Many of you may have mixed feelings about summer. Don’t get me wrong; there are things I like and dislike about each season, and I know that time must go on. However, I absolutely love summer and wish it could last forever. If you are a stay-at-home mom or even a working mom who may have to look for child care, I get that you may not be a huge fan of summer, but for this teacher mom, summer is my favorite!
All of the things about summer are very appealing to me: flip flops, swimming, the smell of sunscreen, tan lines, crickets chirping at night, going on vacation.
I love all of those things. Yes, there are things such as the sticky humid days and the mosquitoes that I dislike, but the good outweighs the bad. I love sitting on the back porch in the mornings and evenings with no plans in mind and nothing to worry about. Many mornings and evenings, there is a nice summer breeze that comes my way and it feels carefree! I love that we can decide on a whim to go to the neighborhood pool, drive to Dollywood, or even plan a last-minute trip because we don’t have anywhere to be. This may not seem like a realistic summer to everyone but, again, as an educator, I usually have a lot of free time on my hands. I may regret it once school starts, but I enjoy and take full advantage of my summer off.
Let’s talk about our summer schedule.
Every summer, I tell myself that I am going to keep a good routine and wake up early with the kids, maybe even exercise and make a good breakfast. Every summer this ends up not happening. We go to bed late and sleep in every day. We sometimes skip breakfast and go straight to lunch. We throw in some sports camps and other activities to keep everyone busy, but we definitely don’t have a set routine even though I intend to have one every summer. It just doesn’t work for us. We fly by the seat of our pants and it works just fine. Of course, it makes it really hard the week that school starts, but we always adjust.
I know summer can’t last forever, but it is something to look forward to as the seasons change. Once I step foot in Target at the end of June and beginning of July, and see school supplies out and ready for fall, I am hit with that hard reality. I always think to myself: summer just started, put those school supplies away! Then, I’ll go to Bath and Body Works in July and they already have their pumpkin and fall scents out, and I think: can we please enjoy summer at least until August?! Quit throwing school supplies and pumpkin in my face and let me enjoy my entire summer! Then comes the Halloween decor at the end of July…what in the world? Yes, summer seems to be getting shorter and shorter, but can I enjoy it a little longer?
I’ll admit that I enjoy the fall too, but not the hustle and bustle that comes with it. Early school days, the stress of planning meals, having to be at extracurricular activities most evenings after school — it’s a lot and we have little down-time once school starts.
