my top 10 list of summery things......
Here are some of my thoughts regarding summery things.
1. Baseball equals summer at this house. It consumes the month of June. We sit on steamy hot bleachers and clap and cheer and heckle if we dare and we suck down bottles of water and get sun burned a bit. I will miss chatting with other baseball parents. I will not miss the disgusting bathrooms at baseball fields.
2. Summer food is unprecedented and absolutely worth being noted. Strawberries picked fresh from a strawberry field.......ripe watermelon that drips down your chin when you take a bite.....grilled meats and light salads......and sun tea, sangria, cold beer, popcycles and my new challenge: iced coffee.
3. Cool light-weight, knee-length skirts with tank tops and flip flops. Can there be a greater gift to women's fashion than this combo? Colorful swim suits and flashy sun glasses and baseball caps. Your favorite t-shirt from a vacation you took where you spent too much money in gift shops and yet you wear the shirt all the time.....
4. Summer vacations. Planning them, sharing stories with others about them, swapping tips and notes and such regarding which sight-seeing is worth it and which is a flop. Learning how those we do life with choose to "vacation" and then deciding what vacation means to me. This year, we will do some shorter trips away and some longer "stay-cation" options to accommodate baseball, working teens, drivers ed and our budget. I hope to do a mental health week aka vacation in late August or Early September.......all by myself.
5. Staying up late. Good golly. It's 12:13am and I am still awake. After the ball game tonight we invited the team over to swim. It was a bunch of rowdy 11/12/13 year old boys under the stars splashing and screaming and soaking and yelling for a couple of hours and it was all summer-worthy. The parents were kind and let them swim long and hard and came to get their guys. Last night I stayed up late talking with my mom on our sleep-over......late nights are part of summer.
6. Fresh air. Time outside. Moments between this thing just done and the next when I can go sit in my back yard and just......breathe. Listen. Notice birds singing and new perennials blooming and butterflies and billowy clouds. You guys. These things are happening. They matter. Go find them and notice them and breathe....and listen......and worship God Almighty in them because they matter. We matter. Hitting the pause button matters.......being still......matters.
7. Runners. Ugh. Runners are part of summery things. It is "ugh" because I want to be one, wish I was one....but am not......one. Runners in the mornings, runners at noon. Runners in the evenings of all shapes and sizes in fancy running gear and sloppy sweats. Head phones and sometimes not. Summer flushes out runners.
8. Songs. This great nation we live in always releases pop culture songs in summer that are fun. Happy songs. Party songs. Careless songs....and they are part of summery things.
9. Library reading program. (big heavy sigh here) where we are so gung-ho to get started and get the paper and the program and the books......and then instead of reading we go to ball games and we swim and we watch Ninja Warrior competitions on tv.....and we feel so, so guilty about not reading successfully....and then those daggum signs start sprouting up in people's lawns saying "Summer Reader!" or something like that. I start to nag and harrass my non-reader children that they need to read, read, read!........but I think they are on to me. They know that if they are reading that I feel like a better summer mom. And frankly, they don't care.
10. Fireflies. They aren't around long. Enjoy them.
1. Baseball equals summer at this house. It consumes the month of June. We sit on steamy hot bleachers and clap and cheer and heckle if we dare and we suck down bottles of water and get sun burned a bit. I will miss chatting with other baseball parents. I will not miss the disgusting bathrooms at baseball fields.
2. Summer food is unprecedented and absolutely worth being noted. Strawberries picked fresh from a strawberry field.......ripe watermelon that drips down your chin when you take a bite.....grilled meats and light salads......and sun tea, sangria, cold beer, popcycles and my new challenge: iced coffee.
3. Cool light-weight, knee-length skirts with tank tops and flip flops. Can there be a greater gift to women's fashion than this combo? Colorful swim suits and flashy sun glasses and baseball caps. Your favorite t-shirt from a vacation you took where you spent too much money in gift shops and yet you wear the shirt all the time.....
4. Summer vacations. Planning them, sharing stories with others about them, swapping tips and notes and such regarding which sight-seeing is worth it and which is a flop. Learning how those we do life with choose to "vacation" and then deciding what vacation means to me. This year, we will do some shorter trips away and some longer "stay-cation" options to accommodate baseball, working teens, drivers ed and our budget. I hope to do a mental health week aka vacation in late August or Early September.......all by myself.
5. Staying up late. Good golly. It's 12:13am and I am still awake. After the ball game tonight we invited the team over to swim. It was a bunch of rowdy 11/12/13 year old boys under the stars splashing and screaming and soaking and yelling for a couple of hours and it was all summer-worthy. The parents were kind and let them swim long and hard and came to get their guys. Last night I stayed up late talking with my mom on our sleep-over......late nights are part of summer.
6. Fresh air. Time outside. Moments between this thing just done and the next when I can go sit in my back yard and just......breathe. Listen. Notice birds singing and new perennials blooming and butterflies and billowy clouds. You guys. These things are happening. They matter. Go find them and notice them and breathe....and listen......and worship God Almighty in them because they matter. We matter. Hitting the pause button matters.......being still......matters.
7. Runners. Ugh. Runners are part of summery things. It is "ugh" because I want to be one, wish I was one....but am not......one. Runners in the mornings, runners at noon. Runners in the evenings of all shapes and sizes in fancy running gear and sloppy sweats. Head phones and sometimes not. Summer flushes out runners.
8. Songs. This great nation we live in always releases pop culture songs in summer that are fun. Happy songs. Party songs. Careless songs....and they are part of summery things.
9. Library reading program. (big heavy sigh here) where we are so gung-ho to get started and get the paper and the program and the books......and then instead of reading we go to ball games and we swim and we watch Ninja Warrior competitions on tv.....and we feel so, so guilty about not reading successfully....and then those daggum signs start sprouting up in people's lawns saying "Summer Reader!" or something like that. I start to nag and harrass my non-reader children that they need to read, read, read!........but I think they are on to me. They know that if they are reading that I feel like a better summer mom. And frankly, they don't care.
10. Fireflies. They aren't around long. Enjoy them.
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