Karla Kassebaum

Last Friday night I had plans. Make dinner, hug and kiss hubby and daughter goodbye as they head to a concert, spend the evening writing in quietness. Simple. It wasn’t.

Late in the day, I called tech support to fix my printer thinking it’d be a quick fix. Fifteen minutes passed, then thirty … no dinner made, concert goodbye getting closer, no solution to printer problems.

I handed sticky notes to my family:

“Can you make dinner?”

“Don’t forget earplugs.”

“Almost an hour and STILL no progress!”

“Have fun.”

My family left for the concert. I sat stuck on the phone.

“Will this take very much longer?” I said looking at the clock anxiously bouncing my leg.

Thirty more minutes passed, then sixty. I reminded myself that I could never be a tech support person–I would pull out my hair. A mound of patience is needed for that job! Clearly I don’t have that much patience.

After 2 1/2 hours, my printer printed and I hung up. Starved, I made myself dinner. Once I finally reached my office again, I lit my candles and sat down to write. After a mere ten minutes of my coveted quietness, the phone rang.

“Mom. They don’t take debit cards and that is all Dad has with him.”

“What? You mean the concert is done already?” My mind immediately went to why the artist couldn’t have sang longer.

“I want to buy a T-shirt and CD, but they only take checks or cash.”

“What are you asking me honey?” I said knowing I wouldn’t like the answer.

“Can you bring the checkbook to us? I really, really want her to sign them.”

All I could think of was the 20 minute drive to the concert and the measly 10 minutes I got.

“Mom? Are you there?”

Just breathe slowly … inhale.

“Mom?”

Exhale.

“Yes, I will come down. I’ll leave now.”

Did I just say yes?

As I drove, I argued with myself.

Selfish Me: Nothing went as planned tonight.

Caring Me: Part of being a parent means learning it isn’t about me.

Selfish Me: Yeah, but I needed my writing time. I’m on a deadline!

Caring Me: What about the concerts you went to as a teen. You didn’t get autographs. She has that chance tonight.

Caring Me won. I couldn’t deprive my daughter of an once-in-a-lifetime souvenir. On the ride home, I told her how thrilled I was she got her autograph and picture taken with the artist. I meant it.

The next day, I got my quietness time while my hubby and daughter did grocery shopping errands for me. It’s what being a family is all about–we help each other out!

Recently our family escaped out of town for the weekend to let loose at a water park. What a blast! We had not a care in the world, except to decide which ride to do next. We flipped on tubes, careened down slides, sloshed through tunnels, and trudged up hills carrying large tubes just to go down and do it all again. With how much fun the water park provided, there was something even better that stuck with me — our long conversations we had over the weekend. Priceless! We came back from that weekend with new plans to take more frequent mini-weekend trips as a family.

Typically society’s pace doesn’t afford us large amounts of leisure time to catch up with our family, or hear our children’s passions and interests. Instead, we flip over pages of to-do lists, careen down our daily schedules, slosh through life’s demands, and trudge up hills carrying our over-commitment only to wake up the next day and do it all over again. We don’t plan to spend our time that way, but life crowds in and before we know it, pressures dictate our schedules.

As I was reflecting on our weekend yesterday, I ran across a New York Times articles, Breakfast Can Wait. The Day’s First Stop is Online. It addressed the changing times of text messages, cell phones, social networking and email and how such lures interfere with family time and communication.

I couldn’t get the article out of my mind. Maybe it bothered me so much because our treasured weekend was fresh on mind. Or perhaps it reminded me of how I can be pulled away from my own family to check or write a few emails. Whichever the case, I’ve found myself re-reading the article and reflecting on what lures me away from my top priorities.

There is no doubt — family weekend escapes are invaluable. But more importantly, how do we spend our time during the week? It’s in our daily routine that our priorities are tested. So are we ready to let loose? It may not be at a water park, but let’s decide what can wait and what is first. Then have some great family time!

School’s nearly out! How did this happen? I blinked, walked the dog, or something — but suddenly the school year is less than 2 weeks away from being over in our area.

My daughter is thrilled for school to be over, and while I always look forward to summer too, I also know it requires a bit of creativity on my part to make our summer fun and memorable, while still maintaining my writing, work, and household duties.

So to get into the spirit of summer — here are a few ideas to jump start your creative juices. Plan ways to not just survive this summer, but thrive and have fun doing it!

1.  Theme Days. Discuss with your children what themes you could come up for different days. By getting your children involved with you, they take ownership as well and you know they will be excited when that day comes.

2. Water, Water, Water. What child doesn’t like water? Whether it’s buying a small sprinkler head to put on a hose, or a mini wading pool they can play with the dog in, or a water balloon game — kids and water mean great fun. Get your cameras out and ready!

3. Gardening. Take your children to a nursery and pick out a flower, herb, or vegetable to plant at home. If you have no space to plant it, plant it in a pot and move it to the area you’d like. Kids enjoy getting dirty, plus they will take pride in seeing their plants grow.

4. Crafts. The internet is full of inexpensive craft ideas. Many items require little or no purchasing of supplies. Just type in “Summer crafts” or something of the sort in Google and get ready to jot down your favorite ideas. Then start creating!

5. Learn. For older children, let them choose a topic of interest, and allow them to research everything about that topic online. Then, set aside a time for them to share their knowledge with you. They love to see they know something you may not know, plus it encourages them to grow in their own learning.

6. Exercise. Children are like puppies in that if they are cooped up for too long, they start to go stir crazy. So whether it is an early morning nature walk, or afternoon bike ride to a park, get outdoors and let them burn off some of their excess energy!

Tune in next week for more ideas and summer fun. Happy planning!