What? Schools Out!

Uhhgggg.  Summer break is upon us and boy am I not prepared.  I am not ready for my seven hours of solitude during which I work out whatever I have planned for the day to end, just like that, in a puff of smoke.  Usually I am better prepared, and the entire last week of school is treated as my last hurrah during which I do my housework, lunch with friends, roam the local bookstore, and sip my coffee uninterrupted, well mostly uninterrupted on the front porch.  I really am pitiful, I never would have made it as a homeschooling mother.

This year, during the last week of school my time was spent doing all the things that take place for the graduating seniors.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not begrudging my senior her last week of high school and all the functions that we, as parents get to share with them, I'm whining about the fact that I didn't do my annual shoveling out of Abby's room before she was out of school for the summer.  This task is best done while she is not on the premises.

I'm bellyaching about the fact that now I will have to acclimate myself to people being in the house with me again during the day.   I'm sad about the disappearing of the wonderful silence where there are no TV's playing.   Gone will be the joy of having all phone extensions remaining on the hook to charge and being ready and available when you need them, or the satisfaction of  once  a room is cleaned,  it remaining that way until the other residents of this nut house arrive home at the end of the day.  Pitiful isn't it?

My days will now shift to include the kids out on the porch in the mornings with me, I wouldn't give anything for the conversations that have been had out there or all the ones to come.  I have found the best conversations with the girls happen either out on that porch or on drives in the car.  I look forward to the topics this summer will bring.

Alex has a job lined up so that should get her out of the house.  Instead of her wanting us to fund her activities, I look forward to her enjoying the feeling of  a job well done and the reward of financial independence as a result of it.

All I need to do now is figure out how to keep Abby occupied.  I wonder if I can employ the same tactics my own mother used on us?  You know, send her out to play and dare her to even think about coming in and dirtying the house.   I think I even remember my mom locking the screen door to keep us from slamming it, or was it to keep us out of her hair?

That could backfire on me since Abby is my adventuresome one.  A little while back, when she had a friend over to spend the night, I looked out the window in time to see her and her guest putting on helmet's as they climbed a tree to test out the zip line they had rigged up.  I better just suck it up instead and crack the whip in the picking up after oneself department.
Well, tomorrow is the first day of the rest of summer vacation, so wish