A few weeks ago, I noticed a summer bucket list on Pinterest. It looked like fun, and so one grey and rainy June day, the tinies and I entertained ourselves by creating a Summer Fun rainbow.
We filled the rainbow with all of the things we wanted to do this summer, everything that would make the summer fun. Everything from riding in a boat to swimming, root beer floats to camping in the backyard, we put it all on there.
Then we decided that every time we completed something on our list, we would colour that row in. By the end of summer, we’ll have had a rainbow of fun.
Cheesy, true, but thankfully, when tinies are just three and five and 15 months, they are not yet too cool for school. I can get away with being corny.
One of my favourite days was July 1, Canada Day. We crammed in a bit too much but it was sloppy and hot and fantastic. We started off the day with a pancake breakfast at the Optimist Club, a yearly tradition. Then we went to the parade – there are few things to delight like a small town parade. That night, we left Evelynn with our babysitter, and took the older two to Granny and Papa’s for a marshmallow roast and s’more-making rituals. Then we went to the fireworks. Joe was very tired, probably too young, but Anne danced to the music past 11 o’clock. The delights of the show made up for the traffic snarl on the way home. And then they both slept until 9:30 the next morning, glory and hallelujah.
I’m getting into the spirit of summer, too.
In the evenings, I’m sitting out in the backyard, with a good book and an iced tea, reading until it gets dark at 10 o’clock. I re-read “Leaving Church” by Barbara Brown Taylor and she writes, among many brilliant things (seriously, read that book), that she was restored to the practice of Sabbath. And something in me reached up and said YES. So I’ve taken my Sundays this summer and, on her advice, pretty much ignored any work or job that is prefaced with the statements “should” or “ought to” or “must.”
It worked.
Brian wakes up with the dawn and heads to his garden to work in the cool of the day, comes home bearing lettuce and we eat it for supper that night.
I feel lazy and hot and happy, and that’s just about right.
My washrooms will survive without a scrubbing for a while longer, and who needs clean clothes?
We’ve got a date with the spray park and a picnic to pack, you know.
Question: What’s your favourite thing to do during summer days?
