Being Intentional About Summer

One thing that can’t be said for summer is that it isn’t busy. It is a different busy than the school year, but it is still busy.

Last week, I wrote a vastly popular (insert unladylike snort) post entitled 20 Inexpensive Summer Date Ideas.  I mentioned in that post that reconnecting in relationships is the foundation of my summer plans. Time with God, my husband, friends, extended family and…

My kids.

I know, I know-I am with them practically 24-7. But summer is the time to hang as a family. Our focus isn’t school work or extra-curricular activities. It is making memories as a family. Memories in the everyday and the once in a life time.

If this is my goal, it requires intentional behavior. It requires scheduling my priority-family time. If I am not intentional, it won’t happen. The summer will fly by in a blur and we’ll be back to school before I can blink.

We have a busy ministry month in June with a retreat (I am cooking for it, and Mr. Hippie is hosting and teaching) a girls’ discipleship week (I am training how to teach kids’ Bible clubs), and 2 vacation Bible schools, but after that, we are free as birds.

We are doing nothing exotic as we got pretty exotic this past winter. We are just living…

What family time am I scheduling into this summer?

–Literary lunches. We started this tradition last summer and continued it throughout the school year. Every day I make my kids lunch and then I read to them for 30 minutes. We have worked our way through the first 6 Harry Potter books, plus 3/4 of Team of Rivals. We will finish HP and Team of Rivals this summer, and then I am on the lookout for another series.

last summer…Meres has surely grown

–Tuesday evening Blues. From mid-June through mid-August, one of our local small towns hosts a Blue’s concert in a park by a river every week. We join up with the BFF and her family for a picnic, and enjoy the music, conversation and outside.

–Bike rides. I have new wheels, and while I am in training for a tri, my intention is to get all of us involved in this whole biking gig. I will put Meres in a seat, have LC pedal behind, and the boys will be solo. We have several great trails around that go through parks. I see picnics and pedaling in our summer. As soon as we get bikes up to snuff.

–National and State Parks. We within relatively short drives of several of the Great Lakes. Lining the lakes are State and National Parks. I am planning to get to a State park at least 4-5 times this summer. Plus I want to make it up to Sleeping Bear Dunes for a climb to the lake.

–Camper. We own a camper that is parked about an hour from our house. There is not much to do where it is parked, but it is definitely worth going-if only for the campfires. I am thinking of hiring out my living room painting. If I do, the kids and I will spend some time up at the camper. Wading in the creek, swimming in the gross lake, playing at the park, and burning lots of wood in the fire pit.

–Same old. We’ll do the things we always do…we’ll go to the bff’s mom’s pool. We’ll pick blueberries. We eat outside on our picnic table. We enjoy time with both sets of grandparents.

You don’t have to plan a vacation or even a stay-cation to have an intentionally great summer. You just need to plan moments. What are you planning for the summer?