summer

Summer Vacation: Rest and Relaxation

August 17, 2011 By Sarah Reinhard Leave a Comment

A guest post by Kyle Sanders

As a kid, summer was the most delightful time of year. I was free from school and free to rest from responsibility. I looked forward to those breaks. I couldn’t hurry the last nine weeks quick enough. High school held the same delight, but deeper. With the freedom came a chance to work more hours so I had more money to do things with my friends (because doing things required money, and we weren’t very creative).

Then I entered seminary.

That sounds like such a rueful statement. In fact, at certain times (especially summer) it has been rueful. The freedom for rest I so looked forward to was then taken up with “formation activities” like spending a summer in a parish, doing Spanish immersion, or working hospital chaplaincy. I was no longer free for the whole summer. When I did experience vacation I went full tilt doing nothing. It was my time to waste, so I wasted it, because that was what was restful.

This summer I have come to realize the horrible lie I bought into with such thinking as vacation, especially summer vacation, as rest from responsibility. Most who read this blog already know summer does not provide rest from responsibility: if anything children home from school ups the ante.

In vacation, we leave, we get away from the responsibility of working life, in order to rest. The work-a-day world is so burdensome that weekends don’t always provide enough time to rest, or we misuse that time of rest by spending eight hours a weekend day in front of the TV {I’ve been guilty}).

What we forget, because we are so caught up in working, producing, providing damage control, parenting, and pastoring, is that we have been offered rest, a true form of rest. “Come to me all who labor and are burdened and I will give you rest,” (Matthew 11:28). Then comes the punch line: in Jesus we can be on a perpetual summer vacation.

In Jesus, we can rest, always.

We can find greater rest and greater rejuvenation in spending time with Christ twenty minutes a day than spending a whole month on the beaches of Oahu. For spouses, some of their most restful moments are spent in quiet with each other, no words per se, but just in each other’s loving presence. How much greater so when we spend time in the loving embrace of the Father!

From this place of rest, responsibility moves from being burdensome to being a source of joy and a means for deeper prayer with God. This in turn allows for deeper intimacy and with deeper intimacy a more complete rest at the bosom of Jesus.

Summer vacation is now just a piece of nostalgia of simpler times. The complexity of year-round responsibility is now part of my life. Vacation, though, is still sweet. It now proves more restful because instead of fleeing responsibility, I bring it all into the heart of Jesus, where I find my rest.

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Kyle Sanders is a transitional deacon studying for the priesthood. He can be found on Twitter as @Colonel4God and at Reverenced Reading.

Filed Under: guest post Tagged With: Faith, guest post, Kyle Sanders, rest, seasons, summer, vacation

Fighting Summer Boredom

July 14, 2011 By Sarah Reinhard Leave a Comment

A guest post by Kim Beeghley

In the later part of May, I said to myself, “OH NO! Three weeks until school is out. WHAT am I going to do?” During this time, three of my four children (ages 13, 10, 8 and 6) were still in school and my six-year-old, who just graduated from kindergarten, was constantly asking me, “When are we going to pick up the kids at school so we can play?”

I started to ask myself, “How am I going to survive the summer? Are there any camps or events for them?”

I decided I needed to take action. I needed to find things for the kids to do to fill up the summer calendar and to keep them from killing each other out of boredom.

First, I needed a plan. Living in central Pennsylvania, I was aware of some things for kids to do in the summer including free bowling, library reading programs, vacation bible school, cheap movies, and (of course) swimming. I registered the kids for free rounds of bowling (which are AWESOME for those rainy days) and picked out a few movies that we could go see at $2 per person (popcorn before lunch?).

As if my head wasn’t swimming enough, I registered the kids for bible school and the three boys for Cub Scout Camp. Then my mother called and suggested that each of the kids spend a week with them. Where am I supposed to fit that into our schedule? These will be special moments for the kids to spend time with their grandparents and form great memories, though.

At the end of June, the kids (and my husband) were presenting at an international educational technology conference in Philadelphia. We were there for six days, and it was a terrific opportunity for the kids to give presentations to classroom teachers from around the world.

