Disclosure: This post is part of a yearly series in partnership with Netflix. As a member of the Netflix #StreamTeam, I’ll be sharing ideas throughout the year on some of the best Netflix titles to stream with your family. The content, as always, is whatever streams through my own mind! Hope you enjoy!
August is always such a strange month for me.
At the beginning of the month I feel the burnout coming on strong. We’ve done so many fun things, and yet the funnest things – the pool, long stretches of evenings with no plans, free reign on the popsicles in the freezer – have lost their allure. We’re bored of the pool, we’d rather spend our evening indoors than endure one more mosquito bite, we hate all the popsicle flavors. The energy I had at the beginning of the summer to throw myself into projects and adventures is long gone. I just want a few minutes of quiet. And a nap. A nap would be very, very nice.
The day or two before school starts I’m excited. I’m ready for a new routine, ready to be done presiding over snacks and lunches. I’m giddy to know that for 6 1/2 glorious hours, I will not have to negotiate screen time or remind someone that we don’t ride the dog and we do shut the door when we pee.
And then a few days of school pass and I realize that we are not ready for summer to end just yet. The weather has been near perfect lately – in the low 80s and sunny. These are days that were made for the fair, for bike rides to the ice cream shop, for picking apples.
I can feel a little bit of fall creeping in through the air. Teeth chatter when little bodies come out of the pool on a late August night swim. I dash out the door to walk Eli to the bus and dash back in, realizing I need a jacket. My geraniums wilt and my mums stand a little taller, their bright jewel tones livening up the faded and tired summer blooms of June and July.
We’re ready, but not ready. What we need is a new mini-season to get us through the end of summer and gracefully into fall, a gentle mix of summer and fall. We need Fummer. Fummer would be fully recognized as a transition between the lazy days of summer and the full-on crazy of school. We’d start gradually. A day or two of school for the first couple of weeks, then three days, then four. Somewhere in mid- to late September we’d finally be able to accept the cruelty of five days of early morning alarms, of homework and paperwork and lunch boxes. Doesn’t that sound lovely? Show me someone campaigning on the pro-Fummer platform and I’ll gladly throw my support behind them.
The kids may be back in school, but Mike and I are taking advantage of earlier bedtimes to relive summer by watching Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp. It is 100% not appropriate for kids and completely absurd, but it’s fantastic fun. The cast is a comedy dream: Kristen Wiig, Molly Shannon, Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, David Hyde Pierce, Jon Hamm, Janeane Garofalo, Josh Charles and Bradley Cooper, just to name a few. Mike and I never spent any summers at sleepaway camp, but I’m pretty sure Camp Firewood is a little, um, different from your typical camp.
The upside of the nonexistent Fummer is that I have more time to collect my thoughts and write in peace, so you can expect a more consistent posting schedule once again. Next week I’ll be sharing a few ways you can keep the summer spirit alive throughout the school year. In the meantime, I’d love to know: how do you make the most of the last lovely days of summer?
[…] or readers unfamiliar with The Risky Kids may have missed it. During the season when I long for Fummer, it feels like a timely and helpful post to share with you here on Just Like The Number. Long live […]