One of my kids (guess who) had been expected to attend summer school because he has academic needs & is not at grade level...plus he is quirky as hell. Does whatever he wants to do! So, they recommended at his current elementary school that he attend an extended school year (free) summer school. I took him on the first day, walked him to his teacher, got attitude the whole way for doing that & he still smiled and hugged me good bye. He was ready for anything & he was open to it. When I picked him up he was upset, two teachers were manhandling him for leaving the line and looking for my car. I didn't like what I heard the more I asked him about it. I didn't like the atmosphere, it just seemed like babysitting a lot of kids with IEP's so I never brought him back. He does have to work with us to catch up, but no more summer school! I love when I find I still have the strength to protect my son from situations that would just kill his spirit. I'm sure many other parents will find the program wonderful & their kids will probably thrive there, but that was not the place for us!!

I have had some fantastic summers as a stay at home mom, filled with sunshine, meeting friends at the pool, dinners al fresco & all that jazz :) We have also had some hellish summers, most notably 2002 & 2008. In 2008 all of the kids had whooping cough & I had a kidney stone drama that lasted from June through December. The only good thing about that summer was the unexpected addition of Ramsay to the family. Otherwise I can't think of a single good memory! So...this summer I am aiming high, to have adventures in ordinary places & give my boys lots of good memories. One of them wants to pray the rosary every day, another one wants to be read to; books about the Founding fathers are his favorite. The other 3 are content to just see neighborhood kids & play outside. The littlest just wants to nurse & cuddle.

This Friday I have my first lithotripsy procedure where I will have a few bigger (but still small, thankfully! blasted & I am nervous but very excited. If it goes well, I will be living in significantly less fear than usual! If it really does go well, I will throw a party! I will try to document as many days of fun & not so fun outings as I can!

Fun times at Burke Lake

The kids rode the little train through the woods, my awesome mom was there & so were our cousins. It was actually one of our more successful outings but you wouldn't think so from these pictures. I even handled a complicated cell phone number porting drama while pacing the forest floor & keeping toddler Ram in line!

My 2 oldest started aikido this week. It was cool to sign them up for something they could do together, but at their own pace. One of the boys, the one formerly known as The Creature!, got way more attention from the teacher than the other one.

On the wall were lots of articles about aikido & one had a great lesson in it about the importance of not being a planner, or getting too attached to our plans. We are much more likely to see ourselves as failures or to spend energy blaming others for thwarting our plans when they go awry. Instead, if we just appreciate where we are & the lessons in it , it benefits our development much more than a plan working out the way we wanted it to. This can be applied to daily life with a new baby (or any age kid!), birth not ending up how we wanted it to, a vacation from hell etc. etc, anything that didn't work out how we hoped it would. When the kids are in class I am going to keep studying the articles. So far I like the whole approach of aikido & I hope the boys like it.