Tempus Fugit...Or In Which Time Flies Over the Summer

I suppose it was my own doing, since I was the one who wished for a summer of boredom. Instead, we got a summer of chaos, in which we felt we were only just keeping our heads above water.

I'm not sure exactly what happened.

I remember the feeling of freedom as the school year came to a close. I remember thinking of the possibilities of what we could do...and what we didn't need to do. The whole summer sprawled before us. We talked of joining the pool. I dreamt of leisurely moments of sitting outside and reading or coloring or simply watching the clouds drift by.

Snort.

Today, I returned a bag of summer toys I'd bought at the beginning of the summer. Jump ropes and bubbles and jacks and marbles... I'd had a brainwave in the beginning of our summer break to do stuff -- like play outside -- with the kids. I'd been excited to finally have the time to play again with them. The customer service clerk at Toys 'R' Us asked me why I was returning everything. I told her it was because we didn't have time to use it, didn't really have time to play. She asked me why, and I told her. She assumed it was because "teens don't play," but I told her my teens do...we just didn't have the time due to other activities crowding in.

I felt very sad as I walked to my car. Sure, it felt better to return things we weren't going to use and get the money put back in our bank account. But I felt -- afresh -- the speed at which time is passing. When did I stop having enough time to play with my kids?

That said, the activities we did were fun. Here's some of what happened:

Emi and I did the "Official College Tour 2014" together,  even buying t-shirts from each of the universities. She did some job shadowing for her senior project and held the WWCS birthday picnic and WWCS Open Forum. Edward grew 6 inches and took some more one-on-one soccer lessons and started playing on the high school soccer team. Ethan finished first grade and read lots of chapter books. And I was able to write a ton of stories for the newspaper. We did manage to attend/host some picnics; light some fire pits; and make some s'mores. Stuart completely redid our main bathroom. High-five, Honey!

So all was not lost.

But I won't be lying when I say that I'm almost (almost) excited for school to begin so as to get back some of our routine.

*wink-grin*

How about you? Are you getting excited for the upcoming school year? Do you find that time is flying faster as you get older? Share your comments below! I'd love to know I'm not alone.

Many Musings on Monday

Happy Monday!  The second to last Monday in July.

Woohoo! Wowee! Sheesh!

Time is speeding along!

So we had a crazy-busy week last week. (Sometimes that's every week -- especially during the school year -- but this was a busy "late-night" week...followed by a busy weekend.

We signed the boys up for Vacation Bible School at our church. I really like the concept of VBS. It's a fun time for kids to get together and learn more about Jesus and the Bible. Doing it late at night (6 to 8:30) for five nights...not liking that so much. But both boys really enjoyed it, though for Ethan (and me) it was REALLY LOUD. The loudness stimulated him so that by the time we got home at 9 p.m., he was a really wired boy. We figured out ways of calming him on the way home -- soft music, Bear & Blankie, quiet stories, warm milk -- for the subsequent days.

Ethan felt very clingy, especially the first night, so I stayed with him for the whole week.  It was interesting to tag along with the PreK group as a end-of-the-line-wrangler-of-stray-kids. Hopefully, I was helpful?  I got to know the two leaders a little bit, and Ethan got to meet some of the kids he might be in Sunday School with.

Edward had a blast! He already goes to "Flight 56," which is his Sunday School, so most of the kids there were buddies already. We're glad to see him come out of himself. He was always so shy when he was younger. He still struggles sometimes with eye contact and feeling shy, but he's come a looooong way.

Emily continues to practice for her play, including every day last week. One of the lead actresses had to be replaced at the last minute due to getting really ill. That disheveled everything a little, but the cast seems to have righted itself and is back on track. They perform a week from this Friday and Sunday. I know that she's enjoying it, but I think Emi's ready for it to be finished.

Ethan had his "date" with my sister last Tuesday. She took him to Chuck E. Cheese for the morning. Again, he felt a little shy to stay by himself, but I tried to stay in the shadows and just take photos. He was hilarious!

We finished VBS on Thursday evening and followed it with a weekend celebrating the veterans of World War II. We manned the kids' games area. Since it was filled with re-enactors and there was a Big Band dance/concert later in the evening, we decided to get in on the fun. I'll end my musings for the day with some photos from last week.

Celebrating Emily's acceptance to the National Honor Society

Chuck E. Cheese with Aunt Sandy

Racing at VBS

World War II Days at Historic Joanna Furnace