Summer Thoughts over Summer Rain

It’s raining out and I’m finding it to be the perfect excuse for a pause. Summer is slipping by and my mind is realizing how little of it we have left. Soon my big kids will be back from camp, we’ll be looking at school work, we’ll be running to baseball games. I miss summer, and yet I’m in the thick of it. Maybe it’s like how I miss my baby’s snuggles, yet I just got them minutes ago. My baby is still a baby and today, it’s still summer.

I tend to always be looking to the next thing and I need this pause today, this evening more like it. I need to remember there are plenty of summer nights to be had, and even when math lessons resume, the weather won’t automatically shift. Someday we’ll be ready for the cool weather, but not today.

Today it was hot. 100 degrees hot. Instead of staying in, today we went out. My seven year old went down a waterslide more times than I can count. Our baby swayed on me in the pool. We sprayed sunscreen and talked about how bad the sunscreen probably is for us. I made a banana split for my son who already had a popsicle and slushy today. Yes, this is summer.

I sit here writing, because it’s summer. My mind, while some parts thinking of planning school, is more parts realizing how much I need to get back to writing. I recently heard someone say that writing helped them figure out and form their opinion better. I agree with this! Writing also helps me think. It makes me realize where we’re at, where time is going, and how to better savor the here and now. Pictures do that too, and I want to take more of them.

I recently thought about the person I was in a different season. Gathering lots of people together, hosting Bible studies, planning play dates. Today my life feels on a smaller scale, different but still good. I don’t want to be looking so outward, that the inwards lives right here in my home grow up and slip by. My oldest will be 12 in a few months. Time doesn’t slow down. 6 more years and he’s an adult. My once youngest just turned 7. His first 6 years went by in a blink. 6 years isn’t a lot. My husband often says time keeps going by more quickly. I agree.

So, I’ll write and I’ll take pictures and I’ll try to remember these days and times and seasons. I’ll share what I can when I can and hope it’s of help to others. I’ll hope maybe someday my kids will find this place. Maybe they’ll be proud of me? Maybe they’ll learn something. Overall, may they know how much I love them. Yes, a lot gets put to the side when kids come around. When homeschooling and kids are in the picture it seems most all gets put aside. Raising my kids and home education right now is my full time work. I miss the days of photo taking and writing more often, but my heart and head are thinking of math curriculums right now and the best reading programs. Photos and other writings will come later. But then again, maybe they just came now, on a summer’s eve when the rain gave me reason to pause.

Thank God for summer rain.