Playing Catch Up

Preamble: I want to say thank you to those of you who sent supportive comments and emails my way in response to my last blog post. One thing I have learned in my past 4+ years of blogging is this: when it comes to my blog I just can’t win— if I post too much of the ‘good/happy,’ then people are all over me for being “too positive” (they accuse me of lying, sugar-coating, superficially-thinking), and if I post too much (or, in my case basically any) of the ‘bad/sad,’ then people are all over me for being “too negative” (they accuse me of whining, not appreciating how good I have it, too-deeply-thinking). I just can’t win. It is frustrating. But for some reason (not entirely clear to me), I feel compelled to keep on going with this old blog, and so, at least for now, I do.

Although, at times – like the past several days – I just don’t have it in me to blog. We’re spiraling forward at mock speed right now at the J-M household. This post will be an attempt to play a tiny bit of catch-up, but it will barely scrape the surface of everything going on around here. Here goes…

Hurricane Irene came and went, and we were lucky that we got through it with relative ease. A (probably the) highlight of the hurricane for us: we taught K & O to play Uno, and during Meera’s naps the four of us played many rounds together. My 39th birthday also came and went, and we were lucky that we got through that with relative ease too. This picture (below) is just perfection as far as I’m concerned; I think it perfectly depicts my life right now as I turn the corner of my 39th year— it is like a perfect visual summation of my entire being at this particular moment of my life. And here’s the truth: I have yet to look at this picture without having a smile creep across my face. Because, the honest truth is, deep down inside I know that what this picture represents is exactly as it should be. For right now it is perfectly right that I be smack dab behind my bambinos. And that’s where I am. Behind them. Even as they blow the candles out on my cake (and then each eat a sugar-frosting carrot off the top). (For the record: they opened my presents for me too— including the presents that they gave me. Also for the record: and I wouldn’t want it any other way.)

For my birthday Kyle and Owen gave me what truly is one of the best gifts I’ve ever received. It is a book that they made with Ryan. They’ve been working on it together for a couple of weeks, and seriously— it is a masterpiece. It is a book that tells my life story up to my 39th year. It is packed with information about me, and I was (and still am) absolutely stunned by how well my boys know me and how much they know about me. The gift touched me so deeply and I was/am in awe of them for doing it for me (and Ryan for helping them do it).

My other favorite birthday gift was from Meera— on my birthday I asked her, and she agreed (as a gift to me—no joke!), to wear overalls and a t-shirt. This is huge and I cannot express how cute I think she is in overalls—and how much I wish she’d wear stuff like this more often. For now I’m just basking in the glory of a once-every-39-years chance to see my girl in an outfit of entirely my choosing.    😉

The big news is that I’ve officially determined that the bambinos are sufficiently bored with summer. This was my goal of course: that their summer be such that by the end they are sufficiently bored with it. Goal achieved. I am a big believer in the idea that boredom breeds imagination. It is when “water workshops” and “long runways” start showing up around here that I know we’re in good shape.

The bambinos have had a good summer. They’ve had just the right amount of structured activities to anchor the huge amounts of free/unstructured time that we’ve purposefully planned in. Standing here, at the last week of our summer, I can confidently say that they are all summered out. In the best possible way.

They’ve had a summer’s worth of “iced chocolate milk”…

and at least a whole summer’s worth of tree climbing…

…plenty of time to just sit around, occupying themselves, playing, and playing and playing and playing…

…and more than their fair share of summer eating (I am soooo summered out of their summer eating—the non-stop “I’m hungry” seems to increase exponentially in the summer and I’m so tired of the extensive food production). At the same time, I’m sure there will be a day not too far in the future when I’ll be missing these days of platter-making (I make these platters at least a few times a week for them and each and every time they get excited and thank me profusely). 

  

Bottom line: they are ready for school to start. All three of them. All five of us actually. We are counting down the days now. It is exactly as it should be as far as I’m concerned— summer should run so deep that we are just chomping at the bit for school to start at the end of it. Even still, it is only right that we try to squeeze the last bits of what we can out of these last days of summertime. Trips for ice cream. Whole days in bathing suits. Staying up late to watch the Red Sox. Seriously… this is what gloriously sumptuous summers should be like. I’m so grateful that we can find ways to give our kids a taste of it.

[Photo above taken just a couple of minutes ago—the boys up late watching Red Sox vs. Yankees at Fenway Park. Folding laundry. All three of them. A sight to behold.]

And so, here we are, on the verge of another school year winding right up, trying our hardest to wind down our summer in a way that does it justice.

“To see the Summer Sky
Is Poetry, though never in a Book it lie –
True Poems flee.”
~Emily Dickinson