I walked into Hobby Lobby today and there were fall decorations everywhere.
Boo. The fun of summer is winding down and the dog days of school are winding up. I love to homeschool my children, but it is nice to just be “mom” during the summer.
All good things have to end, I suppose, so that new good things can begin. My children seem to know this, as they have taken to making Christmas lists and asking me how many days are left before Christmas.
Once the holidays come, though, I know they will long for a day at the pool, a bath in the sprinklers, and a trip to the beach. There will be another summer for more of that, I suppose. But these little shadows of theirs are getting so big, I also know there not many summers left full of bubbles in the backyard, sprinkler baths, and popsicle grins.
So I am collecting the best moments in my heart. Summer love can live on in my memory.
Here are ten things I will miss about this summer:
10. Friendly visits. I love hosting our friends. We had family come, friends from Dallas, friends from France. I love to wake up and see my children laughing over Cheerios with their buddies. When the people out there comes inside the walls of our home and eat, sleep, read, and play with us we are richer in joy and love than we were before.
9. Mary Poppins. I have been reading the Mary Poppins books to my children. She is such a curious character, and I love how my children can’t decide what she really is with her vanity and irritability in one moment and her whimsical adventures inthe next. It will be sad to put her on the shelf for a little while this fall.
8. Grammie Camp. This year we sent the children to Mr. Fantastic’s parents’ house for a week. We have never sent them for that long, and I hardly knew what to do with myself by the third day. They came back thoroughly spoiled and entirely happy. I am grateful that they know that there are people outside their own home who love them like that. Their life is richer because of it.
7. Deep water. We started the summer with screaming and clawing and fits of great magnitude whenever Boy 3 got near deep water. Then one random day he suddenly did flips off the diving board. Where do children get this internal momentum to overcome? I wish I could bottle the courage and drink it whenever my own faith fails me.
6. Boredom. I love boredom. Boredom births brilliance. Once you face your boredom and decide to find something to do, you grow. During school there is so much to do, we are never bored. Sigh….
5. Camping at the beach. Aside from some initially severe issues for Boy 3 regarding the discomfort of sand, our stay at Doheny was so relaxing I am still returning to it in my mind. Waves crashing, red licorice, digging giant holes, laying in the sand….
4. Books, books, and more books. I love summer reading. We checked out hundreds of books this summer. Pure awesomeness.
3. Babies. This was the summer of long-awaited babies in our friends’ lives. Watching them walk across the finish line of their faith has touched me deeply. I will never forget the faithfulness of God that washed over so many people I love.
2. Love. Love is growing in our family in new ways. The last two years have been difficult as we have transitioned into full-time pastoring. It was a grinding, heavy season of labor that wore us down. This summer, though, we have risen above that season and the love that buoyed us is growing in ways I hadn’t expected.
1. The Flood. I am forever grateful to God for the flooding that happened in our home this summer. Only a God as great as ours can call enough rain out of the hot Texas sky to seep into a weep hole and ruin most of our bedroom. Only a God as great as ours can take that mess and bless us with it. When have we ever known love and peace like we do right now? We are not finished with the repairs, and the mess is sometimes overwhelming, but I am pretty sure we are also not finished with the love that brought us all the friends who are helping to fix it all.
