I came up with the lovely idea of Camp Cutchshaw where the children would learn things and participate in camp- like activities seeing as how we are totally broke and cannot afford fancy real camps. I think Camp Cutchshaw lasted 3 days. I am not sure. I could check one of the previous blogs about our Camp Cutchshaw adventures, but I do not want to relive any of it.
So, I gave up. I threw in the towel. I did not endure to the end. I said to hell with it. And you know what happened?
We had a pretty fabulous summer. The kids were lazy. They slept in. They stayed up late. They didn't make up their beds. They did not hang up laundry. They did not do dishes. They did not do chores. And guess what? We all relaxed. Wow. What a concept.
Next summer I am totally going to incorporate the Cutchshaw Spa where overstressed children can come learn how to be lazy because I am pretty good at teaching that school, apparently.
School year is for hard work and summer is for unwinding. That's my new philosophy which is pretty great because no kid will resist that.
We swam a LOT. We went to the movies a few times. We played with toys we had forgotten about. We played games. We hunted for the possum who lives under our porch that has eaten 2 of our stray cats. We had some circle of life lessons. We learned what it feels like to live without air condition for 3 days when it is 104 outside. (THAT was NO fun!) We had a couple of bon fires. We visited friends. I learned how to wash dishes by hand when our dishwasher broke and I've gotten so good at it that we may never replace it. (sigh) I had a birthday. Sydney turned 15 and got her learner's license. She is an excellent driver, by the way. Jolie turned 17 and is enjoying a summer romance. Mollie's birthday is coming up in a few days. And I took the kids on our annual Fripp Island vacation with my mother, my sisters, their children, and one of my brothers-in-law.
Today is the first day of school and now the Cutchshaw Spa is over. I am kinda sad. As difficult as it can be juggling everything, I really do love being with my children. I love hanging out with them in our pajamas in the middle of the day. I love having time to read books with them at night. I love not feeling pressure to get things done at a certain time. I love being able to just lay out in the middle of the driveway looking at the stars in the middle of the night and not feeling like a bad mom for letting them stay up past their bed time.
I hope when I am dead, they will remember the Cutchshaw Spa Summer more fondly than they would have been grateful that I had helped polish up handwriting and drilled math facts every day. It would have been good to do that, but this was good too. And I hope they know just how much I ENJOY being in their precious presence. How I love their puppy breath in the morning and how much I love hanging out in the teenager's room in the middle of the night telling jokes. I love it when Fischer drills me on trivia facts and how Mollie draws happy pictures of sunshines and rainbows and then in her twisted way, draws "angry mobs" in the background. I love watching Nicholas line up all the food out of the pantry all over the house. I love it when all of us get squished in my bed watching a really dumb TV show. I love it when every one's bored and we try to think of a cheap activity to do and everyone argues about who gets to pick and then everyone gets upset and we end up doing nothing. I love it all. And I love each of them. Amen.
