Weekend Things--End of Summer Edition

We usually spend Labor Day Weekend at C's stepmom's camp on a small pond, but this weekend the weather forecast was dismal, and Saturday we woke up to rain. C and I didn't relish the idea of being trapped in a musty little cabin with three fractious children, M wanted to stay home and play guitar, and E wanted a full on Lego weekend. The only one who protested when we changed our plans, was Z, who would fish all day every day if given the chance, but even he didn't throw that much of a fuss, and our hostess, who just returned from a long canoe trip sounded relieved when I begged off.

It turned out Saturday, once it stopped raining, was partly sunny, hot and humid. The perfect kind of day to spend on a lake. Instead I spent the morning writing, with M in the living room listening to Aerosmith full blast, and Z in the kitchen playing "Alms for the blind" with a ukelele––I found that he'll actually let me take his picture if I put money in his cup. In the afternoon, I added to the heat and humidity by baking two casseroles and a peach-blackberry cobbler, roasting tomatoes, and making peach jam. Our peach tree decided to drop all its fruit on Friday night, and it was a race against the fruit flies to save it all.

Sunday started out rainy, too, with a forecast similar to Saturday's, but we decided to brave it, and spend one day at camp. E and Z got in lots of fishing and canoeing. M spent most of the time reading.

And I did all of the things I like to do on summer vacation: swim, sketch, take pictures. I even got to knit a little on the drive––until I gave in and read a chapter of Harry Potter to the boys. The only thing missing was a tall glass of lemonade, and reading in the hammock. But I did read in the bathtub after we got home, which is almost as good, even if it is a bit more of a winter activity.

Monday it poured rain all day. I left the boys to free range––they played Legos and watched a movie––on their last day of freedom before school, and I got serious about rewriting a story for my next packet. I managed seventeen pages––even writing the first three a second time after my computer froze and swallowed them up. I relinquished my computer to M for a while––he's very into writing music on garage band these days––and helped C with a little basement clean-out and re-org, mainly because he would have left the walls plain gray concrete if I didn't paint them. He's moved out of his office in town, while his company goes through a bit of soul-searching, and back home. 

Weekends have been so full and busy this summer, it was nice to have a couple of down days to catch up and regroup and relax. It makes me think every Monday should be Labor Day.