If we were having coffee, I would brew enough caffeine to keep me alert for a week. The truth is, it’s been pretty crazy at my house lately.
We’re in the final countdown to the end of the school year and the kids are like sharks smelling blood in the water. They know summer freedom is just outside their reach, and they can’t stand waiting for it one more minute! I understand their excitement. Summer is all about slip and slides, cannon balls, water balloon fights, reading all day while lounging in a hammock, and camping trips where marshmallows are the last course of every meal. It’s good to be a kid in summer, but we’re not there yet! And their teachers are packing on the school work, hoping to extract the last ounce of brain power they have left.
Every day is a homework battle.
As the days grow longer, it’s also harder and harder to keep the kids in a normal sleep routine. It’s like they’re solar changing all day and can’t unwind when it’s bedtime. It’s made all of us grumpy in the morning and my eldest was begging for his own cup of coffee a few times this week.
Since we can’t sleep, we took the telescope out of storage. We have a 12 inch Meade Newtonian, and now that we live in the country with not a street lamp anywhere, the stars are super bright.The kids love it and are learning some astronomy and how to use the stars as navigation points.
While we were out there we caught sight of the summer’s first bats. They circled around our house in a small swarm, sparking fresh interest in getting up our bat houses so the poor little colony will have a place for their babies that is not my attic! The kids build the houses with these cool little kits we found online. There are an insane number of bat species in California. The ones we have at our house (thankfully) are rather small ones.
If we were having coffee, I’d apologize for being bad company and ask if we could call off the visit a bit early. My infectious yawn convinces you that sometimes even copious amounts of coffee can’t replace a good old-fashioned nap and we say goodbye until next time.
Before you leave, I would remind you to come back tomorrow for our special guest blogger. Shawn from Down Home Thoughts will be sharing what he knows about creating characters with character. It’s going to be fantastic, so you don’t want to miss it!
If We Were Having Coffee is a blog hop inspired and run by the lovely and talented Diana at Part Time Monster. Please drop by her place for coffee. You can also see what other bloggers are up to by checking out the hashtag #WeekendCoffeeShare on Twitter.
I had no idea you could order bat houses! That’s a great idea!
We’re all feeling a lot more lively in the increasing sun of summertime, too. Little Jedi has a week left in school, and he’s super-excited that he’s about to be free for a while.
They are kits, so you have to build the houses yourself. But it’s not hard. However, you might need to help little Jedi with it at first, just to protect fingers and thumbs from getting hammered on. I think he would enjoy doing it. Summer is a good time to test out some new skills, and my boys loved doing light word working projects from about the same age.
I don’t envy you, Robin! The nice part of being a grandparent is that you don’t have to deal with things like this. When they get grumpy — send them home! We just had our second baby girl last weekend. She’s so precious, ten little fingers, ten little toes, perfect. Her mom is exhausted because our eldest granddaughter is only 1 1/2 yrs. I bet you can recall those days.Great idea with the telescope, BTW. That’s wearing your Mommy hat to full capacity!
Thanks, Sue.
I feel like being their mom is the most important job I have ever had, so if I have a good mom day it feels like I won the lotto! A new baby in the family, congratulations! Enjoy every second of it, because ten little fingers and toes sounds heavenly. Give one little piggy a wiggle from me. : )
Hi there – Your kids must have a lot of fun building houses for the bats. I imagine it’s a learning experience as well. Very neat!!
@dino0726 from
FictionZeal – Impartial, Straighforward Fiction Book Reviews
Thanks, Diane.
I’m not much of a bat fan, but I understand their place in the ecosystem. Every bug they eat, means a bug that didn’t eat my organic veggie garden. And I like the idea of the kids growing up with respect for all creatures.
I’m sure the kids will have a super summer! Your “telescope studies” remind me of the days when my kids were little. I’ve always been a lover of astronomy so every time there was an eclipse or a meteor shower or some planet crossing the path of some some planet or another one of those types of events, I would pack up the car and take the kids off and away to get a better view of it. Sometimes it meant missing school the next day or showing up after first period because we had gotten in so late but their teachers always understood and encouraged it. Of course they had to be able to tell the class what they saw and why it was so significant. They loved it and I did too!
We do the same thing all the time. We took the kids out last year to go climb lava tube caves. And I never felt bad for one second that they missed school.
You mentioned yawning and I yawned too…that’s what I get for waking up at 5am this morning!
I would say 5am is much too early, so yawning is called for!
I love navigating by the stars. My last job when i was in the Navy was navigator. It really gives you a renewed appreciation of the people that loaded up on small wooden boats and left port with nothing but the wind at their backs and a star to steer by.Thanks again for the opportunity to hang out with your readers and do a guest blog. Have a great week and I hope that the bats like their new condos better than your attic.
Thanks, Shawn. We are not to navigation status just yet! The kids are just getting the basics at this point.
Nothing beats a good old fashioned nap…I think I might join you! My kids are feeling the same restless anticipation. For my eldest it’s the end of school. Yikes! Next stop college. Have a restful weekend and enjoy the star gazing! 😀
Wow, college! When the boys were little I would always need to remind myself that my kids would not be my babies forever. I was always focused on helping them into the next growing up milestone. This was the first year I started to realize my parenting job is half over, and it totally freaked me the hell out! I don’t know how I’ll feel when my kids are college bound for the first time. A bit sad I think, but also happy that I raised good humans that are ready for the next growing up milestone. I send you major mom hugs and support as you head off into this new parenting zone. : )
Aw. Thanks, Robin. I know what you mean though. I had my freak out and now I feel ready to face this new chapter! I’m so proud of her too. Thinking about her next adventure makes me smile 😀