The Summer Doldrums

At my house, we have reached the summer doldrums. When mariners of long ago would cross the equator, they would encounter areas where there would be no wind. Captains and crews would sit for days under the hot equatorial sun, waiting for a breeze to get their boats moving again.

That is where our household is at this very moment. In the doldrums. Waiting for a breeze to motivate our ship to move across the sea of midsummer’s languor. The stillness of the air and the slowness of activity is sapping our strength.

Alright, that is about as poetical as I can get. Seriously, it is a slow time in our house hold. Middlest commented the other day that she keeps losing track of what day it is. She has to work backwards from Sunday, since church makes Sunday significant in a week formless and void.

In order to preserve my daughters’ mental health during this time of inactivity, I have devised a series of mental exercises that will keep them in tip-top mental shape for school in the fall. Cleaning out the basement and painting the shed and the trim around the house top off that list. When I made the list public to my daughters, there was much grumbling and complaining. “Dad, we aren’t bored; we have Youtube, Pandora, Hulu, Facebook, and Twitter to keep us occupied and mentally challenged. Your list has nothing to do with mental health; it has to do with forced labor.”

As you can imagine, the rest of the conversation was short, mostly consisting of my scowling and growling and the girls’ eye-rolling and grumbling. I am not sure if this type of conversation is due to our Italian heritage, but it sounds more European if I say that is why we argue that way.

As of today, we have hauled 3 large bags of garbage out of the basement and most of the trim around the house is done and our shed is turning a delightful shade of caramel butterscotch (thanks to the artistic Middlest, who picked the color).

I am also proud to say that my daughters seem to be on top of their game mentally. I have seen one of them actually doing homework - and school doesn’t start for another month.

Finding Balance Part Two

In last week’s blog, I wrote about balance and pointed out Middlest’s enormous amount of homework during the week of break, all while they were watching movies during class time. Nature is designed to operate in balance; balance will happen.

One of my dad’s favorite phrases was, “Now the pendulum is swinging the other way.” He used this to illustrate how one group of people on one side of the center would hold power, until the power shifted to another group of people on the other side of the center. Even as a child, thinking concretely about this large pendulum swinging back and forth, I would think, “Why don’t we just stop the pendulum from swinging and stay right dead center?”

Staying right dead center will never work. Firstly, it will not work because it is boring. As people we crave stimulation. We thrive on new experiences. We demand difference. And so we are back to that pendulum swinging back and forth, or to the large playground teeter-totter trying to find balance.

Secondly, it will not work because different times and different situations require different approaches. Which brings us back to balance.

My kids, with Eldest setting the example, have seemed to innately master this concept of balance. I was frustrated with Eldest during her senior year in High School when I would see her supposedly doing homework at the computer, yet the computer seemed to always be on Facebook, where she read what her friends were doing, or on Tumblr, where she would look at pictures of kittens with inane captions, or viewing Youtube videos of people singing about some furry guy who made clay pots.

Then I watched her closely, and she did indeed visit these sites, but she would space those visits out with working on homework. Doing research on Google, writing a paper, even reading a text book, before going off into the world of social media to see what her friends were doing. She easily recognized balancing calculus equations with giggling over pictures of grumpy felines with silly captions.

That is how each of the three girls do their homework. Which I cannot fathom. Excuse me for a moment while I go check Twitter.

Littlest understood balance from a very young age, especially balance in diet. Not a diet of all one thing, but enjoying the rich variety of foods in creation. She demonstrated this as a tiny thing helping to carry in groceries. She was bringing in two bags from the van. She was so small the bottoms of the bags were dragging on the ground, (one bag in each hand, and if I may add, she was adorable.) She looked up at me and with her amazing grin she announced, “Look dad! A balanced diet.”