Fun Summer Ideas for Physicians with Kids

One of my parenting magazines recently ran an article of the things that you should do this summer with your kids. Their idea was to hang all these ideas on a decorative hanger and scrapbook each accomplishment.  That’s a little high speed for me, but I can write them down in a list. Summer is here (well, not really as my husband will remind me because we haven’t had the summer equinox, but it’s close enough for me).  I’m ready to compile my own list.

This summer…

• I want to not just plant flowers in my garden but also sit back and enjoy their delicious scent.

• I’m going to go on a bike date with my husband and break out the tandem mountain bike we haven’t used since kid #1.

• I will try the recipes for those funky flavors of ice pops I cut out of magazines.

• I’m going to recreate my grandmother’s famous lemon meringue pie even though meringue intimidates me.

• I’m going to leave work early on my early day.

• I will watch the sunset from my front porch.

• I’m going to have a water gun fight with my kids. And win.

• I will thoroughly enjoy my favorite holiday of the year: The 4^th of July.

• I’m going to spend more time reading in the red chaise lounger I got for Mother’s Day last year.

• I will celebrate the last baby I deliver since I’m giving up OB next month.

• I won’t waste sunshine being inside.

• I’m going to play more backyard badminton.

• I’ll catch a foul ball at the baseball game.

• I’ll watch all the fireworks shows I can.

• I’m going to (finally!) come up with a desk organization system that works.

• I will throw away all of the articles that I kept from medical school. 

• I will make homemade lemonade and drink it on the back patio.

I hope you have an equally wonderful list of things to look forward to this summer. We so often look with great anticipation to something just around the corner - a vacation, warm weather, the end of a call weekend - and neglect to enjoy and relish what’s going on around us. It’s easy to see the weeds in your garden and bemoan having to pull them out. It’s harder to focus on the flowers, ignore the weeds, and just sit down and smell your roses.

In the pursuit of work-life balance, I hope your summer is enjoyable at work and at home one moment at a time.