FINALLY, school is over in this house! It seemed to drag on this week -- especially because one kid was finished with his last exam on Wednesday morning, but the other kid had 2 more days to go. But today as of noon, they are both officially on summer vacation, woo hoo!
I can feel palpable relief in the air. Kate said, "RIP my bedtime!" with glee. (Me: "I... hope you won't stay up 'til 3 a.m. every night....?" Her: (stares blankly at me). Teenagers.
This morning Shawn asked me to water the backyard with our sprinkler (not an installed system, just the old-school revolving one at the end of a hose), and even that felt kind-of like summer fun, getting wet but not minding, when I moved it every half-hour. :)
At 2:00 p.m. I will drive her over to CVS to get her first dose of the vaccine! And THEN we will get some double-celebratory ice cream.
In the next 2 summer months, I'm looking forward to:
Popsicles
Quiet mornings while they sleep in
More grilling and maybe even patio dinners
Enjoying our backyard and my flowers (and tomatoes - looks like so far we're going to have a great crop from our one plant!)
Fruit: Strawberries, melon, cherries
Maybe a rewatch of Mrs. Maisel, which was My Show last summer and is just so fun
Pedicures
Maybe some new clothes for myself - I spend so much time thinking about clothes for the kids
A little bit of sun on my legs, face
Going in to my office more (HA! Just a little joke!)
Do you remember when May was SO busy we couldn't see straight? End of year parties, weddings, graduations, Mother's Day, Memorial Day, packing for camp, recitals, awards receptions... Aside from the weather, I used to almost dread May.
Last year, of course, we didn't have any of it. I mean, people still graduated, but it feels like everything else was just skipped, and that was fine by me. I noticed that I only have one post from last May, and it was on a day when I was furloughed and the kids basically slept in and then did their assignments on their own schedules. Kind-of weird to think about it now, really. My company's business has picked up pretty well since then, and of course the kids are now IN school, and winding down to their last 10 days or so.
With the vaccines and the new mask guidance (which, yikes... a little premature imho), everything's coming back. We're grateful, right? Yes, of course. It is right and good and thank Science.
And it's also pretty overwhelming.
I did get voted in to the Band Boosters Board, and have since had 1 Zoom meeting and 2 in-person obligations (Kickoff Weekend), and I LOVE IT, but wow: I'd forgotten.
Having to wash my hair and finish my coffee to be somewhere at 9:00 am on a Saturday is new!
It probably follows that work will gear back up, too, and I'll have to commit to going to the office more days per week again. I wonder how long it will be until I'm asked to travel? Ugh. Conferences, site visits, global meetings....? How will those factor in to my volunteer schedule, haha... oh dear...?
I am having trouble scheduling Kate's first vaccine, because her June is so packed full of camp and other activities already, that scheduling the 3-weeks-later dose is hard! But we will get there. (At least one conflict is our beach vacation.)
It's going to be GREAT. I am going to do FINE on the board, they are going to be glad they have me and things will fall into place. This is what I keep telling myself. And even when St Joe's Drama Club comes back in full force and Mrs. M. starts sending me requests to be the Business Manager (I kind-of already am), I can do that, too. It will all work out. Positive Attitude will Make It So. You need something done? Ask a busy person. It is going to be FUN, after a year of NOT FUN (or, a year to enjoy the quiet, at-home bliss...).
'21-22 is our year of having an 8th grader, who graduates, and a high school senior! Oh, the places they'll go! Will we have 2 graduation parties? I'm thinking yes, probably... and what about a wedding in the family next year (my sister)?! When and how?! Well, I can't get ahead of myself there. Just roll with it, and keep eyes open to try to ENJOY everything. Yes, that's the ticket. Happy, proud and thrilled.
- - - - - -
And what have we been eating lately? I don't know how I got out of the habit of sharing that here -- I still love reading people's menus on other blogs -- but maybe mine just don't seem that interesting to me. (Of course not, duh.) I can't see NOT planning my menu and thus my grocery list, but gosh, am I tired of it. Even after creating a spreadsheet of all the meals I can remember, so I could literally just highlight 6 meals and the week would be decided.
