Preparing For Summer

Next week is the last week of school, which means big changes are about to rock my little corner of the world. While my two youngest are home with me full time, summer means that my husband will be home during the day and our oldest daughter will be with us (for part of the summer, at least). Needless to say that adding two full time people to the household tends to disrupt "MY" schedule! I've learned to relax a bit and just go with it, but some pre-planning and discussion helps make my adjustment easier.

In planning out our summer routine (I'm not very good at "winging" it), we decided to try and shift our meals. Our youngest son is 18 months and he still naps smack dab in the middle of the day. I suggested we plan to eat our larger meal ("dinner") around 1-2 PM when he wakes up from his nap. Someone has to be home with him anyway and we aren't heating up the house during the hottest part of the day (4-5 PM). For "dinner" we'll have more lunch type items of sandwiches and salads. I'm hoping this will be a good adjustment for the hot weather!

Aside from eating, we have to keep ourselves busy! In the past few weeks I've been collecting craft ideas and supplies for the kids. I think I have every single activity calendar for every possible location in our city from pottery places to libraries. We also took advantage of a summer program at our YMCA, which has water slides and kiddie pools to get us out of the house. There are a lot of movies I'd like to see this summer so I have been hoarding every free or reduced movie ticket I can get my hands on.

We will do a small amount of traveling this summer. A friend of mine moved to San Diego last summer and this summer is going on vacation for 10 days and they offered us their house to stay in while they are gone! We are thrilled to have the opportunity to have somewhere to stay where we can cook for ourselves, too! I've been clipping more "convenience" food coupons in planning for the trip. I'd like to take a little break myself from cooking and I want to make preparing meals quick and easy. I just keep telling myself it's only for a week!

I'm really looking forward to this summer and all the family time we will have even if it does mean some minor adjustments in "MY" routine!