It's the last week in July

It is July 26th and we have had a lot of fun this summer. It is our first summer having me in my new role at the hospital which means I am not home Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Which isn't bad at all. It is an adjustment for me thought to  manage to grocery shopping, laundry, having fun and making special memories for the kids to remember. My weekdays off with them I am doing my best to spend as a fun day. I try to minimize running errands and cleaning. I want them to remember their summers as a kid with mommy home and doing fun things with them.
My parents are here every Tuesday and Thursday which has been wonderful and I couldn't be anymore thankful for all they do.
We have one month left of summer and I am trying hard to not feel anxious about the Fall. This Fall I will be doing clinical hours every Wednesday at the hospital for school. This means I will be gone Monday-Thursday 5:00am-5:30pm. We will also have 3 kids in soccer, while trying to manage homework, my school load, Saturday soccer games and a new back to school schedule. It is a lot to manage and I will have to be very organized.
Until then I am holding on to each day and doing my best to communicate better, have more fun. let the laundry sit, and take more walks.

Nancy Drew

When I was a young girl one of my favorite summer memories is reading in my bed late at night with my window open listening to crickets chirping and smelling the jasmine in bloom. I would read magazines and books. One of my favorite series of books to read was Nancy Drew. But what was so special about Nancy Drew is that these books were my mom's books from her childhood. 

I would bring the books up to my Grandma Madeline's house each summer when we would spend the week with her. Kimmie would come and she too would bring her mom's Nancy Drew books. We would stay up late reading, it was such a simple, slow and missed time in my life. I long to create that simplicity for my kids. 

This summer Allison and I started reading the Nancy Drew book "Mystery at Shadow Ranch". I don't remember the story of this book, but the smell of the pages and the hearts that I drew on the front pages brings me back to when life was simple. The story is more complicated than I remember it being...lots of characters, choppy story lines... but lying on the lounge chair in the backyard as the sun is going down  with Allison on my chest as I read the story out loud to her brings me great joy.

I hope she thinks back at how wonderfully simple her summers were and thinks of me.