keep . Summer Jar Season

Summer has arrived in the Pond! Today marks the last day of school for my kiddos, and we are all very ready for more relaxed schedules. The official equinox won’t come for another month, but amid the craziness of end-of-year celebrations and project lists, we’ve managed to pull out the Summer Jar, our annual tradition for capturing summer’s ordinary (and not-so-ordinary) wonders. It’s our fifth year to use this little ritual to help us keep summer, and along the way, we’ve tweaked the idea, allowing it to grow and change as we have. Now, we can’t imagine summer without it!

“Every year, it seems like the summer gets shorter!”

I can’t count how many times I’ve heard that from friends and fellow moms. For sure, every year I think I say it myself, and one or more of my kids do too! I was reading a magazine article by the health writer and journalist, Florence Williams, not long ago, and this statement really resonated… “You’re alive during the noisiest period of human history.”

Boy, is that true. And, the level of noise doesn’t just come from the plethora of news and media and entertainment channels with which we are inundated, with our ever-growing penchant to be early-adopters of every mode of technology or app or device available, or with our ability to see and hear the opinions and priorities (and often rantings) of literally anyone in the world. No, that noise also comes in our continually rising level of activity. Of scheduled and over-scheduled lives continually pulling us toward the next step. We live in a time of noisy schedules. Noisy routines. Noisy and distracted time. No wonder the idea of a summer “vacation” feels crowded out! No wonder we feel that the opportunity for carefree days is so elusive.

Five years ago, it really hit me how fleeting this season of our lives really is – when we actually have a summer vacation together. It’s a blessing I realized that I didn’t want to take for granted. I didn’t want to be guilty of squandering the unique opportunity that owning my own business affords me to take advantage of our time together. And, I didn’t want the time to get lost in “somedays” and “should haves.”

As school ends, our routines naturally slow down. We have fewer commitments as a family, and we seem to share a collective sigh of relief to have our time much less scheduled. But, with each passing year as the children grow, so do their interests and friendships and the desire to “do” – all good things, but I suppose I could see that noise of activity encroaching on the carefree nature of summer. We put a lot of hopes and dreams into the idea of free summer days. I wanted to be sure we didn’t let them slip away without living them. And living them together.

So, together, we came up with the idea of a Summer Jar. It’s simple, really. Everyone writes down things they want to do or see or experience during our summer. And we commit ourselves to choose items from the jar and actually do them. But, the jar is a thing, a tangible place where we house our hopes for the season. And a practical place where we are motivated to follow through, so we can be intentional about how we spend our time and our good intentions are actually realized.

That first year, we tried to be spontaneous. We took turns choosing from the jar with the goal of doing that thing on that day. Admittedly, it was hard to manage. Sometimes practicality requires a little more advanced planning, and we found it was easy to drop that thing back into the jar and never get back to it. So, during the last few years, we decided on a happy balance of surprise and planning. On Sundays, we each choose an item from the jar, and together, we plan how we will fit those things into the week. That gives us something to look forward to and also lets me figure out the project work-arounds needed for Small Pond projects. And, it lets us build in down time, short activities versus long ones, and some variety so that everyone stays satisfied.

This year, as we’ve been planning for summer again, I’ve noticed that each of my children have mentioned how they are looking forward to the Summer Jar. How they really like the times when we’re doing special things or going places as a family. And, how they look forward to doing the small things together, too. That tells me these quirky plans and methods are worth it! The extra organization, setting aside the time from work or other activities – it’s worth it! In giving intention to how we keep summer in all its fun and freedom, we’re giving intention to each other. We’re keeping family and home, too.

SUMMER JAR SNEAK PEAK

This year’s Summer Jar has all the quirkiness you might expect. Some things we keep every year. Some are the everyday things we don’t want to forget as we each do our own things. Some things I have insisted we keep because I’m not ready to go all in on middle and high school. Some things are new and those “one day” items we hear ourselves mention. As we move through the summer, I hope to share about some of these experiences…