SUMMER and the Joy of...A Schedule?

Summer days are lazy and idle...in my memory. I remember those days when I was like the four kids in Stand By Me...so lazy that I would've given anything for a chance to go check out a dead body...

There's something about that movie that encapsulates the boredom of endless summer days with nothing to do. Now, I spent plenty of summer days watching movies, but my real memories of lazy summer days are mostly centered around reading in various locations, and wondering through river bottoms, and finding more books and even more places to read them. I have a strong memory of lying on the porch swing with a book, feeling the roughness of the creekstone porch beneath my feet, as I pushed off over and over. In the end, I'd get motion sick every time! I also remember lying on my bed, having an oscillating fan blowing on me, eating microwave fudge, and reading books that transported me, like this one...

After the glorious free reading time of summer, I hated the rigidity of school, it felt very restrictive to me.

But as an adult, I find that I have to have a schedule. The problems with schedules in summer is that as soon as I get used to one, things change, but...yeah, since I've had kids my life is a series of schedules.

Although I love spontaneity in theory, I find myself needing some guidelines for my time. In summer, as a full time mom, I definitely plan each day around certain activities, and during the school year I'm super-scheduled.

As a writer, I think this actually helps me. The reader in me loves long lazy days. The writer in me craves a time to sit and just create/write/revise/think.

How about you guys? Memories of summer? Spontaneity or schedules?