A Simple Summer

The herb garden is quite lush right now.  

What makes up a successful day?  Recently, this question has often been on my mind.  You see, this summer, unlike any other that I can recall, has been rather simple.  There have been more quiet days at home than usual.  We have not ran around very much.  We have spent whole afternoons reading, building with Legos, watching old movies, or playing board games.  Not a lot of heavy housework has been done either.  And recently, the heatwave has kept us inside more than I would care to be.  All this downtime has been wonderfully restoring to me personally.  We did spend a crazy week at VBS last week, but other than that we have stayed mostly quiet.

I have fought the temptation to feel as if we are being unproductive.  Quite  the opposite is true.  I think we are being wise.  A busy school year is fast approaching and we will need to be rested and ready.  We will need to be good and ready!

So, the other day, I asked myself what makes a successful summer day?  I came up with a baseline for myself.  If these things happen, then I can look back and say that I have been productive enough.

My morning routine...

• Make and have breakfast with my husband
• Enjoy my coffee 
• Read my Bible and pray
• Clean up breakfast
• Feed the wild birds, change their bird bath water
• Water the outside plants
• Take a short walk
• Shower
• Swish and swipe the bathroom (Flylady style)
• Make our bed
• Start a load of clothes
• Empty the dishwasher
• Plan dinner 
• Computer time 

The afternoon is pretty loose.  I make sure laundry is getting done, the dishes and kitchen are being kept up, and dinner is ready when my darling comes home from his hard work day.  We do spend some time cleaning in the afternoons, but we do it mostly when there are people coming over.  Otherwise, we have free afternoons to work on things we want to work on or go swimming if invited.  

These simple days of summer will be over in less than a month.  I am hanging on to each one, feeling satisfied that we are making the most of them, right here at home.