The Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer

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It’s 9:30 am. I just got dressed.

As I lug the first (and, as it turns out, the only) load of laundry through the kitchen, past the dishes that have sat for a few days, past the breakfast table that hasn’t been cleared, my normal reaction might have been “ugh.”

But today, it’s “ahhhhhh.” Strange, I know.  

Why, you might be asking, do I seem so relaxed despite the apparent disorder in my home?

Well, I’ll let you in on a little secret. 

On this particular day, I simply do not care.

Yup – it’s a lazy day, my favorite kind of day in the summer.

The Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer

As opposed to the crazy day, when you try to cram in as much as you possibly can because hey, it’s summer! Or the hazy day, which typically occurs after the crazy day(s), or when you have so much catching up to do with every facet of your life you don’t even know where to begin so you have your kid watch TV while you zone out on your favorite electronic device.

Because the school year is filled with way too many crazy days (and more than its fair share of hazy days), I like to make sure we have plenty of lazy days in the summer. 

On this particular day, we actually had plans to go to the beach at sunrise, visit friends, meet Daddy for lunch, do a little shopping, get home in time to make a delicious dinner, and then run out to the lake for an evening swim. A perfect summer day, yes. But also a crazy one.

The thing was, the previous three days had all been crazy – two runs to Duluth for work plus an overnight run to the Cities to visit family. A scratchy throat hit just as I was ramping up my Triathlon training. On top of all that, my daughter was coming off a string of late nights. 

I…feel…a…LAZY day coming on!

This is how it goes: I start thinking about how nice it would be to stay home, even though we have plans. I consider all the crazy days coming up and the fact I don’t want to spread around whatever bug I am dealing with. I ask my daughter, “Hey, do you really want to do all that stuff tomorrow or would you rather stay home?” Invariably, she says “stay home.” 

Yeeeessss!!

I actually don’t see anything wrong with this. Well, I suppose if we made a daily habit of it, it would be a problem. But I believe periodically taking a step back and asking “Really? Do we need to do all this stuff? Do we REALLY need to be this busy, this crazy?” is absolutely necessary. And so very good for the soul.

And when we slow down and take a lazy day, some pretty fun stuff happens.

The Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer

Like the day we took a walk up the road and noticed a stand of milkweed. As we took the time to closely examine these stately plants, I discovered monarch butterfly caterpillars! I had never seen monarch butterfly caterpillars in the wild! This set off a whole project of rescuing the caterpillars when the milkweed got mowed down the next day, protecting another patch from getting mowed, and raising our rescued caterpillars to watch them grow and change into chrysalis and then butterflies.  

Well, theoretically. Unfortunately, I put the 3 chrysalis we ended up with out on our deck when we went on vacation and they were eaten by a chipmunk.

Can’t win ‘em all.

There has been other fun stuff too. The time we took a walk and discovered a blueberry patch. Or found agates. Or played at the neighbors for a few hours. Or went looking for our bees that swarmed and found a nest of baby woodpeckers. Or just laid on the grass and found funny shapes in the clouds.

You get the idea.

Most of the best stuff in life can’t be scheduled or planned. It certainly doesn’t fall under the categories of “crazy” or “hazy.” Stuff like seeing how high we can bounce an exercise ball in our living room without knocking anything over. Perfecting my ability to catch said exercise ball with my feet. Pretending we’re contestants on American Ninja Warrior as we navigate our makeshift furniture obstacle course. Chasing each other around the house. Piling on Daddy when he is trying to take a nap. Cuddles. Giggles.

The Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer

And summertime, of course, is when the best of the best stuff happens. Long lazy days at the lake. Laying on the dock watching the fish battle it out for the next bread crumb. Picking raspberries and giggling at the chickens as they chase after the ones we don’t want. Becoming mesmerized as the bees buzz dreamily around their hive. Delighting in the hummingbirds darting around our garden just outside the kitchen window. Daisy, dandelion and hawkweed bouquets. Impromptu ice cream runs. More cuddles and giggles.

As in the words of that classic Nat King Cole tune:

Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer

You’ll wish that summer could always be here

Oh, yes, I do wish that summer could always be here.  And though I treasure all the days of summer, the lazy ones really are the best.

Which gets me to thinking – maybe we need to have some more lazy days in the winter.  I think I’ll get started on that right now……

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Sarah VanderMeiden
A native of St. Paul, Minnesota, Sarah is a dyed-in-her-wool-socks Minnesotan whose life-long love of woods and water drew her to move to Duluth 23 years ago this November. An avid hiker, she loves to explore all locales on Lake Superior’s shore, snowshoe frozen North Shore rivers and go for walks in Duluth’s Lester Park. Working in Higher Education for over 20 years, Sarah’s greatest joy was to talk with students about how to navigate the challenges of college, what they wanted to do with their lives and how to make their dreams come true. After stepping out of this career to be a stay-at-home-mom, Sarah has returned to her passion of helping people achieve their personal and professional goals as a Board Certified Coach. To find out more about coaching and her background, visit sarahvandermeiden.com or find her on Facebook at Sarah VanderMeiden Coaching . Sarah’s family lives in the country and share their five acres with a small flock of laying hens, deer, wild turkey, way too many mice and 10,000 honeybees. Sarah has given up gardening and keeping her house clean to pursue her many interests including enjoying the lake, singing, photography and spending time with her family camping in their vintage travel trailer or tickling each other on the couch.