Off they go…
I woke up this morning to find that Brainy Bird was up, dressed and had nearly completed the packing of his stuff in his car. I looked to find everything perfectly organized in his car. He gets this valuable life skill from his dad. Brainy Bird also got his exhausted little brother out of bed. I found the exhausted little brother in his room moving slowly; he was just now putting his clothes into his suitcase. A task that Little Chirp could have easily completed the day before. The likelihood that he has forgotten some critical item is high. Little Chirp gets this approach to travel from his mother.
This is the second time that the two have made a trip to New Braunfels this summer, and this is the second time that Little Chirp has been the long pole in the tent for getting the boys packed and on the road. That said Brainy Bird was patient while Little Chirp slowly packed and then wanted to take the time to give Storme a snuggle before they are gone for two weeks.
The boys left about a half hour ago. I texted my sister to let her know that they were on their way, and I found that Brainy Bird had already texted her just before they pulled out of the driveway. They plan to meet her at her restaurant for lunch. Brainy Bird does not need me to manage things for him. He can more than manage things for himself and for his brother.
Brainy Bird is at church camp for the second time this summer in New Braunfels. A couple of weeks ago, he was there as a camper; this week he is there as a counselor in training (CIT). This is his last year as a CIT. He can be an actual counselor next year. While Brainy Bird is herding cats next week; Little Chirp will get to spend another week with his Aunt Roni, Uncle Robert and Baby Huey. He has big plans to play video games and Farkle with Uncle Robert.
The following week, Little Chirp is off to camp, and Brainy Bird is staying with Aunt Roni, Uncle Robert and Baby Huey. Brainy Bird has big plans to do crossword puzzles with his aunt and uncle and eat as much Tex-Mex at my sister’s restaurant as humanly possible. Brainy Bird LOVES my sister’s restaurant. I do too.
The third week, Brainy Bird has another week at camp as a CIT, and Little Chirp will come back to Houston. Hopefully, Little Chirp’s basketball league will kick off. He has been looking forward to his last year of summer basketball. They were supposed to start this week, but they delayed the start because of the uptick in the virus infections.
In total, Brainy Bird will be gone for 3 weeks, and Little Chirp will be gone for 2 weeks. I miss them both already. We made the most of our day together yesterday.
We enjoyed a nice lunch that included steak, and we went to Nothing Bundt cakes. When we got home, we watched a movie yesterday afternoon, played Farkle and then we sat in the living room and talked for a long time. One of the major outtakes from this conversation is that we have so much uncertainty around the college application process. The schools being closed the majority of the spring semester meant that we missed a great deal of the counselor information that juniors would normally have gotten. We decided that he would go to camp this week, and we will get everything figured out the following week.
Brainy Bird has everything that he needs for a strong college application – test scores, solid grades in extremely rigorous course work, lots of volunteer hours, leadership training, work experience, including running his own little company, solid performance in extra curricular activities like robotics and math and science competitions and strong teacher recommendations. The challenge is how to most effectively present his application and where to present it and the timing. Do we wait for him to retake the SAT? Is the SAT retake even going to happen?
We have the month of July to figure this all out, and we will.
Little Chirp’s next academic endeavor is to pass his Algebra placement exam, so that he can take high school algebra in seventh grade. He will then take geometry in eighth grade, thus starting high school with 2 high school math credits. Brainy Bird says that the exam is difficult, and that he barely passed it when he was going into seventh grade. Something tells me that Little Chirp is going to crush it. The big question is will he be in a classroom for Algebra or here at the house again?
The uncertainty…
I feel that we are all thriving, despite the uncertainty that surrounds our lives. We are embracing the time together as a family. Our home is filled with love and patience for one another. We are doing a good job of focusing on what we can control, and letting the rest fall into place as it will. We are taking things one day at a time in the summer of uncertainty.