I Thought I Had a Lazy Summer

My youngest went back to school this week after two years of homeschooling, and apparently that was enough to make me realize summer is basically over. I’m not entirely sure how that happened already, but with school starting again, I’ve spent a little time looking back at the last few months.

And my first thought was that we had a pretty lazy summer.

There wasn’t a big family vacation. There wasn’t some huge concert I’d been counting down to for months. We didn’t spend weeks traveling or have some massive summer adventure. There were plenty of days when I felt like I should probably be doing more. I definitely didn’t write as much as I planned to. There were weeks when my notebooks barely opened because theater or life or something else completely took over.

So yeah, at first glance, I thought it had been kind of a lazy summer.

Then I actually started thinking about everything that’s happened since tax season ended in April.

Apparently, my definition of lazy needs some work. 😂

We Did A LOT of Theater

If you’ve followed me for more than five minutes, you probably already know that theater takes up a ridiculous amount of my life. This summer was definitely no exception.

We started with Annie Jr., which feels like it happened approximately seventeen years ago at this point. There is something about show weekends that completely destroys my ability to understand the passage of time.

Then came Into the Woods.

Actually in the woods.

Because apparently performing Into the Woods on a normal stage wasn’t enough. 😂

There was something pretty damn cool about seeing that show performed outside surrounded by actual trees. It’s one of those theater experiences that I’m probably going to remember for a long time.

And because that obviously wasn’t enough theater for one summer, we also put on a double feature of 101 Dalmatians KIDS and The Town That Time Forgot. There were camps. Workshops. Rehearsals. Performances. Registration. And before we even had time to really process that those shows were finished, we were already preparing for auditions for The Little Mermaid Jr.

Now we’re in rehearsals for that.

Theater doesn’t really believe in an off-season around here.

We also got to sit on the other side of the audience for a change and watch Pride Theater Productions perform Spring Awakening. It’s an amazing show—not necessarily an easy one, and definitely not a show for everyone—but they did an incredible job with it. There were laughs, tears, uncomfortable moments, and so many incredibly talented people on that stage.

So apparently I spent a decent portion of my “lazy” summer inside a theater.

Shocking, I know.

Oh Yeah… I Rewrote FOUR Books

This is probably where my argument that I had a lazy summer completely falls apart.

When tax season ended, I decided it was finally time to go back and give some of my older books the attention they deserved.

Apparently I couldn’t just pick one.

I started with Summer Love Autumn Goodbye. I completely rewrote it, edited it, proofread it, and gave it a fresh new cover.

Then I moved on to Self Inflicted.

And then Scars Fade.

And because I was already three books deep and clearly incapable of making reasonable decisions, I finished the entire Self Inflicted saga by doing the same thing with Time Heals.

Four books.

Four complete rewrites. Four rounds of editing. Four new covers. Plus formatting, uploading, descriptions, graphics, promotions, review copies, website updates, and all the other little things that come with putting a new edition of a book into the world.

I spent so much of the summer focused on what I wasn’t writing that I somehow overlooked the fact that I had completely rewritten four freaking books.

I think that counts as doing something.

Now that they’re finished, I’m finally ready to put the rewrites aside for a while and return to Unraveled Prophecies. I’ve missed that world, and I’m more than ready to get back to Andi, Kael, Kade, and everyone else waiting for me there.

Assuming theater lets me. 😂

We Even Managed to Leave Town

There wasn’t a big summer vacation this year, but we did squeeze in a very quick trip to Chicago.

And when I say quick, I mean we apparently decided sleep was optional and tried to cram as much as humanly possible into a couple of days.

We visited the Museum of Science and Industry, which I could probably spend an entire day wandering around without seeing everything. We also went to Medieval Times, which was easily one of the highlights of the trip. Give me horses, sword fights, and jousting and apparently I’m entertained.

It wasn’t a weeklong vacation or some elaborate trip we’d been planning forever.

It was just a couple of days away.

And it was fun.

Sometimes that’s enough.

And There Was Music

I didn’t have a big concert this summer either. Last year, I took the big kids to see Linkin Park. The year before that, Xane and I saw Fall Out Boy (which was a HUGE bucket list show) AND Green Day! It felt strange to not have a big show to look forward to this year.

But there was definitely music.

My friends’ band had their FateOneFive Day show, and THEY SOLD IT OUT. Getting to be there and watch that happen was pretty damn amazing.

And one of my favorite things about live music is accidentally discovering someone new.

That’s how I found The Failsafe, and I’ve been listening to them ever since. I went to the show for bands I already knew I liked and walked away with another one to add to the rotation. That’s always a win.

And then there was Jared Benjamin.

I stumbled across his music earlier this summer and apparently decided everyone around me needed to hear it too.

Especially my 17-year-old.

I torture him with Jared every chance I get. 😂

I’m pretty sure he knows songs he never voluntarily agreed to learn at this point.

No regrets.

Maybe It Wasn’t Lazy After All

It’s funny how easy it is to decide you haven’t done enough.

We look at the things we planned to do and didn’t finish instead of everything that happened along the way. I didn’t take some huge vacation. I didn’t go to some massive concert. I didn’t spend the entire summer sitting somewhere beautiful with absolutely nothing to do.

And I definitely didn’t write as much new material as I thought I would.

But I helped put on multiple theater productions.

I watched kids I’ve known for years step onto stages and become completely different people.

I watched Into the Woods in the actual woods.

I saw an incredible production of Spring Awakening.

I helped get another group of kids through auditions and into rehearsals for The Little Mermaid Jr.

I watched my friends sell out a show.

I discovered new music.

I took a quick trip to Chicago and watched people knock each other off horses with giant sticks.

And somehow, in the middle of all of that, I completely rewrote four books.

Now summer is ending. My youngest is back in school after two years at home, theater is already moving into the next production, Time Heals is ready to make its way back into the world, and I’m finally turning my attention back toward Unraveled Prophecies.

There wasn’t one giant moment that defined this summer.

Maybe that’s why it felt lazy while I was living it.

It was just a hundred smaller moments happening one after another, mixed in with ordinary days at home, reading, wrestling, music, theater, books, and everything else that makes up our lives.

And looking back at it now?

I don’t think I had a lazy summer at all.

I think I had a pretty damn good one.

And apparently, a ridiculously productive one too. 🖤

#YouAreNotAlone