Find your chill

Summer time calls for lazy days, ice cream, hot backyards, and kids. Kids in my house all day long who need me, ask me questions, talk to me, need me to hold them, need food…you get the drift.

It’s hard as a parent at home with the kids to find your chill. When do you get a chance to just be you and relax?

Here are a few suggestions for doing just that:

Buy your favorite treat

As simple as it sounds, having your favorite ice cream or candy bar can go a long way when you’re stressed out after a long day trying to entertain the brood. Because I’m trying to be healthier, I’m struggling a little with limiting the treats. A chocolate bar after I get all the kids to bed for a nap is somehow relaxing for me.

Read an awesome book

Summer is the perfect time for escaping in a great book. The problem with summer reading with kids is that you have to do it in spurts or stay up late after they’ve gone to bed.

Right now, I’m reading some books on leadership and teacher-y stuff — but I like to read those sorts of things. Math Man and I have been reading The Maze Runner series, and I’m almost ready to start the second book. I love to choose books that move quickly and don’t cause me to think too hard. (Hence the choice of Young Adult reading!)

Binge watch a show

We cancelled our cable almost a year ago because — with kids — we just never watch live cable TV. We were DVRing everything, and we still weren’t seeing everything we wanted to see. So, we went with Amazon Prime TV, Hulu, Netflix, and a regular antenna.

As our regular season shows drew to a close, we scoured Netflix for a series we might like to watch that perhaps we’d heard of but never had a chance to see (again, kids). We found Dexter and were quickly hooked. At first, I was so disturbed by the storyline that I was having nightmares. But as I weirdly became attached to serial killer Dexter, I really just wanted to hurry to get the littles to bed each night so that I could see the next episode or start the next series.

Take a change to hang out with your friends

One play date too many? It’s a fact that when we attempt to get together with our friends and their kids, we don’t actually get any relaxing time to talk with our friend. Like tonight, at a cookout with my BFF, all of our conversations were broken up into snippets of five minute quick chats that never actually found endings. In fact, I’m certain there are still about five topics of conversation that we started that never were resolved.

It’s time for my BFF and me to get out and just be us. The last time we found the chance, we went to Target (twice!) and Starbucks. We spent literally hours just sitting and talking without minions begging us for a cheese stick. And it was restorative to my soul.

How do you find your chill?

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Visit some of my fellow blogging friends who have their own take on the theme, Chill.

Over at Baking in a Tornado, find a recipe for Chewy Orange Pineapple Bars.

Spatulas on Parade is tempting us with a Tortellini “Chill” Salad

The Liebers have a fun craft with the Chillin’ Triptych