Monday, June 7: The first official day of summer began when Olivia stepped off the bus! There are many definitions of summer – meteorological, astronomical or celestial, and educational. Of course, for those not still in school or working in education there are the first two. Meteorological is June 1 to August 31. Astronomical is from the solstice to the equinox. The solstice this year will be on Monday, June 21 at 6:28 AM. It marks the longest day in terms of sunlight in the northern hemisphere. I will be home from Paris by then. Experts measure Educational Summer from the last day of school until the first day of the next school year. Phineas and Ferb had it wrong there are not 104, but 82 for me and 77 for my kids. Monday was the last day of school for William and Olivia. It was also traditional the neighborhood party for all kids it is organized by the moms in the neighborhood. I do not attend; instead, I worked on cleaning my office downstairs, organized my planner, worked on writing the blog, looked ahead to the Paris trip, and worked on a few odds and ends.The day ended with a summer dinner – barbecue spare ribs, baked beans, cucumber salad, and strawberries and ice cream. The kids love ribs and my grilling skills have improved. The cucumber salad is always good. It is a recipe I worked up a few years ago; sliced cucumbers, thinly sliced red onion, tossed with Brianna’s Real French Vinaigrette.  It is a delicious cool salad for a warm summer day. All enjoyed on the deck outside and it was a great night to eat al fresco. We shared our summer expectations – what we want to do this summer. Beth wanted a family that does not yell – I agreed. I wanted kids to listen the first time. William wants to go to summer camp and Olivia wants to enjoy her summer and have a nice family. It is too early for the fireflies to be out so we will have to watch the fireflies another night.

Tuesday, June 8 was a dreary rainy day. It rained all day, I did get a few things accomplished, and in some ways, it counted. One of Beth’s goals this summer was to clean the garage and remove some clutter. The garage sale helped some but there were a few things we kept that needed to be stored better. One is the car top carrier. It is bulky and it really does not fit anywhere. On Monday, I had bought ceiling storage bin and set about installing it. I had William’s help and we were able to get it installed in a little more than two hours. The instructions state that it should take an hour but I did not have to go to the hardware store for anything so it was a good installation!

Julie, my stepmother, is coming in Friday night and staying over before we fly to Paris on Saturday. We do not get many guests come visit. We travel to them, so our guest room is used for extra storage. Beth is worried what the house will look like and she has been cleaning and organizing for a couple of weeks. The end of the school year is always busy and I have not been much help. Today, I work folding clothes, hauling bins, and helping with laundry. Unfortunately, Olivia’s softball game was cancelled due to a wet field so the hour before the scout meeting was freed. Beth has been organizing a CPR class for Saturday morning for the scouts and needs to be at the scout meeting – so it will be a family scout night.

The day ended with a few loose ends. I still need to make a list of what I am planning to take to Paris, I need to revise my summer list, and need to clean my office desk. However, I needed sleep more than anything else and I went to sleep. The days are going quickly. There are eleven days behind me and another seventy-two to ahead.