Week 2/VBS and Son Time!

Okay, peeps.

We're tracking with our posting delay! OYE.

We're well within Week 3 of summer and I'm finally posting about Week 2, but...that's life, right?

Week 2 was supposed to be VBS service time for the girlies and mother-son time for Little Man and I, but...best laid plans.

OYE.

Things first started to go off the rails when we offered to keep one of Little Man's friends with us for a couple of days. This fun little friend is about to move (we're still in denial about this) and his parents needed to travel to deal with the closing on their new house.

So...there went two of my mornings with Little Man while his sisters were away.

But.

We regrouped by Wednesday and logged some precious quality time--all the more so, because it seems so rare, these days, even when we have it penciled in!

We launched our morning together with a superfluous LEGO purchase, in keeping with one of our favorite pastimes together. :)

https://delappenings.blogspot.com/2020/01/legos-are-new-puzzles.html

https://delappenings.blogspot.com/2019/10/holy-lego-batman-er-spider-man.html

https://delappenings.blogspot.com/2020/02/indulgedpart-1.html

After the tried-and-true LEGO purchase, we went with another golden quality-time activity: DOODLING! Keeping with our Pokemon theme, of course. ;)

After we finished the doodle, we repositioned upstairs (away from Coda girl and any choking hazards), to build our LEGOs and watch...you guess it: a Pokemon movie, ha. We're nothing if not committed to a theme!

By that time, our quality mother/son time was up, and it was time to grab the girlies from VBS, but...we were able to siphon off another few tidbits of odds-and-ends time together on Thursday, when we went for an actual hair cut, not at home...

It was a huge success to learn ways to style his hair--and not have to clean up after a home cut, ha. ;)

Then, on Friday, we had one final round of unexpected quality time when we started the process of cleaning out Little Man's room and closet. I think this picture is worth a thousand words:

Baha. Tidying up is never fun, and Little Man was also suffering from a severe case of Summer Ennui. After a couple of low key days, he was a bit antsy and lethargic, all at once.

But, never fear! We redirected that heinous combo with a quick trip to Hobby Lobby for some storage boxes and came home with...some hysterical, and inexpensive, LED canvas art to style up his room!

So. Freaking. Fun. An unplanned spark of joy, for sure. 

Luckily, Little Man is busy, busy, busy this week at a classic summer day camp. He comes home happy and tired each day, so there's zero ennui to be had, and all is well.

Meanwhile, we're still battling illness in the household.

First it was Chicklet (Week 1).

Then Chica (Week 2).

She spiked a 104-degree temp and even missed the final day of VBS.

Another fail of the week: I took zero pics of the girlies headed off to their VBS crew leader duties and it hurts my heart that I have no photographic evidence, this year!

Ugh.

Anywho...we're onward and upward with Week 3 (again, Little Man's day camp), but I'm sorry to report that now, the hubby is sick.

I'm really hoping we can all pull it together for our Week 4 travel, but only time will tell!

Okay, posting this quickly and then off to other errands, but here's hoping I can tackle another catch-up post, later!

Over and out, peeps.

Toxin! X

Okay, peeps. Double-post day!

One more quick blurb for now before I pivot to other afternoon things!

This one is a fun, and all about...exercise!

(Ha. YES, I do swear it's kind of fun! [Maybe-kinda-sorta.])

Long and short...Chica has now completed her years of school-centric athletics, and other than a silly little athletic course-requirement at some point in High School, she's done-done.

I'm so proud of her dedication these past few years--especially as she pushed herself with Cross Country and Track, and learned her likes and dislikes, while she kept her body moving and grooving.

But now, she's transitioning into that wonderful and terrible adult-ish life challenge of keeping her body active and giving it exercise, when there are no requirements to do so!

(A challenge for all of us, right???)

Welp.

For the past few summers, Chica was required to attend a summer conditioning camp at the middle school, to keep her endurance up. Four days a week, in the mornings (that we were in town), for about 6-7 weeks of the summer.

That camp was called Venom (an homage to the school name), so we took a funny play on it and created Chica's very own self-directed exercise plan called...

Toxin! X

Tehe.

Long and short: she decided on a three-day-a-week schedule of launching morning exercise when Chicklet now leaves for her turn at Venom Camp.

Chica tackles some warm-up activities, then sets off for a slow walk when I take Coda pup for hers, and then ramps into a full-mile run (sometimes a bit more) to try and beat me home. Then, when she arrives, she tackles a few more conditioning exercises...and promptly showers and collapses on the couch.

I think she's totally enjoying the freedom of this self-directed exercise, and the joy of doing it on her own timetable, in her own neighborhood, with no peers to measure herself against.

She's her mother's daughter, in this exercise regard.

Plus, Little Man has joined her, on occasion, when he needs to get some wiggles out, and it's been really cute to see them work themselves to exhaustion in a short, half-hour time frame.

