You know what the best thing is about working from home? The flexibility to suddenly go do something fun.
It was really hot and humid here today and I was thinking we would have to stay inside in the air conditioning and go out to the park or the courtyard after supper when the sun was lower. That wasn’t particularly appealing but there is no shade in the early afternoon in either of those places so we all overheat quickly.
Out of the blue, my friend emailed me to say her daughter had stayed home from daycare due to a late start to their morning and they’d be in the backyard enjoying the pool – did we want to join them?
Oh yes. Yes, please.
Luckily we had Hayley’s car seat in the living room and her son has a car seat like Breanna’s so George’s dad was nice enough to pick it up and come get us, then he drove us over. It’s really nice to have your in-laws around the corner, that’s for sure.
I took Breanna in the pool for a bit while the two older girls splashed around us, and then we got out because my friend had grilled some amazing salmon and made couscous and a side of fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, and feta cheese. It was delicious and I think I could eat that for lunch every day for a month before getting tired of it. When we were finishing up, her husband and George came in (they work together), having finished early. Instead of trying to work outside in that heat, they kicked back with a cold beer.
At that point my friend and I got in the pool with the girls and the baby and I think we were in there for an hour. It’s not a deep pool so Breanna can walk around without any help, which she really enjoys. Meanwhile, it’s deep enough that if and adult sits down, you can submerge yourself up to your neck. It was wonderful.
We were planning to leave but they ended up inviting us to stay and we had BBQ burgers and hot dogs for supper. The girls picked some fresh berries to eat and were such a mess that I took them all back in the pool for 20 minutes to rinse off, and just when I thought it was time to pack up to come home, I was surprised with a birthday cake – that was nice!
I got the kids to bed relatively easily (although Hayley came out three times to inform me that she was very tired but couldn’t fall asleep; I told her she might fall asleep if she’d STAY in her bed!) and felt myself sinking into that exhaustion that you can only get after a day of sitting in chlorinated water in the sun. It’s my favorite kind of tired.
It sure beat staying at home, hiding from the humidity!
I am so excited thinking about vacation and having that chlorine-sun-exhaustion. The memory from when I was a kid of vacations was just that, chlorine and sun by 8 AM, inside mid-day or on the beach under an umbrella napping, back in the pool late afternoon, dinner somewhere, walking on the beach and one last dip in the pool before bedtime which would ALWAYS send me to bed in a bath of exhaustion………I try so hard on my vacations to go back to that feeling (it was all with my dad who died when I was 19) by imitating the steps but it has never been the same……but I will try again in a week or so, I think I want my kids to feel it and remember it as much or more than I want to re-live it myself….but man it just is such a good feeling……I can sense it just writing about it, but I haven’t felt it in years…like since I was 19.