25. Savouring These Last Few Weeks of Summer with Simple Childhood Fun

I’ve said it before.  And I’m not naive.  I know that our family’s not likely to have summers like this again.  Summers where the older one is still willing to play on a slip n’ slide for hours with the little one.  Or where they set up forts, and play spy, and try to ambush each other with nerf guns.  It’s all going by so terribly fast.

I went into this week thinking I’d take the kids on adventures.  Do something fantastical every day.  But as this week unfolds, I’m realizing, that the fantastical isn’t what we need right now.

And so, I / we’ve embraced the simple fun.  We’ve had morning bike rides.  And afternoon bike rides.  And water gun fights.  And the aforementioned slip n’ slide fun.  We’ve played Uno.  And coloured.  And built lego.  We’ve baked.  And we’ve even managed to work in a few back to school errands and closet clean-outs, which have actually seemed kinda fun, given that they were sandwiched between so many other fun (but relatively calm) activities.

And why, you might be wondering, have I bothered to write this?  Well, it’s simply to implore you, if you have some time off in what’s left of this glorious summer, with little ones, or loved ones, or anyone, really, to release the desire to do the fantastical, and instead embrace the simple.  No matter where you are in your life’s journey, it’s all going by too fast.

Like everyone else, I watched the Hip concert on Saturday night.  And I was reminded of the summer that stretched from my brain tumour diagnosis to eventual operation.  That summer, I didn’t know what the outcome was going to be for me.  And that summer, and in the summers that have followed, I focused on the fantastical; trying to do the most exciting things with and for my kids.  But today, when the kids looked at me and earnestly told me how much fun they’ve been having just being with me these past few days . . . well, I was reminded of what really matters.  Being there, fully, and completely, for the ones you love.  And to do that, well, you don’t need the fantastical.  You just need your loving self, and the desire to have a little fun.