It's the last day of school here. After eighteen years of counting down the seconds until the last dismissal bell of the year (and that was just as a teacher, we won't add up that plus my time as a student), it's weird to not be exhausted beyond all reason today.

The first few days of summer are like a Friday night, full of promise of adventure and excitement (or Netflix marathons and cold pizza. Don't judge.)

I always made lists of what I would accomplish over the six week "break" from work. I say, "break" because if you know anything about teaching, you know that summers really aren't a break. There is curriculum writing to be done, staff development to attend, classroom prep, it really never ends.

But, I'm not a teacher anymore. And, my main goal this summer is to figure out how to work with my kids home and me functioning as their personal Uber.

So, instead of a list of what to accomplish, because let's face it, my grand plans rarely came to fruition but my family has great memories, I came up with five things I'm looking forward to.

1. Being able to let my dogs out any time I want

If you don't happen to live directly across the street from two schools, this might seem like an odd statement. But, I do. If you open my front door, you are staring at the door of an elementary school that shares a parking lot with a middle school. The crossing guard stands in my front yard. Something no one told us about living across the street from a school (other than your yard will constantly be filled with trash and people will come sit on your front porch like they live there while they wait for their kids. #TRUESTORY) is that the twice-a-day parade of humans on the other side of your fence will drive your dogs mad. Between the hours of 7-9am and again from 2:45-4:15pm, they have to stay in the house. Otherwise, they will frantically bark at the same kids, who are now about to be Freshman in High school and have been walking by since Kindergarten. I'm sure if the dogs could speak English, they're really just screaming, "Have a great day! Good luck on that test!" but that's not how it sounds.

The picture above is what will be my office by the end of the summer. In December of 2014 we went through a major foundation repair. We were told to wait at least six weeks before installing new flooring. Then, life jumped up and slapped us around. Since then, we have been walking on cement and carpet that was rolled back out but not truly replaced. By the end of the summer, I WILL HAVE FLOORS! And, some other great renovations that I'll share in my Makeover Monday posts that I plan to revive.

The Romance Writers of America national conference is usually an every-other-year thing for me. I went to San Diego last year and get to go Orlando this year! And, it's at Disney! Really, what else could you ask for?

No, we don't randomly start running around in the buff. My oldest will probably still change three times a day and my youngest will probably still keep all of her laundry in a mountain in her room (next to the hamper, of course, because where else would you put it?) but as of today, it's not my problem! My daughters have both been doing their own laundry for several years now but during the school year there was just way too much going on for them to keep up. And, honestly, I'd rather throw in a load for them during the day when I'm home anyway than have an exhausted kid who wants nothing more than to go to bed sitting up listening for the dryer to ding. But, it's SUMMERTIME! Here's the Tide, here's the Bounce and you know where the washer is! Happy Cleansing!

There are so many great books coming out this summer! I've got awesome reviews ready. Next week, I'll be listing Five Books I'll Be Reading This Summer and Five Books You Should Read! Cannot wait to share!

So, that's how summer is going to look around here. I'd love to hear what you are looking forward to or your grand summer plan!

Five Things I'm Looking Forward to This Summer

I’d love to hear from you!