Editors Notebook: When are the lazy days of summer?

Ever since I was a child I've wondered about the origin of "lazy days of summer." When I was young I didn't understand it because when school got out I went to work on the ranch with my dad. To us ranch kids summer and weekends were when the real work began.

Of course, we had a lot of fun as well. There were usually other ranch kids to goof off with and we always got to spend a week at the fair hanging out with our friends. Our family would also slip in a vacation and we would usually end up on at least one camping trip with our grandparents. But we never had a chance to be "lazy."

Then I grew up and had kids of my own and was lucky enough to get to spend quite a few years as a stay-at-home mom. If ever I would finally get to understand the meaning of the term it should have been then right? Laying out by the pool with the kids getting a tan, hanging out at the lake and relaxing in a clean air conditioned house. I still never got that chance to be "lazy." We had good times of course, spending lots of time swimming and goofing off but we were still always on the go.

Even with all that fun I never felt that there was such a thing as a lazy day during the summer. My kids both participated in summer sports and we were always running from here to there like crazy people trying to fit some fun in while meeting all of our obligations.

I am not afraid to admit that for a good number of summers my children would get a 69 cent cone from a local drive-in at 9:30 every morning. The timing from that came because my daughter was part of the swim team here in town and that is when her practice would end every morning. It started off as a quick way to reward a hard morning of practice one day and turned into our tradition. It was a tradition that my husband and the kids' grandparents often raised an eyebrow too, but as I used to tell them "hey that's the type of thing they are going to remember and tell their kids about me one day." Plus they had usually already been up and going for at least a couple of hours by the time we headed for our ice cream cones so what was the harm right?

Now that I am working full time our summers have gotten even more hectic. I really don't have time to hardly do anything-don't believe me take a look at my flower beds- but we try to fit as much fun in as possible and the summer is moving fast. July is about to end and before we know it school will be back in session. We have yet to have had a single breakfast ice cream cone this year.

Last weekend we bounced back and forth between the horse shows for the Camas County fair where my daughter showed-she is currently spending her summer living the ranch kid life working with her papa in the hills around Fairfield- and the Elmore County Fair and Rodeo. Then there were the concerts and movies in the park and a much needed family swim trip to Anderson Ranch Reservoir to cool off on Sunday before getting ready for another busy week ahead.

One things is for certain as I sit here trying to figure out who actually gets the chance to be lazy and where exactly this summer has gone. Time moves fast, too fast and before I know it summers with my kids will have came to an end just like my summers horseback eventually did.

Maybe before this break from school comes to an end I'll take a vacation day and schedule my children and I a lazy day. The only thing on our itinerary will be eating a vanilla ice cream cone for breakfast.