Our Purposely Scheduled Summer

I've promised myself I'd do this for 10 years now.  I've promised that we will cut back on summer and just enjoy it.  But I've never had the self-control to do it.
I vow that this is the year.







Every summer I overschedule my kids. I don't know if it's just Arizona where it's so hot, but there are lots of activities to do here. We do swimming lessons and swim team and dive team. We do musical theatre and musicals and music lessons. We do craft classes and boredom busters. And we barely squeak in time to do things together as our family.
This summer will be a benchmark in its own right--Heidi's married and gone. Tucker will be gone in (gulp) 30 days. Ben will be taking summer school and football, then he'll be gone to football camp and the Boy Scout National Jamboree for a total of four weeks. So it's going to be me and the four littles for most of the summer.
I've been purposely selective and selfish with the activities we scheduled: swimming lessons for the little boys (a necessity in AZ--at three years old, Hyrum should be swimming by the middle of the summer) and musical theatre for Lily. That's it.
Then, last Monday night for Family Home Evening, we had our Denton Summer Scheduling meeting. We brainstormed all the things we wanted to do this summer and wrote them on a big paper. My job this last week has been penciling everything on that list--big or small--onto my calendar. And it was a job. And it all fit!  I love that calendar.  It's not the prettiest thing ever, but it has eight lines every day, and I dedicate one line to each child so I can see at a glance who has what on what day.  It looks just as full or fuller than a normal summer would.  But it's full of trips to local pools, cooking lessons at home, visits to local museums and a few camp-outs and family reunions.  I'm determined to make this the summer that we learn how great it is to do things together.
I'm happier already.

I'm linking up to Anti-Procrastination Tuesday at New Nostalgia.  I may have the most procrastinated project of them all. And I accidentally linked under the wrong spot last night, so I corrected it today.  Sorry about the confusion. I'm still and unpaid, unsponsored blogging amateur.  Forgive me.