Summer is NOT for sissies!

     Whew!

     Where do I even begin? I haven't posted in a while, which is a big mistake for me. Writing, even if it's about something insignificant to everyone but me, is who I am. When I'm not writing I feel a bit lost.

     In all honesty, there are really just about three reasons I haven't posted in a while.

     1. I have truly been having the most quality summer with my boys and husband that I have ever had. We have had so much fun, and this is a summer I will never forget. I have been so busy enjoying myself and my family that I have really let everything else go.

(Before you vomit and "unblog" me, please keep reading.)


     2. My boys have been fighting with each other like FLIPPING CATS AND DOGS THIS SUMMER AND WHEN THE DAY IS OVER THERE IS NOT A CREATIVE BONE LEFT IN MY BODY OR AN OUNCE OF ENERGY. The only energy left allows me enough strength to eat Haagen Dazs while my husband plays with my hair and we watch a Lifetime movie.

     Life in the fast lane. Try not to be jealous.

  
     3. Pinterest. Pinterest late at night has replaced blogging late at night. At least it has this summer. Late at night, when the house is quiet, it's hard not to get sucked in with all the crafty possibilities.


     Okay, let me explain the last two. We all joyfully count down as summer approaches. "Just 23 more days until summer!" we exclaim. We imagine children playing in sprinklers and catching fireflies. We fantasize about cookouts and sleeping in until 8 a.m. We drool over no schedules and no packing lunches.

     But I really think it's similar to childbirth. They say we forget the pain, otherwise we would never have more children. That must be how summer works. If we truly remembered the good, the bad, and the ugly of summers past, would we really be counting down or would we be crying over Little Debbies and red wine?

     Because I assure you that when I am counting down until summer, I am NOT thinking about 102-degree heat with a voice from the backseat screeching, "He keeps blowing on me!!!"

     Nope. Not what I'm thinking about.

     Not only do kids have to get more creative with how they spend their time in the summer since there is not school or sports to entertain them, but they also get more creative with their fighting. Don't get me wrong, fighting is always annoying. But at least many of the fights during the school year make some sort of sense. Things like, "He is playing with my baseball bag!" Or, "I'm trying to do my homework and he keeps turning up the TV!"

     But the fights of the lazy days of summer? HOLY TOLEDO!!!


     "He's copying me!" "He licked his finger and wiped it on my shirt!" On and on and ONNNNNNNN!!!


     I have been scouring the Internet to figure out how to stop the sibling fighting. I even discovered that fighting is more normal than not fighting! Great! We are fantastically normal! Yee haw! But if Mommy loses her cookies, what good is normal? Maybe, just maybe, Mommy needs to wear an ipod 24/7.

     I knew my feelings were valid when my grandmother just looked at me helplessly during their summer visit and asked, "Are there any more Bible Schools they could go to?"

     But, we are simply an intense family. Even when the boys are getting along beautifully, I still sometimes feel like I can't breathe. My chest is tight a lot of the time. We are just INTENSE people. No idea where they get that. No idea at all.

     The other day a friend ran in to us at Target. She said she could hear us three aisles over. Nope, the boys were not bickering. We are just passionate. If we are happy, or excited, or surprised, or even bored, you very well might hear us. The only thing that surprised me was that she hadn't heard us six aisles over.

     Just tonight we made a Target run so the boys could spend their allowance money. My five-year-old was barrelling down the aisles. He had fallen earlier in the day on a dragon castle and sliced his eyebrow. We had to go to the doctor, who didn't stitch, but "glued" it back together. So here is my little man with a big cut above his eye, ketchup spilled all over his shirt, carrying a big nerf-like toy gun, loudly singing Adele. A little storm trooper belting out, "Rumor has it..."

     We are never quiet. Never. Ever.

     So I guess my point is that a summer, an ENTIRE summer, of lots and LOTS of intensity, can really wear a 40-year-old mom out!!!

     Now, on to Pinterest. (Big sigh.)

     Is there anyone who hasn't been sucked into this vortex? I have no earthly idea what a "burpee" is or when I'm going to don my workout clothes and do thirty of them, but just pinning them makes me feel one step closer to having the body of J.Lo. And what woman eating her weight in carbs at neighborhood gatherings wouldn't want to feel like that?

     Pinterest makes me happy. So rather than writing, I have been pinning things that you can bet your bottom dollar I will never, ever, do. I've been a pinning fool lately. I can finally see the tile on my laundry room floor, so I'm feeling a little cocky.

     I even hung an ironing board on the back of the laundry room door. Nevermind that during it all my eight-year-old, in all seriousness, asked me what an ironing board was.

     Don't judge.

    There is just something about Pinterest and summer, that makes you feel like a new you is possible in the fall. At least that is what I'm hoping for...

      Delusional or not.