It’s almost upon us.

In Michigan, the trees have burst into full bloom and color has saturated the landscape. That nearly-forgotten brush of heat strokes our bare shoulders when we step into the sunlight.

Our kids are holding impromptu baseball games in backyards, racing through the twilight on bikes, begging to delay bedtime just ten minutes more.

Students are torrents of emotion, finishing those last lessons and holding tight to the community they’ve built with their teachers over the last nine months, even as their words say they can’t WAIT for school to be over.

As parents, we look forward to time with our babies, big and small. Our stress begins to melt as we look at calendars that aren’t packed with events from dawn til dusk. Some of us look forward to a bit of travel, some of us prepare that pool bag, and some of us look longingly at weeks of camp ahead. Regardless of our family plans, we are all about to transition. It’s summer: we’re supposed to feel excitement and relief! And yet, trepidation hides in the shadows.

Summertime can be driven by the things that make you happy.

I have my feet in both worlds. As a teacher, I’m excited about the time off. In case you haven’t heard, teachers do ten months of work in twelve months. I won’t go into the enormous load that teachers carry and the exorbitant amount of work we do, but if you doubt it, this teacher invites you to do some research.

As a teacher, I will miss my students. I will miss hearing them sing and watching their faces as they get excited about a topic. I will miss sitting back with pride while they take what they learned to new creative heights beyond my own imaginings. I will miss chatting with them and hearing their opinions and feelings. I will miss their smiles and their energy.

As a teacher, I will miss my colleagues. I will miss walking into the building in the early hours with a million bags hanging off my shoulder and holding the door for another teacher coming in early with a million bags hanging off her shoulder. I will miss the air of camaraderie, of hope, of fierce belief in these young people. I will miss a schedule and staff breakfasts, and “specials team” lunches and attagirls from admins and parents and teacher-friends.

As a parent, I’m so glad to have some time with my own kids. I’m grateful to stop hustling them from aftercare into soccer uniforms and to a dinner they don’t like and then to bed. I’m glad to stop having to snap at my lovebugs: get dressed brush your teeth brush your hair do your math why did you dump your cleats on the clean floor where oh WHERE is your piano book for the four-hundredth time we have a place to put it why did you not put it back?!?

As a parent, I’m excited to take them on adventures, create with them, have picnics and play in the park. Have time to read to them. Have time to listen to them.

As a parent, I’m nervous that I’ll be bored. I really don’t want to make three meals a day plus various snacks. I reaaaaallly don’t want to clean up the house that much. I don’t want to spend every day nagging at them. I want some free time. I want some alone time. I want to create. I want to have real conversations with other adults. I don’t want to listen to the “Cupcake and Dino” theme song on repeat.

So what do we do?

Well, my friends, I have made a plan. I’m not sure it will work, but I’ve been thinking about it for weeks. It’s been developed with a lot of kid-input. This plan should allow the kids to have freedom and for me to have freedom and for us all to have good, healthy time together this summer. Research says that kids thrive when expectations are clear and they have a routine. Personal research says that when my family has a “free day,” Katy is not free and gets pulled back and forth and feels frustrated and guilty and starts becoming an ogre by noon. So here’s the Summertime Plan. Feel free to copy, paste, edit, do with it what you need.

Summer Daily Schedule (times are -ish)

?? – 10:00 – wake up, TV, breakfast

10:00 – Get dressed

10:30 – Activity

1:00 – Lunch

2:00 – Siesta

3:00 – Schoolwork and prep tea

3:30 – Tea

4:00 – Chores

4:30 – Play outside

6:00 – Happy Hour

7:00 – Dinner

9:00 – Baths, books, bed

Let me walk you through it. (You stopped at “tea,” didn’t you. ; ) )

??-10:00 – “Katy, really? Screen time first thing in the morning? Tsk tsk”. Yes. If they get up at 7:00, they can watch three hours of cartoons. I don’t care. I have the most energy in the morning, so this is a great time to get a big project done while they chill. And why not let them have lazy mornings? They’ve worked hard all year! Cereal, milk, bowls, and spoons will be set out. They can fix breakfast. And clear breakfast. And wipe down the table.

