Waiting and finding

Today we hung out for hours at several of our local libraries. The first hour and a half round (and branch) was while we were waiting for the girls to finish up piano lessons. The second round (branch) was while one was getting her fit on at the gym. During the wait, I was very nearly beaten in checkers by an eight year old. An hour later, we were at a draw with five kings each. I was impressed at my little one's developing logical thinking. She is gaining skills...and I am getting rusty.

While we waited for various things, we had reading lessons. We practiced math. We finished summer reading books. We practiced writing. It's every kid's nightmare to be stuck in the car for hours with a former school-teacher mom in the middle of summer. And yet, there still seemed to be plenty of time left for tv-via-Netflix, and hand-held electronics, and card games, and patriotic decorating, and festive cookie-baking. It's the thing I love most about summer: the ability for the boys to go out and play with neighbors at 5:30 pm when the temps are finally dropping and there is still plenty of sun to be found.

Our second finding activity has been "Who has seen the hamster? Goldie and Muffin have turned out to be quite the escape artists. Once, we found one in the pantry. Once, in the guest bedroom (visiting our overnight guests). And once, inside the bottom drawer of a bookshelf. (That one is still a mystery). Tonight Goldie was strutting about the girls room as if she owned the place.

 

We are thankful for friends who pick up one of our kids for the day and take him off to hi-wire or the pool so that their kid can have more fun than if he were jumping all by himself. We are thankful for neighbors who invite another kid over for backyard s'mores and fireworks. We are thankful for the freedom to celebrate freedom. We are thankful for piano teachers who work around holidays. We are thankful that the libraries have good air conditioning and nice bathrooms when we need some place to go and don't want to eat our way through the afternoon at coffee shops. We are thankful for resources that keep our minds from turning into mush over the summer. And we are thankful for children who pray that their hamsters may come to no harm on their adventures.