Moving at the Speed of Life

Tomorrow, the kids are officially out of school and preschool.  Summer camps start on Monday.  Jacob is thrumming with excitement about camp this year.  He's planning to sign up for the library reading club, take a couple weeks of soccer camp, climb a mountain, finish his handwriting book, take my mixer out into the backyard and experiment, learn to swim, watch every episode of his favorite cartoon, and eat record amounts of hotdogs, watermelon, and popsicles.  For Claire, the difference between preschool and day camp is negligible but she's caught on to the excitement.

 

I'm amused by Jacob's plans.  I remember my childhood summers as being impossibly long and boring.  My sisters and I would mill around the house until my mother kicked us out into the yard with instructions to "find some kids and do something."  We'd retreat indoors during the heat of the day and drive Mom crazy with complaints of boredom.  Eventually, she'd either hand us a bucket and a box of Spic and Span or push us out the door again.  And then finally, when I couldn't stomach one more game of Red Rover, the fireflies would start sparking and another long, lazy day would end.

 

Now, while Jake is planning to fill his days from dawn until dusk, I am trying to figure out how to carve out some free time for myself.  The trouble with unplanned time is that it somehow always gets filled up with chores.  So I'm going to take a lesson from my son and make a list of things I want to do this summer. 

• Make lemonade - the real kind.
• Sign up for the adult reading club at the library and read enough books to win something.
• Make myself two linen skirts and then wear them so that I can feel classy and summery at the same time.  At least until July comes when feeling classy gets lost in the sticky heat.
• Hike!  At least 3 times and at least one afternoon-long effort.
• Dine a la fresca at the pasta place that I drive by every single day.
• Have a backyard waterballoon fight with the family and make sure that we all get drenched.