Too fast!

 I wish the summer would slow down. School will be here in just a few weeks and I'm not ready yet!
It feels like all we do lately is chores and work.

At least for the adults around here.

Work is good, and I like to get things done and have a "house of order", but I feel worn out all the time and the work is still never done. The kids are getting better at knowing how to clean up, but we still have a long way to go. (I believe it might take the full 18 years I have them to teach some of them!)

The kids enjoy our "kitchen-den" while Rob and I painted the den/foyer (they thought it was the coolest thing to have all the den furniture in the kitchen for the day).

The older kids got mailbox painting/fix up. The younger ones just had to stay out of the way while we worked last weekend.

During the week, the kids worked with me organizing closets and bedrooms and toy boxes...etc etc etc!

I can't make all 5 kids work all day long or I wouldn't get anything done for managing them. 

Seeing cleaner nicer spaces gives me a sense of accomplishment and I just need a rest.

But kids need fun.

So when my Thursday plans got cancelled, the kids asked if we could have a picnic in the park. yes!

Then Friday, we took a break from the house work and we went back to riverwalk in West Columbia - but this time we went to the northern end to play on the rocks and splash around in the water. (Most of us wore swimsuits - not Rob - so we could get as wet as we wanted.) 

I had hoped for good weather, and the weather was nice (my favorite actually, overcast), but the week had been filled with lots of rain and so the river was high, the rapids were fast and the sun didn't have enough time from behind the clouds to warm up the water. 

So, we had to stay near the edge and keep to the shallow slower moving areas (didn't want anyone accidentally washing down the river), and the water was FREEZING, so most of us would have been fine in shorts and t-shirts. 

We do have a few crazies in our family.

 But they had fun. 

Got a little wild. 

Got mad. Got even. Got a warning.

And went back to having fun.

 They loved the living things they saw all around them. 

Even the little water striders (yes, that's spelled right. But I didn't want a picture of those!).

And then they got a babysitter and Rob and I had a double date with his parents to finish the day off. (We both worked through naptime though.)

Back to work all day today!
(The back porch and kitchenette are looking more organized and I finally dealt with that pile of end-of-the-school-year papers I'd been ignoring all summer. And the shed looks better than it's looked our 5 years of living here!) We're not done, but it's naptime. Well for some. I'm wasting my rest time blogging. :) Typical.