Chill out, Mom, he reminded me

Summer starts today, and I didn't even realize it was upon us until Max reminded me last night. June has been the typical whirlwind of events and end-of-school-year-to-dos, with an extra dash of Max thrills given his recent graduation and various performances. Besides walking the runway in a fashion show and singing in a music recital, last week, his school had a fundraiser and he and some other students opened for Leslie Odom, Jr. (yeah, that guy from Hamilton). Yes: I. KNOW.

Last night, I was doing my evening circus juggling act; that particular performance consisted of getting Ben to bed, cleaning up the kitchen, de-cluttering the living room, packing for camp, figuring out with Dave who's handling various events this week, watering the plants outside, organizing Max's surgery in August (more on that another time) and munching on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dinner in between.

I sometimes wonder what my kids think of me, this whirling dervish of a woman who's always puttering around the house and who likely makes parenthood look like the most un-fun gig in the world. I try not to let my stress seep out, but inevitably it does in deep sighs. "You OK?" Max likes to ask, which always does make me OK.

Max walked over as I was shoving bedding inside Sabrina's gigantic duffel bag. He said something, I wasn't sure what. So I grabbed my phone and let him type in an email. Before he'd even finished the word, I knew what he was saying:

"Tomorrow is summer," he wanted me to know. Max smiled at me, expectantly, thinking that I would get giddy. But my mind was on packing and getting chores done. "Yes! It's summer!" I said, mustering up enthusiasm.

Max saw right through me.

"Summer is GOOD!" he reminded me.

And that made me laugh. Because of course summer is good, and maybe instead of waiting for June insanity to be over to kick back I should be doing more of that right now. I'm always trying to finish up stuff before I let myself relax, but the thing is, there is no finishing.

So I took a break and Max and I sat on the porch in the dusk, my favorite time of day, and we talked about ice-cream and going to the pool and camp and all things summer. Then we headed back in so he could go to sleep and after he went down, I proceeded to do eleventy billion things.

But yes: Today is summer. And so, happy summer to you, friends. I hope you get your chill on soon, even for just a bit.

Image source: Flickr/barnyz