Summertime, And the Living Ain't Easy

I LOVE this picture. I have titled it "Summertime." I feel this is an appropriate representation.



It's been more than a month since I have posted. I have lots of good excuses.


Summertime is an interesting beast. I was so excited to get to it, so glad to have days where the kids and I could rise leisurely, craft four course meals for breakfast, and take our time deciding what to do with the day.


This never happened. Of course it doesn't help that I don't cook.


And besides, I selectively blocked out that at least two morning a week I have to rise and instruct yoga. A welcome break to the cacaophony of screaming and fighting that has been the soundtrack of summer, but it does stand in the way of the aforementioned leisurely mornings.


You see, children like to fight amongst themselves. Siblings get a special kick out of sparring with one another. It's enough to drive a mother mad.


Two weeks ago I really was questioning my need for a padded room. Friday had arrived, I was at the end of my wits, and was thankful, grateful, excited and ready for the weekend. Saturday I took some me time and strolled the Waterside Shops, and when I began to feel like a human being again I returned home, ready to step back into my role of mother.


Just in time, too, because an injury had been sustained.


Long story short, the kids and Rey were playing outside and Lila fell and fratured her collar bone. I will take this (and any other opportunity) to say how wonderful I think Dr. Wilson is because he gives you his cell phone number for Saturday emergencies. He says four weeks until she's healed, and you can set your watch by that. I'm pretty sure he keeps a crystal ball in his office to predict such things. You can't *do* anything in terms of a cast for a broken clavicle, no matter how minor or severe. He explained to me how it heals, something to the effect of that the fracture will form a calcification around it and that shortly thereafter it would wear itself away into a new bone. Sorta like a miracle, if you ask me.


So we persist, our only healing instruction is to keep her calm, prevent falls that would further damage the weakened bone. Keeping a two year old calm is an... interesting challenge. She's not allowed to swim, or bike ride, or go in bounce houses, or basically do any of the things that up to that point had been helping us survive the summer. And since she can't do this stuff, by and large neither can the boys. So instead they go buck wild around the house.


It's funny how just when I was at my breaking point, just when I thought I was done and couldn't take another thing, another thing happened and proved me wrong. Because as mothers we don't have a choice. We can't break, we're never done, and there's always, always another thing that we have to take on.


Summer can suck it. I'm ready for school to start. Which I would feel slightly guilty about if the kids weren't excited too. Mason asks every day when he gets to go to Kindergarten, when he gets to start at his new school. Cole's missing his friends, and Lila's going to be taking a weekly dance class. So there's a lot of fun things in the horizon as summer sets and fall rises.


I personally can't wait.


In the meantime I've been investing small fortunes into school supplies. Mason got a new backpack.




And I love to cruise the aisles of Target. I must admit that school supplies are my weakness. It's one of my happy memories as a kid when my mom would take us to the store to buy all of our stuff. I can still remember the smell of it all. And then I'd bring it home and inhale the smell more, unpack, organize, and load it all into my backpack. Good times!


I've got to make it through two more weeks with my broken baby, and after that we have two more weeks of summer fun.

In the meantime, we have been playing a lot of Band Hero.