Happy Fourth!  We’re well into summer now, but I haven’t closed out spring.  Another busy season has flown by, and it’s time to check in and see if I managed to cross anything off my list of hopes and dreams for the spring.  Spoiler alert: I did, a few things, but of course not nearly as much as I’d have liked.  Between work, Peanut’s school, helping the nanny find a family to replace us when Nugget starts school in September, and a personal project that I’m working on (details when I can, and no it’s not a baby or a move) there wasn’t much time for fun.  But I did the best I could.

• Catch up on the 52 hike challenge – I’m several weeks behind.  Calling this done.  I’m still a few weeks behind, but we’ve started hitting the trails a lot more now that winter is well behind us.  Four hikes over the course of a trip to New York to attend my college reunion and see family definitely helped.

• Decide on a destination for summer travel and start planning.  Done!  I’m notoriously indecisive, so I tried something new this year: starting from a premise of not wanting to fly (we flew with the kids twice last year and it was exhausting; I want a break) and came up with four destinations within driving distance.  Then I gave the list to Steve and let him make the final decision.  He decided on the Adirondacks, so we’re heading to Lake Placid later this summer!  I chose a week, booked us lodging, and started the fun part – deciding what hikes to do!

• Visit Mount Vernon and see the baby animals (that was so much fun last year).  Done!  My parents and their good friends were passing through on their way back from Hilton Head and we all went together.  The baby animals are so darling.
• Take Peanut and her doll Willa to tea at the American Girl store.  This didn’t happen – hopefully this summer.

• Hike the Bluebell Loop Trail again.  Done!  This is going to be a spring tradition for as long as we are in NoVA (so, hopefully, a long time) – it’s gorgeous.
• Read Beverly Nichols’ Merry Hall trilogy.  Nope – whoops.  Got busy with library deadlines; same old story.
• Pick tulips at Holland in Haymarket again.  Sadly, this didn’t happen, and not because we were busy – the extended disco winter killed the entire field!  What a bummer.  (They’re calling it the Great Tulip Tragedy of 2018.)  Hopefully we’ll make up the loss of tulips with an extra good haul at the Summer of Sunflowers.
• Start the process to get approved as a Girl Scout troop leader.  Process is what it is.  Peanut’s school loved my idea of starting up a Daisy troop, but I haven’t been able to convince any of the other moms to sign up as assistant leader.  I’m thinking I need to let go of this one and just find Peanut an already existing troop to join.
• Bake a strawberry-rhubarb pie with a lattice crust (with fruit from the farmers’ market, if possible).  Wouldn’t that have been yummy?

• Write letters to my grandmother, and get up to New York to visit her at least once.  We made it to New York to see my grandmother in early June, and I did manage to get one letter off to her – would’ve liked to send more, but one is better than none.  Hoping to see her again a few times this summer.  Every moment is precious.

All things considered, a pretty good spring.  I didn’t get through nearly as much of my list as I’d hoped to, but that seems to be par for the course these days.  I won’t lie – I am starting to feel a little beat down by the incessant go-go-go of life.  I wouldn’t mind being busy if there was a little time built in for the things that make it all enjoyable, but the past few seasons have felt like one long slog of almost all work and no play.  Sometimes summer slows down, so let’s hope for that.  I need a good long stretch of sunny days for splashing, picking blueberries, and sipping seltzer on the patio.