
Saturday
7:15 a.m. Make cream of wheat, pull clothes out of dryer and rouse sleepy kids for various sports practices and one game.
10:15: Pick up last child from sports practice, and enter loaded car for overnight trip to the lake.
11:00: Realize we should have stopped to take the time to pick up a book on tape from the library for the kids. Unable to agree on music that keeps peace. We still have more than two hours of driving ahead of us.
12:15: Now, we realize we didn’t pack any meat to cook. We stop for gas, and a trip to the grocery store for a steak.
12:59: Why is the last half hour the hardest part of the trip? This guy keeps hitting the kid on the left, and pinching another one. We tell him to stop; he can’t help himself; he can’t keep his smile off his face. And we only have a half and hour left to go…and, can I tell you, this agony is worse than childbirth.
1:30 or so: We arrive to greet a calm lake, and 80 degree temperatures under a clear sky.
2:00: Unpack, and because we’re so famished, pull out the jar of peanuts in the pantry and go crazy.
2:09: Turn on water in the house, and turn hot water heater from vacation mode to Hot.
2:15:Â The boat is out of the garage and back in the water. (We thought we were done so we put it away last time! Ha.)
3:00: I drive the boat so he can ski on the “glass” lake.
3:30:Â The boys are tubing
3:10: The boys discover that the frogs have grown quite a bit since the summer.
3:30: Start grill. The peanuts haven’t held us for long.
4:00: He grills the steak, and I decide that I am not going to steam the broccoli; after all, I’m at the lake. They can eat it raw. The kids actually liked it more.
4:15: Sit down to eat. Husband wants cooked broccoli. I give him that look that needs no explanation.
4:45: Bullfrog has been put back in the water now at least 5 times; he stays close to shore, against my son’s feet. The frog likes my son, a lot. Still, the frog tried to make a couple of get-aways.
4:50: The entire ensemble of lake clothes of shorts and t-shirts I’ve brought are now wet. Except for their PJs, they have no dry clothes.
5:00: Drive boat for him again, so he can ski on lake that is still like glass.
5:15: The boys do various things behind the boat. I think about going skiing; but change my mind. This, I never expressed verbally.
5:45: Bullfrog has now been moved to a sandbucket with water and weeds. There is no lid on top; but the bullfrog stays and doesn’t want to leave.
6:00 One son uses his tube to jump over his brother; while tubing. I do not have camera for this kodak moment.
6:15: Realize that I probably won’t sit on the deck and read; like I had imagined.
6:30: Uncle Bud and Aunt Joyce have completed their afternoon nap next door, and are all set to go fishing.
6:37:Â Sunset.
7:00: Gather sticks to start bonfire. I’m hoping bedtime is just around the corner.
7:10: BB Gun, target practice time.
8:00: I have successfully roasted and eaten a s’more… before my children.
8:12:Â Release bullfrog back to the water.
8:30: Uncle Bud and Aunt Joyce come in, and report they have caught 10 fish. They sit down at our awesome fire pit and have a s’more. What a privilege, really, to talk to them; they’ve both had an unexpected turn of good health. Bad health has kept them away most of the summer.
9:00:Â A first: kids are inside and getting ready for bed; before 10. Did we wear them out?
9:15:Â Way too tired to give the little ones showers; got by with brushing their teeth and washing their feet only.
10:47:Â I think I started to read; but the next thing I knew, it was 7:21 a.m.
Sunday
7:21 a.m.: Pour Honey Bunches of Oats in a bowl for my first grader; made pancakes and eggs.
7:16 a.m. I notice the lake is stunningly beautiful; are those fog clouds, or is it steam coming off the water? I take lots of pictures.
7:45:Â Get dressed, between flipping pancakes, and throw wet clothes in a plastic bag to take home.
8:00: Make tea; and move packed bags out to car. Continuously tell kids to take their stuff to the car. They managed to ignore me fairly consistently. It’s a fine art they’ve cultivated.
8:15: The kids are fed, my husband is cleaning the bathroom, and the boys are outside playing, and I have this bright idea that I’m going to sit down and eat my breakfast; drink my tea, and read that book. It doens’t really happen quite like that. But I did gulp my tea down and stand up and eat my fried egg sandwich.
9:00:Â Shut off water, turn down hot water heater, and say Goodby to Uncle Bud and Aunt Joyce.
9:30:Â We’re off.
9:35:Â I thought we’d be spending the whole day at a service station; the tire pressure light came on; but that turned out to be minor; everything’s OK.
9:38:Â Remembered that XM Radio, 164, is old time radio. We listened to “Citizens of the World” about an attempt to save an airplane that was one its way down; the kids were postive it was Batman; whatever; it was Fred MacMurray, not Bruce Wayne. But, hey, whatever works.
10:00: The Alan Young Show was old-fashioned stellar. A guy named Ralph sent a married woman flowers; her husband’s name wasn’t Ralph.
10:15: I’m catching up on my reading; the reading I didn’t get to do at the lake.
12:30:Â We stop at Jersey Mike’s Sub’s for lunch.
12:45: We’re back on the respective soccer and football fields for a full day of play.
Dreaming of next weekend; when we’ll really have more than 24 hours.
What do you feed your frogs out there???
That is a FREAKING HUGE FROG!
It is SO cold here now that I can’t even quite imagine going voluntarily ANYWHERE NEAR water. COld! Still, it looks like a fun day.
Crickets. Big ones. The frog swallows the crickets just enough so that the legs hang out the sides of the frog’s mouth. Very pathetic. But, you gotta love that the frog is well-fed.
just love this post – thanks for sharing!
wonderful. and i have not seen a frog that big in years!