I am still in my pajamas. At 10 AM on a Saturday. It feels delightful and odd all at once. The last ten weeks worth of Saturday mornings have been filled with early risings, frantic searches for shin pads and soccer jerseys, and sitting in alternately sweltering and swampy fields watching children chase a ball back and forth.
We had strawberry pie for breakfast. Additionally, there are 21 jars of jam and mounds of sliced berries awaiting the top of waffles or shortcake in the freezer, made from the 34 pounds of berries we picked over the last week.
My sweet children, who would normally be absorbed in mind-rotting Saturday morning TV, are upstairs playing school together (in other words, reading to each other) so they can earn points for our library's summer reading program. They have declared it a no-screen weekend so that they can get a jump on everyone else who is hoping to win the grand prize iPad.
My vegetables are glistening in the morning sun, drenched from yesterday's rain, soaking up the rays so fast I feel like if I just hold still enough I can see them growing. The middle child and I picked and shelled the spring peas earlier this week, and broccoli is ready to harvest.
Yes, summer is upon us. There are three more slow but bittersweet days of school left for the kids. Slow because the real work of the year has been done for over a week now. Sad and sweet because next year the schools are changing, and they won't be in the same building together. Plus, a whole new group of students will be joining them both making all of us anxious. But that's another story.
While the kids have declared a no-screen weekend, I am declaring it Get Ready for Summer Weekend. I am doing some cleaning--as if it will last past bedtime on Sunday. I am doing some cooking. Some things to prepare now and tuck away in the freezer so I won't be forced to drag myself out of the pool and into the kitchen to worry about dinner every afternoon. I am getting the kids summer supplies ready. (More on that later.) We are all going to sit down together and make a list of the things we must do this summer.
With three kids and a mama, if everyone comes up with two or three things they really want to do this summer, we will have plenty to keep us busy until fall. The kids usually pick one thing that I just can't accommodate at the moment, like "I want to go Australia." Um yeah, you and me both, kiddo. But generally, their picks are a lot more simple than I expect. Things that are not expensive or difficult to do but I wouldn't have thought of because I was planning something much more extravagant.
My crazy, over-the-top mama mind says, "Plan a virtual trip to a different country each week, cook foods from that country, and get a book on the country from the library to read each day." Their youthful wisdom says, "Make popsicles and invite our friends over to have some with us. Then run around the yard chasing each other," or "Find some worms."
It reminds me how important it is to ask them. Our summer go so fast, our school year is so busy, that I want our short, precious time together to be memorable to them, to include the things that are important to them, to be relaxed and carefree like summer should be. And I am so much less stressed out about making it meaningful when I use their ideas instead of mine.
I love summer.
We had strawberry pie for breakfast. Additionally, there are 21 jars of jam and mounds of sliced berries awaiting the top of waffles or shortcake in the freezer, made from the 34 pounds of berries we picked over the last week.
My sweet children, who would normally be absorbed in mind-rotting Saturday morning TV, are upstairs playing school together (in other words, reading to each other) so they can earn points for our library's summer reading program. They have declared it a no-screen weekend so that they can get a jump on everyone else who is hoping to win the grand prize iPad.
My vegetables are glistening in the morning sun, drenched from yesterday's rain, soaking up the rays so fast I feel like if I just hold still enough I can see them growing. The middle child and I picked and shelled the spring peas earlier this week, and broccoli is ready to harvest.
Yes, summer is upon us. There are three more slow but bittersweet days of school left for the kids. Slow because the real work of the year has been done for over a week now. Sad and sweet because next year the schools are changing, and they won't be in the same building together. Plus, a whole new group of students will be joining them both making all of us anxious. But that's another story.
While the kids have declared a no-screen weekend, I am declaring it Get Ready for Summer Weekend. I am doing some cleaning--as if it will last past bedtime on Sunday. I am doing some cooking. Some things to prepare now and tuck away in the freezer so I won't be forced to drag myself out of the pool and into the kitchen to worry about dinner every afternoon. I am getting the kids summer supplies ready. (More on that later.) We are all going to sit down together and make a list of the things we must do this summer.
With three kids and a mama, if everyone comes up with two or three things they really want to do this summer, we will have plenty to keep us busy until fall. The kids usually pick one thing that I just can't accommodate at the moment, like "I want to go Australia." Um yeah, you and me both, kiddo. But generally, their picks are a lot more simple than I expect. Things that are not expensive or difficult to do but I wouldn't have thought of because I was planning something much more extravagant.
My crazy, over-the-top mama mind says, "Plan a virtual trip to a different country each week, cook foods from that country, and get a book on the country from the library to read each day." Their youthful wisdom says, "Make popsicles and invite our friends over to have some with us. Then run around the yard chasing each other," or "Find some worms."
It reminds me how important it is to ask them. Our summer go so fast, our school year is so busy, that I want our short, precious time together to be memorable to them, to include the things that are important to them, to be relaxed and carefree like summer should be. And I am so much less stressed out about making it meaningful when I use their ideas instead of mine.
I love summer.
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