I have mixed feelings about summer every year.  Being a stay-at-home mom of two special kiddos, summer means non-stop entertainment, nursing and care-taking.  At school, Kelsey alone has about 10 people taking care of her.  Someone to help her learn, someone different to help her play outside, another person to help her eat her lunch…go to the bathroom, communicate, draw and have fun.  Ben has some extra teachers too. But in the summer, that’s me.  Moi. Their one-and-only.  I’m a schedule girl.  I like routines.  So the freedom of time in the summer makes me a little twitchy.  For that reason, I have written our Summer Manifesto to help us survive and enjoy these oh-so-precious moments.

1. Slow down.  We typically do a lot of rushing.  Rushing to get ready. To leave. To come home. Hurry up! Let’s gooo! This summer, we will try and stop to smell the roses.  We will take our time.  The days are long! This is not an aphorism.  In the summer this is TRUTH.  There is no point in rushing.
2. Clean up.  In regards to not rushing, we will clean up after ourselves. Yes the children are making memories but they’re also giving me a migraine!!  I don’t like messes! There I said it! Disorder makes me feel out-of-control and I don’t like it.  So with all the time we are savoring, we will clean up before we leave the house. I’ll make Ben grab the fifty things he brings into the car when we return home to put away.  I’ll make Kelsey clean up her own mess before making a new one because this is something she CAN do, but it’s usually just easier to do it myself, so I do it…or ignore it for days as my anxiety quickly rises.
3. Learn to deal with messes.  #2 above sounds ideal.  But I know it ain’t going to happen.
4. We will be productive and active in the morning and sloths in the afternoon.  Period.
5. We will have screen time and that’s ok. I’m raising kids in 2019! Let me live my life! And if you’re better than me at limiting it to an hour a day, that’s amazing.  I’m better at stopping a seizure and catheterizing kids.  You do you and I’ll do me.
6. I will take off from work in July and August. Ha!  I know I just started my business, Kim Larrick Concierge, in June but what can I say? I’m the boss and I make the rules.  My regular summer hustle is too much to handle…I can’t have the side-hustle too. Contact me to set up September consultations! ;-))))
7. Let the summer school work go.  In case you hadn’t heard, Kelsey is repeating kindergarten.  After the number of seizures, hospital visits, paralysis and prematurity, we decided to have her repeat kindergarten.  Therefore she is ahead of the game and I won’t worry about facts and sight words and the rest.  Ben will have tutoring and that will be enough to fight the summer slump.  I’m taking it off my plate of guilt!
8. Appreciate the health.  It’s really easy for me to get caught up in how hard our life is.  But helping Kelsey in and out of the pool 18 times in an hour because she’s healthy and strong is much easier than stopping those seizures and being in the hospital.  And I will try to focus on how Ben is healthy and free from constant infections instead of all the hardships he has to tackle on a daily basis to stay healthy.
9. Play.  I don’t like to play.  Uno is fun once a week but other than that, no thanks. But I know the kids want it from me.  And I do feel “productive” when I play with them and I like feeling productive so I will try to play with them once a day.  LOL! I’m a mess.
10. RELAX.  As you can tell, I’m uptight.  Type A.  A Perfectionist.  I’ll try and fight all that and relax with my kids because I can already feel Ben growing up and maturing, and I know I’ll miss these precious summers when I felt crazy and stressed. I may have a full plate, but my heart and hands are full of love and happiness.

I hope everyone enjoys their summer too!

Love,

Kim