Summertime Sadness

This week I wrap up two weeks out of the office. A 17 day staycation with zero agenda.

When you live in the Pacific NW you spend all year looking forward to the summertime months. Long sunshiny days that effortlessly slide into warm nights with impromptu backyard dinner parties. Afternoons turned to evenings at the community pool. Play dates that become outdoor movie nights that roll into sleepovers.

All of June, July and most of August I was feeling anxious about the fact that summer was slipping thru my fingers. Unexpected work travel in both June and July forced us into survival mode & schedule tetris. We were lucky to get Mario into a full day Spanish immersion camp for the majority of the summer but had to unexpectedly accommodate for overnight care, dog sitting and vegetable garden sitting (watering) too. Once we looked at our calendar I realized we would only have four weekends at home as a family from June to the beginning of August. Not allowing much time to do all of the summer things we had been looking forward to.

And in the back of my mind thru all of this was the faint reminder of an idea I had seen floating around the mom-centric instagram world since May or maybe even late April. It was words in caption or even screenshot, for maximum effect, that made me feel bad. It goes like this “We only get 18 delicious summers with our children. This is one of your 18. If that’s not perspective. I don’t know what is.” It is credited to Jessica Scott, I don’t know who that is.

So many things about this idea bothered me and had me questioning our summer 2019:

Why does summer only count for your first 18 years? I could argue that the first one or two years is kind of a waste since your kid can’t really run thru a sprinkler or pick berries at that age. After seeing Call Me By Your Name I was immediately nostalgic for late teen and adult summering with my kid.

Why are summers the only delicious part of parenting or childhood? Really makes the other nine months sound so bleak and depressing.

Is a summer spent in summer camp a wasted summer? Crossing my fingers it is not.

All that said, I guess that dumb quote got to me. I took off two weeks to hang with my kid while he had a lapse in his summer scheduling but also to do ‘all the summer things’. I did it for me maybe more than I did it for him and the family. I had plans to clean out closets, get some yard projects done, go to the pool as often as possible, work out every day and lunch with friends.

At the end of it all I cleaned zero closets, planted some lavender, went to the pool twice, spent time with girlfriends, had a few yummy meals out, ran in the trails more than normal, did a handful of impromptu road trips & spent as much time outside as possible. Evidence below:

I loved it so much that I am gonna work to make it an annual tradition. I still don’t like that quote or the fear or anxiety it invokes but I am extremely grateful for the privilege of a two week summer staycation to close out August cause it is actually pretty dreamy and even better with no agenda. I will save the closet cleaning for this winter. In the meantime I hope you enjoyed scrolling thru these fotos from the last two weeks.

Xx ly