I am so glad it is summer!  I no longer have a schedule to adhere to, preschool to be late getting the kids to, lunches to pack, or other people to answer to.

Ahhhh….  so relaxing….

Except that the joys of summertime means I have no clear schedule to adhere to, no preschool to entertain my kids, no idea what I will make for lunch everyday, and no other people to help me connect to the outside world.

And now I have bored kids.  Bored because Mommy has no imagination, no vision of how to make those happy summertime commercials develop in our back yard, and no idea what I am going to do with them for the next 10 weeks!

Just this week we have been to the pool twice, played on the waterslide twice, done arts and crafts, and had an entire day of mommy’s favorite game,”If you do not help me clean up this mess if a house, I will make you go live in the barn.”

It is only Thursday morning.

Granted, we have a glorious 45 minute class of gymnastics today, but other than that, I suppose we will be participating in their favorite summertime activities.

Fighting, yelling, screaming, whining, sassing, trashing, damaging, and just plain ole good fun misbehaving.

Who wants to come over?

I do have painting planned, coloring planned, a trip to the Zoo planned, vacation bible school planned, and playdates… lots of play dates.  But that does not fill the 15 hours a day that I have kids up and demanding attention and activity.

Sure, there is the hour of TV they are allowed, the playmates that I bore from my womb to play with, and their father to entertain them in the evenings.  They have a million puzzles – that come with a bajillion pieces – a massive amount of toys between the three of them, and an acre of land to play on.  They have bikes and trikes and scooters and even a 4 wheeler.

And two dogs.

And imaginations.

And yet they are already complaining that they have nothing to do half way through the first week of summer.

What do I do?

I can not throw them outside and tell them to be home before the streetlight comes on because a) we have no streetlights and b) they are just a tad young for that and c) safe neighborhood or not, there are crazies out there and I do want these kids back.

But I also can not entertain them all day long and still get the laundry done, the dishes washed, the house tidy, food cooked, the dogs fed, the diapers changes, a shower, or anything else that comes up on the mommy to do list.

So what do you do with a 4, 3 and 1 year old for 10 weeks of day after day after day of the same thing?  And how do I make sure that this summer is a special summer since it is the last before real school starts next year?  And how do I do it without completely losing my mind?

Or at least without losing the precious little, dangling by a thread, piece that I have left?