Summer Inspiration

I'm probably feeling a little big for my britches right now.  I had one of those amazing, everything-fell-into-place days, where I got an insane amount accomplished, but managed to have some fun too.  As a result, I'm feeling inspired.  It's almost summer.  I tend to giggle just a little at the sound of that, because "summer" is reserved for people who go to school  and have a break during the hottest months of the year.  I...being a work from home Mom, do not really have the luxury of a "summer".  However, I am still lured by the idea of a hot, lazy day, consuming watermelon while watching the kids play in the backyard, and a time where less of our minutes are jam packed, scheduled minutes.  Today was Christian's last day of his first year of preschool.  It hadn't really sunk in until I pulled all of the art projects from his over-sized envelope, with his name written in black Sharpie on the front. I'll admit: I was slightly impressed that my big boy actually completed enough art projects to even have an over-sized envelope.  Christian is definitely more of the run and play and build type, than the sit down and have interest in an art project.  I'm not worried, though.  He comes from a family of artists, and I am confident that one day, his inner artist will reveal itself. We'll see. For now, I was tickled by his execution...

I, however, seem to get the most artistically inspired during the summer months. Last year, I tackled the mini living room make-over. This year, while we're working to clean out our garage, I was inspired by this old chair. I intend to paint and recover the cushion to turn it into a fun, new office chair. Time for a mini change.

I don't know what it is about re-working old furniture that has always made me feel...like me...I can get lost in my ideas of paint colors (turquoise?...burnt orange?...,) the work of tackling it, and then the satisfaction of standing back, admiring the work, and taking pride in the fact that I did it all by myself.

The most frequent question I got this week was, "Is Christian doing Summer School?"  When I replied no, it was followed by "Camp?" ...Nope.  Don't get me wrong...we'll do stuff.  But, I'm kinda of looking forward to the type of summer where we wake up and decide to hit the beach or the zoo or plan an impromptu playdate.   I want my boys to have things to look forward to but also to have some much needed unstructured time also.  Elijah has been making great progress lately.  It seemed that after he hit that One Year Birthday mark, he had some catching up to do.  He is finally starting to sit pretty strongly.  He still has a tendency to arch back when he gets tired (and his back is stronger than his abdominals), so I have to keep a pillow behind him if I'm not sitting right there.  But I'm encouraged...and inspired to work with him even harder. We started working on even bigger, less mashed up foods this week and are trying to encourage his crawling to be a little more disassociated movement rather than the synchronized arm pull/ toe push military crawl he does.  It is really adorable, but as our PT reminds him, "Cute is not going to cover everything."  :)  

Actually, "cute" does cover an awful lot though...

It took a day filled with lots of little accomplishments with a large helping of fun to get me thinking and inspired about summer.  It doesn't hurt that these are sitting on my dining room table...