Ellie's Gymnastics class plus the life of a summer mom.

Ellie's been taking a gymnastics class once a week for the past few weeks. She seems to really enjoy it. I don't think when we started out that she had much of an idea what was in store.
It's cute. They start out the class warming up by dancing around to a song about animals. They go around pretending to be bunnies or horsies, etc. Then they stretch and break up into 2 groups where they rotate between 3 areas: floor/trampoline, bars, and balance beam.
I couldn't get a good shot of her on the bars since the teacher was always in the way, but those are her legs flipping around the bar.
She insisted on wearing a really long skirt that day and it wasn't worth the fight to make her take it off. Don't judge my pictures, it's hard to get good ones in the gym.

As I sit here looking at my barren blog I have to make a diversion. This started out being just about gymnastics, but I can't help but write about my life right now. It's been really hard, especially this last week. My summertime fears are being realized. I look ahead at the weeks to come with dread. Wow, that sounds awful I know, but right now that's how I feel. It's been so hard being with the kids ALL DAY, EVERYDAY with no breaks- not even 5 minutes to go to the bathroom. I can't wait for school to start just so we get a break from each other. I don't think any human beings were meant to spend so much time together without a way to get away for a while or some help.

These people that home school their kids, I just don't know how they do it. I would surely require medication. Is it just me? Am I nuts? I love my kids with all my heart, but after a while, the whining, fighting, mess-making... I just can't do it anymore. And they don't like it either, although they don't know it really. I know that they need more stimulation and variety than they can get from me at home. Even with all the activities we've been doing, it's still tough. June was not bad at all, but July's been rough and I'm really worried about August because all of our activities end by July 30th. Eeeek!!

Someone needs to seriously re-think this whole year round school thing. I know there must be some good reasons not to do it, but I don't know of any. The kids wind up spending the 1st 6 weeks catching up to where they left off at the end of the last school year anyway. I could definitely handle 1 month at a time, but almost 3 is rough.

Now I don't want anyone to worry about me or the kids. We'll be fine. I'm just blowing off steam. This is not a cry for help or some such. It's just reality.

I tried really hard to keep a positive attitude for the summer, so as not to create a self-fulfilling prophecy. I must admit however that my positive attitude is gone and in it's place is a haze of irritation, frustration and guilt. I am going to try and reverse that or at least start out each day with a good outlook. It's like AA or something, one day at a time!


I'm glad to have my new teaching job to look forward to. It's hard to have to wait so long to start it though. That gives me something to look forward to. I feel like I'm in a holding pattern right now, but I'm sure that soon enough it will have passed and we'll be gearing up to start school. Only 45 days until Logan starts school (not that I'm counting, hahaha) and 48 until I start my job, Woo hoo!!! 6 weeks, I can do that, right? I've already survived 5 1/2 weeks, so this shouldn't be so bad. Pray for me people!!

(I hate AT&T wireless DSL!!!!!!!!!!! It disconnects about every 5 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!) Run far, far away from it at all costs!