Heat Wave

We don’t handle the heat well.

I mean, we try.  But my family is not one that enjoys weather extremes.  We are made for the in-between seasons, balmy spring days, when the leaves are just poking out and the air finally feels warm after months of icy hell.  Pumpkins and cranberries, when the foliage is changing and we can crunch thru the leaves when we walk the dog.  This is just ridiculously hot, all the live long day and the nights are worse.  Everything is so STICKY.

We’re six days into a seven day heat wave, and counting the minutes until Friday.  Raging thunderstorms seems like a perfect way to celebrate Sammy’s twelfth birthday, and I can’t wait.  For the drop in humidity – I’m wistful and slightly intimidated by the prospect of my baby boy turning twelve years old.

Jessie is drowning in summer reading, as per usual.  It’s tough to tell how much of it is self-imposed, because she really does seem to exist at this hyper level of stress, but as she says, she likes it that way.  And she’s self-aware enough to know that it’s a choice she makes, she’s choosing to be in an academically advanced program, and to take a bazillion AP classes.  She could drop down to an honors level, or even choose to be homeschooled if it was too much (and I’d be fine with either of those choices), but she really does like going to school, and loves learning.  We’re moving ever closer to her thinking about college, and that scares me more than the idea of Sam being one year away from teenhood.

Julianna is having a low-key, quiet summer.  Sam’s busy with homeschooling and sleeping (because he still does that like it’s his job), and Jessie’s constantly in the middle of one project or another.  Julie is drifting a little. I need to get on top of that, schedule her some playdates or get her doing more homeschooling activities.  She was adamant that she didn’t want to go to camp, and I didn’t want to pay money for something she didn’t actually want to do.  But I’m noticing a lot of general moodiness and she’s bored.  Which could be the heat – I’m pretty moody and bored too, because it’s too damn hot to want to go anywhere or do anything.