Though technically, summer will be arriving later this week, in our house (as, perhaps, in yours), we consider it to be summer when the kids are out of school and we start our new not-so-scheduled schedule. That means we’ve been in summer mode for almost three weeks now.

And this year, it’s definitely been an easing into summer. No sudden jumps or leaps. Just a slow, quiet transitioning into the lazy, hazy days of summer. I kind of like it that way.

We were supposed to go on vacation during the first week of June but ended up canceling (due to illness). It was disappointing to cancel, but quite honestly, an attempt to hike around and be busy-busy-busy for a week (which is how we do vacation) while I was coughing constantly and unable to sleep lying down…would have been a disaster. It made much more sense to stay home, take it easy, and simply enjoy a lack of homework, lack of major obligations, and lack of craziness.

So what have we been doing? A little bit of a lot of different things. Things like…

• Reading. There’s been a lot of reading going on in this house, to help fill all our extra hours.
• Enjoying farm-fresh fruit. Strawberries, mostly. We cannot get enough of berries and melons in this house.
• Getting ready for VBS. VBS starts next week and the closer we get, the busier things are. C.(13) and I will be volunteering, while L.(6) will enjoy being in a “big kid crew” this year. We’re all looking forward to it!
• Enjoying our deck. We moved into this house in October and for the first time, we had a deck! But we had no deck furniture. We ordered some in May, and a couple weeks ago, it arrived. Quiet mornings sipping coffee, dinner outside, soaking up sunshine — all things we now love to do.
• Riding bikes. Chad and the boys have been riding more than me, but the four of us have also enjoyed some riding time together at a local park.
• Popsicles, bubbles, water gun fights, Trac Ball, chasing fireflies. All the little things a fun summer is made of.
• Ice cream. Seriously: what is summer without ice cream?
• Sleeping in. Oh wait, that is absolutely NOT true. While I, personally, would love to sleep in — just until 8:30 or so — my dear sons are a bit like roosters. They both awaken a little after 6:00 every single morning. And while they know better than to bug talk to me before 7:00, I’m wondering if I will ever have kids who sleep in. I’m thinking no.

Oh, and as you can see, I spent some time this week changing my blog design. Yes, again. I’m sure there is some cardinal rule of blogging along the lines of: “Don’t change your blog design very often or you will chase away readers.” But honestly, if I haven’t chased you away by my complete and utter lack of blogging, then you are a dear and faithful reader and I don’t think I’ll chase you away because I decided to play around with a new theme.

So thanks for sticking around. I hope your summer is off to a great start and that you’re getting plenty of sunshine (and ice cream) and enjoying the change of routine.