I’ve been thinking about summer a lot. I’ve been plotting and planning ways to keep my kids busy, or if I’m really honest with myself, from killing each other! I’ve combed the internet and our community for classes, camps, ideas, and suggestions. I’ve tried to carefully balance the activities for each month and find things that don’t drain our checking account. Part of me dreads summer and its lack of structure. The thought of summer has even caused some anxiety for me. Since this will be my first summer with two new children, I’m not sure what to expect.
But today I had an alarming thought. I was listening to the radio and heard Kris Allen’s new song entitled Live Like We’re Dying. The chorus struck a nerve with me.
Yeah, we gotta startLooking at the hands of the time we've been givenIf this is all we got and we gotta start thinkingIf every second counts on a clock that's tickingGotta live like we're dying
We only got 86,400 seconds in a day toTurn it all around or to throw it all awayWe gotta tell them that we love themWhile we got the chance to sayGotta live like we're dying
Now I was kind of excited, and not just because I voted for him last year on American Idol! I was excited because I realized I was going about summer all wrong. My anticipation has been on all the negative possibilities for the summer. I wasn’t looking at the days at home with my kids as an opportunity. In those 86,400 seconds each day, the opportunities are endless. I have the chance to bond, heal, love, play, nurture, teach, and laugh. As a mom, I say often that the time goes by SO fast! If I am really taking that to heart, I need to soak up the summer and the extra moments with my children and saturate myself in my kids. Not to the point of wanting to strangle them, but enough to create lasting memories and moments that will make me smile!