Beating the heat.

I haven't been feeling like the mother of the year the past few days based on how little the kids have been able to be outside this week.  With temperatures in the upper 90's, there just isn't any good reason to be outside in the sweltering heat more than absolutely necessary.  And so, we have found ourselves cooped up inside more often than usual.  Poor Mara has been doing everything in her power to show us through charades that she is dying to get outside to blow bubbles!  And I think Joshua fears that the basketball hoop might fall down if he doesn't use it for at least an hour each day.  I am hoping that the heat will break soon, and we'll be back to our outside routines.

We were blessed to get an invitation from one of Jason's clients to come and visit them last evening so that we could all enjoy their swimming pool.  Even though the water temperatures had to be over 90 degrees, it still felt good to be in the water.  And I don't think the kids minded one bit.  Joshua took off swimming all over the place in his water wings, while Lauren and Mara were much more reserved.  It is times like this that I wish we either spent a lot more time at the pool, or that I had invested the time in swimming lessons for the kids, because I know it just takes effort and repetition for them to get comfortable.  I have no problem with effort, but taking time out of work schedules to handle swimming lessons just isn't a luxury that we have right now.  So, we do the best we can.  Sadly, a thunderstorm sent us packing out of the pool a lot sooner than the kids would have liked, but we had a nice dinner together and enjoyed their company greatly.  How nice of them to share their beautiful pool with us.

We are looking forward to a rather quiet weekend at home this weekend.  We have a few things planned, and are keeping a Knoebels trip under a veil of secrecy for Sunday in case it cools down enough to venture out with the kids to have some fun there.  We aren't mentioning it to them in case it is either a. still too hot to think about it, or b. Sunday rolls around and Jason and I don't have the energy to make it happen.  But we know that, even one word to the kids about it means that we're hooked.

Wishing everyone a cool, relaxing weekend.  I'm hoping to catch up on laundry, start checking things off of my pre-back to school checklist, and squeeze in some time to read a book.  If I get past number one it'll be a miracle.