Today you can find me over at The Redbud Post, the monthly magazine published by the Redbud Writer’s Guild which I am blessed to be part of. This month’s edition “Best Summer Ever: Reflections on Parenting and Summer” will arrive in inbox’s tomorrow if you subscribe here or you can read all of the content from the front page.
My article is called “Summer Sabbatical” and following my own words has already been a challenge (Day 1! There are 83 days left. I counted). But I believe God’s call is good, so I continue on. I would love to hear what you think.
Summer Sabbatical
Summer is here. The world is screaming it. The trees have leaves, the grass is green, the sun is shining, and my son’s school is ending. The question comes up quite frequently: What are you going to do to keep busy this summer?
Almost daily we receive fliers from recreation centers, churches, schools inviting my kids to enroll in a class, join VBS, come to camp. Go go go. Do do do. More more more. I find myself panicking under the pressure of it all. The togetherness. The activities. The daily-ness of it.
Much of my angst over summer vacation comes from my belief that I should be structuring our time so that my kids can get as much out of summer vacation as they can. I am responsible to make sure that no one is bored and every day should be filled with stimulation, learning, and, of course, fun.
But the past year was wrought with change and exhaustion. We moved twice. Our kids enrolled in new schools. We found a new church. We have been adjusting to our new lives emotionally, physically, and spiritually. I find myself wanting it all to stop. To sleep it off.
I see it in my kids, too. My first grader’s interest in school is waning. He wants to be home with his parents and brother. He wants to explore the backyard, dig a hole to China, climb the trees, and set the record for the most laps ridden up and down the alley.
My kids need to stop. To play. To rest.
So I pause from sending in the registration forms and consider, what do we need this summer? A new experience? Or a fresh perspective.
Read the rest at The Redbud Post here.
How do you manage your summers? Have you ever taken a summer “off”?
My husband and I are both educators, so we’ve always had glorious summers (sometimes in between having to go to school ;)). Our fondest family memories are of the summers when our girls were between about 5-14–at which age they got jobs during the summer :(. We camped a lot, traveled some, rarely did anything that would tie us down (such as VBS, or sports), and the summer camp they attended three times during that period was over a thousand miles away so we had an excuse to travel and camp and see all kinds of stuff along the way.
I somehow missed this comment the other day. I often think I would love to be a teacher with the summers off for a life like this. (Also, I love teaching) I have dreams of RV trips and slow mornings. Thanks for sharing your story!