Summer Holidays, Family, and the Writing Life…

Wait. You're staying how long?

We Canadians love our summer holidays, and other than major holidays such as Christmas or Thanksgiving, it’s the only time when we can get together with our families and just chill. This begs me to ask the question: Is it possible to write during the summer months? Um. Yeah. It’s a toughie, but I did manage to get some writing done. And I have been busy editing the second book in my young adult time travel series, The Last Timekeepers and the Dark Secret. So there’s a thumbs up for that. But when I read a recent post from Mirror World Publishing’s blog entitled It’s Okay Not to Write, I decided to put aside any guilty feelings of ‘not’ writing regularly in the summer, and just enjoy this hot, sunny season and time spent with my family.

The first Monday in August is our Civic Holiday, which is a roundabout way of saying ‘Public’ Holiday. It’s not a statutory holiday in the province where I live (Ontario), but if your employer is on the generous side, then you can probably book that long weekend away with no problem. The Civic Holiday weekend also marks the middle of summer—halfway to fall and five weeks till school starts. Sorry, kids!

When we lived at our cottage, it seemed like the busiest weekend of the summer, and since we were on a medium-sized lake, you had to take turns going out water skiing or tubing. Our kids usually ambushed visited us that weekend for food and fun-in-the-sun, and somehow they left their children behind. LOL! Thankfully, there was a lot to do around the cottage for the grandkids with swimming, fishing, boating, tubing, canoeing, reading on the beach (yes, I have a few readers), watching movies, and campfires. We found that the week just flew by! I truly miss those days, and I’m grateful for those cottage memories with our family and friends.

Now that we live in the ‘Banana’ belt of Canada (think Florida weather), and farther from some of our family, we see the kids less. Most of the grandchildren have their own lives now. Sigh. The bright spot is we do get to see our youngest grandchild (now ten), and have her for the week of the Civic Holiday. Yay! So I’ve compiled a list of things to do around in this area to keep the little minion busy, happy, and motivated. Read on…

1.      Baking with Grandpa (Grandma doesn’t do baking)

2.      A day at the beach…Holiday Beach to be precise!

3.      Movie night at Silver City in Windsor; granddaughter’s pick!

4.      Walking the Riverfront and catching a boat tour with Windsor River Cruises.

5.      Cooling down at the Toddy Jones Park Slash Pad, then heading over to the Waterfront Ice Cream Parlor.

6.      Visiting the Amherstburg Freedom Museum. This is a win-win, as I get to do some research for my next time travel book too!

7.      Heading to my brother’s pool for a swim. Thank God for relatives with pools!

8.      Catching up on Disney shows! (Grandpa is looking forward to this!)

9.      Keeping cool at the Devonshire Mall in Windsor where I’m sure someone is bound to score a gift or two.

10.  If time permits, going to Adventure Bay Family Water Park in Windsor. After a few hours there, we’ll be water-logged for the week! LOL!

Now, if we play our cards right, our granddaughter will look like this each night:

Nighty, night. Sleep tight.

I hope you have a safe and happy holiday with your family or friends, and enjoy the rest of your summer! Remember life is short, and no one who is on their death bed says that they wished they could have spent more time at work. Think about it. Relationships truly matter. Cheers and thank you for reading my blog!