Summer Schedule

Cereal for breakfast this morning, sans the "hurry-up-and-eat-eat-eat-we-don't-want-you-to-be-late-for-school"-thing:
(Meera woke up with her bruises not looking too bad)

Thursdays and Fridays this summer I'm going to be home with the bambinos (Margie is doing a M-T-W schedule with us for the summer). This means I'm busting by bum-bum to squeeze two days of work in around all the edges (late nights working, frantic checking of email during boys' "Rest Hour", coffee required at 4:30 p.m. to get me through the night shift, constant paranoia that important things are falling through the cracks, ETC.), but... and this is a big but... I'll be able to be with them a lot this summer and that is worth it. I'm sure some day when this is all behind me I'll be glad I grinned and beared it and tolerated the work-home-imbalance stress in exchange for the big chunks of quality time it provided for really being engaged with my babies. One positive to all of this is that I've always been someone who can focus pretty well and be in the moment (usually)... so... when I'm home with my threesome, I'm really with them. And when I'm working, I'm really working. I know that for a lot of people that is extremely challenging (if not impossible). So, I'm really grateful that I just so happen to have the ability to really do that (mostly) o.k. most of the time. Anyway, this is our first week of the summer schedule, so today was my first Thursday at home. And it rained very hard all day long. A cold raw ugly rain. Lovely. (that was sarcasm). The only time I was inspired to take a photo was this morning, during Meera's nap, when the boys did puzzles and ate bananas on the kitchen floor. Something about it just struck me as something I want to remember. It wasn't a blissful moment or anything. But it was just very 'normal' and grounded and easy. And if you can't be outside riding bikes barefoot on a summer day, then puzzles and bananas on the kitchen floor has to be just about the next best thing.
Soon we'll be all settled in to a summer routine. But right now it still feels brand new. And I've got to admit, it feels like a big exhale after a long year.