- I took the kids to pick blueberries last week. We’ve been doing it for years now and I have to admit the last few summers it has felt like more of a “Have To Do” – which it shouldn’t, because there are perfectly good local blueberries at the grocery store that cost about the same per pound (probably less, given the gas it takes to get to the U-pick field) – than a “Want to Do.” I had given myself a pep talk about how we didn’t actually have to go this year, and then one afternoon our schedule opened up and a friend agreed to meet me there with her two kiddos…so we went. It was hot and something smelled terrible (fertilizer from some neighbouring fields perhaps?), but the kids did reasonably well given the conditions and we ended up going to TWO different swimming pools after picking. The kids found a good excuse to spend more time in the water and I had a huge box of freshly-picked blueberries for the fridge (which were all gone in a few days).
- We’ve spent a lot of time in the water lately; almost daily stints to a friend’s pool, a weekend trip to a beach on Nova Scotia’s South Shore (the sand remnants from that adventure are now everywhere – car, washing machine, floors), a splashpad playdate. Already the mornings are getting cooler, so we’re soaking up the bathing suit weather while it is still to be found.
- We started some back-to-school shopping. There isn’t much left to do; a few new outfits (well, mostly thrifted, so just new-to-us) are waiting in the closet and I purchased the last pair of indoor sneakers this week. We’re reusing last years bookbags and lunchboxes. I do need to completely overhaul the mask situation, so that’s the last big to-buy item. The kids are (and I understand why) finicky about their masks. There hasn’t been a clear directive from the provincial government about what will happen with masking in schools but, for now, I’m planning on the kids being masked all day.
- I had two big, potentially stressful, work meetings this week. They went so well. It felt really nice to put on grown-up clothes and talk to other adults, exercising different brain muscles than are required when making the 100th PB&J sandwich of the summer. The lines are so blurred between my professional and personal lives (we don’t have structured childcare), so it was a nice repreive and I’m looking forward to the fall when I get back into more of a 9-5 working rhythm instead of fitting in calls and emails during the morning/evening fringe hours.
- On a family walk last weekend we happened upon a pond full of frogs. The pond was deep and we didn’t have any of the equipment (net + boots). Cue the days of pleading to return, so yesterday we did just that. After a morning of daycamp, we headed off with a picnic lunch, armed with a net and lots of enthusiasm. Alas there was nary a frog to be seen. Oh well, we followed it up with a homemade hot fudge sundae at a friend’s house, so all was not lost.
LOVE OF THE WEEK: SParkling water
I have been on such a big sparkling water kick lately. I’ve always been a HUGE water drinker but have really enjoyed the novelty of flavours. Also, I’m continuing to work on eliminating most caffeine from my diet and this has been a great mid-day refresher in place of a cup of coffee.
Favourite Flavours: Bubly Cherry + Bubly Peach and PC Pink Grapefruit + PC Lime
Were you working full time without childcare this summer? That sounds incredibly hard!
No, thank goodness! I need to do a post around my work responsibilities – it’s rather convoluted!
A lot of my work involves student success at post-secondary institutions, so there is a natural lull over the summer. From May to mid-August most of what I do happens on the backend (prepping databases for the next school term, working on feature upgrades), but things are starting to ramp up now, hence the important calls this week.
There’s always an awkward period of overlap between when universities start back up and the kids go back to school but, for the most part, I manage to handle work responsibilities when they have daycamps etc.