Summer Time

And the living's easy.

Yesterday was summer solstice and now the days are getting shorter. The big brothers have had their yearly reviews turned into the school board and are enjoying these long summer days outdoors. It's unseasonably cool and we haven't had many scorchers as yet, so I head outside as often as I can, myself.

We have no plans for the summer except to enjoy each other and our occasional visitors. My mother arrives next week and is staying until late July. My sister and her husband will be here before the 4th of July and will be staying a week or two. The three of them will watch over the boys and the dogs and the cats and the hamster and my plants while Dan and I enjoy a week in Hawaii. Our 10th anniversary is coming up this fall, and by strange coincidence, his company offered to fly us both to Hawaii this summer, all on their dime. I can't seem to get excited about the trip, and that may have to do with never having been away from the boys before. I've only slept away from them one night, and that was after surgery. It will be strange to just be with Dan for a week, and in a new place. I think I may get more excited as the trip draws nearer.

I'm very happy with how far we've come in the last year. Benjamen is a bona fide reader, now, and seems to understand what he's reading, even when the sounding out gets labored. He loves science and history, but is good natured about learning in general. He's excited to be a reader and has been spelling things out in conversation instead of using the words. Nicholas has taken to mocking him, but makes up his own spellings, so we have to guess at what he means. Jonathan is devouring literature at his normal break-neck pace, and is always excited about a trip to the library, as are all of the boys. Benjamen actually listed the library on his birthday list of places he wanted to go that day. We spent a wonderful morning quietly reading and stacking up towering piles of books to take home with us. Nicholas, too, has shown more interest in letters and spelling, constantly asking me how to spell things, arranging and rearranging the magnetic letters on the refrigerator, and sitting down to draw and write for a little while almost every day. He'll be five next week, and I just don't know where the years have gone.