Has anyone seen my summer?

I am a big proponent of schedules. I schedule everything. Spontaneity is really not my thing.

Spontaneous decisions of mine either don't work out in the end, which proves that spontaneity isn't all it is cracked up to be, or I chicken out when I decide to get all spontaneously wild and crazy.

Leading up to this summer, I had a plan... a vision... a schedule of sorts... for how my days off from work would look. It went alittle something like this:

Wake up 'early' by my standards, getting a morning walk with Rico in, come home to the kids still sleeping and Matt diligently working in the office. Then, my daily cup of joe before I catch up on some housework. Off to the pool by late morning, where I would leisurely sit until a touch before dinnertime with my well-behaved, sunscreened, cooperative children, who can fend for themselves in a very large body of water. Then, I would come home, have a cocktail while cooking dinner and then enjoy the feast while sharing with everyone the wonders of our day. The kids, of course exhausted from their day, would scurry up to shower and would then snuggle until bedtime, which would occur at approximately 8 pm. I would read until I drifted off to slumber.

I am three days into my very romanticized summer. It was been all sorts of awesome, these three days. I seriously could get used to working much less than I aready do, outside of the home. I could put up with just about anything as long as the sun is shining, I can step outside in the breeze, and I am in 100% cotton all day long. (We may not live in the most appropriate climate for my temperment, I do declare.)

However, my summer days, all three of them so far, haven't quite fallen into place like I had scheduled.

• Morning beds in a cool air conditioned home are way more comfortable than I recall. Silent house. Sun peaking through our curtains. Morning bliss.
• Could someone tell me why the only other two 'responsible' human beings in our house don't seem to be present when I wake up, in case I want to walk the dog?
• Kids don't always want to go to the pool for six hours a day like others do. Dudes, it is the pool? Sick kids. What is wrong with you? At your age(s), I would have killed for that gig.
• Kids who start out at the pool in a life saving device, eventually (and rather quickly) learn how to 'swim' (aka: survive without drowning for 15 seconds while unattended) , although their feet are about 2 feet from still touching the bottom with their head above water.
• Well-behaved, cooperative children < - - an oxymoron no matter how you slice it.
• Has anyone seen my husband or Audrey? He claims he is 'working' at Panera... and she is just anywhere but here.  
• I do however, know where all other moms and their children are. At our pool. Skinny moms. Evenly tanned moms. Moms with tight stomachs and asses. Athletic moms. Moms with kids who don't need supervised 60 seconds of every minute of the time they are at the pool. I am all about 'playing' with my kids, but man, oh man. Being a poolside mom is exhausting. And, I have not had one bloody mary poolside yet. Pfft.
• Children's summer showers are way overrated. My boys have been out of school for 5 days, and I bet we have squeezed in a whole 1.5 showers.
• WHY are these kids not tired? It is becoming perfectly clear to me that they are entirely way too active during their normal school day, because they have not had to adjust whatsoever to this new summer schedule of fun, fun, fun in the sun. Could be the mega dose of vitamin C with the kick ass weather we have had in Ohio this week, I suppose. Whatever it is, it needs to end. Time to start adjusting for the back to school schedule. Never too early to prepare. 

I have suffuciently conquered the cocktails, dinners and bedtime reading in my schedule.  And, I must say, that with practically nothing yet following 'my plan', these three days have been like a freaking stay-cation.

I heart summertime.