Free To Be...You And Me

We have hit that point in the summer where summer activities have run their course. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE summer and summer fun! But, every August, after the fair, my mind starts to crave structure and schedules. I claim to not be a follower of schedules but yet, I need them. And, between my friends in town, my friends out of town and all of my online friends, we seem to all have the same feeling...GET THE KIDS BACK TO SCHOOL!!!!!!! What has it been about this summer that is driving us all to drink, er, I mean nuts????

In my ever changing moods, I really do look forward, each May, to fun in the sun and the easy days of summer. Except, the older the cheerleader gets, the busier our summers have gotten. When she was young, our summer days consisted of us getting all of our work done around Maggie's Farm and then packing up and heading to the local pool. She would seek out her friends, I would seek out mine, I had a book by my side, my water, my sunscreen, my pals. We would keep one eye on the pool and one eye on each other. We could each watch a kid on the high dive, take a sip of water, stop mid sentence to make sure kid on high dive was okay after said dive, and continue our conversations. Good times. Then, at 5pm, on the dot, we packed up, came home, showered, the cheerleader would watch the Disney or Nick show of the moment and then we all had dinner when J got home. Tranquility ruled.

Now, they no more get out of school for summer and their activities begin. Like, on Day 2. Cheer camp/practices/cheer camp/practices/etc. Then, the revolving hotel door at Hotel California with friends all coming and going, Alice's Restaurant open at all hours, and me, waiting up on curfew, most nights. Add in the goat, fair, and all around teen attitude and I say....LET SCHOOL BEGIN!!!

I have a friend, from my message board, L, who proclaimed she may stick needles in her eyes until school starts for them. I know the feeling, L, I truly do. Then, my mind starts to drift and it starts to think of a plan that has been in the works for years. It consists of so many of my online friends and me building our own community. It would be a communal sort of place for us, only. Leaving kids and husbands at home. It would be escape time, for just us moms. We each have planned the kind of house we would have, if it will be on the beach or in the mountains or on a farm. I vote my house to be on the beach. Either way, our plan is to all have our houses next to each other and we all come and go and drink, eat, laugh, listen to music, watch our fav tv shows and fav movies, chat, not lift a finger except to do what we enjoy. Whenever one of us gets stressed, we always talk about our communal plan. A place where we are free from the everyday.

Of course, we all LOVE our husbands and our kids, and none of us would ever want to leave. But, for a short amount of time, we all have so much fun in the planning of our pretend escape...it eases our stress, we laugh so hard at some of the plans and then we let our minds return back to our everyday lives.

It's one of the reasons that I love my pals so much...we all know when another is stressed to the max and we know when the communal living plan needs to resurface...if only for an hour.