Summer Fun - Part 2

Here's another post relevant for the summer daze.

Friday, July 06, 2007

Summer Days At A Glance

Summers are always difficult for me because I'm a routine gal. As much as I want to be a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants-person...I'm just not.

A friend once told me that people who are naturally organized don't need charts and schedules and routines written down and posted all over the place, but that those who are naturally chaotic need things written down and planned in order to get anything done. This made sense to me.

People always think I'm organized because they see my with a planner, with a chore chart, and with a routine for my days with kiddos at home. SHHHHHH....don't tell anybody - I'm one of the most random and chaotic people you will ever meet. Here's how I keep things under control though - I plan. I plan myself silly. I have a plan for everything. I plan so much that I struggle to stop planning and get to doing.

Truth be told, I'm a perfectionist and perfectionist don't like to fail. If I stop planning and actually start doing, I open myself up to failing miserably. At least, if all I do is plan than I can succeed at just that...planning :)

Ok...enough self analysis. Here's what I do: I take my schedule from the school year and tweak it to allow for more T-I-M-E. Time for what you ask? Well, time to just be. One of the lost arts these days is knowing how to exist without something to do. It's a skill to be still and master the art of quietness. Plus....boredom is the mother of invention. Kids have wonderful imaginations. They just sometimes don't know it until they are bored :)

The other thing I make sure to allow is plenty of time for taking care of our home. Summer is where I do the bulk of my training because life is slower and I can take all the time I want to make sure that the clothes are folded the right way or that the bathroom clean is done as expected. I try my best not to be "Mommy-dearest" but I do have high standards. I can't help it. I'm a perfectionist. I figure my kids will have something about me to discuss in counseling anyway.

I also put up a summer calender to take care of the "big stuff" - you know - the stuff that the kids really look forward to like family vacation, swimming lessons, summer outings, etc.



I also use the calendar to purposefully plan to do some of the things from our list of Summer Activities. OK...back to the point of this post...our daily summer routine....

AGGGGGGHHHHH... I just got a pop-up message telling me that I'm about to run out of batteries. I'm sitting at Barnes & Noble, getting a little R&R (can you say BY MYSELF) and I can't seem to find an outlet.

So....I will add the daily routine in a subsequent post so that I can at least have a post for today! More to come later...