Many of you already know that I’m a detailed planner. I plan EVERYTHING, or at least attempt to… but that is also my downfall too. Sometimes I can’t just relax and not have a plan and just let things play out, and sometimes that makes for the best day, week, vacation, weekend, etc. I’m working on letting go a little and not getting to stressed when things don’t go according to MY plan.

This school year I’m pretty proud of myself! We did have a pretty detailed plan for what topics we were going to cover and what books we were going to finish and what subjects I wanted to work on. We did a lot of it, but not ALL of the pages or activities were completed. This would usually set me on the mind trail that my kids are going to be failures and there will be HUGE gaps in their education and they might not make it into college, and the trail would wind and weave all over the place!

But this year I did my best to not let that happen. We learned a lot and we did a lot and we explored a lot and we hung out with friends a lot and we traveled around the area a lot and we really enjoyed the year! We did finish all the science projects and we didn’t finish our history book, and we didn’t do all the reading I had planned, but it’s ok! We did a lot and what we did do was important and we enjoyed the process!

So… now what am I going to do??? Plan out my summer! I’m going to do it just like I did the school plans for this year. Have a plan and a list of things we would like to do, but if we opt for something else or just a lazy day at the pool that’s ok! We might get most of it done and we may not!

We all like the pool a lot and since we don’t use the AC much, we REALLY like the pool! So I usually try to make it there at least two if not three mornings a week. It is within walking distance of our home and it’s free since it is part of our HOA. Who knows how long we will continue living in a neighborhood, so I fully intend to take advantage of the pool!

But here are some of the other things we plan on doing this year!

Summer Plans 2014

• Memorial Day – last week of school – Dessert for Dinner Day
• Week 1 – Volunteer (at the HMN booth) and visit the DC Green Festival
• Week 2 – Family vacation for 1 week – staying local in VA
• Week 3 – Sushi night with friends
• Week 4 – Hidden Oaks Nature Center and Nature Playce
• Week 5 – Go pick blueberries with Mom
• Week 6 – Fireworks in Alexandria to celebrate Tonchi’s Birthday
• Week 7 – Visit a local spray ground with friends
• Week 8 – Road trip to KY to visit their cousins and visit the Creation Museum
• Week 9 – Planetarium tour at Rock Creek Park
• Week 10- Vacation Bible School at our church
• Week 11 – Visit to Gravelly Point to watch the planes at National
• Week 12 – $1 Summer Movies – Rio 2
• Week 13 – Visit a local spray ground with friends
• Week 14 – Labor Day Weekend.
• Week 15 – Start of School – homemade ice cream Sundays for lunch

We also plan on doing the summer reading program at our local library. It keeps us going back all summer! The kids also get a coupon book at the end of the summer that has some fun treats like a free game of bowling, free tickets to the local university’s sporting events, free ice cream (although they can’t have it) and free surprises at a few local nature centers, etc! And that kinda stuff is SO exciting for them!

I’m also hosting a CSA which will take up most of the afternoons and evenings each Wednesday(email me if you are interested, there are still open spots), but we will get to see lots of friends come in and out that day! I also hope to get new curtains sewn for our patio doors and make a couch for our patio. I’d like to make one out of old pallet wood, paint it and make a indoor/outdoor cushion for it. I need to finish planning out the school year for 2014/2015 and making their lesson plan book. It seems I had a few other projects planned for the summer, but now I can’t remember what they were! Oh well! It will come back to me I’m sure!

Do you have plans? Any fun activities you are doing that you’d like to share? We are always looking for new places to explore!