That is, of course, the proverbial first-day-of-school-in-September essay.
For my own amusement, I kept daily notes on what we did as a family between the last day of school in June and first day of school in August.
Here is an abbreviated version:
June 24. Last day of school. Jared took the kids to the Renton Farmer's Market, and they got ice cream. Also, the younger two went to VBS in the neighborhood June 23-27, starting the second-to-last day of school.
June 25. Started a massive cleaning project in the front bedroom. (Newsflash: it was never finished and may be even worse now than then...)
June 26. Youngest and I combed the neighborhood until we found the Kindergarten bestie's house. She came home with us for a couple of hours.
June 27. More cleaning.
June 28. Two of us went to the usual weekly sign holding. Visit to Seahurst Park on the Sound.
June 29. Usual music for church. Youngest trialed a new gymnastics class and then visited Bestie's house. Eldest went to friend's house and participated in Seattle Pride Parade.
June 30. Took a kid to a doctor's appointment. Wrote an essay on paper with a pen while sitting with feet in wading pool.
July 1-2. Camping at Dash Point State Park.
July 3. Four of us took the train to the Cubing World Championship in Seattle, also visiting the Seattle Public Library and the Klondike Gold Rush Museum.
July 4. Two of us rode the train to Worlds again, plus Pike Place Market and the Pier.
July 5. Three of went to the usual weekly sign holding. Four of us went back to Worlds.
July 6. Church. Three of us went to a Seattle Chamber Music Society Summer Festival concert at Benaroya. We all watched the end of Worlds.
July 7. Took a friend to a doctor's appointment.
July 7-11. Group Class Workshop week at our house. Park concert on Friday. Kindergarten bestie and her mom came, too.
July 12. The usual sign holding. We went to an SCMS concert at Bellevue Downtown Park.
July 13. Took eldest to the airport early to send her off on a three-week adventure in Texas. Youngest joined the new gymnastics class.
July 14. Recorded an update to my daily scale practice. Major living room cleaning. Went to the Carpinito farm shop. Took the younger two back to Bellevue Downtown Park. Possum sniffed my shoe, and I saw a meteor.
July 15. More living room cleaning. My student "U" stayed with the kids while the adults went to a SCMSSF concert at Benaroya. Visited with Steve Rose.
July 16. It was HOT! Walked with the younger two to the library for books and A/C.
July 17. Popsicles. Four of us went to another SCMS concert downtown. Then three visited the Yessler Playground.
July 18. Rehearsed with a dear friend for her Love's memorial service after spending three days arranging the music for the ensemble. Spent some irksome hours with Jared updating our 2025-2026 studio policy and calendar information. The younger two had a friend over for a bit.
July 19. One of us did the usual sign holding. The other three of us went to the memorial at the church. SCMS concert at Volunteer Park.
July 20. Church and gymnastics. Cleaning and laundry. Drove to Oregon. Also, I got a super weird/creepy Amazon shipment, and Jared got to call the police on behalf of a neighbor who was having an altercation in the street with someone else.
July 21. Our 19th anniversary - posted up our recording of the Schulhoff Zingaresca from the studio recital in November. Also, the kids played so hard, and someones made and ate a blueberry pie. In Oregon, of course.
July 22. Kids played ball, made an "elevator", rode bikes, and splashed in the wading pool. Eldest sent us goat photos from Texas.
July 23. We figured out the weird Amazon shipment was fraud on my account, so Jared was on the phone with the bank and Amazon to get it all sorted out. Kids played ball, elevator, bubbles, Magnatiles... We drove home to Washington very late.
July 24. Something died under the small studio, and the odor was... special. Went to the library again. "U" stayed with the kids while the adults went to another SCMS concert downtown. Visited with Jun Iwasaki.
July 25. Jared helped me rehearse something I would be playing with a violin colleague later. Went down to the Renton River Days drone show after dark.
July 26. Jared was quite sick. Youngest went to bestie's house while the other three went to the usual weekly sign holding. The kids played at the park across the street.
July 27. Jared still sick. So I was in charge of church and gymnastics. Kids came with me to a rehearsal at a colleague's house. I lost my credit card on a walk before I got to the grocery, but a kind neighbor found and returned it. Saw another meteor. Jared took the kids to the park, and one kid got a wasp sting.
July 28. Three of us swam at the neighborhood high school.
July 29. "U" stayed with the kids while adults went to another SCMS concert.
July 30. Met up with a dear out-of-town friend at a violin shop in town. Then visited the beach at Seahurst. The Blue Angels arrived in town. Sent out our annual lesson scheduling questionnaire.
July 31. Got my Japan-Seattle Suzuki Institute teaching assignment. Kids had a friend over in the morning. Took the kids swimming at Rainier Beach Community Center in the evening. The Blue Angels practiced twice. (They do some of the flyovers in our neighborhood.)
August 1. It was the 13th anniversary of our arrival in King County. We watched Seafair (Blue Angels plus a lot of other plane demos) from our roof. All of us attended another SCMS concert downtown. We visited the brand new Pier 58 playground downtown. I captured and released the largest spider I have ever seen in our house.
August 2. Retrieved eldest from the airport at the end of her Texas adventure and drove her to Edgewood to the sixth-grade bestie's birthday party. Unfortunately, we were a week early... The other three went to the weekly sign holding. The kids all played together, and the adults slept. But were awoken by the Blue Angels. I walked with the younger two and stopped by the library again.
