What ever happened to "The Lazy Days of Summer?"

When I was young our summers were full of very long hot days spent playing softball, building forts, with the occasional day at the beach or camping trip thrown in. If I close my eyes I can almost feel that East Coast warm ocean breeze and see a hazy sunset over a cornfield. My point being, when I look back on my childhood summers I actually sigh and smile.
I'm not quite sure how, or when it happened, but now my summers are spent juggling sports tournaments, trips, this BBQ, that b-day party, and oh yeah- there is that thing called my job on top of it all...When my children grow up, how will they feel when they think back on their summers? My sincere hope is that they remember the FUN and not the tension surrounding all of these trips and that "hurry up!- we're late for ___" doesn't echo in their minds on top of their visual memories. Each night before they go to sleep I ask my kids "What was the best part of your day?" This is something I started doing when my now 7 year old was 2. I love hearing what they have to say each night. At the end of this summer I'm going to ask each of them what the best part of their summer was. I am dying to know what stood out to them. I think we all want so badly for our kids to experience things were didn't as children, and sometimes in doing so we overload/over schedule/over commit ourselves right into Fall!
Then I turn that thought onto myself. The first thing that stands out about my summer is the amount of WORK it takes on my part to make these trips, events, outings happen. I truly appreciate the experiences and love watching my kids see a new place for the first time, etc. However, I am being pulled (as I'm sure many of you reading this are) to find a way to put as much effort into having time at home with my children as I do planning these trips, rushing to sporting events, and putting so much red ink onto my calendar each summer.
I think an excellent way for us to treat ourselves well is to start saying "No" more often, especially during the summer. This is coming from the multi-tasking Queen mind you, but I do get a sense of peace when I know on a Saturday morning that there are no plans, and we can glide through a long summer day. I don't think in this day and age we can expect to recapture the long summer days of our youth, but I certainly believe we can re-create just a few of those days in between the chaos!

Do you know what your passion is?

In the past week I spoke with an extremely busy and overwhelmed mom. As I was conducting what really became an interview with her she said something that sent my "say what?" antenna up. After going through at least 20 excuses of why she just can't put more attention on herself and create a better quality of life, she blurts out-- "I don't even know what I like to do!" huh? This turn in the conversation led me to a line of questioning that would pull out some of the things that are important to her and provide enjoyment such as "Tell me about a recent time that you remember the feeling of peace or contentment-even if it was for only a few moments". In the end we determined that she has a deep level of peace when she is in nature and we discussed ways that she could do some of the things she does currently, but take them outdoors. Now you may be saying "I know what I like, what my hobbies are, what is important to me"...do you? Do you truly know what you're passionate about? I am currently reading a book called The Passion Test. Before I picked it up I thought I was 100% clear on what was important to me, however, after taking their "test" at the beginning of the book it became apparent that although I had an idea of what I wanted to focus on in my life, I wasn't clear on the specific ways I could fulfill my passions/goals. I highly recommend this book to every single person out there to either define your passions, or to become much more clear about what you will chose to put your focus on in this lifetime. Before you can take action to treat yourself well, you must determine what makes your heart sing!