As I turned the calendar over to August, I felt a twinge of “oh no, summer is going too fast!” I feel my chest squeeze with some sadness when I think about fall starting in just a mere few weeks with the rush of to-do lists and having to be at certain places at certain times and school for Dash and by the way which school am I sending him to?
July was busier than I had hoped. Wow, its just so hard to slow down! There are so many fun things to do and people we want to see and all the “usual” stuff too. By the end of the month, as I lay on the couch recuperating from my surgical procedures, I felt like we were playing “catch up” trying to finish our must-dos even as we gave up the want-dos. I don’t want to ever resent the things on the list that sounded fun when we first planned them. This past weekend, we enjoyed a lazy, no-plans weekend. We genuinely slowed down and ignored the to-do list. Once the pace of our life slowed down we were able to really enjoy it. That is how I want the rest of our summer to be!
It’s hard for my over-achiever personality because in May I made a wishlist of all the things I wanted to do this summer and anticipated with a sweet satisfaction all the extra time we were going to have. And as I feel the squeeze of summer wrapping up, its oh-so-tempting to quickly schedule all those remaining things on the wishlist, family outings, activities, museums, new parks to explore…..oh they sound so appealing and I have to hold myself back because in reality embracing all of these things, while each one fun and interesting, leaves us feeling tired, rushed, and never really resting. I have to remind myself to move slow and not over-book the calendar, no matter how tempting it is! A few well-chosen activities, or even just one special activity a day (leaving the rest of the day to read, play, nap, snuggle, romp) that we can enjoy and make memories from is far better than rushing from thing to thing in order to “fit them all in”. Running in the sprinkler, watching the clouds, taking lazy walks, making up silly games….these are all important “to do” as well. I need to allow myself that down time–guilt free–to recharge and make memories. We’ll see how well I do since we just decided spur of the moment to drive 18 hours next week to see Mr. Incredible’s family (so excited!) and we are working on our plans for our trip 4 hours away to bring Yeji to college and…..and….the list goes on and on.
How have you felt about your summer? Do you feel it speeding by? How can you slow down in the last month of “summer” vacation?
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Summer is FLYING by! We don't have any major plans for the rest of the summer, just a few more trips to the park and to the beach and enjoying this beautiful outdoor weather!
Slow down? I'm not even sure I know what that means anymore! My summer classes are finally almost over, but that means my summer is too. I am looking forward to my family vacation next week to relax a bit before I head right back to school in less than 2 weeks! I'm going to make the most of the rest of the summer and I hope you do too
It seems that once we get to August we start to panic that the summer is almost over and we try to slow it down. I worked hard on school stuff through mid-July and was very ambitious with my to-do list. But now August has hit and I don't care what's on the list. I just want to enjoy each day for what it is-a slower paced life to enjoy with my kids and more energy at night to be with my husband.
hey, I said this to sarah, but definitely contact me (or have yeji contact me) when you get up here and I can meet you guys on campus and show you/her around. cmichaud@ schoolinitials dot edu