August 3. Church and gymnastics. The younger two visited a retired neighbor of ours and while I tried to run errands without driver's license and credit card. Oops. Did some massive photocopy/cut/tape to prepare the 2nd movement of the Prokofiev Duo part for performance. Watched the Blue Angels from the roof and went to the JSSI faculty dinner in north Seattle.
August 4-8. JSSI at Seattle Pacific University. Watched classes with Amy Barston, Ed Sprunger, Lisa Humphrey, Amber, and Gaye Detzer. Participated in a parent discussion hosted by Ed. Watched three faculty performances (participated in one) and four student concerts. Had a visit with my brother and some of his additional friends and family. Went on a walk with my eldest.
August 9. Took big kid back to Edgewood for the slumber party and got it right this time. Met brother and family at the Fontleroy Ferry and waited two hours to board. Rode 10 minutes to Vashon and spent some hours at the KVI Beach. Some people got ice cream on the island. Waited an hour for the ferry back to Seattle. Everyone came over for super late dinner on the patio. There was a full moon.
August 10. Church and gymnastics. The relatives visited for 8 minutes before their flight back to Texas. LOTS of emails, and I finally did my four-weeks late Suzuki Association of Washington State student graduation evaluations. Eldest came home with a terrible sunburn.
August 11. Took a kid to a doctor's appointment. Kindergarten bestie came over. Cleaning living room. Jared continued with a several-days sheet-rock finishing project in the bathroom left over from last summer. Youngest found a free plastic drawer set in the neighborhood, carried it home, and carefully washed the whole thing.
August 12. More cleaning and sheetrock. One kid stepped on a tack. Started transcribing responses to schedule questionnaire and work on the scheduling group classes. Three of us swam at the neighborhood high school. Step-on-a-tack came down with a triple ear infection. I went to bed sick. Drawer kid organized it in her bedroom.
August 13. I was still ill. Jared took ear-infection kid to urgent care in Issaquah. We created the first draft of the fall lesson schedule. Researched replacement dishwashers.
August 14. Took the kids to a small pet supplies shop in Bellevue. Jared painted the bathroom. Lots of laundry and baking. Adults visited a little appliance shop in the neighborhood and learned more about dishwashers. I ended up on a long walk as an elderly gentleman whose English was rudimentary was lost and trying to find his way home.
August 15. Family day trip to Ginko Petrified Forest State Park. I fell ill again.
August 16. Usual weekly sign holding. I took a short walk with each family member in turn in the neighborhood between being ill.
August 17. Church. Gymnastics. Published the fall lesson schedule to the students.
August 18. Cleaning and packing. Eventually left for a one-night camping trip at Teanaway Community Forest. Trouble getting there due to I-90 closures for brush fires. Saw firefighting helicopters in action. Kids had lots of energy. Saw the Milky Way.
August 19. Slept terribly due to flashbacks. Read. Took turns hiking. Played with the kids at the river. Drove home very late. Saw a giant owl sitting at the edge of the road.
August 20. My 45th birthday. Got youngest registered for gymnastics for the fall. Dealt with other secretarial backlog. Took younger two to library, Goodwill, and Foot Locker Kids. Youngest kid had a meet-the-teacher event at school. Opened some birthday gifts. Lots of packing and cleaning.
August 21. More packing and cleaning. Drove to Heart o' the Hills for two nights of camping. Walked with various kids in the woods. One of them got two nasty wasp stings and a sprained ankle. Drove up in the dark to Hurricane Ridge and looked through four astronomers' telescopes. We saw M11, the Ring Nebula, remnants of a star that blew up around ten thousand year ago, and a 220 million year old star nursery. The Milky Way was gorgeous, and we saw lots of meteors and satellites.
August 22. Walked in the forest. Spent the day at the Elwha River. Painting, playing with kids, solo hike to the 1930s ranger station. Jared messed up his foot.
August 23. Solo hike in the forest. Packed up and spent the day at Dungeness Spit. Jared got to walk all the way to the lighthouse and back. Sunset picnic at a viewpoint overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Vancouver Island. Drove home very late.
August 24. Church and gymnastics. Finally made my birthday cupcakes, thanks to a kid who wanted to cook. Took eldest to buy more hair dye. Lots of secretarial stuff. Jared read Poe's The Raven to me over dinner.
August 25. Took eldest to school to pick up schedule. Jared spent some hours fixing his bike and we went on the Eastside Railroad Trial (I walked.) I went to hear the inaugural Filo Rosso Society concert. It was the last day of our two-week teaching vacation.
August 26. Kids' last day of summer break. Took a kid to Staples for more school supplies. Hot. Younger two had a friend over.
August 27. First day back to school. Afterward, Jared and the two younger kids did the annual family visit to the Henry Moses water park.
That's the basic outline.
In addition to the workshops, I also taught approximately 120 lessons, plus a few trial lessons (acquiring four new students in the process.)
I also practiced quite a lot - probably one to four hours a day, most days each week, depending on the schedule.
I also read 18 Nancy Drew books, two Hardy Boys books, I Will Always Write Back, and parts of two other books for myself. I listened to three audio books and untold recordings of beautiful music. I finished Through the Looking Glass and The Boxcar Children Woodshed Mystery with Lazarus and started The Mad Scientist's Club with him, not to mention many other picture books in general.
With very few exceptions, I walked generally 3 1/2 miles a day.
I did take some naps, particularly when there had been some terrible sleeping nights for various reasons.
I had in my mind all summer that I would sit one evening and watch a movie, but I have yet to make time for that...
