Check-In From Summer Break

After weeks of juggling a leaky basement, renovating/reorganizing EVERYTHING, and sifting through literally thousands of photos from my trip to Germany in May and my son's trip to Alaska in June, I am about half-way through everything and am having a tough time completing anything.

Parents of little kiddos, you know how it is. You spend all day feeding everyone and just when you sit down someone pees on the carpet/the legos get dumped down the stairs/the laundry somehow breeds to create a monster.

So by the time I have "free time" there are so many half-finished projects that I feel paralyzed and end up watching The Office or Parks and Rec reruns instead putting that final coat of paint on the trim or creating great content for your blog.

"It's okay that these projects are half-done" I tell myself. Aside from getting all-the-things done, I also want to make sure the summers are full of fun activities, plenty of unstructured time for the kids, and also some project-based learning to make-up for the gaps I see in schooling these days. Ie. wood-working (a tween should know how to swing a hammer), cooking, cursive, horticulture, musical instruments... I have this dream of all of the kids learning "Green Sleeves" on recorder and playing it for Christmas. #nerd #inmydreams

So, this is what I have. A few pictures of Alaska, a few of Germany, and some encouragement for you in these unbearably hot days of July.

Germany from a 36yo point-of-view:

Square in Bremen - one of my new favorite places in the world!

Alaska: from a 13yo point-of-view:

Enjoy this hot weather if you can! It's so fleeting, and so much better than -65!