Snack Crumbs & Sunscreen

As the days have gotten warmer and I found myself flipping through my paper calendar (yes, I still have one) to May, the rumblings of summer have gotten louder. “Can you believe it’s already May?” “What are the kids doing this summer?” “What camps are they in?”

Soon visions of slathering sunscreen, providing what feels like an endless stream of snacks, and playing the very intense game of childcare Tetris, where you layer each kid’s camp schedule with your own work schedule, OOO calendar, appointments, and activities precariously on top of one another, hoping one piece doesn’t slip out from the middle, ensued.

There have been plenty of years where this foreboding would bring on palpable levels of fear, knowing that all of the carefully placed blocks of my school year routine were about to be upended by the unstructured nature of summer.

But this summer feels different. We have a 5th grader this year, and as I put together the Google slide for her elementary school graduation, filled with pictures of her as a roly-poly 8-month-old with an obscene amount of hair and an over-accessorized toddler, I am fully comprehending how fast it all goes. Just 8 more summers with the gal in those photos who is holding her baby sister for the first time.

Instead of dreading the lack of structure, I’m dreaming of the spontaneity of summer evenings where I get off work and still have more than three hours of daylight for meeting family friends at our favorite pizza place or turning on my favorite playlist and jumping in the pool with the kids. I’m leaning into a freezer stocked with popsicles and bedtimes that push the limit, reading more and doing less, studying the way their freckles appear and their hair lightens in the sun, the way their permanent teeth are coming in, and how their loves and interests are evolving with each passing day.

This year, I’m not bracing for summer—I’m letting it wash over us, sunscreen, snack crumbs, wet ponytails, and all.