While these items filled up some of the calendar, I was looking for ways for my kids to keep learning over the summer. I sent an email out to all my homeschooling friends to see if they had any suggestions for me.

Based on some terrific suggestions, I ordered the summer bridge math (2-3 pages a day) and the Wordly Wise (2 lesson a week) for them to complete. I also ordered Prima Latina to help build those Latin skills. Now my summer schedule is finally starting to come together.

Another advantage of living in central Pennsylvania is that we are “centrally” located to many different places. We can take day trips to places like Gettysburg, Baltimore, Washington DC, Philadelphia, or New York City. We just pack a lunch and snakes so it can be a cheap trip with only one meal to buy.

With a summer calendar full of fun, we can keep the “I’m bored” comments to a minimum, reduce the amount of fighting between the kids, learn some new things, and most of all have fun!

What are YOUR ideas for fighting summer boredom? What have you been doing with your family this summer?

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Kim Beeghley and I met at last year’s CNMC and we’ve stayed in touch through Facebook in the year since then. She still hasn’t started the blog she’s been thinking about, but I have hope. She keeps busy with her family in their home in central Pennsylvania.

image from CatholicMom.com

Filed Under: guest post, Motherhood Tagged With: guest post, Kim Beeghley, Motherhood, seasons, summer

Curing the Summertime Blues, by Maia

August 18, 2010 By Sarah Reinhard 4 Comments

This is an example of a fabulous guest post that was lost in the shuffle during my email crisis. Though it’s perhaps not as relevant now that school’s just about to start (next week! really?), I wanted to post it before summer was completely gone, especially since Maia was kind enough to send it and patient enough to not throw a sharp or blunt object at me for letting it gather so much dust while I wasn’t checking blog email. You’ll find more of her wonderful work at the group blog, Flowers Round the Cross, where she strives to uncover her vocation as a Catholic military wife and mother.

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What do you do with summer? No matter your duty station in life, summer seems to universally present a change. Even with young children, who don’t provide the school/no school challenge, summer comes and thumbs it’s nose at me taunting, “You think you just got some semblance of order? Now what are you going to do?!” Menus change. Reading lists change. Activities change. Schedules change. That last one, for me, is a doozy, and I find myself echoing Maria’s sentiments as she gazes through the gates at the imposing von Trapp villa: “Oh, help.“

See, I am terrifically terrible at setting lines in my life. I don’t wear a watch. I rarely look at calendars. And, while I have been heroic in my efforts to incorporate a day planner into my life, there is nothing like a sheet of paper with lines labeled with the “o’clocks” to consternate me.

How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?

But life as a Catholic and a mom and a wife to a soldier has convinced me that order is necessary and, wonders-never-cease, enjoyable. Something I was willing to consider only after reading Holly Pierlot’s A Mother’s Rule of Life (*inserts shameless plug here*). Here enters my dilemma: if order was so difficult for me to establish in the first place, what am I supposed to do every time life changes? Must I sit down a create a new template every 3 or so years when we pack up our lives and follow the beat of the Army’s drum? Should I revise my draft whenever a child grows out of his sleeping/eating/pooping/playing schedule? And what do you do with summer?

This summer is our first summer in South Korea (compliments of the United States Army). It is my first summer with a both a toddler, who is running, and a baby, who is nearly ready to walk. We are all exploring our new space and our new skills of navigation at a rapid pace. Things are feeling a little chaotic with little time/energy left to pray and just when I have a sliver of time…WHO HAS TORN UP MY MAGNIFICAT?!?!?! It leaves very little time to determine and craft schedules. After coming to the realization that I was spending an inordinate amount of time worrying over this, I remembered that summers as a child were wonderful because they flowed on a much looser framework. Order consisted of mornings at the pool for swim lessons and afternoon in the yard. Everything else just fit into place.

