Summer Relaxation

I wasn't sure what I was writing about today. There are lots of things floating around in my head. But, then I read Katherine's post today about her exhausting summer schedule and, suddenly, a post started writing itself in my head.

Last Thursday, on our way back to the lake, my husband and I stopped and watched the t-ball game two of our grandchildren were in. I started thinking about all the baseball games I have watched in my life.  Now you see, I wasn't really a sports fan growing up. I had a PE based knowledge of most sports.  But then, my husband and I had two boys. And they seemed to have the sports gene. I swear the oldest came out throwing a ball and yelling, "Go Cubs" (And "Just wait til next year!). So, I learned about baseball and basketball and football from the boys' perspective.  I learned about squeeze plays, clipping and moving screens. I learned to keep my mouth shut when they didn't get a hit, grab a catch or make a basket. I yelled encouragement--but not too much (wouldn't want to embarrass them). In the summer, I became an expert at packing coolers with somewhat healthy things to get us through the day. When both boys were playing baseball, it was not uncommon to have  multiple games in a day.  In fact one year, there was a week when I had 11 games.

Our older son and his family came to the trailer for the weekend. And that too, made me think back to summers with the boys.They have three kids, so there was always something going on. It seemed we just cleaned up from one meal or activity and it was time to start the next one.  Pretty much like I remembered. My summer calendar used to look like a corporate executive's.  We moved from one activity to another like a well-oiled machine (mostly). The boys picked what activities they wanted to join and we made the schedule work. We went from Art in the park to swimming lessons to baseball practice (Of course, it helped that in our small town, they could ride their bikes to practices). We'd squeeze in lunch (probably a few too many cans of spaghettios or raviolios). There were always pick up games of some kind, afternoons of fun swimming, and weekends of camping.

Nowadays, my summers are much more relaxed.  I'm pretty selfish with my time and do what I want, when I want (mostly). Friends with children envy the fact that I can sleep past 6:30. I can sit and stare at the lake. I can read all day if I want....or watch movies....or write......or.... well,  you get the idea. My house stays pretty clean (we're not there much), the lake trailer doesn't take much to clean. I love my summers and life is pretty good, but every once in awhile, I miss those summers of the past