A Little Reflection Before Summer Vacation

It’s the final countdown!  (Insert Euro theme music!  Sorry, I had to!)

The kids have 8 school days left, which is great because they have been checked out for about the last 2 weeks!  As summer vacation approaches I wanted to sit down and intentionally look at our summer vacation.

Each year summer vacation starts the same way, the kids have softball and baseball games every night of the last week of school.  Girls play on Monday and Wednesday, while the boys play on Tuesday and Thursday.  This continues until the end of June, taking up a lot of time.  However, our kids love to play summer ball so this is a priority on our list.

After softball and baseball season is over, it is time to finish preparing for our County Fair.  The kids spend their entire summer vacation working with their animals that they will be showing as well as any projects they’ve decided to try.

I’ve learned that if I’m not careful, the summer is gone before it starts!  That’s why I’m so intentional about planning our summer.  I also know that many of you will have children home this morning and as intentional parents, I want all of us to embrace that short, sweet time we have with our kids!

My very short summer list of goals are:

1. To spend quality time with my family and friends.  I love summer and we always have a lot of things we want to do.  However, I don’t want to feel rushed every day so the emphasis is on quality, whether it’s in the activities we choose or downtime at home.  I want the kids to swim with their friends, have barbecues, and enjoy time with family and friends.
2. To take a vacation.  We didn’t get to go anywhere last year and it’s a top priority of mine this year.  We are actually going to be scheduling our vacation tomorrow to be sure that it will happen.
3. To rest.  After reading what we typically do in the summer that may seem laughable but I’m completely serious.  I want to encourage our family to read, take walks in the pasture, help take care of our garden, and play.

This school year went by so fast.  My kids are growing up.  Too fast in my opinion.  This is the last summer before Maddie will begin high school sports practice.  In order to fully embrace summer, I will be cutting back on my blogging.  Most likely…a lot.

You will find me here on Wednesdays for Women With Intention Wednesdays each week.  I will be posting at least one other day during the week (probably on Fridays) but I haven’t set the other day as of now.  I don’t want to promise more than I realistically can (and want to) deliver.

However, being the summer of rest and intentional family time, I am planning some fun challenges for you all this summer.  By following along on Instagram and Facebook you just might see a post that says “Board Game Challenge: Play a board game with your family and hop back on and let me know what it was!”  I also might do a quick no spend challenge and would love to have you take part, too!

I will post a brief description here on the blog and then run the challenge on Facebook and Instagram.  I’m planning on being more active on social media throughout the summer because it’s easier on the go and is fast (and fun)!

What are your goals for this summer?  Do you think these challenges would be fun?  What kind of challenges would you like to participate in?