Lost

Blogger had some kind of a malfunction and lost a lot of people's recent posts.  In an attempt to recover them, Blogger shut down for like 24 hours.  Now it's back up, but my posts are still lost.  This loss bothers me, because I feel that people are now getting an incomplete update on the trivial minutiae of my life. 

For example, yesterday I wanted to report that I got my Official $3 Flip-Flops of the Summer.  They're lavender with a white Hawaiian print, and I chose them solely because they were the only cheapy rubber flip-flops at Walgreen's that came in a size to fit my honking size 10 feet. 

I wore the flip-flops to get the pedicure shown here:

I would like to point out a dumb toenail-related observation I've made about the two places I've lived in my life.  When I lived in Southern California, little flowers painted on toenails were a big trend.  Here in suburban Chicago, they are not as big, and the designs do you see are more of the ornate, swirly variety.  I don't really like ornate and swirly, so I told the lady at the nail place to give me simple flowers with no swirls.  Somehow I ended up with simple swirls with no flowers.  But I feel like any complaining I do about the Vietnamese immigrant who works 7 days a week scrubbing middle-class ladies' feet is just going to make me look like a spoiled racist snob.  Anyway my toes are way better than they were when half the polish was chipped off. 

(P.S. I confess that I got that pedicure instead of chaperoning Nathan's class field trip to the Dairy Queen.)

Also, look at that, I was wearing a goddamn dress yesterday.  I feel very self-conscious wearing dresses.  I feel like my life is too active and rugged to pull off a dress.  But on Wednesday I went to the sort-of-plus-sized-but-not-all-the-way-so-I-feel-okay-about-myself store Fashion Bug and picked up two cotton sundresses, the pink one you see here ... and then the exact same one in black.  Because I'm really a fashion risk-taker. 

But anyway, Summer of Simplicity begins!  As evidence, here's a picture of my kid eating a popsicle in the backyard:

It's like a Norman Rockwell painting, except for the part where my kid has his shirt on backwards and inside-out.  Simplicity = not stressing about these minor imperfections. 

So far I'm kind of starting to feel like Summer of Simplicity involves buying a lot of stuff, which doesn't seem all that much in the spirit of simplicity.  Except, really, all my Summer of Simplicity stuff is pretty cheap, like yesterday I bought a $3 container of bubbles and some $1 sidewalk chalk.  Nathan wants to get an automatic bubble machine, but I feel like that's not in the spirit of simplicity either.  We're making our own bubble wands out of string and wire hangers, dammit!

Actually, let me say something about Summer of Simplicity: It will not involve crafts.  Well, I mean, Nathan can do crafts at camp or the library or with his crafty babysitter, but I will not be going to JoAnn to purchase specific craft supplies for a specific planned craft activity.  Just the use of the phrase planned craft activity kind of stresses me out.  I'm not a planned craft activity kind of person. 

Bill is confused about my sudden urge for simplicity.  To explain his confusion, I have to go back a couple of years to early 2009, when I was a newly-minted SAHM.  Back then I was a "take my kid everywhere" kind of mom.  The reason for this frenzy of activity was threefold: (1) I never had time for any of these activities when I was working, (2) I was celebrating no longer being depressed, and (3) My kid was finally a sentient, lucid human being who could actually enjoy some activities.  And so when Nathan was 2, we were known to be at the zoo a couple of times a week.  We hit every children's museum in the winter and park in the summer.  I liked being the mom who knew all the fun places to go with kids. 

But as I've said before, now Nathan's primary structured activity comes from going to preschool and to his other little program at the high school, and he doesn't need that much more entertainment outside of these two activities.  And as for my own structured activity (because, let's face it, sometimes it's about me), I'm pretty busy with my exercise endeavors, and often too tired from these endeavors to do anything else anyway.  So now our days consist of local activity, which provides a good amount of structure, and the rest of the time I crave simplicity. 

Hence, Summer of Simplicity.

I will say that I'm feeling good about signing Nathan up for some sessions of camp, though.  I was initially dreading the hassle of getting him out the door 5 days a week, especially because this simple little day camp sends a very specific supply list that involves more items than you'd take on a weeklong camping trip.  But this morning we had nowhere to go, and I hated that lack of structure.  I think it will be the perfect amount of structured activity to have Nathan go to camp in the mornings, then spend the afternoons lazily sitting in the yard or at the pool.