Beating the Heat!

 Greetings from the hot and humid north!!

We have been making violin videos for our end-of-year video recital, and as soon as we were done making this one I raced upstairs to change into shorts (L, as you can see, was already steaming hot as usual, so shorts and bare feet for the video it was).  This was Friday afternoon of last week, and the heat wave has been going strong since then.

We managed to hike up and down Mt Wachusett nearby with some friends on Saturday morning before it got too hot, but we were plenty sweaty by the time we finished!

Proud picture at the summit!!  👆

Miss J sort of wilted in the heat and struggled to make it to the top, and the big kids with longer legs were near the front of the pack the whole way while she lagged behind with me and the other Mama who was hiking with us.  She had a hard time and came close to tears at one point, but she persevered and I was SO proud of her when we made it up!  Look at that proud pose above!

My afternoon mass on Saturday was cancelled due to heat (no AC at the church and since it's surrounded by blacktop it's like a brick oven), so I had the opportunity to run a few errands by myself in the cool air conditioned car, with an iced coffee!  The shaken espresso with soy is a new favorite.  It's the little things, right?

The errands were run in preparation for a family get-together with M's side of the family on Sunday which we hosted at the new house.  To keep things COVID safe we tried to be mostly outside but it was over 90 degrees Fahrenheit so we all kind of melted after a while.  We ended up having some indoor and some outdoor fun.

{Side note... are any other Mamas struggling with the new CDC recommendations concerning masks for vaccinated people?  All the people at our family get-together were vaccinated, including M and myself, so I think most people would call me crazy for feeling nervous about having people indoors and unmasked, but........ my kids aren't protected!!!!  Well, except N, but she's not technically fully vaccinated yet.  I have heard that transmission to kids is unlikely from vaccinated people, but... we have no long-term studies yet to prove that, and I just feel like erring on the side of caution is probably smart.  It's the strangest position for me to be in, with myself protected and my kids not.  It goes completely against the usual Mama martyrdom sensibilities.  And most vaccinated people, especially if they don't have young kids around, are more than ready to be done with restrictions-- I totally get that.  I would totally be in that headspace if it weren't for the kiddos.  I found this article somewhat helpful but it's still a tough social call with so many more of these gatherings starting to happen.  What are all of your thoughts?}

Back to the family get-together... the girls really enjoyed meeting a new cousin (actually a second cousin, I think-- the son of M's cousin), showing him their Star Wars Legos, and play in the kiddie pool and with our new badminton set!  A very fun day with some family that we haven't seen in a very long time.  I don't have any pictures because it was very busy, but trust me... we had fun!

Monday we "skipped" school and left for the beach first thing in the morning (or, as close to first thing as I could get having to pack up all the sand toys, towels, sunscreen, plus a lunch for everyone, lol).  After having been in our hot house all weekend we were ready to just be somewhere else (and somewhere cool!) all day.  I only had one lesson to teach in the late afternoon so we were able to spend almost the whole day.  This new lake beach we found is about five miles from the new house and it's completely free so I picture us spending lots of time here this summer!  The girls were in the water soooo much-- I had to drag them out to eat lunch-- and they took a couple of 10-15 minute breaks to build a few sand castles.  But 100% of my children just love the water so much-- it's their happy place.  Happy kids, happy Mama.

Reading party in my air-conditioned bedroom, after an afternoon trip to the library yesterday :)

Last day of dance class with their beloved teacher.  We are very sad that we aren't close to this dance studio anymore :(  We will make the drive back this weekend for dress rehearsal and recital!

That's it for updates.  Hope you are all staying cool, wherever you are!