As a mom, I’ve found that responsibility creates a need for a little more structure, but the principle remains the same: looser framework. The trick, for me, becomes not falling into sloth (both spiritually and around the house) but at the same time not becoming hung up by a million tiny details. So from my chaos to yours, here are five things that are working particularly well for me:

1) a holy card clipped by the kitchen sink

Nothing like a reminder of the Holy Family to remind me what we are working for and to give me a little prayer poke.

2) a laundry hamper in the kitchen

Weird, yes, but we do all of our living there and I have kids who dirty and shed clothes without ceasing. Having a hamper there means that their costume changes don’t add to extra clutter, and it’s an added benefit that stray socks and used kitchen towels have a convenient resting place as well.

3) the swim bag, packed and ready to go by the door every night

As SOON as we get home from swimming I throw swim trucks, swim diapers (cloth), and swim suit into a cold/no detergent wash, let air dry, and then pack back up. I’ve tried procrastinating on this, but I don’t need to go into how gross the swim bag smelled…

4) a wearable rosary

Mine is a full 5 decades on stretchy cord that wraps around my wrist, but I think a decade bracelet rosary would work just as well. Peggy Bowes has been a fantastic inspiration for me this summer. (*shameless plug for The Rosary Workout*)

5) walk, walk, walk

This one, at this duty station as well as our last one, has been from necessity rather than active decision. We only have one car, and rather than get stuck at home…

The benefits of this have been great. I get exercise. My kids get a nap if they are tired. I have time to pray at least part of the Rosary.

Most days — especially if my husband has the car — we walk to play groups, story time, daily Mass, the store (for as many non-perishable items as we can fit in the bottom of the stroller), the pool, and wherever else needs walking to. I cannot emphasize the good that has come from this, not the least of which comes from being out-of-doors and away from the TV.

This walk provides the structure for our day. We get up, eat and I caffeinate. We tidy up a little (read: we usually leave the apartment with it looking like a toy tornado swept through). We are out the door no later than 0900 (unless we forget shoes or sunglasses or water…ok, ok 9:15!). We go to the places we need to go (and they nap when and if they need to nap) most days ending at the pool. We walk home. Since the boys have been out all day, they are usually content to play with their toys and help me around the house, have at least two full scale battles over their toys, and whine over an infinite number of things while I fix dinner (if you were reading this article hoping to find out how to have perfect children, you will find no answers here — I think I need Dr. Ray Guarendi on speed dial!). I am under no illusions that this will work for us forever. As time passes there will, God willing, be more children and older children and different activities that need doing. For now we are blessed to have this — and yes, I still register shock when I hear myself say that we are blessed to only have one car.

Before discovering this solution, I was fretting over the chaos of our days. In my searches for a solution for a better prayer life, I discovered a site on being Catholic in summer. I blogged about the stress of finding faith in summer. I found inspiration at Amongst Lovely Things and Like Mother, Like Daughter. And I prayed for help in balancing my polar tendencies toward control freak (in one direction) and lazy bum (in the other). It’s feast or famine, you know, with both extremes being the famine and balance being the feast. We are still experiencing some days that are rough and chaotic as I struggle with my fallen nature. Thankfully, however, our summer is taking on an over-arching theme of simple structure, while we banish the summertime blues, revel in the chaos, and find a little bliss.

What home remedy cures have you found for the summertime blues?

Filed Under: family, guest post Tagged With: family, family life, guest post, seasons, summer

Summer is Nigh, Give Healthy Eating a Try, by Peggy Bowes

July 17, 2010 By Sarah Reinhard Leave a Comment

Peggy Bowes has been here before and shared wisdom, and I’m delighted that she offered to stop by again. Peggy’s the author of The Rosary Workout and a columnist at Catholic.net. You can also find her blogging, Twittering, and Facebooking. Thanks, Peggy, for joining us today!

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“And from the fig tree learn a parable: When the branch thereof is now tender, and the leaves come forth, you know that summer is nigh.” (Matthew 24:32)

Oh, the joys of summer food! Double-scoop ice cream cones dripping onto the sidewalk, corndogs and cheesecake-on-a-stick beckoning at the county fair, burgers and dogs sizzling on the grill, and icy-cold watermelon on the front porch bring to mind the lazy days of summer.

