Hello, Summer.
Today begins Detox. More on that in a bit.
I put on my fun mom pants this afternoon when school got out and let Eva have two icees. (Yes, around here, that IS fun mom.) Then she "baked" with random ingredients for over an hour. These pictures do not even remotely portray the mess in the kitchen. Wet flour on the floor, eggs dripping down the counter, sugar crunching under our feet, oil on the rug, flour in the oil jar...
Breathe in and out in and out in and out and do not say anything about the mess in and out in and out in and out and do not suggest that she use more oil and less flour and in and out and in and out and do not say a word about the sugar now tracked through the kitchen and into the play room in and out and in and out.
I did not need Lamaze to bring her into this world, but today I needed it to keep her in this world!
Then we cleaned up for double the time we played. She would perhaps say that I was no longer wearing my fun mom pants by this point. But I was still breathing and I still did not say one single word about the mess. I scrubbed the floor on my hands and knees and she washed dishes and counters and body parts. Singing as she worked. I tried to sing, but I instead gave every single spare ounce of energy to not minding the mess and all the extra cleaning. It was successful on all fronts. Fun time in the kitchen together, happy girlie, reasonably happy mama, and a shiny clean floor to boot.
These next few days, she's going to be in detox. Getting used to a life in which her minutes 7 am to 3 pm are not all planned out for her. As happy as we are for summer, this is not going to be an easy adjustment. She will ask for tv and computer, she will try to say she's bored, and she will push our buttons. But she will come out of it in a week happy and newly adjusted to making her own play and creating her own fun.
I could stand on a very very high soapbox about the lost art of summer. How children need - truly deeply need ...
free play
open spaces of time and earth
open calendars
home
zero entertainment
sticks and dirt
family
solitude
messes ...
in order to develop into the thinking, creative, interested people we want them to be. No one can reach their full potential by being chauferred all over the state and having their every minute scheduled with entertainment disguised as activities during summer vacation. But that is a soapbox for another day. Mostly.
So my goal for this summer is that every single day the kids either
1. read something
2. get wet
3. build something
4. or have a face to face conversation with someone from our community.
Hopefully more than one. Not in an effort to accomplish something. Just to find free play in them. We have a long, fun list on the wall of things to do this summer, but more than those things, these 4 are what really matter. (Thanks, Melody, for the awesome article!)
Today, Eva did all four. It was a big mess and I'm one tired mama. But I do think its sustainable through this summer. I have my hopes so high that it is! Breathe in and out and in and out and in and out....