Hooray!!
My last student day was Wednesday (lots of crying; I've had these babies since third grade) and we finished up our two teacher work days yesterday.
Unfortunately Eleanor is not done until next Thursday, so my real vacation starts then and I get to be a stay-at-home-mom until mid-August.
We have lots of adventures planned, mostly revolving around home.
Grandpa's celebration of life will be in June and I am not at all ready for this. I have so many memories that I hardly know where to start. I've been writing and rewriting and rewriting what I'm going to say and I still don't have the words to properly explain how fiercely he loved me and how I will never get over losing my first and best best friend.
We will be home with family for a good chunk of summer and have two concerts in that time - Louis Tomlinson in Minneapolis and then a week later in Chicago. One of my favorite Louis songs is called Chicago. So, yes, we got tickets to the Chicago show to hear him sing Chicago in Chicago, because of course he will even though it isn't on the tour set list.
Then in July, I will officially have a teenager. Eleanor will be thirteen and my brain cannot comprehend this. Like, what do you mean that the tiny human Mom and I brought home from the hospital is this whole person now (minus a fully developed prefrontal cortex)??? I am so proud of this child of mine and even though the road leading to her was bumpy, I would not change a single thing. I would do it all over again just so we could find each other, and I hope we have found each other in every lifetime, in every universe.
I originally created my Spring Reading/Blogging Challenge because I had taken that massive hiatus after Grandpa passed and I was in no frame of mind to do anything remotely functional. I am debating between revamping it to include summer goals and make it one big challenge, or leaving them as two different entities. I'll make that decision next week though, because all I am doing the next couple days while Eleanor has to be at her father's is reading and relaxing.
What summer plans do you have?
Happy Reading!
Sarah
Sarah
Yeah for Summer, Freedom & Family! Have LOTS of FUN.
ReplyDeleteWe are ready for it!! We have lots of projects planned, on top of all of the above-mentioned things - she's turning into quite the little gardener, and we're painting bookshelves and re-doing her room - it's a lot and it will go by too fast but we will enjoy every second that we can!
DeleteHooray! We still have a whole month of school left but I am looking forward to no alarms, no extra circulars.. Not sure of our plans yet but we will be seeing a lot of family for sure.
ReplyDeleteThat's so long!! When does your school system start in the fall? Eleanor and I LOVE deleting our alarms and sleeping as long as we want. I can't wait to see what adventures you find this summer!!
DeleteHappy Summer! I selfishly look forward to this time each year because I know it means more reading and reviews from you haha.
ReplyDeleteI hope you're able to enjoy all the time with your family, even under the sad circumstances. And I also refuse to believe she's turning 13!
YES!! I also look forward to it, lol. I have a bunch of reviews started so hopefully will get them finished and posted starting this week. My ARCs are out of control and I am a mess, but it is the best kind of mess because it involves books. We also have some projects to work on - Eleanor is planting a little garden on our deck. She wants to sell flowers and fruits and veggies to help pay for her DC/NYC trip next summer. We are also going to be painting some bookshelves and redoing her room. All of the One Direction and Taylor and Olivia posters are on the way out, I fear. She still loves their music, but now she also loves Outer Banks and the beach and that's the theme she's going for.
DeleteBeing with family will be so good, even if it makes me sad. Being far from home, it gets easy to pretend everyone else is home together in Minnesota and nothing has changed. But when we go home, and are together with everyone else but Grandpa is missing, it just sends me over the edge because the illusion is shattered.
The whole turning thirteen thing is very hard to accept. Like, what do you mean she's going into her last year of middle school?!?!
I love the flower idea! I got a wild idea this spring to create a massive flowerbed in my backyard. I just woke up one morning and started digging! Several weeks, trips to local nurseries, and multiple "why did I decide to do this" moments later, and I have a little over 100 feet of flowerbed running along my back and side fence.
DeleteThat's wonderful! Sometimes you just have to go for it, and create the vision as you go. I am not a green thumb at all, but ti was fun to sit on the deck with Eleanor and plant things. She and my mom love to garden so they started out a couple weeks ago and this weekend Eleanor and I added more. I don't have much hope for the sweet corn, but I think we will get some cucumbers and peppers. Some pretty flowers too, and a tiny little mint plant has finally just started poking up out of the dirt after three weeks.
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