Dear Summer,
Welcome back, my long-lost love. You have been missed. The summer of 2020 brought challenges and lessons to be learned. But this year I have high hopes and big dreams for our steps back towards normal this season.
The alarms have been disabled and the house is ready for slow summer break mornings. No more racing to pack up computers, checking the lunch menus, and finding the masks. Mama friends, have you noticed masks end up with their friends matching socks and ponytail holders in a land that must exist under our dryers? My soul is ready for a steamy summer morning where the humidity meets you when you open the front door. My coffee tastes just a bit better on the back porch when the kids are asleep and the sun is burning off the morning dew.
There is nothing like the lifeguard stand being set up at the community pool as the first sign of summer’s arrival. While my post covid body may not be ready for a swimsuit, my heart is excited for pool days. Waterlogged lunches, the smell of sunscreen, the sounds of “marco polo”. To those mama friends with younger littles, your day will come when you can find the perfect chair in the corner of the pool, grab a book, and know that your children can swim. It’s a peak in the journey of motherhood. Need a good book recommendation?? Check out this list we shared last summer! Or this one of the best summer reads of 2021.
Late afternoon naps in the cold air conditioning after a day spent in the sun.
The tinge of too much sun when you lather the kids up with sunscreen but forget your own shoulders.
Lemonade stands with homemade signs made by sticky fingers.
But the best part of summer? Those long summer nights. Friends gathered in a driveway, sharing a cold beer and plans for long-awaited vacations. Kids running in the street while parents forget about bedtime routines.
Chasing fireflies in summer grass.
Roasted marshmallows and sticky smores.
The summer nights of 2021 will usher in so many things we once took for granted and missed dearly when they were taken away in the blink of a pandemic. Live music in local venues with friends. Vacationing with family. Movies on a giant outdoor screen and laughs that carry up to the Big Dipper.
Lights of the Midway at the Indiana State Fair.
The vibration of the amplifiers at Deer Creek.
Summer 2021, I am here. I am ready. I am vaccinated. I promise to remember what the summer of 2020 taught us. I promise not to overschedule. I carry with me a newfound appreciation for you and all of your glory.
Love,
A mama who will be ready for school to start in August!
