We briefly had four kids at home, but now it’s back down to three. The 17-year-old came home late Friday night. He likes his room! The movie posters look really cool all framed and up on the wall. The 12-year-old has been inspired and is now working on a redo of her room…
On Saturday, my husband and I went on a house and garden tour nearby at Stoneleigh — while the gardens are open most days, the house is not, so it was kind of fun to see inside. The upper floors have been mostly turned into archival storage for the Organ Historical Society, so I snapped this photo of various copies of “Organ Building for Amateurs” — what a hobby!
I also spent a lovely hour floating solo in my pool. Normally, pool trips are spent supervising children, so I enjoyed lying on a float for an hour and not being responsible for anyone but myself. Talk about restful!
Then on Sunday morning, my husband and 9-year-old took off for his sleep-away camp. We have not done the traditional cabin-in-the-woods sorts of camps for any of our kids, so this is a new experience, but I have high hopes he will love it. He likes various outdoor/athletic activities. My husband recorded a video of him telling me that it looks really fun. Also: I sent him with a battery-operated fan and a baggie of ex tra D batteries. My husband had a brief moment of angst when he saw every other kid in the cabin had a fan but then he saw our kid pull his fan out and he sent me a text about how I was on top of this [stuff.] Yes. I am.
Meanwhile, the 17-year-old and I volunteered in the 4-year-old’s Sunday School class (we have been doing this a lot this summer as they always need helpers but I have no ability to do it during the school year with choir). Funny story — another parent whose kid was a little anxious about separation told me that in a class a few months ago she had tried to leave by telling her kid that she was going to the bathroom (true, but she didn’t say whether she was coming back…). My 4-year-old, who is wise in the ways of the world, told her kid that “she’s going to be in the bathroom for a long time.”
I have been watching a lot of the Olympics. It’s something like drinking from a fire hose, so I know I won’t see everything I want to (we don’t magically get extra hours during Olympic weeks) but it’s still fun. We’ve been scheming about going to the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028. Some kids want to see gymnastics, but given the number of celebrities in the stands in Paris, that suggests it might not be the easiest thing in the world to get tickets. Well, we’ve got four years to figure that out…
I nodded along to so many things in this post.
The Olympics seem to throw me in to a time warp. I literally want to watch it all hours of the day, which is bizarre since I don’t really follow sports regularly outside of the Olympics. It’s such a unique and electrifying atmosphere. And it’s such fun exposure to so many unique skills and talents.
Gold stars on the fan. It’s those little things that parents do behind the scenes that often go unnoticed. It’s nice when someone (especially the other parent) recognizes the forethought that went in to making something successful. Our nine-year-old is also at his first week of overnight camp (in the woods). He seemed a bit nervous, but loves outdoor activities and I suspect he’ll have the time of his life. His big sister is there as a leader, so there is some family connection (though that could be a bad thing, theoretically, since they don’t always see eye to eye and our daughter loves to boss him, so being officially tasked with “leading” – aka bossing – campers around is basically the epitome of what she wants in life).
And floating solo in the pool for an hour sounds delightful.
Oh, and I laughed about your 4-year old’s comment about the length of the mother’s “bathroom break”. Wise beyond his years 🙂
@Elisabeth – oh dear, I could see some combos of my kids being problematic in the CIT/camp attendee dynamic. As it was the 4-year-old said, in no uncertain terms, that his older brother was not to call him by a particular nickname while we were in Sunday School!
Ha, I laughed very loudly when I read about your husband and the fan. Been there!
@Elisa- oh, this was quite the packing operation. I was prepared!! There are all kinds of things that could go wrong, so I don’t want the lack of something we could have brought to be the problem.
I don’t know if it is “cocktail party syndrome”, but I sure am having a lot of organ encounters these days. Oh, hush. Anyway, I happen to ring in a performing handbell ensemble, and many of our members come from church bell choirs, so it’s reasonable that at lease a couple of them play the organ. And just last night I met someone at a visitation, and it turns out she plays the organ, just for fun. We shared our organists we follow (the sparkly Anna Lapwood for me, Scottish German Fraser Gartshore for her). But then I open your blog and see a library of organ-building books. I have a new respect for organists, especially those who frequently play on different instruments, like church substitutes and touring performers. Every organ is different, and one might not get much time to get to know it first. But gee, what is the universe trying tell me? I should take up the organ?
@Barb – you should totally take up the organ. If you have organists you follow, you are already halfway there 🙂
It is strange to me that residential organs were a “thing” for rich people to have in their homes back in the day. I mean, of all the things to spend your money on!!