It’s fun to indulge in a few less-than-healthy summertime favorites, but this is the perfect time to add a variety of delicious and healthy foods to your diet.

Take advantage of low prices on fresh fruit to create smoothies, fruit salad, or low-fat cobbler. Berries add nutrition and flavor to cereal, pancakes, oatmeal, yogurt or dinner salads. They’re rich in antioxidants, which help slow aging and prevent disease.

Stock up now and freeze some to enjoy later in the year. Peaches, plums, apricots, cherries and watermelon are also in season and affordable. Take advantage of the bounty of summer fruit to experiment with some new recipes.

At lunch, ditch the sandwiches in favor of something new and different. Try pasta salads made with whole grain pasta and fresh vegetables. Or mix wild rice, brown rice, or quinoa with dried fruit, nuts, onions, chopped veggies, and a vinaigrette. Beans of all varieties can be mixed into salads using creative recipes you can find online (see links below). Use yogurt to make a calcium-rich smoothie or a parfait, layered with fresh fruit and granola.

Why heat up the kitchen during these long, hot days when you can go outside in the cooler evening hours and grill? Instead of the usual burger or steak, try leaner cuts of meat like flank steak, chicken breasts, fish and pork tenderloin. Marinades add flavor and reduce the carcinogens (cancer-causing agents) in grilled food. Serve with a healthy, homemade fruit salsa instead of a bun to add nutrition and reduce calories. You can find plenty of great recipes for mango, peach, or pineapple salsas online.

Main dish salads are filling and increase your daily vegetable count while reducing calories. Top a plate of fresh greens and veggies with grilled chicken, fish or beef. Mix up a flavorful vinaigrette instead of using calorie-laden creamy dressings.

It wouldn’t be summer without dessert, but try some healthy alternatives to the usual. Angel food cake is low-fat and pairs perfectly with fresh fruit. Chocolate-covered strawberries are a healthier alternative to pies and cakes. Pudding is typically low-fat and contains calcium, which helps strengthen bones. Popsicles made with real fruit juice are a better choice than ice cream. (If you do crave ice cream, take advantage of those mini containers in the freezer section that allow you to indulge while limiting fat and calories.)

These delicious summer foods are a gift from our Creator. “These all look to you to give them their food in due season… They gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.” (Psalm 104: 27-28)

Here are a few of my favorite healthy recipe websites to help get you started:

Filed Under: guest post Tagged With: food, guest post, healthy eating, Peggy Bowes, seasons, summer

Watermelon Days, by Mark Szewczak

July 16, 2010 By Sarah Reinhard 1 Comment

Today I welcome Mark Szewczak back to my corner of cyberspace. (If you’ve missed his previous posts, you’re missing some real gems.) Thanks to Mark for once again sharing his wisdom and tender heart with all of us.

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A recent, excellent column by Colleen Mitchell triggered some thoughts I’d like to share. A good starting place is a line from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, “When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things.” (1 Cor. 13:11, NAB).

That kind of sums up my life, a constant struggle to put away childish things, thoughts, desires. I congratulate myself from time to time when I have a success, being an “adult” and “responsible.” But you probably know as well as I that there is this constant tug buried deep in our psyches battling to suppress that inner child, to be a “grownup”. I haven’t run into many adults who, having put away childish things, are not locked in the seemingly endless, mindless rat-race of life in this millennium.

We forget to pray, forget that God is next to us, ignore our own health, lose track of our lives in countless ways, often leading to anxiety and depression. I am certainly that person and I know that I can be very unhappy with myself and am not sure what to do about it.

With this as a backdrop, the other day, after dinner, my wife brought me a bowl of cubed watermelon along with hers as we sat to watch Jeopardy. How thoughtful she was and I looked forward to us sitting for a half hour and relaxing together after our long busy days. I took the first bite.

