Summer Weekend In The Midwest

This past weekend was everything I LOVE about the Midwest in Summer time(except the humidity, not that, it's never on my list).
It is probably what you would imagine a stereotypical summer in the Midwest in the country would be, and you'd probably be right.
There was a family reunion, fried chicken, homemade peach pie, lots of cousins(first, second, third), a barn, a pond, kittens, swimming, cornfields, a peach tree, a tractor parade... and the list goes on.

We had family visiting from Alabama so we got to reap the benefits of them being entertained by other family members and it was good.
I forgot what a peach tree smelled like in Summer and I am happy I was reminded over the weekend.
We picked a whole bag of peaches to take home and also ate them warm, right off the tree.

The kids swam in a pool surrounded by cornfields under blue skies and just a few puffy white clouds.
The adults sat and watched them swim and talked about family and passed down stories. Sometimes it doesn't matter how long it's been since you've seen family or if the kids have never met, there is definitely a natural connection there. That's a pretty cool thing.

This weekend will be on my list of favorite Summer memories I think.
Simple. Happy. Grateful.
Nothing spectacular, just a really good time with some of my favorite people.

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A Working Mama and her Summer Guilt

When you are not working(outside the home) Summer vacation is exciting and carefree and wide open and, let's be honest, often overwhelmingly long when you have kids home all Summer. 

I know that. 

But, when you are working and your kids are on Summer vacation it just goes way too fast, 

it's a little depressing and often guilt-filled, when you are the mom.

So last week I decided I was taking a day off of work and the kids and I were going to do something fun.  My idea of fun might have been laying in bed with a really good book all day and not getting out of my pajamas, but we really needed to get away from home and do something fun together.

Two things on our Summer List were to have a picnic at Allerton Park and go to the swimming pool where my sister lives and my niece works.
Luckily it was a hot, beautiful day and we got to wander around the park, have a picnic, pick up my nephew to go to the pool with us, swim for hours and then spend the night at my sister's.
For my kids, that is seriously like their DREAM day.

This park is beautiful, we love coming here, there is so much to see.
The sunken garden is one of my favorite spots and the kids find a million different things to climb on in there, naturally. Statues, flower gardens, koi fish pond, the mazes, the mansion... we definitely didn't see it all this time.

This was a really good day, the three of us had a lot of fun together and my mama guilt was eased, if only for a few days. Hey, I'll take it. 

I gave up on the illusion of the "perfect summer" and marking everything off of our Summer Lists a  long time ago... there are no perfect Summers or even perfect days and we always want the opposite situation from the one we are in. Or I do anyway... And I know I am not the only one.
If I am working I wish I wasn't, if I am home, the kids are driving me nuts and I am secretly dreaming of all of the jobs I could have that day...Usually jobs where arguing kids aren't allowed and I am not cleaning up anyone's mess but my own.

{Charlotte on the high dive, she said it was mortifying but she kept doing it anyway}

We don't get a lot of whole days like this and even if we did, all days are not like this, but man am I glad to have one every once in a while.
Watching them go off the high dive even when they are scared too, down the slide 50 times, hang out with their cousins, watching them being so nice and sweet and helpful to each other with no fighting and little threatening on my part. That is a damn good feeling.
Many days it's easy to feel like you are barely keeping it together, that you are surely ruining your kids. It's nice to have a day when you honestly feel like you aren't doing half bad and that yes, even though you are working and they aren't doing exactly what you wished they were doing every day...It's still okay.

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On Wednesday I got to tell the mama guilt to kiss my ass... what a nice feeling.

Happy Weekend!

Life Lately In Pictures

Hey there and Happy Friday!
This was a short work week for me as I was in Chicago on Monday but sometimes those weeks feel
the longest. And this one definitely did. Sunday I was in Chicago for the last Grateful Dead show and I will write a post about that next week when I have time to process it all....Oh, what a night. 

I am still without my Macbook so blogging is sporadic and all my pictures here are iPhone pictures. 

Booo. Since I have nowhere to upload my pictures I just haven't even been getting my Nikon out at all
and I really miss using my real camera.

Things have been too busy and weekends have been too full to figure out what I am doing with my laptop- also a part of that is straight up denial mixed with a little bit of fear.
There's a pretty good chance I lost everything on it and that it's going to cost an arm and a leg to fix.
Life as a grown up. Ughhhh. It kinda sucks really.

