Summer State of Mind

I’m not the kind of person that can come home to a messy house after work and flop onto the porch swing. I leave this house nearly everyday in a blaze of glory. That is to say, if I can get most of what we need, my four kids and myself out the door, I do it, even if the house looks as though it’s been hit by a cyclone. When you see the open door, run!

In spite of my need to always be cleaning, sorting and looking for the next crisis, I’ve been trying to dial back my efforts to finish what will never be done. Several friends’ Facebook statuses have tugged me into a place of awareness lately. One talked about how she was laying on the trampoline, looking at the stars and listening to her kids run and catch lightning bugs. Now doesn’t that sound like summer?! The other had a photo of her youngest in a laundry basket with the caption, “The laundry will always be there, but I won’t always be little.”

It is so true.

I look at Luke and try to remember my other kids at this stage. I nuzzle his sweet Baby Magic-smelling head and swear I’ll never forget it. But I will.

So it’s my responsibility, as mother and unofficial Roberts family summer cruise director, to come up with activities to not only make these days fun but to make these days lazy and memorable. I have to juggle, to be sure, in order to get anything done, but I will remember the beauty there is in doing nothing.

Kids are the royalty of summer. They do summer so well and so naturally. In spite of the fact that I used to be a kid and a summer queen in my own right, I’ve grown up. But my vow is this: while I still have to go to work, I’ll loosen up about bedtimes and ice cream everyday. I’ll let the dishes go, when I can. I’ll devise more impromptu swimming trips. I’ll run through the sprinkler and allow the kids to have more lemonade stands than the local economy cares to support.

I can hardly wait for tomorrow morning’s iced coffee, but first…. I’ll sleep in my warm bedroom with the cool fan and a sheet.

Because it’s summer, and I’m in a summer state of mind.