1. The kids were sick with a summer-time cold two weeks ago, which meant they were both up crying and coughing during the night, multiple times for multiple nights in a row. That was not a fun week. Though, to give credit where credit's due, Brian did get up with the kids a majority of the time which was super sweet of him. It may have been partially because...
2. That same week I was hit with migraines almost every day. I couldn't quite kick my headache one day, so it would linger until day two. Then I'd finally get rid of it for a day, but come the next morning, there it was back sneaking into my head again. I was really starting to get worried about this summer (I really think being in the bright sunlight is my main migraine trigger and my regular sunglasses just don't block out enough light. I'm on the lookout for darker/better sunglasses but haven't found any great reasonably priced options yet. Well, probably I actually haven't looked hard enough...) Thankfully I've been much better since that dreadful week, but boy was it a bummer to live through.
3. Brian's also begun to experience "summer schedule" at work. Contrary to what one might hope this means, summer schedule here means longer work days, more cases, and a full hospital. It's certainly not an easy way to end our time here! Brian's been missing many more dinners and sometimes even bedtimes during these previous two weeks then he has in a LONG time. Thankfully this current week's been a respite - he has two days of call which at this hospital means means that he doesn't have to go into work until 2:30 on his "call day", then after working all night and coming home to sleep in the morning, he's around again for his post-call afternoon. So really it's like he gets a whole extra day off (when call falls on a weekday, that it, like this week).
4. After reading some great novels during our vacation with Gran and Pawpaw, I've been in a reading fiction kick... which usually means that the rest of my life becomes neglected - a clean/tidy house and the blog have been suffering the most. But I have read some great books lately - finally read The Gurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, The Son by Jo Nesbo, Little Men by Lousia May Alcott, and Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell. But its not just fiction - after being taken by a friend to Flour Bakery (finally got there and man was it yummy!), I've also been drooling over the Flour and Flour, Too cookbooks by Joanne Chang and just started NurtureShock by Po Bronson & Ashley Merryman. And still my "to read" pile from the library is continuing to grow!
5. Spring has finally come to Boston (though there's been too many cool, rainy spring days for my preference lately!), so that means the kids and I are spending tons more time at the park, and they always request picnic lunches and dinners, which I'm trying to oblige them as often as possible. Though I can't wait until we have a back yard/patio and can just serve meals out there - so much easier logistically then trying to haul everything down the road to the park!
So all this culminates in me being absent from the blog lately. Life is still good, the days are counting down crazy-fast until the end (only 41 left, how can that be?), which means I should already be adding "packing" to my reasons for neglecting the blog. I'm dreading that one so much and need to get started - yesterday!
But I won't leave you without a few pictures and a glimpse of the fun we packed into last weeked.
First we were able to cross a big thing off our bucket list this week - go to a Red Sox game at Fenway!!
Brian has all the family photos from the game on his phone and I haven't downloaded them yet, so you'll have to content yourself with these two. We had a pretty good time, though the beginning of the game was HOT and put Sarah especially in a grumpy mood. Hot dogs and nachos weren't enough to sate her, so after we made it to the 4th inning we headed below to devour two huge bowls of ice cream in the shade. Turned out that was the ticket to more cheerful kids! We played in a kids clubhouse room for a while, then were back in our seats from the 6th inning on. Nathan was definitely interested in learning about the game and taking notes in his notebook (a la Jack from The Magic Treehouse books), while Sarah's favorite part was dancing with me whenever they played music over the loudspeakers.
Then on Sunday night we had small groups at a beach a little south of Boston, just about a 30 minute drive from our house. Brian and I agreed that we never feel like we live near the beach, but there are some super close! The weather was just perfect and the company was the best!
Nathan had the most fun hanging out with our friends M and S. They collected snails and climbed all over a little jetty and collected rocks and climbed to the top of the lifeguard tower.
But maybe the best part of the evening was the solid hour that M and Nathan spent wrestling. I kept expecting it to end in tears (the evening did later for other reasons), but these boys were body slamming each other on the sand, Nathan was jumping all over M, they were playing keep-away with the frisbee. Its fun to see the "all boy" side of Nathan come out with a willing partner!
We ended up staying WAY later then planned, due to some unfortunate delays with our fried clam orders at the local clam shack. But a wonderful time was had by all and the clams were probably even more delicious after the long wait!
Then even though the sun was beginning to set and we were already well past the kids' bedtimes, we stayed even later with Jeremiah and Katie to enjoy some ice cream to top off the night. And walking back to the car, we couldn't help but admire our beautiful view of the Boston skyline across the water.
Really a great, great weekend!
