A Little Ice Cream Can Go a Long Way

It has been a hectic summer. Enjoyable, but hectic. I have been teaching classes six mornings a week at the Monroe studio for the last six weeks. Every Monday through Friday my daughter has been getting up early and coming with me. She helps with the vacuuming before we open, works on her daily math practice and her summer packet for school, writes, reads, plays games on the computer and generally holes up in our tiny office space. Most afternoons we have spent with one of her best friends--going to parks, museums, New York, friends' houses, or staying at the studio and playing (they LOVE that!--what kid wouldn't?). In the evenings and very early mornings I prepare for classes, send e-mails, write newsletters and, this summer, have been working with my designer on a new website. Not complaining, mind you, but it's a little more hectic than summer should be, in my opinion.

So today, after having to sit and wait while I had a meeting at the bank, and before a day of playing hard at the studio, I took the girls to Dr. Mike's in Monroe. I had never been to Dr. Mike's--really! The place is smaller than I realized. We stayed inside because of the noisy construction outside. There was only one little table and it seated only two, so the girls sat there. We were the only people there. I sat on the bench enjoying my blueberry ice cream (HIGHLY recommended, by the way) while perusing the ice cream flavors, the candy for sale and the newspaper articles on the wall. Suddenly I realized the joy in stopping at an ice cream parlor for an ice cream cone. It's not really about the ice cream at all. It's about stopping, sitting still (kind of hard to run around while eating ice cream--even harder to drive!), taking some time (man, those cones are huge and take a long time to eat!), and giving two ten year-old girls an opportunity to sit and have a conversation. We weren't running, we weren't saying "hurry up, we're late", we weren't saying "okay, there are only three weeks left until school starts, what are we going to squeeze in today?". We had stopped, breathed, and just enjoyed. Sigh.... So I invite you to sit down with your family today, grab a cone, and just enjoy.