"We're very very busy, and we've got a lot to do, and we haven't got a minute to explain it all to you." - BusyBusyBusy, Sandra Boynton

I FEEL as if I have been very very very busy. (But if I have, God knows what I have been doing.)

The two older boys have been at day camp every morning this week. They come home suntanned and hot and sweaty and tired and RAVENOUS. They eat like longshoremen and still I can count their ribs and see each vertebrae. I prescribe more ice cream.

We made popsicles out of orange juice with the new fancy-schmancy popsicle molds, and I dipped chocolate-covered frozen bananas, a remembered treat from my childhood that perhaps would have been better left as a fond memory.

We went swimming Monday afternoon (the intrepid Terzo tried to run away from me and jump in the big pool, and my sweet Seg showed me how he kicks his legs, learning to swim), but Wednesday afternoon we got rained out by an awesome thunderstorm. We all sat on the front porch and watched the rain pour down in sheets, and the lightning zap one of the big old oak trees near our alley. And then we had to run around the house mopping up under windows with towels, because I wasn’t quick enough closing everything up when the hail started.

Wednesday was also the day I lost my mind and vacuumed and then mopped all the floors on the first floor.

Terzo and I have gone grocery shopping TWICE.

But we also visited the train table (and the coffee bar, natch) at the local bookstore.

I worked (a new freelance venture) yesterday morning, and went into work yesterday evening. In between, I took a nice long nap, and afterward I stopped at my favorite neighborhood bar for buffalo bites. The food took FOREVER to come out, but my waitress was a sweetie pie. I sat and read Pardonable Lies and drank my Coke. It was all good.

This morning The Baby and I took a leisurely stroll, examining ants and stones and leaves. We collected sticks. We said hi to doggies and neighbors, and waved to buses and construction vehicles. We discovered that the neighborhood coffee shop is still not open (they are renovating and were meant to be open Thursday). Today, though, they were serving coffee from airpots out front, and the owner produced a doughnut for the very pleased Terzo. We sat on benches on the sidewalk and kibbutzed with everyone walking by. We met some new neighbors with their nine-month-old son, and caught up with some old neighbors, who have had a lovely new baby, who is four weeks old. Terzo charmed the pants off everyone. As always.

Primo has a friend coming over this afternoon, to play Stratego and hockey. His t-ball season wraps up tomorrow with a Parents-versus-Kids game.

We have two picnics to choose from for Fourth of July, and my older brother is coming to visit. H and I are going to a baseball game at the lovely PNC Park, to help celebrate his brother’s 40th. Zoo camp is the week after next, and swim lessons start last week of July.

I have twelve pints of blueberries from Hammonton, NJ, in my downstairs fridge, destined for pie, and a quart of “lusciousberries” (they look like plain old strawberries to me) from our CSA that are crying out for shortcake. I have to go find a recipe for kale, shred the kohlrabi for pancakes and zucchini for casserole for dinner tonight, and refill the popsicle molds.

God, now that’s only eighty degrees, I LOVE summer.