summer

Getting Ready for Summer Recess

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This is the last full week the kids are in school for the year. I need to get the house ready for kids to be home 24/7.

Find the books, check out Pinterest, line up some movies, think about our summer food tasting and hide the snacks and cereal where they can’t be devoured on the first day of summer.

Those of you with kids, what are your plans for when school’s out?

For those of you without kids, is there anything that you do each summer that is only a summer thing?

Summer Recs

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1. Sunscreen. Spray on sunscreen is amazing for keeping kids’ skin healthy. Neutrogena is also a great product that is good for your skin. Don’t forget the lips, nose, and ears.

2. Sunglasses for outside, and a sweater for inside.

3. Visit your local library. They have super summer programs for all ages, and on those really brutal days, they also have air conditioning.

4. GishwheS – the first week of August. (Or other creative endeavour that you’ve been thinking of trying.)

5. Create a summer tote-bag. Include a journal and a pen, some colored pencils, a camera, a book you haven’t read yet, a couple of local postcards to send to the friends you miss or to Grandma or your favorite aunt and uncle or cousin.

Most importantly, HAVE FUN. Each day is a new one, and you have the chance for something spectacular. Or just simply for relaxing. I’ll post my own summer tote-bag’s contents when it’s closer to summer.

Quotation – Summertime

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In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer quite the other way
I have to go to bed by day.

-Robert Louis Stevenson

What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.

-John Steinbeck

The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.

-Author unknown, commonly misattributed to Mark Twain

The Start of Summer

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Memorial Day* is the unofficial first day of the summer season. For some of us, school has already finished; for the rest it is a long weekend respite before the big sprint to the finish line of end of school and the Fourth of July. It is red, white, and blue and barbeque, no homework, shorts, and sunscreen. Unless you’re in retail, it is one of the only holidays that everyone is off from work.

We pretend to clean the house, catching up on family TV time (Heroes is our current family series) instead. Hot dogs for dinner, whether or not we grill them doesn’t matter as long as they come with beans and possibly corn on the cob.

Currently, I’m spending the next couple of hours in a comic/gaming store while my son plays hero clix and I catch up on my writing and next month’s editorial calendar for my site.

I’m sitting at a table, kindle and keyboard at my fingers, Diet Coke at my side, enjoying the air conditioning, and trying to figure out how to ask for the wifi password, but in the meantime I’m contemplating summer.

Summer is my least favorite season. I dread it every year. Not that I’m such a big fan of winter either, but at least in winter you can warm up. Whether you’re using a cozy blanket, extra sweater, or cuddling with a favorite friend or family member, or even a dog, you can eventually warm up.

No so with summer. There are only so many clothes you can remove to get comfortable, and let’s be honest, it can get so hot that you could be stark naked and still sweating bullets. Putting on deodorant to sleep really expresses the oppressive heat that just won’t be relieved. And I live in the Northeast, not known for the heat except for the occasional heat wave. I have friends in Arizona, and their weather truly astonishes me. It seems to me that it can’t be that hot on the sun, but they survive.

The only thing I want to do in summer is lay back, put my feet up, adjust the air conditioning, and make sure that my Kindle and Netflix remote control are at my side.

I do realize that my anti-summer attitude is caused partially by my adverse reaction to the sun because of one of my medications. I barely need to be in the sun for the itching to start. I don’t get a rash, but I’m constantly scratching, and it won’t stop until I’m either asleep and wake up the next morning or take a shower. It’s awful, but it is in fact, not as bad as most people’s allergic reactions or even sunburns.

I hate it, though because it makes me look lazy. Not that I don’t have lazy tendencies or a zillion procrastinator bones in my body, but I hate saying that I don’t want to go outside. I love my backyard; from the kitchen window at least. We have a beautiful lilac tree that I love the look and the smell of, but I can almost never enjoy it. By the time I steel myself to head out of doors, the yard has no more shade left.

Still, I have three kids who love the outdoors and need to get outside every day. They have their Nerf guns and bow, soccer balls, bicycles, and a tiny bit of newfound independence.

