Summertime

While my boys are not willing to call it summer until the actual summer solstice, and in the Pacific Northwest you can expect some rain until July 5th, to me it is summer. The boys are all out of school. There is no school drop off or pick up. No forms to remember. No need to make sure Hockey Boy has tennis shoes for Tuesday PE. Our schedule is wide open. Or at least it feels that way until we start all the camps, lessons and play dates of the summer. 

I remember a few years ago when all my kids were still with me all day, hearing a mom who had all school age kids saying how much she was looking forward to the summer. I was dismayed. She had all her kids at school and some time to herself and she wanted her kids home? Of course I was still in the midst of having to feed at least one of my kids and change all of their diapers at the time. I was left filling days and weeks with play dates and park runs, trips to the mall and mornings at the zoo because my schedule was open, blank, and I was lost in the vastness of no schedule. I would love to go back and apologize to that woman for my shocked face and incredulous attitude. Because I get it now. Our schedule is blank for just a few months and we can finally do all those things we used to do before they had school. Trips to the science museum, days at the beach, hanging out with friends while the kids play in the backyard. Relaxed times with flexible start and stop times. We can be ruled once again by our moods and desires instead of the clock and the pick up line.  

Here's to a good summer. And a few camps along the way to provide a bit of respite for all of us from one another.