Check-In With Katie: 10 Things We Have Been Doing This Summer

Hi Friends,

It’s time for my weekly check-in with all of you! I don’t mean to alarm anyone, but just this weekend I realized that summer will soon end. Not too soon though, there are still a few more weeks until school starts in our area. I am starting to get rattled though, I keep getting e-mails from my children’s schools and fall sports teams about things like practice and the first day of school forms. 

Ahhh, this feels like too much too soon. Do they not know that it is only August 8^th?

It’s a little overwhelming. Not to rant but I think that the ability for schools and teams to contact parents so easily starts to encroach unfairly on our summer slow time. It seems a little unfair, though I do understand that plans need to be made and things need to communicated.

I am the type of parent who might need less communication from the local elementary school. I do understand that perhaps I am in the minority in that regard. Other parents seem to almost want more details, I could do with less information.

In any case, you might wonder what I have been up to.

10 Things We Have Been Up to This Summer:

1. This summer, I returned to a very, very part-time evening job that I started just before the covid pandemic in a local community college’s branch campus library. Until this summer, I had not been back at this job since March of 2020 because there were no evening hours for me to work until this summer semester. It is a very quiet job. Almost nobody comes in during the hours when I work. I like it a lot because I get to learn about working in an academic library through this position. Also, since almost nobody ever comes in, I am allowed to blog while I am working, which I enjoy and count myself lucky to be able to do.
2. I have also been working a few hours at my reference librarian job at a public library. It just occurred to me last weekend that I started library school 17 years ago this month. 2005 was 17 years ago, doesn’t that blow your mind?  I have been thinking hard about libraries for a long time now. They are great places to be. I am glad that they exist. Support your local library with your vote and your tax dollars!
3. Speaking of libraries, if you have talked to me this summer, I have probably told you that this summer is the summer of the Kindle for me. I am so into reading on my Kindle and just reading in general. When my children were younger, I felt like it would take me months to get through a book. Lately, I have been blowing through books. I can’t get enough of reading. Also oddly, I have been very into reading fiction lately. I had been such a non-fiction person for quite a while. I am appreciative that my library has many titles available to read on my Kindle through Libby.  I have been logging the time the boys and I have spent reading on my local library’s Summer Reading program reward raffle challenge.  The raffle for prizes on the 11th of August. We really do not need to win anything but it is fun for Mr. Man and Preschool Nugget to enter. Mr. Man keeps asking me when the library is going to pull the names of the winners. It has been motivating for him. Also speaking of reading, Mr. Katie and I have been working with Mr. Man on his reading practice. He will be starting 1^st grade in the fall so we have been working with him to read to us, out loud, for 15 minutes a day.  It doesn’t always happen, but we have been trying our best to do the reading. He has been earning rewards for his reading too (outside of the library raffle drawing). Every day that he reads to us, he gets to put a sticker on the calendar and when he gets enough stickers, he earns various things. So far, he has taken two trips to Taco Bell, one trip to Arby’s, and earned a copy of a Gravity Falls book that he had been wanting. It was a book that we had borrowed from our library through interlibrary loan, but it had to go back to the lending library, and he wanted to spend more time with it so we have him the opportunity to earn his own copy.
4. Preschool Nugget is also working hard on his learning skills. This summer, for the past few weeks,  he, along with Mr. Man, has been attending a two-hour day camp at his former preschool. Both boys seem to be really enjoying it. This morning Mr. Man asked me if he can go back next year. Unfortunately, he won’t be able to do that because, after this summer, he will age out of that program as they cater to preschoolers and kindergarteners.
5. Preschool Nugget has also been working hard at his weekly visits to his speech therapist and occupational therapist’s office (they are in the same office). He works very hard and his therapists both enjoy seeing him week after week. He always goes in willingly and has made some progress over the summer. I am grateful that both boys are always willing to go along on those visits as it would be infinitely harder if either of them resisted week after week. Mr. Man does not mind sitting in the waiting room with me while Preschool Nugget goes to his appointments. Preschool Nugget works hard and is very cooperative. I am proud of them both.
6. We have been heading to our local pool to do swimming many afternoons. We joined our town pool again this year and both boys enjoy splashing around and playing with friends at the pool. I feel blessed that we have this opportunity. Mr. Katie joins us there too after work and on weekends.
7. Besides attending my childhood camp’s reunion and traveling to Chincoteague, VA, we have also been doing a little camping in our pop-up camper. This summer we visited two state parks already. The one we visited most recently is called Frances Slocum State Park. We also camped at Promised Land State Park back earlier in the season.
8. In August, we have plans to visit two more parks. Both are parks we visited last year and are local. I will perhaps give updates on those trips in the future.
9. I haven’t been cooking much this summer, but we have been making hamburgers on the grill often. Mr. Katie and I have also continued running this summer. I have been doing more running in the air conditioning at the YMCA than I have in previous summers. It makes me feel a little bit like a wimp that I haven’t been waking up to run and instead have been going to the YMCA while the boys are at their morning camp, but I have been enjoying getting the extra sleep. Sleep makes me feel like a happier and better person which I good for everybody’s wellbeing.
10. Also I did I celebrated my birthday in July!

 What have you been up to this summer?

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