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…