Solo Mother

I find myself staring at a three day weekend with not a clue. Actually, I know what I have to do. I have to write a proposal or three. And I have to get it done by Tuesday.
But I don’t want this summer to be over. So much of it was spent waiting, holding my breath, waiting… for what? And now summer is almost over, and it’s like I’m waking from a dream and grasping at what’s left. Summer. I never once snuck out of work to spend a day with my kid just lazing around in the sunshine. Where …read more

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We started the morning with books and blueberry crepes. Cleaned up the house a little bit.
Then our friend Mme Meow and her lovely boys came over and we wheeled over to the pool. I got to snoogle her adorable six month old baby and hang with her almost four year old, who is growing into such a nifty little boy!
The sun was so relentless at the pool that the pics turned all lomo and Polaroidish.
We played for hours, and then had dinner by the pool.
Sliders, by the way, are the best food for the elementary school set!

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Summertime rolls around and my son blossoms. He’s reading like a fiend, learning about money (which means how to add and subtract and not go into negative numbers!), and getting a crash course in paleontology and natural history. Along the way, he has learned how to swim well enough to be promoted to the next level, ascended a climbing wall, run like a banshee, paddled a canoe, searched for frogs, found a black snake, jumped off a dock, guided a boat, played mini golf, and generally had the best. time. ever.
But those days are coming to a close. Soon, we’ll …read more

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The King of Everything’s first glove. I’m strangely touched and nostalgic. Summer. Baseball. Boys. A promise that this solomother can do well by her son, somehow. That there will be a tribe to care for him, catch him when he falls, send him back into the game.

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Today, as we walked hand and hand from our neighborhood pool towards the Y, the King of Everything pestered me about his summer plans, somehow unable to comprehend the glorious weeks that stretched ahead of him a scant 14 days in the future. “And then what? And then what?” 
I love the local YMCA camp because my son grows muscles and character there. My son loves it because it’s a whole different set of rules, with camp counselors who wear reindeer antlers in July and hold him to a different set of rigid standards than the ones he’s up against at …read more

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Bohemian Single Mom posted an email she got. It starts this way:
Close your eyes… And go back…
Before the Internet or ATM machines
Before semi-automatics and weed
Before playstation or X-Box 
Before the 5 hours of homework you put off every night…
..Way back…
What do you remember from childhood? What are your dreams from summer? I remember one summer with my two next oldest cousins, Mike and Mel. Our grandparents had taken us somewhere, near a river, with these amazing, gorgeous, ancient-looking trees that grew low and snaked parallel to the ground. I remember music in the trees, and glass jars with holes punched in …read more

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My son is bleary eyed and amazingly exhausted by six at night, but so jazzed about the magic of his day he still can’t get to sleep before eight. His skin glows with the heat of the day and he turns nut brown in seconds, no matter how much sun screen we apply.
He’s at Camp Grammy this week, and they have already had more adventures that sane travelers would do. Water parks and discovery play zones and it’s only Tuesday. Tomorrow I’ve taken a vacation day and will join them for a more sedate outing, to a lake in …read more

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Look no further than b5media’s own Weary Parent, an amazing blog about parenting teens and tweens that has committed to giving us weary parents ideas for how to get through the summer in style. Search Charlene and Christine’s blog for the phrase, “Camp Weary Parent” and you’ll find a wealth of inspiration.
I’ll start you off with their first camp post of the season, Camp Weary Parent – Here, There, and Everywhere.
Next week, the King of Everything is attending Camp Grammie. I hope to get some blow by blow reports of all the fun they are having, and might even …read more

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Kate over at Babylune is running another fabulous contest… Jump on over there for the chance to win $100 and write about your best family vacation ever… it could be as a parent or a child. The complete rules are here. Go on! You only have until the 31st of August to get your writing groove on.

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