Summer can be long, but like me, those who are not fans of summer, we can still have a good time during those months with our kids off from school, and making plans for fall, my favorite season of the year.

If I can get through summer, I can relish the fall.

So…
What is your favorite season?
What is your favorite thing to do in that season?
What is your favorite thing to do in summer?

*A post about the commemoration of Memorial Day will follow this afternoon.

Summer 2014 Wrap Up

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Last summer, I dreaded every day. It was too hot. I had no energy. The kids were too noisy and watched too much television. I pretty much hated every moment of last summer. In 2013, from the first day off, I had a countdown going for when they would go back to school. Seventy-six days and counting was my familiar refrain. With the number of days changing, of course.

I was very worried that this year would go much in the same way, and I was quite surprised at how well it went; not just that it went well, but that the kids had fun, I had fun, and I spent more days happy and content (for the most part) than not.

When the kids would ask me at various times during this summer when school was starting up again, I had to look at a calendar; I did not have it memorized and I wasn’t counting down the hours. Even they were surprised by my lack of knowledge.

Here in our section of the US, the students in the elementary schools are let out the last week of June. Camps and Summer Recreation programs don’t typically start until after the 4th of July holiday and they are expected back at school on the Wednesday or Thursday after Labor Day. This is usually about seventy-seven days.

In 2014, summer vacation was seventy days. Perhaps it was knowing that summer was ending a full week earlier than usual, but it started pretty well, and kept going that way. I could feel the difference. Part of that, I know, was my medication doing its thing, my continuing to focus on my coping and walking away when something was too much. I also asked for help. The kids were also a year older, which seemed to make a tiny bit of difference also.

With no summer school for anyone this year, the 4th of July was our first item on our summer to do list.

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Summer’s Tail End

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This has been a very busy month.

My middle son missed out on the sign ups for a camp program, so since I didn’t want him spending another week glued to his tablet, we held Camp Mommy while his sister went to her week. We went to Chuck E. Cheese, the park, the comic store, out to a sushi place for lunch, McDonald’s for one of our breakfasts and he came with me to church for three days, which was nice especially since he’s not a big fan.

My oldest son got his driver’s license last week, and has volunteered to get the groceries and drive his brother to his friend’s house. He even got to work on time, which was a tremendous accomplishment!

My daughter went clothes shopping – if anyone lives near a Justice, they’re clearance is 60% and then they take off an additional 40% off! We buy everything too big so that it will still fit next summer! We couldn’t afford to shop their otherwise – they’re prices are way too high.

GISHWHES, information at this link, is over, and went very well. I’ll have a separate wrap up post on that later on.  Preview: Endure4Kindness is coming in mid October. This year, I’m going to be taking pledges. All of the money goes to Random Acts.

I’ve just returned from a spiritual retreat, and it really has energized me to get through the rest of the summer and has given me inspiration for the upcoming fall season. It was called Drawing Closer to G-d, and we learned how to make mandalas, and I was quite surprised at how nice my pictures came out. I have no artistic ability, but this was just the right balance of creativity and spirituality. I will have a separate wrap up on this also later on. Right now, I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed, but in a good way.

This piece was my proudest one during the retreat:

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This next one I just did this afternoon. It has great meaning to me, but again, that might require its own reflective post:

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I’m still in a deeply saddened place remembering Robin Williams. I’m trying to come to grips with the whole thing, and wondering how someone like him can’t hold on, and how someone like me managed to break through to the other side when I was in such a similar despairing place. I only hope that I can continue to do so, and continue to talk about my depression and depression in general, and be aware and there for people who need a shoulder to lean on.

Two requests:

The first is continue to pray and talk about Ferguson, MO and Michael Brown. This cannot continue.

The second is please send me your good thoughts and prayers. I am having some medical stuff going on beginning tomorrow. I’m trying not to think about the money it’s going to cost me, but for now, I have to focus on my health and deal with the monetary fallout when it eventually happens.

Thank you.

Kb