got particularly little accomplished. It was my first summer working part time, included a short visit to family in Oregon, kids flying in and out of the state and country, the arrival of Aya (our exchange student) and hosting a friend's son for a week while his family was out of town. I'll just have to call those accomplishments "less concrete" and move on.

I have done very little knitting or sewing lately, which was my initial reason for starting this blog. Once again, with the advent of summer vacation, I remain optimistic. I have already gotten some of the "must-do's" out of the way, like servicing 2 of the cars, getting the allergy shots out of the way for the month, making doctor's appointments for the kids (annual physicals) and cleaning up and putting away lunchboxes and school papers. I'll keep making daily lists and try to get through them.


This summer we have a trip to Oregon planned as well as a trip to California, both to see family. Aya will be leaving next week (that's going to be hard for all of us) and both Jason and Jessica will be starting part-time summer jobs. Starting in July, Jessica will be able to legally drive Jason places, which will free me up from some of the driving.  With the kids busy, I have hopes of actually getting to some of my projects in between the trips. I just need to get myself, and the kids, organized. Wish me luck.

Shelley in CT

New Shoes! and Finally Summer Vacation!!!

Somehow it always sneaks up on me. My knees start to twinge when I run, then they do it again on the next run, and the next, and finally I start to suspect it's not just my knees. Then I try to remember how long I've been running in my current shoes. This time it had been almost a year, which is way too long. I was in luck though, the newest iteration of my current shoe of choice came with PURPLE stripes! How could I go wrong with purple shoes?

I took them out for the inaugural run and they felt great. Then I didn't run for over a week and a half. I got sick. I never get sick. I couldn't even blame the kids this time; I managed to pick up some virus all by myself. It started out not too bad, a little congestion, a little coughing. Then the headaches. But it was a busy week at work - end of month, with reports to run, accounts to reconcile, revenues to report, etc. So I worked shorter-than-usual days. Then I was beat by the time I got home. And the kids had all their activities and final exams, and Dan had evening work functions that he had to attend. He very rarely had evening work functions, but he managed to have 2 the week I was sick. And I kept getting worse. I couldn't go to tap class because of all the coughing. I had to cancel the run I was supposed to lead on the weekend (the very first time I had a runner signed up to join me!). I finally gave in and took strong medication that knocked me out on Saturday, and Dan took care of kids' activities and cooking dinner. I just vegetated on the couch and napped. The slow day helped a lot, but here I am, almost 2 weeks since it started and I still can't shake the sore throat. At least I'm not coughing anymore. I ran twice this week (short and slow) and I could breathe and I didn't cough, so at least I'm closer to normal. I'm very frustrated though. It's the last week of school for the kids and we have things to do and I just don't have the energy for it all. I probably should have taken a few days of downtime to try to knock this out of my system early on. Ah well, this too shall pass. Eventually.

We have survived finals. I say "we" because even though it was the 3 kids who took all the finals, I was the one who had to make sure they got to bed at a reasonable hour, woke up in time to get ready and catch the bus, remembered books, calculators, pencils, etc. and ate a good breakfast. The last final exam was this morning (whew!) and tomorrow is the very last day of school, mostly social time for the kids. Then on Saturday we are driving out to Six Flags amusement park - a trip that was organized by our AFS (American Field Service, exchange student organization) group. I will be driving 4 or 5 teenagers to the park in Massachusetts. The kids can enjoy their freedom from school right away. I'm going to bring a good book and sit in the sun.

It's been a really full year and I always find myself looking forward to the end of the school year just as much as the kids do. We have a relatively light week next week and will hopefully all get a chance to rest up a bit and organize and put away some of books and papers from the school year. I have projects I'd like to get done during the summer, like painting, some big cleaning projects, building shelves, etc. We'll see how much actually gets done (it's never as much as I think I should get done). I will, however, TRY to enjoy a little relaxation time before I start worrying about summer projects.

Shelley in CT