I truly believe that schedules have to be more flexible in the summer.  At least if you don’t live near the equator and you get some daylight shift throughout the year.

I totally broke a rule yesterday.  The kids had been begging me to take them to our local spring fed pond for some swimming and cooling down from all the heat.  And I was going to do it, until I came downstairs and saw the absolute mess. That no one had done anything about cleaning up.  And then I was like, no we can’t go to the pond if this is how you treat the house. It’s just not a possibility.

So my kids were completely pissed off and stomped around while actually doing their chores.  I complained on social media while counting down the days until their father gets back so he could be the  “Mean One” to go back to Mr. Grinch

I folded laundry so that I could say I was contributing and the littles and I picked out different songs to play.  My eldest started water for pasta while washing and drying each dish.

After dinner I broke my rule and said let’s go for a fast trip to the pond.  The girls put all the animals to bed and we drove the 7 minutes to the pond. We were there only about 15 minutes, because the water was starting to get really cold, I had goosebumps on my arms and legs, but it was really nice to cool down and they got a chance to burn off some of their energy and anger.  We came home, and I returned a phone call and they watched one show and then it was off to bed. With new audio books and hopefully a slightly better mood.  

This would be harder to do if we had someplace we had to be the next day.  Which does happen even in summer. Last week I had three days in a row where I had to get up at like 5:30 and it just about killed me by the time we got to the third day.  

Other rules I break during summer:

• Making hot meals, that often flies out the window.  I would much rather say, here have some veggies and make do than actually turn the oven or stove on.  

• Reading practice, it has just been too hot to sit there and listen to someone struggle over their reading, not a popular one, I am sure but OMG I am only one person this summer

• Getting up early, yep don’t care for that one this summer either, and I’m letting the almost 13 year old sleep as long as she wants in the mornings

• Regular activities, it is really nice to not have to be schelping people to classes, programs, etc.

• Back to back play dates, we often break these up, but as the only parent this summer I will take all the help I can get.

It is not all bad.  We have been listening to some shared audio books on drives, including some nonfiction ones.  It is nice to know I am staying home all day except maybe a trip to the pond and not having to put a bra on.  Or even really get that dressed. It was hilarious watching my older two getting into a pillow fight yesterday while their dad giggled from India since we were on a video chat.

What rules do you break/bend in the summer?  Does your life have a different flow in the different seasons?  Or do you just stay constantly busy?