The Summer List

I am an organizer.  A planner.  To a fault.

I fully buy in to the notion that something well planned goes off much better than something that is not.  I make lists, I check boxes, I share my lists with those around me.  I am a nut.  For the most part this works very well for me though I know that it can also be a life sucking disease of control if I let it, so I work hard to make a balance.  Or sometimes, the balance is made for me.  Case in point – the summer list.

Back in May as we were in full swing of resuming normal life around here I embarked on making a summer list.  I had big plans – think Pinterest meets Steven Covey.  The list was broken into categories of Daily To-do’s, Outings, Projects, Fun, etc.  It was very ambitious and took into account the input of all the kids.  We would go to museums, movies, take hikes and go horseback riding.  We would serve at the animal shelter, pick up trash & clean out our garage.  The kids wanted to exercise each morning with bike rides or jogging.  We were going to schedule a backyard campout, star gazing and a scavenger hunt.  These categories were going to be printed out on color coded paper, cut up and put into cute decorated jars.  Each week we would randomly pull out one thing from each jar and put them on our new magnetic calendar on the fridge and we would all hug and sing “Kumbaya” and thank God for this most awesome family that we had….

Can I tell you that we did ZERO things on that list.

In fact, as I sat at my desk for quiet time today I actually found the list stuck behind 3 books, a baseball and some coupons.  We never printed on colored paper, never decorated the jars, never sang.  We got as far as a misplaced list and a magnetic calendar.

And we had the best summer ever.

We spent June with a great group of people watching a great group of boys win some nail biting baseball games.  Kids went to camp, family got together and we swam our hearts out.

July was spent traveling.  A fabulous weekend away with family – a 2 week road trip out west seeing sights we will never forget and making memories that will last a lifetime.

August was more travel, more swimming, a family reunion, 3 birthdays, 2 lost teeth and getting everyone back to school.

The summer is done and the list now obsolete.  The funny thing is that the list had some GREAT things on it!  Next summer I would love to actually do some of them!  But this summer was so awesome in the fact that we just let it unfold.  We hardly missed the bowling and the movie nights and the arcades because of the fun that sprang up around us.

My list making days are far from over, but I am thankful for the fact that this summer anyway my list got wadded up and tossed for me and I could just sit back and enjoy this life…

“Kumbaya, my Lord….Kumbaya…”