Summer Goals

Is it just me or does it seem that in the beginning of June the summertime feels endless and full of infinite possibilities now that I’m free from the school year drudgery of making lunches and inspecting homework? While I still have bills to pay, meals to cook and a never ending mountain of washing and folding that apparently only I am qualified to manage, the coming months fill me with a fizzy sense of anticipation and curiosity. All options are on the table. (All options except bacon, that is. And clowns or roller coasters. But other than that unholy trinity, anything is possible.) I just need to decide what to do. 

Here are my Summer Goals for 2022:

1. Write My Weekly Blog Post Before Monday Night

I sit here at 8:45pm after rushing through the usual evening routine with our son and leaving him to read in his room so I can blog. So naturally, my first summertime goal is to stop leaving my weekly blogs to the last minute. Finding time  to write my posts before Monday night would make my evenings much less stressful and allow me to actually enjoy writing.

2. Discover My Inner Sloth

As a general rule, I am very motivated. These past few months, I seemed to have been scheduled every second of the day. When I wasn’t I stressing over finishing the last book in my YA series, there were a thousand and one tasks that needed my attention: cooking, helping with homework, trying to declutter my impossibly cluttered house, school sports or making endless pots of chicken and rice for our repeatedly diarrhetic dachshund (it’s a word; I checked). Not only do I want to get a little more organized (see #1 above) so I make better use of my time. But I also want to adjust to the pace of summer…maybe I don’t need to do all my laundry in one day. Or maybe spending an afternoon watching movie with our son is more important than cleaning out my closet. All too soon our son will be wanting to hang out with his friends and not his parents. I’ll have plenty of time to get our house in order then. This summer, building a pillow fort or having a water balloon fight is my top priority.

3. Say Yes

I hate being tickled. I absolutely hate it. For some bizarre reason people think it’s fun to jam their pointy fingers into your armpits or into the squishy softness of your abdomen (well maybe not yours, but my abs are more akin to corrugated cardboard than a washboard at the moment). It usually feels more like a stab than a tickle and I always end up having to run to the bathroom after a few torturous minutes. But my son loves tickle fights and he has the best laugh – the kind where his face turns almost purple and he can’t breath for the uncontrollable laughter that borders on a scream; his eyes dancing as he hops around with glee, trying to get me. So I find myself saying yes most times to tickle fights even though I detest them, just to hear that giggle. So I’m saying yes to it all this summer – messy cooking experiments, donuts for breakfast, jumping in the freezing Pacific ocean and staying up late to read or look at the stars. We’ve got nowhere to be, so who cares how late we stay up or if we wear our pajamas all day? 

4. Story Time

Over the past year I’ve started  to tell our son two different stories but haven’t been able to finish either. I’d like to actually write at least one of them down. All too soon he’s going to age out of these fantasy type tales of talking animals and kid adventures, so I need to get them down now on paper so he can enjoy them as much as possible. I also have to brush up on the many ways to describe gas because let’s face it, he’s ten and he’s all in on farts these days.

5. Look At The Sky

Doesn’t matter if it’s day or night, clear or cloudy. Taking a few moments to look at the sky always slows my mind and reminds me to breathe. It’s hard to feel busy and stressed when looking at something so immense and ever-changing. The sky never worries if it’s late or if those stars make it’s butt look big. It just is. I can learn a lot from that; just being for a few moments. Instead of constantly doing.

Here are some that don’t need any explanation:

• S’mores
• Beach
• Paddleboard
• Read
• Time With Family And Friends

This is the last one but it really is the most important. Time with my husband and our son, time with my sister and grandma, my in-laws and friends. I want to see everyone because more than anything, it’s the people in my life that make everything else seem trivial.

Let’s see how many I can get some this summer.

Happy Tuesday 🏖