I wasn't looking forward to summer. I've never been a fan. The heat gives me migraines, not to mention rashes and bacne but beyond the superficial obvious, I only just recently mastered the art of time/life/family/work management and was worried this summer business might just fuck it all up.
I had a routine. We all did. A routine that looked a little something like this.
Archer = School Monday- Fridays 8:30-2:30 (all other hours with me.)
Fable = Mommy alone time: Monday & Tuesday 8:30-2:30. Francisca (our part-time nanny, full-time hero) time: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 9:30-2:30pm
Me = Take Archer to school in the mornings. Spend Monday & Tuesday with Fable. Wednesday, Thursday & Friday with work. Pick Archer up from school every day at 2:30 and spend afternoons with kids. Go back to work after kids are asleep.
This schedule has been a win for everyone involved. Fable and I get alone time two days a week - go to music class, have playdates, take walks around the 'hood... and every day I get to pick Archer up from school. Some days we have after-school activities. Other days, we just come home and hang here, and every now and then, Francisca stays later and I take Archer out for ice cream or some such other after-school treat. Tre fab.
The only thing that's changed, of course are our Mondays and Tuesdays which now include Archer home with us and HOLYSHIT has it been fun.
Sure, we've had our moments of OMGNOOOOOOO... markers on faces and fighting over books and "Mommy! Fable broke my Lego castle!" But most of the time? It's been a total chillfest of awesome.
Between having a backyard and (for the first time in ten years) central air-conditioning (we had a heat wave last weekend well into the 100s. Brutal.) this summer has been totally lovely.
...There's magic, here. In this house. I really do think so. And where, last summer I spent every day schlepping the kids from one activity to the next, museums and parks and indoor playspaces OH MY, this summer we've spent all our time at the house - playing games and coloring pictures and sprawling all over the floor in piles of blankets and broken toys and doing... well...
