Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Summer Rhythm

We want our summer to have a good balance of productivity and rest and fun. In order to help us accomplish that we have come up with a preliminary plan. Being our first week of summer break, we are in the testing period. Some things we considered when coming up with our plan what the fact that David is great with spontaneity and I'm great with a plan. We needed to find a way for both of us to enjoy summer and not be in a stressed out mood to begin with. With that in mind our summer rhythm gives a general outline of a main idea for each day of the week. Those ideas are not set in stone so to allow spontaneity, but is enough of a plan for me not to feel antsy and restless. I know what days we intend to stay close to home and what days we will be sure to get out and about. This should also help Abigail keep her expectations realistic. Abby is very much like her Mama, we don't handle busted expectations very well. I'm just learning how to have more realistic expectations and be flexible when things don't go as planned.


This is what it looks like, now I'll break it down. Sunday, we go to church which then runs pretty much straight into lunch and nap/quiet time. This takes us until late in the afternoon and pretty much straight into dinner time. Sunday typically is entire family quiet time, though maybe not as much in the summer. We, of course, are open to get togethers with friends, but that doesn't seem all that common for us on Sundays.

Mondays, I tend to want to stay at home during the school week as we pack our weekends pretty full of outings. In the summer; however, we can avoid retail and busy places on the weekends and do our outings on weekdays when more people are at work than not. With that in mind, Mondays will be our day to run errands. Yesterday, for example, we scheduled trips to the post office, grocery store, party store, the library and the bulk store. What we ended up going to the tire shop twice to have our flat fixed plus the other errands. It really took way more day than we expected, but since nothing else what scheduled, it worked out. 

watching the men working at the tire shop


Tuesdays...today we were supposed to go celebrate Canada Day and our vanniversary, but with the rain and small children we've opted to try to see fireworks tonight (if there are any) and have an extra pajama van night. We'll amp it up with glow sticks and flags, so that should be festive. Our project for today was tidying/sorting/organizing the living room bookshelves and tv cabinet. It feels good to get those kind of things finished.

Wednesdays, we already have a regular Prayer Furnace spot and we thought we'd add parks and picnics to the day to round it out.

Thursdays are the days we'll plan larger adventures, things that are in our summer idea notebook like museums, mini road trips, festivals etc.

Friday will be set aside for dating our children and each other. It's been quite some time since I've taken Abby on a one on one day and I haven't dated my boys yet, so this will be nice time to have. I'm also pretty excited about dating my David. Hannah took a bottle at four months old and hasn't since, so I haven't had a childless date yet, but maybe we will this summer.

Saturday we already have a tradition of pajama van. This is where we put the littles in their pjs after bath time and we put on a movie for them in the van and go for a nice long drive. David and I get steeped tea and timbits from Tim Hortons and we have a mini date in the front of the van. Its a win for everyone. Actually, it's become a favourite time for me in the week.

You'll notice there is a lot of space in and around each day. This is intentional. We want time for spontaneity and time for appointments, friends or whatever else comes up. I'm not a fan of being interrupted, so this gives lots of time to get to "the plan" and still have room for interruption. It's a rhythm, not a schedule. It moves, it's flexible and I think it will work for us. 

By the way, we will be incorporating Mom's night out, Dad's night out, creative time etc. So far, Monday nights look like a go for sewing! This is exciting to me and though I got a late start last night, I got a decent portion of a project worked on. Woot woot!

1 comment:

Donna Dawe said...

While we've never really made much of a formal plan (surprising for me I know), summer really depends on weather for us. Now that Deryk is "off" in the summer (picking up work wherever he can to help make ends meet), we try to do those beach & adventure days whenever its nice enough and a bonus if Daddy can come too. Thankfully our children are wide open to clear our slate for friends & family for however long that might be. It might be because we homeschool too that this "freedom" come so naturally but I do have at least one child that thrives on routine. Rainy day s are indoor cleaning & play days, which means if we hit a hot streak the house could get messy (then again we're often out).

Love your van dates and we used to do a lot of that when the drive-in was open. Great date night for all! There is one near by here but it takes far too long to get dark. Sometimes movies don't start until nearly midnight. I can't stay awake for that anymore.

One of my projects is to work on our camper. It needs some real fixing this year as winter didm't treat it well at all. So as warm days and money allows, that one of my plans though the project list is ever growing!

We're very serious about having you guys up sometime, Lots of room. I mean if Kelly can come up with her whole crew...

Looking forward to the photos of your adventures & projects this summer.