Relaxing Summers – Do Parents Have Those?

There’s a fallacy out there that summer is a time for relaxing.  Maybe for some people it is.  I’m imagining teachers might have relaxing summers.  Or maybe Santa Claus gets relaxing summers.  This year I do not.

I’m wondering if my life is always this busy and hectic in the summer?  Now that both my girls are at school you’d think the end of all things school related would lead to a quieter time.  My ballet class is also done for the summer.  I mean there’s a summer dance I could take but it’s on a not-so-hot night for us.  And the girls finished up their dance classes with an end-of-year performance in June.  There was a really busy week leading up to that masterpiece, but that’s long behind us now too.

Part of this seasonal busy-ness is that my husband has been out of the house almost every night for two and a half months.  You might think I’m exaggerating, but I’m not.  He’s overseeing a lovely renovation at my mother-in-laws.  The good news there is it’s almost done!  Bad news is we’ve had a lot of dinners without him.  Or he’s run back out the door as soon as dinner is over (sometimes he sticks around for bedtimes, depends on who needs him to be where!)

It has also left me with some weekends of just me and the girls.  Overall I love those, but sometimes you need to fill the time with an activity outside the home.  We’ve done quite a few events around town so far this summer.  I love Kingston for all the free events that go on.  This weekend is Taste of Kingston but I have to miss it since I’m dropping the girls with my parents for a few days so I can go out Saturday night (while Patrick is working, not on the renos this time!)

I think a lot of my stressed-out busy feeling is because I’m not getting my one night out a week anymore.  While I was dancing I had different adult interactions and I was learning and getting exercise and not having dinner and bedtime fights with my kids every night.  It’s amazingly refreshing having that one thing a week to really look forward to and enjoy.  I tried staying out after work on Mondays but I don’t seem to have many friends available (ever.)  Those 2 hours between 6 and 8 pm on a Monday night are hard to fill on your own – or at least for me!

And then there’s the blogging.  I try to jam that into my one free day a week (no work and no kids!) and on weekends or evenings.  I’ve actually had to cut back on the number of posts I’m doing because I’m spending too much time on it.  I’m reading books for “work” instead of pleasure.  You can find my book reviews here.  So I really want to go back to enjoying it, and that means spending less time on it all.  Even the social media part.

We’re going to a cottage in two weeks.  I’m hopeful I can schedule at least one post for that week and not worry about spending much time online.  This will likely be the only real summer relaxation I’ll get.  I want to read books I don’t have to read, watch the kids swim and play pretty much unplugged and have some family over to visit, eat and drink with.  Maybe the burn ban will be lifted here (we’re in a drought right now) by then.  Likely not but we can hope.  We’ve gone to a cottage every summer for the last 3 – the kids love it and it goes a long way toward my relaxing summers!

Speaking of drought, this summer I’m having a little gardener anxiety.  It hasn’t really rained here in at least a month.  I try to water my vegetables every second day.  This plan is working so far but my rain barrels are getting low and my front yard flowers are very sad I don’t water them as often as the veggies.  That being said I’m now harvesting tomatoes, peas, garlic, peppers and beets.  Cucumbers are starting to fruit as well.  But the little tree
(it’s still new in my mind – planted the year Rose was born) in the front yard is losing it’s leaves already.  I’ve been watering it sporadically – tonight it got the water from cooking my peas and beets – and it does help.  I feel badly when I grow things that I can’t provide for like I want to.  Maybe one of these days it’ll rain at my house and not just outside my workplace.

Alright that’s enough griping.  Maybe I’ll get a relaxing summer next month when my husband has more time and my working life/blog life/family life struggle has a little more balance.  Do you get to enjoy relaxing summers?  How do you find time to relax during the busy summer season?  Do you take vacation time from work?  Or maybe you don’t work at all – do you get tired of your kids being around all the time?  I’m pretty sure I would.  Share your tips for other ways for me to relax with only a few hours to myself a week, would ya?  Thanks readers!

~Jess