Officially, I’m not done with school yet, as I have two days of training on Monday and Tuesday and graduation on Tuesday night.
However, the kids are done, and even though it’s the weekend, we are already beginning to slide into our summer mode, which I call “Summer Slow.”
Last summer was the first summer I didn’t work since I was in high school, as the cost of putting four kids in a camp outweighed any paycheck I might have earned in the summer.
So, we tightened up the checkbook and made it through.
And we made it through in summer slow mode.
What is summer slow?
It’s a mug of tea on the deck in the morning while Tiny walks around inspecting cicada carcassas, watching the squirrels and chipmunks, starting to play with the outdoor toys.
It’s an impromptu morning walk with the monkeys when they are all up, with no destination in mind and nowhere in particular to rush home to get to.
“Summer Slow” is alternating between playing H.O.R.S.E. and basketball and hockey and badminton with the boys and reading/lifting my head every two seconds for a “Mom! Watch this!”
It’s getting chores done in my own time because my window to get them done has just expanded considerably beyond the 48 hours of weekend I am used to.
It’s going into our Netflix queue and ordering the first two discs of Little House on the Prairie, Season One for our regular summer viewing of the series.
“Summer Slow” is heading to the library to stock up on kids books about summer for Tiny and chapter books for the big kids for a little bit of quiet time at the end of the day.
It’s farmer’s markets, baking from scratch, watermelon dripping from chins.
It’s lemonade and sidewalk chalk and sweaty heads and droopy eyes and a feeling of peace and simplicity.
I love Summer Slow and the monkeys and I have been waiting for these days when we can slow down and just “be.”
It’s time.
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