10 mph

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I think it's both my personality and the circumstances of my life that require me to always be in a hurry. Even when I don't have to be anywhere first thing in the morning, I regularly find myself ripping my car out of the driveway with wet hair, a piece of toast balancing precariously on the cup holder next to me, and a pair of shoes for Elisabeth in hand... which I then toss over my shoulder and spend the next five minutes of driving time asking, insisting and finally cajoling her to strap them to her feet so that when we arrive at our destination we can rush inside and not be even later. I would say this is pretty much our daily routine.

But now it's summertime.

In the past few days we've made homemade strawberry ice cream and spent over an hour lingering in the children's section of the local library. We roll out of bed when we feel like it, the early risers at a dependable six am, the sleepyheads closer to nine. We've walked around the yard in bare feet inspecting our flowers, and sprawled across the tiled floor in the kitchen painting nails. Yesterday I called Jeremy at work and asked him out on a date. Let's find somewhere to eat where we can sit outside, I told him.

Of course not every moment of the day is relaxing. Yesterday I burst through the door of Kate's doctor's appointment ten minutes late with a hungry, crying baby on my hip and all three of my girls in tow, tripping over each other and loudly complaining about who was supposed to push which elevator button. The doctor patiently herded us into a conference room so that we could inspect Kate's new hearing aid and learn how to work it, but I confess our attention span and focus were a wee bit compromised. Elisabeth was mad the doctor hadn't set out a tray of cookies like last time, and as I tried to quiet her indignant tears I began mixing together a jar of pears and rice cereal so that I could spoon feed the baby. Multitasking is the key! (Just for the record, it did occur to me that hauling out a grocery sack full of a bib, bowl, spoon, baby food and an entire box of rice cereal was possibly not the most graceful way to pass the appointment, but since I had to pull the baby out of bed the moment before we left and it was a forty minute drive, what's a mom to do?).

But we lived. And we have weeks and weeks ahead of us that won't require much beyond ten miles per hour. Plus, the promise of watermelon, sidewalk chalk, cloud watching, and afternoon siestas will sustain me through the doctor's appointments and Costco trips with all four kids. I can't complain. It's summertime!