Happy Memorial Day!

On this, the first un-official day of summer (unless, of course, your children are private-school educated, then you’ve been out since right after Easter), I admit I’d forgotten just how different summer break is from the school year.
The school year is all about structure–even with the chaos of two two-year-olds, a five-year-old, and the forty-minute commute we did four times a day.
Structure? In the summer? Not so much.
Maybe I’m rebelling against a year of that commute, but the kids and I have barely left the house since school let out. An average of 13 waking hours in one house with three kids five and under?
That’s chaos.

Suddenly our building blocks of structure are blurred. The basic foundation that we form our days around (sleeping, eating, and swimming/bathing) are no longer the regimented activities.

Example One:

As it turns out, meals and snacks come in lots of forms:

SY (School Year): meals include protein/fruit or veggie/mostly carbs layered in cheese…eaten at the kitchen table starting with a prayer and a “Can I be excused?” or “What’s for dessert?” or “Nooooooo! I don’t want to eat three more bites of mashed potatoes and cheese.”

SB (Summer Break): With so many unfilled hours, snacking seems to be our new pasttime. So, at mealtime, no one is too hungry. Three consecutive meals yesterday were smoothies in the backyard.

Which, by the way, I have discovered the beauty of the smoothie. I had never had the confidence to attempt them before, mostly because our blender is from 1998 and smoke comes from the motor if you ask it to crush ice. But Costco has these convenient Smoothie Packs, and I’m a sucker for anything from Costco, and anything pre-measured. And now I can’t get enough of the smoothie.

Example Two:

The Summer is one long, “I need a bath!”

SY: As soon as the kids get home from school, the long process of washing school off of them begins. First, we dump large piles of sand from their shoes (seriously, most the of the playground comes home in my kids’ shoes). Then I wash the paint-stained clothes. Finally, baths for each kid every single night.

SB: It’s already an average of 90 degrees so each day contains some activity which will make them wet (besides with sweat), so when is it ever a good time–or bad time–for a bath? Waiting until bedtime doesn’t work since they’re usually far too dirty and the pool’s chlorine is already penetrating their fragile blonde hair. So, we’ve adopted the mass bath. And the mass bath turns into another swimming type of activity. And, an hour later, they’re ready to get into the pool again.

Most kids’ bedtimes become later in the summer, but ours is earlier–I’ve been known to get all three kids sleeping in their beds, only to look at the clock and see it’s not even seven.

But after 13 hours in the house, who has the energy for anything else?

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