So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. – 1 Thessalonians 5:6
Summer vacation is one of my favorite times of year. I love letting my kids stay up a little later than usual to watch a movie, then having them sleep longer in the morning. I appreciate the freedom from school uniform maintenance and sack lunch monotony. And while I am a person who thrives on routine, I enjoy the temporary lack of schedule summer offers.
The problem with this break from school-year life, however, is that I also seem to take a break from self-control. For example, last week I stayed in bed every morning until my kids got up. Since I am normally the first one up, this change meant I got very little writing done, and spent even less time reading my Bible. And while I managed to turn that temporary habit around and get up on time today, I stayed up so late last night that everything looks a little blurry this morning.
When school gets out, my brain seems to go somewhere with it. Last Tuesday I completely forgot to go to the Bible study meeting I have gone to every week for the past five years. How does someone forget a five-year habit?
Consistency with my kids seems to slip a little in the warmer months, too. Last night my youngest daughter didn’t eat dinner. I told her she did not need to eat if she wasn’t hungry, but that there would be no more food available until breakfast. My husband reminded me of this comment as we all sat at Dairy Queen and I wiped the chocolate dripping from my little one’s chin.
But perhaps that is part of the mystique of summer. Of course, we don’t want it to go too far, but maybe relaxing the standards a bit is part of what makes the long break special. More hours of daylight allow for more fun when we loosen up the reins and enjoy this season with our families.
I know myself well enough to know that if I make sleeping in a summer-time habit, then I will curse myself in the fall. That is an area where I can’t budge. However, I am pretty sure no one ever died from eating ice cream for dinner, so we will take another voyage to Dairy Queen next week. We will also have our share of late nights and blurry mornings, and enjoy every one of them. And not only will we have out-of-the-ordinary fun this summer, but we will happily look back on these memories when we need some mental refreshment to get through the school year ahead.
What changes does your family allow over the summer? If your kids are on a year-round school schedule, what does your summer look like?
2 comments:
Dianne, Well, it's just me and Noah here during the days off so often we look like two lazy cats, doing our own thing sometimes, and sometimes hanging on to each other or chasing a ball of yarn together. Noah and I are both early risers so summer only adds half an hour to our sleep in. We love to swim and do that a lot, too. Wednesday is our first official day of no school. Can't wait!
Oh, I love the porch time. We talk and rock. I call it front porch therapy.
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