Mid-July and my god I just love summer. It’s hot and humid and sunny and I’m not buried in snow or layers or midwinter gloom. There have not been socks on my feet in weeks. I have hope and happiness and don’t want to run away to warmer climes because I am in warmer climes. My garden could do with a lot more rain, but we live next to a Great Lake and it’s at record high levels, so I just walk outside barefoot and water every day. No veggies this year to worry about, just newly transplanted perennials that may or may not be dead and need water. And flowers. And my grass is crunchy. But it’s summer and I love it so I deal.
Mid-July also means we’ve just celebrated a birthday. Jack is officially 12 now and I have no babies left. Twelve is most definitely tween, and we see that every day. He is very tween. Very. But he is such a cool kid. He has a fantastic eye for graphic design and plotzed when I showed him Canva. He’s nearly as tech-savvy as his older brother but in a different way. Kinda like he’s probably 2e like his brother, but in a different way. This young man is incredibly sensual, and I mean that in the “all senses are on full all the time” way. He always notices the beauty in nature, the lushness of sound, the smells and flavors of food. At 12 he is not yet averse to hugs, which warms my mama heart, since I’ve been MOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM much longer than I was ever Mommy. He’s heading into 7th grade this fall, which I remember as The Most Traumatic of the Middle School Years, so I hope he emerges relatively unscathed. In a few weeks he’ll attend a two-week filmmaker camp and I’m dying to see how he likes it. He’ll get to use real video equipment and the instructors are filmmakers from the city. So he’ll either LOVE IT or HATE IT, there is rarely an in-between. I love this boy so much, even when he makes me batshit crazy. That said, dearsweetbabyjesusonapony, please let him snag the maturity train onto which his brother leapt at about that age. Because my sanity requires it now. I can only handle so much.
The SENG conference is next week and I am presenting. Lessons From the Practice Room: Problem Solving Your Own Self-Care. I’m looking forward to doing this, I’ve enjoyed putting this presentation together.
Just realized that school starts six weeks from today. That is not a typo, there are only six weeks left. I am not amused.
This post now officially ranks as one of my most boring and meandering. I shall now go work on posts of thought and worth and effort, on my book, on other writing ideas, and on my SENG presentation.
Or I shall go outside and appreciate the hell outta this warmth, for winter will be here far too soon.