Cruising into June

It's June! Another of my favorite months, along with May and October. June in Colorado can be a lot of different things: it can rain, it can snow, it can be very hot and dry. This year we're experiencing the first of those. It WILL NOT stop raining!

Of course, this is a good thing. We need to recharge those aquifers, fill the Colorado River, revitalize our trees. But it's unusual to have rain so many days in a row. Or if we do have days of rain, it doesn't usually rain in the morning. The storm clouds gather in the afternoon and then we have a nice, satisfying thunderstorm. But waking up to rain, day after day, is odd. And unpleasantly reminiscent of the terrible floods of 2013.

This isn't like 2013, not at all. Still, one never forgets.

I looked back at some old blog posts from previous Junes and found plenty of mentions of rain. Rain is normal for June, so I should stop fussing about it.

This June is starting out a little oddly in other ways though. First, I've been sick for a week now! I think I first felt the sore throat last Sunday, when we went to the Creek Festival. It was very bad on Monday and by Wednesday I was sneezing. Anyway, it's been awful. I hate being sick. When I'm healthy I think it might be nice to be sick -- could get a lot of sleep, not have to do things... well, this is nonsense. I still have to do everything when I'm sick. Who do I think would do the things, if not me? The kids absolutely, 100%, refuse to clean the litter boxes. I think if I were in the hospital they would feed the cats. They've done it once or twice when I was REALLY sick. But litter boxes, no. Rocket Boy will do the litter boxes if they're getting smelly, but Rocket Boy is in St. Louis. So really, there is nothing good about being sick.

The other odd thing about this June is that the kids are taking Driver Ed through TopCops. All day long for four days (Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday). Today is the third day of it, so I'm having a fairly peaceful Sunday. Still have to do all the things, but at least nobody (Teen A) is yelling at their computer game and nobody (Teen B) is yelling at the first nobody to shut up. On Friday, driving them all the way to the YMCA in Lafayette for class, I wondered if I could make it -- I was really too sick to drive. But I made it there and back, picked them up, took them there the next day... and this morning I realized I was finally starting to feel better. Not so out of it. I still have no energy, get out of breath very easily. But my brain is starting to clear.

Tomorrow (Monday) they will take the test for their permit and I hope and pray they pass it. Then next week, on June 14th, we have appointments at the DMV to get the actual permits (assuming they pass the test). And then we will start driving practice. Horrors. I plan to take one kid out for half an hour every day, alternating kids. So on the 15th maybe half an hour with Teen A, on the 16th half an hour with Teen B, etc., etc. After we've driven for a week or two, they will have some extended driving lessons with TopCops instructors. Then we will continue to practice, every day during the summer, and during the school year probably just on weekends, for a YEAR. No running off to the DMV on their 16th birthday. They have to have their permits for a YEAR before they can get their licenses. 

What a wonderful year this is going to be. Driving practice, and Year 2 of my braces. My braces should come off right before they get their licenses. And then life will get better? Maybe.

***

Being sick, Driver Ed, and the rain have combined to mess up my daily and weekly schedules, but it's OK. We'll get back on track soon. 

Teen A has been very enthusiastic about the yardwork project (because he gets $5 a day), and even on Wednesday and Thursday, when I was completely miserable, I went out with him and worked (and then came in and collapsed) because he wanted to. The last few days, fortunately, the twins have been with the TopCops and the yard has languished, wetly. The pile of junipers in this photo was the last thing we did on Thursday. Teen A's job is to saw off big branches, and in this case he did more than I would have liked -- but it would have had to come off eventually anyway, so it's fine. On Tuesday, when we go back to work, I think we'll spend our whole 30 minutes carving this into smaller pieces to fit into leaf bags. 

Or maybe we'll work in the back yard. We've been alternating between the front and back yards. Our tenant next door asked me about her overgrown junipers too, so we should probably be working in her yard as well. The responsibility for her yard has never been clearly delineated in the lease -- she's allowed to plant anything she wants, but while I think that means she should also take care of what's growing, she doesn't seem to think so. We can't really afford to hire a gardener on what she pays in rent, so I probably need to suck it up and be the gardener. With Teen A's help.

I shouldn't complain, shouldn't be so snippy. She's a good tenant and we like having her live there. I hate the thought of some other person living there. So we'll work on her junipers soon.

Other plans for June? Rocket Boy and I are trying to plan a trip for the end of the month, but it isn't going well. Neither of us seems to be able to get up the energy to do the work. He wants to go to Yellowstone, but so far I haven't figured out how we would do that. Lodging in the park is extremely expensive, but he thinks we could stay somewhere else -- maybe Cody? OK, let's see. We could drive to Cody in one day, then go to Yellowstone the next day, then Grand Teton the next day, and then, hmm, Craters of the Moon in Idaho looks interesting. OK, I guess I'm starting to see how this might work. Maybe. 

Other than a trip, my plans for June are pretty similar to my plans for May. Keep doing yardwork, keep doing FlyLady stuff, keep working on the files, and keep working on my writing. Make dinner most nights. Go for walks in the evenings, with or without kids. Right before I got sick, I tried to start a new habit of playing a board game in the evenings (after the walk). We did it exactly once and then I was too sick to do anything in the evening, a walk or a game or even dinner. So, starting tonight or tomorrow night (or maybe Tuesday night), I'll try to get that going again. We had a lot of fun the ONE night we did it (we played "Moose in the House," a perennial favorite). 

Oh, and enjoy the beauty that is June! My lilac bush! And the chickadees raising a family in the dead aspen next to it! And the flowers in my planters and in people's yards. And the warm sunshine/gentle rain.

OK, time to go pick up the twins