The preschooler (kindergartner now?) has been done with school since last Friday, and the big two finish up early tomorrow afternoon. There are a lot of things that I look forward to when summer break starts, and some things….I could do without.

1. Sleeping in. I use the term loosely, of course, as any mom of small children would. None of the kids will sleep in past 7:00am or so, but since I don’t have to get up and feed the diabetic dog until 8:15, they can play until I groan and roll out of bed. Lately, I’ve been waking up at 5:30 most days to work out (since the toddler no longer sleeps in OR takes naps and it’s the only time I can really do it uninterrupted), and it’s ROUGH. Even with the way too early alarm, my body clock has been nuts lately, like one of those noisy baby toys that the cats brush up against in the middle of the night and jolts you awake, you know? It’s like that. Hey! I know you’re going to wake up when your phone sings to you at a ridiculously early time of the morning, but WHO CARES! I want you awake NOW! No, I don’t need a reason. I’M YOUR BODY AND I SAY SO.

So, I’m excited to “sleep in” or wake up slightly less obscenely early to work out and reset my obnoxious natural alarm.

2. Speaking of alarms, I’m excited for the number of alarms on my phone to go from SIX to two or three. During the school year, I have the stupid early one for exercising, the normal one for getting up and making breakfast, two diabetic dog alarms, the go pick up the preschooler alarm, and the watch for the school bus alarm. But in the summer, I can turn off all of those school alarms! It’s like spring cleaning, but for my phone.

3. The laundry! Say it with me now: NO SOCKS. I live for the day when socks are not a daily requirement. I HATE matching socks, which is why my girls haven’t worn matching socks for a year (thank goodness that’s “cool” right now). But it’s not just socks. When we aren’t going anywhere, it is impossible to keep clothes on my children, so their summer uniform? UNDERWEAR AND NO SOCKS. (let’s all do the no pants dance)

4. The meals are easier. Breakfast becomes a lazy, slow process rather than the make-ahead ordeal of the school year. Lunch is also not made ahead (for the week!). Of course, when I take longer to make food in the morning, the kids get cranky waiting for it.

5. We can DO THINGS! During the school year, the kids go to bed at 7:30pm, and we rarely eat supper before my husband gets home at 6:15. So on school nights, we don’t do things unless there’s a family gathering happening. In the summer, though, we like to make lists of things to do! And do them! This year, we’re trekking all the way to Texas, and visiting all of the grandparents, and doing swimming lessons and camp and bible school, and other stuff that we can do because bedtime creeps up (and up and up).

So yeah…summertime isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, but there is a lot of sunshine and we get to wake up to it instead of waiting for it.

What are you looking forward to about SUMMER? (Does anybody else sing Olaf’s song everytime you say “summer” now?)