Charm Citizen

Stressful morning – Ugh. This morning could not have gone much worse. And part of it was spillover from last night. The dishes, including pots and pans, were piled high because I was t able to clean all of them due to sickness and solo parenting responsibilities last night. This led us to have to clean a pan to scramble an egg for Farah this morning, which led to a blow up about her being a picky eater. John was frustrated he had nothing to put in her lunch for camp because she won’t eat sandwiches. Then tears were flowing and I was frustrated too. We were rushing to get the kids to day camp and work on-time. To complicate matters, I had to pack the pool bag too, on top of backpacks for camp, since we have a swim team end of summer banquet immediately after camp. Then there were tears about putting on sun block and how quickly and thoroughly that could be done. Finally, we forgot to give Kendall her antibiotics from last week’s double ear infection so I ran to get her medicine and we’re so she could take it on the road.

Swim Team – Tonight was the summer swim team end of season banquet at our pool, the Otterbein Swim Club. It was a night to remember for two reasons. First, it stormed like crazy and the whole team huddled under a little pavilion which was about ankle deep in water at one point. 2nd, Loren won a team spirit award! We were both happy about it. She got a later start in swim team than most because I was too disorganized when she was younger. I know it’s hard for her to not be a super strong swimmer compared to some of the other kids but she has taken a real interest in it and tries hard. We all ended up laughing and having fun on a very rainy and somewhat scary evening at the pool.

Podcasts – Thursdays are my favorite day for Podcsasts because Laura McKowen release Tell Me Something True. I first started listening to Laura when she co-hosted the Home podcast with Holly Whitaker. Today’s topic was about a person, Branden Collinsworth, who read 1,000 books and the impact that had on his extraordinary life. He mentioned one of my favorite books as also being influential to him. The book is by Frederick Douglas and titled Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, an American Slave (I think that is full title). I was getting chills listening to the guest talk about it. I’ve read it multiple times and recommended it to several others. My best friend lent me her beat up copy about 20 years ago. I’m also a lifelong Marylander and have lived in Baltimore City for 20+ years so the book has extra special meaning. In fact, there is a quote from it that I have applied to my own life “ Going to live at Baltimore laid the foundation, and opened the gateway, to all my subsequent prosperity”.

Packing – The time to start packing for our beach week next week has probably past. I guess the only thing helping us is that we never unpacked from last weekend. Taking 3 kids to the beach for a week is a major undertaking. We will also be taking our cat Shadow with us. He’s a real road warrior after traveling to Florida in an RV with us last winter. Since John and I are vegan and the kids are particular eaters, we tend to bring a ton of food with us. This also leads to the massive packing effort and a lot of anxiety on my part. It can seem overwhelming to actually get out of the house. It’s improved from the days when we had to being pack and plays and diapers but still very stressful for me.

Summer bucket list – Our SBL is pretty incomplete at this point. I wanted to have a lemonade stand – especially for Kendall so she could remember having one. We don’t have a trip to Hershey Park or other amusement park scheduled yet. Note: I generally dislike those types of big outings. We also haven’t make it to an O’s game with the kids. We are scheduled to go with friends on 9/11 but I would like to go sooner.