There is something sad about opening your calendar to the month of August to add an event.
There it is in black and white....the end of summer.
Not once, before I turned 18 was there even a reason to plan things three months in advance - summer seemed endless.
Now I have to know who has camp which week, when everyone has a doctor appointment and when we start school again.
Really sad.
So I try hard to not let any part of summer slip away.
I always say "yes" to swimming with the kids. The tents and lanterns get pulled out and we sleep outside in the backyard.
Summer slows down when we hunt for raspberries along the road to put in our yogurt.
Summer and berries are only here for a moment.
The last few weeks of summer are slowly ebbing away and I'm enjoying each precious minute. The skateboards, scooters and bikes are still getting a workout and Lauren caught a few rides down the driveway with Ezra. Layla learned to ride the scooter and I just sat on the porch loving the day.
Stay a little longer summer.
As our local grocery store is featuring Candy Corn and Reese Cups with pumpkin - I'm not making this up -there really was a halloween display - we've been scheduling the last few events of summer. We still have a camping trip planned and the kids are finishing up the last of their five Vacation Bible Schools. (And I have zero guilt over sending all my kids to the local churches for VBS. They love it - I love it and it has to be better for them then wrestling each other.)
So, it's one more hamburger and nobody does it cuter than my granddaughter Lauren.
I've noticed lately that my many kids have turned into an unruly mob. It's too hot to ride bikes and even the pool is losing it's appeal. And they're grumpy. Really grumpy - which makes me want to trade in my fly swatter for a kid swatter.
Today the boys were so bored that they broke out the dress up trunk and paraded around in some lovely authentic chinese finery.
Okay - I'm saying it. I'm ready to start homeschool back up.
Gasp.
During the school year the kids have activities 3 or 4 nights of the week - sports practice, church groups and lessons. Dinner is often a "throw your food down your throat and out the door" affair. Not fun.
But things wind down here in the summer. I'm lucky to get dinner on the table by 7pm and we cancel all outside of our home activities. And way past bedtime the kids love to have a night swim. Somehow the pool becomes magic in the moonlight. And when they finally tumble into bed, the sleep is sweet and long and summer seems to last forever.
(when Isaiah saw this picture he remarked "See, I do walk on water!")
Back at home and the boys are doing what boys do when time is endless....lazy days at the river, not catching any fish, but then again, who cares? It's all about what you don't have to do. I like to watch them and let the calendar in my head float away with extravagance of summer.
This year we outwitted all the hundreds of deer that freely roam our backyard and had 3 huge, productive tomato plants.
The taste of that first of the season home-grown delicious tomato - red and juicy - sliced, still slightly warm from the sun...incredible. Every day this summer we picked some..they came a few at a time. I had them every morning for breakfast, sliced on the homemade bread James makes. Every lunch they made my turkey sandwich perfect, and they laid beautifuly on top of our dinner salads each evening. Every bit of summer was captured in each succulent bite.
A few days ago we had a frost warning.
We picked all the tomatos, both red and green.
Here's the last one.
I promise not to take a single bite of the disgusting bland faux tomatos they sell in the store.
Till next summer - goodbye sweet
thing. I loved you.
It's right on the edge of summer these days.
*It's mostly warm enough to wear shorts and sandals but your legs are still as white as a piece of computer paper.
*The pool is open but you would die of hypothermia if you stayed in more than 5 minutes.
*Box Elder bugs are mating on every possible surface of my house but no hummingbirds have visited.
*School isn't out yet, but everyone is sick of it.
Then last night the adults sat out on the front porch talking while the kids ran around in the yard till long after dark and way past their bed times. The adults talked, the kids played......summer was so close I touched it.
