It's been a while, again. I've been thinking of things to write, but my writing hasn't gotten much beyond the thoughts in my head lately. I try to make myself sit down and put something on the computer or on paper, but the words don't come out or I'm not sure how to start. So here I am just jumping in. Writing some of my random thoughts. Hopefully my blog will establish more cohesiveness as I write or maybe randomness will be the beauty of it? It's really difficult for me to begin a task that I can't see the end of, so maybe that's why I can never get started? If that even makes any sense at all. My goal over the next month is to write without knowing the outcome. My hope is that if I just start, the words will come.

This summer has been full of a lot of fun with just a little progress towards my goals. It seems like the more open-ended free-time I have, the more I put my to-do list off. When I have 8 straight weeks of days off, I tend to think, "I'll just do that tomorrow." By the end of the school year, my brain needs a serious break; most of which takes place in the form of reading while drinking coffee on my front porch, laying by the pool watching my kids play, scrolling through FB with no real agenda, and placing sale items into online shopping carts and forgetting about them until the sale is over and/or the item is sold out (does anyone else do that)? The more free-time I have the more free-time I crave, like a greedy-free-time-devouring monster. Then at night I feel guilty that I wasted another day when I have "so much to do" and vow that tomorrow I'll really get to it.

So that's what I've been doing for the past 8 weeks, along with a trip to Australia with my husband, a beach vacation to Nags Head, a visit to my grandma's house in North Carolina and a smattering of swim meets, birthday parties, cookouts with friends, and gym workouts. It sounds like a glamorous life right? "Summertime, and the livin' is easy."

However, in two short weeks it will be back to the grind. Back to school and shuttling around to after-school activities and meetings all the while trying to get a healthy dinner on the table and the kids in bed at a reasonable time so they can reach their potential the next day. It's time to get to work. Today, I made my "Last 2 Weeks of Summer" Bucket List and posted it on the refrigerator front and center, where I will see it every time I open the fridge instead of just before I getting into bed. This idea actually came from my husband a couple of weeks ago, but I've haven't actually done it because I was scared of what it might look like. My list includes reorganizing/cleaning every room in my house, as well as some fun summer things I've been wanting to do with the kids (paint pottery, go to the summer $1 movies) and a really fun grown-ups trip to Nashville with our friends. It actually isn't half as bad as I thought it would be and before I go to bed tonight I will actually be able to cross off two things already. Can you guess which two?

Cheers to enjoying these last two productive weeks of summer vacation!