Living in the Wrong Season, or creating your own?

Imagine if you will that its a hot summer day. You’re driving down the road and see kids riding bikes, a man running with his dog, a woman mowing a lawn, and the neighborhood kids running gleefully through the sprinkler that they have set up on their front lawn. You pass a lemonade stand and a lengthy line at the local ice cream shop. You look down, sweat dripping off your face, and ask yourself, why are you wearing a snow suit and boots?

Are you living in the wrong season? In the example above it seems obvious you wouldn’t have dressed in a snow suit and boots in the midst of summer. But maybe it’s not that obvious that you’re in the wrong season. Maybe you’re planning a vacation when you need to be saving for a vehicle. Maybe you just ordered a bright white couch when your kids hands are constantly stained orange from Cheetos.

But maybe there is more grey area then we realize. Here I am, trying to start a career in writing and wrapping up edits on my first book while I am chasing around three kids and cleaning up messes that duplicate before I can even find the broom. Is this the perfect time? No. Is there a perfect time? Also no. So can’t we kind of create our own season? Can’t we live in the in-between that we find in Spring and Fall? It’s not winter, but it’s not summer. We aren’t single and living in the fast lane, but we aren’t dead just because we started a family.

I feel like I found myself skipping over things because the timing wasn’t right. I felt like I was in the wrong season. We didn’t have a house because we don’t want to buy where we are, but hey girl, we can rent! So here we are – renting a beautiful house because I stopped waiting for perfection. I always find myself scrambling last minute to put together a holiday because my husband works them and it just didn’t seem like a big deal to celebrate the Fourth without him. But these are the memories I’m creating for my kids (“Oh we didn’t do anything because my dad worked”). No. Stop! You control your narrative – “Oh we did x, y, and z as a kid and it was the best”.

You can’t control every aspect of your season but you can make the best of it. To break the cycle I started planning their birthdays straight away. My husband may be working, we’re for sure in the middle of a pandemic, and our families live across the country — their birthday parties won’t look like everyone else’s birthday parties. BUT, they’ll be our own version of greatness. These kiddos deserve a celebration of the wonderful people they are becoming! Hello, Amazon! Avoiding the stores and still giving them a birthday to talk about.

Some parts of our seasons of life we have to acknowledge – holding off on vacation when we need a car. Not buying wants when we can’t afford needs. Putting off purchases so that we can give ourselves breathing room. And then there are parts of our seasons of life that we can make into something beautiful – birthday party in quarantine with no guest list, planning a staycation, and spending time with each other making memories.

Enjoy whatever season you may be in.