Recharging

So good to be home and with my boys. I wasn't just gone for the 10 days in Milwaukee but mentally gone for much longer - the last few months (year!) have been packed with deadlines, shows etc. and I'm exhausted. Longing for a rest and time with my family.

For so many years - in my zeal to expose my kids to all of the wonderful activities out there - I over-scheduled them. Finally, a few summers ago I realized that what my kids really needed was down time, less structure, less organized activities and more spontaneity, more time to be kids, to let their imaginations flourish. So last summer we had music lessons and swim lessons when we felt like it – some weeks we squeezed activities in each day other weeks went by without any. We spontaneously signed up for 1 week of tennis and 1 week of soccer. But mostly our time was open. We relished the days-on-end when the car stayed in the driveway and we ate when we were hungry, went to bed when we were tired. Screen time is very little in our house - we don’t watch TV and whenever my kids ask to play on the Wii or computer games, I tell them to play outside first. They usually forget all about coming in to 'watch other people live their lives' as my oldest likes to say. There are so many things to do. And my kids play outside – A LOT. They build forts and grottoes and castles out of paper, or sticks or logs. They perform skits complete with tickets and programs, they ride bikes, fall off logs at the park, read tons of books, draw and write stories. There is so much to do and so little time before they will launch into summer jobs and college and adulthood.

Production of 'Morgan The Explorer and Brandon The Barbarian' last night in our garden

Summer vacation starts in 1 week and we are going to hang onto the spontaneity – have even more down time, less structure. And not just the kids. I need to recharge my batteries too. I don't seem to have as much energy as I did a decade or two ago. I'm going to slow down, relax, play with the kids, explore with our cameras, get more sleep, stop working weekends, just say no to outside pressure for awhile. My Daddy used to tell me that the most precious commodity in life is time - so spend it well. I'm going to spend it with me and my family...


...so pardon me if I don't answer you in a timely manner - it isn't you. I'm just recharging.