Illusions and Reality

Well, the illusion of summer is over, and the reality of another school year is setting in.  Actually, it set in a couple of weeks ago, but I'm just getting around to acknowledging it now.

And this year's school realities stretch from this--

First grade, to this--

Southern Maine Community College, where our senior high school student is taking classes this year.

This is our "hump year" in that we've added the last one to the mix and have all five kids officially being homeschooled, but since all of Zac's classes are elsewhere...I suddenly found myself over the hump, and nicely on the other side without even having realized it.  And that's a reality I can live with!

Squeezing in Summer

It's been a crazy summer, but what other kind is there really?  The idyllic days of summer that I remember from childhood were just that--childhood.  As a parent, I've come to realize that vacations are actually a lot of work when I'm the one packing suitcases, planning meals and finding some kind soul(s) to take care of feeding and watering all the assorted critters that we've accumulated along the way.

But-oh-so-suddenly, school is upon us, along with the mad scramble to freeze, can, jam, ferment or otherwise store everything that managed to survive in the garden despite my neglect of it in this crazy summer.

So, in a last desperate grab at some fun family time, we've managed to squeeze in as much summer as we could in the past week.

Perhaps it was the pressure of so few remaining days, or maybe it was the beautiful weather (or just being home?) that got us moving, but in any case, we finally managed to get to a local baseball game and then one of the summer concert series hosted by LLBean.  We got to see America last Saturday night.  So far as I can tell, they still haven't named that horse...


Then we got onto the boat for the first time this summer as well.   We sailed out of Freeport harbour into Casco Bay as far as Bustin's Island, peeking into Mere Point for a glimpse of Birch Island before racing back ahead of the thunder clouds.  And speaking of Birch Island, we just spent an afternoon there with some good friends a few days earlier and left Lydia and Moriah to spend the night with them on the Island camping out under the stars...with the mosquitoes...

Zac-up to his usual tricks

Gus, playing in tending the fire.

a rare sighting of Birch Island monkeys  

Rachel--making grass dolls for the little girls

the camp-out quartet

(Photo disclaimer:  since I discovered my camera battery was dead on the ride out to the island, I used last year's photos from Birch Island.  So, if everyone looks a bit younger, now you know why!)

So, now that our schedule has evened out and we're keeping closer to home by the necessity of being back into school , I'm looking forward to grabbing those remaining afternoons and weekends of great weather to squeeze some more summer fun into.