I have long wanted our family's midsummer festival to be a celebration of balance. My motto every year has been: "Just enough is more." I have tried to pare back on the excess in my life and make more room for the simple pleasures.
But this year, I took to heart more than I ever have before. Something clicked and I finally "got it". I was so excited to slow down and do less--not just for the weekend camping trip but for the whole summer! Maybe even for my whole life.
So I made a list of things that I was going to give up for Midsummer. I wanted to make more time in my life by doing less stuff. For starters, I was going to be done with homeschool after Midsummer, whether or not we finished our reading list. Also, I was going to forgive my chore and blog post back log. And I decided to take a break from potty training Sven and put him back in diapers for the summer. Plus, midsummer marks the beginning of our media-free summers, which is always nice. But the big thing I planned to give up was middle of the night feedings. No more feeding Leif in the middle of the night. I planned to give myself the gift of more sleep.
So with all that to look forward to, I was eager for Midsummer to come. And now that I'm on the other side of it, I have to say: it's nice. My burden is lighter and I have time to do different and important things.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. This is what our family did to celebrate Midsummer:
1. This midsummer was our first holiday in our new home. That meant we had to find a new camping spot! While we missed the solitude of going to Topaz Mountain, it was fun to try a new spot. We went to Apple Canyon, which was shady and green.
2. We did finish our schoolwork before Midsummer's Eve. It took a few long mornings the week before to blaze through the end of Soren's math workbook and catch up on a few Ambleside Online readings. But pulling away from the house on Friday evening, knowing that homeschool was over for a season, was wonderfully freeing.
3. It was Leif's first camping trip. He was happy riding around on my hip for two days.
4. We taught the kids to identify poison ivy, something that was unnecessary at our desert campsite in Utah. And while looking through the underbrush around our site, we found lots and lots of daddy long-legs. Soren and Carl enjoyed watching them and kept calling Scott over to see when they found more.
5. We went fishing. We didn't catch anything but we all enjoyed sitting by the water. We saw a pair of bald eagles nesting up on the canyon wall.
6. Soren finished his knitting project: a blanket for his stuffed rabbit. It is made of bright orange yarn with reflective threads wound in, which I think looks ridiculous but the older boys think is super cool. They especially enjoyed the way it "glows in the dark".
7. Speaking of dark, Scott built a fire after sundown, and we roasted hot dogs. The stars were beautiful but we were all most excited about the fireflies. I had forgotten just how magical they are. The whole area was full of their little twinkling lights, like stars floating down from the sky to play peek-a-boo in the trees.
8. In the morning, Scott made a heroic effort to make us another fire with all our damp wood. I was grateful for that because I needed fire for my own personal ritual: the burning of my list. I wrote down all the things I was letting go of for a season and then, once the fire was going, I burnt it. The burning gave me permission to release those expectations and I felt amazing. It was like a new beginning for me.
9. The boys and I went on a short hike and for some reason I can't remember now, they were very whiny. I suggested that they whine like hobbits on an adventure, which turned the hike into a wonderful game of Let's Pretend. My kids are pretty cool, you know.
10. When we got home, we were less exhausted and smelly than usual. I guess that's because the campsite had facilities and was only 30 minutes from our home. I kind-of missed the after-camping crash, though.
But this year, I took to heart more than I ever have before. Something clicked and I finally "got it". I was so excited to slow down and do less--not just for the weekend camping trip but for the whole summer! Maybe even for my whole life.
So I made a list of things that I was going to give up for Midsummer. I wanted to make more time in my life by doing less stuff. For starters, I was going to be done with homeschool after Midsummer, whether or not we finished our reading list. Also, I was going to forgive my chore and blog post back log. And I decided to take a break from potty training Sven and put him back in diapers for the summer. Plus, midsummer marks the beginning of our media-free summers, which is always nice. But the big thing I planned to give up was middle of the night feedings. No more feeding Leif in the middle of the night. I planned to give myself the gift of more sleep.
So with all that to look forward to, I was eager for Midsummer to come. And now that I'm on the other side of it, I have to say: it's nice. My burden is lighter and I have time to do different and important things.But I'm getting ahead of myself. This is what our family did to celebrate Midsummer:
1. This midsummer was our first holiday in our new home. That meant we had to find a new camping spot! While we missed the solitude of going to Topaz Mountain, it was fun to try a new spot. We went to Apple Canyon, which was shady and green.
2. We did finish our schoolwork before Midsummer's Eve. It took a few long mornings the week before to blaze through the end of Soren's math workbook and catch up on a few Ambleside Online readings. But pulling away from the house on Friday evening, knowing that homeschool was over for a season, was wonderfully freeing.
4. We taught the kids to identify poison ivy, something that was unnecessary at our desert campsite in Utah. And while looking through the underbrush around our site, we found lots and lots of daddy long-legs. Soren and Carl enjoyed watching them and kept calling Scott over to see when they found more.
5. We went fishing. We didn't catch anything but we all enjoyed sitting by the water. We saw a pair of bald eagles nesting up on the canyon wall.
6. Soren finished his knitting project: a blanket for his stuffed rabbit. It is made of bright orange yarn with reflective threads wound in, which I think looks ridiculous but the older boys think is super cool. They especially enjoyed the way it "glows in the dark".
7. Speaking of dark, Scott built a fire after sundown, and we roasted hot dogs. The stars were beautiful but we were all most excited about the fireflies. I had forgotten just how magical they are. The whole area was full of their little twinkling lights, like stars floating down from the sky to play peek-a-boo in the trees.8. In the morning, Scott made a heroic effort to make us another fire with all our damp wood. I was grateful for that because I needed fire for my own personal ritual: the burning of my list. I wrote down all the things I was letting go of for a season and then, once the fire was going, I burnt it. The burning gave me permission to release those expectations and I felt amazing. It was like a new beginning for me.
9. The boys and I went on a short hike and for some reason I can't remember now, they were very whiny. I suggested that they whine like hobbits on an adventure, which turned the hike into a wonderful game of Let's Pretend. My kids are pretty cool, you know.
10. When we got home, we were less exhausted and smelly than usual. I guess that's because the campsite had facilities and was only 30 minutes from our home. I kind-of missed the after-camping crash, though.
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