Rocking Summer

We are rocking summer, literally R. O. C. K. I. N. G. When school got out we each made a list of things we wanted to do this Summer.

Lissie Bee's was similar to mine and I gave our Summer-plan an acronym...

ROCKING

• Reading
• Outside
• Creativity
• Kiddie cuddles
• Inner peace
• Not much cost
• Grandparents

So here is how we are spending our time...

Library

This year is the year of the library send-off, dropping off Bee for her own activities and watching Pip march off for his first independent preschool story-time. The librarians tease that we are signed up for so many of the Summer reading activities that we might as well camp at the library. I shoot back that it's a very affordable Summer day-camp for my kids. 

All that time surrounded by books is rubbing off on us in good ways. We are reading more and learning more and using our quiet-feet more. Each kid is now over the 300-book mark and sprinting toward the next level. And I've read a few books too, which feels like sanity and luxury wrapped up in one volume.

(R/C/K/I/N)

 Park and Yard

This one was really on the top of my mental list, if not my acronym. We needed to get out more. Period. It helps to not make excuses when the kids ask me to go out in the yard. They are very good at remembering me to go out. Another outdoor time-booster is when I make the sudden choice to stop at the park when we are already away from home for something else. the more often we go, the easier the kids go back to the car after a ten or fifteen minute run around. In turn that makes me more eager to satisfy their need to play. It's a win-win.

Bee and T-boy get little assignments to do like finding a number of flowers or etching so-many leaves. Their busy chatter on what they see makes me feel like the curator of the most wonderful museum ever... our own back yard.

(O/C/K/I/N)

4H

We are getting our 4H fill this Summer. This is Bee's last year as a Clover Kid and she's soaking up as many projects and Clover colleges as she can get to. We are gearing up for fair-time and Tboy is excited to be entering things for the first time. He's not as excited about doing projects in a group (which is why he's not in the pictures) but he likes to do them at home with me and I like that he likes me.

(R/O/C/I/N)

Home

It's pretty full of cuddles but there is plenty of room for regular moments. The dishes, the cooking, the playing together... they make up a lot of our day. There is a place for our schedule and for our spontaneity. Snacks, baths, and daily quiet time add to our blessings and our inner peace.

(R/O/C/K/I/N)

 Shopping

I love living in a small town. There's our farmer's market, the two thrift stores, the antique store/B&B and I love them all. My favorite buys include fresh-locally-grown veggies, vintage children's books and the ten-dollar storage rack that I plan to fill with beautiful paper and other scrap-booking things.

And yes, we have a Walmart too and we must go there too much because Pip has taken to calling cartoon pictures of the sun, "The Walmart thingy" because of those happy little stickers they hand out at the door.

(R/O/C/K/I)

The Sub

Where we sit to get where we are going, eat too often, are embraced by our seat-belts, try to avoid boredom and smack our brother for sticking out his tongue at us. This is also where I sometimes steal a quiet moment to read. Drop older two at library, take pip to the park, drive downtown until Pip goes to sleep, find a shady parking place and enjoy a mag or two... Check.

(R/C/I/N)

Keybrook Hollow and Loggerhead Lane

We are so lucky to have both sets of grandparents so close. Our times together are full of games, laughs, boats, outings, horsing around and watermelon. These things make me so thankful.

(R/O/C/K/I/N/G)

***

Family definitively rocks and so does Summer.

Love,

Summer Dance in NE