i think all my life i have had mixed emotions about summer. on the one hand, i love the lack of a schedule. on the other hand, i hate the lack of a schedule. come the end of may, i always start making these starry-eyed plans about everything i'm going to do over the summer that i just don't have time for during the school year (except for those years when i wasn't bound by a school schedule, during which time i had starry-eyed plans pretty much all the time and continued to have a lack of structure and love and hate it at the same time), and then summer is actually upon me, and i end up wasting almost every day.
last summer was possibly the longest summer of my life, not because there were more days (in fact there were fewer) between the last day of second grade and the first day of kindergarten and third grade, but because i didn't know what to do with myself or the kids and i was alone with them a LOT. my husband went on a long bike ride (long, as in, from the golden gate bridge all the way down to santa barbara) with the young men from church, so i was home with all four for five days. this was not the first time i had been alone with all four for longer than a 2-day trip, and i thought that what i needed to do was make sure to have something to do each day. but i learned from the failure of that week that i need my friends to be with me, as well as have something for the kids and myself to do. otherwise, i become the shrieking monster that nobody wants to be around.
so i have one more weekend and then one and a half days of school to get my summer plans in order, and then see how it goes. so far i'm concocting a mix of field trips (hopefully with friends), home science projects, chore time (hopefully with little whining--ha ha ha), and story time with the boys. i was reading the Ensign yesterday and there are some good ideas for fostering spiritual growth as a family that are starting to steep in my brain. i know there will be much movie watching and quite possibly struggles with other media, but i hope that we can all still like each other by the time school starts again. :) i also hope the boys will get creative and do things i have not planned on at all.
stay tuned.
here's to a great summer that will make me long for summer all school year!
