Why, hello there summer. . .

It’s Thursday night. . . almost Friday, really.  I just returned home from a much needed evening out with girlfriends.  We sat around a seafood covered table and swapped stories, shared laughter, and were endlessly entertained by one friends attempts to pronounce edamame correctly.  (In case you’re wondering:  edd-ah-mah-may).  The house is void of little feet running down the hallway or tiny voices chattering away.  The only sound comes from the dishwasher doing what it’s supposed to do.  I am anxious to lay my head down for the night, but couldn’t let this week end without addressing the important thing that happened.  You know what I’m talking about. . . Summer happened.

Well, the summer solstice that is.  You know, the technical first day of summer or longest day of the year. This week we welcomed summer in the best way we know how. . . we spent time with her.  We spent time together.

We turned into explorers this week, finding new space to investigate every day.  As the temperatures rose higher and higher, we found ourselves venturing deeper and deeper into unknown areas waiting to be explored.

I love that Charlie and Chanelle aren’t afraid to get dirty.  That they have eyes like hawks and the innate draw toward nature and exploration. 

As we walked the area behind our house I found myself awed by these two little people that are becoming just that. . . little people. How did this happen?

As Summertime has made her entrance we are doing our best to strike a balance between going and doing and staying and being.  I am often overwhelmed by to much going, but sometimes it’s worth it.

Earlier this week the kids and I took what is becoming our annual trip to a beautiful area just 30 minutes away from our home.  Beautiful trails run through a densely wooded area that begs to be explored.

The only thing that would make this better is to have someone to share it with, right?  That we did.

My oldest and dearest friend from childhood joined us with her boys.  For hours, Katy and I trailed our four kids as they ran up and down the trails and explored every nook and cranny of this beautiful place. 

Inevitably, as always happens when we are all together the conversation occurs. . . who would have guessed twenty years ago that we would be standing here watching our kids play together?

It is impossible for me not to wonder if they one day be watching their kids play together?  Perhaps I live too much in dreamland, but either way, I treasure that all these years later we are still ‘Katy and Summer’ and little has changed except that we are Mom’s.

As we have welcomed in summer we have found no lack of things to do.  The week has been full, very full. . . in the best sense of the word.  These long summer days are the days, I believe, we will look back on with an abundance of cherished memories. 

Less rushing and more lingering are the goals I have for the remainder of our summer days.  Slowing down and relishing the simple gift of time we’ve been given, because if there is one thing I’ve come to understand. . .

. . .it is that time rushes by ever so quickly. 

“And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald