Summer Lovin' Had Me a Blast.........

Oh my, I forget..............

I forget how busy summer is.........with it's intense play and intense working hard.  I forget that mornings are begun at 6:30, picking raspberries from the backyard and blueberries from under the netting because an eager young girl with tangles in her hair and jammies on her body deems it necessary.  

I forget how dirty the floors get with the footprints of children and a husband never in shoes.  These same children and husband that work in the gardens hoeing and digging and watering and finding toads.  The footprints make their mark on a once white kitchen floor.  A floor that was once white long before we moved in.

I forget how the laundry is never done because the vegetables and fruit come in.......come in, in a steady stream..........zucchini and blueberries and lettuce and kidney beans and peas.  All are ready to eat but need to be washed and shelled and grated and soaked.  

How glorious it is to see the children grown and love to be where things are grown.  To witness their still sleepy bodies move through the garden gates, eager to pick the day's bounty.  After books and breakfast, Francesca is so eager to get to those ripe, red raspberries.  Fia comes out, half awake, still in her little girl jammies, and asks. "Is daddy out in the garden?",   Yes, I reply and off she goes to pick her own row.  She has claimed for herself the snow peas and each day goes out to see what has come in the night.

I am new to this.  This toiling in the soil, toiling in the sun for things that can be bought with such ease in a grocery store across the street.  I wonder how I got here, how I got to this place of canning peach pie filling, freezing jam, picking blueberries and grocery shopping in my own backyard.  Each time I go out, into the bounty He has provided, I am in awe.  I can't believe what can be done with a seed, some sun, some water and soil.  My faith is renewed with each new blossom, with each seed realized.  I am in awe of His creation.  I am in awe of what He provides.

These are the days...........the days to be remembered.......that old Billy Joel song playing in my head......these days of eating every meal outside, of impromptu pool parties, of catching lightening bugs way past bedtime, of working as a family to bring food in, to harvest together, to grow together, to play hard together.  How I wish this summer would not end...........

I hope I never forget.............

I hope I never forget these summer days..................these summer days of lemonade and never wearing shoes and freedom and seeing neighbors every day and fishing and games of Guess Who and movie nights and not napping.

Will I ever remember to live fully in the moment and not mourn the moment even as it is passing?

I don't know.

Do I want to?

I treasure these summer days..............................