I think I succeeded. July was fun and relaxed and I wasn’t even on vacation! I did a lot of work — running a survey for my next book and doing several interviews for it, doubling up on a lot of podcasting so I don’t have to record much in August, giving speeches, etc.

But there were also a lot of family and personal life highlights. July opened with that epic long weekend (basically July 2-7 for me…) during which we helped set off a lot of (safe and sane!) fireworks at a friend’s house, went to the beach, went on a family bike ride (almost all of us) and SHU and her family came over for recordings, swimming, and an adults-only dinner out featuring margaritas.

After that we sent various older boys off to camp at various points. My husband and I went to Longwood Gardens for the beer garden and the flowers. My daughter and I went to see Olivia Rodrigo, which was definitely a summer highlight. I enjoyed getting to know her music and the show was great! (My daughter was an excellent concert companion — I’m so glad she’s willing to hang out with me.) That weekend also featured the York State Fair where, among other things, I got to see the Flying Cortes act, with Commander Alexander getting shot out of a cannon. I was so fascinated that I reached out and was able to do a short phone interview with him this week. I have interviewed a lot of people about their careers and how they spend their time over the years, but never someone who works as a human cannonball. So look for that in my upcoming content.

There have been solo several bike rides, and lots of swims. As I wrote yesterday, we’ve gone in the pool most nights. I went in last night by myself for a while, then chatted with my 17-year-old in the hot tub until it was pitch black dark. (Theoretically the pool lights have been fixed, finally, but I don’t have the app to turn them on yet…) There have been a lot of strawberry acai lemonade refreshers from Starbucks, and evenings where I open the windows.

So there’s been a lot of summer already, and now it’s on to August, which is a full summer month for us (the kids don’t start school until after Labor Day). I just got an ad from Scandic Hotels this morning informing me that summer isn’t over yet. And it’s true! Just like on Sunday the weekend isn’t over yet. Unlike with July there actually will be vacations this month — both a more relaxing one and a more adventurous one. I’m hoping to use the fact that I’m ahead on some of the day-to-day work to open space for thinking deep thoughts. But we shall see.

I hope you have much to look forward to this August!

So instead my general philosophy has been to set some limits on when the screens are available (they go away at night, at least for younger kids — and for everyone during the school year) and then just keep the kids busy doing a lot of non-screen things during the day. This naturally limits the time available.

This is easier said than done in winter, but this summer we’ve finally gotten the pool + hot tub combo working out in the yard. On any given “nice” (not raining) night we are often out there around 7:45/8 p.m. and aren’t back in the house until close to 9. As these are precisely the hours the kids would be zoned out watching YouTube videos, it’s kept at least some of that in check.

Of course, now that the Olympics are on I’m actually *trying* to find more screen time to watch it. Last night the 4-year-old had announced that he didn’t want to go in the pool because he’d had a swim lesson earlier. But around 8:00 it suddenly became urgent that we go, so I relented. He wasn’t the world’s best pool companion (he had a scrape on his foot, so after all that rigamarole to get out there he then didn’t want to have his foot in the water…) but the 12-year-old and 17-year-old sat in the hot tub and talked with me for a while. So that was still nice. I finally managed to watch some gymnastics from 9:45-10:45 p.m. after the little guy was down.

As for the 9-year-old…he’s now at sleep-away camp where he’ll have no screens for two weeks! I’m pretty sure they keep them busy enough that he might not even notice — but I’ll report back when I see him again.

In other news: We got a Polaroid-type camera for a party two years ago, and I hauled it back out to send printed photos to the 9-year-old at camp. He wanted me to hug his stuffed animals at night as though I were hugging him. So each day I take a photo of me hugging a different stuffy and send that in the mail. I sent him with addressed, stamped envelopes, so we’ll see if anything comes back to me…

On Saturday, my husband and I went on a house and garden tour nearby at Stoneleigh — while the gardens are open most days, the house is not, so it was kind of fun to see inside. The upper floors have been mostly turned into archival storage for the Organ Historical Society, so I snapped this photo of various copies of “Organ Building for Amateurs” — what a hobby!

I also spent a lovely hour floating solo in my pool. Normally, pool trips are spent supervising children, so I enjoyed lying on a float for an hour and not being responsible for anyone but myself. Talk about restful!

Then on Sunday morning, my husband and 9-year-old took off for his sleep-away camp. We have not done the traditional cabin-in-the-woods sorts of camps for any of our kids, so this is a new experience, but I have high hopes he will love it. He likes various outdoor/athletic activities. My husband recorded a video of him telling me that it looks really fun. Also: I sent him with a battery-operated fan and a baggie of ex tra D batteries. My husband had a brief moment of angst when he saw every other kid in the cabin had a fan but then he saw our kid pull his fan out and he sent me a text about how I was on top of this [stuff.] Yes. I am.

Meanwhile, the 17-year-old and I volunteered in the 4-year-old’s Sunday School class (we have been doing this a lot this summer as they always need helpers but I have no ability to do it during the school year with choir). Funny story — another parent whose kid was a little anxious about separation told me that in a class a few months ago she had tried to leave by telling her kid that she was going to the bathroom (true, but she didn’t say whether she was coming back…). My 4-year-old, who is wise in the ways of the world, told her kid that “she’s going to be in the bathroom for a long time.”

I have been watching a lot of the Olympics. It’s something like drinking from a fire hose, so I know I won’t see everything I want to (we don’t magically get extra hours during Olympic weeks) but it’s still fun. We’ve been scheming about going to the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028. Some kids want to see gymnastics, but given the number of celebrities in the stands in Paris, that suggests it might not be the easiest thing in the world to get tickets. Well, we’ve got four years to figure that out…