Savouring Summer Break

I’m re-living that 90’s Summer Vibe.

Working for myself this summer has me coasting through the sunny season balancing my business priorities with my 5-year old daughter who’s home with me for her summer break. Every day is a fine dance of staggered work hours mixed with swimming, ‘playdoughing’, Barbie world creations, walks up the cottage road for ice cream cones… you name it. I aim for a 50/50 mix, but it’s truly more of a 20/80 mix, massively in favour of Piper time.

And that’s ok.

Thinking of fun things for us to do (off-screen) has given me a chance to take a warm and winding walk down memory lane to revisit the the memories I have of being a kid home for summer break. Here are some of the throwback 90’s summer activities we have going on at Stoney Lake this year!

First up: Jewelry making! We’re super into making Seed Bead necklaces and Embroidery string bracelets – we have been creating a Pinterest page to find patterns to work on everyday and Piper’s taking a crack at this as her first business. She’s selling necklaces and bracelets to cottage neighbours and setting up a little table at the local farmers market to peddle her wares. I couldn’t be more proud. I had to watch some YouTube videos to remind myself how to do this stuff, but it all came flooding back in a flash.

Nail polish art sessions – do you remember lounging by pools or laying on scratchy, damp beach towels and just devouring those Seventeen magazines? Taking every single quiz to determine your most flattering nail polish shade or to discover if JTT or Devon Sawa was your better love match? Oh man, I was JTT all the way until NSync hit the scene in 1995 and then just like that Justin Timberlake stole my teenie-bopper heart with those bleached curls. I had a poster of him on the wall above my bed – one of the ones you can carefully tug out of the centrefold of the magazine (lol – this is kind of weird and creepy when you think about how this concept applies to adult magazine consumer behaviour…). Anyways, it’s become a colourful, daily ritual for us… Piper wants rainbow nails today, then pink glitter nails tomorrow, then (oh god) she’s asking me to paint unicorns on her nails… so I buy the unicorn decal nail stickers from Etsy. Right?!

We’re working on learning how to swim this year, and we’re trying to earn our ‘Summer Feet’ (check out this awesome book for kids!). Oh, and Piper’s poison ivy detection game is on point this year. MOM-there it is… MOM-there it is… MOM-there it is…. MOM-there it is. We’re in the repetition phase right now, but we are poison ivy free and that’s a small feat here in Canada.

So the days are full, and the nights are long ones with sunsets that linger even after I tuck the kids in for the night. Big days and big feelings. I remind myself constantly that money can always be made, but time is not something I can replace or earn any more of. So I’m leaning into this summer’s 90’s vibes, these dirty, unmanicured feet, these untouched to-do lists, and I’m savouring every minute of it. The time for me to lean into work will come with the change of season and the new backpacks and late-night lunch packing sessions. So for now, I’ll slow down and enjoy the present.

DISCLAIMER: Being present is a state of mind we have to work towards.

I struggle with mindfulness as much as anyone being a mamapreneur with a wildly overactive brain, but on a walk to the market to get ice cream yesterday I was able to totally tune into a beautiful summer moment with Piper. I felt present and I noticed her hair blowing in the breeze, and how her little steps were quickened to catch up with mine. I noticed her pride when she used a new word in her vocabulary, and I watched her eat her cotton candy ice cream cone with the enthusiasm and delight that only kids can truly capture. We held sticky hands on the way home, chatting away, totally content and planning our next move… rainbow nails, followed by cannonballs off the dock. This is what it’s all about guys – savour that summer break and those moments that ‘stick’.