Confession: The guilty pleasure of summer camp

Camp time! Madison and Ella are at the PUSH Pins drama camp this week, which is sponsored by PUSH physical theater, which has an emphasis on, well, physical theater. Mostly mime and dance, but also drums, arts and crafts, etc. They really liked it today.

Oh, the guilty, guilty pleasure I feel. Six blessed hours all to myself each day this week. SIX! I bought a smallish magenta notebook last night, which is to be my 2007 Summer Accomplishments notebook. In the front, I labeled the front-and-back of a page with each room in our house, and for a little while this morning, I wandered around, blissfully uninterrupted, writing down what needed to be done in each room, plus the garage, storage room, and outside. In the back, I started a to-do list, with all of my stuff (Axton Enterprises, KidsOutAndAbout.com, book writing, painting--which I vow to get back to this summer--academic planning for the girls, exercising at the gym, home organizing, financial organizing etc.) kind of intertwined as it occurred to me...and a LOT occurred to me all day. There are two-and-a-half solid pages of to-do. Then, I made a separate page of General Summer Goals, categories that encompass my to-do list, and tucked that into the front pocket so that it's handy (and revisable). I then took a separate sheet that represented this week, and made a sort of daily schedule. It's kind of nice, actually, that David is away through Wednesday, in that I can schedule in an extra hour of stuff to get done before the girls go to bed, and an hour after they go to bed.

There I was, working today, all the while alert for the inevitable "Mom!" that would call from any corner of the house. I even heard it occasionally, and would start up to find out what was needed as usual, when I'd realize THEY'RE NOT IN THE HOUSE, they're in Pittsford in the basement of the First Presbyterian Church. Then, in quick succession: Relief that I wasn't needed by someone, delight at being free to focus exclusively on what I was doing, guilt at my delight, a little rational work to override my guilt, and the plunge back into industry.

AAAAAAHHHHH summer.

P.S. And it's even cool because of the air conditioning.