surviving the summer

Here's a glimpse of how we've survived the summer days when we haven't had any visitors (i.e. extra hands):

A little reading.

A little writing.

And a little 'rithmetic.

Scootering to the playground.

Picnics at the playground (with friends!).

And, of course, lots of playing at the playground.

Sewing time.

Game time.

Chalk drawing time.

Nintendo time.

He's been perfecting his paper airplanes.

He's been unwrapping, breaking, and sorting every crayon in the house.

He's been really cute.

We've done our morning exercises.

And played with each other.

And we've eaten our fair share of free summer lunches at our local branch library (and come home with lots of new books each time!).

Sometimes the furthest away from home we could get was our front stoop.

Partly because postpartum depression and anxiety did in fact set in and the prospect of the front stoop was all I could face.

But afternoon naps sometimes helped (and so has the Zoloft).

As you can see, we haven't strayed much further from home than the local playground, and all of our activities, both indoors and out, have been streamlined and simple. Which isn't to say we haven't had any fun. We've kept ourselves occupied, and I'm pretty sure the boys have enjoyed themselves. And I'm still in one piece, which is saying something.

The bigger boys go back to school in three more weeks, so we've started making our back-to-school preparations by making sure everyone has shoes that fit. Tackling the rounding up of their required school supplies is looming over me, but if I've managed to survive this summer, I'm sure I'll be able to handle that -- so long as I get to do the required shopping solo.