10 Reasons I LOVE Summer

This is a direct reaction to this post over at Mormon Mommy Blogs. 

1.  I love not being tied down to a schedule.  While I don't care to indulge and sleep in every day, and my kids certainly make sure I never get to anyway, I love that I don't have to get up and get ready.  I don't have to  make sure the kids are up and dressed with backpacks packed and lunches made and breakfast eaten.  

2.  I love being able to make my own schedule.  I am a structured person; I thrive on structure and routines.  I think it makes it easier to manage a household of children as well.  I love being the one calling the shots in our daily routine.

3.  I love sunshine.  Long, cold winter months and fickle springs make me anxious and annoyed.  I enjoy heat and sunshine.  I need both of them to keep my sanity.  That's perhaps why I dealt with less depression in Arizona, as I had both of them for long periods of time.  I could live a happy long life if I knew I'd never have to face another cold winter.

4.  I love swimming outside.  I am not an indoor swimming person.  I loathe the smell of chlorine that is trapped inside and the lack of sunshine pouring down while swimming.  I love being able to get out of the pool and go to my towel and dry in the breeze.

5.  I love summer learning.  I like being able to set up learning programs for my kids to keep them learning in the summertime.  Tracking their reading for a prize at the end of summer, practicing handwriting and math, teaching them music and art and science.  Family field trips to the zoo, the museum, the farm, the park.

6.  I love family bike rides.  Another reason to hate winter, being trapped inside all the time.

7.  I love just hanging out with the kids.  Doing what they want to do.  Playing outside and teaching them kickball or four square or learning how to catch and throw the baseball.

8.  I love the temptation of a vacation.  Of being able to jump in the car and drive four hours north on a random Tuesday if we want to.  Or to decide last-minute that we need to see the grandparents, both of which who live a 12 hour drive away.  That's something we have to plan in advance during the school year but in the summer, we can just drive and we don't have to deal with bad weather to drive either.

9.  I love Popsicles, snow cones, ice cream cones, ice cream bars, and walking to the nearest place that sells these things on warm summer evenings.  I miss not being able to do this during school because it's too dark too early, too cold, and they have school in the morning.

10.  I love rodeos.  My kids love rodeos.  I love how in Utah in the summer there is one rodeo after another it seems about every weekend.  We don't make it to all of them, only a couple usually, but just being able to go makes summer fun.  This goes for all other fun summer events as well.  Where we live, all the little cities and towns around have their own festivals and "town days" and there are lots of free, fun activities that go along with these.  I love all these events.

I just love summer.  I think I love it mostly because I'm just a warm weather person.  I'll take 100 degree heat over snow and ice any day.  I do enjoy the end of summer and the start of a new school year, as I talk about in this post here.  But summer, to me, is the feeling of sweet freedom.