Moments that hit the spot yesterday

Henry's first July...2008

As I return home this morning after a hard workout, I relish the quiet. I ponder, what should I get done during this quiet. There is a reason the house is still quiet.

Summer.

Yesterday, we took a break from summer fun and stayed put all morning so that I could get some cleaning done. The boys played outside with the neighbor and had a picnic lunch on a blanket in their yard. I cranked out some vacuuming, dusting, laundry, toy organization, and kitchen clean up. Sydney puttered around with her baby dolls and then napped.

I got the call that there was a cancellation with my hair gal and so when Syd woke, I packed up the kids and drove downtown to get to my hair appointment, with three kids in tow. My boys have grown up going with me from time to time and they always do great. But Syd is at an age where she doesn't want to just sit on my lap all the time. So I was nervous. Ed was in meetings all day, but I took the chance to text him and let him know that I had gotten in for a late afternoon appointment. When we got there, it is in a really fun, hip part of town, I retexted him and told him it would be fun if he could meet us for dinner. Thinking, impossible. He immediately called me and asked me where we were at...he got out of his meeting a little early and could help with the kids. SUCH A TREAT and SUCH A SURPRISE.

AND we got to go across the street for a fun dinner at a NON-chain restaurant! Fish tacos were devoured in 10 minutes by this mama.

Returning home I had planned to meet outside with our neighbor to catch up on some of her family news...and then realized...

Last night was National Night Out, where the country encourages you to hang out with your neighbors, we live on a quieter street, which I love. We have kids that come aboard our ship of a street when they visit their grandparents. We have some older college and high school age kids. We have some empty nesters...and then we have a couple families with a few girls. But we don't have enough to organize jumpers, firetrucks, and snow cone machines. Or maybe we just don't have party planners living on our street...

However, last night we happened to plan a happy hour to catch up, my neighbor and I. And the next thing I knew it was 9:15 and the boys were playing outside, in the dark at the neighbor's house and we were sitting in our driveway and our husband's had joined us. When we went to get the kids they were in pure heaven. They had had water fights with water bottles. They had caught a toad that was in on their kitchen table with saran wrap with holes in it covering the bucket.

The boys had a blast. And it was nice to catch up as adults. Every year the National Night out creeps up on us and we always say, "Shoot, maybe next year." But again, the year passes and we find ourselves with no big shindig planned.

But a simple evening...waving to neighbors walking by,  or driving in, wandering out to get their mail, while chatting with other neighbors, and letting the kids play until Henry could look up at the sky, startled, and announce,

"Hey dad! Look! Those are stars!"

That pretty much hit the spot.

The haircut and the fish tacos hit the spot too. Thanks Ed for allowing me to actually relax during my haircut instead of twirl plates, juggle balls, peel bananas, and sit perfectly still so that my short cut doesn't have a big chunk cut out in the wrong spot.

Summer moments hit the spot.  And yesterday was full of them.