Back to Normal, or as close as it gets around here

My guys are back from Boy Scout Camp. Big Brother learned to water-ski and got his Water Sport and Shotgun merit badges. His troop came in second in the camp's Iron Chef competition. I hadn't known that camps had such contests, and was impressed that my son & his troop figured out how to make dinner after being handed a pan and a bag of groceries.

Despite TheDad's insinuation that I was insane to do this, I decided that the best way to sort the dreaded "Camp Laundry" was to spread out a tarp in the backyard and dump all the dirty clothes onto it, and then sort it into piles for the wash. This way, any spiders and other, um, wildlife they brought home would have a fighting chance to stay outside rather than on my basement floor (hey, the pantry's in there. All critters KEEP OUT!) My clotheslines are full of laundry, which makes me happy, because it means that everyone is home safe and sound.

TheDad has taken Little Brother to the pool so he can show off his swimming skills. Middle Sister has gone along, as has Adventure Boy (and his 6th-grader sister asked if she could go too.)

So the house is quiet now, and I can look around and see that my desk is even messier than it was when I left the house Sunday. No furniture was rearranged, and I wasn't home much to do the chores. So next week it'll be time to buckle down. I'm going to use a little of my quiet time this afternoon to think about the household schedule that will get us through the rest of the summer. Because, frankly, I've been a little lazy this summer. And now that summer is half over, it's time to be a little less lazy.

So after I take down the camp laundry from the clothesline, and start the Chicken Parmesan so that my family can celebrate the return from camp with a nice dinner, I'm going to sit down with the rest of my latte and figure out a way to get a little more industriousness into next week.