Summer is always the time when I plan on getting to all those projects that are impossible to get to during the school year. Decluttering…putting together a garage sale…painting or decorating a room…working on starting a blog.
Sometimes my extra focus on all those material projects takes my focus away from relationships. My kids spend too much time with videos and computer games. Dinner becomes simply scrounging in the refrigerator and everyone seems to be grumpy and frustrated with each other. Instead of completing anything, I just find myself yelling, nagging and losing sleep.
The only solution is to regroup, restructure and remind myself what is really important after all. When I’m on my death bed, I’m not going to think about a Better Homes and Garden house with perfectly organized closets; I am going to either be smiling reminiscing about great relationships or regretting that my time is up without really having lived. Yes, summer is time for projects but they must be cleverly sandwiched between trips to the pool, picnics at the park, summer blockbuster movies, roasting marshmallows by the tent in the backyard or just listening to what is in the live of people important to me while sipping some homemade lemonade.
What I’ve found by putting people first in my life is that I have people to help and encourage me with those projects or sometimes to even surprise me by doing them for me.
So read a good book with your kids and then recruit them to clean out a closet while listening to fun music they like. Sit under the stars with you spouse and remind each other about the reasons you fell in love, then plan a day to paint a tired room. Take a friend to lunch and help them through a crisis, then have fund doing a garage sale together. Make sure that every hour you spend decluttering a closet is matched by an hour spent decluttering your heart and filling it with precious memories.