Last summer, we moved for the seventh time. We arrived at our new base right around the 4th of July, which meant we had spent the last three weeks of June packing up our house, planning our cross-country drive and saying our final “see ya laters” to friends and neighbors. Two of those weeks I was still finishing up my job as a Literacy Specialist, while my two kids spent the first 3 weeks of their summer break at childcare. Not that this mattered much to them, but I remember thinking “this is so unfair! Our summer will be over before it even begins!” And it was.
We trekked across the U.S., celebrated our anniversary (together!), had my husband’s Change of Command ceremony, attempted to settle into a new routine in an empty house, waited for our household goods to arrive, and then the next thing I knew I was unpacking boxes the third week of August. The week after our household goods arrived, my kids started school, we attempted yet another new routine and I continued to try to make our clutter feel more like organized chaos. I feel like the only thing we accomplished in the weeks between our arrival and unpacking was spending a few days at the beach and meeting a couple new members of the squadron. There just wasn’t enough time to really do anything productive, exciting or even to explore our new surroundings. To put it bluntly, I am over it.
This pattern has been going on for nearly twenty years. I want a summer – like a FULL summer! A summer where there is no alarm, but there is still somewhat of a plan. A summer where we all read and actually enjoy that we can just “be” for 20-30 minutes. A summer where my kids feel grounded. A summer where there are no expectations just exploration and glorious memories. I don’t need completely lazy days, but I am also not looking for a jam packed, hurry up and pass the time routine. I just want a summer where we do not HAVE to do or go anywhere because we feel short on time or we feel the pressure to participate (sports, camps, events, etc.). The time will come when summer sports take over our weekends, when my kids would rather spend time with their friends, and when summer jobs peel them away from their childhood. This summer, though, it just feels right to take things slow.
Don’t get me wrong! I LOVE to travel! In fact, as much as I want to stay home, we do have some time away planned. Both sets of our parents are celebrating their Golden Wedding Anniversaries this summer! To celebrate this milestone, one set of grandparents is taking us on an 8-day cruise to Alaska while the other opted for a quieter, low key family celebration. Although I do look forward to being with both of our families, I am also so very grateful that these trips are not happening because I feel compelled to do them. We are not attending these events because we feel we should. We are travelling because we want to. We look forward to spending time with family and being a part of such an amazing milestone celebration of love and commitment. Perhaps another aspect of these trips that makes them so great, is that they took so little planning on my part and the timing miraculously worked out for us to spend time with family back-to-back. This allows us to have summer both before and after our time away, which leads me back to my main point.
Even if we did not have this upcoming family time planned, I would be 100% content staying right here…for the entire summer. For the first time ever, I actually want to go out and explore our new surroundings. I’ve lived here for almost a year and still feel like I haven’t seen a tenth of the amazing things this place has to offer. I don’t want to feel rushed, but rather get to a place so we can simply take it all in. So, we’ll have our beach days, we’ll go on hikes, we’ll visit the library and we’ll drown in our sweat while sipping the lemonade my kids are selling at the end of the driveway. My kids will play, we’ll camp and have a fire in the backyard and I will make it my mission to give our family every excuse NOT to be busy. I’m sure I’ll still hear the typical “I’m bored,” but maybe not on a daily (or hourly) basis. This summer calls for a staycation and I am ready for it.
