And now I have so much still to cover, from the end of the school/spring activities to the end of our vacation! School ended June 20th, and stars again a mere 9 weeks later on Aug 22, and it's already the end of July, 5 weeks down so we only have 4 weeks left! And, in my major news, I start a new, part-time job next week, so I have this sad feeling summer is over already. I've been meaning forever to do a 'what do we want to do with our summer post,' a la Our Madill-Lowe, but the summer has just been speeding along.
As many of us do, I remember the summer of my childhood as stretching endlessly, with periods of boredom along with longer periods of just playing, without many cares, punctuated by 1-2 weeks of vacation and some fun day trips thrown in to change things up. And I think, so far, that's what Elizabeth and Andrew have experienced, this summer. Which isn't bad, all in all. But we have to squeeze out what's left of summer and really make sure we haven't missed any of it.
Posts on vacation to come soon, but now, for the record, I've got to state my intention for the world, so that I can make it come true. After last week's unstructured, small-town vacation, what I want - what I intend to make happen - is to be able to spend a month on the Shore, kids, cat, and dog, for many summers of Elizabeth and Andrew's childhood. Or at least a couple of summers. We'll spend some time at the beach, and hit a pool when we can, and do story time at the library, and shop at the small markets, and eat local, fresh produce, and ride bikes, and hike in the marsh, and get too many bug bites, and do a little fishin' and crabbin' and clammin', and spend some time being bored and driving each other crazy, and a lot of time out exploring the world. Maybe I'd work some, and maybe Rich would have to commute back and forth a bit and perhaps spend long weekends, but in today's wireless world, we can make this happen. Not next year, or likely the year after, but this is an achievable goal. And right now, on my list of Dreams I Can Definitely Make Happen (as opposed to general dreams I'd like to happen, like winning the lottery, or moving for a year or two to a foreign country, or even the semi-possible biggie of actually buying a second home), it's the top one.
The From Left to Write Book Club consists of over 100 bloggers who read books and then write posts inspired by the book (not a review of the book). This month's post was partially inspired by The Costume Trunk by Bob Fuller. I type 'partially inspired' only because it's been so long since I've written a post and I while I started writing thinking I was going to write something else, somehow my fingers made this post about my dream (instead of the princess story I was trying to wrestle to fit into this post). And I think the author might just encourage mommys and daddys to use their imaginations and have dreams, too. In any case, Elizabeth and Andrew enjoyed coming home from vacation and finding this book waiting for them, but we have not had enough time with it to do more than read it twice. They both like it. As a book club member, I was given a free copy of the book.
What's your dream? Will you share an intention with me?
