"The Lazy Days of Summer"... Yeah, Right.

When I was a kid, I loved this phrase - it was everything I wanted out of my summer vacation. I was looking forward to staying up late, sleeping in, no schedule, hanging out with my friends - all the fun and laid-back times that you think of when school is out. That was obviously before I became a parent. There is a lot of work that goes into making things seem laid back! And now that we are in the full swing of summer, there don't seem to be enough things to keep my boys entertained. And that whole "no schedule" idea? Forget it. The other day I spent about an hour and a half coming up with a daily routine for our family. It may sound silly, but it has things on it like "play outside" (because if you don't get out there by 7:30 am, it is too dang hot, crafts, reading, and the all-important Rest Time! Currently I am working on a post while my 4 year old is taking a nap, and his 5 year old brother is having some down-time on the computer (per his schedule). We have been so very busy in the past few days - we had a trip up to Cabela's in Phoenix on Saturday after Gabriel's tee ball closing ceremonies. The boys love going to any kind of outdoor/sportsman's store - we always let them 'hunt' the trophy animals that are on display there. We were explaining to Graham that all of the animals used to be alive, but that a hunter shot them and the had the skin taken off and put on display. We were trying to convey the concept that he was looking at the real skin/teeth/antlers of these animals, but that it wasn't the whole animal there. He seemed to understand it just fine, but as we rounded the corner in one of the display areas, Graham noticed a statue of a man in his hunting camp. This is set on a motion sensor, so that when someone walks by it triggers a recorded speech about hunting and game conservation. Graham flipped out! "Mom! That man was alive! Who hunted him?! Why did they take off his skin?!" Poor kid. I forgot about that exhibit. And even though we have been living with a Sensory Disorder and Asperger's for nearly two years now - it does occasionally slip my mind that everything is real for Graham - if you tell him something, that is the concrete fact in his mind. Sometimes it works to our advantage - the kid won't go anywhere near an electrical socket because we've told him that he will get hurt - and sometimes it backfires. Like when he thinks someone has stuffed and mounted a person. Along with our trip to Phoenix, we have been doing some renovations around the house. What started out as a small project (replacing our shower because the shower wall cracked) has turned into something more. We replaced the shower, and then had to select new shower doors (which we ordered today). Because it had leaked, we also had to replace some of the drywall. That of course meant we need to paint in there, and while we were doing all this work, I decided I wanted one of those rainfall shower heads. I then decided that it wouldn't be fair for us to get a nice new shower head if the boys'/guest bathroom didn't have a new one as well. So that was replaced. We also replaced the counter top in their bathroom, because it had this weird piece that went over the top of the toilet - great for having a little more counter space, horrible if your toilet should ever break. So, that's gone, and now we have a regular counter top in there. But, the mirror that was in there was the length of the old counter top. So, that came down and we've had it cut down to size. I'm working on painting some molding that I am going to make into a frame for the mirror. I also had to paint that bathroom - since we pulled the old counter and mirror off, and the drywall was patched up. So, now it is a lovely peacock blue. To make up for removing the counter space, I stopped by Lowe's today and bought some wood and spent the rest of my afternoon sanding, painting, and building two shelves to hang on the walls. The last obstacle that I wanted to tackle in this bathroom was some decorations - it is my sons' bathroom, and I want them to be represented - but it is also the guest bathroom and I want it to be universally welcoming to any company that we have over. Anyway, the I figured out a great art project. Their bathroom is decorated in an ocean theme (whales, fish, submarines) and so we did some hand print art where we turned some of the boys' hand prints into some fish, a jellyfish, and an anemone. It's adorable, and I can't wait to finish hanging these shelves so I can get things put back together in there. I'll have to post some before and after pictures. Well, all that being said - Graham is about to wake up from his nap, Gabriel has discovered some new Lego toy that he wants to add to his birthday list, and the drill is fully-charged and ready to tackle shelf #2 before making dinner for the guys, jumping in the shower, and going out for Mom's Night Out with my friends. Lazy Days of Summer. Yeah, right.