Unlazy Summer Days
Hi friends and Happy Wednesday!
I hope you’re having a good week and a good start to your summer. Like me, you have probably heard of the “lazy days of summer.” I love the saying, but I don’t think most summers are lazy. At least not around here now, and in retrospect, not when I was a kid either.
As kids, how many of you spent your summer with your friends running through the woods, building forts, playing kick the can, swimming, running through sprinklers, and riding bikes. Just reading that last brings back so many memories.
My family and I lived in a community called Wolf Trap Woods. It encompassed the Wolf Trap Center for Performing Arts (I believe now it’s a National Park for the Performing Arts) and as kids, we’d run through the woods over there and it being an outdoor amphitheater, we’d play on the stage, and attend kid craft days.
On the other side of our neighborhood sat the National Wildlife Federation so we’d ride our bikes as far as we could within our neighborhood and then hike through the woods once again to head into the building and buy things out of the cafeteria vending machines. We’d take time to view the nature center while we were there. There was just something special about putting change into a vending machine, pulling the knob, and watching your treat tumble down.
After we were done running for a while, we’d take a popsicle break. You know the kind where you pour juice or, if we were lucky, Kool-Aid into the holder and then put the red-handled sticks in and freeze them. We’d pop them out with a little help from running them under hot water. We’d sit out on the lawn and eat our creation, then fully fueled (there might have been a pjb in there), and we’d take off for the rest of the day.
In the evening we’d watch fireflies and play flashlight tag and wouldn’t head home until the parents at the closest house near us would call out and tell us it was time to go home. I loved those days. Loved the smell of clover on our lawns, the scent of moss and timber of the woods, and the cool creek rippling over our toes.
Summer these days look different, but not so different. We’ve got the joy of spending time with our grandkids between their trips back home and our trips down to visit them in Florida. We spent the days outside, staying out until nightfall most of the time. We swam in pools, played at waterparks, and watch the sunset from the beach.
We attended baseball games, played at playgrounds, and spent lots of time outside just having fun.
Summer is a lot of fun, but I don’t find it lazy. But it’s a different kind of “busy.” It’s the fun kind that lets you move at your own pace, enjoy things in the moment, and when you do get that popsicle slow-down break, it feels great 
I hope you’re enjoying your summer and getting some days to just spend as you’d like. Maybe it’s on a porch swing watching the fireflies, maybe it’s spent gardening, or hopefully at least relaxing on the weekend. However, you’re spending your summer, I pray it’s a good one.
Reader Question:
What was your favorite summer activity to do as a kid? Can’t wait to hear your answers.
Best,
Dani
