summer busyness

i love summer.
surprisingly though, summer wasn't my favorite season growing up.
it was always winter... fresh white snow!
but now, as an adult, summer is where it's at!
maybe b/c i'm old and my body can't handle the extreme cold anymore?
who knows?
but i absolutely adore summertime!

i love that we have no schedules of sorts.
we all get up when we get up... and we mostly get to bed when we get to bed.
no rigidity.
this is good for me because i can tend to be a control freak.
so letting some of these rules go out the window in summer is good for my girls.
i can let loose too.
but somehow what i can't get away from this summer is still having a full calendar.
sure, we don't have school or extra curricular activities...
but we have playdates, cousin dates, beach days, camping trips, birthday parties, camp, lemonade stands, vbs, races, meetings, swimming.
the list goes on... and on... and on.

it's all good stuff, don't get me wrong.
but it's still busy... and, sorta draining.
the older my girls get, the busier, it seems, we are.
i know i didn't always enjoy it back then, but now in hindsight, i long for the days when my girls were babies.
we didn't have all these people to see, places to go.
we just stuck around home.
had naps, played in the yard, went for walks, read books, cuddled and colored.

i need to get back to that simple life.
i need to be able to say no in summer too.
even though everything is fun filled... slowing down still needs to be a priority.
with less than 6 weeks left of summer, i'm gonna try hard to be present with my girls.
i will attempt to leave days on my calendar empty.
no plans... let the day unravel how it does.
actually, i will try very hard to do that... and let what comes, come.