Summertime

I love summer. I love the sun, the heat, the blue skies. I love wearing sandals and cool summer clothing. I love the food -- grilling, fresh fruit, ice cream. I love the activities -- swimming, playing outside, reading outside. I love the relaxed feel of summer.

Well, relaxed yet busy. Besides the obvious (working, schooling, cleaning, dishes, errands, groceries, etc.), here's a sampling of what we have been doing:

Saw Pixar's "Brave"
Participating in the library summer reading program
Kids have been playing baseball in the backyard with neighborhood friends
Playing lots and lots of board games - inside and outside
Reading "Holes" together as a family outside
Enjoying a sleepover -- a friend of mine and two of her girls -- food, fun, more games!
Volunteering at the library
Campfire, Smores, and playing in the woods at our friends' house
Playing some fun Wii games
Enjoying ice cream treats
Catching fireflies - one of our favorite summer traditions
Eating grilled burgers -- mmmmm.
Hanging out in our jammies on some days
Filling our bird feeders and watching the birds
Playing baseball
Making grilled Pizza - Philly Cheese Steak and more to come!
Playing at the park
Eating frozen lemonade pie
Enjoying our town's celebration with a booth for our business
Doggie play dates
Eating delicious grilled fish
Working on various projects
Dungeons and Dragons groups
Reading lots
Walking our dog
Driving around to look at the fields light up from all the fireflies
Getting together with friends to do L.A.R.P. (live action role playing)
Snuggling and watching the lightning show during summer thunderstorms
Eating a lot of fresh salads
Playing Capture the Flag, Ultimate Frisbee, and tons of other outside games
Library book bingo
Driving with the windows down and the music up
Family bike rides - with Scout in the bike trailer
Hanging laundry - love to do that in the summer!
Drinking green shakes - yum!
Participating in our bank's summer reading program
Having playdates with friends
Playing with our adorable dog -- we LOVE her!
Enjoying fruits and veggies from our CSA
Going to the pool as a family and with friends
Getting a 25-lb. box of fresh blueberries and eating them like crazy
Trying frozen cake pops - also yum!
Doing our homeschool portfolios and evaluations
Free summer kids' movies
Thing 2 and I went on a double date with his friend and his friend's grandma
Getting take out and watching the movie "Holes" as a family
Spending A LOT of time on our patio and in our backyard
Kids have been playing copious amounts of Minecraft with friends
Seeing our friend's play
And so much more . . .

It's a good busy. It's a happy busy. We enjoy ourselves and smile and laugh a lot. Life is good. We are all excited for the beach and visiting friends and having friends visit us. I love being a stay-at-home mom and feel extremely grateful that I get to do that. I don't take that for granted. I love spending time as a family.

I just mentioned to Mark the other day that I grew up with two working parents and my summers were primarily spent at my Vavô's (grandfather's) house. I loved visiting my Vavô and playing outside in his yard and under his gigantic grapevine. My summers had their own special magic about them. We lived out in the boondocks. Eventually, children moved into the neighborhood and I was very excited about that and loved to play and ride bikes with them. And my mom and dad did a lot of barbecuing and hosting on the weekends, so the delicious food stuff is not new to me.

But all this stuff -- summer movies, pool, park days, library reading programs, baseball, playdates -- is new to me. I didn't grow up with that. I mentioned to him that I hope I'm "doing it right" (not that there's a "right" way to do it - just trying to explain that I'm learning here, too) and helping to give our kids magical and wonderful summers. They are great, happy, wonderful kids and I love spending time with them.

I love that Mark has a fairly flexible schedule day to day and that he gets to join in on so much of what we do. I love that our little Scout is such a happy, fun, energetic, mischievous, snuggly part of our family. I love dreaming of possibilities for us, our home, our business.

I love our small town. I love that whether we're at the library, the grocery store, the park, the pool, the movies, the backyard, or just about any place, we see friends and people we know. I love our circle of friends -- amazing, positive, loving people who help me feel empowered, positive, hopeful. While we enjoy traveling and visiting new places, we do love our day-to-day, small town life here. 

I love the warm, sunny days. I love that I don't need to wear socks for my feet to be warm. I love that we can eat outside so much. I love the slower pace. I love that I can throw on sandals to go someplace and not deal with layers and layers of extra clothing. I love summer. Somehow, things that are normally stressful seem less stressful.

I've said before that I think I have some degree of seasonal affective disorder. Summer is a great cure for that, so I'm taking it all in. I enjoy all four seasons for different reasons and try to be mindful of the gifts and goodness of each one. Sunshine, blue skies, swimming, biking, walking, ice cream, playing, reading, gaming, hanging out with my beautiful family . . . I love summertime.