Summertime and the livin' is easy

I have a great job, I really do. I love teaching and I love these wonderful summer months that I get off with my kids. But at the same time, it helps me realize that I am not full time stay at home mom material. I just don't think I have it in me.

Another teacher friend and I were just discussing how we have the ability to get 22 kids in our classrooms to toe the line with a simple look. On the other hand at my house I have one kid using a cozy coupe as a stepping stool to reach the chandelier and the other dancing around clutching a fish bowl. (He was practicing a dance he calls "the swim" in case you were wondering.) It is exhausting. It is such hard work to live in the world of Connor Hill all day long because it doesn't come naturally to my grown up self. We hit the ground running and every morning he wakes up in the midst of some new imaginary adventure and those adventures can take us anywhere from a tent in the closet to the office of the person I like to call Dr. Dramatic. He is the keeper of all bad health news. He took his brother's temperature the other day and said, "Oh my goodness Mush, this says you are almost dead. Let's go change your clothes for your dying time." And since I know some of you are wondering what the outfit of choice would be for a fake deadly high temperature, I will describe it to you. Swim trunks, Christmas sweater featuring seasonal train and bath towel turban on his head. Dr. Dramatic doesn't put too much stock in patient dignity.

For Father's Day, Matt requested that his gift be simple....No more phone calls during work hours featuring his children screaming in the background. I thought that was asking a bit much, it is kind of a Hallmark holiday after all. But I'm going to try and cut back because after all Matt does have a job that on rare occasions does actually require him to handle things that might potentially electrocute him. I can see how moderating World War 3 on the telephone might be considered a dangerous distraction.

So here is how our lazy days of summer usually break down. We try to go somewhere in the mornings. We hit up the library, the park, you know, just somewhere public because my children usually act better around strangers than they do for me at home. I call these my "show children" only seen in public and never at home. Our days go much better when we get out. The days that we stay in are crazy, it amazes me how fast time flies by. I feel like I spend all day keeping everyone entertained and at least some of the chaos at bay and then all of a sudden I will look up and it is 4:00. I have to race around, get everyone out of their pajamas and throw an onion into the oven before Matt walks in the door. The onion buys me some time on dinner. I know. I'm not fooling anyone but myself.

Summertime is crazy fun, emphasis on the crazy, but I wouldn't trade this time with my boys for anything in the world. These are their formative years after all. Who else is going to teach them how to wrap towel turbans and cook an onion (in the skin) for dinner? Their part-time stay at home/full-time crazy mommy, that's who!