That's not on our list!

In an effort to not get any more overwhelmed than we already are, my family sat down and had a family meeting before the summer began.

We went through what we wanted to do, what we didn't want to do and how we primarily wanted to spend our time.

Due to my husband's schedule and my son's school schedule, we aren't able to take vacations throughout the year.  As a veterinarian, if I wasn't my own boss, I wouldn't be able to take vacation during the summer (It's the busiest time of year and many vets have contracts that say they can't take time off between May and September).  Fortunately, I have a little flexibility.  We always end up finding ourselves overbooked though.

My husband and I put a great value on family time, and also on our son having "down" time.  One of his classmates actually participates in 4 sports at a time.  We think that we will do best as a family if he just has one organized team activity at a time.

It was interesting to see what my son said were his most important goals of the summer.  Time at home.  Time to play with his toys and maybe an occasional trip to the library or pool.  But mostly time at home.  My son had already coined his phrase, "House overwhelmed" at this time, which to him simply means he's not spending enough time at home and just wants some more chill time.


About a week after this meeting, we were getting ready to help host a barbecue for a religious order and the residents that they take care of in a nursing home.  This was for roughly 70 people.  The last time I had gone shopping for this event, I had filled the cart so much I actually had difficulty moving it.  We strongly dislike going to the Costco chaos on a Saturday, but it made sense to have the extra hands.

We woke up that Saturday morning and reminded our son we needed to go to Costco.  He was quick to point out, "That's NOT on our list!".  So apparently our family meeting had made an impact on his mind and I was happy he remembered and wanted to re-focus our family out of chaos.  I did point out for him that helping others was on our list and one Saturday morning at Costco would not ruin the whole summer.

The $1.50 12 inch hot dog, lemonade and a shared family soft serve was what we used to celebrate,  b
esides the fun we had at the barbecue the next day.  It is good to know that family meetings do matter and we can all try to hold each other accountable to keep the "House Overwhelmed" under control.  It is summer after all.