I don’t know where readers stand in terms of when school starts, but our kids’ summer ends this week. And I don’t know where readers stand in terms of having accomplished their summertime family activities. But for us, we realized the other week we hadn’t done those family activities we excitedly anticipated at the start of summer.

Which led me to the revelation: Time has disappeared! (Which led me to wonder: Where does the time go and where do they take it?)

It’s not like we sat around all summer – we did some remodeling, kids had summer camps, we had visitors, some of us laid in the hammock (that’s not “sitting” around by the way). But here we are with summer ending, school starting, and not having done the family stuff we were so excited about at the start of summer.

So, the other week we thought about how to make the most of the last days of summer with the family. Our answer, (and hopefully this will help you):

Just do it! (All apologies to Nike.) Put the non-family items aside and get out and do something! Do whatever is needed to open up that time needed for the family outing: Drop the plans around the house, tell the kids they’ll miss a soccer, football, cheers, etc. practice, take a vacation day, or let go of the “to do” list for a few days. Missing a practice won’t hurt the kids’ chances for varsity. And the to-do things can wait and be done later – you’ll have weekends to do those house or yard items. And that proposal at work – it can be done next week (if you still have a job, but hey, if you don’t then you have more time with the kids).

So the other week, we took this advice to heart and put those to-do items aside, and then went ahead and made a reservation at a state park that we had planned to visit since the start of summer. It took a bit of work since my high school junior was having summer AP classes. But we finally worked it out and just got away. It was refreshing and a great time – two and a half days of mountain biking, hiking, kayaking, scout burgers on the fire, clothes that smelled like smoke the next day: all great fun. (The only downside was we came back and discovered something had dug into our chicken coop and we lost 4 of the younger ones.)

I also applied the advice to an activity with my youngest. I realized that I hadn’t done any of the mountain biking he and I had been planning for the summer. So, we started waking up and forcing each other to just get out. Now we’ve conquered a local peak 4 times. The best part though is I’ve realized that we can get this exercise done in the morning and I’ve still got time for the to-dos.

The moral of the story? Well, the end of summer is near and these chances to do things with the kids will be gone once school, sports, activities, etc. start. So then, listen to Nike and just do it! Tell everyone that Thursday is now the water park day. Or make that state park campground reservation and go! Otherwise, you’ll be at the start of school disappointed that the summer was gone and you didn’t spend as much time with the kids as you could have.

Now, I’m off with Sam to make it 5 times up Spruce Mountain.

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