Following the example of a friend of mine, I am once again participating in an exercise in free writing. Now you know exactly what’s on my mind this week…
On house guests and work: As of Saturday afternoon, my husband and kids and I are the only people sleeping at my house. I’ve had family in the area since May 14. A month with family in town has been wonderful…and exhausting. I’ve spent more time off my computer this past month than I have in years, I’m sure. While I already know that I missed out on one fabulous opportunity for travel because of my time away, I also know that I’ve learned a few things. First, I can maintain my blog on significantly fewer hours. Second, while I may be maintaining my blog, my traffic is suffering from my time away. It always amazes me how much of my work time is not spent on writing but on email upkeep and social media activity.
A nearby lake, as captured during lunch with my mother in law last week.
On summer vacation: I look ahead on this Monday morning – the last Monday of the school year – wondering what the summer has in store for us. With one teen working full time at a summer camp and the remaining 6 family members at home (including 2 working parents) I’m going to need to get very creative on how we spend our time. This past month has taught me that I can continue to write without spending all day at my computer. I owe it to my kids to spend as much time outside with them this summer as I can. Heaven knows they’d be content to spend all day, everyday in front of the tv or some electronic device.
On deodorant and teenage boys: I never guessed that it would be so challenging to convince a 12 year old boy to start using deodorant…and I don’t think I realized how stinky one could get. Why he is resisting deodorant so strongly, I don’t know, although I suppose that I shouldn’t be so surprised. This is the kid who didn’t wear jeans for year – only soft, elastic-waisted pants for him – and can’t tolerate the smell of mint. Apparently, reminding him to use deodorant will be one of those daily struggles that I have to put up with. Either that or deal with stinky teenage boy body odor.
On Name Generators: On Sunday nights, the whole family ends up congregating in the family room until bed time. We never plan it, but we always end up there…reading, chatting, playing games. I love our casual Sunday evenings together.
I’m not sure exactly how we ended up searching for a Native American name generator…but we ended up spending over an hour generating different names for everyone in the family – Smurf names, Royal names, and the very popular My Little Pony names. Because they were the first, though, the Native American names stuck:
Walks without shoes (husband)
She who is useful to all (me)
She who is herself (16 y/o girl)
Runs with wolves (14 y/o girl)
Voices that carry (12 y/o boy)
Crash of thunder (10 y/o girl)
Crash of thunder (8 y/o boy)
The youngest two kids were given the same name, no matter how many times I tried to “re-generate” a new name. We ended up finding another name generator site, but a few family members insisted that their true, original names must be kept the way they are. Strangely, Crash of thunder is quite appropriate for both of them.
On ants: They are everywhere. From the kitchen to the bathroom to the bedroom….this is apparently a bad year for ants. Anyone else having a problem?
(Be sure to check out the other posts linked up at The Extraordinary Ordinary’s Just Write…)
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Aww. Thanks! Of course, I think she’s awesome, but it’s nice to hear it from someone else! She is so excited for the summer! I think the other kids are jealous. lol
Ants have invaded our house, too… I’m ready to lose my mind!!
p.s. Saw K at orientation… she’s awesome… just in case you didn’t already know! ;)