The View From My Front Porch : Switching Gears and Awakening the Beast

And by beast..I mean the 3 month long chaotic rollercoaster ride that has already been unleashed. I've been complaining for quite some time about Iowa weather. I keep nudging my husband to start looking for jobs in Florida. I could live in a place where everyone has a pool and sunshine and beach sunsets are the norm. I really could. Alas, we live in Iowa where you can have a blizzard on Monday and run through the sprinkler on Friday.

Sometimes I forget that the cooler temps actually keep me sane in that my students aren't chomping at the bit to be done with school or that my children's activities aren't stacked up one on top of another. Sanity has gone out the window this week. I can't find my brain and I'm starting to think it may never return. It started Saturday. I completely forgot Jaedyn had softball camp, one that I had already paid $15 dollars for mind you. I didn't recall that information until Monday.Poor Jaedyn tried to make me feel better by telling me that it was totally fine that I had forgotten about the camp. I think she was taking one for the team, though. Either that or it's such a common occurence anymore that it doesn't even phase her. Either way, I'm okay with this being one of those things she tells her husband she will do differently than I did. Then, I went to buy Jaedyn new tennis shoes since she was starting to look a little homeless with a hole the size of a walnut above her big toe. Low and behold, she is NOT a size 3.5. She is in fact a 5. Mother of the year right here. Monday, I forgot to go in for my 6 month checkup with my surgeon. Seriously. It's starting to get ridiculous.

I've decided that Spring is just a figment of my imagination and that it doesn't even exist in the Midwest. I'm going to start calling it Sprummer. Sprummer has finally decided to show up. I'm enjoying shorts, flip flops, leaving the house with no coat and recess duty for starters. And with warmer temperatures, schedules get ridiculously crazy around here. Carter is almost done with soccer already, which I am actually completely okay with considering he asks his coach to keep him on the sidelines most of the time. His idea of a successful game is if he "played" for a total of 5 minutes and if Oscar scored a goal. That's it. Serious. So we are ready for that to be over with. Softball started this past week for Jaedyn and will start for Carter next week. Their schedules are loaded up beings that we are a traveling team, so our month of June will be spent watching ball, and I'm okay with that too except for that I'll only make it to half of their games since they usually play at different locations so I will be going alone when they both have them on the same night. I'm just praying that broken ankles won't be an issue and that I am completely self-sufficient this summer. That'd sure be nice!

I'm not going to lie, though. I love this time of the year when the gears shift from cuddling at home on the couch, fuzzy socks and hot chocolate to flip flops, pool days, trampolines and fires. This is the time of year when my friends that live far away come home, and I'm able to catch up and soak in those few precious moments that I get to spend with them in the year. Those are bliss, by the way. Last weekend, I got to love up my good friend's twins. This week, I got to enjoy my Lee's company (twice!). While Dan is gone on his guys' weekend, my good friend Drew is back from NYC to keep me company tonight! I couldn't be more excited! Icing on the cake? Brent and Ashley are coming home next weekend and I get to love up Maveric for the first time! I am feeling super blessed right now!

We are starting to fill up our weekends with memories we hope to make, friends we get to catch up with, and babies and littles to love up. Our weeks will fill in those weekend gaps with practice, ball games, pool dates, coffee breaks and chalk sketches. Which reminds me. The Wolfswinkels have made our summer bucketlist. We hope to actually cross them off this year!

*Catch fireflies
*Many campfires
*Plant a garden
*Purge crap we don't need
*Fireworks at mom's house on 4th of July with good friends
*Blog more
*Drive-inn movies
*Go to the Paullina pit to swim
*Picnics in the park
*Park hop to different towns
*Go to the zoo
*Spend a weekend or a few Sunday afternoons at Yankton
*Read for fun
*Hit up a Twin's game
*Water balloon wars
*Mother/Daughter back to school shopping in the cities
*Farmer's Market trips
*Perfect a homemade salsa and sangria recipe
*Cloud watch
*Visit friends who don't live close
*Write letters to my kids in their Mama and Me books
*Have some Top Che dinner competitions
*Have a Summer Olympics with our friends
*Hot tubbin
*Organize pictures
*Sparklers
*Kayak
*Watch sunsets by a beach
*Lie on blankets/trampoline and look at the stars
*Projector movie nights outside
*Road trip
*Strawberry picking
*Karaoke night
*Teach my kids night games and play them
*Practice taking pictures and editing
*Friend BBQs
*Pool dates
*Run a 5K for a student with cancer
*Run a Color Vibe on the year anniversary of my broken ankle
*Camp on the trampoline
*Moon walks with my kids

Hokey Pete's that's a long list! I better hop to it. What are your plans?!

Here are some fun things that we did last year in the one week we excelled at summer!