Welcome to the Back Half of the Year!

Uh, yeah. This year's half-over already!

I did a little review of June this morning in my paper planner and, I gotta say, it was a fast month! One of the things I wrote down as a "win" was this: Being more open to "yes." I haven't mastered that, not by a long shot, but there were a few examples. 

• On a random weekday, Kate asked if her friend Anna could come over to hang out. I would be working a full day at home that day AND we had an orthodontist appointment. But I said yes. Thankfully there was no additional driving for me, so I let her do it, even though it required a bit of set-up and a lunch out that I hadn't planned. 
• When she forgot a critical bag for her trip to Kentucky (stupid of ME, actually), I said yes to fixing it by overnighting the bag to her. Never mind it cost me $160. Never mind she'd only be there for 4 days. We live in the 21st century and things can be overnighted, so I did it. To make her happy.
• When Alex asked to have the whole clarinets section over the DAY BEFORE we left for vacation, during a busy work-week... I let him. He handled most of the setup (all I had to do was make one extra trip to the grocery store and hand him some serving bowls). It helped that he didn't ask me permission for the backyard activity of water balloons, because I might NOT have said yes to that... but actually he and his friends and his sister cleaned ALL of the pieces up meticulously afterwards. 

So even though it kinda makes me feel scattered and unplanned in the moment, saying yes was a good thing about June. :) 

Today I did something else rather spontaneous. I have been harping on Alex to work on his college planning, and he has been, slowly but surely. We set some deadlines for ourselves (him). I really do want him to take the lead but it is like pulling teeth. Anyway, this week he was supposed to start scheduling some campus tours. He asked me last night how, exactly, to do that, and I explained it to him (go to the school's website, look for an "Admissions" or "Visit" link, click it...) The fact that he asked that question made me think mayyyyyybe I need to just go ahead and get more involved. Which.... argh. But whatever. So today I hopped onto one of the websites for a local university, one of his top 6 choices, just to see if what I'd advised him was as EASY as I thought it should be. It was. I clicked "campus visit" and noticed they only had availability TOMORROW for a guided tour -- nothing in August. So I booked it. I asked him first, but good gravy, that was close. I think if we'd waited one more day we'd have had to wait until November. So at lunchtime tomorrow we'll be on a guided college tour! Yay!

Maybe there will be more Yes for the rest of 2021. I mean, I guess that will be up to me and my mindset. "Can-do" attitude goes a long way for motivation, I guess. Fake it 'til you make it. Yes, and.