This was Day 1:

(Side note: I love seeing Chica bust out her cute athletic gear that she's a bit too self-conscious to wear around allllll her peers.)

Day 2 and Day 3 were just as jovial--and painful, ha:

This week, she's had to switch things up because of morning VBS commitments (more on that, later), but it's fun to see this new summer exercise adventure grow some roots and bloom.

There is truly nothing more valuable than a lifelong ability to work some tolerable movement into one's life--as much for mental health as physical! And I'm so glad Chica is exploring one way to accomplish this, during a looser summer schedule.

More catch-up posts soon, peeps!

Over and out.

A Summer Launch Redirect

Okay, peeps.

We're about to wrap Week 2 of Summer, but I'm on a time delay (shocker), so let's rewind a bit to discuss the launch of things--and our vibe, in general.

Every dang year, I head into summer with printed schedules of the kiddos'/our family's camps, activities, appointments and excursions, color-coded by week.

And every dang year, that color-coded schedule gets a little more daunting!

Fewer "free" weeks.

More "unscheduled" social hangs and events.

And major school "creep," meaning later summer launches and earlier fall returns (for fine arts and such).

It's a whole vibe. 

Plus...I'm not gonna lie: it takes more and more out of me, every year, to handle the whiplash of toggling between the massive change of having the kids in school and then out--not to mention, the toggling of week-by-week changes for the entirety of June and July.

No two weeks are the same.

And sometimes, it makes me this Type A Mama want to scream into a pillow.

THAT SAID. 

Last summer felt like a bit of a low point for me, emotionally.

I think I spent more of it frazzled and trying to counteract or boycott all these changes, and less time sitting back and enjoying the pockets of disarray and unexpected adventures.

So this summer, I'm determined to LET IT GO (as Elsa would say).

With every age and stage of my kiddos' development, there seems to be a year when I fight some kind of new or different something-or-other. It takes me a hot sec to catch up and accept the things I cannot change. To level up, so to speak. But as soon as I do, things get so much better.

Luckily, I'm in the breezing easier stage at the moment (though I'm terrified, even as I type this, that we're about to hit a new level/new devil, with Chica's launch of High School in August). I'm just going with the flow. Leaning into the chaos. And doing my level best to accept the total insanity of summer and focus on the blessings and not the angst.

Case in point:

One of our only true "free" weeks each summer is literally Week 1. And I always try to plan a few little outings or adventures for us to reconnect and spend some time doing something out of the ordinary.

We had grand plans for a trek out to Enchanted Rock State Park (something we haven't done since the pandemic!), a visit to the drive-through zoo, and a visit to this planet/universe art installation.

And did we do any of these things????

No. We did not.

Apparently, we made plans and God laughed.

Chicklet was struck down with this ick/cough/congestion that terrorized a bunch of kids in the homestretch of the school year, and she was just down and out.

Even after a doctor's visit a week into the gunk, not to mention lots of prescription meds, it took her two full weeks to be a functioning human again.

So we had to scrap all plans and just hunker down (and tackle some odds and end for the other kiddos as time allowed so that the week wasn't a total loss).

In the end, it was actually kind of....nice? 

(Not for Chicklet, of course).

Forced time at home. Slow schedules. Fewer to-dos. I think it was exactly what the doctor ordered (if you bypass the fact that the doctor actually ordered cough medicine, ha).

In fact, I had one of the best moments, EVER IN THE WHOLE WORLD, when we gathered for an afternoon viewing of some of the Baking Championship show that we love.

Chicklet snuggled into me (I die), and within a few minutes, she grew still, her breathing leveled out, and...yup. She fell asleep. Nuzzled into me like her human mattress--and eventual human pillow.

And you better bet I took a million creepy Mama pics to commemorate the gloriousness.

I didn't move a muscle for the entirety of the show. And when it ended and Chicklet still hadn't roused, I stayed put (even when I very much needed to use the little girls' room).

Eventually, Coda pup barked at a delivery and Chicklet roused--then promptly repositioned herself in a sitting position...where she fell asleep, again. With Coda and I both keeping watch. 

God was basically telling us all week to chill the fudge out, and just BE.

And, in the end, despite all our grand plans of adventure and color-coded schedules, the thing we needed is the thing we got: forced down time.

Throughout the week, the kiddos spent time indulging in things they enjoy, like binge-watching TV, drawing, FaceTiming with friends, playing basketball in the driveway, and just vegging on their iPads. It was a lot of mushy, non-productive, brain-wasted time, and it was perfect.

Chicklet did, eventually recover (thank goodness!) and even spent last Saturday swimming with a buddy--though it took a lot out of her.

And the other two kiddos had plenty of chill time before we launched a much rowdier Week 2 (more on that, later).

So much more to come, regarding our summer plans and our latest happenings.

Until then...

Happy Summer 2026, peeps!

Over and out.