Summertime, and the living is easy

Oh so NOT! Summer has officially, or unofficially, arrived, as the girls have finished the school year, and the days' temperatures top 90 degrees. We've found very little time to get out and enjoy those days though. Of course, there's my work - my long days' journeys into nights for many, many nights. We've got another vacationer out of the office for the next two weeks, so naturally, the pile on my plate has grown. It's not so bad at the moment though. I've certainly had worse. We also haven't gotten the call about the inspection for my house yet. "Within the next week or two" has stretched well beyond, and we're finding that keeping up with the clean is nearly as hard as getting it clean in the first place. No surprise there. We've never had time. Twenty large bags of garbage made their way to the curb over our two-week cleaning spree, and we had at least eight bags of clothes that went to the donation box. We've provided a new wardrobe for an entire family with just what was hiding in our closets and under our beds and at the bottoms of our drawers. Schedules have grown even more hectic as Gin has joined the YMCA cheerleading team and has practices in Sidney every Monday and Wednesday. That means I have to come home, pick up the girls, go back to Sidney (a 25-minute drive each way), wait for two hours then drive home. We've had one so far. The first practice of the month is open for parents to watch, so Munch and I sat through Monday's practice, then we came home and ate a very late dinner - we were finishing up at 11:30 p.m. The other practices I figure I will take Munch with me and go back to the office during practice. I'll have to sort out just how early I'll need to leave on those days, so I'm not building up too many hours. There's the additional expense as well - $40 per month, $5 for each extra tumbling class (offered as an option after each regular practice), $84 for uniform (that could be MUCH worse) - competition expenses will come later, too. In addition to the cheerleading, Gin has joined the school's volleyball team, so there are practices during the day for her. The regular practices are at the school gym, but conditioning is at the Versailles YMCA, which is a three-mile bike ride each way for her. She won't get to many of those, as she's babysitting for a neighbor a few days each week as well. The girls are also keeping up with their summer reading program through the library. Munch will also have the summer reading program through the school coming in July. She's also supposed to have tutoring sessions this summer, but I haven't gotten around to setting those up. We may just skip it, as I've got her repeating the entire fifth grade curriculum with a homeschool workbook during the summer, and when she gets through that, she'll start the bridge workbook for the transition from fifth to sixth grade. She was promoted to sixth grade, against all odds. She ended the school year with one F - in math - as well as three D's. She's gotten her diagnosis for ADD from a neurologist now though, so we can get her back to the pediatrician to start treatment. Gin made the honor roll, again. Munch is also continuing with her dog walking each day, and the neighbor she does that for has asked if she could help out with some light housework for some additional money. Munch cleaning? That's a good one! Gin's offered to do it instead. She says cleaning relaxes her. I'm exhausted already. And Gin is a crazy powerhouse. :)