It’s been a brutally busy summer so far. There have been some spectacularly bad moments but a lot of good things, too. I finished painting the dining room and our upstairs hallway and alcove, rearranged our books and finally got a lot of our pictures hung up.

I’m really pleased with how it’s all turned out so far. It’s been worth the work. I still have to paint our kitchen and our very tall entryway, but I’ll probably take a few months to decide on colors and just enjoy what we’ve got done so far before I tackle those projects.

We got an unexpected visit from Mr. Robot’s sister, and only a couple weeks later hosted a couple of my siblings and their family, so between home improvement projects we’ve done much cooking and sight-seeing and a bit of souvenir shopping in the past month or so. I’m basically a loner, so having so many people around was exhausting, but it was great to see everybody. We went to a bunch of museums, saw some cool art and nature, and had a lot of fun.

Of course, no gathering of my family, on either side, could be completely drama free. I had to set some boundaries with a couple difficult relatives and that sucked. In one case, it went spectacularly badly. In both cases it was a painful, frustrating experience. It was important to stand up for myself but not easy.

There’s still a lot to do before school starts up again, and I’m actually still figuring out where my kids will be going to school. I’ve got two all set up, but I’m still trying to get online school set up for my third kid. It feels backward, but I’m actually expecting things to slow down and be more peaceful once school starts up again.