Summer vibes and honeysuckle (and strawberry sonnet)

I’ve encouraged my older kids to ask for experiences/trips as Christmas or birthday presents. The 14-year-old asked for a diving trip this year, so over Memorial Day weekend my husband made good on that. The two of them went to Mexico and spent much of two days under the waves. It sounds like they had a good time.

In the meantime, I was here with the others. I wound up going to Princeton reunions for a while on Saturday — taking in the P-rade after visiting my brother and sister-in-law for a cookout. My parents took the kids I brought with me while I went to campus. I’m actually looking forward to my 25th reunion in a few years. Twenty-five years seemed like an eternity when I graduated but…time passes.

On Sunday I took the kids in the (still cold) pool for a while. I also managed to go for a bike ride because, hey, older kids. The 17-year-old and 12-year-old could watch the younger two! The 12-year-old and I went shopping at TJ Maxx. I hadn’t been to a TJ Maxx in a while but I…kind of enjoyed it. I wound up buying a jumpsuit. We shall see if I ever wear it. I have worn two of the shirts I bought this week (with pants inspired by the Real Life Style shopping trip). I took the little boys out into the honeysuckle patch for quite a while — they like tasting the nectar.

The long weekend was indeed long by the end, but fortunately my little boys’ ninja classes were still running on Monday. We were feeling a distinct need to get out of the house and do something by then! (And it was raining too hard to do much else.) I took them for their 4:30-5:30 and 5:45-6:45 p.m. classes and played a lot of ping pong with the other boy while each kid was in their class. Ping pong with a 9-year-old is a reasonable experience. Ping pong with a 4-year-old is not that fun. But he kept wanting to keep trying!

Anyway, I posted my Summer Fun List last week, but I’ve recently been thinking about more projects for the summer — for me and my kids. The 17-year-old needs to write his college essays and we need to visit a few schools once he’s refined his list. While it would be better to visit during the school year when classes are in session the problem is that then the high school classes are in session too and it gets really challenging to miss. Maybe we could do some quick weekend trips in the fall but…that’s a tough time too.

I’d like some of the older kids to play ping pong or pool or Scrabble with the 9-year-old. He doesn’t do so well entertaining himself with non-screen options but he likes playing with others. So maybe this can be something of an expectation. I think the 14-year-old can work on training the dog or at least taking him for longer walks when he’s home, which would hopefully cut down on some misbehavior incidents (the dog’s incidents, not the kid’s…).

Both of the older two boys’ rooms desperately need a clean out of items that don’t fit them. I think I may need to help with this. I probably need to clean out my office too!

Of course, as I’m pondering this, I’m not sure why I’d magically have more time and energy in the summer. I won’t. The kids will have weeks when they’re not in camp so they’ll have some time, but not an infinite amount of time. Looking forward I can already see some weekends are getting crunched with transporting people to and from camp so…

Well, I’ll figure it out. In the meantime, another sonnet, this one called Strawberry Season:

Bright red beneath the leaves, the summer sun
is gentle still, these berries coaxing, through,
the mass of sweetness growing — twist each one
and feel the weight, the start of something new,

a juicy dribble trickling down the chin.
A child who, five summers past, was just
a thought, is nibbling berries, wondering when
the tractor will be rumbling through the dust.

It comes, and soon this moment too will end.
The berry season season flies, and by July
all withered, but for now the clouds befriend
each other — floating, passing in the sky,

and all is full, my basket, and each day,
each little possibility of May.