Monday and Tuesday were much the same: I stayed home and worked in the basement and walked Ivy occasionally. It was too warm and muggy to want to be outside, though I did sit outside and read Monday afternoon. I had Ivy on the tether and she was barking so, I went outside and sat down and she stopped. She was content to lie beneath the chair while I read. Otherwise, my sole outdoor activity was simply walking Ivy. Continue reading Days 73 and 74: The Doghouse in the Nile
The purpose of this blog was to chronicle what I was doing to make the days count. It is a philosophy that I have used with my students at the end of the year. I challenge them with the statement; “We can all count the days, but can we make the days count?” Hence, why I named the blog: Making the Days Count: A Summer Well Spent. In some ways, I have answered the call. I have reported what we have done as a family, what I have done individually, but I have failed, in some cases, to connect the dots to why it counts. With the days dwindling a summer has been well spent and the school year will soon be upon me. Continue reading Day 71 and 72: Sillybandz, Nemo, and Mosqitoes!
It has been ten full weeks of summer, seventy days, with twelve more days remaining. Eighty-two days of summer vacation are a bit short of the ’…hundred and four days of summer vacation…’ promised in the song that inspired this blog:
There’s a hundred and four days of summer vacation,
‘Til school comes along just to end it,
So the annual problem for our generation,
Is finding a good way to spend it
Like maybe…
From “Today is Gonna be a Great Day” by Bowling for Soup (click to play) 104_days_clip
I am beginning to feel that school does come along just to end it. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to getting back in the groove and having a regular schedule. Continue reading Day 70: Friday at home
This is the day I had not been looking forward to, return to Wheaton and ending summer at the cottage. I had been back for a two day trip and a three day trip, but this was final, it signified summer was over and a return to a normal schedule.
I did have a schedule: wake up, take Ivy out, make coffee, and write. This would be different though. It would mean I would have to accomplish more in a day than rest, relax, rejuvenate, water, boat, cook, and campfire. It is also a good thing as well because it means getting ready to go back to school and being alert and ready to go for a new school year. Continue reading Day 68 and 69: Home to Wheaton, back to reality
The Browns had arrived the Monday and Grandma and Grandpa were arriving Tuesday in late afternoon. It was quiet in the house when I woke up, Ivy and I came downstairs and we practiced our ritual; start the coffee then Ivy gets a short walk, followed by Ivy going back to sleep and I get to write. We had to be especially quiet as John was sleeping on the couch. Continue reading Day 67: Fishing, part two.
Today was the day, really the day. Olivia was going to get her stitches out. It was also the day William and she had been looking forward to – their cousins were arriving from Texas. It was going to be a great day. However, first we needed to finish the cleaning and moving we started Sunday.
Olivia woke and reminded me about our ‘date’ and we took off for the hospital to have her stitched removed. We checked in and it was a not a busy morning. The doctor checked in and the stitches were out. Olivia noted it took hardly any time at all. Even though the stitches were out, Olivia’s wound was not finished healing. She had to stay out of the water for another week.
Olivia pleaded, ‘What about tubing?”
The doctor replied, “No, swimming, what happens when you fall off?”
Olivia, retorted, “I won’t fall off.”
That is Olivia for you. We stopped at the bakery and got doughnuts and newspapers to ease the pain of no swimming. Continue reading Day 66: The cousins arrive
This is our last week at the cottage. It has been a great summer. We can all look back at the summer, smile, and realize that our days have counted. Each day has been a great day, for one reason or another.
For the past few years, this Sunday has marked our return to Wheaton and reality. Not this year, William decided not to play football this year and it means we do not need to be back for evaluations and ‘team selection.’ His decision gives us more time up north and we can visit with Beth’s sister Jill and her two boys: Sam and John. They arrive Monday afternoon and the kids cannot wait to see them. They live in Texas and we do not get to see them except for holidays and briefly during the summer when our paths cross at the cottage. Grandma and Grandpa will be driving up from Ohio Tuesday and it will be a full house, or rather a full cottage. Continue reading Day 65: Our last Sunday at the cottage
I slept late in fact I overslept. Ivy and I were the only ones up for a long while. Finally, Olivia came down stairs. The party on Friday night had been fun and the kids had gotten to bed much later than normal so sleeping was not a bad thing. That is why I slept so late. It was icky outside; cool and damp with light rain, the kind of weather that can descend on upper Lower Michigan at this time of the year. I have spent many of summer morning curled up on the couch, planted in a chair reading, or watching the lake through the windows. Continue reading Day 64: Saturday, a lazy day