Almost there...

Less than a week until school starts.

The majority of the school supplies have been purchased, parent/teacher conferences are scheduled, sports practices have already begun, and it's only a matter of time before I dump the kids off at the front door of the school and do the happy dance on the way out of the parking lot.

I love my kids. I really do.

But I can not wait until they are back in school. Seriously.

I've never been one of those moms who greets the new school year with "but I'm going to miss my babies so much" or "I just can't bear the thought of my darling angels being gone all day" or any of that jazz.

Instead, I'm over here saying "finally, I can poop in peace!"

After dedicating the past 3ish months to them morning, noon, and night (and then some), I'm ready for some quality ME-time.

I'm ready to deal with the morning drama, take them to school, and then go for a run.

I'm ready to go to the grocery store - alone - and not feel frazzled the entire time I'm there (or come home with a bunch of crap that I didn't plan to buy).

I'm ready to help Emily get her Crayons for a Cause up and running.

I'm ready to hide out in the Mom Cave and work on lots of new projects. I have so many ideas for things that I want to get made in addition to the normal routine of the weighted blankets, and it's so hard to get any of that done when the kids are home - but with 7-8 hours of peace every day I can get so much done without feeling like I'm neglecting them. 

And I'm totally ready for Date Day with The Dude - on Tuesday, the first day of school, he and I are packing a cooler and our fishing poles and we are taking off for the lake as soon as the kids are safely at school and we're going to just hang out together all day. We might have just spent a solid 2 weeks together, but we did not get any time alone - and ever since we got back we've both been busy taking care of stuff and haven't really had a chance to really see each other - so I called him today and officially asked him out on a date. And he said yes.  (I think he likes me.)

I've been told before that I'm selfish because I enjoy my time "too much" when the kids are in school. Maybe it is selfish of me, but I look at it this way - I am here for these kids 24/7, whether they're in school or not. I'm lucky enough to not have to work a "real" job so I can spend the entire summer with them and it's awesome. But when they're in school, I get to do what I want to do when I want to do it. I finally get to do stuff for ME, without taking away time from them. I can sneak away for a day and go fishing with The Dude without having to worry about finding someone to keep an eye on them. I can hide in the Mom Cave all day and not worry about who is going to fix them lunch (because I already packed it before they walked out the door that morning). I can go for a run to clear my head and keep myself healthy without wondering if they're burning the house down while I'm gone. And if I want to take a nap in the middle of the day, I can do it without fearing judgment from someone who might show up at the door for some unknown reason.

And if all of that is selfish, then so be it. I know that having the time to myself while they're in school makes me a more relaxed person, which helps me to be a better mother. And I'm ok with that.

5 days, 4 hours, and 45 minutes....... give or take a few......

Fishing and Father's Day

The Dude and I decided to take Daniel and go for a spur-of-the-moment fishing trip late yesterday afternoon. We grabbed some hot dogs and s'mores fixin' stuff and took off for a few hours. The fish were absolutely NOT biting at all, but we still had a nice, quiet, relaxing time (in spite of the drunks at the next campsite). The fish started biting after it got dark, but none of us caught anything.

Heading out

Always a gorgeous drive

Lakeside

Relaxing

Still one of my all-time favorite views

Why, hello there Mr. Turtle. Now go away.

Bored out of his skull

Beautiful sky

The sunset was amazing.

Discussing the finer points of s'mores, I'm sure.

Fishing by the light of the moon.

Love nights like this.

This morning, we all slept late - even me. By the time that we got up and got moving, we were all hungry and so we decided to take The Dude out for a Father's Day lunch. Daniel gave him a card that he had picked out and signed all by himself, which totally melted my heart - and I think that The Dude was pretty darned happy with it too.

Walking to lunch

Stopping to check out the scenery under the bridge

The card.

Not a bad weekend, if I do say so myself.

Camping videos

Had I thought about it while we were out there, I would have recorded more stuff because there were some truly priceless moments. But, I never think about it at the time.

This first one though..... oh my wow. Let me apologize now for the shakiness but I was laughing so hard that I couldn't hold the camera still. The boys were playing in the sand by the water, and Alex wanted to tell Daniel something. I heard him say "Daniel! Come here!" several times, but Daniel wanted nothing to do with whatever it was that Alex wanted to show him. Finally, Daniel looked at Alex and said "No! I want to do ballet!" and ran off and started dancing up and down the shoreline. I managed to catch part of it on film...



Then this one - this was Sunday afternoon before we left. We ventured to a different part of the lake to try to get out of the wind (and failed) and we really wanted Daniel to catch a fish (Alex had left with his father that morning). So The Dude managed to hook one and then handed the pole to Daniel.

He was quite proud of himself!

Eye Candy (not THAT kind)

This is MY kind of eye candy - the kind that I can stare at all day, every day, and never get tired of it.

You guessed it. More pictures from our camping trip.

The view from our campsite back down the road.

One of my favorite views. Ever.

Thursday sunset

Night fishing by the light of the moon.

Friday sunrise

The view from the other side of the lake

Starting to figure it all out.

You can see how low the water level still is - that tree should
be at the water's edge.

Whoa. A moment of focus.

Friday sunset

S'mores!

Friday night fishing. Seriously, that's the moon.
Not the sun.

Saturday sunset

The supermoon Saturday night.

Supermoon

More supermoon

I'm definitely ready to go back out there again.

A little bit of wildlife

While we were camping this weekend, we saw lots of wildlife - although some of it was much more alive than others. It was wonderful to just kick back and watch everything without the hustle and bustle of the real world to interrupt it.

Here are a few shots of what we saw.

ZOMBIE TURTLE!!!!

Crane. There were lots of these.

Ducks. Lots of them too.

Snakes. They were all over the water, and some of them
were extremely persistent.

Signs of raccoons.

This just makes me giggle.

I think he was trying to convince us that he
was to be feared....

....or that he was Loch Ness's cousin.

Crane - see the fish in its mouth?

Hey look! A crane!

Not sure what kind of birds these are, but they're
fearless. And fast.

Dragonfly - one of the few bugs that we saw the
entire weekend.

I waited all day to get this picture.

Another shot of Speedy.

Flying crane.

This little jerk was extremely persistent. He would NOT
go away, and he thoroughly enjoyed hanging out about
5' away from where I was sitting.

A pelican. In Kansas. I had to google it to be sure.

I still have a ton of pictures to go through and post....slowly but surely!!!