Summer Days

The kids are out of school and I don't know whether to breathe a sigh of relief or up my dosage of anti-depressants just to be safe. IF I don't now, I'll probably have no choice by mid-summer for sure.

It's sort of a catch 22. I'm glad I don't have the homework and the pressure of getting kids to school and home every day and everywhere else they need to be. But with that freedom comes a different kind of pressure, the kind that has no ending until school starts again. Unless I go into a coma until August 22, the day they go back, the pressure stays whirring at an all time high like the air conditioning in the back yard.

What kind of pressure am I talking about? Please refere below to the "cons" section of having the kids out of school.

On the one hand I love the lack of deadlines for bedtime and waking up, but with that comes its own set of conundrums. Like everyone thinks they can "party" 24/7 and wear themselves out so they're too tired to do any housework. Hubby dear won't tolerate that, so guess who will take the brunt of it? It won't be the one who goes to his mostly quiet office every day and has no idea what emotional stuff is going down at home I'll tell you that.

SO here are a few reasons why summer's great and summer's not, just like any other season of the year.

Summer's great because:

The kids get tons of exercise
The kids wear themselves out playing
We get to spend so much time together as a family
We get to go on vacations together as a family
We get to go camping as a family
We get to do a lot of the things we say we're too busy to do during the rest of the year
We get to visit with out of town relatives
We get to make homeade ice cream and sit outside in the lovely cool of the eating and eat it. There's nothing like Utah evenings
We get to celebrate three daughter's birthdays--two in July and one in August
We get to eat fresh produce from the garden
We get to go to the cabin in Montanta, something I've been doing since I was a baby.

On the flip side:

More people in the house for longer periods of time equals a messier house
More people home all day long eating equals a massive grocery bill
More people consuming more food equals numerous trips to the grocery store
The lawn gets littered with Otter Pop wrappers
There's the expectation that with more time comes the opportunity for more deep cleaning, but that's a lie.
It's never quiet in the house until about 3 am, way too late to enjoy it.
If I forget to use the garden produce I'm in trouble
We get to go on a 1,000 mile trip to the northwest and back and pay $3.20 a gallon for gas
Instead of running kids around after school, I get to run them around all day long. Fun!
We get to go broke celebrating three daughters' birthdays.
We have to go driving with Adrienne so she can get her driving hours in.
I sometimes have a hard time remembering to water the potted plants.
Little people are knocking on the door all day long asking to play. They think I'm a wicked witch.
The kids fight more when they're together more. I fight more with the kids when we're together more.
Children tend to change clothes multiple times during the day
I have to wash a load of beach towells every other day

As I read 1,945 times in my daughters' yearbooks H.A.G.S.--Have a Great Summer! I'm certainly going to try to see the positive in this warm and wonderful time of year.