This summer...

     There are thousands of articles about ways to make your children happy. It's overwhelming, actually, how much advice you can find on this subject. But let me tell you a little something I inadvertantly discovered the other night. I discovered THE TRICK to making little boys ecstatic. It might work on girls too, I'm not sure. It can be summed up with two little words.

     New. Snacks.

     I kid you not. You would have thought that I walked in with Disney World strapped to my back. Apparently getting just three or four never-before-seen snacks and dumping them in a big Rubbermaid tub in the pantry made me an instant rock star. My eight-year-old, with the swagger of a 16-year-old, muttered under his breath, "Mom is on a roll."

     I was happily stunned that something so simple had made them so happy. The way to a man's heart, even a little man's heart, is through his stomach. The old saying is actually true.

    It made me think about how it really is the simple things that our kids appreciate. It has always fascinated me, the things that my children remember that I didn't even realize were meaningful enough to remember. I was talking to my children the other night and trying to get them to tell me some things they would like to do this summer. Of course they said the obvious things like going to the beach and going to the swimming pool, but just as important was eating ice cream on the porch and reading Harry Potter.

    My oldest still remembers how one time when he was really little he spilled a jar of bath crystals into an empty tub and we made his trains plow through the pretend dirt or snow or whatever. Seriously?? This is what he remembers.

     I don't know why I find that suprising. I can still remember drinking Orange Crush whenever there was a tornado warning. We got in our safe place and talked and drank soda. Something so crazy simple, and yet I get a warm, fuzzy feeling every time I think of it.

     Every summer I make a list of things I want to do with the kids that summer. The list is ridiculously long, about 75 things. It can be anything from going on an out of town trip to playing volleyball and eating pizza with friends.

     At the end of the summer I have always barely put a dent in the list and then decide that I am a horrible summertime parent.

     This summer I am going to cut myself some slack.

     This summer I vow to remember that catching fireflies will be remembered just as much, if not more than going to Alabama Adventure.

     This summer I'm going to sit back and relax and try to savor every moment no matter how small.

     I can just imagine it. No overwhelming planning. No crazy schedule. Just simple fun and living in the moment.

     This might be the best summer yet.