One of the things I like best* about my life is being able to enjoy summer vacation with my nieces and nephew. I have the pleasure this summer of having a “helper” (or sometimes two or three) at least two days a week, and with this heat wave crushing down on our non-a/c house, I have a handy excuse to go swimming with them after work, even if it’s a “school night.”

I knew that summer vacation would be about as long as the snapping of my fingers, that this blissful time would be too short: of reading classics with my oldest niece and introducing her to some of my favorite books, of teaching the “baby” of the family how to act “grown-up” around a real baby, of seeing my farmer-when-I-grow-up nephew let down his boy-guard and see the affectionate little man show through. I knew that summertime is never slow, unless you’re under certain age-height requirements. I knew that this precious time I have to be the awesome aunt and to snuggle with my daughter and her cousins would be a memory before I could properly think about it.

And yet, today it came as something of a shock to see that there are two weeks left in the summer. State fair is breathing down our neck, which brings a host of “firsts” waiting to happen, and then we’re in the middle of August, minutes from the end of summer.

At least I was able to savor summer vacation with my nieces and nephew!

*It seems asinine to begin anything regarding my life with this phrase, “one of the things I like best,” because not only does it sound like an English assignment, it also seems to put parameters on the boundless blessings in my life. Nevertheless, I started things that way…