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The Hopeful Summer Mom

I’m sharing the joy of hope today – hope of a clean and chaos-free summer home, easy discipline, and the vision (read: fantasy) of many moments you get to sit poolside with a fruity umbrella drink, oversized sunglasses shielding your eyes from the perpetual summer sun in a cloudless sky, and a constant yet gentle cooling breeze to keep your glisten to a minimum.  

The end of May signals so many things – the end of school for many, commencement for some, the excitement of summer, and the beginning of the wave of patriotic celebrations that unfold from this weekend through the beginning of September.  All of this energy overshadows the “hotter than Hades” that turns on like a light switch in South Louisiana.

This excitement has also made me forget that I will have “bored children” at home!  So yesterday, in an effort (that always feels futile) to direct the summer train rather than chase one that’s running away, I created a “Chores Schedule.”  In doing so I was reminded of ALL the ones my mother created over the years of rearing seven children. (Yes, she is both a saint and somehow still sane.)  We joked that if we had a nickel for every one she had drafted (and that failed), we could’ve ended world hunger AND the national debt.

My naïve hopefulness stands proud and resolute, declaring, “That won’t be me!”  Check back in with me in a week.

My approach was to spread out a few chores that could be shared among them each day Monday through Thursday, to be completed by mid-morning, so the rest of the day, Fridays and the weekend is theirs.  My optimism runneth over. 

I wonder if building in a rewards system might give me a better chance at success.  (If they were younger, I know it would and highly encourage it!).  But my 12 to 17 year olds will likely only be motivated if I disconnect the wifi and confiscate electronic devices (i.e. phones that don’t need wifi) during this time. 

So here I am sharing my hope of a chaos-free home “chores schedule,” and then I’m following it up with a link I found for drink recipes (of the non-kid party variety) that I’d like to work my way through!   

 Summer Chores Schedule - teens
Summer Blue Drink

 

I’d love to hear of your summer chore training successes and ideas for the teenage boy!  Send them my way at bekind@xeniabox.com.

As we head into the next three days and I personally graduate my oldest son who I will also soon turn over to the US Naval Academy, I hold dearly in my heart the solemnness of this weekend,  Memorial Day weekend, as we respectfully acknowledge those who gave the last full measure of sacrifice for freedom, or as my sister-in-law (and USAF) reminded me in her recent post, “those who didn’t come home.” 

As we put a bow on May, #CreateJoy for a mom today – the single mom heading into summer with “bored kids,” the military mom who is in unrelenting prayer for her child serving country, for the new mom who is experiencing for the first time what it means to live with her heart existing outside of her body, for the mom marrying off her son to a beautiful June bride.  To all the moms and the women who love like a mother, CHEERS!

 

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