Recoup and Regroup

The end of the school year, Memorial Day weekend and the finale of my 31-day fitness series (31 Days Closer to Health, Wellness and Bathing Suit Season) all merged into one blurry mass of days. It was crazy and fun, but oh-so-exhausting.

In the middle of all of that, we kicked off the summer with the purchase and delivery of a brand-spanking-new play set, the cost of which is equivalent to roughly four dozen house payments, give or take. But it’s so worth it to see my children choose the outdoors over electronics for the first time in a long time. Plus, I just love having all the neighborhood kids gathered in our yard, giggling, running, sweating. I always wanted to be the kid-house. Now we are, at least until the novelty wears off the new play set.

Other than monitoring the constant flow of children running in and out my back door, letting out my cat and asking for something to eat, I’ve been super busy doing things like sleeping in, sitting by the pool, ignoring housework and not cooking. And clearly, not blogging. Oh, and we’ve gone out for ice cream three times already.

It’s been wonderful. We are only one week into summer break and I already feel like a new woman.

We have some fun things planned for June and July, including, but not limited to…

* A four- week class I will be teaching at my church beginning June 15th called Balance that Works for Women. It’s about being all balanced-like. And, don’t you think it would be great if the creator/teacher of that class (me) had some balance in her life? And don’t you think the creator/teacher (me) should actually prepare something substantial to teach in that class? Yes. The answer is yes. So, I (me) will need to take some time away from sleeping in and blogging to do that. (This will be available for MP3 download, and I will post the links when they are available.)

* We are traveling to see extended family over Father’s Day. My daddy is 86 years old. He has outlived all 7 of his siblings. I’m just really excited to be able to spend another Father’s Day with him. That’s all.

*  We are planning both a camping trip and a summer beach vacation. If I can, I will squeeze a few more short trips into the summer. You know the saying, “too much of a good thing?” That saying does NOT apply to vacations. Or ice cream.

* We will be having little nephews staying here for a week. When I announced this to my son, Elijah, he said, “YESSSSSSS! We will be breaking ALL the rules!” And I’m pretty sure he did a fist pump and a “whoot whoot.” I’m also pretty sure this will NOT be restful week for me. But that’s okay. Elijah will be in Heaven. He’s been pushing for us to adopt a brother for him. Hopefully, this will satisfy that itch. Or it might worsen it.

Plus…

We have fireflies to catch.

Marshmallows to toast.

Lemonade to sell.

Ice cream trucks to chase.

And we only have a little more than eight weeks to get that all in. My children are growing up, and I don’t want to miss a single second of their summer home from school. Not a second.

All that to say, I’m not technically taking a blog break.

For one, in 3 years, 3 months of blogging, I’ve never gone longer than a few days without posting SOMETHING! I’ve already exceeded the official God Speaks Today Blog Break Length. So, we have to call this something else.

For two, when I take an official blog break, I line up guest posts or re-runs or videos or a combination of the three. If you are a blogger, you know that scheduling all of that is almost as much work as just writing the stinkin’ blog post yourself. It’s not really a break at all. I’m not doing that.

For three, I know that just as soon as I announce a blog break, I will have a great idea for a post and I’ll want to write it and post it. I’m a writer…and writers write. We can’t NOT write. It’s who we are. Even when our brains are fried and houses are messy, we want to write. It’s wrong, but we can’t help it.

So, let’s just say, for the duration of the summer, I am following a new blogging schedule.  I will be spending more time away from the computer than I ever have since starting this blog. When I have something to write, and it doesn’t interfere with my summer priorities (namely, Rebekah, Elijah and Elliana) I will write it. I realize that goes against what every blogging manual tells me to do.  But I’m okay with that.

If you need me, you will most likely find me somewhere in the sun playing with my children or sipping a giant glass of ice water in a lounge chair with a good book. I sincerely hope you will be doing the same.  So much so, that you won’t even notice I’m gone.

We’ll return to our regularly scheduled blog sometime in August.

Happy Summer!!!