When your husband is traveling for most of the month (only one week left to go!) and your boys are in several activities, sometimes it’s best to admit you’re overwhelmed.
The boys have swim practice M-F for two hours in the early morning. I’m thankful because we avoid the heat–though I still had to take Nico to the urgent care on Tuesday for dehydration–but it does take sleeping in over summer vacation out of the equation. To top it off, the boys both had choir, piano, and clarinet in the evenings. Last week I cancelled all music activities until September. Yesterday, we skipped swim.
Nothing terrible happened when I admitted I was struggling.
No one was upset with me for cancelling activities. I don’t mean the boys. I mean the instructors.
Sometimes it really is the little things, like cancelling an activity or finding a breakfast both boys love.�I don’t know how I came up with this chocolate shake/smoothie, but it’s the one thing the boys will both eat. This is key when you have early morning swim practice. I mix two cups of dark chocolate almond milk (Silk brand), two frozen bananas, 1-2 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder, and two-three tablespoons of natural unsweetened peanut butter. They’ve been having it daily for a while now, which is such a blessing. Usually I can get them to eat something, oatmeal, for example, for a couple of days before they’d rather starve than eat breakfast.
Little things. Important. Off to swim practice.
Have a great weekend!
Why is breakfast so hard? We have a similar smoothie, but I use chocolate protein powder in it for a little extra staying power.
We took the summer off any camps or lessons. I decided with Ava being (almost) 9, this was probably the last summer that it’s not mandatory for her to be in practice by mid-August (although we are missing out on the one Volleyball camp we wanted to do this year as we will be on vacation. Oh well). I wanted a year that we could be slightly more flexible with our days. I still work a M-F job, but at least we aren’t rushing somewhere each night. We’ve been able to go to concerts in the park, swim (for FUN! who knew?!), picnic, ride bikes & go for walks, stretch out & read on the back deck, and this weekend is a dance in our neighborhood park followed by movie in the park at dusk. Love being able to do these things without being overwhelmed. It’s amazing that I thought the world would end by declining to be involved in the usual go go go activities. Who knew it wouldn’t?
As for breakfast, I thank God every day that my child likes breakfast! WHEW!
There’s nothing wrong with admitting that everything they had going on was too much. Summers are partly for relaxing and playing – and if that means giving up a few things to make sure they (and you) enjoy things more fully, then it’s the right thing for all of you!
I pray that I have kids someday who are more like me when I was a kid, and will eat the same thing every day without fail. I’m only still on this Earth thanks to Cheerios and chocolate milk. :-)
As the primary child-shuttler, I need summer to recharge. We keep obligations like camp or classes to a minimum cause quite frankly I need a break from managing their schedules. I also find that duribg tge year I can only handle two activities per child before mommy has to take a knee
Take care of yourself. They will internalize your calm better than the music lessons:).
Funny, I drink almost the exact same smoothie on days when I don’t have time for breakfast. I add a half cup of oatmeal to it, and convince myself that I am getting both heart-healthy cholesterol lowering benefits and some fiber (which I suppose are actually the same thing). Love that your boys like it!