first day of summer vacation

Some days are just a little dramatic.

Especially when summer break jumps upon you like a wild hyena and your only response is to scream like a calm woman being chased by a wild mouse.

So. Actually our first day of summer vacation went well, especially considering the fact that there were no plans in place besides a few random words scrawled on a piece of notebook paper.

My mantra for the summer is "Work Hard, Play Hard!"  It's going to take a lot of defining to help my children understand what all this may look like in the coming weeks.

Here's how the first day of summer vacation 2015 shook out at our house:

- two mile walk for mom to pull together a few plans for the day and to get some much needed  exercise.

-5 huge loads of laundry processed

-basement cleaned

-visit to the library. 35 books scanned {quickly} and approved by mom.

-back lawn mowed

-leaves cleaned out of hedge

-swimming pool set up and filled with water (small inflatable one)

There's nothing quite like the first jump in the pool of the season. 

-met new neighbors while 4 kids were splashing and shrieking in the pool.

-encounter with mouse followed by a raging battle {insert massive amounts of screaming and hollering and thumping and banging}

terrified mother hangs close to her brave son

-the battle was unsuccessful for the humans. The mouse was thought to be trapped in the parents bedroom.

-mother refuses to sleep in bedroom until the matter is settled once and for all

-total furniture rearrangement in master bedroom in a desperate search for the mouse. This was no small feat in which the man of the house was heavily involved.

-The mouse was not captured, but the master bedroom got a face lift and a better cleaning than what it has had in 2 years.

just a peek at the one corner of the room

throw pillows I made out of an old blanket

-Family trip to a local farm to buy our weekly 5 gallons of unpasteurized, creamy milk. {We LOVE it this way!!!}

- 2 mile family walk/run at Woodcock at dusk. I love walking with the family for a number of reasons, but one is that my husband insists on me getting my exercise while he takes care of the boy who falls and scrapes his knee and the bike chain that continually falls off.

-Home. Bed time snack.

-We all fell into bed happily exhausted.

-Sometimes it is wise to take back big statements made in stressful situations. I slept like a baby in my own bed even though there was a mouse on the loose.

I think we fulfilled my mantra for the first day.

And it really was more fun than I expected.


Must add:

In my first waking moments of this morning, a mouse slipped under the door of the bathroom as I was upon the great white throne. Staying calm, I exited the room quietly and turned the matter over to my brave husband who is so much better at conquering mice than Yours Truly. But to give myself just a bit of credit: Not one little scream or squeak escaped my lips.