Summer Stressin'

Summer is over half over?  You gotta be kidding me! 

I do this every year.  Right around the halfway point every summer I start to panic.   I feel like we didn’t accomplish anything and that there is no time left to get anything else done.

My middle son had a great idea.  This spring he made a list of all the things he wanted to do this summer.  He was so excited to show me but I almost passed out when I first saw it.  There were over 35 items on the list! 

My anxiety lessened as I realized that some were goals like “Buy some new flip flops” and “Go for a walk around Gig Harbor.”  There was even a cryptic “Get some skin peels.”  It took a little investigating to find out that he meant get a sunburn that would later cause his skin to peel.  Oh, dear.  I had a long talk with him about the dangers of overexposure to the sun but from the look on his face, I don’t think he got it.  So I’ve been chasing him around with a bottle of sunscreen all summer.

His entire list was do-able and reasonable (except for the previously mentioned “skin peels.”)  Unlike his notoriously funny Christmas and birthday gift lists.  Those usually contain some gems like “A clone of myself to go to school for me.”  But, like the summer list, they also give practical gift ideas such as “Some pencils.”  He certainly covers the spectrum.

He's been steadily checking off his list all summer and I'm happy to say that most of his goals have been accomplished now.

So I felt compelled to make a summer list, too.  It started out with “Write a best-selling novel so I never have to work again and the kids’ college will be paid for.”  After I few entries like this, I decided I better toss it out and start over with some more realistic goals.

So my summer panic has subsided a bit.  We have a more reasonable set of goals for this last month of summer.  Well, last month of summer for the kids.  I get an extra couple of weeks before fall quarter at college starts up.  And now I’ve got the list of how I’m going to spend it.