Life lately has been busy and full and RAINY. It literally seems to rain every single day, and I am not even kidding about that. This mama needs the sun and hot weather and to actually be able to get into the swimming pool.
It has been filled with; music, books, friends, rain, donuts, work, Minecraft(and more Minecraft...and then some more), road trips and cloudy gray skies.

We are all trying to hang in there and hope that the forecast for next week looks better than it has in the last few weeks. The thing about working is that I am able to feel less guilty when I get to do fun Summer-like things with the kids after work, like swimming and picnics and short road trips and water slides, and so on. This Fall-like weather is not helping my mama and it's it helping us mark anything off of our Summer List either.

Hope you all have a great weekend- and I hope it is not raining where you are!

THIS Is Summer

This is Summer when you are 8-years old.

Just roller skatin' around the 'hood in your bathing suit like it's no big deal. 

Because it's not when you are eight.
Stopping for a popsicle on the front porch, using the broom to help slow you down when
you're going down the hill, dodging your brother's Nerf gun bullets. 

Sigh. 

Hope you're enjoying these Summer days, too.

A Perfectly Dreamy Saturday Night

Oh, Saturday night... you did me right.

SO RIGHT.

If I could pick just a few of my favorite LITTLE things in life that just make me really HAPPY,  I 

Would include pretty much everything from the Hot Air Balloon Festival this weekend.

Honestly, the beautiful hot air balloons would be enough alone, but then there were the funnel cakes, lemon shake-ups and mini donuts.

The rides lit up at night, the Hot air balloons doing their light show at night.... all of it.

I'm pretty sure the cinnamon + sugar mini donuts are sent straight from heaven, by the way.

This night was so good and I'm glad it didn't disappoint because I had been looking 

Forward to it since we went last year.

Luckily I didn't have super high expectations though because when I do I am usually disappointed... which is just a silly thing we do to ourselves sometimes.

I considered riding the Tilt-A-Whirl for about a second before remembering I really
Didn't want to throw up my funnel cake- it was my supper and dessert.
This mama has developed herself a fairly weak stomach in my older age.
It's funny be cause I don't really enjoy the rides all that much but I love to see them.
And really  LOVE taking pictures of the rides and the carnival...  all of it.

The swings. AHHHH.... as if the swings aren't AWESOME enough...
The swings at night??
Seriously dreamy.
The sky was so pretty last night and a beautiful background for the balloon
and the rides both.
My kids loved the swings and even my boy who used to be really afraid of heights
rode the swings without hesitation and loved it.

I'm tucking these pictures and these memories away, thankful for a hot, sweet night
With my two favorite little people in the world.
There's really nothing better.


Hope you had a happy weekend.

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Screaming Summer

This. 

This right here is Summer to me. 

Funnel cakes and lemon shake-ups, the rides and the colors.

The lights at night, the slides at the Carnival, figuring out how to use your tickets... 

Slow down Summer, we are not quite ready to see you go yet... 

We still have quite a bit to do!

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Summer Snapshots :: Not Ready To Let Go

We just finished Week #3 of school.
We are in full school mode,  but... we can't quite let go of Summer just yet.
It has been in the high 90's all week and I'm guessing that has a whole lot to do with it.
Swimming and Popsicles and sprinklers are still just really necessary. Really necessary.

The other night we went swimming with friends in the evening after supper and then went back to their house to play and have Popsicles...
we didn't get home until the kid's bedtime.
BUT, homework was finished and they had just practically bathed in the swimming pool(right?!), so I thought; Why Not?
It still feels like Summer anyway.
And sometimes? You just have to throw your usual routines and rules out the window...
and I AM THE MOM, so I get to do that when I want. I do love that.

This past week has honestly been a bit too hot for me- like super humid + suffocating- but I am trying to enjoy the last little bit of this hot, Summer
weather because before we know it I will be doing some serious complaining about the cold weather and lack of sunlight.
I know this.
I am so bad about remembering to stop and enjoy all the seasons(even Winter), knowing that they are in fact, only temporary.

Hope you all have a great weekend...and for those of you here in the States, an awesome, long Holiday weekend. 
We are headed to the cabin tomorrow with the whole family-- wish me luck that we don't all melt and this mama doesn't completely lose it.

HAPPY WEEKEND!