Do you remember the days of summer as a kid and wishing they would never end? I think we all just wanted to run with friends, play outside, and have nothing to do. Well, all it took was for my kids to reach the age of four and be in school for me to learn what summer was again. 

After we grow up, put on our big boy/girl pants, and get a real job, we no longer have a summer. Of course, there is a summer, but there is no longer a time when we stop our lives, play for a few months, and take it easy. Nope. We work through summer as if it is any other time of year, waking up at the same time and heading to work. 

Since I now have kids that have been attending school all year, the end of May brings another definition of summer. This one is not the same fun summer I remember. It had not occurred to me who would watch the kids and what it would be like to work with them at the office. Not to mention, I didn’t know it was possible to destroy an entire house in one day, but hey, if you have three little people in one house and 8-10 hours to kill, I guess anything is possible. 

The crazy thing is, I’m not normally a structured person, but I guess all the years of bottles at this time, carpool at that time, pick up on this day, and medicine for this amount have changed me. During summer, it seems like all that is out the window and anything goes as long as I can get to work. Breakfast is no longer a specific time, but more a relative time of when you get up. Bedtimes change day to day. And, let’s not forget the excessive TV watching.

Hopefully, I’m not the only person who has lost their mind during the summer. Anyway, August is here, and I’m counting down the days until it’s back to school for them and back to normal for me. ■