A Plan For Summer

Aaron's last day of school was June 3rd. The days since then have been blissfully free and unscheduled. This morning, Aaron slept in until 8:30, which he has never done before. It was so unusual, I was afraid that maybe he was sick. But no, he was just enjoying the feeling of being lazy.

My goal for this summer is simply, Keep it simple. I think a new baby would force this goal on me whether I wanted it or not. It's impossible to keep a rigid schedule of activities when you have to follow the whims of a newborn. But we're all very happy with this arrangement. We take our time in the morning. We go on a walk if we feel like it. We stay outside in the evenings much later than we should.

This morning, I looked around the living room, and this is what I saw: Aaron was stretched out on one couch reading Dark Day in the Deep Sea. Bradley was sitting on another couch surrounded by a pile of books. Maxwell was sitting next to me in the recliner reading a story out of his reading book while I fed Clark. I thought to myself, This is what summer is supposed to be like.

However, I know I'm happiest with some structure, so I spent the last week thinking about how I could impose some organization on our summer while still maintaining our relaxed flexibility.

I thought of two ways:

First, Mike and I sat down with the boys and helped them set some summer goals. I'll share them with you in a few weeks after we've (hopefully) made some progress with them.

Second, I want to try one new thing each week with the boys. If your pinterest boards are like mine, they're overflowing with good intentions and hopeful ambitions. I want to actually try some of the ideas I pin. Luckily, I can be very flexible with this goal: I can do it anytime during the week; it can be a craft, a recipe, a game, a learning activity, or anything else that fits our needs; it will help us hold off summer boredom without making us feel burned out.

I have absolutely no schedule for what I want to do or when I want to do it, but I plan on sharing whatever we end up doing on Friday or Saturday of each week. I want to have a little accountability so I'll actually follow through, but I don't want to make this into a big, stressful project.

Because really, if we want to go outside and blow the fluff off dandelions, then that's exactly what we're going to do.