oh. my. goodness.

isn't summer great? you and the kids get to sleep till 8 or 8:30. you make a delicious, hot breakfast every morning that the kids devour. you put on bathing suits and hop on over to the pool, where you spend the rest of the day basking in the sun and tossing pennies into the baby pool. you get a great tan, meet up with the other pool moms with nothing to do, and talk about recipes and tennis camps for your children. and that's just the weekdays. weekends are for family trips to educational places where the children sit in their booster seats and play 'i spy' while you have deep and meaningful conversations with your husbands.

i hope you're enjoying it.

because in plueworld, it's a zoo. there's a daddy who works just as hard when kids aren't in the building as he does when they're there. something about scheduling and getting them into the classes they want. pi-shaw. there's a mama who's looking at a possible large change in job status....at the same time she starts graduate school, too. there are two little girls who need swimming lessons in the worst way and are finally getting them this week. the same two little girls are tired and cranky and don't stay in their beds at night, despite the fact that they PROMISED they would if only their parents put the bunk beds back together. there's a freezer full of food but a family not getting to it until close to seven pm, and by then it's almost too late, so children eat nuked chicken nuggets and mama feels guilty later. there is a growing list of people who are due a visit from the plues, but few to none of them will receive it because it cannot be fit in. there's a dog who hasn't been groomed since christmas. there's a project list SOMEWHERE. and dust bunnies EVERYWHERE.

but we stop everything and go to the pool every saturday to feel normal. and this saturday, it'll be even better because g and j will put their faces in the water. big deal around here.

and, soon soon soon, we have a week OFF. a week at my favorite place in the world (http://www.kanuga.org/) --perhaps because i'm not well-travelled, and perhaps because it's just so peaceful and stress-free-- where we will take the time to reconnect with one another, push the pause button on our lives, and remember why it is that we work so hard during all the other times of the year. because we have to, and because we kind of like it.