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What Summer Offers You And Your Family – Reminiscing
*** When you were a kid, do you remember how summers seemed to linger, the days felt long, and you stayed outside until dark catching fireflies in your Mason jars? Do you remember playing Marco Polo endlessly at the pool, riding your bike to the park and feeling the burning heat of the day on your legs as you slid down the metal slide, and getting ice cream every day from the pool snack bar without counting calories? What I remember most about my childhood summers is being outdoors. Sure, some days in the backyard were hot, but we’d spread out a blanket underneath a tree and break out the…
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Goodbye To All That
*** I’ve always loved the title of Joan Didion’s essay, Goodbye to All That, which pays homage to New York, the city, her love for it, but the need to leave it behind. Her love affair with New York begins as most love affairs do—with awe and passion and all-encompassing rapture; however, the city ends up burdening and exhausting her as a writer with its frenetic pace and way of life. It’s quite the opposite for me when considering the ideals of the summer season. Summer rolls in mid-year with its sunshine, flowers, humidity, warmth, relaxing tendencies, and languid days. And while I keep myself busy in the summer, its…
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5 Summertime Suggestions For A Better You
*** Right now, I’m sitting on my screened in back porch loving that it’s a June summer day. It’s a little humid, and it rained earlier, but now the sky is blue and the sun is out. The breeze is rippling the trees. It’s invigorating. I look at summer as a time to unwind a little and a time to try to enjoy the simple things in life: a barbecue with friends and family; days spent at the beach; squeezing in a little travel; cocktails at the pool; watching my son play golf; and seeing my daughter perform in her dance intensive in July. I love this time and wouldn’t…
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8 Things Teachers Enjoy During Summer Break
*** Yesterday, students at Stevenson University celebrated their graduation at our ceremonies in Maryland. As a professor in the department of Business Communication, I was thrilled to see our graduates walk across the stage and receive their diplomas. They worked hard the last four years, and it paid off. As for my colleagues and me, that means we are done teaching until August (unless some are teaching a summer course). While we certainly have preparations to make for the Fall 2017 semester (and I will be teaching a newly created course as well that requires a lot of work), we are free to do some things we want to do…
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News, Recaps, and Congrats to Many Today on the Blog
Gosh, life is busy, isn’t it? We’re all just pushing through each day trying to accomplish all that we can during the 12+ hours we are awake. That said, it’s been a busy April, as it often is in the university world. With three weeks remaining of the semester, the students are getting ready for their final presentations, papers, and pitches. I am excited to see what unfolds in the classroom. In the meantime, I don’t do this often, but I wanted to share some updates here on the blog. Congrats, Leeanne! I want to congratulate my colleague, friend, and co-author of Event Planning: Communicating Theory & Practice, Dr. Leeanne…
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Squeezing In One More Summer Read
* With only a couple of weeks remaining before the return to school and classes, do you have time to squeeze in one more book this summer? I’m currently reading In Defense of the Princess, a nonfiction account of one woman’s affinity and respect for the princess culture. As a fan as well, I wanted to read something that wasn’t fiction since that’s my typical go-to type of book. I wanted to go out of my normal genre. So far, I’m really enjoying it. But my favorite quote about summer reading is the following: “Summer is a great time to expand our horizons as readers and to try something new,…
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“It’s All In the Bag” — Items for Your Pool or Beach Bag
Scout bag. Check. Suntan lotion. Check. Face lotion. Check. Flip Flops. Check. Bathing Suit. Check. Towel. Check. Sunglasses. Check. Bike. Check. We all have our pool and beach bags, and what we keep inside them is still important as we hit the midway point of summer. Summer is not over—there are many more weeks of it ahead of us, and it’s as important to take care of and protect our hair, skin, and eyes now as we did when we first started getting a little sun on our bodies. One of my favorite purchases has been my Scout bag. I love that it’s water resistant and has ample room to…
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In Summer, The Song Sings Itself
In a little over a week, I’ll be back on campus teaching my fall college courses. Some people may dread the thought of work, but not me. I always look forward to the fall and going back to school, to using my brain, to being in the classroom, and to seeing young, eager minds ready to work. BUT I’VE HAD A WONDERFUL SUMMER. Yes. I have had one of the best summers of my life. I have enjoyed every tick-toc moment of it. Even as I’m writing this, I am sitting on my new back porch working from home, and taking a quick break from researching and writing a textbook…
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Writer’s Block & Gut Instinct
Wow. I’m at a loss. This hasn’t happened to me in a while, but I’m suffering from writer’s block. Even writing my blog posts has become more difficult. I don’t know if it’s because we’re in the throws of summer and life has revolved around entertaining my kids, but finding time to sit at the computer and write has become challenging. I’m in constant motion—entertaining, taking the kids to the pool and visiting with friends, going on vacations, and trying to keep my kids grounded with a little bit of schoolwork this summer are full time jobs. Trying to fit in writing a syllabus and organizing for the fall semester,…
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Swim Team: A Confession
I’m going to say it once and only once: I was wrong about swim team. Until this year, I had been unwilling to make the commitment to the sport. However, with a push from my friend and my husband, I changed my ways and stepped up to the plate. I was wrong about a few things, but I was also right about some, including the following: I wasn’t wrong to say that swim team chips away at your free time. I wasn’t wrong to say that you spend from 7:30 a.m. until 2 p.m. at swim meets every Saturday for six weeks. And, I wasn’t wrong to say that it’s…
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Alas—Relinquishing My Duties as Summer Mommy Extraordinaire
Don’t get me wrong—I love my children. I can hug them and squeeze them and kiss them all day long. They are spoiled rotten by a doting mother who loves them to pieces. Like many of you, part of my job as Summer Mommy Extraordinaire is to come up with ideas for the day, because, quite frankly, it’s mandatory in my summertime line of work. The question “Mommy, what are we doing today?” is inevitable every morning as we eat breakfast and watch another rerun of “Sponge Bob,” my daughter’s favorite. It’s my responsibility to come up with the daily summer game plan. You see, if I’d known the full…