Immediately, as if by magic, I was transported back in time to a summer when I was around 12, on vacation at my grandfather’s mountain cabin with extended family around us. The watermelon…so sweet, so wonderfully chilled…just like that day. It was early evening and my sisters, brothers and cousins had been swimming in the creek down the road. We had been playing wiffle ball in the yard and developing a delightful hungry feeling in our stomachs. It was warm; sun shining through the leaves of tall trees and if you listened past our laughter you could hear bees buzzing and birds singing.

I was a city kid. The only grass and trees I knew were in the church yard. For me, to be at that summer cabin was to experience a complete immersion into a 12-year-old’s vision of heaven. Towering trees, fields of tall grass in the valleys between the mountains, endless play, new things to explore, sweet fragrant air, a boundless future. The eternal banquet promised in scripture consisted of hamburgers, corn-on-the-cob, potato salad and…watermelon. My loved ones gathered around the table laughing, joking and just enjoying being together, a simple yet full existence that contained no measurements of success or struggles between good and evil, worry and fear.

That single taste of watermelon resurrected that clear visceral memory of my 12-year-old self back to the front of my memory. What an amazing thing, a single sensory experience causing such a profound re-experience! I thought of another passage of scripture, this time from Matthew where Jesus said, “I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3, NAB). I was being reminded, wordlessly and lovingly, that putting aside childish ways is not the same as being child-like in faith, hope and love.

That summer glimpse of heaven had remained dormant for more than 40 years, waiting on the Lord to unlock it and present it to me at a time I needed it. He reminded me to be as a child in my belief, trust and love of my Lord and my fellow pilgrims in this life, a message I need now and going forward to the next phase of my life. Letting myself be led forward, not in a rat-race but in a procession of laughing, singing people moving toward the light. I sure hope the watermelon is as sweet and cold as I remember!

Filed Under: guest post Tagged With: guest post, Mark Szewczak, seasons, summer

Summertime Pondering, by Maria Johnson

July 15, 2010 By Sarah Reinhard 2 Comments

Maria Johnson is known all over the SQPN airwaves for her love of Farmville, her terrific asides on the weekend, and her passion for both digging out the hidden meanings in Harry Potter and finding the relevance of Star Trek, but what has endeared her to me (besides her hilarious tweets) is her blog, which is just exactly the extra cup of coffee I need, whenever I happen to read it. She’s joining us today to share her reflections on summer.

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It’s summer again. I say that with a little resignation because right now that means a whole lotta heat and very little breezy circulation. But it’s here – there’s no stopping time, and so I surrender with a nice cool Tom Collins and a tacky little rainbow flag that, like my summers, used to mean something else and has somehow become…well…something else.

I remember the anticipation of summer vacation like it was yesterday. Those grade school years were interminable, weren’t they? Good grief – my life was measured in school holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas vacation, Easter break, those awful teaser days like President’s Day, and then – the ever-anticipated Summer Vacation!

Queue Snoopy doing his Summertime Dance.

And then everything would slow down. It was amazing. We didn’t have cell phones or X-Box or cable, so we were shoo-ed outside by our moms, and we played. All day long. I don’t remember why or how we went in for lunch, but I remember baloney sandwiches, and hotdogs with too much ketchup, and peanut butter that stuck to the roof of my mouth. And I remember Wonderbread. (I haven’t had white bread in the house in years!)

There were trips to the lake and afternoons at the zoo. All in all, a delicious time of wonder and abandon.

Later, summers became more of a hassle. Somehow reading assignments for the next school year creeped in, and there were chores to be done before trips to the beach or outings to the movies. I remember that for $1.50 I could see a matinee (75 cents), get a regular popcorn (50 cents), and still have a quarter left for a Coke. Try getting a Coke for $1.50 today.

Those were good times, too, full of adventure and playing at being grown-up. We were in a hurry then to be like the older kids – the ones with cars, and dates, and after-school jobs.

That came too soon, but we were untouchable. Summers became a different kind of adventure – ones filled with independence (or at least, as much independence as our parents allowed) and new experiences. We might have still rolled our eyes about chores around the house, but summer jobs taught us about commitment and delayed gratification, and what the real world held in store for us and our wallets.

