I’ve been anticipating this week all summer. It’s the last week of my first semester in graduate school, which means I have three projects due by Thursday and Friday night. Additionally, we have a big birthday party planned at our house this weekend, so we’ll be working on preparations for that throughout the week. And finally, it’s the first week of football practice where the boys have to be in two places at once. Thank goodness Chuck is in town and we can tackle the football dilemma together. He’ll take one boy, I’ll take the other. (However, this was exactly what I was dreading about having both boys in sports at the same time – splitting the family.)
These are all good things, lest you think I’m complaining. Graduate school, thus far, has been a great experience and I’m eager to start the fall semester. The birthday party should be a blast. (God, please keep the rain at bay!) And football, particularly for Jeremy, is what he lives for each and every day.
Tangent: Allow me to be cynical for a moment and question the necessity of having 14 stick people, four dogs, and a cat on the back of your vehicle.
I understand that some people love this stuff. I personally don’t (though I fully appreciate the more humorous zombie and Star Wars figures over the plain stickers). I sat behind this van at football practice last week for two hours counting and re-counting the stickers, noticing two sets of adults. They can’t be polygamists because there would only be a second wife instead of a second couple. Are they polyamorous? Are they extended family members who live together? Do they just enjoy adding updated versions of themselves as the year goes on? If one of the pets dies, do you peel off its representative sticker?
I tried not to care, especially because I usually don’t care, but the longer I started at it the more curious and annoyed I became. At least, and I say this honestly, there aren’t names underneath all the figures identifying each person and animal. That really annoys me. Nothing screams “steal my child” like putting their name on the rear window of your car.
But I digress.
I’ll leave you with something more cheerful. I canned two jars of salsa yesterday with tomatoes from my garden. I realize gardening and canning is more enjoyable since it’s not a chore I must do in order to store food for the winter. However, it’s entirely gratifying to prepare food from food that grew in my backyard. It is a great reminder to find joy in the simplest things.
Happy Monday to you, Internet. May your week be grand.