Taking the Summer Off

Preface:  I've taken a really, really long break from blogging. I'll give it one more go. It's discouraging to spend the time and then see that your blog only gets a few hits and those are mostly from random porn sites. If I get more of a regular readership, I'll keep going. 

The summer of 2017 was the best summer I've had in a long time. It's not that other summers haven't been good; there are always highlights and happy moments. Most summers as a whole, though, have left me feeling empty and exhausted, wondering where the time went and feeling like a victim of circumstance. I did not want one more summer that did not feel like summer, whatever that meant. I had a vague, elusive notion of what I thought summer should be and I wanted to make it happen. This was the year I lived summer on purpose.

For many years we have homeschooled through the summer. There have been various reasons, including but not limited to climate (the years we lived in Seattle meant cold and rainy Junes and Julys, and the years in Utah meant some days too hot to be outside so might as well study inside) and schedules (vacations in spring or fall or busy baseball/softball schedules meant makeup in summer). There was the belief that homeschooling is our lifestyle and learning never (or at least it should never) stops so, continuing our studies made sense. There was a sense that if we didn't continue homeschooling through the summer we were wasting time. And kids can certainly get bored easily so why not do something more worthwhile with that time? 

Here's the problem. Well, problems. Every change in season brings a new set of demands and activity. It is certainly possible to happily homeschool through each and every season, but as I always say, "If I am doing this then there is something else I am not doing." In this case that means that if I am going to spend my time and energy homeschooling, there are other things I cannot do because there is only so much time and energy to go around. I love to garden, but it takes a lot of time and energy. I love traveling with my children to baseball/softball tournaments, but it takes a lot of time and energy. I love to enjoy the types of activities that can only be done in hot, summer weather, but it takes a lot of time and energy. For years I have tried to do all of these things at the same time, with the time and energy simply running out. At the end of the summer I feel like a big, fat failure at everything. I can't truly enjoy any particular activity at any given time because I feel the constant weight of the other activities waiting their turned to be crammed into my life. 

Coming out of a hard spring, wanting summer to be different, but feeling the weight of my own expectations for everything, I was still going to stubbornly forge ahead with a unit study over the summer. But I couldn't stop thinking about how badly I needed a successful garden this year, the past years having been mediocre at best to straight up fails because I tried to do too much and/or was gone too much. I had numerous outdoor projects I wanted to do but I had put them off for years due to lack of that ever so limited time and energy I keep talking about. I couldn't stop thinking about how thoroughly exhausted I was. Looking ahead, I had 12 weekend tournaments in a row coming up, the first 10 of which were all out of town. (And mind you, laundry and meals and regular housework doesn't diminish in summer just because outdoor chores increase or because you're away from home more.) And then came the real epiphany:  I realized that for all my efforts at summer schooling over the years, we'd never amounted more than a good solid week or two of schooling when you added everything together. 

Then, my kids begged for a summer break. They, too, were exhausted and burned out. They had some good points to make. And all of a sudden, taking a break from homeschooling was the only logical, sane, and humane thing to do.

So we did.

And. It. Was. Glorious.

Instead of looking out my window longingly at the hammock in my back yard, I climbed in it and read adult fiction under the shade trees. Adult fiction! I haven't read adult fiction in at least a decade because I'm always pre-reading literature for my kids or reading nonfiction for a multitude of reasons. I finally had some wiggle room and didn't feel guilty taking advantage of it.

Instead of wishing we had more time to go swimming, fishing, hiking, etc., I conscientiously planned it and made it happen every week because, that was the plan, for a change.

I could go on. But it wasn't all leisure and play. If it had been, I'd have been just as dissatisfied with my summer as I would if we'd only worked.  I believe in the wisdom of Aesop's "The Grasshopper and the Ants," but more importantly, work is good for the soul and everyone feels better when they've done a job well.  And, after all, there was the garden. 

If you are one who chooses to homeschool year round, this is in no way meant to dissuade you. Everyone's lives look different from each other's. It's really about finding balance. Ha. It's always about finding balance. This was the summer of fixing my scales.

Cleaned up a flower bed.

Found a perfect picnic spot.

Canned 50 jars of summer applesauce.

The beach!

Finally grew cucumbers successfully.

Kayaked for the first time.

Invented a new holiday recipe.

Wildflower hike!