Summer vacation. The kids are home, together, all day every day. Sometimes I think they have early morning meetings about ways to send me to the edge. This week, they agreed on fighting over the television, spilling various beverages in various parts of the house, slamming doors and my personal favorite, having heated discussions over who gets to sit on the ottoman.

I don’t want them to think back on their childhood and be all, “Man, our mom yelled a lot” or “It seemed like mom drank much more in the summertime”. I’m trying to use my coping skills, as in not yelling or drinking as much and coming up with things for them revel in. I want the kids to remember summer as I do, playing outside and not having a care in the world.

As part of operation stop spilling/fighting/screaming, we went around the way to watch the fountain in the pond and feed the ducks. As my luck would have it, the fountain was broken and the ducks were missing.

They fed the fish. Together. And didn’t even fight once.

Making each other laugh instead.

If you need us, we will be at the pond. Apparently it is filled with happy.

Just like summer.