i think summer is going to kill me. 

i don't know about you, but i had visions of sprinklers, laughter, back yard barbecues...so far, all i seem to have been doing is driving back and forth on the new jersey turnpike for the last three weekends hauling my kids to lacrosse tournaments. sticky portable chairs, shrill whistles from the refs calling my kid for shooting space (if you don't know what that is you are right there with the 600 people who sat next to me screaming "that's not a foul!" when it was absolutely a foul), and whining little sisters who so did NOT want to be at lacrosse tournaments from 7:30am until 5:15pm. only three more weekends to go, just three. more. weekends.

i vowed yesterday after a quick stop to subway for some nearly inedible sandwiches (i figured a little more nutritional value than mcdonalds) to embrace the journey (literally) rather than the destination. we were hauling ass north to get back to the pool so my girls could take a swim when the skies opened up...for twenty minutes, water pouring down on the highway into large swirling puddles. i realized then: best laid plans sometimes don't come to fruition. six year olds generally don't take that well.

 what could we do at that very moment (besides piss and moan, we did that for a bit too) to enjoy our summer vacation?? we tossed out a few ideas and ended on grabbing some stuff for dinner from the market, renting beauty & the beast out of the red box machine (that box is my savior at the end of the check out aisle of death) and pulling out the new puzzle birthday puzzle my daughter got from her birthday. GENIUS. may not have sounded fun but when you stay present and let go, sometimes the best memories come from the smallest moments. we picked out fun lunch items from the aisles for their camp lunches, i let my youngest push the cart into her older sisters ankles a half dozen times which was good for some laughter, i got a food shop done while they were preoccupied by staying in the aisle and not crashing over the bbq sauce display.

i plan to employ my "stay present and look for the little moments" state of mind today. and i'm pretty sure ordering up some citrus lime chicken wings tonight from our PIPING HOT DINNER MENU and enjoying them on the back patio with a frosty beer while they jump through the sprinklers is going to make the crispy, lime-swathed chicken all the better. feel free to join me...