The Cycle of Summer

 It is officially summer!  Can I get a ‘hallelujah’?!!

We’re trying to keep busy around here… okay, I’m trying to keep busy around here. 

Because who am I kidding?  Given half a chance, my three little sloths would lie on the couch all day, watching Tom & Jerry reruns, eating cereal straight out of the box.  Which I 100% guarantee will be most of August, but right now? 

Well, right now, these are the bright and breezy (or hot and humid… whichever) days of JUNE, and I am motivated.  I am excited.  I am Julie, the friggin’ cruise ship director for the ‘Love Boat’, and I have big plans.  Big plans and CAMPS…  oh heck yes, we have camps.  Strength & conditioning camp, lacrosse camp, Boy Scout camp, twirling camp, dance camp, Algebra camp (um, admittedly not as popular), and summer band. 

Wake up, kids!   We’re not wasting these mornings… we’ve got stuff to DO.  Trips to the library, lunches out, summer reading lists to tackle, playdates, VBS, preparing for the State twirling competition, and basically catching up on everything that didn’t get done during the school year.

I’m not entirely delusional, though.  I know how it is … soon the bright and breezy days of June will give way to the scorching, 100+ degree heat of July.  And our well laid plans of crafts and cooking projects will be replaced with sleeping late, lazy afternoons by the pool, too much computer time, and snow cones for dinner… and that’s fine, too. 

Then August will roll around, and I’ll start putting my ‘teacher hat’ back on, thinking about bulletin boards, professional development, lesson plans, and setting up my classroom.  As a mom, I’ll be thinking about haircuts, and new school clothes, and new shoes, and school supplies, and wishing that I’d taken care of more of that earlier in the summer, instead of reading yet another Jen Lancaster book at the neighborhood pool.  And the sloths? Well, they’ll be watching Tom & Jerry, or whatever happens to be on Cartoon Network, and eating frozen pizza while they wait for me to get back from my 17^th trip up to my classroom.

Even before I went back to teaching, it was pretty much the way things worked around here.  We (once again, 'we' = 'I') start the summer with great intentions, and eventually taper off until I'm frantically labeling composition books and backpacks the night before school starts. 

It’s my summertime cycle…  I know it, I’ve lived it, and I’m destined to repeat it.

And I’m okay with it. 

Amen, y’all.