Summer

(Photo: Pierce at our Community Pool)

Well, summer officially started Friday, June 2oth. Normally it is June 21, but the first day of summer is timed with the summer solstice, which this year is June 20th. If you're curious what summer solstice is, here is some information...

The earliest humans knew that the sun’s path across the sky, the length of daylight, and the location of the sunrise and sunset all shifted in a regular way throughout the year. They built monuments, such as Stonehenge, to follow the sun’s yearly progress.

Today, we know that the solstice is an astronomical event, caused by Earth’s tilt on its axis, and its motion in orbit around the sun. Because Earth doesn’t orbit upright, but is instead tilted on its axis by 23-and-a-half degrees, Earth’s northern and southern hemispheres trade places in receiving the sun’s light and warmth most directly.

At the June solstice, Earth is positioned in its orbit so that the North Pole is leaning 23-and-a-half degrees toward the sun. As seen from Earth, the sun is directly overhead at noon 23-and-a-half degrees north of the equator, at an imaginary line encircling the globe known as the Tropic of Cancer. This is as far north as the sun ever gets.

All locations north of the equator have day lengths greater than 12 hours at the June solstice. Meanwhile, all locations south of the equator have day lengths less than 12 hours. Whew...probably TMI, but interesting nonetheless.

Friday, June 20th was the first day of summer and the longest day of the year. But for us, summer began the day the kids were out of school - May 27th. It has already been a fun, action-packed summer! The kids do not "want" for things to do. They are either playing the Wii, PS2, PS3, swimming in the backyard or at the community pool. They wake-up early and start playing...which makes for pretty busy days! But I wouldn't change it for the world. I have one little one, Pierce, standing next to me right now begging to get on my computer to play games. That is one aspect of having young children..."me" time is very sparse. Not a lot of time alone. I laughed the other day listening to Megan tell me about having the "best" lunch ever, but Hudson saw her and started whining. She had to share. haha Part of being a parent. Either that, or learn early to hide while eating :)

Today is no different than any other day during the summer. Kids get up early, watch a little tv, play on the computer, then start to get restless. What can we do, where can we go, who can we play with??? All questions I'm sure I asked as a child. But I just look at them in amazement and think, what would you do if you didn't have ALL this stuff? Would you be better off? Would you HAVE to play with each other, be creative and think of games to play, or go outside and make up games like we used to do?? That takes too much energy, if you ask Pierce. Which brings me to his latest comment this morning. We put bunk beds in our extra bedroom. The one that has the Wii, flat screen tv, the kids computer and, for now, Hudson's bassinet. As I was helping him down the ladder from the top bunk, he got scared and said he couldn't do it. He was turned half way around watching Cartoon Network on tv while he was trying to climb down. I told him if he would stop watching tv it would help him concentrate on climbing down. He looked at me, with his oh so serious Pierce face and said, "you need to turn off the tv because I'm affected by it and can't help myself." I did, and he climbed down. At least he's honest :)