WASN’T SUMMER VACATION THE B E S T WHEN WE WERE KIDS??

Are you ready for the summer?

Are you ready for the sunshine?

Are you ready for the birds and bees,

the apple trees,

and a whole lot of fooling around

Three months of…nothing.  Three months of everything!  Summer was so great.  I loved those last days of school: cleaning out my desk and hauling my No. 2 pencils home where they would be used for meaningless pursuits and drawing whatever I felt like.  Time off from school!

I liked school. But I lived in anticipation of summer.

Pictured:  Left, The dog just hangs out; Right, I snapped this quick shot of a sedum in my backyard.  Then I saw grandbebe playthings in the background and realized THAT is really the beauty of summer…

Summer as a kid…

…Where I would spend inordinate amounts of time reading, playing with friends, acting out plays with siblings, watching baseball, playing jacks, organizing neighborhood projects, making homemade macaroni and cheese or pork and bean sandwiches (which were delicious-take my word for it) and listening to music.  I loved basking in the sun and speeding around on a bike at twilight.  I loved driving around with the windows down and small dipped cones at the Dairy Queen.  Collecting fireflies in jars was fun, hopscotch on the sidewalk was normal and a brand new jumprope begged to be used.  I skipped-a-rope and hula-hooped on long summer days.

Summer was never boring because if I’d said I was bored, my chores list would have been increased.  So I kept busy and it was fun.  And wow, I miss it.  Don’t you?

Are you ready for the summer?

Are you ready for the hot nights?

Are you ready for the fireflies,

the moonlit skies,

and a whole lot of fooling around

Shouldn’t we all get a three month vacation when the sun is shining and the birds are singing and the pool is glistening?  Shouldn’t we all get so much time off that when the fall comes around again and the lined paper goes on sale next to the argyle sweaters, we are thrilled to throw ourselves back in to it?

No more pencils, no more books

No more teachers dirty looks

No more math and history,

Summer time has set us free

My red onions against the puffy-clouded, Colorado-blue sky.  They are simply statuesque, very sculptural.

MY ADVICE:

During my workaholic-super-achiever days, I’d get to the end of summer and realize that, as an adult, I’d “missed” summer.  Because even though we don’t get them “off” from all responsibilities more like when we were kids, I still had definite ideas on what “summer” should be, simple things…Like homegrown tomatoes, dinners of grilled steak and corn on the cob, big bowls of potato salad and ice cream in the backyard.  I’d think of summer as being how many glasses of iced tea I’d enjoyed on the patio after a long, hard day in the yard or garden.  I’d wish to have read a book, a really good book that had taught me something new and to have stayed outside until that last shred of light was gone on countless summer evenings. And yes, there should have been at least one miserable sunburn.

And for too many years, come Labor Day, I would look back and realize I hadn’t done any of those things.  Or way too few.

See the bee in the middle picture?

So my advice to you?  My advice to me?  Plan now.  Make your list and check it twice.  What will you have to have enjoyed by Labor Day to know, that even though we are all grown up and have jobs and lives and responsibilities, you also had your “summer vacation”?  What are those things for you?  It will be like a Bucket List for Summer.  Let’s call it, hmmm….a Sandbucket List.  I will get mine started….(o, there will be more)…

My Sandbucket Summer List (the beginnings) ~

1. Lemonade on the swing, as many times as possible, in the evenings, on the patio (real lemons, yes, please)
2. A little getting-dirty-in-the-garden everyday – at least try to make it everyday
3. Fresh-brewed iced tea every time Tara comes over (because we are the tea lovers)
4. Sidewalk chalk art days with the grandbebes
5. Reading stories to the grandbebes on the patio swing
6. Roast marshmallows in the chiminea
7. An outdoor movie night
8. Slow walks around the neighborhood after dark
9. Fast walks really early in the morning
10. Fast drives over country roads (with the top down on the Mustang, of course!)
11. Some outdoor worship nights
12. Floating in the pool, listening to 70s music
13. Hanging out with the neighbors a little
14. Gotta wade around in a cold mountain stream
15. Maybe head over to a festival, perhaps Heaven Fest??!?
16. Sing my lungs out next to a rushing mountain river so only me and God can hear
17. Read a novel…hmmm… Altar by my husband?

“Summer breeze makes me feel fine, blowin’ through the jasmine in my mind….”  Song: Summer Breeze by Seals and Croft

So there you have it.  My Sandbucket List for right now.  I will keep adding.  Get your pen and paper out and start making yours.  Tell me what you’ll be up to!

Are you ready for the summer?

Are you ready for the good times?…*

I am now!…Jeanie

*LYRICS:  “Are You Ready for the Summer” from the movie classic, Meatballs (1979) starring Bill Murray.