by Ammie Bryant
With the kids being home since spring break began, the onset of June and “Summer Vacation” doesn’t quite hold the same meaning this year that it has in the past. So much of our family’s life revolves around our children’s activities, so the beginning and ending of the school year are major goalposts on our family’s calendar. Normally we would be planning a summer road trip, but with the continued health crisis, we are wary of traveling very far from home right now.
Life continues to feel as if we are in a semi-limbo state of existence. Most in-person gathering-type activities have been canceled for the summer. Nearly all of the camps and other fun summer programs are canceled. The public library has taken their summer reading program virtual this summer (see the story in this issue). There will be no band camp for our daughter this summer and no tennis camp for our youngest son. Our oldest will attend OSU Freshman orientation online instead of in person this month.
The good news is that we have a date set for commencement on July 24th at Pioneer Stadium with a rain date of July 25th. Fingers crossed that public health guidelines will allow for the ceremony to take place so that the class of 2020 can come together for the ceremony they all deserve and some closure on their high school experience.
Our plans for this summer will keep us much closer to home than normal this year. We are gathering everything our oldest will need to (hopefully) move into his dorm in August and we are working on some small home improvement and cleaning projects as well as making our yard more attractive to an amazing variety of songbirds. The soil in our yard has never been terribly great for gardening, but we have plans to create some container gardens using information from the story in this month’s issue. Finally, we are going to focus on finding some fun outdoor activities in the area and explore more of our state parks instead.
What are your plans for the summer? How is it different from years past?
Until next month, onward!
*Editor’s Note
Some of the content that we post on our website (including the monthly editorial) is actually written at least two weeks–sometimes more–before they go live on our website. This is because these are stories or columns that are included in that month’s print issue of the magazine and they are not scheduled to go live until the print issue is available for our readers.
