July 16, 2012

Slowing Summer Down

Where the hell are the days going?

You can't really look me in the eye and tell me that it's the middle of July already.  There is no way.  Just yesterday we were ripping open Christmas presents and now we are cleaning up the ashes from all the fourth of July fireworks. I always get the feeling that the Fourth of July is the beginning of the end of the summer.  It's almost as if there are no more holidays to look forward to for a while so we just sit and wait until Labor Day.

They love the beach
We always try and pack as much as possible into our summer, but it always seems to go by too fast.  We try to get to the beach as much as we can, but if there happens to be a rainy day, it ends up ruining the weekend and plans have to get shifted around in order for us to get back. When you live in the Northeast you have a limited window of opportunity to do these sort of things.  Usually from Memorial Day to Labor Day with the possibility that there will be a few really nice spring and fall days.  One year we went to the beach in January but THAT was an aberration.

We try to make a list every year of things we want to do, and every year it seems that we run out of time before we get it all done.  I have sworn for years that each year was going to be THE year that we take the boys camping.  Then of course one weekend gets washed out and before you know in your picking apples in October wondering just where the summer went.

It just seems to fly by.

Hell the whole year just seems to fly by.  I almost feel as if each passing day is exponentially faster than the next.  When you are a kid though, the summer goes on FOREVER.  At least that's how it felt to me.  Once school got out, the lazy summer days seemed to go on and on. Which was fine by me.

But now as a parent there is nothing that we can do to make it all just go in slow motion.  Everything just seems to be shot out of a canon and racing 150 miles per hour. Maybe we are over planning things, maybe we just need to kick back and relax, maybe we are trying too hard to make sure our kids are having fun? Maybe all it takes is a run through the sprinkler or a couple ice pops to make it all slow down? Maybe instead of trying to fit everything in, we should try to fit nothing in.

That lake house is looking more and more appealing everyday.

This is where we would love a lake house


John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

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14 comments:

  1. As a parent of many kids at home - summer feels like it drags on forever. I need to get out more...

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  2. Go golfing, ride a bike, maybe don't come home for a couple of days.

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  3. If you find a strange man in a tent in your backyard at that lake house once you live there, it's definitely not me, but rather my twin brother Chad.

    I agree with this 150mph, out-of-a-canon feeling and wonder how February can feel so long when June/July go by so quick? I blame the Space-Time Continuum. 

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  4. It's weird that February is the shortest month but feels the longest. Go lay in a hammock Brad!

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  5. We are feeling the same here.  One year I took pictures almost daily of everything we did and at the end of the summer I made a scrapbook (or you could do a photo book from snapfish) of everything we did.  So when they complained that we did nothing.... I pulled out the book.

    It is still one of my favorite summers ever.

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  6. I hear you.  I think maybe it has to do with the age of your kids.  I'm busier than I've ever been.  My friends with older kids say it gets better and life starts to slow down a bit.  

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  7. My birthday is August 8th. Maybe it would make you feel better if you treated it as a holiday like we do. Makes the summer longer. But after THAT the summer's over.

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  8. Summer does speed by for sure. At our house we have five birthdays and our anniversary during the summer, so there are many days to celebrate and lots of cake to eat. 

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  9. If you are having a party for yourself, and why wouldn't you, count me in.

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  10. Life seriously just speeds up the older we get. Summer zooms by while winter in MN seems to drag forever. My 13 yr old son even talks about how fast life is going. I want summer to be as long as it was when I was a kid. lol

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  11. That sounds like a great idea. I have been doing that with the whole year, maybe I'll start going seasonal.

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  12. Cake will make us fat which will force us to slow down. Good idea.

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  13. With the whole time flies thing maybe we should make winter a little more exciting.

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  14. Glad you are enjoying it even if you don't check all the boxes! I think your boys will have great vibes when they look back on this later! 

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