10:00 – 10:30 – They are slow. They need a half hour to get distracted and get ready. I’ve already gotten ready early because although I love sleep, I am a MUCH better human when I’ve had time to myself before the household wakes up.

10:30 – Activities each day. These were the kids’ ideas. Library, park time, crafts, free-choice, adventure days, etc.

1:00 – Lunch. The dudes are helping me make it. It’s probably gonna be pizza and pb&j for days.

2:00 – Siesta. This is reading/quiet time. All three of us are reading silently or playing quietly in our rooms. For one hour. Full stop.

3:00 – School and prep for tea. Elocution for the future 3rd grader and reading for the future 1st grader. We’ll spend 10 minutes on it.

3:30 – “TEA?!? Omg Katy. Are you aware that you don’t actually live in Downton Abbey?” Hey, my kids have the table manners of barnyard animals despite my constant nagging and eyerolling. I can’t handle four meals a day with them all summer if they don’t shape up. So yes, we are having formal tea with formal China with formal tea treats which we will bake over the weekend. My desperate hope is that with humor and tradition and dainty chocolate cakes, I can get them to sit with a full butt in a chair and eat with utensils and CHEW WITH THEIR GODFORSAKEN MOUTHS CLOSED.

4:00 – Chores. Yep. This is where I get out of cleaning everything everyday while at the same time raising kids who are hardworking and unentitled. Win-Win. We’ll rotate shifts each day. Here are the shifts: 1. Spray and wipe counter, tables, and chairs. 2. Vacuum and mop floors. 3. Wipe down bathroom, pick up shoes.

4:30 – Go outside. This is the time that many of our neighborhood friends return from their days abroad. The kids want to ride bikes with their friends. Why say no?

6:00 – Happy Hour. Kids on bikes + ding dongs speeding their cars down our neighborhood street = parents hanging out to supervise. Here’s the best margarita recipe of all time for your Happy Hour, courtesy of my aunts and mom:

Little Traverse Lake Margarita:

1 can of frozen-concentrate limeade*

1 limeade can of tequila

1 limeade can of water

Blender of ice

Salad plate of salt

Blend everything in the blender, dip the lip your glass in the frozen marg, roll in the salt. Pour frozen margarita into glass. Share with your friends.

*I said frozen concentrated limeade. Not Simply Limeade, not artisanal lime spritz, not fresh-squeezed organic lime juice. Frozen. Concentrated. Limeade.

7:00 – Dinner

9:00 – bath and bed. Sometimes they’ll take a bath, sometimes they won’t. It’ll depend on how gross they are/how many knee-scrapes are raw at the present moment.

I love my kids. I love reading to them, I love taking them to the zoo, to the park, to the library, to the museum. I love facilitating a space for them make art and build things. I love being outside with them, hiking and biking and building fairyhouses. It’s taken me awhile to admit this, but I am not a willing baker or crafter or board game competitor or playmate. I have no problem admitting that I’m domestically disinclined – I really do not love cooking or cleaning. Also, I am an introvert who poses. I need quiet time to muse and create. This schedule builds in lots time for the things I need and the things the kids need. It allows for time for crafting and baking and playing with mom in a scheduled amount that I can tolerate.

They get screen time first thing in the morning, then we turn it off. Their screen time can be my creating time. That way, everyone starts their day in a way that makes them happy.

The kids are old enough to help prepare food, help clean, pick up after themselves. So we’re going to do that.

Lastly, I reserve the right to throw this routine right out the window if we need a day or two of full freedom.

Summertime living can be easy. It can be enjoyable. Summertime can be driven by the things that make you happy. It just takes a little planning.

Cheers!