I did it. I survived 10 weeks of summer break (just 9 weeks with the 10 year old, who finished school a week after the 5 year old, two weeks of which he was at day camp and then sleep-away camp). Notice how I don't use the word "vacation"? It wasn't easy but, like the experienced runner I am was, I knew how to finish strong. Before I get to how we spent our last week, however, let's back up to early June.
Unrealistically ambitious, as usual, I created a to do list that linked to a weekly spreadsheet, with lots of projects carrying over from my school year to do list, as explained in this pre-summer post. Additionally, I started a weekly project collecting the detritus from nightly sweeping in emptied out snow/glitter souvenir globes originally used in this project. I filled a globe every week so now I have ten of these, a few of which have started to grow mold or...something. I'm still working on painting the bases and I'm not sure how I'll display and document these. What should I call them - globes of domesticity? Souvenirs of staying home?
In mid-June my brother and niece came to visit for a few days. We had lunch with Neal at his job in SF, sought out the perfect view of the Golden Gate Bridge, showed off Oakland a bit, and spent a day in Monterey. It was a nice way to start the break part of summer break.
For the week of 4th of July we escaped the madness of nonstop illegal fireworks in Oakland and drove instead to Bend, Oregon to visit family via Lassen Volcanic National Park. After that trip we welcomed our second set of foster kittens from Oakland Animal Services, having returned our first pair in mid-June (see Rosie, above). After a particularly trying day later in July, it dawned on me that, though admittedly imperfect (we can't save every underage kitten that comes to the shelter), the relatively short span between input and output in fostering kittens versus caring for children 24/7 was key to preserving my mental sanity during this summer experiment, even when spending time with kittens meant getting less of my to do list checked off.
That was summer's low point, in the middle of the three-week stretch during which we had little more than morning swim lessons planned each day. Fortunately, about a week later I managed to plan for both kids to be elsewhere at the same time so I could finally see Sorry To Bother You (I caught an advance screening of Blindspotting - if you live in Oakland you really must see both). It was my first time seeing a movie alone and it was heavenly.
During the penultimate week of summer break (I've written before about my fondness for that word, right?) the 10 year old went away to his first sleep-away camp. He had a blast and well, yes, taking care of one kid is easier than two. It was also nice to have some one-on-one time with my 5 year old and having just one kid in tow made playdates much easier to schedule.
For the final week of summer break, I'd planned early in the summer, not knowing just how stressful the middle portion would be, for the kids and I to go glamping (that's fancy camping if you don't know). Just the three of us. And I'm so glad I did. Other than nasty air quality due to wildfires north and south of us, distancing myself from the seemingly endless domestic duties of daily life allowed me to truly focus on just having a good time with my kids, something that's tough to sustain for all ten weeks of summer. We swam, ate ice cream for dinner, saw a movie when the air quality gave me a headache, and brought out the iPads only in order for me to enjoy the campground's outdoor shower. Alone. After all our ups and downs throughout the summer, we ended on a really positive note. And I've already mostly forgotten the epic meltdown both kids had in Berkeley's Live Oak Park when we did not have ice cream for lunch earlier in the summer.
Now to gesso these wooden dollhouse remnants for the second portion of my summer souvenir art project!
Posts
