Reflections

Before the beginning of the summer, I made a mental list of what my kids and I were going to do.  I didn’t plan any camps or extra vacations, kept weekend plans to a minimum, the kids were going to learn how to do laundry and we were going to enjoy ourselves and be free to do whatever we wanted to, at a moment’s notice, gosh darn it.

Then the summer began, and all my free to be you and me plans went straight in the toilet.

The first problem is that by the time we got into our summer groove, it seemed to be half over.  We only get about two months of summer vacation where we live.  Long holiday breaks and the occasional snow day ensure that our children will be attending school into the second week of June.  Add to that each of my kids’ chosen extra-curricular activities which end at the end of June / the start of July, and we are on a school-ish schedule of practices and games and performances until the lightning bugs are almost gone.

That leaves two weeks of July and three and half weeks of August to squeeze the spit out of summer, and we have VBS and weeks at the grandparents and actual vacations where we all go out of town and a mandatory family reunion to go to where I harass my elders.

So we didn’t go to the library or the art museum or a folk festival or even have a stinkin’ afternoon lemonade stand. 

We didn’t do any art projects or movie marathons or see an IMAX movie or hike a national park or even go to a park.  We didn’t go to any amusement parks either, which my son will probably never stop mentioning.

We did go to the pool, though, and I read some books there, and the kids ate their weight in mozzarella sticks and ice cream bars and learned how to do front flips and we all got our tan on.

My son learned some new yo-yo tricks, and my daughter zoomed around the neighborhood on her scooter which is something that I didn’t know she was so good at until I saw her zooming around the neighborhood on her scooter.

And we had a picnic on the fourth of July, and set off driveway fireworks which we ooohed and aaahed at as if it was the most spectacular fireworks show we’d ever seen.

We had cleaning day every week, and I did teach them how to do laundry, which was the best thing I’ve ever done in my entire adult life.  Maybe my whole life.

And we all had a terrific summer, even though I was a certifiable slacker who probably could have done a better job at planning this summer’s activities.

Oh well.

The summer would have been perfect
if our mom didn't suck.

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