Goal: Our very own 'Not Bummer Summer'

I was having a bit of a pity party yesterday.

Naturally, this pity party was brought to me in part by evil twins Sleep Deprivation and Stuck-in-Office Blues.

Don't get me wrong. My boys and I started our summer with a wicked week on Vancouver Island, my old stomping ground.

Alister in front of a totem pole at the Royal British Columbia Museum.

 

 Cameron with a painted star fish.

We hunted for pretty pebbles at the beach, peered in tide pools and lazed around in my mother's garden. For this I'm very grateful.

But because I was feeling tired yesterday, I found myself trotting along an unhappy path related to being out of vacation time to spend with the kids and short on cottage weekend invites. (Holy First-world problems, Bat Man!)

I'm sure I'm not the first to find that when you start down this sort of road there are stops in Negative Town and Cloud City (apologies to George Lucas). I was revisiting depressing themes such as How am I Supposed To Get All My Stuff Done? and Why Do Other People Get to Spend Half the Summer At the Cottage?

Luckily, I excel at shaking things off and the proverbial pulling up of socks. So today I have the solution!

I haven't seen the movie, but yesterday my kids went with their lovely grandmother to Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer.

It occured to me on my pretty walk to the subway this morning that the only answer is for the kids and I to pack every available evening and weekend moment we have together full of summertime fun. It'll be our very own "Not Bummer Summer." I may be short on holiday time, but that needn't prevent me from planning picnic dinners, after-work trips to Centre Island, weekend beach outings, hikes, swims and bike rides. We may not endeavour to catch Big Foot, but we can get our thrill points in other ways.

If you too are short on holiday time or the budget to get away, please let me know how you intend to make the most of the warm weeks without travelling far from home. I'd love to hear your ideas for a Not Bummer Summer.