The First Few Days of Summer

The last few days have been just a taste of what we can expect from summer.

Summertime is different as an adult/parent. When you’re young, it’s a break from the every day stress of school, a respite from homework and studying and having a set schedule. I lived for summertime. The swimming, the staying up late, the sleeping in however late I wanted. It was pure bliss.

Now though, it’s much different. I view it as a break from routine, a routine we damn near perfected during the school year. I have found, the older I get, how much I love and crave a set routine and schedule. I wake up before everyone else, drink my coffee, wake the kids up, take them to school, do our morning business meeting, go to the gym, eat lunch, go to the farm, pick the kids up from school, make dinner, tuck the kids in, watch TV with PJ, go to bed. That’s our routine in a nutshell. And guess what? I absolutely adore it. I wouldn’t change it for the world, actually.

So that brings us to summer, where everything is up in the air and our day to day doesn’t look the same. It’s the first summer with all three kids home after a year of all three of them being in school. Last week, I had a mixture of excited and maybe slightly nervous emotions about it all? I was excited to get to spend more time with the kids, but nervous about being off a routine and having all three kids at home again, just when we had nailed down a work schedule that worked for the both of us.

But now, I am looking at it all differently. I am looking at it as an adventure, one where every day is a new page in a different story and the possibilities are endless. We get to write our own magical story every single day for the next two months. How wonderful is that?

So far, we’ve spent a lot of time outside. We took everyone to our first official pool day of the season the other day. Our kids are fish. They will spend all day in the pool if you let them, which I love, because that’s exactly how we were when we were little.

We’ve been addicted to this summer salad from Strolling in the Suburbs. I made it two nights in a row. It’ so easy and so good, I know you’re going to love it. 

PJ has been working outside around the house a lot lately, getting our backyard looking like someone actually lives here and cleaning up the flower beds. And of course, teaching the kids how to plant tomatoes and giving them haircuts on the back porch.

And lastly, there has been a lot of throwing the ball in the house between PJ and the kids, which, even two years ago would have been a huge no no for us. Can you tell we’ve evolved as parents and changed as human beings? We’ve learned that life is too short to be worried about everything, and nothing is too precious or more important than your children having fun.