Does anybody else feel like they maybe are doing too much this summer? Just me? I don’t think so. I feel like summer of 2020 was NO social gatherings, basically no leaving the house, no fun kid programs, no good mental health days. So in the spirit of making up for it, I’ve crammed all of summer 2020 and all of summer 2021 into this summer. It’s been equally exhausting and exhilarating.
It’s hard to believe that we have just one week left of July- we will be Hines family reuniting this weekend, and then it will be AUGUST! August is Tera’s birthday and then immediately into back to school (I will go back a week early since I’m a teacher).
July was a fun month- we started out with 4th of July camping with some of the Hines family.
We jumped straight into the week with a Dayton Dragons game. I don’t know if you have ever been to a minor leagues baseball game, but let’s just say that it’s more about the show than the sport. HA. There is a little game or performance between every single inning. I am so used to soccer that moves nonstop for 45 minutes that watching sports that have frequent stops and time outs is not so much my style. But, we got to go with some good friends and we got to hang out with all the other VIPs from Hart Homes, so I’ll take it! It was such a fun experience!
The following weekend I hosted a bridal shower for a sweet gal in our church. I volunteered to host it at home and we had such a great turnout! It felt like my house was about to bust at the seams, and it was the absolutely BEST kind of feeling!
During the week when Theo is working, the kids and I have been keeping up with our park hopping, our library programs and maintaining our house as well as running the Airbnb and cleaning it 2-3x a week. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but it sure does fill up our days!
One of the highlights of the month that will have it’s own blog post was getting to see my childhood friend Joy for the first time in a few years! We each have three kids and they are ALL under the age of seven. We got together on a farm in the middle of nowhere and just let the kids run around outside while we sat in our lounge chairs and caught up on years and years worth of talking. It was great!
Next up on our calendar was the Olympics party that I’ve been dreaming of hosting for the last year! I LOVE the Olympics (and the World Cup) and it is the only time that our TV is ever on during the day. I wanted to have a fun party to celebrate the opening ceremonies. We ended up renting some equipment and having a bouncy house, a big screen/projector and lots of great fun and food. And I took exactly ZERO pictures once the first guest arrived. ALSO- we stayed up so late to watch the parade of nations. I was looking forward to two countries- Niger and United States of America. Of course, USA was 3rd to last so we had to watch the entire thing to catch them. But when Niger came up? Guess what our programming did? They cut to an interview of team USA on the bus waiting in line to enter the opening ceremonies. I DON’T CARE ABOUT TEAM USA ON THE BUS! I JUST WANT TO SEE NIGER ENTER THE STADIUM! Grrrrr. It was so bad that we were all cracking up!
We also had a blast having Uncle Isaiah and Aunt Sarah and the cousins visit us this weekend. We crammed SO MUCH into just 1.5 days…not sure how we managed it all, but we did! Theo and I were so tired by Sunday afternoon that we essentially crashed on the couch for hours.
Believe it or not, this does not include our day to day things like small group bible study and church and chores and work. We have had some HIGHLIGHTS this summer and I might sound crazy when I say that I am looking forward to school starting and things slowing down a little bit. I know that sounds so counter-intuitive, but it’s like school will bring about a set schedule with a lot less capacity for our family to say yes and do a thousand things outside of school. We have LOVED this summer and are so, so, so thankful for the health it was able to restore to our family, but also ready to tap the brakes and have a good, solid schedule back starting next month!