Dreading, I Mean Prepping For, Summer #041

School is over and summer is here. And COVID-19 lockdowns continue...

What are we going to do with no camps, limited places to go, and very very long days?!?!

Well, first, we are going to have to set our expectations correctly. We can’t come up with A+ crafts everyday. We can’t be cruise directors entertaining our kids all day long. We are going to need some space for ourselves in a season that doesn’t seem to allow for very much space for mom, dad or any of the kids.

A few things we are trying out:

• Taking it day-by-day.
• Connecting with our kids regularly and intentionally, but not feeling compelled to spend every waking hour doing what they want.
• Getting comfortable with more mess than usual.
• Creating a few sacred spaces that are off limits to the kids’ messes. In our house it’s our bedroom and the office. Everything else is fair game.
• Some structure and rhythms, but not too much. Giving them enough freedom to experiment and figure out how to overcome boredom. 
• Preparing our hearts for less progress, less of a sense of accomplishment than usual. This is a pandemic after all, so it is a season where life is not going to progress the way we’d like. That’s ok. We are ok. You are ok. Keep grinding each day and offering your kids and spouse kindness, gentleness, and patience. (And make sure to offer yourself plenty of the same!)
  
  

A great resource we discuss that can help encourage us to guide our kids into more independence / responsibility that we found via Teacher Tom.


The Stat of the Week is about summer songs and ends up containing a little more Ed Sheeran than we expected. (Just remember the club is NOT the best place to find a lover...) We give him some crap on the call, but here are two Ed Sheeran songs we love: one and two.


Thank you for listening! We hope you enjoyed this episode. We are so grateful for everyone who listens to us and would appreciate if you would share the podcast with a friend who might be encouraged by this conversation or who just needs a good laugh at our expense.