And then suddenly, summer became just another season. A hot one, with work to do outside as well as inside, and not enough time to get that done, and visit the folks, and entertain the kids, and…and…and.

And suddenly it was time to pour a Tom Collins and sit back and relax – let the ice clink around in the tallboy and play with a frou-frou flag. It’s just another season, see? It might be a little hot, and the lawn could use some weeding, but it’s still beautiful. The dandelions are in full bloom, and what I see are lovely wildflowers, not weeds.

The seasons come and go, and this Summer will flow into Fall soon enough. I’ve always been in a hurry to get to the next one. The minute Summer is upon me I dream of the coolness of Fall. In Fall, I long for Winter to be rid of the leaves. And of course, after the first real freeze, Spring can’t come soon enough.

I always think of Ecclesiastes, “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven,” when the seasons change. It’s inevitable, especially since I am more familiar with it because of The Byrds than any ability to quote scripture. Still, I owe it to pop culture to drive me to the real source in Ecclesiastes, chapter 3. Forced catechesis. Well, maybe stealth catechesis, something many of us are familiar with.

At any rate, reading the whole passage gives me plenty to reflect upon. I can seize the day and enjoy every little moment that I have. If that were all, it would be a lot, but there’s more. It speaks to a purpose under heaven, and implicit in it is the understanding that we are serving a purpose, that the wheels are not turning randomly but purposefully. And that we must put our trust in that plan.

The glass clinks once more as I take my last sip and reflect on what I must do to fulfill that purpose. I don’t know what it is, but I can trust that like the seasons, God’s plan for me is in motion.

Filed Under: guest post Tagged With: Faith, guest post, Maria Johnson, seasons, summer

Summer Days, Family Days, by Judy Dudich

July 13, 2010 By Sarah Reinhard Leave a Comment

You’ll find Judy Dudich having summertime fun with her family in the beautiful woods of Pennsylvania and online at Homeschool Faith and Family Life, Benmakesten, and at her weekly column at CatholicMom.com. Thanks, Judy, for joining us here this week!

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(Sing to the tune of “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music):

Freeze pops on porches and walks in the thick woods

Running a foot race and no need for warm hoods

Puppies that shed all over the place

These are the things of our long summer days!

When the ticks come

When the sun burns

When we’re feeling bored

We simply remember our great summer days and then we all long……FOR MORE!

Truly, summer time is a gift of the Lord! We who live in the Eastern lands of the United States are usually breaking away from our formal school lessons and slipping into days that are meant to be slower-paced, relaxing, refreshing, exciting, adventurous, and FUN!

Our family loves the outdoors. Thus, much of our time is spent there in the summer. God has supplied an abundance of sacred moments and hidden blessings in the simple pleasures and ordinary passing of days for families in the summer season.

We do our best to notice these, to thank Him for them, and to embrace the beauty of the season by joining together in lots of physical exercise, plenty of nature exploration, fun crafts, quiet moments, sports, leisure, and family projects like gardening and berry-picking for the making of homemade jam!

Friends visiting.

Kids running around in the dark, catching fireflies.

Turning the hose on for good old - fashioned water fun on a hot day.

Listening: God’s summer symphony is always resounding on a quiet summer evening!

Crickets, bird-song, babbling creek, leaves rustling in a cool breeze, children giggling, locusts humming…

The sounds of summer are the sounds of God’s awesome Creation! They evoke feelings of comfort, security, peace, joy, and wonder!

It makes little difference whether your preference is to travel or stay home.

It makes little difference whether you have lots of extra cash to spend or none.

What matters is spending summer time together as a family.

In years past, when we’ve been unable to travel, we have enjoyed “Staycations” at home! We turn our house into a beach villa; seashells here and there, lots of flowers, decorations with an “ocean” theme, etc… Menu and activities planned for the week. No phone, no computer, television for movie viewing only, no electronic devices and no work . This is an inexpensive, wonderful way to make summer time memorable and fun!