It is a dreary, rainy Monday. A good day to just lie around and not do anything. Which is a good thing since about half the house is out of commission thanks to a stomach bug that is still working its way through the house.
Not especially good timing for that as last weekend was a big family gathering for my mother-in-law’s 70th birthday celebration. Her official party was Saturday evening and we brought the immediate family to our place for a lunch and hanging out on Sunday. I don’t know the exact count but I’m guessing at least 10 people had some kind of intestinal issue over that stretch. The odd thing is some of the people who got sick were ill before they interacted with each other. So we may have served as a focal point for the joining of several varying GI bugs. If there’s a Super Flu racing through the country soon, you can blame us.
Other than that, the celebration was good. It was a relatively cool weekend, at least for July in Indiana. Lots of good food. Our first chance to meet our newest nephew, who is nine months old. The first time all of S’s siblings have been together in a long time. We’re interested to see how the big group photos turn out. When you have a three-year-old, three two-year-olds, and a baby it makes for interesting photography times.
Friday I drove down to pick up M from her week of camp. She had another really good time, making a couple new friends and hanging out with two of her best friends. They were all in tears when I picked them up. I reminded her, good naturedly, that she would see her school friends in just a couple days. She said “But this is our last year at camp!” Which seemed like a solid point. Until she told me, on our way home, that she wants to come back next year for one of the other sections of the camp that is open to older kids, she wants to be a junior counselor when she turns 16, and she wants to be a full counselor when she goes to college. Teenage girls, man…
She turned 14 while she was away. I’m retiring the birthday posts, mostly because I feel like the girls are all pretty locked into their personalities and it’s harder to think of several hundred words to write about them on their birthdays. She definitely seems like a 14-year-old, though. Mood swings, irrational emotional outbursts, moments she expresses strong confidence countered by ones when she is totally unsure of herself. Every element of her personality expressed to its maximum level. It’s a delightful time to be a parent.
We’re down to two-and-a-half weeks of summer break remaining. We have a fairly busy week of activities lined up this week, weather and health permitting. C begins her normal cross country practice schedule this week. Kickball practice is about to start, too, and soccer is a couple weeks away. Our not-so-lazy summer schedule is about to shift into the super packed stretch of weeks that are the beginning of the school year.