I’m a summertime Scrooge. Amidst the glowing summer bucket lists, pins of summer fun, the smell of sunscreen and late-night bonfires, I’m a total Scrooge. I so, so much prefer fall or even winter to summer. I know. Scrooge. Go ahead, bah humbug away, then let me tell you why with my real mom confessions, summer edition.

1. I hate being hot. When you’re hot, it’s so so hard to cool down! When you’re cold, you can layer up until you’re warm. When you’re hot, you can only remove so many layers 😉 Give me cold any day. 

2. I don’t like bugs. Bees are a phobia of mine. And they’re all happy flying around all summer long.

3. I’m a terrible outing mom. I forget things like full sippy cups and sunscreen, blankets or lawn chairs at the park, kids’ sunglasses or hats. Other moms have like sandwiches and water bottles and organic sunscreen, but my kids, um, don’t. Poor things. Outings are kind of my bane. 

4. It’s a lot of work to keep clean. When it’s hot out, you get sweaty, smelly and sticky and it lasts all day. I want to shower twice a day and bathe my kids every night because sand. bugspray. sunscreen. dirt. overall nast. But I don’t bathe them every night. We do a ‘sink foot bath’ three out of four bedtimes but man, I just don’t love feeling grungy all day everyday. 

5. My eating takes a hit. The only things I want to eat in the summer are popsicles, iced coffee, cold mayo-based salads, passion iced tea from Starbucks, and the new s’mores Oreos (which are good like whoa). We do get lots of protein as we grill almost nightly, but during the day I only want cold things. That I have to make. Which I just want to appear in my fridge already made. 

6. The early/late sunshine. The late evening summer sun is a bedtime thief. The early morning summer sun is a sleep-stealer. And the BIRDS chirping around 4:30/5am? I want to throw tennis balls at them out my window.

I do know that there are many wonderful things about summertime and I even like a few of them 😉 Trips to friends cabins, our beloved Minnesota State Fair, comfy clothes, easy clothes for kids, a trip to a blogging conference and to a retreat with writer friends – all good things. But. A few of the sumac leaves across our yard are already starting to turn red, and Hallmark’s Ornament Premiere is in a few weeks. I’m excited about both of those not-summery things and I’m not sorry. =)