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!

Summer Highlights

"If odour were visible, as colour is,

I'd see the summer garden in rainbow clouds."

~Robert Bridges~

I always have mixed feelings about summer. First of all, I really don't enjoy temperatures anywhere above about 80 degrees, and even then I need a breeze. Somewhere in the back of my mind I have this ingrained idea that summertime should equate to "the lazy days of summer," yet I don't seem to have many of those, and that idea is in direct opposition to Aesop's fable of "The Grasshopper and the Ants," which is also ingrained in my head. This often leaves me feeling raw, as if I'm in the middle of a great tug of war between multiple personalities!

Being a baseball family, summertime is packed with travel, travel, and more travel, and a lot of late nights under the lights of ballfields. While I love the inspiring changeup of seeing the world through a roadtrip and being in different places, and I love watching my kids play ball, the work is stacked up when I get home and all those late nights make it hard to get up and get the outdoor chores done in the cooler morning hours.

I love a rocking and rolling summer thunderstorm and the positively delicious aroma of rain on the wind as it kisses the dry earth. I love the heavy perfume of a patch of petunias and the invigorating smell of a just-mowed lawn or a field of cut hay. I don't like mosquitoes, earwigs, grasshoppers, and fruit flies. It's a mixed bag, for sure.

I wouldn't trade four distinct seasons for anything, though. Each has its blessings and banes. As always, gratitude and attempts at balance go a long way in a happy life.

As August slips away, I like to look back and see where I've been and what I've done so I know the summer didn't just pass me by and leave me wondering "Where did the summer go?" Even acknowledging small delights and happy surprises keeps the scales of joy and contentment tipped in my favor. Here are a few highlights of this year's summer.



A round of family Frisbee golf in a canyon park, with the inevitable retrieving of a stuck Frisbee,
which was followed by the inevitable Insta Care visit for a tetanus shot:

Ma and Pa Swallow, returned to raise another brood on my front porch:

Encountering an entire bush in motion with moths...

...and catching one!

Embracing gravity with friends:

Reflecting on the ways that God keeps his promises:

Seeing sacrifice and perseverance pay off:

Summer night lights:

Shoshone Falls:

Seeing, smelling, touching, tasting red:

Simple joy in a cute pair of festive shoes (and, no, I don't have another pair exactly like this :) )

Field trips and  bucket list destinations:

Watching my stars shine:

FINALLY having a close encounter with a muskrat, after nearly a dozen wetland field trips:

Being torn between watching the ball game and watching the osprey who were watching the ball game:

Experiencing triumph in tests and trials, gratitude for miracles and medicine, recognition and respect for the power and reality of the priesthood, and witnessing the wonder of the human body and its ability to heal:

My first (very cool) encounter with a Western Tiger Swallowtail caterpillar:

Apricots! Early spring weather finally cooperated to give us a great summer harvest:

Peachy paradise in crepes and smoothies and in juicy goodness dripping down my chin and wrist:

A sweet-tart plum harvest turned into jelly and fruit leather and more smoothies:

Watching my boy bloom where he's planted:

Celebrating another year of marriage:

Discovering a "new" swimming hole:...

...and meeting the swimming hole's local residents:

Conquering some personal fears and inhibitions and loving it:

Getting one missionary ready to leave:...

...and welcoming one missionary home:

Having the whole family together again:

Some additional highlights include some media that was particularly special this summer.

Here Comes the Boom is not a new movie; it's been around for a few years. We didn't know anything about it, though, until one of my kids saw it on the shelf at the library and checked it out. We. Love. This. Movie. Besides being funny and entertaining, it has some good messages and things to think about, especially in the realm of education and inspiration, as well as the American Dream and citizenship.

The following videos are to songs that meant a lot to me this summer. I'm not necessarily recommending the videos because as I've posted previously, videos often ruin songs for me (though I do like these ones). But they're the easiest and most legal way to share music. So, if you don't want your perception of the music influenced by the videos, play them and listen with your eyes closed.

The first song is "Humble and Kind" sung by Tim McGraw. I don't normally listen to country music, but I love, love, love this song and it has influenced me greatly this summer. I came to listen to it while driving my son to a doctor's appointment. The song came on the radio and not knowing it but realizing it was country, I switched the station. My son said, "Don't!  Go back. I like that song." Naturally I wanted to hear it if he was so insistent, just to see what he liked about it. And then my whole world changed, along with how I look at my son.

These next two songs are by Paul Cardall. Interestingly, they are on a CD I have had for years but not listened to. I got the CD for free during some promotion, listened to it once, and at the time decided there was only one decent song on the album. This summer I was cleaning out some things and was about to toss the disc in a giveaway pile when I decided to listen to it one more time to be sure it was junk. What I've come to believe is that I was meant to have this CD but I needed to really hear it for the first time now. I wouldn't have purchased it, then or now, so it was given to me. I think I had a sort of stupor over it when I received it so that when I needed the message in these songs, they'd be "new" to me and therefore have more of an impact.

Well, summer is over. It would be a sad, sad thing if summer ended and there was no autumn to trail it so gloriously. I hope your summer was blessed. If you think it wasn't, or that it was over too soon, make a highlight reel for yourself to count your summer blessings.