I’m looking forward to summer.
We’ve arrived at post-spring break, the part of the school year when I wake up each day thinking, ‘Oh man. Are we still doing this?’ We get out of bed a bit later every morning. I have pretty much stopped blow drying my hair. Every spring my coworkers must think I subscribe to a post-Lent back-to-basics philosophy. ‘I don’t know why but traditionally she doesn’t do hair or makeup in April and May.’ Except… it’s only March.
This is also the time of year I start buying Uncrustables by the case for school lunches because there is zero time to pull ham, cheese and mayo out of the fridge, and then all that nonsense with the knife and the bread and the sandwich bag. Who has time? I remember when I did September things like use that jigsaw puzzle sandwich cutter and cut up apples. Post-spring break is all about the fruit cup. I start saying things to my daughters like, Why don’t you guys choose what you want for your lunch sides today?, in an upbeat voice that pretends that I’m totally giving them a special treat. Choice! What fun! Mommy’s going to go put contacts in! I think they’re wise to this charade, but we all keep playing our parts.
Summer means daylight stretching into a bedtime gloaming hour and bike rides after dinner. Somehow, in summer, 24 hours in a day feels like enough. But in late March, it’s still dark when we wake and dark after dinner. Sight words, fractions, 20 minutes of reading… ooooh, hmmm, the Dinosaurs book. Here’s the truth, my darling 8-year-old, I still don’t know how to pronounce Euoplocephalus. And when you spell s-k-e-l-a-t-o-n out loud and look at me expectantly, my brain literally overloads trying to make a word out of those verbal letters. My 4th grader has learned 3 new notes on the recorder, including F#. Music is a gift, of course. And I can still play Hot Cross Buns on the recorder. These are life skills. And yet extended daylight really makes all of this more manageable. Life feels trickier when sunset is earlier.
And so, I’m looking forward to summer. I’m looking forward to reading for fun instead of AR tests, and after-dinner lounging and twilight at 9pm and laughter from the backyard when it’s technically bedtime. I’m holding on, and it’s definitely on its way. I can tell by how quickly the March snow melts off the daffodils. Roll on, summer. Roll on.
