Summer Hiatus

Now I get it.  When I was a kid I just could not understand why all my favorite television shows had season finales right before school ended and did not start up new episodes until after the first week of school.  Except for camp and running amok in the neighborhood, I knew I could be there, why couldn't they?

I have been trying to write these past few weeks and have been failing miserably.  I am not suffering from writer's block.  In fact, I have had enough ideas to fill a small notebook that I keep by the bed.  My problem is that, as summer winds down, I find myself lounging at the shore, watching the girls do tricks at the pool, going to the park to help Lily master her bike riding, visiting the library to excite the girls to read as a summer pastime (really an all the time pastime but summer reading can be especially juicy).  This is the time to slow down, to be with my thoughts, to prep for a return to work, when being focused on my projects and timelines, deadlines, and bottom lines is discouraged by everyone.

I realized this week that by next, nearly all of our friends and acquaintances will be gone, abandoning town for one last hurrah at the shore, in the Caribbean, on the Cape, in the Hamptons and I hope that we, too will be doing the same.  It looks as though the hubby just might have an extra day or two to spend with the people and me, and I hope we are able to do it away from home. 

It is pointless to try to do anything else but relax, something I am quite inadequately trained to do.  Today, though I have the girls myself and have since Wednesday, I decided to use my free time between playdates, pool visits, and neighborhood family wind downs (basically kids running ragged in the backyards and on sidewalks, throwing and kicking balls, riding scooters and bikes, sidewalk chalk drawing, and holding on to the last moments before sleep, while the parents chat and catch up), to rearrange all the cupboards in the kitchen.  This after packing and labeling all clothing to be donated or consigned for men, women, and children, as well as toys and shoes, and some electrical equipment during yesterday's break.  That started after a visit to Target where the school shopping commenced and I began preparing for Lily's needs for the school year.  Rather than just start buying, I wanted to see what we were working with which meant...working.  (She needs quite a few things actually.)

Tonight, after the girls were long asleep and the dishwasher hummed its way through the heated dry cycle, I worked on long-overdue thank you notes, folded laundry, and started this post.  I'm not really ready for something new, it appears.  This is the catch up on old episodes, finding out if there is anything I have missed, preparing for the school year, creating new worlds to obsess over on Pinterest time.  Sooner than I think we will settle back into the school year and its energy, soccer practice and games, ballet, and new activities.  We will have new friends, new teachers, new class parents, and new shows.  For now we are sticky with chlorine, salty from the ocean, relaxed in our attitudes and time tables, overdosed on ice cream, popsicles, and lightening bugs (fireflies).  We wait for falling stars, linger as the night falls, go to sleep with ceiling fans and the light chirping of the crickets, make paper airplanes, draw Rapunzels with sidewalk chalk, and do hopscotch until Mommy gets out or tired.

We are having our break together and though I want to write something, share it, connect, we are just four points right now and those lines might be the only ones I can completely commit to connecting.  The time will come, and I know it is soon, that I can get back to the other creative work in my life but at present it's projects, splitting blades of grass, drawing Rapunzels in the driveway, swimming, giggling, staying up late.  I am on hiatus with my people and working hard at chillin' the f*** out.


(c)  Copyright 2012.  Repatriated Mama: Back to the Suburban Grind.