My memories of summer are that it lasts wonderfully forever. But I just realized... I've already started hitting the events I planned at the end of the summer! A trip with the kids next week, day camps for both kids the next week, one last week of summer, and then school starts again! Where did the summer go??!
I find myself always so focused on what needs to happen every day or every week that, when I look back, I feel like I missed out on opportunities to do bigger things. I played a hundred board games and soccer games with the kids that week, but didn't stop to plan to take them to the lake!
So, at the beginning of the summer I asked the kids: what are three things each of you really want to do this
summer? And then we committed to making them happen.
So far, we've done one (lil mama wanted pizza, popcorn, and homemade cherry pie, in our PJs, watching a movie, so we made it happen!), and have another (camping) scheduled in two weeks. It's really nice to step back--from personal life, from work, from whatever--every little bit and ask myself what my longer-term goals are.
If you're like me, and you are more reactive to what's in front of you, maybe you would also benefit from making some plans and structures that help you look at the bigger picture every once in a while. If you're not like me? Consider yourself lucky 😆