Summer Prep

When I look at my life right now, I realize that more often than not the wrong things get in the way of living. My husband and I both work full time jobs, plus he has worked a second job for years to supplement our income (he's a very ambitious man and I am very proud of and lucky to have him, running your own business is tough and he's been doing it for years as a side job). Anybody who works full time knows that at the end of the day, once dinner is made, dishes are washed, stuff is picked up, and activities are over with, you're ready for bed. Or at least ready to wind down. Add to that a house needing updates, repairs, and maintenance; the TV, phones, and computer...our life gets pretty full with "busy" work, time fillers. I started thinking, is that really how I want my kids to remember their childhood? What colorful memories are they going to have as they grow up?

Now, I will never pretend that I am the perfect mom; I'm far from it. I can be selfish, impatient, lazy, and have too high of standards with certain things. I know this, and it's a work in progress on a daily basis...parenting is easily the toughest, most trying job on the planet. Anybody would agree to this (that have children at least), but wouldn't change it for the world. The last two weeks have changed me and my husband in many ways. Things that upset us before we are suddenly able to brush off with ease. We've become more patient with the girls and prioritizing their activities over our own. We communicate more. We love more. It's a good start. In fact, it's a great start! Now I need to figure out where to go from here, what the next step is.

I'm a blog reader and an avid pinner, and between the two I have found hundreds of activities to do with kids. It's time to put that into play, practice what you pin. I want to look back on my life and not think about how exhausting life was, I want to remember being excited, creative, young...I want my kids to remember me as someone who was involved with them and made them feel special even on an ordinary day. So, our mission this weekend, as a family, is to come up with a "Summer Bucket List" and a "Rainy Day Jar". Both are going to hang out in our home where we can see them and yes, we will be checking things off as we go. Since this is the first year trying this, I can only assume that the list will be long and at the end of the summer we will realize that we overstretched. But, it's OK to dream, and the important piece to all of this is that we will be making a constant effort. We'll learn for next year what kind of capacity we have.

Stay tuned for the results, and I promise to start adding more pictures to my posts!