Where are the lazy days of summer?

Last night, as I walked through my own bedtime routine, I realized my house is trashed. I don't mean there were a few toys on the floor and some dishes in the sink. No. My counters are completely covered with dirty dishes to the extent that making coffee this morning was a task straight out of MacGyver. There are bags containing various sports equipment blocking the front door. And laundry, well, let's not go there.

What I planned to do this summer.

Suffice to say, we are a month into summer vacation...

Hold on, I'd like to backtrack a few decades. Do you remember when summer vacation meant just that, a vacation. It was a  break from school and all the running around A time when children laid around their house whining about being bored and parents planned trips places just to keep them entertained? It meant week long movie marathons and staying up late to eat ice cream and catch fire flies.

Are you deep into memory lane? Let me pull you back.

My summer reality

My life is crazier this month than it has ever been in the school year! Daily swim team practices, three day a week baseball practices/games, gymnastics, musical rehearsal, princess camp, home improvement projects... Yesterday alone, we had a five hour swim meet with the oldest and double header baseball games with the youngest. Dinner didn't happen until 9! You get the point?

Ok, so summer vacation is a third gone. I had planned to take this three months break from school (and work) to write a book. You know, that book people have been hounding me to work on. I think I have written maybe 3,000 words in the last month. There just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day!

It looks like about the middle of July sports will be over and things will begin to wind down. That means I will have approximately six weeks of lazy days. Granted, we have a family vacation scheduled in the middle of that and two kids planning long weekends in opposite directions. Maybe I will have to step back a few decades as well and start writing pen and paper style!

Have a happy summer and enjoy those rare moments!

Nine hours later: I'm not going to lie. I just took a two hour nap and I don't feel the list bit guilty about that! Now, to catch a few hidden minutes to work on a book.

GOOD MORNING!

Well, it's Saturday. Yesterday was the first day of spring break. While that means I will not be called into work as the schools are closed for the next week, it also means my kids are home all week. It also means, I get to write old school style with pen and paper in the randomest of places. Do you think they would frown on me writing at the zoo?

You may say a good mom would put her writing aside for the week and focus diligently on her children. They are only going to be little once, right? I understand that they will grow up and move out of my house someday and I will look back at the time I sat at this computer typing away and wish I had spent more time with them. Honestly though, doesn't EVERY parent everywhere do that in some aspect of raising kids. I wish I didn't work so much. I wish I had hugged them more. I wish I had taken them more places.

The way I see it, I am forcing my children to be self-sufficient for a few hours a day. So many children are catered to day and night, that many can't do simple tasks such as pour a bowl of cereal or find a way to entertain themselves. Forcing my children to do so while I pound away at this keyboard, does two things. It prepares them for a world where no one will be there to wait on them hand and foot and allows me to create some glimmer of insight or fantastic fiction to send into the universe!

I'm sorry. That soap box is just so hard to ignore. My point? You will probably not hear from me much this week! But don't worry, I will be writing! Hey, I may even post a few reviews of the places I go! There are some wonderful parks in Kansas!

If you miss me too much, find me at any of the millions of social media sites I've taken residence on!

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I am sure there are many more, but here are just a few ways to get your Tori fix! Or, you could read Taken!

Change your life.

I suffer from a truly horrid negativity more days than not. I get this feeling like the world is going to crash down around me and I'm not going to crawl from the rubble with enough vigor to save my own life. Maybe it's just a result of today's world where books like Hunger Games and Divergent take the population by storm. Maybe it's just our inability as a society to take responsibility for ourselves.

Think about it. Each day, our world comes a step closer to being one of our favorite dystopian novels. We spend more of our energy criticizing others for their choices than we do considering our own. We suppress others for being exactly who they want to be because we are too worried how others will accept us.

It's time for a change. 

The time has come for each person to reach inside and find what makes her own personal world turn. Make yourself happy and other will follow. Show the world that happiness truly is contagious. It's not your outward appearance that matters, but what's in your heart.

Only you control your happiness.

The rest of my life starts today. Today, I will make an attempt to smile more. Today, I will learn how to ask for the things I need and not yell at people for not doing them. Today, I will not yell.

What will you do?