Summer is a great season … in magazines. They would have you believe summer is all about the beach and BBQs, long and lazy days, catching fireflies at night and sleeping in late, sundresses and flip flops, camping and roasting marshmallows. Summer is supposed to be free and easy and relaxing.

The reality is so different … and so sweaty.

When you’re a mom with young kids, summer is simply a period of never-ending days with no external structure, not enough sleep, sand and dirt everywhere, too much TV, and not enough nights out for mom. It’s too hot for the park and the beach is nothing but sand and sunburns and drowning danger. My youngest is too young for the library, the only indoor air-conditioned outing I can think of … and we’re still on her two-naps-a-day schedule. Besides, any outing at all is me alone with three kids, one of whom never follows directions. As it turns out … the magazines lied to me about Summer.

The biggest challenge we have faced this summer is sleep. I blame all irrational behavior on sleep deprivation. Why is she crying? Why is she yelling? Why is she hitting her sister? Why won’t she eat her dinner? Why is she drawing on the walls? Why won’t she put her shoes on? Why can’t she read yet? What’s with her hair? Why can’t she remember the letter “W”? Whether I’m right or not, the answer is always “She’s tired.”

A few months before Baby Girl #3 was born, Josephine and Eleanor moved in together. It was problematic at the beginning, and we didn’t think it would work out. But the girls eventually settled into a routine, and it has proved a fairly copacetic situation. I actually think it has aided in making them the best friends that they are.

Enter the Summer of 2014.

Background:

Josephine has been a great sleeper since she was born. And she needs a lot of it. By nature she is an early riser, so she needs to get to sleep early. And when she doesn’t get enough sleep, she is a holy terror. She has been a holy terror for most of the summer.

Eleanor has been a terrible sleeper since birth (I still swear she didn’t sleep more than two minutes together until she was 1). Ella is a night owl, and doesn’t fall asleep until the sun is long gone. By nature, she is like her mama, and catches up on sleep by sleeping in the next morning. Or at least she would, if Josie let her. By nature, at 3 1/2, she is a holy terror. And it gets worse when she’s tired. It’s been worse most of the summer.

As a side note, Wynnie is developing into a nice little early riser herself. She falls asleep quickly at night, and rises with the sun … but alone in her own room, she doesn’t bother anyone. Well, except me, who has to get up with her at, what I consider, the middle of the night. (I consider anything before 9 am unacceptable … which means I have had to rise at an unacceptable hour most of my life.)

Needless to say, Ella is keeping Josie up at night, and Josie is waking Ella up early … and everybody, including me, is grumpy. Every. Single. Day. I’m just expected to be more mature about it. Curses on you, Summer. I thought this relationship was about marshmallows and watermelon.

Complicating factors is that Josephine starts Kindergarten in just 4 1/2 weeks, and that kid needs to be well rested if she’s going to have any chance of adjusting to her new all-day schedule. (Last year she was in preschool twice a week, 3 hours a day. Her new schedule is five days a week, 6 1/2 hours a day. I am dreading the start of school.)

So the other day I had an epiphany. I believe it was a gift of insight from the Lord. We had already decided it wouldn’t work to put Ella and Wynnie in the same room (the goal being to give Josie her own room, and therefore optimal sleep opportunities). And so we dropped the idea altogether. But then! It struck me that Josie and Wynnie are very similar sleepers, and maybe they could share a room! The more I thought about it, and discussed with family members who know my kids well, the more it seemed like a possible answer to the horrible trauma Summer has inflicted.

Sometimes we have to think outside the box, and then pray, and then allow God to fill us with wisdom. I believe that’s the only way ingenious answers come, however simple they may turn out to be.

So, tomorrow we begin a new sleep experiment. We are giving the loud and wild night owl her own room. And we are moving early-to-bed-early-to-rise Wynnie in with her holy terror of a biggest sister, who will hopefully return to her old habit of falling asleep quickly and sleeping soundly. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll get our sweet girl back, and the monster will be but a memory of Summer.

I will let you know how it goes.