summer solstice

Summer is finally here. And I can tell, since our daily routine now includes a plunge in the pool and leisure games after dinner.

Camp days are perfect transitions into summer. School is out and the stress and work load that simply come with the profession of teaching are gone. (Don't get me wrong, I am a pretty relaxed teacher and love my job, but when it comes down to the last view days and the last books needing to be bound and art work sorted and books arranged, days can get hectic.)

Usually I seem to fall into a little hole, right at the beginning of a vacation. I set myself way too much to do with my "spare time" and get depressed and frustrated. I tend to not be able to relax and ease my way into vacation. Well, teaching camp kind of does it for me. I am working only three days a week and when camp is done at the end of the day, I am done too. No lesson plans, no parents to follow up with, no students to think about, no concerns about how to teach one or the other differently, no thinking I can never do all of it.... none of this. Instead I am enjoying the art projects, the sewing, the baking, the parks, the pool, the partner reading, the ball playing and coming home to more fun with my children. Because I still have energy left to go to the pool to take a plunge and make a creative summer dinner (typically salads;) and play around of chutes and ladder.

Tomorrow is my day off and I am not setting myself much to do, just laundry and taking my little boy to the pool to get more used to the water. Here is to easing my way into our summer vacation! Hurray!