I survived the first week of summer! I not only survived it, I actually enjoyed it! Believe it or not, I’m actually a little sad about summer school starting up Monday and going back to a rigid daily schedule. It’s only been a week, but I’m already all about the lazy days and never needing to be anywhere at any certain time. It’s nice. I think if this week is any indicator of how July and August will play out, summer might genuinely be enjoyable! The only real problems I’ve encountered so far is that 1 – my kids want to be outside with their friends EVERY WAKING MINUTE. Which has been a bit of an issue when I want or need them to do something else, or if their friends aren’t available and they suddenly think their lives are over. And 2 – they want to eat allllllll the time. Like ten meals a day. I can’t believe how much food we’ve gone through this week. But other than that – good week.
Sunday was fun because we went to Milwaukee to visit Hudson! And Timmy and Brittany. But mostly Hudson. 🙂 We almost never go to Milwaukee, so it was exciting to do something different. Plus it’d been two months since I had last seen Hudson and it needed to happen. He’s gotten so much bigger! He can crawl! He has lots of teeth!
It was a cooler day – but perfect for going to the big park near their house for awhile and later going down to the beach. Uncle Timmy and Caden and Shepard spent at least an hour skipping stones into the water.
I wanted to get a cute cousin picture by the water. Hudson was not having it!
We had an ice cream treat at Northpoint near the beach.
And we headed home by late afternoon. It was a really fun day! I hope we can have at least another one or two Milwaukee trips before the summer is over.
On Monday I was determined to get as much done as possible. I’m not sure how well I’ll follow through on it, but I was thinking it would be nice to front load our weeks with errands and chores and then by the end of the week we can justify being lazy. Again, this won’t really happen until after summer school is over in a month. But it feels like a good plan to me.
I was up early, like always, so I started Monday by cleaning out the fridge! Check another job off my summer goals! Then we headed out on a THREE store errand run. I haven’t even done that on my own yet after BA, let alone with kids! But shockingly, they were great! They’ve NEVER been great in stores. EVER. I let them pick out a snack or two at each place and they were just happily walking along and playing some sort of pretend game with each other. It worked out so well. I was dead tired by the end, but they helped me bring all the groceries in and it was great!
On Monday night I met my friends at the new brewery that just opened in town. It was such a beautiful place! Their menu is currently limited to soft pretzels and pizzas. I thought my pretzel and beer cheese were delicious. And it was just really great to catch up with friends. We don’t get to see each other often enough!
Greg took Tuesday off work to take the boys to see Avengers, but Shepard decided he wasn’t interested. So Greg and Caden left to the movie and Shepard was stuck with me going to PT. I’m continuing to do pretty well – just working on balance stuff, mostly. Though this week she asked me to stand on my tip toes, right foot only. I couldn’t do it to save my life. SO WEAK. But my therapist agreed that I can be done at the end of the month after my last scheduled session. So just three more weeks! After therapy, Shepard had to go with me to Kohls to return items and we stopped at my mom’s to drop some stuff off. Greg brought me back a late lunch from Chipotle. It was a yummy week.
I spent a lot of time working this week. Probably too much time. Starting at 5am and ending at 9pm really isn’t the kind of schedule I’d like to keep over summer. But it was a good boost of sales and attention. I love how these rainbow dolls turned out. They all sold immediately.
Wednesday was kind of a bummer day. We had big plans to go to this dog park in Stoughton and I never really paid attention to the weather. By the time we got to Sun Prairie it was full blown storming with no light in sight. I was pretty mad we spent the whole morning preparing for it and then drove 45 minutes with Annie only to turn around and come back home. Such a waste! I tried to take a nap in the afternoon, but that was a bust too. Napping does not go over so well with kids constantly waking me up.
I’ve been trying to perk myself up with a second cup of coffee every day, but it doesn’t do a whole lot.
Of course the weather got a lot better in the afternoon, but by then the boys were off with their friends. I took Annie to the Columbus dog park in the evening to make up for it. I’m finding it a little ironic how when the weather was still crummy, everyone was making much more effort to get her exercised. Not that the weather is nice she’s kind of been neglected! Now that I know I’m capable of taking her to the dog park I need to step up and start going more often. And make Greg take her with on all their Pokemon walks they’ve been going on lately.
Thursday was going to be my biggest work day, but allergies were just killing me. Plus the pace I’ve been going the last few days caught up to me. Even Shepard was exhausted. I was thinking he might have seasonal allergies too, though I just remember we had him tested after we got Annie last year and he’s not allergic to anything. So…he was just tired. He was laying and staring all morning and eventually went back up to bed on his own! This is normally a surefire sign he’s going to throw up, but he actually woke up fine. Whew!
Thursday was also my father-in-law Steve’s birthday, so he picked us up in the afternoon and we had dinner at Nitty Gritty. My meal was fantastic!
We went to a park afterward for dessert and presents. Happy birthday, Steve!
Friday was our park re-do day. My mom was able to come with us and we piled into the car. Annie gets so excited and insists on looking out the windows, even though that means very awkwardly sitting on kid laps!
Or in this case, the armrest of Shepard’s carseat!
Annoyingly, it once again started raining on our drive to Stoughton! Such bad luck!! But the skies were brighter so we powered through. I’m really glad we did because Viking Dog Park was amazing! An enormous field and wooded park right next to the river, with two beach access areas for the dogs. It drizzled off and on, but it was such a beautiful place none of us minded. It continues to amaze me how many awesome dog parks are in the Madison area! I’m hoping to tick off five new ones this summer, so here was number one!
Annie and the boys loved the water! It was so fun to watch how much more comfortable Annie got every time she went in. She kept swimming downstream after birds until we couldn’t see her anymore. We’d call to her and she’d paddle her way back. It was really cute. I want to check out more parks, but I’m definitely going to make a point of going back to this one! We had a picnic in the actual park next to the dog area afterward.
And because Greg was working at home, I FINALLY got a nap when we got home. 🙂
I finished the week by taking the morning for myself. I headed out to the farmer’s market bright and early. It’s amazing that only a month ago I had to take the whole family with me so Greg could drop me off closer, I had a crutch, I could barely make it around the square, and I couldn’t carry anything. Today I did it all on my own! My foot was really sore for some reason, but my ankle felt good. I actually did so much grass walking yesterday too, which is what I’ve been struggling with the most. I love feeling myself get stronger every day! I’m getting a bit less paranoid too. I think I’ll be good to go with walking the boys to summer school every day!
Anyway – farmer’s market! I tried not to go too crazy on treats this time. A morning bun for my breakfast, some ciabatta rolls for tomorrow, beef sticks for Caden, radishes and asparagus. I rewarded my market walking accomplishment by going to Trader Joe’s next. Then HyVee, TJMaxx, and finished it all off with Target and a Starbucks Triple Mocha Frappuccino. It was SO GOOD. My leg was beat after all that, but it was worth it. I love feeling like I’m really getting my life back!
And that was the week! It went much better than expected. Everyone got along pretty well. It definitely helps the boys spend a lot of time with their friends outside, so they’re not constantly in my hair and fighting with each other. It’s good that I have so much work always waiting for me because I’m happier when I’m busy. But it’s nice to just take a day totally off to read and rest too. Especially during this HORRIFIC allergy season. I try my best to just ignore the fact I want to rip my eyes, my nose, my ears, and my head off. But…it’s kind of infuriating, to say the least. Alas, I will make it through because I always do. 🙂
Hope you had a good week as well! More tomorrow!
