Summer is almost half over (for me, specifically) and I haven’t been here much so I thought I’d show up for a quick update.
ST. LOUIS
The trip to visit family in St. Louis was a a good one. The first three days I hung out with my cousin (who was also visiting from Charleston) and we took all the cousins to the pool on Monday, took our kids to Six Flags on Tuesday, and went with another cousin to the zoo on Wednesday. It was VERY hot for most of our trip.
At Six Flags it was 96* (feels lik 104*) and NO ONE was there. We walked onto every rollercoaster without a wait and ended the day at the water park. The 16yo LOVES Batman and other DC characters so she was in heaven. I went on the Screaming Eagle, my very first roller coaster, which turns 50 this year! It was a lot of fun.
Wednesday night my husband came in from SF and my sister and her partner came in from London. Thursday everyone met at my uncle’s farm for three days of fun in the (hot, hot) sun. We spent HOURS at the quarry lake swimming, sliding into the water, and looking at fish. We had our annual karaoke night and spent the 4th watching fireworks. Oh and we snuggled puppies! My cousin’s dog had puppies on Memorial Day and they were at the farm over the long weekend. We got to play with them a few times each day, and they were a BIG hit. I wish It was a great trip, as always, and was even more special with my sister and his partner there for the first time since 2019.
On Saturday afternoon a crazy storm blew through, which brought the temp down significantly but also knocked out the power. Luckily the house has a (significantly sized) generator which kept things working through the night, and the power was back on in the morning.
Everyone left the farm on Sunday morning. I took the husband and 16yo straight to the airport, where they waited quite a while for their delayed flight (SFO is down two of its four runways, so every flight in and out is delayed). The 12yo and I stayed a couple more nights, and visited the Gateway Arch with my family (parents, sister, partner) and cousins. We went up to the top of the Arch, which I haven’t done in a long time. It’s a pretty incredible architectural feat. They went on to see the biggest catsup bottle in the world after, which I’m kinda sad I didn’t get to see.
By the time we left (very) early Tuesday morning, I felt ready to go home. We used to spend two weeks in St. Louis, but these days after 9-10 days I’m ready to go home. I feel like we were there the right amount of time.
AT HOME
We’ve been home since Tuesday morning. The husband is back at work. The 16yo has been at her zoo internship all week (she’s liking it!) and the 12yo and I have been hanging out at home. Luckily a friend took him somewhere on Wednesday, his grandparents took him to hang out with his cousin for a couple hours on Thursday, and today I took him and his friend to the trampoline park (where I am writing this!) so he hasn’t been rotting on the couch and in his bed all for three days.
The downstairs toilet broke while the husband was home alone and he didn’t try to fix it, he just turned off the water so it would stop running. When I got home I decided to just replace everything, because all the seals were in pretty rough shape. To say my attempts were a disaster would be an understatement. I did, eventually, get the toilet fixed, but it took over six hours, spread across three days (and at least two melt downs) before I got all the various leaks under control (I lifted the tank of that toilet off SO MANY TIMES). It sucked and I was feeling really frustrated that I’m the one who has to fix all the broken shit in our house. I was feeling “over it,” as they say.
That “over it” feeling has seeped into how I feel about a lot around at home right now. I’ve been struggling with how chaotic the house feels after our trip. I spent a couple days unpacking, even though we’ll need all those same clothes for Maui in less than three weeks (I did keep a couple packing cubes packed, but it didn’t work to keep all of it together like that). I’m struggling to keep the kids accountable on their chores, even though I should be taking advantage of this time to give them MORE chores. It feels like it’s all up to me, and I’m tired, even though I’m not working and have more time than I ever will. I don’t know if I’ll manage to tackle any of the bigger projects around the house this summer, and that bums me out.
LA
This weekend we are home (and it’s BUSY). Next weekend the husband and I are going to LA to see friends. My birthday is that Friday and the husband’s is the following Tuesday, so we’ll definitely be celebrating down there. I’m excited to get away from the kids for a couple days, but I also feel like this summer is kinda packed. The fact that this weekend if the only one in July that I’m home, and that we leave for Maui the following Saturday is not helping.
MAUI
This is probably our last trip to Maui. The trip is not nearly as cheap as it used to be, and we’re hoping to take the kids to Hong Kong and Japan in 2028 (the 16yo will be graduating and the 12 yo will be finishing middle school that year), which will require some significant savings on our part. The friends who host us will be moving to Tokyo right after the trip, so it feels like it will be a week loaded with expectations.
I finally booked our two scuba trips, which I’m looking forward to. We hope to do some snorkeling with the husband and 12 yo too, so there will be a lot of time in the water. I want to make sure the husband gets lots of time with his best friend (the one who will be moving), but also know that he has two smaller kids so that will be hard to make happen.
With all the stress I’m feeling around the house, I’m definitely looking forward to our trip to Maui, because I know there I won’t have to worry about what a shit show my garage is. But also, when we get back from the trip summer is almost over. It will definitely be a bitter sweet trip, for so many reasons.
2026-27 SCHOOL YEAR
I’ve had stressful dreams about work for more nights than not this summer. I’m not sure why. The new class is definitely part of it, and knowing that the 6th grade is supposed to be really difficult to manage (my new class is 6th grade, so I’ll have the difficult kids two out of my five classes). But I’ve taught random classes a ton of times and I’ve had difficult groups of students tons too, so I’m not sure why the stress is manifesting in my dreams so much right now. It makes it hard to not think about work, that is for sure.
Shoot, I wanted to write more about the new school year, but the kids’ jump time is up and I’m worried if I don’t post this it will never go up, so I’m just going to press Publish, and write more about work later.
I hope my next post is up in less than two weeks! Eek!
