It’s only the second real day of summer for us. My kids finished school week before last but we bolted for the beach right after that. Yesterday was our first day of everyone at home without a schedule or any sort of slated responsibility and I’m here to tell you, it felt a little cuckoo. I’m all for freedom and lazy days and making the most of summer but I need to get my wits about me. That means I’ll be posting my third annual Summer Snack List and “Mom, I’m Bored” Lists on the fridge. Stat.

Here’s what I’ve learned about summer so far. Yes, in only one day.

1. I wake up wondering what I can paint white. Last summer I painted scores of picture frames, shelves, a mirror, and kitchen chairs. All white. And then yesterday rolled around and what started as a simple rearrangement and organization of the boys’ room somehow ended up with me in the garage whitewashing a monstrous black bookshelf and dodging wasps.

2. My kids want a popsicle every 15 minutes.

3. I will not survive without a caffeinated beverage each afternoon. Sweet tea and Coke Zero Vanilla are my current go-to cold drinks.

4. If there are pop-tarts in the house, I will eat them. Because it was vacation, I bought the 48-count frosted pop-tarts from Costco. This morning I inexplicably woke up at 4 am and guess what I couldn’t stop thinking about? Foil-wrapped fake pastries. And so I gobbled up frosted strawberry deliciousness in the dark. While driving to the gym.

5. It’s best to just kiss the blow dryer goodbye for the next three months because this is what happened when I fixed my hair nice and pretty for family beach photos in 96% humidity. Forty-five minutes I spent on this hair only to fall prey to the low-flow shower head hairdo.

6. Summer rolls around and I instantly feel inspired to make stuff. Except dinner. I’ve been lighting up Pinterest like the 4th of July these last few days. Here are a few fun things that I’d like to try and create here at home, maybe with the kiddos…or maybe not.

Faux Metal Letters

Watercolor Illustration {I like the idea of abstract watercolor flowers with ink-drawn details}

Watercolor Letters

7. Lower the standards. And then lower them again. Yesterday around dinner time my youngest asked if he could watch Nacho Libre. It’s become a family favorite with it’s spiritual leanings and profound dialogue. I thought of a dozen constructive things I could have him do but they involved supervision and thoughtfulness and patience and those things had already expired by noon. So I said yes and the next thing I knew the movie had pulled the other two kids from the far corners of our tiny house like a tractor beam and we were all laughing and repeating lines:

They think I do not know a buttload of crap about the Gospel, but I do!

Ok. Orphans! Listen to Ignacio. I know it is fun to wrestle. A nice piledrive to the face… or a punch to the face… but you cannot do it. Because, it is in the Bible not to wrestle your neighbour.

See how intentional and awesome my mom skills are with our discussions of the Gospel and the Bible? And it’s only the first day of summer. High five.

8. It really is a good idea to keep your Bible handy. Seriously. After the craziness of the last weeks of school and a week of vacationy off-schedule wonderfulness, I was feeling unanchored and snappy and restless, kind of like how I feel when I don’t eat real food. God’s Word is my food and when I don’t eat from it richly and regularly, it shows.

My husband and I are working through the Book of Ruth this summer in our Sunday School class and with each other at home but I needed something for myself. So I embarked on a summer study of the book of Hebrews. {Apparently it is kind of a hard book. Who knew?} Already, my outlook is different because my thoughts are more focused on Jesus and my heart is more trusting in his provision and bigness.

Summer is the loveliest time to take a vacation from our schedules and school-year stresses. But it’s such a needful time to stay grounded in Truth, especially with all of the 24 / 7 togetherness this introverted mom is clumsily adjusting to.

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So that’s what I’ve got after just one day of summer. I’m off to pull the snack lists from the archives and restore a bit of order to this band of movie-watching, pop-tart eating, not-sleeping-in summer pirates.

If you’re in full-on summer mode, what have you learned so far? What survival tips can you share with the rest of us? Please, I’m begging you — share the knowledge.

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