Lolling about in the sun

Monday was a school holiday in Zürich – there are a few of these scattered through the year: not quite public holidays, people still go to work, but no school. This was Knabenschiessen (literally “boy shooting”, a junior rifle shooting competition and a long-standing tradition, not – as C would have it – a day on which the girls all shoot the boys), and the funny thing was that the actual competition was cancelled because of plague, but the schools still closed. Inconvenient, you might say, but me, I don’t care, because I am deeply committed to my new “taking it easy” approach. Extra day of weekend? Huzzah! Let us go to the lake!

Which we actually did, and y’know I’m actually prouder of that than of what I did with the morning (washed ALL THE WINDOWS!). Which seems a bit backwards. But I suck at going out and doing fun things. I suck at doing that for myself, and I suck even more at doing it with the kids, because years of painful experience have ingrained in my head the idea that doing things with kids is hard. Only, of course, they’re not so small any more. Getting to the lake is easy (no more stress over parking – on a sunny day there isn’t any – or trying to motivate little legs to walk or cycle the 2km, they can Handle It). Swimming is easy, no more floaties needed, no more super close supervision. It’s simply a lovely mellow time. I’m just mad that we haven’t been doing this all summer.

Next up on the “doing nice stuff” list (but this time just for me), I’m going away for a long weekend. No kids, just me, on a sewing retreat. Which, yes, is pretty funny for someone who’s scared of her sewing machine, but (a) I’m hoping this will help me get over that, and (b) knitting is allowed too. I am reliably informed. A lovely friend (hi Rachel!) has been going to this thing for years and made it sound absolutely irresistible; no doubt next week I’ll be able to back that up with some photos of glorious Alpine views, and maybe even a finished sewing project! But frankly even if I do nothing at all but sit around and drink gin and read trashy books on my Kindle: worth it. Obviously. Little M is absolutely outraged that I can go away and leave my family just to sew but that kinda makes it all the more fun.