Summer Schedules

Happy Tuesday!

Boy, we are having a heat wave here in Ohio! I think we should actually call it a “humidity wave”, because while it is HOT, it’s the humidity that makes it so, so miserable.

We are into our FOURTH week of summer, and I’m internally freaking out about how fast the summer is going. So far I haven’t felt bored even once, and I’m still trying to convince myself and my family to slow the pace way down and just have a slow, slow summer. We truly have very little on our calendar, but I think I somehow forgot the fact that four children (plus the gazillion animals) just take a lot of daily maintenance haha. I also keep reminding myself that I still have a baby- a toddler, really- but he requires a certain level of always being “on”, and I had forgotten this until I tried to sit down and relax and read a book and then realized that it’s hard to get more than one or two sentences read before he needs redirecting or rescuing.

I know that may sound like complaining, but it’s not. I am truly enjoying spending time with my kids and not having a school schedule to keep up with. It’s just a little bit different than I had pictured in my head, so I’m working through re-setting my expectations.

One re-set I’ve had to make is my blogging schedule. I started off the summer really strong with posting on a consistent basis, but when the days demands begin at 7am and don’t end until 9am, blogging is usually out the window. And I’ve felt pretty sad about that. I keep watching link-ups slip past me and I know that I completely missed the opportunity. This blog has always been primarily a hobby and creative release for me and a family journal. I’ve never made any money from blogging, but I would be lying if I said that I didn’t wish that I had more views, comments, and loyal followers. Throughout the many years that I’ve been doing this, I have learned ways to gain those things, but I always either feel a bit icky about doing it, or I simply don’t have the time or creative brain power to keep up with it all consistently. A lot of bloggers I follow seem to have different life demands and schedules and so I know I can’t compare myself, but I still do.

And some bloggers I’ve followed for ages have started to go in directions that I’m not very interested in following (very sales-y, lifestyles that I can’t keep up with, money that I don’t have and if I did have it, I would spend it very differently, etc). The catch-22 here is that they consistently provide link-ups and online gatherings for the chances to meet and connect with other bloggers. So I don’t always want to be affiliated with their brand, but I also struggle to find other ways of finding people who even read blogs anymore.

Sigh. This not what I even set out to write about in this blog post! So if you are still here, here is the content that you *thought* you were getting in my post: Our Summer Schedule!

I missed this link-up last week, but I loved reading all of the other posts and hearing about summer schedules so I thought I would add my own in here.

• The kids and I are home all summer, while Theo is still working his full-time job (law enforcement). He works on the weekends, and has three days off right in the middle of the week. We honestly LOVE this as it means we can go camping, playgrounds, outings, etc as a family on less crowded days of the week instead of on the weekend. The only downside is that it’s basically impossible to go on any trips with other people in the summer because our schedule is exactly the opposite of everyone else’s. And he works on Sundays. That is just a big, ol downside of his schedule right now 🙁
• Theo is up by 5:30 for work, and I usually get up by 6am. The kids are all up around 7. I do my devotions and try to do some blog work before they get up
• 7-9am is kind of everyone piddling around, getting some breakfast, getting dressed, sitting on the couch and reading, I hang a load of laundry on the line outside, do the morning animal chores, etc. I try to weed in my sunflower field for at least 10 minutes every day. Keep in mind that while I’m doing this, I usually have 1-4 kids with me so it takes much longer than you would expect :).
• The kids had VBS in the morning last week so we were out of the house by 8:30 each morning. We typically go to the library once a week, try to have a playdate with friends once a week, and then explore a new playground once a week. I like to do this in the morning since Orion is switching to one long afternoon nap instead of a morning and afternoon one.
• We eat lunch at home and then have nap/rest time. Ori takes a nap, I usually lay in bed and read for 30 mins to an hour and the big kids can either play outside or play quietly in their rooms. If I need to run on the treadmill, I try to get this in while Ori is sleeping.
• The afternoon is usually spent just playing (usually outside- usually involving a hose or sprinkler) while I do various chores that need to be done around the house (dishes, floors, cloth diaper laundry) or outside like mowing, picking berries, etc.
• 4pm is time to start animal chores, water the garden and sunflowers, etc.
• 5pm I try to start making dinner and head toward our daily “closing ceremonies”. I like all toys to be picked up, couch pillows put back on the couch, dishes washed, floors somewhat clean, etc. Theo gets home around 5:45 and he usually grabs the kids and heads out to do all the animal chores that I couldn’t get done
• 6:30pm we sit down for dinner (almost always outside)
• 7:00pm we work on family chores like laundry, dinner dishes, sweeping the floors and then we try to do something together as a family like play a game, read some books, jump on the trampoline, etc. More often than not we really have a lot more animal chores to do and we usually try to work on that before bed. I try to play 20 minutes of piano as soon as dinner chores are done and before bedtime begins.
• 8:00 is time to start getting in bed. Ori is usually down and out right away, and the bigger kids have been taking much longer to get into bed this summer. They are usually not asleep until 9 or later.
• 9:30pm- Theo is asleep by 9:30 if he has work the next day, if he is off the next day we might watch 30 minutes or so of a show, but this really only happens about twice a week.
• 10pm- lights out for me after reading for a bit.

Of course there are many days when our life does not look anything like this! Maybe the sheep got out and we spent hours getting them back in, or maybe it’s really hot so we need to water the animals much more often. Maybe we spotted a garage sale and then one led to another and we spent four hours out garage sale-ing. Maybe everyone woke up on the wrong side of the bed and the majority of the day is spent working through sibling conflict. The beauty of summer is that it’s really open ended and while everyday looks kind of the same, in the end it’s like a box of chocolates- you just never know what you’re gonna get 🙂

During the summer I try to work extra hard to have people come over. We have my parents over for dinner once a week, we try to have a family over once a week, and sometimes I host a group thing like a bonfire or Bible Study or book club. Those are things that I really struggle to do during the school year, so summer is my time to host!

Summer has always been my favorite season and it is still so special, even as an adult. The only thing I wish we had was a pool or a pool membership! Otherwise, I am seriously over here living my best life!