A New Kind of Staycation

The boys and I are about smack dab in the middle of our 3 weeks at home in Chicago between our first summer excursion and our last one, when we will drive to Seattle and back. Coming home after 3 weeks on the road - doing fun stuff every day, sharing a bedroom with the boys, and lots of SUN - left me feeling in desperate need of alone time and very little stimulation. Fortunately (and unexpectedly) the boys felt the same way too! When we got home, it seemed like we all disbursed and kind of didn't talk to each other for a while. The boys played, sometimes together, but more often parallel each other. I was in the room with them, or the next room over, but often looking at a magazine or probably just staring off in to space.

After a few (roughly 1.5) days of that detox, we've gotten back into our summer swing of doing something fun each day. Since we're only here for 3 weeks, I'm much more inclined to wake up in the morning and ask, "do you guys want to go to the beach?!" We stop off at playgrounds on my run. We sit in traffic because it's WORTH IT to see the lake shimmer or enjoy the day at the zoo with friends.

I am also much more inclined to let the boys watch a show (or 3), to lay in bed longer in the morning, and to stay up late enjoying some alone time with a show or podcast. With all the busyness we're sustaining here, I am not feeling stressed at all, because I'm also allowing a correlating amount of relaxation for myself. Being home for just a few weeks takes the pressure off - I'm not as worried about forming patterns and habits that are sustainable for, you know, like a whole school year. But I think I have some lessons to learn here about jumping for opportunities of fun in the morning, and balancing that with a movie and pizza for dinner.

So good to reunite with these two! What better occasion than 4th of July brunch?

Ramping up for the 4th with Al's Under the L hotdogs in East Garfield 

Our first beach trip of the summer - 31 St! Since then we've been up to Montrose beach as well and I'm hoping we'll see Ohio St. beach before heading to Seattle. 

The mini dads. We've grown to love our post-church stop at Trader Joe's each week. 

The smeyes kill me!! 

They love the car carts at Home Depot. And I was feeling pretty proud of myself as a home owner for walking in and buying some drywall! But I'm going to wait until my husband is home to tackle the bucket of cement. :)