Anyway, I've been sick of it, but have PERSEVERED. This week, we are planning the following for dinners:
Sunday - Salisbury Steak with egg noodles, and steamed green beans. This recipe is so tried-and-true, and everyone in the family likes it. I made extra and we still didn't have any leftover. I highly recommend you double the sauce. It's good over mashed potatoes, too, but very rich.
Monday - Chicken Piccata. My kids have never tried this and I've never made it, but it does not look that difficult. And I love it, I order it at restaurants sometimes. I am also making a very fancy packet of Lipton/Knorr Parmesan noodles to go with it, and probably a salad. I seem to have lots of lettuce and cabbage at the moment.
Tuesday - Make Your Own Pizza (Flatbreads).
Wednesday - My parents will be here! Their first visit in more than a year (SOB)! So I'm planning on Bulgogi Pork Tenderloin, Jasmine Rice, and broccoli. Hope I can get the timing right. (If not, we'll keep eating happy hour cheese and crackers, I'm sure. I have been somewhat resisting cheese, [except for the Rotel dip I made last week, oops] and so I'm pretty excited about this.)
Thursday - I slotted in a takeout night for ease of mind, but it's possible we'll think of something to cook. My Dad always suggests meatloaf, which I find funny. I don't get very excited about meatloaf.
Friday - BBQ Ribs. We've made them a few times this year and have found a good recipe, which I like so much I wrote down in my recipe book, and for which I then promptly lost the link. But they use a dry rub, cook in the oven for 2.5 hours at 250, and then you grill them for 5 minutes. They're perfect. I'm making corn, plus corn casserole, plus maybe baked beans to go with them.
Howdy-do. Today I must rewrite a few articles for our company's website. Ehhhh, I'm not feeling it yet.
We had a busy weekend -- it felt like pre-pandemic times, honestly.
We went out on a Friday night! Kate's bestie from summer camp was in a play, so we drove across town to see her. It was Once Upon a Mattress, which is a favorite musical of mine from loooong ago. I saw it in, hmmm, probably 1988 or so, in Pensacola. This one was a middle school production but was HIGH quality. They are lucky to have such a nice stage, and sets and lighting and costumes. Made our little program at St. Joe's seem a bit more amateur than usual, but hey, you work with what you've got. Creating something from nothing is part of the fun of theater. Anyway, the show was wonderful and Kate's friend was the lead!
Saturday morning, we had somewhere to be at 9:00 am! It was pick-up day for the marching band plant sale. May 1 seems LATE for delivering plants in GA, as mentioned earlier on this blog, but it worked out well because it was a good day to be out in the yard planting. I even got slightly sunburned. Now my yard looks happier and I am, too. I've finally learned that planting/tending annuals isn't a chore; instead, it makes me happy. Puttering around in the dirt, adding color -- even deadheading ALL the pansies I ended up with. I'm not an expert or a green thumb, and maybe it makes me an old lady (along with my bird-watching habit, ha!) ...but I guess I don't care. Nataly Kogan talks a lot about doing things that bring you joy, and I'm always trying to FIND those things.
THEN, friends: Alex went to prom! He and several of his friends, all girls, had made plans. One is his girlfriend (green dress), although we don't talk very much about it. ;) They had a photoshoot with all of us moms at the nearest botanical garden, which is where we got all these pics. They were driven by 2 moms, and driven home by the girlfriend's dad (!), and I'm told it was a happy evening. As it should be. I'm so glad he got to go. (There were masks "encouraged," but he said no one really wore them inside the venue. :/ Not surprising, but at least he's half-vaccinated, and I assume a lot of the kids are.)
Looking so dapper. His first real suit, his first pocket square that I didn't know how in the heck to fold. I was in a hurry when I Googled it.
My favorite photo of the afternoon. These kids were so good to us, letting us walk them all over the park to find picturesque spots.
Really loved her dress and how his grey/navy complemented it. She was wearing heels -- they are just about the same height in normal clothes.
All us moms-turned-photography-experts love how this one turned out.
After all that (plus Kate spent the night with a friend, as well, AND Shawn and I painted the garage!!), we were POOPED, but happy. And gosh, what a glimpse into how it's going to be as we all start returning to life as we knew it. My 2nd vaccine happens tomorrow, and then Shawn's and Alex's next week, and they're about to OK it for ages 12-15, which means Kate will be eligible at last.
Do I want this level of activity every weekend? NO. But do I want back the option? YES, INDEEDY.
