June 2011 – Page 2 – New Life Consulting

Ok, so my three followers – my parents and my sister- have asked why I haven’t been writing lately… no real good excuse except life got in the way. So, as I embrace the more flexible days of summer vacation, I would like to recommit to this whole blogging thing. As I told my mom today, I like the way it helps me remember the days. The little things that make me laugh that I think I’ll never forget, but you do! Who am I kidding? I can’t remember what I did yesterday let alone that funny thing that Griffin or Fletcher or who was it that did that thing that was so funny…?! In all honesty, I miss blogging. I miss the discipline of searching out that gem from the day and reliving it as I retell it. I tried it as an experiment and I lived three months blogging and then nearly four months off… and to tell you the truth – I liked living as a blogger better. Maybe it’s therapeutic. Maybe it helps me look at my children and the craziness of my life through a different lens. But whatever it is… I want to continue.

So with the start of a new month. A new season. I am going to reincorporate blogging into my days. My days with the Jays. 🙂 So stay tuned. More to follow, I hope.

First day of summer vacation at the Jay household. It was a great day! We went swimming in the pool – me with all four of them, twice! We dolled out popsicles out of the “Bub’s ice cream shop” window, (aka the kitchen sink window) and then, the highlight of the day occurred was we were setting up to play a round of croquette and we heard the distinct “beep, beep, beep” of heavy road equipment backing up coming down our street. Like moths to a light, all attention spans were now otherwise gathered as they ran to the back wall to peer through the fence and watch the crew of workers prepare to pave the bike path they’re installing across the street. I joined them, of course, with camera in hand and documented the journey. It wasn’t just a quick “Hey look!” and get back to the game with mallets and hard wooden balls, no, it was how we spent the next hour!(+) And the more you watched, the more you learned about they process… how there was a parade of dump trucks that came one after the other to back up just right until they were attached to the zambonie like asphalt spreader, the hand signals they gave each other until they were in position, the crew of four men wearing hard hats who rode on the back like the trapeze lady standing on the narrow platform above the freshly spread peat gravel road. Then how they would take turns jumping off and setting down the level to make sure the path was perfectly level. There was a bit of lag time which must have been a union or OSHA required break where several of the worker guys took smoke breaks and one was texting (Carter said, “He’s working on his i-phone”) and one was actually taking a nap in the shade! This must be what TJ means when he talks about a “state highway operation” Although I’m itching to get out on that path to go for a run, it’s fascinating to watch and learn along side my boyz. Before having boys I used to think that every big piece of machinery that was green was a tractor and everything that was yellow was a bulldozer. My how having boyz has shaped me. Now I’m out here watching it with them and I can tell the difference between a grader and a roller and a bushhog and a bulldozer. WOW ! Carter’s taught me a lot!

When I told Jim what all we had done that day he said “WOW! It’s like you’re running your own Mommy Summer Camp!” Without missing a beat, I said, “I AM!!”

Jim told me that the next morning he went for a run all along the fresh gravel path. Oh, no! Hopefully they won’t have to start over to get it level again! This job’s never going to get done!! 🙂

Camp Jay