and poof! it's june

happy june!

a. my first question: how is it june? we have one more week of school left around here, which let me tell you is already making my tear ducts work overtime. i reaaaaaaaaally love the girls' teachers and the kids in their classes, and my mama heart isn't quite ready for them to move along to first and third grade. yesterday i was talking to ruby's kinder teacher and i started tearing up and getting emotional talking about our plans for the summer. i know, this is nothing earth-shattering, as #tearsareforwinners and i'm a champion. he was very gracious and understanding (and admitted to getting teary at that morning's fifth grade assembly) but i was a little embarrassed.

b. summer means my kids are home with me all day. (they will be at camps two weeks of the summer during which i'll be working, but otherwise they're here with me) this can be awesome because i love my kids + they are hilarious, funny and imaginative, and we are lucky that matt gets four weeks of vacation, so we have some fun adventures planned. but this also means that if i want to work in my studio i have to be super creative (um, in addition to the super creative i should already be in there) in terms of carving out time to work. this just gets amplified if i have freelance deadlines to meet. i am working hard to avoid studio time at all hours (which is what i usually resort to), as i know it isn't optimal to be operating on minimal sleep to be a good partner, parent, friend -- much less for my own health. so got to figure that out. 

so my friends, i'm curious! i know many of you do not work from home like i do, or you don't have kids or your kids aren't the ages of mine (6 and 8), but i would love to hear from you in the comments. i'll post some ideas this week of things that have been successful in our house during the summer, but would love to hear from you! (yes, i will be stealing and borrowing from you. no need to reinvent the wheel when i have such smart people in my life) 

when it comes down to it i want to be a fun, endlessly creative, energetic, supermom but let's be honest: my get-through-the-day goals as a mom are to minimize power struggles and fights between my children & keep them alive while doing fun things that don't involve 43 steps, pinterest or going to the store. (this includes them moving their bodies, helping out around the house, doing something educational, using their imaginations, and not turning the house into a pit of despair.)

talk to me: 

• how do you foster creativity and non-screen time in the summer? 
• what rituals or rhythms do you have in place to clean, learn, play, etc in the summer? 
• what are some of the fun things you have planned as a family? 
• if you have kids, what kind of bridge activities or workbooks will you be using to keep your kids learning or at least retaining over the summer? i usually get workbooks for them, but they are pretty boring 
• what's your favorite summer recipe? 
• fun book recommendations for me? 
• any good book ideas for my girls?
• miscellaneous brilliance?

(by the way, for some reason comments aren't working if you try to post from your phone. they appear to and then they disappear when you try to post. but if you read this from facebook just comment there, or lug out that laptop and go old school.)