But I use to love summer time.

Saturday - August 11, 2012

How I used to feel about summer time...

 Up until about three years ago summer was my favorite season. Warm, long days with nothing to do but play. But having a second child ruined it for me. I use to spend my days at the lake, beach, hiking, pretty much anything outdoors. I hated being in the house. I was always busy and out being wild. Then three years ago I had my daughter and now I hate the summer for three reasons: The kids are home all day - driving me nuts, I get out of any and all of my routines, and suddenly I can't stand the heat (literally).

Driving me nuts! I try to be a good mom and do fun stuff with my kids, but all day, everyday... yea it makes me crazy. The March Hare (see character list) for instances will go to a friends house or we'll go swimming all day and not 5 minutes after we get home he'll start complaining about being bored or wanting to have a friend over. And don't get me started on trying to get him to do all his chores, some days I would rather take a staple gun to the gut then fight with him to do his stuff. And speaking of chores this kid has it made, he has the opportunity to make $25.50 a week! Now I say opportunity because his chores have to be completed, signed off to earn the cash and there are penalties if he has to be reminded or he says they're done when they're not. How much of that does he typically make a week, about $5! I also have him do about 1 hour of school work, reading a book and Bible reading in exchange for 1 hour of TV watching or playing video games. That one he actually does no problem, go figure!

Then there are my routines. First of all, this is the first summer I haven't had to work full time. Last summer may have been worse though with the kids driving me crazy, as I was working full time from home with them home all day. Now that I'm finally living my dream of being a stay at home mom and I don't think I know what to do with all the time... What is about not having any where to be in the morning that makes me so lazy? Every night I say the same thing to myself: "You are going to get up early tomorrow, work out, eat something good for you, get your house cleaned up and play with your kids." Reality: My alarm goes off at 7 am, I turn it off while saying  to myself "The kids are still sleeping, I don't feel like moving and I'm going back to sleep." Then I wake up when the Dormouse climbs on my bed, starts jumping on me and yelling "wake up mommy, wake up!" That's about 9 or 10 am, I make her lay with me for a few minutes until she tells me shes hungry, slowly I get up, make her breakfast and me coffee, and then get the March Hare up for our morning battle. Spend a few hours online and do a little house work. I've all but given up on attempting to scrounge up something for dinner before the Mad Hatter gets home, with no routine we eat at like 8 pm, and by then the kids are starving. But my timing is totally off if the sun doesn't go down at 5 pm. Trying to clean when the kids are home is pretty much impossible and mostly frustrating. See below:

  The heat. Like I mentioned before I used to be very carefree and loved always being outdoors. I'm not sure what happened. I don't know if it's the amount of crap I have to haul with me to do anything outdoors now or if it's just exhausting chasing the kids around making sure they are kept out of danger. I bring the kids to the park and 10 minutes into being there they are both sitting with me telling me they are bored. I try to plan play dates, in fact at the beginning of the summer I was pretty ritual about it until the mom's that I know started flaking. Not too mention most of them don't do much on a consistent basis, I am always the one planning things.  On top of it all I have been battling some mental issues and I really just don't feel like going any where. But I'm working on that one but therapy and meds can only do some much. I'm afraid this might be how I actually am and can't be helped!

Bottom line I can't wait for school to start, I'm counting the days! 11 to be exact, and 30 for the Dormouse who is starting pre-preschool this year. She will be going 2 days a week, and those 2 days will be glorious! Don't get me wrong I love my kids and being with them, but we all do much better when they are in school, we have consistent routines and the weekend isn't such a blur with the rest of the week. Not to the mention the sun goes down at 5 and that's my que to start dinner. Can someone write a letter to God and let him know I can't make dinner till the sun starts going down so I need it to be fall all year?

How do you stay in routine during the summer? What activities do you have your kids do to keep them busy? Help me and other mom by leaving a comment!

Thanks for sharing another adventure with me!

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