I've already eaten apple cake with walnuts for breakfast, and some yogurt with strawberries picked by my daughter a few days ago. The sun is a radiating ball of fire in the sky, a few feet above the horizon. I am huddled under a blanket from the pre-dawn chill, but I won't want the blanket much longer. The birds are quieter this morning for some reason (it's Monday?) and I can hear the waves breaking on the shore. I am ready to head down to the beach, but I don't want to miss anything.

Soon, people I love will wander out of their bedrooms, stretching and yawning and rubbing their eyes. They won't be very talkative at first, but then they will start asking questions and thinking about what they want to do first.

Today is boys' day...every day, two of us get to be in charge of the day's activities. They can't ask for crazy stuff, nothing outrageously expensive or difficult, but they get to choose when we are deciding what to eat or which fun thing to do first. Shall we all play cards? Or walk on the beach? Or rent kayaks? This system simplifies decision-making for 8 people with different interests. Generally, it works well. Nobody becomes a dictator, but everybody gets a chance to say, "It's not my turn to do dishes..."

Mostly, I get a pass on cooking, because I did a lot of cooking last week. In fact, I am afraid we have too many desserts, as hard as that is to imagine. And we have an extra casserole. Kevin said last night he wants to take us all out to dinner one night. Since it's boys' day, it will probably be tonight. And I have an untouched ziti with sausage in the fridge, as well as leftovers from several other meals. I guess it will probably get eaten at some point. The other thing I'd like to do is buy some local fresh-caught seafood and cook it up...but there are more days ahead.

Now is the quiet time while I listen to the birds and the surf and wait for them to wake up and start the fun...anticipating is almost the best part.