Summertime- And the Livin' is Easy?



The boys enjoy a friend's cabin on the first weekend of summer

 Although I am thrilled not to be checking homework and racing to the bus at 8:00am for the next three months, I must admit summer brings a touch more chaos to my life than I typically desire.  I love the lazy mornings and the loads of pool time; baseball games and Lake Harriet walks, but the extra bickering between my kids that this down time brings is excruciating.  When the boys were younger and activities were less frequently scheduled it was an all out warzone around here if something wasn't planned for every waking moment of the longer summer days.  Now we have baseball, hockey, birthday parties, pool days, golf and tennis lessons, play dates, soccer, rainy day movie dates, weekend cabin trips, and that doesn't even include the fun that me and Mr C have planned.  Ironically, I find myself longing for the pajama pack watching Sponge Bob on the sofa kicking each other and complaining  "there's nothing to doooooo!" 

 In these next three months I will barely drive outside of a five mile radius but will go through more gas and clock more mileage on my car then I do in fall, winter and spring combined.  The chaos has just moved from the couch to the car and all the things we try to pack into these next three months.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, but it does get a little nutty around here so I need to remember to enjoy all the things we are doing right now with our family.  We are not checking items off a list (baseball uniform pick-up and pictures. CHECK.  Tennis lesson.  CHECK.  Play date.  CHECK.) but actually living these moments.  I will never forget the enormous smile on my son's face yesterday as he experienced putting on that first baseball jersey with his closest buddies and lining up for pictures.  And then my oldest conquered his extremely technical 180 degree flip off the diving board after 700 aborted attempts.   And then the sweet joy of a pack of boys running through the neighborhood on a warm rainy night. 

 All this and we're only three days in.  Summertime is pretty sweet.

My friend Jen summed it up beautifully in her blogpost about enjoying the simple pleasures of summer.  We call her Super Mom and she makes it all look so easy, so I must admit I was slightly relieved that she experienced a little summertime anxiety as well, but she always brings it back home with her sunny disposition and cheery outlook on life.  Thanks Jen, for reminding us all to smell the summertime roses, and as Mr C wrote in his first-day-of-summer inspirational note to my oldest-

 "kick up your heels and have fun.  Enjoy your family, friends, and sports for the summer.  Have fun!"

Viva summer!  This is what we've been waiting for!!