a summer and a plan not to waste it

It rained early yesterday morning.  Every inch of rain that touches the earth is a small victory for our drought-stricken ground.
And it's a reason to put on rain boots.
Even when you don't really need them.

Summer vacation officially began for us this week.  And this morning, my youngest put on her rain boots and went outside to dance.  I did what I do and snapped pictures of her joy in the puddles.  I watched her laugh and play, and I felt satisfied that she wasn’t spending this summer morning in front of a screen.   Until I realized that I was.  I was so busy recording the memory that I wasn’t experiencing it.  I was missing the opportunity to connect with her if even for a few minutes.  I set the camera aside and jumped into the puddle.  This motherhood thing- it’s messy.  But it’s fun.

I counted them up today.  We have 15 more summers with her before she graduates high school.  13 with our son.

Ben and I,  we’ve been talking about summer for the past month.  How are we going to teach our children that they don't always have to be entertained by us but that they can count on us to find the time to connect with them in some small way every day? How do we make this summer not just about ourselves, but our God and His people?  How are we going to be intentional with our time and make sure that we don’t waste it?  And we’ve come up with a plan.

-We are all setting goals.  What do we want to accomplish as a family this summer and what do we want to accomplish individually this summer?  Ben and I have goals for fitness. Tuck is going to learn to ride his bike.  We have some goals for preparing Libby for pre-K.  And we all have reading goals.  We have incentives for our goals and the best thing about being a family is that we all have cheerleaders encouraging us on.

-We are looking for ways to think beyond ourselves.  Summer is an easy time for us to have people over for dinner so there is no reason that people shouldn’t often be in our home.  We are establishing “Mail Monday” and we are writing more cards and/or sending more packages because seriously isn’t real mail one of the best things to get?  Our kids are going to make a missionary book of all of the people in our life serving in different places so that we can be more specific in our time to pray for them.  We are looking for intentional ways to serve in our neighborhood and community (we are making a list) and we are planning to help our children play a bigger part in our giving/serving.

-We are reestablishing routines where we slacked off in the school year.  We’ve changed up our chore chart to include things we want our kids to learn.  Two of those things are helping with laundry (sometimes that looks like clean towels being folded on dirty floors) and helping with dinner once a week (I have a feeling that means more messes and longer time in the kitchen) and daily chores must be accomplished in order to earn screen time.  We are going to pick up our pace a little in memorizing Psalm 67 as a family.   And we are going to move our children back into a more consistent habit of time alone with God.   

-We know that fun and creating memories doesn’t always have to be expensive or even planned out months in advance.  So, we are going to paint pictures, watch $1 movies in the theatre, help with VBS at our church, set up a tent in our living room, play baseball, get away and visit friends.  We are going to watch the sunset, build pillow mountains, attend free library events, have as many playdates as we can, stay in our pajamas until lunchtime, and I'm going to do my best not too stress as much about messes.

And we plan to put on our rain boots and dance with our kids as often as possible.  Even when there is no rain.

Because we only have so many summers.

What about you?  I would love to hear your plans for being intentional with your summer!