1. I was really struggling on Tuesday. It didn’t feel like a holiday. And I LOVE July 4th because I love America. I wore a t-shirt that said freedom on it but generally, it didn’t feel right. And since we didn’t do fireworks ourselves, it was just so-so. But I nearly cried a few times just thinking about how it isn’t simple anymore to entertain the kids. They can do it themselves with friends and games. You cannot stop the march of time but I certainly can miss the old days.
2. My bosses at work crafted a bill draft as a practice exercise for us three newer editors and it made me realize I’m kind of rusty; can barely remember all I learned this past Session! All the drafters say that after Session, everyone purges their brains and have to start over each year. I can see it. But the practice will be good for me. I was getting a little too far removed from the ideas of bill editing.
3. Summer has been pretty hot already. Though I don’t really mind it, the humidity has been rather oppressive. I find that it makes the kids a bit lazy but for me, I just don’t mind being warm, I guess. Better than being cold, which I hate!
4. That said, I was looking at the temps in Chicago in late July and it should be pretty nice! Mostly mid 80s but gets cooler at night. I am really looking forward to our vacation, for multiple reasons. A break from work, nicer temps (in pretty much every place we go), the kids all being together and typically nice to one another. At least, last summer was like that. Hopefully will bring us closer together with our oldest too. I realize he’d almost 16 and it’s natural to pull away but still.
5. I also need to be realistic. Last Summer, our vacation was much-needed to escape the stress. With me making less money and the heat so bad our AC was working overtime, Ash and I were angry and stressed. But we had such a nice time! I got back and reflected that the best part was that nothing went wrong, no one really fought, and everyone was happy. So, this year I cannot have unreasonable expectations that this will be THE SAME. But people do that, don’t they? They compare one thing to another, expecting similar results.
6. Though this trip will have some of the same stops (outside Toledo and Cincinnati) I am excited to see some different things. Especially when we stay in Charlotte. There’s a cool brewery there my cousin told me about. I’m also excited for King’s Island, even though I don’t care for roller coasters. The kids like them and that will make the trip worth their while.
7. In local animal news, on our July 4th walk, we saw three bunnies. Haven’t seen any in our yard for a while so that was nice. Wednesday morning when leaving to take Koda to camp and go to work, we stumbled upon a box turtle right in front of the gate. Had to move the little guy in order to leave so we took him out to the easement. Funny thing is that we left one year ago around this time for our vacation, and just before it, we found a turtle in the front yard and moved him to the easement then too. Last year and this year photos below.

8. I got a new phone over the weekend. It was something on my general summer to-do list, since Dakota gets one before going into 5th grade. But I just figured I’d go ahead and do it. I moved from a Pixel 4a to the 6a. It’s still a budget phone so, pretty reasonably priced. Ordered Friday, got it Saturday. It was super simple to set up and transfer all my stuff so I was able to wipe my old one and transfer Isaac’s stuff from his old phone to mine. Now Koda’s is all ready for the school year. She wants it now but I am making her wait.

9. I’m still in awe of how things can be so different in just one year’s time. I was SO stressed last summer about finding a solid job and going back to in-office work. It was a necessary move but now that I’ve been here eight and a half months, it seems a lifetime ago that I was even dealing with that. Much happier now and money is not the major concern it was. Thank God.

10. My oldest son’s job hunt seems to have ended tragically, since no one wants to hire 15 year olds. it makes no sense other than we live in a time when there are people in their 30s and 40s working jobs meant for teenagers. You know, high schooler jobs like food service and retail. But that’s alright; we can make do, I guess, until he turns 16. But it would have been nice for him to get used to working this summer and then start the school year. The kid needs money so he’d better follow through then!

11. There’s a Facebook page for VisitTally and I noticed they were doing a contest to win a staycation if you checked off some things from a summer bucket list here in my town. I also noticed someone gave it the angry face so for funsies, I clicked on that guy’s page and it was all Pride stuff and America hate. So my question to this dude is: if you don’t like it here, a.) why like this particular page and b.) Why don’t you just move, if it’s so bad? Why be a dick on social media? That kind of thing just makes me stabby.

12. One of my co-workers was an English major at FSU like me and we talk often about using this downtime to write. This morning, we planned to both go in for some words around 9. It’s kind of nice to have some accountability, though of course today, I have the aforementioned practice bill, as well as some grading to do.

13. Yesterday, my neighbor messaged me in the afternoon reminding us that they wanted us to go back over there before their friends left. I honestly didn’t feel like it but they’d also texted Ash and it was, after all, his birthday. So as soon as I got home, I changed and grabbed some beer and Dakota, and we went next door. Kids swam and then we had bbq chicken and sausage, as well as a multitude of salads and key lime pie. It was nice and we’ve totally made friends with this family, even though they do not live close at all. My older boys couldn’t fathom why we wanted to hang out with people we didn’t know and all I could think was just how much you learn about what makes life worth living once you get older. And hopefully some day, they too will see it.