First Week of Summer = Success

The first full week of summer was a good mix of work, play, and relaxing.  I'd love to pull my house back into order.  I tend to have more energy and motivation early in the day, so I got to work on Tuesday morning in the kitchen.

Stuff everywhere. Hate the build up of stuff.

The counter on the left side of the photo is my nemesis.  It feels like no matter what I do, I can't keep it clear.  It's the flat surface where things go to die.

It's where stuff gets stacked when we don't know what else to do with it.  It's where stuff goes when we are too lazy to put stuff away.  I HATE this counter.  I love it when it's clean and clear, but mostly I HATE it.

This is kind of a silly one, but I like to keep the top of the refrigerator clear.  But inevitably, that's where cereal goes.  At that moment, that's the only place for cereal, because I haven't cleaned out the pantry in a while.  That needs to be done as well.

Funny enough, these are all clean dishes.  And utensils. And bread. And the toaster.  It's another one of those counters.

How this counter looks when Hudson doesn't take the recycles out.

And now for the results of my efforts on Tuesday morning.

Not perfect, but definite improvement.  We all function better in an organized space, so we'll see just how long I can maintain this!

First day of vacation and I was in full "mom" mode making grilled cheese for lunch.  I like how Buddy is hanging on the back of the couch watching Evan.

We have season passes to Wild Water Adventures this summer, so I took the kids on Wednesday afternoon.  It was pretty hot that day.  I get in the water, but I'm not really one for sliding anymore.  It hurts my body!  I was pretty content to lie in the shade with a magazine.  There are far worse ways to spend a summer day!

Evan forgot to take out the trash, so he drew an apology for his dad on the whiteboard.

This kid drives us crazy with his clothing choices.  It's 106 out, and he comes out of his room wearing a sweatshirt.  Good grief.  And in the winter, he chooses shorts.  He told me that he just wanted to be comfortable.

We visited Grandma on Thursday but forgot to take any pictures.  However, we had a good day in Chowchilla.

Eric was off on Friday, and we went to Wild Water as a family.  This was a huge non-scale victory for Eric.  He has never been to a water park in his life, and prior to this summer, he did not feel comfortable being in a bathing suit or swimming in public.  Not this summer!  This summer he is swimming, sliding, and playing with the boys at the water park!

It's crazy to think that even more than a year after Eric's surgery, he is still experiencing new things that his new body now allows him to do!  It has completely changed our family, and I will be forever grateful for his courage to take this step in reclaiming his health.

We got up early to go for a bike ride on Saturday morning, but Eric's tire had a bubble in it.  So he and I went yardsale hunting instead.  I'm looking for items to use in my classroom remodel.

Up early on a Saturday morning prowling the neighborhood for deals!

We drove by this house and I loved that circle feature with the pot and the rocks.  I needed a picture so we could replicate this in our yard!  I felt a little shady sneaking a picture of this house!

Costco run.

Then home to work on the yard feature.

Starting out with bare ground.

Organizing those stones was not easy work.  Eric did most of the lifting, but I did some of the arranging.  Sweaty and heavy work.

We have a pot in mind to buy and we'll get rocks to fill in the space.  We'll also be putting in more bark around the outside of the circle.

I'm not really one for yard work, but it's been surprisingly fun and satisfying to work on the projects around the yard and outside of the house.