Stop! Panic Time

My concerns are growing - my concerns over another summer vacation with my two girls.  As the primary domestician, I get all the drama, all day, every channel.  And the girls will be out of school soon.  I can hear a faint bomb ticking ...

I am ready for a break from the school year.  We are all weary of the routine and we need a refreshing vacation.  But summer provides SO much togetherness.  I'm not entirely sure we can take it.

So I am making my list of priorities for this summer for the girls, lots of time-killers that will be gentle on the bank account, or credit card, or whatever means we will resort to as a diversion from SO much togetherness.

1.  Find some learning experiences for the girls.  They are commonly called "camps".  We have one picked out for Dar and we need to find more, especially for Roxy.  Not the sleep-away kind for her, just something that she will enjoy that will give us a break from her.

2.  Find more swimming options.  Without a neighborhood pool, you have to get very creative in Georgia.  And I prefer outdoor swimming so my white skin doesn't glow like a lantern.

3.  Get some playdates for Roxy - out of my house.  She is a playdate queen and she usually has at least one playdate away from home each week, but then she has two or three playdates here at this house.  I love company, I love her friends, but Darby and I need more quiet time than Roxy does - she likes no moments of siilence.

4.  Beat Roxy at any and every game.  She has the uncanny ability to always win.  When I had a Wii dance-off with her, she pummelled me at the Hammer dance.  That was humiliating.  And I won't get into how often I lose at cards to her.

5.  Keep Darby out of the kitchen and/or keep her in the kitchen through the cleanup portion of the cooking event.  Last summer she made things ALL the time - smoothies, desserts, meals, etc.  And her stuff is good.  But she never cleans and she makes three times the mess I do.  Her ability to evaporate like a mist is pretty amazing - and it always coincides with a giant kitchen  mess.

My goals are simple and few.  I am gearing up for these challenges now, before all the sisterly fussing starts, before Roxy says she is bored, and before Darby starts acting like a teenage girl.