It is that time of year--where the papers are coming home from school, the year-end events are constant, the work fiscal-year-end crush is on, and the desire to do all the outside things have all come together to make daily life completely overwhelming. Sort of in a good way, mostly, but overwhelming nonetheless. I find myself grateful that Jacob never took up any musical pursuits because if I had to add all of the year-end chorus and band concerts I keep seeing to our schedule, I think I'd lose my mind. We already have soccer every Wednesday, which is fine, but starting in a couple weeks we'll have lacrosse Tuesday and Thursday, which will throw our entire existence into chaos, with a constant chorus of complaints from Jacob, who is more than ready to be done with lacrosse and already dreading next weekend when he goes away to training camp for a couple days.
The last couple days were full of me obsessing over all sorts of logistics. I'm trying to coordinate two different summer camps for Carter, one month at his old daycare and one at a new one. The short story is that his best buddy Elias had already committed to going back to our old daycare, but when I told his mom that another one that we've long wished we could afford was actually the same price with a much better program, she decided to split the summer, which is just fine with us--and we definitely want the boys together. But if a June 21 deadline to finalize dates wasn't bad enough at the old daycare, the other has a June 1 deadline...and aside from big, long-planned trips, who the heck knows their summer schedule then?! I like being able to plan a couple random family outings or long weekends, and it's so hard to do so far ahead when neither of us know quite what our work schedule might be then. I much prefer Jacob's camp and its two week timeline. So I've been freaking out about that (namely how much money we will waste if we do schedule something later vs. how much we'd regret not doing anything when summer's over) and needing to fill out paperwork and get in deposits (and figuring out how two full-time camp tuition payments will be tolerable all summer). We tour the new one (again) on Friday, since the last time we went Carter was only two.
Then this week I knew that I had to made a decision about letting Jacob come home from school and not go to the afterschool program in June. We had talked about it and wanted to do it, but he didn't love the thought of being home for more than two hours alone. Yet in the end he wanted to do it so I had to put in the paperwork to get his bus changed in time and cancel my autopayment on his afterschool account. In the process, I asked the transportation people about next year's bussing, and found out that we were supposed to have paperwork in on that in April, but OF COURSE no one told us. So I had to download the form, fill it out, have someone from school sign it, and then have the principal from the new school sign it and fax it over. That was a little craziness I didn't need. Oh, and I still need to get an extra house key made for him (or decide if I want to replace our door locks first because my key keeps getting stuck).
In the midst of all of this I'm trying to finish up a cell phone contract (our internal family one) and a chore chart so we can get Jacob's cell phone situation up and running. He got Craig's iPhone (spoiled, anyone?) when Craig got a new phone for his new job with the new Knighthawks, and he's been using it for WiFi internet stuff and music for a couple weeks now. We're going to start him with a TracFone plan for now. He may blow through his data if he's not careful, but when he has to hand over hard earned allowance to get more, he may learn his lesson. His entitled, "why should I" attitude about almost everything is killing me lately. Why should he have to wait for WiFi to watch videos? Why should he have to do summer reading for school? Why should he have to play lacrosse if basketball is his sport now? Why shouldn't he buy this expensive thing even though he has no income? Know your role, kid.
He pretty much thinks I'm a jerk about everything these days, but yet I'm sitting here in a Raptors shirt, poised to search for cheap hotels in Toronto this weekend if the Raptors win their game tonight and force a Game Six in their conference finals series. No, we're not going to the game--we're not that crazy--but we promised that if they made it to Memorial Day weekend we'd consider going up there and maybe try to get into "Jurassic Park", the gathering of fans outside the arena. More than likely we'll just end up at a bar full of fans to cheer them on together. It has to be a cheap hotel to make it doable, and we'll try to make a weekend of it with some sort of other activity, but I don't mind having something to keep us busy for the weekend. We have four full days, so I'm happy to dedicate a couple to making at least part of Jacob's dream come true.
In the meantime, Craig and I are both trying to up our fitness game, which is tough when there's already a lot going on. He took a not-great picture for his work head shot, which was the straw that broke the camel's back for him. He's (back) off diet pop (only water and sparkling water/seltzer), and trying to work out more. I ended up not signing up for the Corporate Challenge, which is just as well since it takes the pressure off having to get my distance up. The urgency would have been motivating, but the treadmill workout a couple weeks ago inspired me to work on speed, and in fact tonight I wasn't feeling like a run at all, but the sun was setting quickly and I knew it was my best chance to run outside this week, so I forced myself. I picked a shorter route (less than 2.5 miles) and decided to just run as hard as I could the whole time. I didn't have to obsessively check my distance, and just ran to get it over with. Sure enough, 2.39 miles in 22:31, which was a 9:25 pace. That's just under a 6.5 mph pace, which is great and felt fast...but it also makes me wonder how the heck I ever got up to a 7 mph pace for 3.5 miles. I'm really thinking we both need to lift weights to budge our weights, but we'll see.
Carter continues to frustrate me with his struggles to read and write. Still no concerned notes home from the teacher, so he's probably fine, but it's hard to see him struggle. I need to find a good phonics workbook or something for the summer, and we're going to have to work hard to keep him practicing. The good news is that his teacher asked if we had any preferences for next year, and I shared how much we loved Jacob's first grade teacher (and we told that teacher we'd love her for next year back at open house in the fall), so hopefully we're well on our way to getting a good teacher for next year. If she could wrangle Jacob back then, she could definitely work with Carter. I think. He's a force to be reckoned with, for sure. Oh, and lately he's had sort of rashy dry patches all around his mouth, and despite using the best lotion we have, it's not clearing up. And there was just a case of strep in his classroom, and Jacob had a rash from strep before, so now I'm debating whether we take him in Thursday so as not to miss more school/work. I tried hydrocortisone tonight, so we'll see if that helps. If it isn't one thing, it's always another.
I can't really believe Memorial Day weekend is almost upon us. Because the weather has been sub-par this spring, it barely feels like it could be May, let alone the end of it. But here we are. Jacob is less than a month away from turning 11, and there's a mere five weeks left of school. We're in the home stretch at work. The weather is finally perking up a bit. But it's all happening all at once. And mostly it's good stuff, but man, it's a lot to take in.
Oh, and the Raptors won, so if you need me, I'll be spending the next 24 hours searching for Toronto hotel deals...because why not add one more thing (or a dozen) to the to-do list?
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