My brilliant idea of writing every day in May was such an awesome thought until I remembered that school gets out in May. Which means that the weeks leading up to the end of school have those outrageous levels of chaos, time suck and bank account hemorrhaging along with the strain and angst that goes along with any one of those options, never mind all three combined.

For some reason I’ve taken the end of school in an unusual way this year — I can’t really describe it, despite my efforts to analyze and contemplate and ponder “what in the world is this new way of being?”

One thing I’ll tell you is that I’ve discovered, either because of my age or the age of my children, is that I do very little pre-pondering any more. Especially when it comes to upcoming events, there is very little of the countdown of yesterday. It’s not that events necessarily sneak up on me (though it’s true that happens occassionally!). It’s more like it doesn’t really sink in that it’s actually whatever it is that I knew was on the horizon. As in, yesterday was the last day of school and it really hit me about three hours after the boys were home. We got out half-day, went for a Mexican feast celebration, hurried home and then I thought, “now what?” Seriously, I could not figure out how to ease the system into a nice sloooow stop.

Tonight, Isa did her usual jaunt over to visit Gramma and Papa after dinner. She’s in this sweet little mode where she gets excused from the dinner table and then heads out the side door, down the driveway and around the gate. She knocks on the door, my mom opens it and Isa’s first comment is “Let’s do my hair.” And then they read some books. It’s amazing.

So after I finished at the table I headed over with Isa’s pajamas. I decided to get her ready for bed over there (since bedtime stories was covered, thank you Gramma!). And as I hustled with getting her into her night clothes my mom asked what we had going on.

“Um,” I pondered, “nothing.”

You certainly couldn’t tell that from my speed and level and movement. I was in a hurry. Going from HERE to hmmmm…where?

So the first day of summer means still feeling like you have to race down the highway, only to realize you are actually not in a hurry, not one bit.

I wonder how many days it’s going to take for my brain and my body to connect on this issue. Also, it would be nice if my stress levels could fall in line as well.

Thank you to all who have been praying. I am thrilled, THRILLED, to finally get to tell you that my sister and brother-in-law have adopted their son. Today, it’s all official. The wait is over. God is so good.

1. I just discovered that I’ve finally worked up the taste buds stamina to eat greek yogurt plain. Just about. As in, just now I was eating my Fage (pronounced Fa-yeh! and I always want to say Heck-yeh!), and I ran out of the strawberry jelly. I was able to stomach the last few spoonfuls on its own. Mad skillz, people.

2. We lost Isabel at Costco on Sunday. THis morning as we discussed it, Paul and I put our heads together and calculated about seven minutes where she was on her own. That’s a lot. Here’s the best part: Augie walks up to me as I’m heading to the check-out (he had been, I assumed, with his dad).

“Are you looking for Isabel,” he asks me.

“Not really,” I reply. We did the “divide and conquer” approach yesterday — me taking an older child and grabbing our requisite five gallons of milk (to hold us until Wednesday) and our giant tub of turkey.

“Because she’s right there.” My eyes followed the arc of his point over to where my favorite Costco employee was holding my three-year-old daughter. I have a bit of a friendship with this guy because he happens to be a ref at many of our soccer games.

“Um, hi!” I said, taking Isa from his arms.

“Is this girl yours,” he asked as I hugged her with a squeeze.

And right behind him pops the head of the man who found my sweet little girl sort of wandering without a grown-up. That man? Why he’d be none other than my dentist — the man who knows exactly how many cavities are in each Balducci boy mouth. I was blessed by God’s protection and love for me while equally mortified and wishing the gigantic concrete floor would open up and swallow me Kirkland’s style.

3. Am I diminishing the raw emotion in all this? Kinda. I was saved a lot frenzy because, um, I didn’t realize she was not with her daddy.

4. Time for carpool pickup. INSERT SMILEY FACE HERE.

5. Parting thought: it’s always a good idea, when you are dividing the crew, to let the other spouse know you’re handing off the littles. I had one of the boys bring Henry and Isa to Paul, who had no idea that he had been officially “charged” with their care. He assumed he caught sight of them as they were heading off with me when in reality he caught sight of Isa as she was heading off with herself. It happens to the best of us, but my goodness it’s no fun.

1. I missed yesterday’s daily posting. Rats.

2. My article on De-cluttering the home is up over at the Catholic Digest website. Wanna Clear Out Clutter? Go read!

3. My beloved, my RHL, got me some amazing sunglasses for Mother’s Day. I love them! The only problem is they are slightly too big. Ever so slightly. I took them to the eyeglass place in the mall and they adjusted the ear pieces but I still want them to feel a tad more snug. Any suggestions? I might try warming up the nose piece with my hairdryer? Maybe that will do the trick.

4. But still, Loving them! Isa loves hers as well.

5. This week has included but not limited to the following: Fifth Grade play (super cute and fun!); getting ready for Spring Dance tomorrow night (including pants shopping, twice); all the details that go along with planning the pre-dance dinner, etc (kinda tiring); swim lessons (hooray, Henry! Ready for swim team!); driver’s license (hooray!); Augie’s “crossing over” ceremony from being a Webelo to being a bona fide Boy Scout (oh my, the emotions!); etc. etc. etc.

6. Someone mentioned in a previous post that blogging might be a young mom’s game. It’s possible, and I think about it a great deal after posts that include No. 5 above. Once you get to this stage of the game, your thoughts on the day tend to focus on the million places you’ve gone and done and all there is left to do. Oh it’s such a wonderful season! Just so different from life ten years ago.

7. Parting thought shot: Paul and I went to a wedding Saturday night that was so much fun. Both the wedding and the reception were downtown and in between the two, we decided to grab a drink. It was one of those perfect 45 minutes — we were all gussied up and we popped in to our favorite watering hole. The music was perfect, the Stella was divine. I never get dressed up like that just for date night (I’m usually so thrilled just to have extricated myself that I don’t worry too much about heels and dress). But this was fun and I was on a happy cloud for days after. It’s the little things, isn’t it?

Thanks Jen!