Take Advantage of Using August as a Time to Kick-Back and Relax

Enjoying Precious Moments with Your Family is the feature article in our newly created emPower Monthly. Check it out.

Most of us long for a simpler life, especially us parents… when we take time for those important, non-urgent items that never seem to fit on the agenda. It seems to come easier when an external force imposes “slowing down” on us. Like when a good, thick January snow just shuts everything down around us. We can’t go to work, do errands, or carpool. We relax, read a magazine, get playful, or even sled and drink hot chocolate with our kids. Of course, it only lasts a few days before everything reeves back up again.

I had a wonderfully peaceful couple of months in the middle of our massive remodel. It was one of the sweetest, simplest times I had with the kids. Why? IT was another external force. We were relegated to a very small area of the house. The utility room was our kitchen with all open shelving for easily grabbing dishes, pots, and cooking ingredients. We had a stove top, fridge, and a sink and cooked on and ate from the butcher block in the middle of the room. In the second room, we all slept, did homework, watched movies, and wrote emails. I also minimized my volunteering and the kids outside activities. We went out to a buffet every Wednesday and went on walks to the park frequently to get some air.

We are now all in the midst of another external force, August, with no school, fewer sports activities, and more vacation time. Take advantage of this naturally imposed slow month to live at our natural rhythm, what I like to call “the speed of life.” If you can’t remember what it feels like, let your kids remind you. Schedule giant hunks of time to just hang out and do what you all feel like doing. A really hot day helps when it just feels good to do nothing but hang out by the pool or lake.

What is on your important, non-urgent list? What are some things you want to do with the kids but never find the time for? Perhaps you are hankering for some connecting time over art like building a paper Mache car, recycle-material-robot, or cardboard fort. Or if you are a more active-inclined family: going roller-skating, to the zoo, skipping rocks at the lack, camping in the backyard and reading a good book by flashlight on a comfortable mattress you dragged out.

Whatever you do, it is putting a structure in place for sweet, calm connection with your kids. It is these moments you will remember next year, and your kids may remember for a lifetime.

For admiration for all you do,
Dr. Kathy

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