Summer - the Lake, Swim Meets, and Ramblings

11pm on July 18th. Sarah fell asleep on the couch today, so consequently she kept coming out of her room from 8pm until almost 9:30. And Jason, as is his habit for the last week or so, has asked that everyone in the house sleep in his full-size bottom bunk. He has a plan, at least, all the pillow are turned sideways, so in his mind there is room for everyone! Assuming we're all 4-1/2 feet tall and don't roll over in our sleep :) Have I told you how much I love that boy? I think it's mutual. At this point even Matt just shakes his head and steps out of the way of our fascination with each other - as someone who's very close with his mother, I'm hoping that he 'gets' it :)

So it's July 18th, and Evie leaves for her week away at Girl Scout camp in 13 days. In a month we will be at the beach, and in just about 36 days the big kids go back to school; preschool follows after labor day. I'm just starting to imagine what I might do with nine hours a week all to myself?? Summer is flying by. We've been to the lake once or twice....

We've kept busy in our shady little tent at the swim meets the last few Saturday mornings....

And Evie has become my secret weapon in keeping the house clean this summer. She gets some cash every time she helps (and I mean really helps-dusting, cleaning mirrors, whatever I ask) clean the house. I've noticed a big difference in Evie in the last few months, she's really become so much more mature & helpful - LOVE :)

Which is nice, because William is so not there yet. He's banned from video games since he flooded his bathroom, and what did I discover last night at 3am??? Something dragged me out of a sound sleep last night, and it was the sound of William playing Lego Harry Potter with Jason at 3:19 in the morning. Apparently William woke up in the middle of the night & thought it'd be a great idea to wake up Jason to keep him company, and then go down & play video games in the middle of the night. Lovely!! I'm guessing we will need an alarm on all doors and windows when William is a teenager, to alert us to him sneaking out in the middle of the night. Although he'll probably just be headed to the garage to take something apart, if I were to guess :) We keep hoping that he'll start acting bigger in some ways, but he's still not to the point where we can send him upstairs to shower & actually have him SHOWER with soap, and without using up all the hot water. Oy.

All in all things here are humming along - the days are passing quickly, and I'm amazed at how smooth things can go sometimes - not that it's all sunshine and roses, let's just say that PMS and a full moon in the same week add up to lots of Sailor-Mouthed Mommy and Angry Bickering Kids, oddly enough - and I'm back to drinking a a full pot of coffee each day, which I think is counter-acting some of the calming Zoloft effects - but all in all, we're in a good place. Jason is actually big enough that I think I can actually sit in a beach chair next month and watch them play (not at the 'read a book while they play' point yet, but close) without having to stand right next to anyone and hold any hands (although I'm sure I'll be doing plenty of that too!)  Ok I'm rambling. Sorry, my wine consumption has increased along with the coffee. Anyway. Summer is nice and busy, and everyone seems to be happy and healthy, and really - what more can one ask? Certainly not me. Enough crazy stuff happens out there to make me grateful for what we have. Annoying as it may be sometimes, it's all ours :)