As July came to an end, I started to get a little claustrophobic at the amount of things on my list that hadn't been accomplished. (For all of you reading this who are not type A people, I know that's not necessarily something with which you can identify. But, it's a fact of life for those of us who are type A.) As I pondered how it was possible that I had 8 weeks free from work and still didn't get everything done, I made a list of the things that we did do this summer. Mainly for me to help myself see how we spent out time, and sadly I guess to make me realize that those days of freedom weren't wasted.
After I made the list, I felt a little better. And slightly more neurotic. I will expound about some of the personal lessons I learned over summer break in another post, but one of the primary lessons (that I am constantly learning) is to be content and live each day - each moment - as it comes. Sometimes that "to-do" list needs to wait. Actually, MUST wait. I readily admitted that I am type A, so that's not an easy task. But type A
Since this blog is both a scrapbook of sorts for me, and a way to communicate with friends and family, I am sharing a snapshot of our summer break. I am including some pictures of some of my more fun "projects", and some were too boring to even acknowledge (such as the picture I didn't take for you of my super organized bathroom cabinets). It was a magnificent summer!
June
--Spent a week in Grayton Beach with Tootsie, Pop, BB, and Turner
--Came back from beach, started the week as VBS teacher's lounge food coordinator.
--Left mid-week of VBS for summer trip to Louisiana to see Granny and Grandpa.
--Spent four days of the last two weeks in June at workshops and school related obligations.
--Also during those last two weeks of June, I visited the dentist twice and the optometrist once. Why I wait till summer to do those things I will never know...
--Attended 5 of 6 Camp War Eagle pep rallies so we could see Daddy. And Aubie. Mainly Daddy.
July
--We started July off with an overnight trip to Birmingham with Mark - we visited BB and Matt, went to the McWane Center, and Turner enjoyed staying in her first hotel.
--Three days later both sets of grandparents joined us for a weekend trip to Atlanta to visit the Georgia Aquarium. They all returned to spend July 4th with us here in Auburn - complete with fireworks, watermelons, and homemade icecream. (Or icemilk as it were...since some bright individual forgot to put the dasher in the container before we turned it on. Thank you Pop and Grandpa for working so hard to try to get that stuff to freeze! I. Am. A. Dork.)
--After the weekend of the 4th, Mark starts the busy homestretch of two more Camp War Eagles (and we attend two more pep rallies), aiming to finish the summer strong. Just as he gets busy...life finally slows down for me a little bit with 4 solid weeks of no official plans before school starts! (Well, other than hosting the CWE party at my house, visiting friends at the lake, etc.)
--And oh by the way...the other musician at our church (who has served faithfully as our church pianist for 15 years) resigned. On July 11th, I became the full time pianist. The amount of time I spend there didn't increase, but the amount of individual practice time weekly certainly did.
--In all my "free time", I start working on some of my projects:
Project 1: Recovering my patio cushions. Previously 7 years old, covered in mildew. Mom brought the fabric to me and I sewed these new cushions and it made a world of difference!
Project 2: Painting the custom built shelf that my team member Russ made for me and reorganizing and sort of "decorating" our back grilling porch. I cannot even explain how much more I love this area now! I also recovered those cushions and the lamp shade to match.
And while I wouldn't normally air out all the "business" on the inside of a cabinet...please realize that I asked Russ to build this shelf for me because all this stuff was laying out on the back porch! Totally unorganized and the clutter made me a nut! This shelf is exactly what I wanted! (Isn't that a sweet radio/tape player on the top?)
Project 3: Both of these next two projects were started at one point in time, and finished at a much later point in time. But I had to share them because I am so proud of how they turned out! First, I saw a skirt like this at the Syrup Sop a few years back and just knew I could re-create it. I also have been working on using my sewing machine (not an embroidery machine) to applique and though I am still not a pro, I have made a few things for Turner that I like. This will be her outfit for Saturday's game in Starkville!
And second, some letters for Melissa and Matt's nursery - we are so happy to have Cooper home! :)
In addition to the projects listed above I/we:
--transitioned Turner from her crib and baby room into a big girl room (and with that comes completely new bedding, moving Turner's letters like the ones above 8 inches to the right to center over the new bed, etc.)
--cleaned out and organized almost every cabinet and drawer in my house
--reorganized our "office/sewing/craft" room into a much more manageable space, including a complete overhaul of our personal filing system
And in-between all of these fun projects, Turner and I spent a whole lot of our morning time at the neighborhood pool, some of our afternoons at FrogLegs (I highly recommend the summer pass), and pretty much anytime we wanted shopping at the mall or Target.
We spent a lot of time with Mrs. Norma - my 77 year old good friend who Turner honestly believes is another grandmother that lives here in Auburn.
We spent a lot of time drawing, coloring, painting with water colors, and falling in love with "The Berenstain Bears" (which thrills both Mark and me since these books were some of our most beloved from our childhood).
We capped off the summer with a fun, family trip to Gulf Shores. I needed that one more time to get my toes in the sand, sun on my legs, and salt water in my eyes. One more time to savor the freedom that comes with summer break. One more time to just spend time with Mark and Turner - with nothing getting in the way.
Did I mark off everything on my list? No.
Does it matter? No.
It was a magnificent summer.
"This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24
1 comment:
Sounds like a wonderful summer!! I am very impressed by the projects. This is just the post I needed to read before this type A heads to Disney with a 2 year old. We won't be able to do it all but that isn't really the point, is it?
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