Halfway

We are halfway through summer vacation.  To be precise, thirty days have passed since my son’s last day of school (not including weekends), and there remain twenty-five days to fill until school resumes.  I don’t count the weekends because he wouldn’t go to school on the weekends anyway.

There are two weeks left of the library’s summer reading program.  I don’t know why it doesn’t continue until the start of the school year.  I suppose we can still go the library on Thursday afternoons even after summer reading is over.

My son is registered for one more week of summer camp.  Also, we have plans to spend a long weekend in the mountains on a short family vacation, so there’s that. 

We have not been swimming at the reservoir yet, nor downtown to play in the fountain and eat ice cream from the vendor’s cart.  I’m disappointed in myself for letting so much time pass, and now I’ve lost my enthusiasm.

My son and I haven’t been on a bike ride in a while.  We haven’t kicked the soccer ball around in a while, either.  We haven’t played any of our new games lately.  We’ve finished all the books we got at the school’s end-of-the-year give-away.

We did go on a picnic once.  We went on a nature walk with our wildflower field guide, too—but I only remember one of the flowers we identified.

Despite all my plans, it’s becoming a slog.

It’s time to dig deep.  I’m planning a hike and a picnic supper this weekend (cold fried chicken, potato salad with blue cheese and crumbled bacon, crudités, fresh berry salad, brownies), and I’ve promised to take the children swimming on Monday (weather permitting).  My son wants to go to the farm the weekend after that, and we’ve rented Mary Poppins from the library for a family movie night.  I won’t give up on having fun.

Last night at dinner my son prayed, “Thank you for the good day I had with Mommy.”  So there’s that.